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Mikhail Kizilov The Sons of Scripture The Karaites in and in the Twentieth Century

Mikhail Kizilov The Sons of Scripture

The Karaites in Poland and Lithuania in the Twentieth Century

Managing Editor: Katarzyna Tempczyk

Language Editor: Wayne Smith Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, /Berlin Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.

Copyright © 2015 Mikhail Kizilov

ISBN: 978-3-11-042525-3 e-ISBN: 978-3-11-042526-0

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbi- bliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

Managing Editor: Katarzyna Tempczyk Language Editor: Wayne Smith www.degruyteropen.com

Cover illustration: the inauguration of Seraja Szapszał to the office of the head of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites on 11.09.1928. Sitting (from left to right): Halicz ḥazzan I. Abrahamowicz, ḥakham S. Szapszał, Polish linguist T. Kowalski, Troki ḥazzan Sz. Firkowicz, and Wilno ḥazzan J. Łobanos. Standing: important members of the Karaite community (Z. Nowachowicz is second from the left). The photo was published in the periodical “Myśl Karaimska” in 1929. Contents

List of Abbreviations XI Foreword XIV Acknowledgements XV

1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Topicality of Studying the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites as an Ethnoreligious Minority and Introduction to the History of Karaism 1 1.2 Structure and Objectives of the Study 8 1.3 Methodological Difficulties 11 1.4 Survey of Sources 14 1.4.1 Unpublished Sources 14 1.4.2 Published Sources: Publications of Karaite Authors 16 1.4.3 Published Sources: Publications of Non-Karaite Authors 18 1.4.4 Other Sources 19 1.5 Historiography of the Problem 20 1.5.1 General and Epigraphic Studies 20 1.5.2 Language Studies 26 1.5.3 Anthropological Studies 27

2 Between the and the : 1900–1918 34 2.1 A Short Survey of the General State of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community on the Verge of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 34 2.2 Halicz 41 2.2.1 Outline of the History of the Community Prior to 1900 41 2.2.2 General State of the Community 43 2.2.3 Historical Monuments 46 2.2.4 Legends and Proverbs 54 2.2.5 Personalia 59 2.2.6 Relations with Rabbanite Neighbours 64 2.3 Łuck 69 2.3.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900 69 2.3.2 General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918 70 2.3.3 “Kenas, Kineza, Kanza” – a Local House of Prayer 72 2.3.4 Publishing Activity: Periodical “Sabakh” (GVKar. “Morning”) 76 2.4 Troki 79 2.4.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900 79 2.4.2 General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918 80 2.4.3 Personalia 82 2.5 Wilno 87 2.5.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900 87 2.5.2 Rav Pinachas Malecki and the General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918 88 2.5.3 Publishing Activity: Periodical “Karaimskoe Slovo” 90 2.6 The Role of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the All-Karaite Events of the 1910s 93 2.7 Beginnings of Dejudaization: Kenesa/Kenasa – an Official Name for a Karaite 96 2.8 The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion from Karaism to Rabbanite (and Vice Versa) 100

3 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory 109 3.1 General State of the Karaite Communities in Poland and Lithuania in the Interwar Period 109 3.2 Halicz 115 3.2.1 General State of the Community During the Interwar Period 115 3.2.2 Interwar ḥazzanim, Izaak Abrahamowicz, and the Conflicts of the 1920s and Early 1930s 123 3.2.3 The Halicz Karaites, the Poles, and the 129 3.3 Łuck 133 3.3.1 General State of the Community 133 3.3.2 Al-Mar: Poet, Writer, Journalist, Editor and Translator Aleksander Mardkowicz (1875–1944) 137 3.3.3 Karaj Awazy: The of a Karaite 144 3.3.4 Sergiusz Rudkowski (1873–1944) 146 3.4 Troki 149 3.4.1 General State of the Community 149 3.4.2 Poet, Farmer and Religious Authority: ułłu ḥazzan Szemaja ben Abraham Firkowicz (1897–1982) 150 3.4.3 Poetess Lidia Poziemska (Łobanos) (20.01.1886–2.01.1952) 155 3.4.4 A Periodical of Karaite Teenagers: “Friend of the Karaites” – “Przyjaciel Karaimów” (“Dostu Karajnyn”) 156 3.4.5 Monuments of History 157 3.4.6 The Karaites and the Troki Cucumbers 163 3.5 Wilno 166 3.5.1 General State of the Community 166 3.5.2 Publishing Activity: the ‘Jednodniówka’ Sahyszymyz/Nasza Myśl (“Our Thought”) 167 3.5.3 The ḥazzan, Poet, and Translator Józef Łobanos (1880-1947) 169 3.5.4 Abraham Szyszman, a Military Engineer and Collector of Karaite Folklore 171 3.5.5 Kenesa 174 3.5.6 Cemetery 175 3.6 Poniewież 177 3.6.1 Outline of the History 177 3.6.2 Periodical “Onarmach” – “Success” and “Development” of the North Lithuanian Karaites 179 3.7 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in Other Communities of the World 183 3.7.1 Warsaw 183 3.7.2 Latvia and Estonia 185 3.7.3 , , and Holland 186 3.7.4 , Moldova, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and 188 3.7.5 China (Manchuria) 189 3.7.6 190 3.8 General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 191 3.8.1 The Karaite Periodical “Myśl Karaimska” (Pol. “Karaite Thought”) and Its Role in Shaping Historical Views and Self-Identification of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites 191 3.8.2 Relations with the Rabbanite 193 3.8.3 The Problem of Mixed Marriages 200 3.9 The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition to the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 203

4 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961) and His Role in Shaping of the Turkic Identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community 216 4.1 Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 216 4.2 Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 230 4.2.1 Election and Arrival in Poland 230 4.2.2 Public Activity, Private Travels, Official Visits, and Meetings with Important Persons 233 4.2.3 Academic and Publishing Activity 237 4.3 Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 245 4.3.1 Influence of Kemal Atatürk’s Reformist Activity and Pan-Turkic Doctrine on Szapszał 245 4.3.2 Ḥakhan: the New Naming for the Head of the Community 250 4.3.3 Language Politics 254 4.3.4 New Turkic Calendar and Names of Religious Holidays 264 4.3.5 “Ecumenisation” of the Karaite Religious Creed 270 4.3.6 Changes in Traditional Symbolism and Invention of the Karaite “Coat of Arms” 275 4.3.7 Turkicization (Dejudaization) of the Karaites’ Historical Views and Cultural and Ethnic Identity 279 4.3.8 Ways of Implementing Szapszał’s Turkic Doctrine in Interwar Poland 280 4.4 Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms 283

5 Between Scylla and Charybdis: Polish-Lithuanian Karaites between Nazi Germany and the (1939-1945) 293 5.1 The Karaites During the Second World War: Introduction to the Problem 293 5.2 Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 296 5.3 General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 311 5.3.1 The Fate of the Karaites from 1939 to 1941 311 5.3.2 Karaite Participation in the War and the Problem of the Armed Collaboration with the Nazis 313 5.3.3 Every Day Life of the Community in the Nazi-Occupied Territories 316 5.4 Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case and “Scholarly” Discussion on the Subject 321 5.4.1 Nazi Approaches to the “Karaite Question” 321 5.4.2 “” and “Non-Aryan” Scholars Express Their Views on the Karaites’ Racial Origin 323 5.4.3 The Nazis Are Doing Anthropological Examination of the Karaites 332 5.4.4 The Role of Translations in the Nazi “Solution” of “the Karaite Question” 334 5.4.5 The Role of Encyclopaedias 336 5.5 Seraja Szapszał’s Life and Activity from 1939 to 1945 – Real and Imagined 337 5.5.1 Life Real 337 5.5.2 Life Imagined and Belletricized 342 5.6 “Mit Dem Deutschen Grüss” from the Karaite Mikhail-Mussa (Moses) Kovshanly 344 5.7 Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During 349 5.7.1 The Complexity of the Problem and Mutual Accusations 349 5.7.2 The Role of Jewish Scholars in Saving the Karaites 356 5.7.3 The Karaites Are Coming to Rescue the Ashkenazim 359 5.7.4 Fake “Sons of Scripture”: the Rabbanite Jews Save Themselves by Using Forged Karaite Identity Cards or Presenting Themselves as Karaites 362 5.8 The Impact of the Second World War and the Holocaust on the State of the East European Karaite Community 366

6 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014) 369 6.1 General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania Until the Time of “Velvet” Revolutions and the Disintegration of the Soviet Union 369 6.1.1 General Tendencies in the History of the Karaite Community After 1945 369 6.1.2 The Karaite Community in Socialist Poland: the First Secular Karaite Community in Eastern Europe 373 6.1.3 Halicz 378 6.1.4 Łuck 384 6.1.5 Lithuania: Troki, Wilno, and Poniewież 385 6.2 Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 389 6.2.1 Autumn of the Patriarch: Seraja Szapszał After the War 389 6.2.2 Szemaja Firkowicz’s Biography from 1939 to 1982 396 6.3 Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 398 6.3.1 Ananjasz/Ananiasz Zajączkowski (1903–1970) 400 6.3.2 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski (1914–1982) 408 6.3.3 Józef (Mieczek) Sulimowicz (1913-1973) 410 6.3.4 Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923-1990) 411 6.3.5 Aleksander Dubiński (1924–2002) 413 6.3.6 Zofia Dubińska (1915-2008) 415 6.3.7 “A Scholar Not Connected to the Karaites:” Szymon Szyszman (1909– 1993) 416 6.4 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community After the Disintegration of the Soviet Union 434 6.5 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century 441

7 Conclusion 449 7.1 Paradoxes of the Ethnic History of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twentieth and Twenty First Century 449 7.2 Discussing the Future of the Community 455 7.2.1 Demographic Situation 455 7.2.2 The Possibility of to Judeo-Karaite Cultural Heritage and Ethnic Identity 458 7.3 What Can One Learn from the Karaite Case? 460 Glossary 463

Bibliography 465

List of Illustrations 513

Name Index 514

Geographic Index 524 List of Abbreviations

Institutions and printed materials

AAN Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warsaw AGAD Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych, Warsaw AK Almanach Karaimski 2 (2013) AN PAN Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU, Kraków AOH Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae BArch Bundesarchiv, Berlin BK Bibliographia Karaitica: An Annotated Bibliography of Karaites and Karaism. Compiled by Barry Walfish with Mikhail Kizilov. : Ben Zvi Institute; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2011 BEK Bulletin d’Études Karaїtes Bod , Oxford CPK Dubiński, Aleksander. Caraimica: Prace karaimoznawcze. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Akademickie “Dialog,” 1994 DK Dostu Karajnyn (Przyjaciel Karaimów) EE Evreiskaia Entsiklopediia (published in Russian before 1918) EJ Encyclopaedia Judaica FO Folia Orientalia HUS Harvard Ukrainian Studies IKDU Izvestiia Karaimskogo Dukhovnogo Upravleniia (a.k.a. Izvestiia Dukhovnogo Upravleniia religioznykh organizatsii karaimov Ukrainy) JE Jewish Encyclopedia JQR Jewish Quarterly Review KA Karaj Awazy KJ . A Guide to Its History and Literary Sources. Edited by Meira Polliack. Leiden: Brill, 2003 KKT Kırım Karay Türkleri KRF Fahn, Reuven. Kitvei Reuven Fahn. Vol. 1: Sefer ha-Qera

Terms b. = ben (Heb. “son”) CrTat. = Crimean Tatar Germ. = German GVKar. = Galician-Volhynian of the Heb. = Hebrew Ital. = Italian Kar. = Karaim KarCrTat. = Karaite ethnolect of the Crimean Pol. = Polish Russ. = Russian TrKar. = Troki dialect of the Karaim language Ukr. = Ukrainian WWI = World War I WWII = World War II Yid. = Foreword

Just before the August Putsch of 1991 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Crimean, Moscow, Polish, and Lithuanian Karaites were visited by a group of their American-Israeli brethren. Mourad el-Qodsi, a leading member of this group, summed up the account of their visit with these words:

I feel strongly that there is still much more to know, and to learn about the Karaite communities there. We must try to know what really did happen during the communist regime, and even long before that, what kind of activities they had before and after communism, and above all what kind of future they expect.1

In the decade from 1999 to 2009 the present author followed in the footsteps of Mourad el-Qodsi and his colleagues, visiting all of the existing or former communities of the East European Karaites. This book, written as a result of many years of field and archival work, is an attempt to answer the questions of Mourad el-Qodsi with regard to what happened to the communities of the Karaites (a.k.a. Karaite Jews, Qara

1 Mourad El-Kodsi, The Karaite Communities in Poland, Lithuania, Russia and (Lyons, NY, 1993), 29. Acknowledgements

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to all the people and institutions without whose academic, financial, and personal support this study could not have been completed.

To the following individuals: To Professor Schreiner (Tübingen) for many years of academic and personal friendship and for supervising my research during my stay at the Tübingen University from 2011 to 2014. To Professor Robert Evans (Oxford), the supervisor of my doctoral thesis from 2004 to 2007, for his help and advice. To all members of the East European Karaite community who expressed their willingness to share with me their knowledge about the history of the Karaites. A special posthumous word of thanks goes to Ms. Janina Eszwowicz (1930-2003) – the last head of the Halicz community, who was an inexhaustible source of first- hand information on various aspects of the history and culture of the Galician Karaites. To Ivan and Natalia Yurchenko (Halicz), founders of the local Museum of Karaite History and Culture, enthusiastic students of Karaite history and indefatigable collectors of Karaite rarities, for years of friendship and assistance in my work with Karaite manuscripts and printed books kept in Halicz. To Mr. Oleg Belyi () for years of friendship and especially for introducing to me many materials kept in the Karaite archival collection in GAARK. To Professor Dan Shapira (Jerusalem) and Dr. Golda Akhiezer (Ariel), for valuable advice related to various historical and linguistic problems with which this book deals. To Professor Jerzy Tomaszewski and Dr. Jolanta Żyndul (Warsaw) for their help during my stay in Poland. To Daniel J. Lasker, Professor of Jewish Values at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer Sheva), for general advice related to my research in the field of Karaite studies. To Mr. Alfred Eidlisz of Touro College (New York), for his academic help and permission to use materials from his unparalleled collection of rare Karaite printed books. To Mr. Brad Sabin Hill, curator of the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection of Gelman Library at the George Washington University, for years of friendship and most useful and rare bibliographic references. To Dr. Barry D. Walfish (Toronto) for years of joint work on the compilation of the comprehensive Karaite bibliography. This study drew upon many of the useful references and annotations prepared by Dr. Walfish. XVI Acknowledgements

To the late Professor John Klier (formerly of University College London), for years of friendship and assistance in my research. To the late Mr. Bogusław Firkowicz (Warsaw), for permission to use his private collection of Polish Karaitica. To Professor Mikhail Chlenov (Moscow), the former president of Vaad of Russia, for permission to access the hitherto uncatalogued collection of Krymchak scholar Lev Isaakovich Kaia. To Professor Shimon Yakerson (St. Petersburg) for helping me in many aspects of my research. To Mr. Viacheslav El'iashevich (Theodosia/) for consulting me in various complicated issues this study is dealing with. To Professor Peter Golden (Rutgers) for sharing memories about the Karaite Orientalist, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, and for his help in the area of Turkic calendar issues. To Dr. Koljanin (Belgrade) for providing information about the cases of the Jews’ deliverance from the Nazis by presenting themselves as Karaites in German-occupied Serbia. To Dr. Ilya Zaytsev (Moscow) for advice about Seraja Szapszał’s life and activity and many other Turcological problems this study addresses. To Mr. Volodymyr Shabarovs’kyi () for providing me with important materials related to the history of the Volhynian Karaites. To Drs. Jānis Rudzītis, Valters Ščerbinskis (both – Riga) and Dmitrii Olekhnovich (Daugavpils) for providing me with important materials on the history of the Karaites in Latvia.

To the institutions whose financial and academic support helped the author to carry out his research: To the Graduate School for Social Research (Warsaw) and its Dean, the late Professor Stefan Amsterdamski, for supporting my studies at the Polish Academy of , and also for funding my archival research and field-trips to Poland, Lithuania, and from 1999 to 2004. To the Moscow Centre for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, “Sefer,” especially to its director, Dr. Victoria Mochalova, and Ms Anna Shaevich, the programme coordinator – for many years of most cordial support in my research and teaching activity. A special posthumous word of deep appreciation to Dr. Rashid Kaplanov, former head of the Academic Council of the Centre, who had overseen my work in the field of Karaite studies over the past few years. To the Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian (Jerusalem) for funding my research and study in within the framework of the “Eshnav” programme in August 2002 and 2004. Acknowledgements XVII

To Merton College for providing me with a Domus scholarship for my doctoral studies at Oxford from 2004 to 2007 and annual travel grants for travel to European and Russian archives. To the Royal Historical Society (London) and the Colin Matthew Fund of St. Hugh’s College (Oxford) for generous financial support for my research trips to European libraries and archives. To the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer Sheva) for funding my research stay in Israel from October 2008 to September 2010. To the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the generous support during my stay as a research fellow at the Seminar for Religious and Jewish Studies at the University of Tübingen from 2011 to 2014. To the the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for providing me with a Sosland fellowship from September 2014 to April 2015.

