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Iakov Aleksandrovich Brafman (russian: Я́ков Алекса́ндрович Бра́фман; 1825 – 28 December 1879), commonly known as Jacob Brafman, was a
Lithuanian Jew Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent area ...
from near
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...
, who became notable for converting first to
Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
and then the
Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...
. He advanced conspiracy theories against the
qahal The ''qahal'' ( he, קהל) was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible. See column345-6 The Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe ...
and the
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
. Brafman's works ''The Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods'' (1868) and ''The Book of the Kahal'' (1869) were foundational texts in establishing a theoretical basis to modern antisemitic thought in Russia and established a framework for themes later covered in ''
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...
''.


Background

Brafman was born in 1825 and lived in
Kletsk Kletsk ( be, Клецк, Klieck, originally known as ''Klechesk'', russian: Клецк, pl, Kleck, ) is a city in the Minsk Region of Belarus, located on the Lan River. In 2015 it had 11,237 inhabitants. History The town was founded in the 1 ...
, a ''
shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
'' near
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...
in the
Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
. His father was a
rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
. Brafman grew up in poor conditions and was orphaned at a young age, being raised by distant relatives. Because of the poverty in which he was raised, Brafman was not given a substantial or traditional Jewish education. He frequently clashed with the traditional authorities of the shtetl, particularly members of the
Chevra kadisha The term ''Chevra kadisha'' (Modern Hebrew: חֶבְרָה קַדִּישָׁא) gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Je ...
(Burial Society). In one particularly gruesome incident, after his young daughter had died, representatives of the Society demanded a sum beyond his ability to pay, before taking a pillow from the bed of his deceased child as collateral. To avoid military service as a
cantonist Cantonists ( Russian language: кантонисты; more properly: военные кантонисты, "military cantonists") were underage sons of conscripts in the Russian Empire. From 1721 on they were educated in special "canton schools" (� ...
, Brafman took to the road and failed at a number of professions, eventually fleeing to Minsk, where he tried to establish himself as a photographer. Once in Minsk, Brafman converted to the
Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...
in 1858, and became a missionary, successfully converting a portion city's Jews. (There is some evidence of an earlier conversion to
Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
, though this is disputed, and it is unclear how sincere such a conversion would have been, as Lutheranism had a notorious reputation as being the "religion of convenience" for insincere Jewish converts, owing to its decentralized character.) There was a state visit to Minsk in that year by Tsar
Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Fin ...
and Brafman submitted a memorandum on how Jews in Russia should best be proselytized into Orthodox Christianity and educated into "useful" subjects. The dichtomy of useful and useless Jews had been established by
Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the te ...
Nicholas I of Russia , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date ...
. Nicholas saw "use" in bourgeois Jews who were willing to assimilate into Russian society and could be used in academic and agricultural professions, while seeing as "useless" the poorer adherents of
Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...
who lived in the ''shtetls'' and kept themselves apart from wider society. Brafman proposed the creation of a new missionary society, which would perform all of its work in Yiddish. Further, Brafman offered to personally translate the entirety of the New Testament into Yiddish. Brafman's writing was sent to
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and subsequently earned him the chair of Hebrew Studies at the
Minsk Theological Academy {{Infobox university , name = Minsk Theological Academy , native_name = Минская духовная академия , image = 2015-08-12 974 Духовная академия.jpg , image_size = , i ...
in 1860.


