Morgulis, Mikhail Grigorievich

Mikhail Morgulis was born in 1837 in the city of Berdichev . He studied at the traditional heder , and later at the exemplary, from where he moved to the newly opened state school, not without resistance, however, from the side of the mother’s relatives, who belonged to the Hasidim ^[1] .

At the end of the school, a 16-year-old young man, contrary to the will of his parents, entered the Zhytomyr rabbinical school, where he was soon accepted into the state account. Years of intensive mental work have come, under the influence of such teachers as Eichenbaum, Zweifel, Polichipetskiy, Sukhostavier and others. The youth of the rabbinical seminary looked at themselves as pioneers of Russian-Jewish education. Morgulis dreamed of becoming a Russian Mendelssohn, a reformer of the religious and social life of Russian Jews ^[1] .

But the first attempts of young teachers and rabbinists, who left the rabbinical schools, provoked strong opposition among the Orthodox; on the other hand, the activity of Jewish teachers was also faced with the hostile attitude of Russian society. Morgulis, who received the title of rabbi in 1861, decided to go to university. As a bailiff , he was obliged to serve the rabbinical service; the Kiev administration resorted to vigorous measures to force him to do this, but thanks to the assistance of H. I. Pirogov , Morgulis in 1864 was enrolled as a student of the law faculty of Kiev University ^{[1] [2]} .

By this time, Morgulis was already engaged in pedagogical and social activities: he teaches at the Berdichev Talmud Tor and public school, opens with his comrades I. Kulisher, Segal, Brik and others. - Saturday school, attended by both boys and adults, defends local administration interests of the masses, collaborates in the " Dawn " O. A. Rabinovich . With the participation of Morgulis, a circle of Jewish students is being formed at Kiev University, publishing books for the Jewish masses and intelligentsia; the circle translates the best works of foreign literature into jargon, compiles collections on the history and literature of Jews in Russian (the articles of Morgulis were placed in them: “In defense of the Talmud from its persecutors and advocates”, “Essay on the criminal proceedings of ancient Jews”, etc.) . As a student, Morgulis wrote a study “On the Law of Inheritance under the Mosaic Talmudic Law,” which he presented in 1869 as a Ph.D. thesis ^[1] .

At the same time, Morgulis, at the suggestion of the Odessa Society for the Promotion of Education between Jews, compiled a guide to the study of the Russian language, which was not allowed, however, by censorship. At the same time, Morgulis published a number of articles on the Jewish question in the Kyivan, Kiev Courier, and Kiev Telegraph, mainly on education, land tenure (the article on land tenure of Jews in the South-Western Territory, published in a separate pamphlet, was confiscated) and about legal status of Jews. The articles, which were mostly military in nature and attracted the attention of the press, administration and society, made the name of Morgulis popular among the Jewish mass: they began to turn to him as an energetic defender of Jewish rights. In 1869, after graduation, Morgulis moved to Odessa. There is almost no Odessa public institution in which Morgulis would not take an active part. A rare combination of solid knowledge in the field of Jewish life, Judaism and Russian law promoted him as an expert lawyer in matters relating to the legal status of Jews. He wrote articles, drafted notes, participated in commissions, including in the High Commission (Palenka) to review the laws on Jews in force in Russia ^[1] .

Trying to put into practice the ideas set forth by him in the article “ What should we do with Russian Jews? ", Morgulis in the 1870s. he worked hard on organizing social forces for the dissemination of Jewish education, productive labor and higher knowledge of the Jewish sciences. In 1871, he, together with I. G. Orshansky, joined the editorial office of the newspaper “ Day ” ^[3] , where he led the Foreign Review Department, in which, citing the example of foreign Jews, he called on the Russian-Jewish bourgeoisie and intelligentsia to serve as their material and mental forces the mass of the people. Since 1869, a member of the board of the Odessa department of the Society for Education and Talmud Torah, Morgulis in 1871 was elected a member of the board of the Trud society, the vocational school of which, mainly due to his activities, soon became the best professional educational institution ^[1] .