1 Introduction

1.1 The Topicality of Studying the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites as an Ethnoreligious Minority and Introduction to the History of Karaism

In the twenty-first century – the era of fast-growing globalisation, which tends to erase differences between the states and inhabiting the planet – the position of small ethnic entities, such as various ethno-religious, sub-ethnic, and confessional minorities, is becoming more and more endangered. Many of them facing the challenges of maintaining their distinct ethnic identity in the present-day world are forced to become completely assimilated and acculturated by the larger macro-ethnic surrounding. A growing number of such ethnic entities prefer to simply forget about cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions nourished by their forebearers. While being endangered by the aforementioned process of globalisation, the present-day state of such ethnic minorities, often referred to in mass-media as “People of the Red Book,” is becoming increasingly precarious. Historically, Poland (Rzeczpospolita or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), had been a hospitable house for many ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Ashkenazic Jews, , , Gypsies, Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Kashubs, Lemki, Old Believers, Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, Belorussians, and, last but not the least, the main object of this study, the Karaite Jews or the Karaites. Some of these minorities have been inhabiting Poland since medieval times, some appeared on the historical map of Poland later. Practically all of them are still inhabiting the lands of present-day Poland. The case of such a highly-interesting ethnoreligious group2 as the East European Karaites,3 and especially its Polish-Lithuanian subethnic branch, undoubtedly

2 The term “ethnoreligious group,” which started to be popular in the academic literature only recently, is usually used for the designation of small ethnic entities whose identity was formed under the influence of two main factors: ethnic origin and religious (or confessional) affiliation. Religious (confessional) affiliation, in such cases, often bears an unconventional character, which forces the followers of this “unconventional” confession to be separated from other people of their ethnic origin who adhere to mainstream reflections of religious traditions. Apart from the Karaites, there exist many other ethnoreligious groups such as the , Falasha, Gers, , Starovertsy (Old Believers) et al. 3 Alia: Engl. “Karaims,” “Caraites,” or “Qaraites;” Pol. “Karaimi” or, more archaic, “Karaici” and “Karaimowie;” Russian “karaimy;” in “Karaylar/Qaraylar” or “Karaimler”. In nineteenth-century German they were called Karaiten, Karaimen or Karaimiten/Caraimiten; cf. modern Germ. “Karäer.” The American and Israeli Karaites normally call themselves Qara

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 2 Introduction

deserves much closer examination than had been done before now. The historical development of the Karaite faith-world began in the eighth – ninth centuries A.D. as a non-Talmudic alternative to Rabbinic Judaism. It is apparent that the Karaites derive their name from the Hebrew word for Scripture. The Hebrew term qara

4 Leon Nemoy suggested that this name may also derive its roots in the verb qara in the sense “to call, to invite,” which means that the term “Karaites” should be translated as “callers, missionaries”. Another hypothesis is that it may be a derivative of the Arabic qarrâ’ (pl. qarrâ’ūn), i.e. “expert reader of Scripture.” Nemoy added, nevertheless, that all these translations are more or less conjectural (Leon Nemoy, Karaite Anthology. Excerpts from the Early Literature (New Haven, 1952), xvii). One more version connects Karaites with the Arabic daî (qore or qara in Hebrew), the term to designate Isma>ili missionaries and disseminators of propaganda (Fred Astren, “Islamic Contexts of Medieval Karaism,” in KJ, 172-173). However, many factors indicate the Hebrew origin of the name of the movement, from the Miqra<, i.e. the Scripture (Moshe Gil, “The Origins of the Karaites,” in KJ, 109, 111). 5 As a good introduction into the history of Karaites and Karaism, see KJ. See also the somewhat unreliable, but still rather handy works by Nathan Schur, The History of the Karaites (, 1992); idem, The Karaite Encyclopedia (Vienna, 1995). 6 Leon Nemoy, “Early Karaism (The Need for a New Approach),” JQR n.s. 40:3 (1950): 307-315. 7 Zvi Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium: The Formative Years, 970-1100 (New York-Jerusalem, 1959), 3. See also Daniel J. Lasker, “Islamic Influences on Karaite Origins,” in Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions 2 (Brown Judaic Studies 178), ed. William M. Brinner and Stephen D. Ricks (Atlanta, 1989): 23-47; Astren, “Islamic Contexts,” in KJ, 145-177; Paul Fenton, “Karaism and ,” in KJ, 199-211. 8 Martin A. Cohen, “>Anan ben David and Karaite Origins,” JQR n.s. 68:3 (1978): 130. The Topicality of Studying the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites 3

absorbing other anti-Rabbinic schisms (including that of Anan and his followers). The ultimate consolidation of Anan’s followers (Ananites) and the Karaites started in the ninth century and was accomplished in the first half of the eleventh.9 During this period, the Karaites engaged in disseminating their doctrines among the Rabbanite Jews. While it remains somewhat unclear just how successful the Karaites’ missionary activity was,10 by the eleventh century Karaite communities were present in many countries of the Middle East, Byzantium, Northern Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. According to some estimates, this was the so-called “Golden Age of Karaism” as the Karaites constituted a substantial part of the Jewish worldwide. From the end of the eleventh century onwards the Karaite movement began to experience one heavy blow after another. The First Crusade destroyed Jerusalem and the Rabbanite and Karaite communities there in 1099.11 In twelfth-century Spain, Christian authorities supported the local Rabbanite community and helped the latter to expel the Karaites from that country.12 Nevertheless, it is very likely that some small Karaite communities remained there even after this major expulsion.13 The centre of Karaism shifted to Byzantium in the wake of these drastic events. After 1492, when the Jews who had been expelled from Spain were granted asylum in the (the former Byzantium), there was a tendency for rapprochement between the local Karaites and the Rabbanites. According to some scholars, this led to the gradual decline of the Byzantine-Turkish Karaites into a state of “spiritual lethargy.”14 Many of them went as far as adopting numerous religious practices of their Rabbanite neighbours.15 In spite of this, Byzantium produced important Karaite scholars such as Caleb Afendopulo, Elijah and Moses Bashyaṣi, Jacob ben Reuven, the Beghi family,

9 Haggai Ben-Shammai, “Between Ananites and Karaites: Observations on Early Medieval Jewish Sectarianism,” Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations 1 (1993): 24-25. 10 Nemoy claimed that the results of the Karaites’ missionary activity were minimal (Nemoy, “Early Karaism,” 311-312). 11 The troops of Godfrey of Bouillon, who entered Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, forced large part of the Jewish population of the city to the main synagogue and burned it (Abraham Danon, “The Karaites in European . Contributions to Their History Based Chiefly on Unpublished Documents,” JQR 15:3 (1925): 291). 12 Those, who did not want to leave Spain, were forced to convert to Rabbinic Judaism. See more in Schur, Karaite Encyclopedia, 267-268; Daniel J. Lasker, “Karaism in Twelfth-Century Spain,” in Jewish Thought and Philosophy 1 (1992): 179-195; Carlos Sáinz de la Maza, “Alfonso de Valladolid y los Caraitas,” El Olivo 16/31 (1990): 15-32; Isidore Loeb, “Polémistes chrétiens et juifs en France et en Espagne,” Revue des Études Juives 18 (1889): 52-63. 13 See Judah M. Rosenthal, “Qaraaravit,” in his Meḥqarim u-meqorot, vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1967), 238-244. 14 Leon Nemoy, “Karaites,” EJ 10 (1971): 771. 15 See more in Danon, “Karaites in European Turkey,” 335. 4 Introduction

and many others.16 The Egyptian Karaites, who, until the end of the fifteenth century were numerous enough to compete with their Rabbanite neighbours,17 at some point also sank into a state of “spiritual lethargy” and in early modern times did not have any substantial intellectual impact on other communities.18 According to the latest studies the earliest Karaite settlers appeared in Crimea, Lithuania, and Galicia in the late , from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.19 In this period the main Karaite seats in Eastern Europe were Eski Kırım, Kaffa (Kefe), Kırk Yer (later: Çufut Kale) and Mangup in Crimea, and Troki, Halicz, Lwów and Łuck in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the late Middle Ages and early modern times Karaite communities played an important role in Jewish life in Eastern Europe. In many places, such as Troki (Lithuania), Łuck and Halicz (Poland), and especially in Crimea, it was the Karaites who represented the overwhelming majority of Jewish inhabitants. While retaining Hebrew as their leshon ha-qodesh (Heb. “sacred language”), the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities adopted the Turkic Karaimo-Kypchak language in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries as their Umgangssprache. This feature differentiated the Karaites from their ethnic neighbours – the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazic Jews, the Slavic Poles and the Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and even from their Tatar-, Greek-, and Arabic-speaking Karaite brethren of Crimea, the Ottoman Empire, and the Near East. The Turkic language of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites is known in the academic literature as “Karaim/Qaraim/Qaray” or “Karaimo-Kypchak/Qaraimo-Qıpçaq of Lithuania and Galicia-Volhynia” (sometimes also called “Northern” and “Western Karaim”).20 Today, Karaim is considered one of the most ancient spoken Turkic languages in the world, and perhaps the most northern Turkic language in Europe. The exact and circumstances which caused early Karaite believers to adopt this language as their Umgangssprache somewhere in the vast steppe areas of Desht-i Kypchak (“The Cuman

16 For the general survey of the history of the community, see the classical study by Zvi Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium. 17 From 1023 to 1055 three Karaites served the Fatimid court in high posts (Marina Rustow, “Karaites Real and Imagined: Three Cases of Jewish Heresy,” Past and Present 197 (2007): 41). 18 In the 1920s the Egyptian community numbered 700 families (around 3,500-5,000 souls) (MK 1:3 (1926): 30). The community came to a rapid end, due to the political and social impact of the Arab- Israeli wars. Most of the Egyptian Karaites emigrated to Israel, France, and the USA (a few went to other countries), thus leaving only 24 Karaites in in 1984 (this according to Simon Szyszman: “La communauté karaїte égyptienne: une fin tragique,” Bulletin d’Études Karaїtes 3 (1993): 84). 19 For more details, see Mikhail Kizilov, The Karaites of Galicia: An Ethnoreligious Minority Among the Ashkenazim, the Turks, and the Slavs, 1772-1945 (Leiden-Boston, 2009), 30-40; idem, Krymskaia Iudeia: ocherki istorii evreev, khazar, karaimov i krymchakov na territorii Krymskogo poluostrova s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei (Simferopol, 2011), 106-110. 20 Today the Karaites usually call this language K(Q)aray tili, K(Q)arayçe or K(Q)araimçe; in earlier periods they often designated it with Hebrew leshon Qedar (language of the nomads) or, rarely, leshon Yishmael (the language of Ismaelites). The Topicality of Studying the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites 5

Steppe”) has represented a subject of heated academic debate since the end of the nineteenth century.21 From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, with the increase of the local Karaite population and the expanding of their activity to new places advantageous to their commercial activity, Karaite communities appeared in Gözleve and Karasubazar (Crimea), Kukizów, Derażnia, Poniewież, Poswol, Nowe Miasto, and many other Polish and Lithuanian towns and villages.22 The history of Crimean and Polish-Lithuanian communities seem to have developed in parallel: both produced prominent thinkers and exegetes of their times, both had been actively involved in commercial activity,23 both often suffered from the tyranny of their non-Jewish rulers and such drastic events as Cossack invasions, civil wars, epidemics, conflagrations, and natural disasters.24 While being less numerous and less wealthy than Crimean Karaites, in early modern times the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community was undoubtedly the most intellectual Karaite community in the world – largely due to the active contacts between the Karaites and Ashkenazic Rabbanite scholars. In the eighteenth century, however, with a worsening of the economic situation within the community and the migration of its intellectual elite to Crimea, the Polish-Lithuanian community started to look much less important, lagging behind the rapidly-growing and flourishing Crimean community. Thus, in the eighteenth century Crimea began to evolve into the spiritual and financial centre of the Karaite movement across Europe and the world. After the annexation of Crimea (1783) – and the incorporation of some parts of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into Russia (in 1772, 1793, and 1795)

21 For a survey, see Dan Shapira, “Miscellanea Judaeo-Turkica. Four Judaeo-Turkic Notes (Judaeo- Turkica IV),” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 27 (2002): 475-496; idem, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures of the East European Karaites,” in KJ, 657-708. 22 The Karaite scholarship usually refers to the presence of the Karaite communities in 32 or 42 settlements of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Abraham Szyszman, “Osadnictwo karaimskie i tatarskie na ziemiach Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego,” MK 10 (1934): 29, ft.1). This data, undoubtedly, goes back to Firkowicz’s Avne Zikkaron where the latter counted 32 Karaite settlements in Poland- Lithuania (Abraham Firkowicz, Avne Zikkaron (Wilno, 1872), 252). This estimation, when taking into consideration existence of tiny Karaite communities (2-3 families) living small rural villages, seems to be rather feasible. 23 It seems, however, that the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites had been more involved in agricultural activity than their Crimean counterparts; hence, their less-prosperous economic situation, in comparison with the wealthy and influential status of the Karaite community of . 24 The Polish Karaites had especially been damaged by the Cossack pogromists: the of Nalivaiko sacked the Karaite shops of Łuck as early as 1595; in the mid-seventeenth century Cossacks massacred large part of Volynian communities; in the eighteenth century (1768) the communities of this region (Łuck, Kotów, and Derażnia) suffered from invasions of the Haidamaks (see D.I. Evarnitskii (Iavornitskii), Istoriia zaporozhskikh kozakov, vol. 2 (Kiev, 1990), 103; Sergjusz Rudkowski, Krwawe echo Humania na Wołyniu. Podanie (Łuck, 1932)). Speaking about natural disasters, both Crimean, and Polish-Lithuanian communities often suffered from famine, bad harvests, and conflagrations, which often destroyed not only dwelling quarters, but also precious libraries and manuscripts. 6 Introduction

– almost all European Karaites became subjects of the . The only exception were Karaite communities of Halicz and Kukizów which became subject to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to the estimations of M.S. Kupovetskii, in 1783 the Karaite population of the Russian Empire consisted of 3,800 Karaites with about 1,200 of them living in Poland and Lithuania.25 In the nineteenth century the Karaites started to settle throughout the Russian Empire and Europe. By the end of the century scattered Karaite communities were present in large cities of Russia and Europe such as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kharkov, Poltava, Nikolaev, Elisavetgrad, Ekaterinoslav, Berdiansk, Kishinev, Harbin, Vienna, Warsaw et al. After the forced removal of the local Crimean Christian population (1777) and the mass migration of the Tatars, Crimean Karaites found themselves in a very advantageous situation. As a result of the migrations, they turned out to be the most influential commercial power of the depopulated, but still highly important, new southern region of Russia. Moreover, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Karaites started to receive preferential legal treatment: in 1795 they were relieved of the double tax imposed upon the Jews, and in 1827 they were exempt (unlike the Rabbanites) from forced military service in the Russian army.26 Until these measures were taken, despite all the polemics and quarrels, the histories of the Karaite and Rabbanite Jews were similar; thus, clearly, this moment is a turning point in the history of the East European Karaites. As time passed, the distance between the privileged Karaites and their Rabbanite brethren grew, reaching its climax in 1863, when the Karaites were accorded full rights of citizenship in the Russian Empire, and were integrated into society, serving in the ’s army, and in the government.27 It seems that, largely due to the aforementioned securing of its financial and economic prosperity and stable position in the society, the Karaite population of the Empire obtained an incredible demographic growth. From 3,800 Karaites in 1783, the Karaite population grew to 12,894 in 1897. This means that it became more than three times larger within the period of about a hundred years! According to the census of 1897 there were 6,166 Karaites in Tavricheskaia guberniia (Crimean Peninsula and its vicinities) and 6,728 in other parts of Russia (including Siberia and Middle Asia). The largest were the communities of the following towns: Eupatoria – 1,505, Theodosia – 1,233, Odessa – 1,049, Sevastopol – 813, Simferopol – 709, Nikolaev – 554, Troki – 377,

25 M.S. Kupovetskii, “Dinamika chislennosti i rasselenie karaimov i krymchakov za poslednie dvesti let,” in Geografiia i kul’tura etnograficheskikh grupp tatar v SSSR (Moscow, 1983), 77. 26 See detailed analysis of these events in Philip Miller, Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Joseph Solomon Lutski’s Epistle of Israel’s Deliverance (Cincinnatti, 1993). At the same time the Rabbanite Jews were severely oppressed and humiliated while being recruited to the army, paying a heavy double taxation, not allowed to enter institutions of higher education et al. 27 Sbornik starinnykh gramot i uzakonenii Rossiiskoi imperii kasatel’no prav i sostoianiia russko- poddannykh karaimov, ed. Z.A. Firkowicz (St. Petersburg 1890), 89. The Topicality of Studying the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites 7

and Wilno – 155.28 This statistical data is somewhat problematic because it is very likely that a certain number (at least several dozens) of the Russian Subbotniki, who also professed a Karaite variety of Judaism, were included in it. The nineteenth century also marked the appearance of a number of theories related to the origins and history of the Karaites, popularized both by Karaite leaders and non-Karaite scholars. According to some, the Karaites had arrived in Crimea before the time of Christ. Consequently, they were the only true, ancient Biblical Jews. It followed from this statement that the Karaites could not be blamed for the crucifixion and participating in the composition of the Talmud: the defensive mechanism that had often been employed by small Jewish communities at the time of Christian persecutions. Later, at the end of the nineteenth–first half of the twentieth century, East European Karaite authors created a completely different version of their ethnic history, which denied all links to the Jewish people, and stressed their origins from Turkic Khazar proselytes, converted to Karaism in the eighth century. This “Turkic” theory of the origin of East European Karaites shall be analyzed in detail throughout this study. The Karaites of Poland and Lithuania, never strong in numbers, at the beginning of the twentieth century amounted to only about a thousand people. In the 1920s, they started to be referred to as najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa w Polsce (Pol. “the most minor ethnic minority in Poland”).29 The Polish press of the interwar period often referred to the Karaite community as the synowie Zakonu;30 furthermore, the Karaites themselves also sometimes designated their community by this term.31 This term, properly translated into English as “Sons of Scripture”, in fact, is a Polish rendering of the abovementioned Hebrew bnei Miqra<. In the twentieth century, this term was often used by both Karaite and the non-Karaite public to designate the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community. Hence, the title of this study. At present, their numbers have become even smaller: according to various estimates, at the time of writing there are only about 45 Karaites living in Poland, several individuals in Western Ukraine and 257 in Lithuania. As is demonstrated in this study, in the course of the twentieth century the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community underwent the process of complete dejudaization (Turkicization) of their

28 Veniamin Sinani, “K statistike karaimov (po perepisi 1897 g.),” KZh 1 (1911): 30-31, 36. 29 E.g. Jerzy Wyszomirski, “Z życia najmniejszej mniejszości,” Gazeta Polska (10.02.1937); ks. Nikodem Ludomir Cieszyński, “Najmniejsza mniejszość w Polsce,” in Roczniki Katolickie na Rok Pański 1930 (Poznań, 1930), 323-331; idem, “Najmniejsza mniejszość w Polsce,” Dziennik Poznański (29.09.1929); Tadeusz Kowalski, “Karaimi – najmniejszy lud w Europie,” Radio 45 (8.11.1931); Wł. Rydzewski, “Najmniejsza mniejszość w Polsce,” Tygodnik Ilustrowany 45 (5.11.1932). 30 Gedo Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu” (Warsaw-Lwów, 1938); idem, “U ‘Synów Zakonu’ w Trokach,” Chwila 6624 (28.08.1937). 31 Aleksander Mardkowicz, Synowie zakonu (kilka słów o Karaimach) (Łuck, 1930); idem, “Įstatymo sūnūs,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 8-16. 8 Introduction

ethnic, cultural and religious identity. As a result, the local Karaites almost completely lost their Judeo-Karaite identity, and developed a new Turko-Karaite one. The process of the formation of the East European Karaites’ ethnic identity, which underwent such a drastic shift in the twentieth century, has not been fully studied either by Western or by East European scholars. This caveat applies also to the ethnic history of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites, who became the main inheritors of the Karaite cultural legacy in Europe after the fall of the intellectual renaissance of the Karaites of the Russian Empire in 1917. The interwar period was probably the most important time for the development of the East European Karaites’ ideology. It is in this period that a number of the books and article on their history were published, several anthropological expeditions were organized, numerous attempts to carry out linguistic and ethnographic studies of this ethno-confessional group were undertaken. Their dejudaization reforms helped the Karaites to survive the Holocaust: they were surveyed by several Nazi commissions and recognised as a non-Jewish population. The post-war period, when the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites found themselves to be inhabitants of three different political formations – Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania – is characterized by the stagnation in Karaite thought and culture. This stagnation, which followed the cultural renaissance of the Karaites in the interwar period, can be explained by the totalitarian ideological control of the Soviet Union, which severely oppressed all manifestations of religious and national feelings. At present, however, one can notice the revival of the Karaite cultural and religious traditions in the region. The fact that the number of the members of the Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania is slowly, but inevitably decreasing, leads to the conclusions that the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites are one of the most endangered ethnoreligious group in Eastern Europe. This book is aimed – in addition to its academic objectives – at reminding the public of the necessity of helping numerous ethnic and religious minorities inhabiting the continent to survive in the twenty-first century.