Brafman vs. the qahal

Brafman took a leave of absence from the seminary, before traveling to
Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional ur ...
in 1866. Once there, he began writing a series of articles, collectively titled "The View of a Jewish Convert to Orthodoxy on the Jewish Question in Russia", in ''Vilenskii Vestnik'', an official newspaper, published by the government. Therein, Brafman asserted that the failures of his attempts to convert Jews were caused by the abuses that potential converts would face at the hands of their co-religionists. He also strongly rejected the view of many Russian and Jewish progressives, that Jews would modernize and undergo a significant internal reform if emancipated. In Brafman's view, if prior attempts to reform Judaism had failed, such as the creation of Jewish agricultural communes or the creation of state-sponsored progressive rabbinical seminaries, then obviously they could not be trusted to simply do it on their own. On this point, Brafman differed little from his contemporaries. Many other articles carried in ''Vilenskii Vestnik'' routinely castigated the Jews for their failures and internal abuses. In Brafman's 173rd article, he announced that he had made a discovery, which would become the basis of all his future writings. Prior to Brafman's article, Jewish intransigence had simply been viewed as the byproduct of religious fanaticism and a slavish devotion to the
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
. Brafman offered a more sophisticated view: the Jews, in the form of the qahal, had formed a hidden "state within a state". This kingdom, using the Talmud as its basis, allowed Rabbis to act as sovereigns over their fellow Jews and systematically exploit their non-Jewish neighbors. He argued that the mentality of the qahal was the main barrier to
Jewish assimilation Jewish assimilation ( he, התבוללות, ''hitbolelut'') refers either to the gradual cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture or to an ideological program in the age of emancipation promoting conform ...
, as it deliberately made efforts to sustain Jewish separatism, and manipulated non-Jewish governments into aiding them in this task. Virtually every aspect of Jewish life was tied into this conspiratorial understanding of the qahal. Kosher slaughter, for example, was no longer a mere religious observance, but a method of reasserting the authority of the rabbi and collecting funds for the illicit deeds of the qahal. Armed with this theory, Brafman began writing vehemently against the qahal and Jewish organisations more generally. Brafman worked on studying Jewish community books of the qahal from Minsk from the years 1794 and 1833, with his own commentary added to try and prove his thesis; at the same time the Rabbinical Seminary of Vilna was providing their own Russian translation. The combination of the poor translation and overt editing of Brafman led many to doubt the authenticity of these documents, but their authenticity received independent verification in 1875. Brafman published his findings as ''The Book of the Kahal: Materials for the Study of the Jewish Life'' (1869). Copies of the book were then sent to many governmental offices throughout the Pale, in order to educate imperial officials about the realities of Jewish life. Brafman joined the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1870. One of the main problems with Brafman's thesis was that the qahal system itself in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
had been dissolved under Nicholas I in 1844. For Brafman he posited a conspiracy theory that the qahal in fact continued to exist as a deep state, with reactionary rabbis working to keep control over the "average Jew" and to undermine Christian business interests at the same time, deliberately working to exclude them from all commercial competition. Brafman suggested that the qahal was able to sustain its own secrecy by having each of its agents act as a spy for other agents of the qahal. This way, if one of them was contemplating revealing the conspiracy, the qahal could blackmail them with evidence of their own various criminal misdeeds. Non-Jews that were aware of the existence of the qahal would simply be bribed into silence. The evidence of the qahal's existence, beyond the documents provided by Brafman, was in Jewish success. Jews, according to Brafman, continued to succeed, despite all of the legal restrictions placed upon them. This could not be the case, unless they had some secret or hidden advantage. Brafman's works chimed well with the
Slavophiles Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...
then active in Russia and the political theory of ''
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (russian: Правосла́вие, самодержа́вие, наро́дность, Pravoslávie, samoderzhávie, naródnost'), also known as Official Nationality,Riasanovsky, p. 132 was the dominant imper ...
'', which sought to distance Russian civilisation from French and British liberalism. Brafman's other major work, ''The Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods'' (1868), took aim at international Jewish organisations, particularly those based in France. His main object for criticism was the ''
Alliance Israélite Universelle The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...
'' under prominent freemason,
Adolphe Crémieux Isaac-Jacob Adolphe Crémieux (; 30 April 1796 – 10 February 1880) was a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice under the Second Republic (1848) and Government of National Defense (1870–1871). He served as presiden ...
. For Brafman this was the qahal of qahals and as part of an
international Jewish conspiracy Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Alt ...
controlled the other ''qahals''. He saw this as the successor of the
Grand Sanhedrin The Grand Sanhedrin was a Jewish high court convened in Europe by Napoleon to give legal sanction to the principles expressed by an assembly of Jewish notables in answer to the twelve questions submitted to it by the government.Jew. Encyc. v. 46 ...
( Napoleon's Rabbinic Assembly of 1807).