In the 1880s, M. G. Morgulis fights against anti-Semitism , publishes a number of articles in which he reflects the accusations thrown against Jewry ^[4] . At the same time, Morgulis took an active part in the Palestinian society, in which 10 years remained - until the Zionist current in the Palestinian society. In the 1890s, Morgulis energetically opposed Zionism at meetings and in the press, condemning it as a movement contrary to the spirit of Judaism and the true needs of the masses. Not limited to the denial of Zionism , Morgulis, in order to show Jewish youth images that combine the best aspects of Judaism with universal principles, compiles historical sketches from the Talmudic era about Hillel, Meir, Akib and Judah; promotes the organization of lectures on Jewish science, history and literature ^[1] .

In the Chisinau trial, M. Morgulis acted as a civil plaintiff, and after the Jewish pogrom of 1905 in Odessa, he assumed the chairmanship of the committee to assist the many victims. Earlier, Morgulis survived the first Odessa pogrom of 1871, when he, together with A. Ya. Passover, I. A. Chatskin, M. I Kulisher and I. G. Orshansky, began to uncover the intellectual culprits of him. An attempt to cover this pogrom in print was then unsuccessful, and only 40 years later could publish its memories of it ^[5] .

In his more than half a century of literary activity, Morgulis dealt with both private and fundamental issues of Jewish life, and the idea that guided him was to indicate ways to improve the material and moral life of Jews and to draw attention to the lack of expediency in shy measures, not only from the point of view interests of the Jews, but also in terms of the interests of other people. The study of the Jewish question is not a matter of bias for him, but a matter of truth. Does Morgulis study the life of Russian Jews, does he explain the history of their institutions, does he clarify the essence of Judaism, the teachings of the Talmud , the spirit of his law - he always strives to be an objective researcher, free of both apologetics and unfounded accusations. With equal force he falls upon those who distort the essence of Jewry - be it his enemies or friends. He sees the practical solution of the "Jewish question" in Russia as equality and full rights. He constantly wrote about this in 1869 in foreign reviews of The Day, and he recalls this in 1906 in his book, The Question Called Jewish , in which he summarizes his views on a number of phenomena in Russian-Jewish life. For him, the Jewish question is closely connected with the all-Russian: “ There is not a single side of the Jewish question, no matter what area it touches, which would not be intertwined with the corresponding sides of the general Russian question. The equal rights of the Jews, going alongside the renewal of the political system of Russia, alone are able to put an end to the artificially created Jewish question ” ^[1] .

Orthodox Christians often ranked Morgulis as assimilators. But in his writings there is no ideology of assimilation, and in activity there are no traces of it. In the article “ Self-Liberation and Self-Denial, ” written in connection with Dr. Pinsker's well-known brochure, “Autoemansipation,” he says: “ We do not need self-denial, but self-awareness, penetration of the idea of ​​our past, our national dignity and faith in the future of all humanity, of which we are ". Relating very negatively to Zionism, Morgulis, however, sympathetically refers to those emigration movements that seek to raise the economic and cultural level of the people. More than once in his writings Morgulis had to say that he looks at Jewry as an independent individual, having its own culture and its own distinctive elements, but he always emphasized that only the combination of “ national and universal ” corresponds to the spirit of Judaism and that only such synthesis should be the guiding idea of ​​folk figures ^[1] .

The main work of the Jewish intelligentsia, according to Morgulis, should be aimed at a systematic study of Judaism from direct religious sources and historical monuments, at revealing their essence, at manifesting everything that is contained in the historical treasures of Judaism, at wide dissemination of these principles in order to make them known masses. Next to this work, the intelligentsia should direct efforts to achieve an improvement in the economic and legal situation of the Jews. Thus formulated the task of the intelligentsia Morgulis throughout his life and carried out personally ^[1] .

M. G. Morgulis is also known as a civilist . He took an active part in the Odessa Law Society, read reports, published in various legal journals ^[1] .

Mikhail G. Morgulis died in 1912 in the city of Odessa.

• Michael (Menashshhe) Morgulis // EEE