1.2 Structure and Objectives of the Study

Even the preliminary reading of literature and sources on the modern history of the East European Karaites allows one to notice that in the course of the twentieth century such aspects of the life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites as their religious practices and beliefs, traditional culture and language, perception of their history and had been considerably distorted by political realities (anti-Semitic sentiments widespread in Poland and Russia, threat of the Holocaust, influence of the Nazi and Soviet regimes, etc.) and by the conscious dejudaization policy of their community leaders (first of all, of the ḥakham/ḥakhan Seraja Szapszał). As has been mentioned above, in the course of the twentieth century the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites almost completely lost their Jewish (or Judeo-Karaite) identity and . On the other hand, in the course of this century they adopted (or, rather, invented) for themselves Structure and Objectives of the Study 9

a new, Turkic or Turko-Karaite identity. In my opinion, the Karaites lost their Judeo- Karaite identity largely as a consequence of the two factors: political circumstances which forced the Karaites to undergo the process of endogenous dejudaization32 and conscious policy of their national leaders stimulating and nourishing Turkic tendencies within the Karaite community. Using the Karaite transformation from rigid non-Talmudic Jews to a group with distinctive Turkic identity as a case study, I show here the somewhat artificial nature of every ethnic identity, which may be constructed and deconstructed depending on the current political and ideological needs. Initially this study had been planned to only focus on an in-depth analysis of the interwar history of the Karaite community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later, however, when I discovered that most of the phenomena typical of the interwar period have their roots at the beginning of the century and their continuation in the post-war period, I expanded my analysis to the whole history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the twentieth century. While being fully aware of the fact that some parts of my book may appear to sketch only historic outlines, this study seeks to illuminate not only the interwar period, but the whole twentieth century. Furthermore, because of the fact that my study was finished only in 2014, I also included a subchapter on the development of Karaite history in the twenty-first century. In this study I shall analyze the most important events in the ethnic history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites of the twentieth century. I shall concentrate most of my attention on the interwar period which was perhaps the most interesting (in terms of its cultural significance) time in the history of the community. It was in this period that, with the support of the Polish government, the Karaites could recover from the losses (both material and demographic) of the First World War. This period of the cultural renaissance of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites was disrupted by the beginning of the Second World War. At the same time it was, paradoxically, also the

32 Roman Freund was the first to use this term to designate the process of the conscious loss of Jewish identity by the East European Karaites in the twentieth century (see his Karaites and Dejudaization: A Historical Review of an Endogenous and Exogenous Paradigm (Stockholm, 1991). Freund distinguished endogenous and exogenous dejudaization, i.e. dejudaization stimulated by the internal and external factors coming from within the community, on the one hand, and from outside it, on the other. In the Karaite case, one can clearly see both types of dejudaization (this problem is analysed in detail in Mikhail Kizilov, “Social Adaptation and Manipulation of Self-Identity: Karaites in Eastern Europe in Modern Times,” in Eastern European Karaites in the Last Generations, ed. Dan Shapira et al. (Jerusalem, 2011), 130-153). L. Hersch used the term deshébraїsation to designate the process of the replacement of Hebrew by the Karaim language in the tombstone inscriptions in the Troki Karaite cemetery in the 1930s (Liebmann Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions funéraires au cimetière caraїme de Troki,” Genus 2: 2-4 (1937): 267). M. Altbauer used this term (Pol. dehebraizacja) to analyze the conscious ignoring of Hebrew loanwords by the compilers of KRPS (Mosze Altbauer, “O tendencjach dehebraizacji leksyki karaimskiej i ich wynikach w Słowniku karaimsko-rosyjsko- polskim,” Harvard Ukranian Studies 3-4: 1 (1979-1980): 51-60). 10 Introduction

period when the Karaite community was forced to abandon many of its traditional Jewish religious and cultural values. The structure of the book is as follows: The first chapter represents an introduction to the study and offers a brief analysis of its methodological problems, sources and historiography of the topic. Chapter Two analyzes the history of the four main Polish- Lithuanian Karaite communities (those of Halicz, Troki, Łuck, and Poniewież) roughly from 1900 and until the end of the First World War in 1918. It was in this period that the community identity oscillated between traditional “Israelite” (or Judeo-Karaite) and “Khazar” (or Turko-Karaite) identities – the latter being invented largely by Seraja Szapszał (pronounced as Seraya Shapshal). Chapter Three is dedicated to the history of these communities in the interwar period and to the spread of the Turko-Khazar theory of the Karaites’ origin by Szapszał and his followers. In this period the Halicz community, which belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1772 to 1918, finally joined other Karaite Polish-Lithuanian communities. At the same time, the community of Poniewież was separated from the rest of the communities by the new border between Poland and independent Lithuania (a.k.a. Litwa Kowieńska). This period is highly significant for better understanding the reasons for the conscious internal dejudaization of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community. Chapter Four analyzes the interwar activity of the head of the Karaite community of Poland, ḥakham (or ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał, as a key factor in the process of dejudaization and development of the Karaites’ Turkic identity. Chapter Five is devoted to the dramatic history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites during the Second World War and the Holocaust. The fate of the Karaites during this period was highly varied. Some of the Karaites heroically fought against the Nazis as the Soviet army soldiers and/or suffered as victims of the Nazis. A few Karaites, surprisingly, decided to join the Germans. This problem is also closely related to the question of the special non-Semitic status accorded to the Karaite community by the Nazis, and highly dramatic Karaite-Rabbanite relations during this period. Chapter Six outlines the history of the Polish-Lithuanian community after the Second World War, starting from the Soviet stagnation up to our days. Conclusive chapter analyzes again the main tendencies in the history of the community in the twentieth and early twenty first centuries and also attempts to discuss its future. By the term “the ethnic history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the twentieth century” I designate the process of the historical development of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites in the given period, with special emphasis on the events which were significant for the Karaites as a separate ethnoreligious minority living within the larger non-Karaite majority. The term “traditional culture”, which is often used in this study, should be understood as the complex of various traditions and customs both in religious and everyday spheres peculiar to and adopted/adapted by the Karaites in the epoch preceding the twentieth century. While analyzing the Karaites’ traditional culture, I was mainly interested in observing the changes and reforms that it underwent in the twentieth century. By the term “ethnic self-identification”, I mean the complex of opinions of the Karaite community members concerning the history of Methodological Difficulties 11

their formation as an ethnic entity, ideas about their unique origins, understanding of their place on the ethnic map of Europe, traditions reflecting their common origins and homeland – this list is not exhaustive – as manifested in the works, publications and oral statements of the twentieth-century Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. In this study I seek to achieve the following goals and objectives: 1. to find the reasons for the drastic shift in the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites’ national ideology and self-identification in the twentieth century; to analyze the process of the formation of their ethnic ideology, creation of national myths and legends, the forgetting and abandoning of certain traditions and beliefs, the composition and introduction of new religious and secular traditions; 2. to draw the general outline of the history of the formation of the present-day ethnic self-identification of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites; to trace the differences in the ethnic identity of the Karaites in concert with the changes in their citizenship of the Russian Empire/Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth/Poland and Lithuanian Socialist during the Soviet period/independent Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland after the disintegration of the Soviet Union; 3. to trace the influences of the ideologies of the ruling states (the Russian Empire, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Nazi regime in occupied Poland and Lithuania, Soviet Union, Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine) upon the Karaites’ identity, culture, and historiography; 4. to outline the attitude of the Karaites to representatives of other religious and ethnic minorities inhabiting Poland (with the special emphasis upon their relations with the Rabbanite Jews); 5. to arrive at general conclusions regarding the influence of the national ideology upon the self-identification and culture of a given ethnic group, and problems of preservation of its identity in multinational states – on the basis of the Karaite narrative; 6. to attempt a forecast into the future of the Karaites as an ethnoreligious minority in Eastern Europe: assimilation, vanishing or continuation of their existence? Revival of Jewish traditions or renaissance of Turkic sentiments?

1.3 Methodological Difficulties

Every scholar dealing with any aspect of the Karaite history in Eastern Europe inevitably encounters a number of serious methodological problems related to his research. One of the most serious problems was related to the authenticity of some Karaite sources. Indeed, as early as the mid-nineteenth century Mordecai Sułtański, his disciple Abraham Firkowicz, Solomon Beim, and some other Karaite leaders were accused of consciously mishandling Karaite epigraphic and manuscript sources. It was argued that they apparently distorted and falsified some sources in order to prove to the Russian administration the “noble” ancient origins of the Karaites – and 12 Introduction

thus receive further alleviations in the legal status of the Karaite community in Russia and Poland.33 In the twentieth century, in the process of the Turkicization of their identity, the group of Karaite leaders headed by Seraja Szapszał started a new wave of conscious misinterpretation of Karaite history. This time the sources were seldom falsified. Nevertheless, twentieth-century Karaite leaders constantly misinterpreted data of the sources and their content in order to “prove” that the Karaites did not have any relationship to Jewish civilization or religion whatsoever. This is why, while working on this study, constant verification of statements of Karaite authors had to be conducted in order to discern whether or not a particular source was accurate or had been consciously misinterpreted. If the information had indeed been manipulated, I had to analyze why this was done and what the source had actually said. This process of constant verification of source data considerably prolonged my work on this monograph. A number of technical problems were caused by the use of sources and academic literature in languages other than those of Western Europe. Special difficulty was presented by personal names and toponyms, which could be spelled in different ways, depending on the chronological period, the source language, and even on the personal preferences of authors. Moreover, a few different variants were sometimes used to denote the same place and/or person. Thus, the Galician town with an important Karaite community is called Halitsch in German, Halicz in Polish, Helic (pronounced as Helits) in Karaim and Hebrew, and Galich in Russian. Modern Ukrainian Luts’k (historical Luchesk) was called Łuck in Polish, Luzk in German, Loutzk in French, and Łucka in Karaim. Lithuanian town of is called Troki in Polish, Traken in German, and Troch or Trokłar in Karaim. Taking into consideration the fact that most twentieth-century sources and scholarly publications use the Polish spellings of place names (e.g. Halicz, Łuck, Wilno, Poniewież, and Troki), apart from some specially indicated cases, I also use Polish variants. Nevertheless, for some central place names, and in the bibliography, I have used the accepted English spellings (Warsaw, Vienna, Moscow, Eupatoria, Theodosia, etc.). Crimean Tatar placenames and terms are spelled in accordance with modern Turkish spelling (e.g. Bahçesaray for Bakhchisarai, and Çufut Kale for Chufut-Kale/Çufut Qaleh). A slightly different system is used with regard to personal names. In my study I often had to use Turkic, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and Hebrew personal names.

33 For a preliminary analysis of the most important Karaite forgeries, see Dan Shapira, “Nyneshnee sostoianie riada pripisok k kolofonam na bibleiskikh rukopisiakh iz pervogo sobraniia A. S. Firkovicha,” in Materialy Deviatoi Mezhdunarodnoi Konferentsii po Iudaike, pt. 1 (Moscow, 2004), 102- 130; idem, “Remarks on Avraham Firkowicz and the Hebrew Mejelis ‘Document’,” AOH 59:2 (2006): 131-180; idem, “Yitshaq Sangari, Sangarit, Bezalel Stern and Avraham Firkowicz: Notes on Two Forged Inscriptions,” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 12 (2002-2003): 223-260; idem, “The Mejelis ‘Document’ and Tapani Harvianen: On Scholarship, Firkowicz and Forgeries,” in Omeljan Pritsak Armağanı/A Tribute to Omeljan Pritsak, ed. Mehmet Alpargu and Yücel Öztürk (Sakarya, 2007), 303-393. Methodological Difficulties 13

When I speak about the Karaites of non-Polish provenance I usually use the accepted English variants of Hebrew names (thus Isaac and Solomon and not Yitṣḥaq and Shelomoh). Name and surnames of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, however, are normally spelled in the sources and literature according to the Polish transliteration. Therefore, I usually use the Polish spellings of Polish-Lithuanian Karaite names (thus Izaak Abrahamowicz, Szemaja Firkowicz, Szymon Szyszman, Aleksander Mardkowicz and not Isaac Abrahamovich, Shemaya Firkovich, Shimon Shishman, Alexander Mardkovich). The names of Turkish historical figures are spelled in accordance with the modern Turkish transliteration (e.g. Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın). In order not to mislead the readers not acquainted with Polish and/or Turkic phonology, I provide English transliteration and various ways of spelling personal names and placenames in brackets. Turkic names and surnames of the Russian-speaking East European Karaites and are spelled in accordance with the method for Russian (e.g. Babadzhan and Kaia and not Babacan and Kaya/Qaya). The problem that one shall come across quite often in this is study is that the East European Karaites, as well as their Rabbanite neighbours, often had two names: one, usually a name, for use within the family or in the community documents. The other, secular “European” one, was normally used outside the community. Thus, the official Hebrew name of the last Karaite ḥakham, which was frequently used in internal community documents, was Seraya ben Mordecai Shapshal (Seraja ben Mordechaj Szapszał in the Polish transliteration). In the interwar period, Szapszał usually called himself in a Turkic manner Hadży Seraja Han Szapszał. During the Soviet times Biblical “Seraja” was substituted by neutral Russian “Sergei”, whereas the name of his father, “Mordecai,” was referred to as “Mark.” Thus, in the end Szapszał became Seraja (or Sergei) Markovich Szapszał/Shapshal. In the twentieth century in the process of the endogenous dejudaization the East European Karaites often replaced Biblical Hebrew names by their variants used by the Tatars, Arabs, and other Muslim people. In this way Karaites named Mosheh started to be called Musa, Shelomoh – Suleiman, Abraham – Ibrahim, etc. Many recent publications consciously or unconsciously use only these “secular” names of the Karaites, often forgetting that original names, which were given to the East European Karaites by their parents, normally were of Hebrew origin. Thus, in order not to misled readers of this book I shall normally use both original Hebrew forms of the Karaite names and surnames together with their “official” non-Jewish names.34 In my study I often use Hebrew and Turkic (especially Karaim) special terms. For Hebrew I have used a slightly modified system accepted in many recent dictionaries of the ; the YIVO system of transliteration has been used for Yiddish, and the Library of Congress method for Russian and Ukrainian. Because of the lack of an accepted system of transliteration for the Turkic Karaim language, I have used the

34 For more details concerning the replacement of Hebrew names in the 1930s, see 4.3.3a. 14 Introduction

Polish transliteration accepted by the local Karaite authors in the interwar period.35 Plural forms of Hebrew terms are used here in accordance with the standards of the Hebrew language: the ending -ot for the feminine gender (e.g. mezuzah (sg.); mezuzot (pl.)), and the ending -im for the masculine gender (e.g. ḥazzan (sg.); ḥazzanim (pl.)). The Turkic plural endings -lar/-ler have been used for plural forms in Turkic languages (e.g. kenesa (sg.); kenesalar (pl.)).36 Quotations from documents in Hebrew, Turkic, West European, and have been, by and large, translated into English. Most important Hebrew, Karaim and other terms are explained in the Glossary. Due to considerations of space, translations of the titles of publications in the languages other than West European are provided only in the bibliography, and not in the footnotes.

1.4 Survey of Sources

1.4.1 Unpublished Sources

Unpublished materials used in this study are represented mostly by the documents kept in a few major collections of Karaite materials in East European archives. Especially important were the Karaite collections kept in Vilnius, the capital of modern Lithuania, in the manuscript department of the Lietuvos mokslų akademijos biblioteka (the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences). Among them one should first of all mention the personal archive of Seraja Szapszał (MS LMAB F. 143) which consists of several thousands miscellaneous documents of various origins which found their way into the personal collection of the last Karaite ḥakham in Eastern Europe. Many other important documents were uncovered in two other collections also kept in the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences: in the collection of the Lithuanian Karaite community (MS LMAB F. 301), and personal archive of the Troki ḥazzan Szemaja/Szymon/Semen Firkowicz (MS LMAB F. 305). The documents housed in these three collections are of varied nature: official state documents, orders, recommendations, and memoranda; communal censuses; legal cases; private documents (correspondence, drafts of letters, diaries, and memoirs); academic materials: drafts of articles, reviews, monographs; photo-materials; sphragistic

35 See the periodical Karaj Awazy (“The Karaite Voice”), published in Łuck from 1931 to 1938. Cf. also Karaj sez-bitigi. Słownik karaimski. Karaimisches Wörterbuch, ed. Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck, 1935). There are a few other systems of transliterating various of Karaim (by T. Kowalski, J. Grzegorzewski, E.A. Csató-Johanson, H. Jankowski, and D. Shapira), each of them comprehensible mostly to linguists specializing in Turkic languages. Our system may be read without any problems by anybody acquainted with Polish orthography. 36 In my study I shall use the form kenesa accepted in Łuck, Halicz and Crimea; other communities used other forms of this term (kenasa, kienesa, kieniesa etc.). Survey of Sources 15

materials (seals of the ḥazzanim and Karaite communities). These materials are important for the general history of the Polish-Lithuanian community, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; chronologically, they include documents from the sixteenth century up to the 1960s. They also of vital significance for the biographies of numerous Karaite religious, secular and ideological leaders, such as Seraja Szapszał, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Szemaja Firkowicz, Aleksander Mardkowicz, and many other.37 Highly important for this study are also other Lithuanian archival collections, first of all in the manuscript department of the Vilnius University, in Boris Kokenai and Semita Kushul’ collection (MS VU F. 158), Szemaja/Szymon Firkowicz collection (MS VU F. 185) and in Simon/Szymon Szyszman personal collection (MS VU F. 243).38 The noteable collection of objects, pictures, photos, and manuscripts, which once belonged to Seraja Szapszał, was viewed in the ethnographic collections of the National Lithuanian Museum in Vilnius.39 Second in importance after the Vilnius collections, was a hitherto virtually unknown Karaite archive consisting of documents collected in the 2000s in Halicz by Ivan Yurchenko (Yurchenko MSS). These documents date back mostly to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and reach up to the 1980s. They are written mostly in the Hebrew, Karaim, Polish, and Russian languages. These documents together with a unique collection of ethnographic objects pertaining to the Halicz Karaite community are kept in the repository and on the display at the Museum of Karaite History and Culture in Halicz (Ukr. Muzei karaїms’koї istoriї ta kul’tury (MKIK)). These materials were available to me both de visu and in a digitized form. It appears that the author of these lines was the only scholar to date to have access to this collection. Some interesting documents related mostly to the interwar period were found by me in the collection of the Ministry of Religious Confessions and Public Education in the Archive for Modern Records in Warsaw (Archiwum Akt Nowych, Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego; hereafter: AAN MWRiOP). Materials of ethnographic and linguistic character were discovered in the archive of the Polish Academy of Arts Sciences in Kraków, which houses personal collections of two famous Polish Orientalists, Tadeusz Kowalski (1889-1948) and Jan Grzegorzewski (1846/1849-

37 For preliminary reviews of these collections, see A.A. Babadzhan, “Fond S.M. Shapshala,” IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 4-6; Danute Labanauskienė, “Karaim Manuscript Collections at the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences,” in Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim Collection, comp. Žygintas Būčys, transl. from Lithuanian Arvydas Gaižauskas (Vilnius, 2003), 143-151. 38 Prof. Stefan Schreiner informed me in 2014 that a larger part of Szyszman’s personal archive remained in Paris. 39 Seraya Szapszał’s collection was recently described and partly analyzed in Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim Collection, comp. Žygintas Būčys, transl. Arvydas Gaižauskas (Vilnius, 2003). This valuable study, unfortunately, considered genuine pseudoscholarly theories about the Turkic character of the Karaites’ ethnographic culture. 16 Introduction

1922) (Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU w Krakowie; hereafter: AN PAN).40 A few documents pertaining to the history of the Karaite community of Halicz were discovered among the documents of the Taurida and Odessa Karaite spiritual consistory housed in the State Archive of the in Simferopol (Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Avtonomnoi Respubliki Krym; hereafter: GAARK F. 241).41 Some important documents were found in the hitherto uncatalogued archive of Krymchak scholar Lev Isaakovich Kaia (1912–1988) kept in the Archive of the Vaad of Russia in Moscow. Introductory parts of this study also deal with the early modern and nineteenth-century history of Karaism in Eastern Europe. Documents pertaining to this period were located primarily in the Abraham Firkowicz archival collection at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg (hereafter: NLR F. 946, and Evr. II A) and the Archive for Old Records in Warsaw (hereafter: AGAD). Finally, when this book had already been at the last stage of preparation, a number of sources pertaining largely to the history of the East European Karaites during the Second World War were discovered by me in America and several European archives.42

1.4.2 Published Sources: Publications of Karaite Authors

Numerous works by Karaite scholars, religious authorities, community leaders, members of the community on their historical past, religion, culture and national self-identification can be divided into the following categories:

I. In terms of chronology 1. Pre-WWI publications (1900–1914). The publications from this period are less numerous than those that appeared in the interwar period. This fact notwithstanding, publications of this period are generally much more open and independent than later publications. One can clearly see in these publications the rivalry between traditionally-oriented Judeo-Karaite authors such as Pinachas Malecki and modernist Turko-Karaite ones such as Seraja Szapszał, Abraham Szyszman and others. 2. Interwar period publications (1919–1939).43 This period, which should be undoubtedly considered as the period of the cultural renaissance of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites, is characterised by a number of publications by Karaite

40 For the preliminary analysis, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Jan Grzegorzewski’s Karaite Materials in the Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków,” Karaite Archives 1 (2013): 59-83. 41 The archive shall apparently soon change its name because of the recent political changes and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. 42 These discoveries arose in the context of the author’s Sosland fellowship at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014. 43 There were virtually no Karaitica publications during the First World War. Survey of Sources 17

authors in both Karaite and non-Karaite periodicals. This was a period of the rapid development of Karaite and the Karaim language. On the other hand, this was also a time of drastic Turkicization of the East European Karaite community. As a result, Karaite publications of this time were strictly censored and Turkicized by the Karaite religious and secular leaders. 3. Post-war publications44 (1945 – late 1980/early 1990s). Only a few publications by Karaite authors appeared in this period because of strict Soviet censorship. They tended to be pro-Turkic and characterized the Karaites as a small ethnic group of Turkic origin and culture. 4. Post-Soviet publications (since the late 1980s/early 1990s and until today). The collapse of the Soviet Union and its totalitarian ideology led to freedom of speech in all aspects of cultural life of hitherto-suppressed national minorities. For Polish-Lithuanian Karaites this period is marked by a revival of the Karaim language, Karaite press, culture and religion. Because of the complete loss of the Judeo-Karaite identity, the Karaite revival of the 1990s/2000s had a marked pro- Turkic bias.