Influence

Brafman also took aim at the
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
, claiming that the Jews, using Talmudic principles, would exclude adherents of other religions from trade and industry and themselves accumulate all capital and landed property. Brafman's works, which included the idea of a secret Jewish shadow government and the aspects of an internationally orchestrated "conspiracy" against all Christian nations, crossing over with masonic involvement, provided an essential framework for what would become ''The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'', authored by agents of the
Okhrana The Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order (russian: Отделение по охранению общественной безопасности и порядка), usually called Guard Department ( rus, Охранное отд ...
at the turn of the 20th century. Brafman was particularly well received by conservative Slavophiles in Russia.
Vsevolod Krestovsky Vsevolod Vladimirovich Krestovsky (russian: Все́волод Влади́мирович Кресто́вский; February 23, 1840 – January 30, 1895) was a Russian writer who worked in the city mysteries genre. Biography Krestovsky came ...
, one of the most widely read Russian writers of the day, was inspired by Brafman to write a trilogy of novels; ''The Darkness of Egypt'', ''Tamara Bendavid'' and ''The Triumph of Baal''. For Krestovskii, the qahal of qahals in Paris, with a network of Jewish spies, was used to back up British-French militarism against Russia, causing defeat in the
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 ( tr, 93 Harbi, lit=War of ’93, named for the year 1293 in the Islamic calendar; russian: Русско-турецкая война, Russko-turetskaya voyna, "Russian–Turkish war") was a conflict between th ...
of the
Great Eastern Crisis The Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–78 began in the Ottoman Empire's territories on the Balkan peninsula in 1875, with the outbreak of several uprisings and wars that resulted in the intervention of international powers, and was ended with the T ...
(British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in particular is singled out as an "arch-villain"). The Book of the Kahal was greeted as one of the significant developments in the history of the Russian Jewish question. Dozens of journals and newspapers published glowing reviews of the book. For many, already having been exposed to Brafman's ideas through his newspaper articles, the book simply confirmed what they already believed to be true. ''Syn Otechestva'', for example, claimed the book vindicated their earlier argument that Jews should not be emancipated, so long as the Jews remained in control. More than simply review and reprint Brafman's work, however, the response to the book served to institutionalize it, by making it the basis of the language one must use when discussing the Jewish question. Other writers, including many of the editors and translators and collaborators of Brafman, wrote responses to or modifications of Brafman's work. Newspapers began to speculate on the motivations and activities of the qahal, with some even claiming that Jewish leadership did not truly want emancipation for Jews, as it would lead to the disintegration of the qahal's power. Brafman became more than a singular writer. He was simply the first in a new field.
Hal Draper Hal Draper (born Harold Dubinsky; September 19, 1914 – January 26, 1990) was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement. He is known for his extensive scholarship on t ...
, an American Trotskyist, in his book ''Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution'' claimed that
Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary ...
, one of the Russian founding figures of anarchism, was likely inspired by Brafman's writings on Jews. In the case of Bakunin, in a letter written in December 1871, he made the claim that Jews were a "collective parasite", and claimed that "this world is presently, at the disposal of
Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
on the one hand and the
Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
on the other," putting a conspiratorial spin on this theme as part of his rivalry with the Marxian socialists of the
International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and tr ...
.


Family

One of Brafman's grandchildren was
Vladislav Khodasevich Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich (russian: Владисла́в Фелициа́нович Ходасе́вич; 16 May 1886 – 14 June 1939) was an influential Russian poet and literary critic who presided over the Berlin circle of Russian e ...
, the Russian literary critic.


Cultural references

Brafman is mentioned in ''
The Prague Cemetery ''The Prague Cemetery'' ( it, Il cimitero di Praga) is a novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It was first published in October 2010; the English translation by Richard Dixon appeared a year later. Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fictio ...
'', the novel by
Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel '' The Name of th ...
.
Umberto Eco inclura Jacob Brafman dans la trame de son roman Le Cimetière de Prague.


Works

* ''The Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods'' (1868) * ''The Book of the Kahal: Materials for the Study of the Jewish Life'' (1869) * ''The Book of the Kahal: An International Jewish Question'' (1879)


See also

* Elias von Cyon *
Nicholas Donin Nicholas Donin (french: Nicolas Donin) of La Rochelle, a Jewish convert to Christianity in early thirteenth-century Paris, is known for his role in the 1240 Disputation of Paris, which resulted in a decree for the public burning of all availabl ...
* Anton Margaritha *
Johannes Pfefferkorn Johannes Pfefferkorn (original given name Joseph; 1469, Nuremberg – Oktober 22, 1521, Cologne) was a German Catholic theologian and writer who converted from Judaism. Pfefferkorn actively preached against the Jews and attempted to destroy cop ...
* Samuel Friedrich Brenz *
Johann Andreas Eisenmenger Johann Andreas Eisenmenger (1654 in Mannheim – 20 December 1704 in Heidelberg) was a German Orientalist from the Electorate of the Palatinate, now best known as the author of ''Entdecktes Judenthum'' (''Judaism Unmasked''), which was published i ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brafman, Jacob 1825 births 1879 deaths Late Modern Christian anti-Judaism Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Lutheranism Converts to Lutheranism from Judaism Antisemitism in Russia Writers from Minsk Protocols of the Elders of Zion Russian Jews Russian Lutherans Forgery controversies