II. In terms of the place of publication 1. Those published in Karaite periodical editions in Russian, Polish, and Karaim (intended mostly for the internal community use). 2. Those published in non-Karaite periodical editions (intended for the wider non- Karaite audience and aimed at spreading information about Karaite history, origins, religion and culture). 3. Those published as separate editions (publications in Polish, intended both for the internal community use and for the wider audience; publications in Karaim solely for community use).

III. In terms of the character of publication 1. Theological treatises, prayerbooks (siddurim), translations of the Bible (targumim), religious poetry (piyyuṭim), elegies (Heb. qinot; Kar. kynałar), calendars. The number of such religious publications was highly limited; they practically ceased to exist after 1945. 2. Amateur historical and historico-polemical publications that have the character of academic research on the history of Karaism (usually aimed at clarification of certain unclear points in the Karaite history and its development. The argumentation and content of such publications often falls short of scholarly).

44 To date, I have been able to find only one publication by East European Karaite authors printed during WWII (S. Shpakovsky (Szpakowski), Short Informations about Karaims (Harbin, 1943)). Nota bene, it was published in China and not in Europe or USSR. 18 Introduction

3. Secular prose and poetry written in Karaim, Polish, Russian, and Ruthenian/Ukrainian (stories, plays, poems, fairy-tales, humorist sketches, etc.). Those of purely belletristic character are, by and large, not included in this study, however those containing information on the state of the community or its history in a given period are accepted as relevant and important first-hand sources. 4. Correspondence: letters of community members to each other and to non-Karaite audience. 5. Official memoranda, speeches, communiqués and announcements of Karaite leaders. 6. Community news: short news focused on recent events in the Karaite community. 7. Memoirs. 8. Travel reports: accounts of members of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community who visited their counterparts living in another community. 9. Stricto sensu academic publications (as distinguished from category 2). These are usually related to the general field of Oriental Studies, and linguistics.

The most important collections of publications by Karaite authors are to be found in Karaite periodicals. For the period preceding the end of the First World War I have drawn upon Karaimskaia Zhizn’, Karaimskoe Slovo, and Sabakh. The interwar period was marked by the emergence of such important periodicals as Myśl Karaimska, Karaj Awazy, Sahyszymyz, Przyjaciel Karaimów (Dostu Karajnyn) and Onarmach. After the cultural stagnation of the Karaite press during the postwar period a few periodicals were begun near the end of the 1980s. Especially important were Polish Coś and Awazymyz. I place special emphasis on the analysis of Myśl Karaimska (Pol. “Karaite thought”) as the most-important Karaite periodical of the period published mostly in the , with some materials in Karaim and Hebrew. The detailed analysis of these periodicals shall be provided in the subchapters of the book dedicated to the Karaite press.45

1.4.3 Published Sources: Publications of Non-Karaite Authors

1. Official and legal documents. Only a few sources of this type were published. 2. Correspondence, memoirs and other private documents.

45 For the preliminary analysis, see Mikhail Kizilov, “The Press and the Ethnic Identity: Turkicisation of Karaite Printing in Interwar Poland and Lithuania,” AOH 60:4 (2007): 399-425; Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures;” Keijo Hopeavuori, “Karaim Periodicals in the Karaim Language,” StOr 95 (2003): 169-176; Oleg Belyi, “Karaimskaia natsionalnaia periodika v pervoi polovine XX veka,” in Problemy istorii i arkheologii Kryma (Simferopol, 1994), 235-251. Survey of Sources 19

3. Journalist and travel reports. Accounts of journalists, scholars or simply tourists who visited the Karaite communities represent a highly important source which often provides first-hand uncensored data on the state of the community and its everyday life. The data from travel accounts are also usually very personal, and impressions which the travellers received from their visits to the Polish- Lithuanian Karaite communities often depended on such subjective factors as their education, national prejudices, level of knowledge about the Karaites and personal preferences.

1.4.4 Other Sources

1. Epigraphic monuments (primarily tombstone inscriptions from the Halicz, Troki, and Wilno Karaite cemeteries). These sources provide vitally important data on the structure of the Karaite communities, fates of their members and the local funeral traditions. At the same time, the tombstones themselves, with their varied and rich decorations and ornaments, may be treated as samples of Karaite art. After 1917 many East European Karaite cemeteries had suffered from the ravages of the World War II, vandals and the Soviet regime. Only two cemeteries of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites, those of Halicz and Warsaw, had been properly studied to date.46 Preliminary research was also done on the Troki Karaite cemetery;47 the only Karaite tombstone inscription found in the Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw was analyzed by Witold Wrzosiński.48 2. Materials of anthropological expeditions (for details, see 1.5). 3. Private communications. Because of the fact that this work was not intended to be strictly a sociological study, I did not conduct systematic interviews with members of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities or with non-Karaite eyewitnesses to their existence. Nevertheless, I tried to have personal conversations with them whenever I had a chance to do so. It was not always easy to acquire agreement to talk, sometimes because of the lack of time of my interlocutors, sometimes because of the lack of consent and an inclination against an open conversation with someone who is not a member of the community. In spite of the aforementioned difficulties, I still managed to contact many representatives

46 I. Yurchenko, O. Kefeli, N. Yurchenko, and O. Berehovs’kyi, Karaїms’ke kladovyshche bilia Halycha. Kataloh nadmohyl’nykh pam’yatnykiv (L’viv-Halych, 2000); Adam Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz w Warszawie,” in Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus (Warsaw 2012), 145-179; see also the list of the persons interred in the Warsaw cemetery in ibid., 230-240. 47 Hersch, “Les langues,” 259-294 (for the critique, see MK 12 (1939): 127-128); cf. Golda Akhiezer, Ilya Dvorkin, “Ktovot ha-maṣevot mi-batei ha->almin be-Liṭa,” Pe>amim 98-99 (2004): 225-260. 48 Witold Wrzosiński, “Der älteste karäische Grabstein in Polen und seine hebräische Inschrift,” Judaica 2/3 (2014): 198-219. 20 Introduction

of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities, apart from those of the Łuck community whose members left the town after 1945. Oral data will be referred to as “private communications,” with an indication of the precise date and place when the information was gathered and recorded. Before the final of my study, I attempted to contact all of the persons whose private communication I had gathered in order to seek their permission to publicize this data. 4. Video materials: three documentaries on the Polish-Lithuanian and Crimean Karaites made by Polish television in the 1980s-1990s and some other video materials which were not included in those films.49 5. Photo materials (published and unpublished) were highly important in reconstructing the history of Karaite architectural monuments that did not survive or whose appearance had been changed during the interwar and post-war period in the course of the dejudaization process. 6. Website materials. Despite the contemporary prevalence of non-scholarly websites, in cases where website materials were the only source of some important information, they were used in this study. 7. Materials collected during field- and study-tours. Important conclusions regarding the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities were reached in the course of numerous field trips to Karaite sites, dwelling quarters, cemeteries, and houses of prayer in Wilno, Troki, Halicz, Łuck, Poniewież, and Nowe Miasto.

1.5 Historiography of the Problem

1.5.1 General and Epigraphic Studies

To date, the history of the Karaites, and especially the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, has not found its own ; there is no sufficient amount of published documents on which one can build the history of this interesting branch of Judaism in our land…

Majer Bałaban (1927)50

49 Ostatni Hazzan, dir. Ewa Straburzyńska (TVP Wrocław, 1986); Karaimi - giniący naród, dir. Włodzimierz Szpakowski (Polish television, studia “Wir”, 1994); Kultura Karaimów, dir. Jadwiga Nowakowska (Polish television, 1996). Some of these films are currently available in Internet. 50 Majer Bałaban, “Karaici w Polsce,” in his Studja Historyczne (Warsaw, 1927), 1. Historiography of the Problem 21

In general, Karaites Studies had always been rather on the margins of Jewish or Oriental studies.51 It seems that it is only in the last two decades that development of Karaite studies has quickened, especially in Israel, Russia, Poland, and the United States. In addition to the appearance of numerous Karaite-related publications in the aforementioned countries, this rapid growth is corroborated by the number of international projects in the field of Karaite studies – including the beginning of deep exploration of Karaite archival collections in St. Petersburg (Firkowicz collection), Simferopol (Crimea), and Lithuania; attempts to undertake research of the Karaite cemeteries in Eastern Europe, the introduction of Karaite history and language as a part of university curricula,52 publication of several collections of Karaitica articles by scholars from different countries, and a compilation of comprehensive bibliography of Karaite-related publications.53 However, even within the framework of this rapidly-growing amount of publications on the Karaites, the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites has not yet been studied properly. Unfortunately, the words said by Majer Bałaban as early as the 1920s, are still true. In fact, the last large, important, studies dedicated to the Karaite history in the Rzeczpospolita appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. One of them, Jacob Mann’s (1888-1940) second volume of his famous Texts and Studies in and Literature, represent hitherto unexhausted well of hundreds of Hebrew documents from the Firkowicz archive in St. Petersburg.54 The other classical study, an essay of one of the most famous Jewish scholars of the twentieth century, Majer Bałaban (1877-1942), is relevant to this book, since it represents a survey of the history of the Karaites in the region since medieval period up to the time of its writing, i.e. approximately until 1924-1925.55 This work, which was so severely criticized by several pre-war Karaite authors,56 still represents one of the most profound and serious essays in this field. A few of Bałaban’s mistakes and inaccuracies, which had been

51 This historiographic survey shall focus only on the most important publications related to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites and penned by non-Karaite authors; numerous publications of the Karaite authors on this subject, as has been mentioned before, represent a source on the historical views and national self-identification of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the twentieth century. Therefore, they will not be analyzed here. A complete bibliography of Polish-Lithuanian Karaitica is to be found in BK. 52 To our knowledge, taught courses focusing on the history and languages of the Karaites are read in such countries as Israel, Poland, (Uppsala), and Germany (Tübingen). 53 See BK. 54 On the Polish and Lithuanian Karaites, see the subchapter “Karaism in Lithuania and Poland: Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature. Vol.2: Karaitica (Philadelphia, 1935), 551-1408. This excellent work, however, is practically irrelevant for this study because Mann analyzed there mostly the documents which appeared before Firkowicz’s death, i.e. prior to 1874. 55 Bałaban, “Karaici w Polsce,” 1-92. 56 A.R. [Ananiasz Rojecki], “Karaici w Polsce (O artykule D-ra M. Bałabana),” MK 1:1 (1924): 3-4; Ananjasz Zajączkowski, “Na marginesie studium Bałabana Karaici w Polsce,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 35-69. 22 Introduction

correctly indicated by the Karaite authors, again may be explained by the fact that Karaite history represented only a marginal interest for the scholar. Prior to these two most important works, there were, undoubtedly, several other important scholarly publications dedicated to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. One should mention Tadeusz Czacki’s pioneering “Essay on the Karaites” and several other less-known works.57 Historical, epigraphic, and ethnographic study of the Galician Karaite community was begun early in the twentieth century by Reuven (Ruben/Rubin) Fahn (1878 – ca. 1939/1943), who is known, on one hand, as an amateur historian, ethnographer, and epigraphist, and, on the other, as a littérateur, journalist, and ardent Zionist.58 His publications may be divided into several categories: scholarly studies, which pioneered academic research into the history of Galician Karaism,59 travel reports60 and a collection of Karaite legends.61 In addition to his scholarly studies and travel reports, Fahn decided to express his ethnographic impressions of the life in Halicz in a belletristic form, composing a book entitled

57 Tadeusz Czacki, “Rozprawa o Karaitach,” in his Rozprawa o Żydach (Wilno, 1807), 246-272; Leizar Krassnoselsky, Zur Geschichte der Karäer im russischen Reiche (Bern, 1912), 34-72; Yulius Brutzkus, “Di opshtamung fun di Karaimer in Lita un Poiln”, YIVO Blaetter 13 (1938): 109-123. 58 Born in , in the village Starunia in South-Eastern Galicia in 1878, Fahn spent a few years (1897-1914) in Halicz, where he had been working and studying the local Karaite community. For more information, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Scholar, Zionist, and Man of Letters: Reuven Fahn (1878–1939/1944) in the Karaite Community of Halicz (Notes on the Development of Jewish , Epigraphy and ),” Kwartalnik Historii Żydów/Jewish History Quarterly 4 (2012): 470-489. 59 E.g. Reuven Fahn, “Le-qorot ha-Qera

Me-ḥayyei ha-Qera

62 Reuven Fahn, Me-ḥayyei ha-Qera

Karaites communities in Poland and Lithuania in the 1980s, by Elisabetta Gottardo, unfortunately, remains unpublished and hardly accessible outside Italy.67 The situation changed in the 1990s – the time of the re-opening of Soviet archives, and the renaissance of the traditions of many ethnic minorities. Only at this time did Soviet archives become available to foreign and local scholars. As a consequence, after the period of long silence, new studies on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian community began to be published from the 1990s on. Two Polish scholars, Iwona and Waldemar Koszewski, composed a study in 1991 of the Polish Karaite community based on their sociological research. This was the first study of this type based on the example of the local Karaite community. Although the authors of this monograph held a rather superficial idea about the ethnogenesis and religion of the Karaites, their sociological observations certainly deserve attention.68 Epigraphic study pioneered by Reuven Fahn at the Halicz Karaite cemetery, was continued about a century later by Halicz scholars Ivan and Nataliia Yurchenko.69 A few important articles and monographs related to various aspects of the history of the Karaites in Poland-Lithuania in the twentieth century were published by Western scholars.70 Noteworthy are also two popular books by the Polish scholar, Grzegorz Pełczyński.71 Polish journalist Andrzej Tokarczyk, who had begun writing about the Polish Karaites as early as the 1960s, recently combined his articles and observations into a separate book.72 Unfortunately, because Tokarczyk was not a trained historian, the scholarly part of the book leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, the author’s personal observations, gleaned after a many-year acquaintance with the Karaites, are quite valuable. A few articles on the subject had been published by Tapani Harviainen in

67 Elisabetta Gottardo, “Le comunità caraite contemporanee in Polonia e Lituania,” Tesi di laurea. Università degli Studi di Venezia, 1985. 68 Iwona Koszewska, Waldemar Koszewski. Karaimi Polscy. Struktura ekologiczna-społeczna mniejszości etnicznej i religijnej (Warszawa, 1991). 69 Ivan Yurchenko, and Nataliya Yurchenko, “Doslidzhennia karaїms’koho kladovyshcha bilia Halycha,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 46-56; Ivan Yurchenko, Natalya Yurchenko, “Epidemichne kladovyshche karaїms’koї hromady Halycha,” in Zberezhennia ta vykorystannia kul’turnoї spadshchyny Ukrаїny: problemy ta perspektyvy (Halych, 2004), 180-183; I. Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche. For reviews, see Kizilov, “Vor dem Vergessen bewahren;” Dan Shapira, “Maṣevot Heliṣ – qatalog shel maṣevot qarayot mi-mizraḥ Eiropah,” Pe>amim 103 (2005): 147-150. 70 Hannelore Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung. Zur religionshistorischen Dynamik der Karäer im Osten Europas (Wiesbaden, 2010); eadem, “Gunst und Tragik einer Privilegierung: Karäer im Osten Europas,” Judaica 67:1 (2011): 48-96; Warren Green, “The Karaite Community in Interwar Poland,” Papers 14: 1-2 (1986): 101-109; Emanuela Trevisan Semi, “The Pasha Karaite Meal and the Process of Transformation of Contemporary Lithuanian Karaism,” Nemzetiseg-Identitas (Debrecen, 1991): 398-402. Important data on the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites can also be found in eadem, Gli ebrei caraiti tra etnia e religione (Roma, 1984). 71 Grzegorz Pełczyński, Najmniejsza mniejszość. Rzecz o Karaimach polskich (Warsaw, 1995); idem, Karaimi polscy (Poznań 2004). 72 Andrzej Tokarczyk, Karaimizm: Saga Polskich Karaimów (Warsaw, 2006). Historiography of the Problem 25

the Finnish and English languages.73 The book on the general history of the Karaites in Volhynia by V. Shabarovs’kyi has useful data on the Łuck Karaites in the twentieth century.74 Of some importance for this study were recent publications that appeared in Lithuanian and English languages in Lithuania. Some details on the history of the Poniewież Karaite community can be found in a brochure, in Lithuanian, by Joana Viga Čiplytė.75 An article by Dovilė Troskovaitė – its interesting analytical approach and references to archival materials notwithstanding – certainly does not completely exhaust the challenge of the shaping of the Karaite identity in the first half of the twentieth century.76 A volume focusing on the analysis of Szapszał’s museum collection kept in the National Museum of Lithuania is useful for the biography of this Karaite leader.77 Unfortunately, numerous newspaper and journal articles in Lithuanian, which appeared in independent Lithuania in the last two decades, do not offer much scholarly value.78 Several articles were devoted to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community during the period of World War II, often placing their analyses in conjunction with the events of and USSR.79 Lastly, some studies directly related to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the twentieth century, had been recently published by the present author.80

73 Keijo Hopeavuori, Tapani Harviainen, and Kai Nieminen, Rannalla päärynäpuu. Liettuan karaiimien runoutta (Helsinki, 1998), 9-54; Tapani Harviainen, “Signs of New Life in Karaim Communities. Ethnic Encounter and Culture Change,” Papers from the Third Nordic Middle East Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Joensuu, 1995. Nordic Research on the Middle East 3 (Bergen, 1997), 72-83; idem, “The Karaites of Lithuania at the Present Time and the Pronunciation Tradition of Hebrew among them: A Preliminary Survey,” Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of the International Organization for Masoretic Studies 1989. Masoretic Studies 7 (1992): 53-69; idem, “The Karaites in Contemporary Lithuania and the Former USSR,” KJ, 827-854; Although I am personally thankful to Prof. Harviainen for his help, I am inclined to criticize many of his hypotheses and theories, especially those related to the Turkic origin of the East European Karaites. 74 Volodymyr Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy na Volyni (Luts’k, 2013). 75 Joana Viga Čiplytė, Panevėžio karaimų gyvenimo puslapiai (Vilnius, 2001). 76 Dovilė Troskovaitė, “Identity in Transition: The Case of Polish Karaites in the First Half of the 20th Century,” Codrul Cosminului 19:2 (2013): 207-228. 77 The book exists in the original Lithuanian version and its English translation (Serajos Šapšalo karaimikos rinkinys, ed. Žygintas Būčys (Vilnius, 2003); Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim Collection, comp. Žygintas Būčys, transl. Arvydas Gaižauskas (Vilnius, 2003)). 78 For detailed bibliography, see BK. 79 For more details, see Chapter 5. 80 See esp. Kizilov, The Karaites of Galicia. Some parts of this monograph, where the author analyzes the twentieth-century history of the Karaite community of Halicz, are partly included into this study, with some changes and additions. 26 Introduction

1.5.2 Language Studies

Not only , but also linguists (specifically, Turkologists) were interested in twentieth-century Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. Unfortunately, only some of them were free from pro-Turkic bias and false understanding of the Karaites as a group of ethnic Turks. In spite of the fact that publications of linguists-Turkologists usually focused narrowly on the Karaim linguistics and/or Karaite folklore, those that were published in the interwar period contain much valuable information pertaining to the state and ethnic identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites.81 Especially important in this respect were publications by two Polish Turkologists, Tadeusz Kowalski (1889– 1948) and Jan Grzegorzewski (1846/1849–1922).82 In addition to the published works, both scholars left archival collections kept in the archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków.83 These and later linguistic studies focusing mostly on the Troki dialect of the Karaim language were also a resource for this book. I shall especially use those parts of such purely linguistic studies which contain personal observations of their authors, received during their collecting folklore and linguistic data in Polish- Lithuanian Karaite communities. After the war, lingustic studies of the Karaim language became somewhat politicized and censored: either the role of Hebrew loanwords in Karaim was consciously ignored84 or Crimean Tatar ethnolect85 used by Crimean Karaites was declared to be “Crimean dialect of the Karaim language.” Many modern linguists consider this claim to be untrue.86 From recent studies on the

81 E.g. D. Lazer, “Jakim językiem mówią Karaimi? Z cyklu ‘Karaimi w Polsce’ (III),” Nowy dziennik. 28.06.1932. 82 Tadeusz Kowalski, “Pieśni obrzędowe w narzeczu Karaimów z Trok,” RO 3 (1925): 216-254; idem, “Przyczynki do etnografii i dialektologii karaimskiej,” RO 5 (1927): 201-239; Jan Grzegorzewski, “Narzecze południowe Karaitów polskich czyli tzw. Łach-Karaitów,” Sprawozdania z czynności i posiedzeń Akademii Umiejętności w Krakowie 22 (1917): 2-6; idem, “Ein türk-tatarischer Dialekt in Galizien. Vokalharmonie in den entlehnten Wörtern der karaitischen Sprache in Halicz,” Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 146 (Wien, 1903). 83 For details, see Kizilov, “Jan Grzegorzewski’s Karaite Materials,” 59-83. 84 See KRPS; cf. the critique of this dictionary by Mosze Altbauer, “O tendencjach dehebraizacji leksyki karaimskiej i ich wynikach w Słowniku karaimsko-rosyjsko-polskim,” HUS 3-4: 1 (1979-1980): 51-60. 85 Ethnolect – an ethnic variety of a language (in contrast to a dialect – a regional variety). 86 Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures,” 657-708. Historiography of the Problem 27

Karaim language, special mention is due to Éva Ágnes Csató,87 Michał Németh,88 and Zsuzsanna Olach.89

1.5.3 Anthropological Studies

Anthropological studies represent highly interesting (although open to more than one interpretation) source of information about the Polish-Lithuanian community in the twentieth-century.90 Many modern scholars and members of the East European Karaite community often refer to these studies as decisive and unequivocal proof of the Khazar (and larger Turko-Altaic) origin of Karaites. However, this present study shall demonstrate that the anthropological research on the Karaites certainly cannot be used in such an oversimplified and one-dimensional manner. Research on the of Crimean Karaites was pioneered by K.S. Merezhkovskii as early as 1880.91 In 1884 Merezhkovskii’s materials were re-examined by by Konstantin Ikov (Ikow).92 Julian Talko-Hryncewicz, who studied the Lithuanian Karaites in the 1890s, came to the conclusion that they were similar to both the local Rabbanites and to the

87 Éva Ágnes Csató, “The Karaim Language in Halych,” in Karaїmy Halycha: Istoriia ta Kul’tura/The Halych Karaims: History and Culture (L’viv-Halych, 2002), 135-139; eadem, “The documentation of the endangered Halych Karaim language,” in Halych i halyts’ka zemlia v derzhavotvorchykh protsesakh Ukraїny (Ivano-Frankivs’k–Halych, 1988), 282-283; eadem, “Should Karaim be ‘Purer’ than Other European Languages?” Studia Turcologica Cracoviensia 5 (1998): 81-89; eadem, “Das gesprochene Halitsch-Karaimisch,” in Bahsi Ögdisi: Festschrift für Klaus Röhborn anlässlich seines 60. Geburtstags, ed. Jens Peter Laut and Mehmet Ölmez, (Freiburg-, 1999), 59-66; eadem, “Some Typological Features of the Viewpoint aspects and Tense System in Spoken North-Western Karaim,” in Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe, ed. Östen Dahl, (Berlin, 2000), 671-699. Esp. interesting is the CD- ROM focusing on teaching and studying the spoken Karaim (eadem, Spoken Karaim (Tokyo, 2001)). 88 Michał Németh, Zwięzła gramatyka języka zachodniokaraimskiego z ćwiczeniami (Poznań, 2011); idem, Unknown Karaim Letters in Hebrew Script (19th-20th Centuries). A Critical Edition (Kraków, 2011). 89 Zsuzsanna Olach, A Halich Karaim Translation of Hebrew Biblical Texts (Wiesbaden, 2013). 90 For a survey, see (with caution) Miron Bakaliarchyk, “Pokhodzhennia karaїmiv (u svitli antropolohichnykh doslidzhen’ 30-70h rr. XX st.),” in Karaїmy Halycha: Istoriia ta Kul’tura/The Halych Karaims: History and Culture (L’viv-Halych, 2002), 155-158; Oleh Mazur, “Antropolohichni doslidzhennia karaїmiv (kin. XIX - XX st.),” in ibid., 84-88. 91 K.S. Merezhkovskii, “Otchet ob antropologicheskoi poezdke v Krym v 1880 g.,” Izvestiia Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva 17:2 (1881): 104-130. 92 Konstantin Ikov, “K antropologii karaimov,” KZh 12 (1912): 36-43; idem, “Neue Beiträge zur Anthropologie der Juden,” Archiv für Anthropologie 15 (1884): 369-389. 28 Introduction

Tatars.93 Generally speaking, according to Talko-Hryncewicz, despite their Semitic anthropological features the Karaites differed from the local Ashkenazim first of all by the lack of something that the anthropologist described as the “ghetto expression” typical of the European Rabbanite Jews.94 His conclusions were criticized by A. El’kind who pointed out serious mistakes of the scholar.95 In 1894, Professor Eduard Gottlieb Petri (1854–1899) of St. Petersburg examined 24 local Karaite students; results of this study remained unpublished.96 Moreover, even among the young Karaite reformists there was a growing interest in this in the 1890s. A young Russian Karaite, Il’ia Totesh, apparently hoped that anthropological research would determine, once and for all, the racial and ethnic composition of the East European Karaites and thereby prove their non-Jewish origin.97 The Karaite interest in anthropological studies – understood as the means to define their disputed ethnic origin – became even stronger from the first half of the twentieth century onwards. Karaite periodicals of this period published a number of studies on the subject composed by non-Karaite scholars.98 Grzegorz Smólski, in 1903, charged that some Halicz Karaites represented the “pure Semitic type,” whereas others were “much less Semitic.”99 Some authors considered the Semitic features of Karaite women to be typical also of Caucasian or Mongolian peoples.100 Of the Halicz Karaite children, who were studied by Witołd Schreiber at the beginning of the twentieth century, 42.1% possessed features similar to those of the local Christians, 26.3% were close to the local Rabbanites, and 31.5% had anthropological features peculiar only to the Karaites. Among these typically

93 Juljan Talko-Hryncewicz, “Charakterystyka fizyczna ludu Żydowskiego Litwy i Rusi,” Zbiór wiadomości do Antropologii Akademii Umiejętności 16 (1892): 1-62; idem, Karaimi vel Karaici Litewscy: zarys antropologo-etnologiczny (Kraków, 1903); also published in Materjały Antropologiczno- Archeologiczne i Etnograficzne Akademji Umiejętności w Krakowie 7 (1904): 44-100. 94 “Nie znajdujemy u Karaimów tego wyrazu twarzy ‘getto’ właściwego żydom...” (Talko-Hryncewicz, Karaimi vel Karaici, 56). From today’s standpoint, the term “ghetto expression” certainly cannot be considered a valid anthropological definition. 95 A. El’kind, “J. Talko-Hryncewicz. Karaimi v. Karaici Litewscy: zarys antropologo-etnologiczny. Kraków, 1903 [review],” Russkii antropologicheskii zhurnal 1-2 (1904): 223-226. 96 S. Saggese, “I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania,” Genus 23 (1967): 62. 97 See the suggestion of Il’ia Aaronovich Totesh, a Karaite student in St. Petersburg, to help him to carry out anthropological study of the Karaites (I.A. Totesh to Troki Consistory, Russian, sent from on 17.12.1898 (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 33)). 98 E.g. “Antropologiia karaimov,” KZh 1 (1911): 2-29; Samuel Weissenberg, “Kairskie karaimy,” KZh 12 (1912): 44-46; Jan Czekanowski, “Z zagadnień antropologii Karaimów,” MK n.s. 2 (11) (1946-1947): 3-23. 99 Grzegorz Smólski, “U Karaimów w Haliczu,” Naokoło Świata 2 (1903): 538, 547. Cf. the photos taken by B. Janusz before WWI (Bohdan Janusz, Karaici w Polsce (Kraków, 1927), 15, 16, 19, 25). 100 Fahn, “Me-ḥayyei,” 147. This, perhaps, may be explained by the general tendency of some Rabbanite authors to present the Karaites as some sort of “degraded” Jews with Mongolian features (cf. Ephraim Deinard, Massa Qrim (Warsaw, 1878)). Historiography of the Problem 29

“Karaite” features were large protruding noses and dark complexion, somewhat similar to the southern Italians.101 In 1927, the Soviet scholar S.S. Zabolotnyi carried out the analysis of blood groups of Crimean Karaites and Krymchaks. He came to a rather vague conclusion that the data that were retrieved by him did not exclude the possibility of the presence of Turkic elements in the Krymchaks’ and, to a smaller extent, the Karaites’ anthropological type.102 Zabolotnyi’s article was reviewed by the Jewish anthropologist Samuel Weissenberg103 who himself published many studies on the anthropology of various Karaite communities of the world.104 Although Weissenberg’s studies contained most interesting ethnographic data and photos, his conclusions seem to be rather naïve and contradictory. In his study on the Karaite community of Elisavetgrad (Kirovograd), for example, he stated that the local Karaites occupied an intermediary point between the Rabbanites and… the Turkic .105 This statement was not repeated by any other student of the problem. In the 1930s, serological examination of Lithuanian Karaites and Karaite anthropology was conducted by Michał Reicher106 and Jewish anthropologist, Solomon/Salomon Czortkower of Lwów (1903–1943).107 The results of an expedition of Corrado Gini, which examined ca. 60 percent of the interwar Polish- Lithuanian Karaite community, will be discussed in 3.9. The postwar study by important Polish anthropologist Jan Czekanowski (1882– 1965) represented a survey of the already existing studies (especially those of his late colleague, S. Czortkower, who was killed by the Nazis in 1943) rather than any attempt

101 Witołd Schreiber, Badania nad antropologią dzieci Chrześcijańskich, Żydowskich i Karaimskich w Galicyi (Warsaw, 1910); idem, “Zur Anthropologie der Karaimkinder Galiziens,” Archiv für Anthropologie 9: 1-2 (1910); Bohdan Janusz, “Dzieci Karaitów halickich,” Wszechświat 8 (1911): 120-121. 102 His study was published in Ukrainian and German with a summary in Russian (S.S. Sabolotny [Zabolotnyi], “Die Blutgruppen der Karaimen und Krimtschaken,” Ukrainisches Zentralblatt für Blutgruppenforschung 3:1 (1928): 10-22). 103 Samuel Weissenberg, “Zum Artikel des Dr. S. Sabolotny, “Die Blutgruppen bei den Karaimen und Krimtschaken,” Ukrainisches Zentralblatt für Blutgruppenforschung 3:1 (1928): 10-12. 104 Idem, “Karaimy i krymchaki s antropologicheskoi tochki zreniia,” Russkii antropologicheskii zhurnal 8:4 (1912): 38-56; idem, “Die Karäer: ein verdorrender judischer Stamme,” Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden 10 (1914): 132-137; idem, “Zur Anthropologie der nordafricanischen Juden,” Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 42 (1912): 85-102; idem, “Kairskie karaimy” (two last articles focus on the Egyptian Karaites). 105 Idem, “Karaimy: antropologicheskii ocherk,” Russkii antropologicheskii zhurnal 5:1-2 (1904): 66- 75. 106 Michał Reicher, “Sur les groupes sanguines des Caraimes de Troki et de Wilno,” Anthropologie 10 (1932): 259-267; idem, “Grupy krwi u Karaimów Trockich i Wileńskich,” Przegląd antropologiczny 7 (1933): 104. 107 Solomon Czortkower, “Pochodzenie i struktura rasowa Karaimów,” Przegląd Antropologiczny 12: 4 (1938): 678-680; idem, “Na marginesie pochodzenia Karaimów,” Nasza Opinja 182 (309) (05.02.1939), 6; idem, “Karaimi,” Kuryer Literacko-Naukowy, dodatek do nr 208 “Kuryera Codziennego” (29.07.1935). 30 Introduction

to come his own, independent conclusions.108 Interesting research based on new anthropological data was carried out by the Lithuanian scientist A.N. Pulianos in the 1960s, but this author also did not come to any definitive conclusions, considering the Karaites to be a mixed population of indefinite peredneaziatskoe (Russ. “from Asia Minor”) origin.109 The Karaite part of the study by Mourant, Kopeć and Domaniewska- Sobczak published in 1978 was not based on new data, but on the measurements of Pulianos (the 1960s) and earlier scientists. This is why it can hardly be considered an important contribution to our knowledge of the problem of Kariaite origin.110 A study by the Soviet academician V.P. Alekseev (1972) was based solely on his absolutely unscholarly interpretation of both historical and anthropological data and, therefore, also can not be taken seriously.111 During the half-century that elapsed since the 1960s, anthropology – as an exact science based on newest technologies – had progressed to such an extent that to refer to research carried out in the 1960s or in the first half of the twentieth century would be as relevant as to refer today to the computer science of the 1980s. Moreover, if one really takes pains to closely read early anthropological studies, one would notice that authors are far from being unanimous in their opinions with regard to the ethnicity of the Karaites. Some found the Karaites similar to the peoples of Armenia,112 Iran113 and the Mediterranean; some found them related to the Finns or while others linked them to Semitic114 or , with admixtures of Slavic and Lithuanian elements. There is no doubt that many of the scientists who examined the Karaites committed grave mistakes in their studies or had even applied faulty or incorrect

108 Czekanowski, “Z zagadnień antropologii.” 109 A.N. Pulianos, “K antropologii karaimov Litvy i Kryma,” Voprosy antropologii 13 (Moscow, 1963): 116-133. 110 A.E. Mourant, Ada C. Kopeć, and Kazimiera Domaniewska-Sobczak, The Genetics of the Jews. Research Monographs on Human Population Biology (Oxford, 1978), 33-34, 46-47, 52. Furthermore, the authors confessed that their conclusions regarding the Karaites may have been influenced by genetic drift and sampling error (p. 52); their reliance on belletrist Koestler as the author of an “authoritative” study on Khazar history also produces an odd impression (p. 36). 111 V.P. Alekseev, V poiskakh predkov (Moscow, 1972), 284-288. 112 Proffesor Bruno Adler, who carried out an extensive anthropological study of Crimean Karaites in 1929/1930, came to a conclusion that they were almost identical to the Armenians and suggested looking at the or North Persia as the Karaites’ original homeland (Bruno Adler, “Die Krim- Karäer in geschichtlicher, demographischer, und volkskundlicher Beziehung,” ed. and transl. from Russian W.A. Unkrig, Baessler-Archiv 17 (1934): 130). 113 Czekanowski, “Z zagadnień antropologii,” 16, 20-21. In fact, Czekanowski based his article largely on Reicher’s and Czortkower’s data; his conclusions therefore seem to be rather vague and dubious. He mentioned that there were at the same time Nordic, Khazar, Iranian (Alanian), and Semitic features in the Karaite anthropological type in Eastern Europe; Czekanowski himself stated that he was unable to obtain a copy of Gini’s study although he knew about its existence. 114 E.g. V.V. Bunak considered Crimean Karaites to be similar to the Caucasian Jews (V.V. Bunak, “Raboty A.D. El’kinda po antropologii evreev,” Russkii antropologicheskii zhurnal 12: 1-2 (1922)). Historiography of the Problem 31

chemicals in their laboratory work.115 Furthermore, the possibility of the genetic drift could also have influenced the results of all these studies.116 Corrado Gini, often referred to as a person who proved the Finno-Ugric origin of the Karaites, was, at one time, an ardent fascist and an associate of Benito Mussolini. Therefore, the of his anthropological studies is rather doubtful.117 In general, one cannot help getting the impression that all those scholars who came to a rather disputable conclusion about the Turkic anthropological origin of the Karaites based their opinion not so much on anthropological data as on naïve historical studies on the Khazars of the 1920s–1950s (these studies – generally below any level of academic scholarship – stated that the Karaites were descendants of the Khazars). All the circumstances mentioned above lead to the conclusion that these anthropological studies in fact can hardly prove anything. I am not dismissing the study of physical anthropology as the science, however, if one accepts that ethnic identity is a social phenomenon with an arguable connection to physical and anthropological features, one can come to the conclusion that such anthropological studies could not tell us much about the ethnic self-identification of a given people or ethnic group. Moreover, sometimes such anthropological research carried out with dispersed ethnic groups with long histories within a larger ethnic environment simply cannot prove exact ethnic or racial origin of such groups. It is enough to compare naïve “anthropometric” anthropological expeditions of the 1920s–1930s with the data of modern anthropological studies in order to realize that the presence of minor deviations from the “classical” Ashkenazic anthropological type cannot prove that the Karaites originated from any Turkic, Mongol or Finno-Ugrian nomads. To give an example, recent research carried out by the team of Michael Hammer (Arizona) demonstrated that the Ashkenazic Jews best correlate with the and Turks. This, however, does not make Ashkenazim descendants of these two peoples.118

115 A.N. Pulianos stated that M. Reicher had applied questionable chemical agents in lab tests (“K antropologii karaimov Litvy i Kryma,” Voprosy antropologii 13 (Moscow, 1963): 123-124; cf. Mourant, Kopeć, Domaniewska-Sobczak, Genetics of the Jews, 52). 116 Pulianos “K antropologii,” 132; Mourant, Kopeć, Domaniewska-Sobczak, Genetics of the Jews, 52. 117 For more details about Gini’s anthropological expedition, see 3.9. 118 The team of Michael Hammer included M.F. Hammer, A.J. Redd, E.T. Wood, M.R. Bonner, H. Jarjanazi, T. Karafet, S. Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. Oppenheim, M.A. Jobling, T. Jenkins, H. Ostrer, and B. Bonné-Tamir (see Michael F. Hammer et al., “Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish Share a Common Pool of Y-chromosome Biallelic Haplotypes,” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97:12 (2000): 6769-6774). For differences in racial composition of the Jews and presence of non-Semitic elements see also a classical work by the forefather of Jewish anthropology, Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943) (Arthur Ruppin, The Jewish Fate and Future, transl. E.W. Dickes (Westport, 1940), 11-20); cf. Sigmund Feist, Stammeskunde der Juden (Leipzig, 1925)). For a survey of the discussion concerning the racial composition of the Jews see “Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries” (http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts-jews.html). 32 Introduction

The most recent DNA study of the East European Karaites clearly demonstrates that although there is a small admixture of non-Jewish features in their genes (which is an absolutely expected phenomenon common to all Jewish communities in the diaspora), their overall DNA type shows distinctive Jewish (Israelite) features:

In this way, Karaite Jews fit the general pattern of Rabbinical Jewish communities across the Diaspora from Morocco to Georgia to India that were founded by Israelite men who often married non-Israelite (Iberian, Italian, Indian, etc.) women. Overall, East European Karaites are largely a Middle Eastern people descended from the Israelites, but like other Jewish populations they are a mosaic – the descendants of several ethnic groups that joined this specific stream of Judaism during different periods. Aside from their Israelite component, our DNA study has led us to conclude that they also descend in part from ethnic groups that lived in the and in Asia.119

This study, which demonstrates that the East European Karaites possess distinctive Jewish features, seems to be the last point in the discussion concerning their origin from the standpoint of exact sciences, such as physical anthropology, genetics and serology. Unfortunately, this discussion often had most sinister implications and its participants often used arguments which were far from objective scientific methods. Bearing all these considerations in mind, I do draw upon the anthropological studies of Polish-Lithuanian Karaites – not as a proof of their alleged Turkic, Semitic or Finno-Ugric origin (as was done by many other scholars), but as a source of information on the state of the community in the twentieth century: the scholars who examined the Karaites tended to leave available important data about the Karaites they studied, their names, family histories, identity, life and world views. Furthermore, discussion about the Karaite anthropological origin and the reaction of the Karaites themselves to these studies also often represent a most interesting historical source. Especially important was the Nazi “scholarly” discussion of this issue which played important role in sparing Karaites from the Holocaust.

***

The survey of the historiography of the problem leads to the following conclusions. There are only a few serious scholarly publications on the twentieth-century history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. The main shortcoming of these publications is

119 Leon Kull, and Adam J. Levin, The Genetic Signatures of East European Karaites, 2013 (); cf. Kevin Alan Brook, “The Genetics of Crimean Karaites,” Karadeniz Araştırmaları 42 (2014): 69-84. One may compare this study with an amateur research on Karaite genetics done by a Moscow Karaite; the author came to the conclusion that the Karaites do not have either Jewish or Turkic features (N.V. Kachanov-Prik, “My ne evrei! No my i ne tiurki! Kto zhe my?” Caraimica 6 (2013): 34-42). Historiography of the Problem 33

that practically none of them refers to highly significant archival collections kept in Vilnius, Warsaw, Kraków, Halicz, Moscow and Simferopol. Moreover, none of the earlier studies provide us with a comprehensive picture of the history, culture and identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community in the twentieth century. Furthermore, other students of the problem were seldom able to use primary sources and secondary literature in Hebrew and Karaim. Being able to navigate through all the aforementioned archives and read literature in several West European, Slavic and Oriental languages necessary for such a study, I was placed in a most advantageous position to undertake my research on the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. This is why this book represents the first attempt at a full-scale comprehensive in-depth analysis of the history, culture, and ethnic identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the twentieth century. The fact that the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites represent a vanishing ethnic minority makes it timely and even more important. 2 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

2.1 A Short Survey of the General State of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community on the Verge of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Before beginning an analysis of the twentieth-century history of the Karaite communities in Poland-Lithuania it is necessary to provide a short overview of the state of the community as it was on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before the beginning of the First World War, practically all Polish-Lithuanian Karaites (apart from the community of Halicz) were subjects of the Russian Empire. They lived in several communities that, in many respects, differed from each other. In 1897, i.e. a short while before the beginning of the twentieth century, there were 1,383 Karaites living in western provinces of the Russian Empire (mostly in the Wilno, Kowno, Vitebsk and Volhynian guberniias). The largest communities lived in Troki (377), Poniewież and its vicinity (181), and Wilno (155). Some scattered communities lived in Lifland, Kurland, Warsaw and a few other guberniias.120 Adding the 167 Karaites living in Halicz in 1900,121 one arrives at an approximate number of 1,550 Karaites living in the Russian parts of Poland-Lithuania and in Austria on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.122 This number represented a bit more than ten percent of the whole Karaite population of the Russian Empire – only a drop in comparison with millions Rabbanites living in Russia and Austria at the same time. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities were divided into two main groups: northern communities (those of Troki, Wilno, Poniewież, Nowe Miasto, and smaller villages) and southern ones (those of Łuck and Halicz). Several dispersed small communities concentrated in and around Poniewież and Nowie Miasto seemed to be less Russified and Polonized and sustained more contacts with the Lithuanians than all other communities. The largest, the community of Troki, was under Russian,

120 This is according to Dmitrii Prokhorov, “Statistika karaimskogo naseleniia Rossiiskoi imperii v kontse XVIII – nachale XX veka,” Materialy po Arkheologii, Istorii i Etnografii Tavriki 17 (2011): 665. One should bear in mind that statistical data sometimes seems utterly unrealistic. Thus, for example, the total number of 168 Karaites living in Warsaw guberniia (with only 21 of them living in Warsaw itself) does not seems to correspond to real state of affairs: it does not seem possible that there could be more than 30-40 Karaites living in this area in this time. 121 Janusz, Karaici, 52. 122 This numerical estimates are given on the basis of Veniamin Sinani, “K statistike karaimov (po perepisi 1897 g.),” KZh 1 (1911): 30-31, 36 and Iulii Gessen, “Statistika,” EE 9, 297-298.

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. A Short Survey of the General State of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community 35

Belorussian and Polish cultural influences.123 Its members were perhaps more traditionally-oriented than those of the neighbouring community of Wilno. The Wilno community, which was located in the fairly large capital city, was the richest, most Russified, and most secular of all Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities. An important role in the life of the southern Karaite communities (those of Łuck and Halicz) was their cultural contacts with the local population that consisted mostly of Rabbanite Jews, Poles, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and Russians. The strong impact of the Rabbanite religious tradition was clearly visible in the style of decorating their houses of prayer and tombstones, which were greatly different from those of the northern Karaites. The Łuck community was the least numerous because of mass emigration of the local Karaites to Crimea. Nevertheless, it was comparatively well-to-do and educated. The community of Halicz, the only East European Karaite community living in the Austrian Empire, was separated from its Polish-Lithuanian and Crimean counterparts. It can be noted that due to this cultural isolation, the Halicz Karaites (in contrast to most other communities) managed to preserve their traditional Karaite conservatism. In addition to the Austrian cultural and linguistical influence, the life of the community was also strongly affected by contacts with local Rabbanites (perhaps much stronger than in any other community), Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and Poles. The traditional structure of any given Karaite community in Eastern Europe at the end of nineteenth–beginning of the twentieth centuries looked as follows: As we shall see, most positions within the Karaite communities in Europe (except for the office of the ḥazzan and ḥakham) had practically the same meaning and function as those of the Rabbanite Jews. In addition to traditional Jewish terminology referring to spiritual and administrative positions within the community, the Karaites frequently also used Karaim and Tatar equivalents of Hebrew terms in colloquial speech. In Hebrew, the community itself was called qehilah and in the Turkic languages dzymat/dżymat124. The duties of the head of the community were fulfilled by the ḥazzan. The position of the ḥazzan in Karaite communities roughly corresponds to the office of the in Talmudic qehilot. In Rabbanite communities, however, the ḥazzan was only a cantor in a synagogue. The Karaite ḥazzan was not only the religious head of the qehilah, but also the main authority in legal and administrative matters. He normally also possessed the titles of rosh ha-qahal (Heb. “head of the community”), ha-nagid (“the leader,” usually recognised by the state authorities), av

123 It is hard to estimate whose cultural influence was stronger at that moment; apparently that of the Russian culture. Tadeusz Kowalski mentioned that it had been usually quite difficult for him to distinguish from which of the Slavic languages – Russian, Polish, or Belorussian – originate Slavic loanwords in the Troki dialect of Karaim. In his opinion, one could see in both material culture and language many borrowings from their Belorussian neighbours (Tadeusz Kowalski, Karaimische Texte im Dialekt von Troki. Texty Karaimskie w narzeczu Trockiem (Kraków, 1929), lxxv). 124 From Arab. jema’at; cf. Turk. cemaat. 36 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

beit din (“head of the religious court”), and shofeṭ (normally the same as “judge”; but here, rather, in the sense of Pol. wójt or Heb. shtadlan – mediator or lobbyist, the head of the community responsible for representing the community to non-Karaite authorities).125 In Karaite communities which were larger than 200 souls, there were usually two ḥazzanim: senior and junior (ḥazzan ha-gadol126/ha-qaṭan in Hebrew). In nineteenth-century Halicz these ḥazzanim were called ḥazzan ha-rosh (head ḥazzan) and ḥazzan ha-mishneh (deputy ḥazzan).127 Some documents also refer to the office of the mitḥazzen (ḥazzan in training).128 In Karaite and Rabbanite communities in medieval and early modern times the term ḥakham (sage, wise man) was generally an honorary title, especially for elder members of the community distinguished for their religious knowledge.129 After 1839, however, the Russian Karaites started using the term ḥakham to denote the highest Karaite authority in Eastern Europe. After 1839 Karaite ḥakhamim were seldom authors of theological treatises, poets, and exegetes. They usually were wealthy and/ or politically and administratively influential individuals known not only within the community, but also without. Their main task was not only to settle important matters within the community, but also to represent the Karaite community to the world and lobby its interests politically, administratively, financially and ideologically. Simcha Babovich (Babowicz), who was appointed as the first East European “administrative” ḥakham in 1839, was in fact a wealthy and influential Crimean merchant, but hardly knowledgeable in religious matters.130 In the 1850s, because of numerous ideological and financial controversies between the southern and western Karaite communities living in imperial Russia, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites elected their own ḥakham. Thus, from this period on, there were two ḥakhamim in Eastern Europe: the Odessa and Taurida ḥakham (under whose jurisdiction were the Karaites of Crimea, Russia, and Ukraine), and the Troki ḥakham (Volhynia and Lithuania). One of the foci of this study, Seraja Szapszał, was elected the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham in 1915 and Troki ḥakham in 1927. In 1928, in the context of his dejudaization (Turkicization) reforms, he replaced the Hebrew term ḥakham with the pseudo-Turkic ḥakhan which was invented most likely by Szapszał himself (see more in 4.3.2).

125 E.g. the ḥazzan Abraham Leonowicz, who was presented in one of the later MSS as ha-ḥazzan ve-ha-shofeṭ ve-av beit din… ha-rosh ve-ha-nagid (Bernhard Munkácsi, “Karäisch-tatarische Hymnen aus Polen,” Keleti Szemle 10:3 (1909): 187, ft. 2). 126 In the twentieth century ḥazzan ha-gadol was usually called ułłu ḥazzan (lit. “great ḥazzan”) in Karaim. 127 See “Taqqanot Even Reshef li-qehal ha-Qara

It appears that the Galician Karaites, members of the only East European Karaite community that did not live in Russia, remained rather independent from the authority of both the Taurida and Troki ḥakhamim. This is why we have only a few Galician cases in the archives of the Karaite boards of administration of these regions.131 The independence of the Galicians from Crimea and Troki also might explain why until 1918 the term ḥakham apparently did not carry any additional administrative or political meanings in Halicz. Furthermore, it also continued to be interchangeable with the term ḥazzan. Financial matters of the Karaite (and Rabbanite) communities were usually administered by the gabbai (“treasurer,” originally a charity collector). The teacher (Heb. melammed; GVKar. iwretiwci; TrKar. üwriatüwciu) was responsible for the education of children, whereas the duties of the beadle/custodian (Heb. shammash) involved the upkeep of the synagogue (kenesa). The ochuwcu/ochuwciu combined the duties of ba>al qeriah (lit. “master of reading”) with those of a shammash. Each Karaite community normally had its own shoḥeṭ (“ritual slaughterer”) and a mohel (“circumciser”).132 In some cases, however, we may assume that the ḥazzan could fulfil the duties of a ritual slaughterer and circumciser as well.133 On the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites saw themselves as faithful followers of the Karaite religious tradition which they understood as the only true and pure type of Judaism, “unshackled by the trammels of the Talmud”.134 One should notice that in some secluded communities there were probably certain deviations from the traditional Karaite rigor, but their influence undoubtedly was not too strong.135 The main language of their liturgical services remained leshon ha-qodesh, i.e. Hebrew. Many of the Karaites of this period were still well-versed in Hebrew and could speak and write in this language. However, because of the decline of the knowledge of Hebrew, there were increasing instances of the introduction of liturgical elements in leshon Qedar, i.e. the Karaim language.

131 See the catalogues of GAARK F. 241 (documents of the Taurida and Odessa Karaite spiritual consistory); MS LMAB F. 301 (documents of the Lithuanian Karaite community). 132 H. Wachsmann, “Halitsch, die Stadt der Karäer,” Der Israelit 78:4 (1937): 13; Fahn, “Ha-Qara

Moreover, it was this Turkic leshon Qedar (Karaim) that was the main language of every day use of all Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities. Practically every Karaite living in Poland-Lithuania was bilingual: in addition to Karaim, most of the Karaites could also speak at least one the non-Karaim vernacular (Polish, Russian, Belorussian, Lithuanian, Ruthenian/Ukrainian,136 or even Yiddish) of their more numerous ethnic neighbours. Some of the most talented and well-educated Karaites, who had a native command of a couple of other vernaculars in addition to Karaim, could have even been tertio or quatro-linguial.137 Some Karaites also successfully learned foreign languages which were taught at public schools of that time (usually German or French). On the other hand, there were also opposite cases, when local Karaites could master only Karaim or could not read or write at all.138 Was there anything specifically unique in the outer appearance of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites before the First World War? Most of the travel reports testify that in terms of dress, one could hardly tell a Karaite from other inhabitants of the place; the Karaites wore almost the same European dresses as all other inhabitants.139 However, the distinctive dark Oriental faces and the males’ long beards immediately attracted any visitor’s attention. Some travellers found Karaites to be similar in terms of their physical appearance to the Jews, some to the Armenians or Oriental peoples

136 The term “Ruthenian” or “Ukrainian” is as problematic as anything what concerns the history of the development of the linguistic phenomenon which at present moment is called “the ” – the term which has more from the realm of politics than from the field of socio-linguistics. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries (and, in some sources even at the beginning of the twentieth century!) the dialects spoken by the inhabitants of today’s Ukraine were usually referred to, both on the everyday and official level, as “Prosta” or “Rus’ka mova”, in the nineteenth century Russian documents as “Malorosskoe narechie.” Furthermore, the local Galician dialects were quite different from the standard Poltava type of Ukrainian which is considered to be the classical variety of this language (see also Michael Moser, “Die Entwicklung der ukrainischen Sprache,” in Ukraine. Geographie. Ethnische Struktur. Geschichte, ed. Peter Jordan et al. (Wien, 2001), 483-496, esp. 488). 137 Jan Grzegorzewski praised the local Karaites’ knowledge of Slavic vernaculars in 1903: “Sie sind im allgemeinem des Polnischen und Ruthenischen (Kleinrussischen) vollkommen mächtig und drücken sich in beiden Sprachen mit größerer Korrektheit aus als die dortigen Juden” (Grzegorzewski, “Ein türk-tatarischer Dialekt in Galizien,“ 2). D.F. (Fahn?) mentioned that the Halicz Karaites could easily speak Polish, Ruthenian (“po-rusinski”), and Yiddish in addition to the excellent command of “Old-Biblical” (“drevne-bibleiskii” i.e. Hebrew) (D.F. [Reuven Fahn?], “Pis’mo iz Galitsii,” KZh 2 (1911): 73-74). A very good (but not too exceptional!) example of such linguistic endowments was Janina L’vovna Eszwowicz of Halicz who had a native command of Karaim, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish, and knew some basics of German and Hebrew which she had studied in her childhood. 138 A few of the community documents at my disposal testify that even in the interwar period some Karaites were illiterate: instead of signatures some members of the community left their finger prints underneath the document (e.g. MS LMAB F. 301, no. 10, fol. 226v). 139 The small difference was perhaps their traditional headgear: some male Karaites (especially elder generation) while out on the street still wore their krymka (a cap similar to a Turkish Fez) (see Ruben Fahn, “Aus dem Leben der Karaiten,” Ost und West 2 (1912): 141). A Short Survey of the General State of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community 39

in general. Practically all travellers, however, agreed that the Karaites differed strikingly from their Rabbanite neighbours both in speech and manners.140 The same caveat applies with regard to their dwellings. Karaite houses were usually regular wooden or brick houses similar to the dwellings of their Christian neighbours.141 Their professions were also fairly similar to those of the local Slavic population. A very specific Karaite profession in Troki was cucumber growing, in Wilno – tobacco industry, in Halicz it was working on the railroad. It seems worthwhile thinking about how a Polish-Lithunian Karaite, at the beginning of the twentieth century, would answer the questions “Which do you belong to? What is your religion?” While thinking about the problem of ethnic consciousness, religious and historical views of the Karaites of that period, one should take into account the following considerations. First, perhaps not every Karaite would answer such straightforward questions. Still, it seems that such questions had often been asked. Usually a visitor, being puzzled by the seemingly Jewish character of their religion and appearance, was willing to ask even more “awkward” question with regard to the nationality or ethnic origins of the Karaites. Many sources of that time testify that in such an instance a Karaite would face a difficult problem. To answer “we are Karaites” would mean explaining obscuria per obscuria; moreover, the term “Karaites” was at that time used to designate a religious tradition (confession), but not an ethnicity. To say “we are Jewish” would not be true because the Karaites officially were excluded from the Jewish legislation and received full rights of the citizens of the Russian Empire as early as 1863.142 To say “we are Israelites” (some Karaites of that time indeed had some sort of “Israelite” identity) would, again, be rather unclear a statement. Facing the problem of defining the Karaites’ ethnic and religious identity, R. Firkowicz, a Karaite from Łuck, suggested inventing a new ethnic name – Krymliane (“Crimeans”) – which would later serve as a term for designation of his people.143 Thus, it is clear from contemporary sources that on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Karaites had problems with clearly defining both their ethnic and religious affiliations. It seems that at that time the Karaites considered themselves to be different from the Rabbanite Jews in both religious and ethnic terms, while at the same time defining themselves as the “true Israelites” and genuine

140 Smólski, “U Karaimów w Haliczu,” Naokoło Świata 34 (1903): 538. 141 Janusz, Karaici, 75-76. The Karaite houses in Troki are said to be different from those of their Slavic neighbours. The former tended to have three windows on the frontal side while the latter only two (Stepan Pushyk, “Karaїms’kyi poet Zakhar’ia Samuїlovych Abrahamovych,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 122). Szemaja Firkowicz, with reference to the information provided by community elders, stated that the Karaites installed three windows in their houses as an imitation of the Troki castle with its three side windows overlooking the Karaite quarter of Troki (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 249v). 142 See V.D. Smirnov, foreword to Sbornik starinnykh gramot, xxviii-xxix. 143 R. F-cz [R. Firkowicz], “Neotlozhnyi vopros,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 14. 40 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

followers of the Torah.144 Most of them, however, undoubtedly understood their connection to others bnei Yisra

144 E.g. Fahn, “Aus dem Leben der Karaiten,” Ost und West 2 (1912): 137. This seems to be a continuation of traditional Karaite views of Mordecai ben Nisan Kukizów, Simcha Łucki, Abraham Firkowicz and other early East European Karaite authors. In addition to the term Qara

prince Vitold, whereas the Karaites of Halicz stated that they had been invited by the prince Daniel of Galicia. Although these picturesque legends are not corroborated by historical sources, evidence confirms that the Karaites indeed arrived in Poland- Lithuania at the time of Vitold.147 This brief introduction provides a general idea of the state of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community around 1900. A study of each separate Karaite community is preceded by a brief survey of its history prior to 1900.

Illustration 1: Karaite intellectual, financial and religious leaders at the first national Karaite Assembly of 1910 (source: periodical Karaimskaia Zhizn’ 1 (1911)).

2.2 Halicz

2.2.1 Outline of the History of the Community Prior to 1900

Contrary to the traditional Karaite settlement claims to origins going back to the mid- thirteenth century, earliest written documents containining the term Judaeis caraimis date from the sixteenth century. Evidently, the Halicz community was established in the early sixteenth century by Karaite emigrants from Lwów.148 In 1627 there were 24

147 See Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 30-40. 148 Ibid., 40-43. 42 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Karaite houses (i.e. more than a hundred souls); the Karaite population of Halicz was apparently more numerous than that of the Rabbanite community. In 1765 there were 99 Karaites, compared with 283 Rabbanites;149 in 1900 there were only 167 Karaites living in Halicz and the local Rabbanite community was much more numerous than that of the Karaites.150 In contrast to the Galician Rabbanite Jews, who started to receive predominantly Germanic family names, the Karaite surnames were Polonised derivatives of traditional Hebrew names. It is quite interesting to notice that the Karaites, in contrast to the local Ashkenazic Jews, received Polonised (and not Germanic) surnames. This linguistic preference may be explained by the fact that they did not use Yiddish (a Germanic language in itself), but Polish and Ruthenian. Thus, at the end of the eighteenth century each Karaite received a surname from his/her father’s name – a family name usually transmitted to the later generations. Most typical were such surnames as Nowachowicz (from “Nowach” – a Karaite form of Heb. “Noaḥ”), Eszwowicz (from “Eszwa/Yeshu>ah”), Leonowicz (from “Levi/Leon”), Zarachowicz, Ickowicz, Mordkowicz, S(z)ulimowicz, Abrahamowicz, et alia – all of them, perhaps without a single exception, derivatives of Hebrew names with the Polish ending “– icz.” Surprisingly, some of the family names reflected not the Polish, but the Polish- Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew names (e.g. Icko instead of Polish “Izaak,” Mordko instead of “Mordechaj,” Szulim instead of “Szałom” etc.).151 According to official reports from the end of the eighteenth century, most Galician Karaites were engaged in agriculture and in the carting trade (Fuhrwesen).152 Some Karaites owned their own lands, some rented them from other land-owners or directly from the city administration.153 According to the census of 1857, of forty Karaite families, five were actively engaged in agriculture, whereas 25 families lived from Grund- und Hausbesitz (land and home ownership).154 It is very likely, however, that in

149 Bałaban, “Karaici w Polsce,” 20. According to the data found by me in AGAD, there were 16 Karaite households compared with 36 Rabbanite ones in 1765 and 19 Karaite households in Halicz in 1767. List of the Karaite households contains also the names of the Karaite owners (AGAD Lustracje dz. XVIII, no 56: Lustracja Ziemi Halickiej, fol. 1; ibid., no 62: Lustracja Starostwa Halickiego, fol. 15). 150 Janusz, Karaici w Polsce, 52. 151 Grzegorzewski, “Türk-tatarischer Dialekt,” 48; cf. Fahn “Le-qorot,” 48, ft. 1. Reuven Fahn found a few atypical Galician Karaite surnames in the Pinqas ha-nifṭarim from Halicz: Shtenpel (1647; undoubtedly, a corruption of German Stempel), Hufafa (1732; a corruption of Niebaba?), and Malinowski (1749; a Troki surname) (ibid., 47, 48, ft. 1). Especially interesting is the reference to Samuel Sṭenpel b. Abraham ha-Shofeṭ which dates back to the period immediately preceding Chmielnicki’s massacres of 1648. 152 Josef Karniel, Die Toleranzpolitik Kaiser Josephs II. (Gerlingen 1985), 291. 153 Michael Stöger, Darstellung der gesetzlichen Verfassung der galizischen Judenschaft, vol. 1 (Lemberg-Przemyśl, 1833), 104. 154 Johann Vinzenz Goehlert, “Die Karaiten und Mennoniten in Galizien,” Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historische Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 38 (1861): 602. Halicz 43

addition to owning their land and house property these 25 families were also engaged in agriculture. The Karaites who lived next to the Dniester river soon started to occupy various positions related to river transport. The Eszwowicz family leased a ferry from Halicz to the other side of the Dniester. At the beginning of the nineteenth century this position was occupied by the Nowachowicze, a Karaite family from Kukizów.155 In the mid-nineteenth century the local Karaites were rafting corn and timber down to Odessa in return for salt, tobacco, and southern fruits.156 The Halicz Karaites also carried on a salt trade with and other parts of Ukraine.157 From the second half of the nineteenth century, some Karaites, who had apparently managed to receive a proper secular education, were working as lawyers and scribes at Galician courts of justice. Some travelled as far as Kraków, Lwów and Stanisławów for their education; some worked not only in Halicz, but also in such adjacent towns as Buczacz, Bursztyn,158 Brzeżany and Kołomyja.159 At the end of the nineteenth century, according to Reuven Fahn, most of the Karaites, in contrast to the rest of the local Jews, were still actively engaged in agriculture, and possessed their own land, horses, cattle, sheep, and fowl. More than half worked as carpenters and waggoners, two as blacksmiths; five worked as meat traders, two as shoemakers, and two as tailors.160

2.2.2 General State of the Community

In the nineteenth century practical all local ḥazzanim161 were from the Leonowicz family: Abraham Leonowicz (1810–1851), Józef Leonowicz (1851–1866), Zerach Leonowicz (1884–1894), Simcha Leonowicz (1894–1900).162 The beginning of the twentieth century overlapped with the death of Simcha Leonowicz and ascension to the ḥazzan’s office of the representative of another family, Szałom Nowachowicz, who fulfilled the duties of the ḥazzan from 1900 to 1922.

155 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 13, ft.31. 156 Janusz, Karaici, 69. 157 Gerson Wolf, “Karaiten in Halicz,” Die Neuzeit 23:10 (9 March 1883): 95; NLR F. 946, Evr. II A, no. 1631, fol. 2v. 158 E.g. Moses Mordkowicz had been working as a deputy to the public prosecutor in Bursztyn before 1896 (see the list of community members from 1896 in AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-6, no. 16). 159 Fahn, “Le-qorot,” 50, 56; Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 29, 47, 51; Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 539-540; Fahn, “Ha-Qara

The earliest report about the state of the community in the twentieth century was left by the Viennese journalist of the Polish origin, Grzegorz Smólski, who visited Halicz in 1903. The specific purpose of his trip was to compose a report on the life of the local Karaite community. The traveller expressed disbelief and even suspicion on the part of the local Karaites when he informed them that he had undertaken a long trip from Vienna to Halicz in order to write a newspaper report about the Karaites.163 He was warned several times that he “should not write anything bad about us [Karaites]. We do not do anything bad to anybody. The Jews, however, blacken us whenever they only can.”164 Smólski found the Karaite street (Pol. “ulica Karaimska”) to be too rural, without any traces of town life, such as pavement or sidewalks. The journalist visited several Karaite families and filed a description of the inner and external appearance of their houses.165 Most of the Karaites whom he met during his visit to the community could speak quite correct Polish, with pure pronunciation and “without Jewishness” (Pol. bez żydowienia), and clear and pure Ruthenian.166 Rachel Eszwowicz even sang him several folk-songs in Ruthenian and in Polish.167 At the time of his visit the duties of the teacher of religion (GVKar. iwretiwci) were fulfilled by Józef Leonowicz.168 Smólski’s general impression from his visit to the Karaites was a very positive one: the Halicz Karaites seemed to be loyal citizens of the Austrian empire. One of them spoke with veneration of “our lord most enlightened and merciful [Austrian] king-emperor.”169 An interesting report about the state of the Karaite community of Halicz in the 1910s and 1920s was left by Bohdan Janusz, author of a book and a number of articles dedicated to the history of the Halicz Karaites.170 His main observation was that in spite of the fact that the Karaites undoubtedly represented a highly idiosyncratic ethnic group, many of their ethnographic customs and traditions were similar to those of their Rabbanite or Christian neighbours. Thus, when speaking about the wooden

163 G. Smólski, “U Karaimów w Haliczu,” Naokoło Świata 34 (1903): 539. 164 Ibid., 539; ibid., Naokoło Świata 36 (1903): 564. 165 Ibid., Naokoło Świata 34 (1903): 538-539. 166 Ibid., 538. Pol. po rusku, i.e. in the Ruthenian. 167 Ibid., Naokoło Świata 36 (1903): 565. 168 Ibid., Naokoło Świata 34 (1903): 539. 169 Ibid. 170 Bohdan Janusz, “‘Ostatni z Mohikanow’ galicyjskich,” Świat 16 (1912): 8-9; idem, “Karaici i cmentarzysko ich,” Ziemia 2 (1911): 3-7. idem, Karaici; idem, “Gmina karaicka w Haliczu,” Na ziemi naszej 5 (1911): 5; idem, “Z dziejów Karaitów galicyjskich,” Gazeta Kościelna 31 (1911): 383; idem, “Nieznany lud w Galicji,” Gazeta Ludowa 6 (1912): 10. The author, being a journalist and not a historian or Orientalist undoubtedly made a number of mistakes when analysing Karaite history. His observances and conclusions made on the basis of his personal acquaintance with the Karaites and their architectural monuments, however, are very important and valuable. Especially interesting are numerous pictures taking by him during his visit to Halicz and Kukizow (see Janusz, Karaici, 35, 41, 25, 19, 15, 9). Halicz 45

houses of the local Karaites he mentions their similarity to those of the local Slavs (Poles and Ruthenians). On the other hand, Karaite religion, houses of prayer and cemeteries reminded him those of the local Rabbanites.171 Quite a negative picture of the state of the community was depicted by Majer Bałaban: “There is practically no intelligentsia among the Karaites... intelligent youth convert to . Karaite Street in Halicz presents a grim and dark view; elderly Karaites produce impression of obedient and sorrowful people.” He also noted that young generation does not follow religious rules, and studies in lycea in Stanisławów and Brzeżany.172 One Karaite author, similarly, wrote that the Halicz community “is writhing in helpless convulsions of death-agony whilst being detached from the Karaite metropolis.”173 In 1913, i.e. a short while before the beginning of the First World War, a terrible disaster worsened the community’s state of poverty. A new and terrible conflagration ruined most of the wooden Karaite houses and seriously damaged their synagogue- kenesa. According to the estimates of the members of the community, of 18 Karaite houses only 4 remained intact.174 Two Karaite periodicals of the time reacted to this deplorable event and published an appeal to help the impoverished Karaite community.175 The East European Karaite community actively answered this plea: practically every new issue of Karaimskaia Zhizn’ and Karaimskoe Slovo published the lists of those who financially supported the impoverished Halicz community.176 And then, after the devastating fire, there came the war. According to Zarach Zarachowicz, who personally witnessed some of the drastic events of this time, in August 1914 most of the Karaite men living in the town were recruited into the Austrian army. Then Halicz was captured by the Russian army. Paradoxically, during this time the town was often visited by Russian Karaites serving in the Tsar’s army; these Karaites also attended services in the local Karaite synagogue. Of interest is also the fact that at that time there were many Muslim Cherkessian soldiers among the Russians. As with other , the Cherkessians were not allowed to consume pork. This is why local Karaite women, who also did not consume pork, were hired to prepare proper “clean” food for the Cherkessians.177 When the Russian forces had

171 Janusz, Karaici, 75-76. 172 Majer Bałaban, “V Galitsii karaimy,” in Evreiskaia entsiklopediia 9, 291. Bałaban’s report seems to be too negative. He apparently borrowed his information about the Halicz community from Fahn’s book. 173 L...., “Odin gakham dla vsekh karaimov,” KS 9-10 (1914): 2. 174 For the precise list of houses, their owners and estimation of the damages suffered during the war, see AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 20-21, 26. 175 See KS 6 (1914): 15; “Karaimy g. Galicha,” KS 9-10 (1914): 24. 176 “Sbor v polzu pogorel’tsev g. Galich,” KS 7-8 (1914): 20-22; “Dobrovol’noe pozhertvovanie,” KS 7-8 (1914): 23-24; “Dobrovol’noe pozhertvovanie,” KS 9-10 (1914): 24. 177 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 14. 46 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

been withdrawn, they were followed by cholera.178 After the re-capture of Halicz by the Austrians (July 1915), the population of the town was evacuated because of the epidemic. It was in this period after the Karaite inhabitants had abandoned their dwellings, that the Austrian soldiers sacked the synagogue and dismantled many of the houses in order to make ditches and encampments. According to Zarachowicz only one Karaite house remained intact, mostly because of its half-decayed condition. In 1918, all Karaite soldiers safely returned back home. In 1919-1920, however, the situation was worsened by a subsequent epidemic of typhus and the invasion of Petlura’s army. Zarach Zarachowicz estimated that about 25% of Karaite population of Halicz died during the events of 1915-1920 and sorrowfully added: “the amount of numerous new tombs in the [Halicz] Karaite cemetery is equal to the amount of hope that was in those who would never return to us...” 179

2.2.3 Historical Monuments a) The Quarter on Karaite Street The Karaite quarter of the town was located along Karaite Street – one of the longest streets in Halicz, along the Dniester river in the district called Zaparkanie (Pol. “beyond the fence”) – since the sixteenth century. The first reference to Karaite Street occurs in the census of 1767, where the existence of the two is mentioned – that of the Rabbanites on Wał Miejski (Pol. “town wall”), and a Karaite synagogue on Karaimska ulica (Pol. “Karaite street”).180 According to the memoirs of Zarach Zarachowicz, the atmosphere of this street differed drastically from that of other parts of Halicz: it was very clean and tidy; only Karaim was spoken there; and one could often hear the sounds of Karaite prayers.181 Grzegorz Smólski (1903) found Karaite Street to be too rural, without any traces of town life.182 Samuel Mordkowicz told Smólski that the original name of the street was Złota ulica (Pol. “Golden Street”).183 According to most sources and my personal observations, the Karaite houses were not particularly different from those of their Slavic neighbours. They were usually built of wood; only some of the twentieth-

178 According to Janina Eszwowicz, cholera took the lives of 17 Karaites (Janina Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada v XX st.” in Karaїmy Halycha, 4). 179 Zarach Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” MK 1 (1924): 27-28. For more statistical data on the Halicz Karaite community, see Z.Z. [Zarach Zarachowicz], “Ze statystyki Karaimów w Haliczu,” MK 1 (1924): 32-33. It follows from this statistics that 44 individuals died during 1915-1920; this indeed seems to be around a quarter of the community. 180 AGAD Lustracje dz. XVIII, no. 62, fol. 15. 181 Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 26. 182 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 538-539. 183 Ibid., 546. Halicz 47

century Karaite houses were built of stone. They were one storey high, usually with an attic and a basement. The entrance was situated at the side of the house; mezuzot (door-post amulets) were sometimes affixed to the door-posts.184 A few families usually shared each house; at the beginning of the twentieth century some Karaite landlords rented their houses to non-Karaites.185 Some Karaites also lived in the village of Załukiew, located a few hundred metres from the Karaite quarter of Halicz. In fact, there was no strict border between these two adjacent settlements: in spite of the fact that the synagogue was situated in Halicz, the cemetery was in Załukiew; the Karaites living in Załukiew were often registered as Karaites of Halicz; the well-to-do Karaites owned houses in Halicz and land in Załukiew, etc. A section of Załukiew where the Karaite houses stood is still called by the local Ukrainian population “Karaite corner” (Ukr. Karaїms’kyi kut).186 According to Ivan Yurchenko, there was also a “Karaite corner” (i.e. land owned by the Karaites) near the Karaite epidemic cemetery in Halicz, whereas the quarter adjacent to Karaite Street was referred to in Ukrainian as “Arslanivka” – after the famous ḥazzan Abraham Leonowicz.187 Furthermore, in the interwar period those Karaite families who had been working on the railway station lived beyond the Dniester, on the road leading to the railway station.188

b) “Kensa/Kenesa” – the Karaite Synagogue In general, the concentration of Jewish quarters around their synagogues may be noted in the social as well as in the material life of the Jews of Europe and the countries of the East. The Karaite synagogue of Halicz was also located in the centre of the Karaite quarter, in the middle of Karaite Street. From the end of the nineteenth–beginning of the twentieth century (and especially after 1911) East European Karaites practically stopped calling their houses of prayer “synagogues” and began applying the Karaim term kenesa/kienesa/kenese instead (for more information on the origin and meaning of the term, see 2.7). It seems that in Galicia the term kenesa was usually abridged to a shortened version kensa. Grzegorz Smólski has recorded that as early as 1903

184 It is important to remember that it was only in Galicia and Volhynia that the Karaites sometimes used mezuzot. 185 At the beginning of the twentieth century some Karaite landlords were renting rooms to Rabbanite Jews (Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 523, 538). For a detailed description of the houses, see also Janusz, Karaici, 75-76. 186 I received this information from one of the inhabitants of the village during the meeting of the “Davnii Halych” Historical Reserve (Halicz, 25 Apr. 2005). 187 Private communication (Halicz, Apr. 2005). In the Turkic languages arslan means “lion” – an apparent reference to the ḥazzan’s surname, which was associated with Polish lew (lion). 188 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, subfolder 2, fol. 26. 48 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

the Karaites Halicz called their house of prayer kensa.189 In 1906 Jan Grzegorzewski wrote down a most interesting text in Galician Karaim where this term is mentioned three times, also in the shortened form: kensa-nyn (Gen.; “of the kensa”); kensa-da (Loc., “in the kensa”); kensa-ga (Dat. “to the kensa”).190 In the present work, the more literary variant of this term, kenesa, will be used.191

Illustration 2: Karaite community of Halicz before the First World War: a) view of Karaite Street; b) interior of the kenesa (a Karaite prayer house). Source: a postcard (the 1910s).

189 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 546. 190 Jan Grzegorzewski, “Caraimica. Język Łach-karaitów. Narzecze południowe (łucko-halickie),” RO 1:2 (1916-18): 273-274. 191 Cf. KRPS, 304; Karaj sez-bitigi, 41. Halicz 49

Unlike in Crimea, where the local Jewish population built their houses of prayer from stone, the early Karaite and Rabbanite synagogues of Poland and Lithuania were usually made of wood, as were the earliest Karaite synagogues in Halicz and Kukizów. In spite of the fact that the oldest reference to the existence of a wooden Karaite synagogue in Halicz dates back to 1767,192 we may assume that this specific building was erected approximately in the sixteenth century. In 1830 it was destroyed by a severe conflagration. Construction of the new stone synagogue was finished in 1836. It was erected on the site of the old Halicz synagogue, in a style similar to that of the nineteenth-century Crimean and south Ukrainian Karaite and Rabbanite synagogues.193 Unfortunately, in 1913, a short while before World War I, the synagogue again suffered heavy damage from a new conflagration.194 Thanks to financial support from other Karaite communities,195 the Karaites soon managed to repair the building. The aron ha-qodesh (Ark of the Torah) of the renovated synagogue was made on 2 July 1914 in Stanisławów by a local carver.196 Regrettably, after this renovation the synagogue did not remain intact. During World War I, Russian and Austrian soldiers sacked the synagogue so that, according to eyewitness testimony, “only the walls of the shrine remained.”197 This is the that any information toward a reconstruction of its former inner and outer appearance must rely upon only a few pre-war photos and reports by travellers. The architectural style and decoration of the Karaite synagogues of Halicz and Kukizów were highly similar to those of the Rabbanite houses of prayer of this area. There were two entrances to the building – one for men and the other for women. Women were supposed to pray in a separate gallery called >ezrat nashim in Hebrew.198 According to Grzegorz Smólski, the building looked rather insignificant from the outside, but its interior decoration was quite impressive:

The walls had rows of painted tablets with Hebrew inscriptions, covered with silk curtains (parochet) made of various fabrics, among them brocades with gold embroideries. Two seven-branched candelabra stand before the altar, hechał,199 and two bronze

192 AGAD Lustracje dz. XVIII, no. 62, fol. 15. The document says: “Szkoł Dwie Zydowska y Karaimska Z dzrewa budowane” (Pol. “two synagogues, a Jewish and a Karaite one, built of wood”). 193 Its height was 6.55 m, width – 6.70 m, and length – 11.50 m (AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-6, no. 16). 194 According to the information published in KS, “the upper part” (i.e., perhaps, the roof and women’s gallery) was burned down (KS 6 (1914): 15). 195 Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 27. 196 Viktor (David) Tiriiaki, “Sokhranenie religioznykh traditsii karaimov Galicha na rubezhe XX-XXI vv.,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 82. Most likely, this master was a Rabbanite. 197 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 18-19. 198 This is according to the ground plan of the synagogue reconstructed by Ivan Yurchenko (unpublished). 199 A corruption of the Heb. heikhal (palace). 50 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

candlesticks hang from above. The altar consists of two beautifully decorated plaques with inscriptions.200

The interior decoration of the building also made a strong impression upon Reuven Fahn, who described its ceiling, which bore the twelve signs of the Zodiac and passages from the books of the Prophets. Its walls bore quotations from the Torah and the prayer “Yehi Raṣon”.201 All the aforementioned Hebrew inscriptions and Biblical passages were painted by young Yeshua-Joseph Mordkowicz, future ḥazzan of the community.202 D.F. (Reuven Fahn?) reported seeing a quotation from Isaiah on the entrance to the building and, according to his own assertion, a thirteenth-century Torah scroll inside.203 Bohdan Janusz, who described in detail the synagogue’s external appearance, mentioned that on the inside, the walls of the building were covered by brocade curtains (Pol. makaty) with Hebrew inscriptions and ornamented embroidery in silk and gold.204 On feast days the of the synagogue was covered with carpets.205 The Karaites also had a special flag with the inscription degel maḥaneh yeshurun (Heb. “the flag of Israel’s camp”), which on special occasions was placed to the right of the dukhan (pulpit for a preacher). Furthermore, the flag was often carried at the head of ceremonial processions which took place outside the synagogue walls.206 At the end of the nineteenth century, there were as many as 23 Torah scrolls kept in the Karaite synagogue of Halicz.207

c) Cemetery The cemetery (GVKar. zeret208) of the Halicz Karaites, today consisting of about two hundred monuments, is situated on the bank of the Dniester river, in the territory

200 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 546. 201 Fahn, “Aus dem Leben,” 135-136; idem, “Ha-Qara

of the village of Załukiew (Ukr. Zalukva).209 There are a few factors which make this cemetery very different from most other Karaite cemeteries in Eastern Europe: the grounds reflect a harmonizing of specific features of the East European Karaite funeral traditions alongside the strong influence of the traditions of the surrounding Rabbanites. In accordance with Karaite religious customs, the front parts of the tombstones in Halicz face south. According to a general Jewish tradition, the worshipper should turn his face towards Jerusalem while praying.210 In conformity with this principle, the aron ha-qodesh (Ark of the Torah) of a synagogue and the front part of a gravestone should be oriented in the direction of Jerusalem. There is, however, a considerable difference between the East European Karaite and the Rabbanite interpretations of the geographic location of this holy city: according to the Karaite tradition, Jerusalem is located in the south, whereas in the early modern Ashkenazic tradition it is in the east.211 This is why the Karaite synagogue of Halicz and the front parts of the gravestones in the local cemetery faced south, whereas the Torah repositories of the Rabbanite synagogues were normally oriented to the east. Moreover, eulogies were used in the epitaphs on the tombstones of the Halicz Karaite cemetery; these are quite rare for Ashkenazic inscriptions, but typical of the Karaite cemeteries in Crimea.212 The local Karaites also used a combination of the letters “yod-hey” and “yod-vav” to indicate the numbers 15 and 16, and also the letters “yod-hey” as an abbreviation for the name of God. This was usually avoided by the Rabbanite Jews because of the prohibition against printing or speaking the full name of God.213 Furthermore, one tombstone inscription was composed in the local dialect of the Karaim language, while several other inscriptions had short formulas written in Karaim.214 The architectural design of the memorial stones and the style of the epitaphs, however, clearly show the strong influence of Rabbanite tradition upon the funeral practices of the local Karaites. On the tombstones of this cemetery one can see lengthy

209 A twenty-minute walk from the Halicz Karaite quarter across a stone bridge over the Dniester and a highly precarious wobbly wooden bridge suspended over the Łukiew river (Ukr. Lukva). 210 I Kings 8:44; Daniel 6:10. 211 The Karaites in the Near East had a different understanding of this principle. For a discussion see Percy Selvin Goldberg, Karaite Liturgy and Its Relation to Synagogue Worship (Manchester, 1957), 30-32. It seems that in Łuck the Karaite synagogue and, possibly, the graves in the local cemetery were oriented east, not south (Józef Smoliński, “Karaimi i bożnica ich w Łucku,” Ziemia 3 (1912): 39). It seems that the principle of facing the east was brought by the forefathers of the Ashkenazim from Spain. This is attested to by the fact that the earliest Rabbanite synagogues in Europe also faced south, as did those of the Karaites (I am indebted to Prof. Dan Shapira for this and many other comments regarding the contents of this chapter). 212 Michael Nosonovsky, Hebrew Epitaphs and Inscriptions from Ukraine and Former Soviet Union (Washington, 2006), 169. 213 Ibid. 214 Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 13, 183. 52 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Hebrew eulogies and blessings, depictions of animals, trees of life and flowers, Stars of David, hands of kohanim in priestly blessing, broken candles, shelves with books, menorot, Crowns of the Torah and of the Good Name.215 All these symbols, which are so typical of the Rabbanite cemeteries of the area, are highly unusual for the ascetic Karaite necropolises in Eastern Europe, which are, as a rule, devoid of any symbolic depictions and ornamentation. Today, the Karaite cemetery of Halicz is the only Karaite cemetery in Eastern Europe with such ornate and sophisticated decorations; two other cemeteries of similar architectural style, those of Łuck and Kukizów,216 were entirely destroyed during the Soviet era. This striking typological similarity between the Rabbanite and Karaite gravestones in Galicia may be explained only by the close contacts between the two communities and the Karaites’ hiring of Rabbanite carvers and morticians to perform funeral rituals.217 This similarity is evident not only in tombstone carvings and reliefs but also in other examples of Karaite art, such as illuminated manuscripts, ornaments, drawings, embossings, and needle work. In spite of the fact that the Karaite community existed in Halicz at least from the sixteenth century, the majority of the extant tombstone monuments belong to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the twentieth century, especially during the Soviet period, traditional Hebrew epitaphs were replaced with inscriptions in Polish, Ukrainian, and Karaim,218 in Cyrillic and characters. Most of the epitaphs, however, were written in Hebrew. Anyone interested in making use of the tombstone inscriptions from this cemetery will encounter a very serious methodological problem: how sincere and objective were the epitaphs and to what extent might they be used for historical research? Unfortunately, it seems that most of the tombstone inscriptions were made according to certain stereotypical conventions, and the texts of the epitaphs often tend to be

215 Some of these symbols originate in the Mishna Avot 4:13 which is not recognized by the Karaites as a sacred text (Nosonovsky, Hebrew Epitaphs, 169). 216 Unfortunately, we possess virtually no data on the Karaite cemetery of Łuck (it was completely destroyed in the 1970s and was not documented). Nevertheless, the similarity of the cultural, linguistic and religious traditions of the Galician and Volhynian community strongly suggests that the architectural style of the Karaite cemetery in Łuck was similar to that of Halicz. 217 Cf. the similarity between the Karaite tombstones from Halicz and those of the Podolian and Galician Rabbanites in Nosonovsky, Hebrew Epitaphs, esp. 141-154; Boris Khaimovich, “Reznoi dekor evreiskikh nadgrobii Ukrainy,” in Istoriia evreev na Ukraine i v Belorussii, ed. Valerii Dymshitz (St. Petersburg, 1994), 83-106; Zinovii Chechik, Matsevy (Tula, 2005). Ivan Yurchenko found tombs with identifying marks of local carvers who were not members of the Karaite community (Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 15, figs. 3-5). During our visit to the Halicz Ashkenazic cemetery (8 May 2002), Ivan Yurchenko showed me a tomb which was excavated by him in 2001. The decoration of this monument was an exact copy of one of the tombstones in the local Karaite cemetery. It seems that both monuments were made by the same carver, who was, undoubtedly, of Rabbanite origin. 218 See the only comparatively lengthy inscription in Karaim in Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 182-183, no. 193. Halicz 53

rather repetitive. They usually consist of a few parts: an introduction (expressing sorrow at the death of a member of the community), a middle part (numerating the deeds and positive qualities of the deceased), and conclusion (containing date of the death and the name of the person who sponsored the erection of the tombstone monument). Moreover, the epitaphs often tend to be excessively positive in their evaluation of the personal and moral qualities of the deceased: most men are referred to as “educated, enlightened, influential, and venerable,” whereas most women – as “chaste, pious, and virtuous.”219 It seems that the style of the Galician Karaite epitaphs, which was influenced by the Galician Ashkenazic tradition, was especially flowery and imprecise. The Karaite tombstone inscriptions in Troki seem to be much more succinct,220 whereas Crimean ones are more individually designed, often with a number of precise historical details. Having said this, it is worthwhile mentioning that some of the Galician tombstone texts, nevertheless, provide readers with important historical information which is often not found in any other source. They also contain information on the structure of the local Karaite community, the professions of its members, their families, duration of life, and many other important details. Until the recent publication of the full catalogue of the local cemetery,221 Reuven Fahn contributed the only serious study of the cemetery. His study is highly important because of the fact that Fahn visited the cemetery before the two world wars. This is how he was able to document the texts of the tombstone inscriptions which are no longer extant. According to Fahn, the earliest tombstone inscription of the cemetery, that of the ḥazzan Joseph ben Samuel ha-Mashbir, dates back to 1700.222 Therefore, we may assume that the earlier sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cemetery was located in a different place, or, alternatively, that the tombstones from this period did not survive to the time of Fahn’s visit to the cemetery. Unfortunately, the cemetery was partly destroyed in the course of the two world wars – accounting for the disappearace of early eighteenth-century tombs, including that of Joseph ha-Mashbir. Today, the oldest tombstones in this place date back to the mid-eighteenth century.223 In addition to this larger cemetery in Załukiew, there was also a small epidemic burial ground in Halicz, on the slope of the Castle hill not far from Karaite Street. It was used as a burial place for those members of the community who died of cholera

219 For more information on the conventions in Hebrew tombstone inscriptions in Eastern Europe, see Mikhail Nosonovskii, Hebrew Epigraphic Monuments from Eastern Europe (Boston, 2002); idem, “‘Zaviazannye v uzle zhizni’: k poetike evreiskikh epitafii,” in his “He, Who Separates Between the Holy and Secular”: Hebrew, Yiddish, Sacred and Secular in the Traditional (New York, 2005), 271-298. 220 Golda Akhiezer, Ilya Dvorkin, “Ktovot ha-maṣevot mi-batei ha->almin be-Liṭa,” Pe>amim 98-99 (2004): 225-260. 221 Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche. 222 Fahn, “Le-qorot,” 40-41. 223 Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 12, 66-67, 219; nos. 20, 60. 54 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

from 1915 to 1917, during the First World War. Karaites were still visiting this cemetery in the 1930s and 1940s.224 Unfortunately, today not a single tombstone stands in this cemetery.225

2.2.4 Legends and Proverbs

The Halicz Karaites normally claimed that their cultural life and folklore were based exclusively on the Bible and did not contain anything outside of Biblical motifs and plots. This is why, for example, Samuel Mordkowicz and Rachel Eszwowicz of Halicz answered Grzegorz Smólski’s questions regarding Karaite folkore by saying that all their folktales, legends, and songs were related to Bible stories.226 Nevertheless, in Halicz, as in all other Karaite communities of the world, proverbs, songs, riddles, sayings, anecdotes, and folktales of an exclusively secular character had been in circulation among the local Karaites. Unfortunately, in contrast to the comparatively well-documented folklore of Crimean227 and Troki Karaites,228 only a few examples of Halicz Karaite folklore were recorded by scholars, primarily by Jan Grzegorzewski and Reuven Fahn. Most examples of this local folklore represent a typical mixture of Galician Karaite traditions with elements of Turkic, Slavic, and Biblical motifs. Jan Grzegorzewski’s archival materials contain several proverbs, sayings and riddles in Halicz Karaim. Some of them seem to be unique to the Karaites; some represented Karaim translations of Polish proverbs; and others were based on Biblical topoi.229 Two more Halicz Karaite proverbs were recorded by Grzegorz Smólski in 1903. One of them was a Karaim translation of the well-known Polish proverb, “Kto rano

224 This is according to Janina Eszwowicz, Ada Zarachowicz, and L. Shugurova (Eszwowicz) (Halicz). There were seventeen Karaites who died of cholera in this period; some of them were buried in the epidemic cemetery, some in Załukiew (Ivan Yurchenko, Natalya Yurchenko, “Epidemichne kladovyshche karaїms’koї hromady Halycha,” in Zberezhennia ta vykorystannia kul’turnoї spadshchyny Ukrаїny: problemy ta perspektyvy (Halych, 2004), 183, ft. 7). 225 Ibid., 180. 226 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 546, 564. 227 See legends of Crimean Karaites in Franz Dombrovski [Dąbrowski], “Krymsko-karaimskie predaniia,” Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti 39 (1853): 153-155; Legendy i predaniia karaev (krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov), ed. Iu.A. Polkanov (Simferopol, 1995; regrettably, the original versions of many Karaite legends published in this book were seriously corrupted by its editor, Iu.A. Polkanov, an apologist for the Turkic origin of the Karaites); Legendy i predaniia krymskikh karaimov, ed. Victor (David) Tiriiaki (Eupatoria, 2002). 228 The folklore of the Troki Karaites represented a mixture of Karaite, Turkic, Slavic, and some Lithuanian elements. For further publications which focus on the literature and folklore of the Troki Karaites, see the Bibliography under “Kowalski, Tadeusz”. 229 Kowalski, “Materjały karaimskie,” 24-25. Halicz 55

wstaje, temu pan Bóg daje” (God helps the one who wakes up early).230 An absolutely unique collection of a few dozen original Karaite proverbs was collected by Aleksander Mardkowicz in Łuck and Halicz in the 1920s-1930s. It is difficult now to tell which of them came from Halicz and which from Łuck. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that most of them were used by the Karaites both in Volhynia and in Galicia.231 One of them, undoubtedly originating in Halicz, was devoted to the role played by the seventeenth- century community leader, Joseph ben Samuel ha-Mashbir. The proverbs provided by Mardkowicz touched upon such varied aspects of Karaite life as religion, everyday life, work, humour, nature, life and death, women and children, joy and mourning, etc. It is extremely interesting that even such fruits of folk fantasy as proverbs contained enormous amounts of Hebrew loanwords. Does this mean that the authors of proverbs were educated Karaites, perhaps even ḥazzanim? Traditionally, folk proverbs of this genre do not contain sophisticated phraseology and foreign loanwords. Taking into account the fact that Mardkowicz’s publication is perhaps the only collection of genuine and unmodified Karaite proverbs, it is certainly worthwhile reproducing some of them here. Many proverbs were dedicated to the attitude towards religion. Some of them criticized a hypocritical attitude to religious duties: “On the festive day [moedde] the kenesa is noisy, while on weekdays – it is a desert [midbar].”232 Others reflected a perception of religion as the most important part of human life: “The faith without duties [micwasyz] is like a crown without a head.”233 Especially interesting were the proverbs reflecting ethnic stereotypes and prejudices about other peoples. Many of them were dedicated to the Poles and the Ashkenazic Jews (with some derision, the latter were called rabban/rabbanłar in these proverbs). One proverb was dedicated to several peoples and social classes at the same time and also contained an appraisal of the Karaites’ high moral qualities: “A Pole [esaw] carries coins;234 a peasant [kisi235] – lard [ṭame<];236 a Rabbanite – garlic; a Karaite – blessings [berachot].”237 One proverb characterized the Poles’ cruelty with regard to the Karaites: “A Pole shed blood for the inheritance; Karaite blood was spillt for a Pole.”238 Another reflected Poland’s annexation by the Russian Empire in the course of the Partitions of Poland: “A Russian embraced a Pole, but his hands were iron.”239 One proverb reflected uneasy historical circumstances of Karaite life in Eastern

230 GVKar. “Kim erte turad, anar Tenri berlet” (Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 546). 231 [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Kart da kartajmahan sezłer,” KA 8 (1935): 2-7. 232 “Moedde kenesada cu[w]łu, ałajik kinde – midbar.” 233 “Din micwasyz – tadz bassyz.” 234 Literally “has in his belt.” 235 I suggest that here these word may have been used to indicate a Ukrainian/Ruthenian peasant. 236 A Hebrew loanword originally meaning “ritually impure.” 237 “Esawda belibawynda kyzyłłar, kiside – tame, rabbanda – sarymsak, karajda – berachot.” 238 “Esaw tekti kanyn mereśligi icin, karajnyn kany tegildi esaw icin.” 239 “Urus esawny kuctu, da kołu anyn temirlidi.” 56 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Poland, Tatar raids and Haidamak pogroms: “Those without crosses – burnt, those with crosses – killed.”240 Especially important are proverbs about the Rabbanite Jews. One of them reflects the Rabbanites’ religious hypocrisy and unscrupulousness in trade: “A Rabbanite in a ṭallit gives you a full measure, without a ṭallit [cheats you] with trembling hands” [here in the sense of “cheats you while weighing your purchase”].241 The other, also related to trade, takes some cultural unpacking: “A Rabbanite is looking for a rooster on a market, while a Karaite – for a horse’s tail [or loin].”242 These proverbs are quite important in understanding the Karaites’ attitudes towards life, religion, and other peoples. Jan Grzegorzewski also documented examples of such types of folklore as wedding songs and anecdotes.243 In addition to songs, sayings, and proverbs, the local Karaites undoubtedly possessed a number of folktales, legends, and oral traditions of a historical and fantastic character. Several of them, composed in the Karaim language, were recorded by Jan Grzegorzewski. Three of them which were published in his early article and, in fact, represent Karaim adaptation of Polish folktaless and so, in my opinion, they can hardly be considered genuine examples of Karaite folklore.244 Only two other folktaless, about a son of a rich man in search of a bride, which were narrated to Grzegorzewski by Abraham ben Joseph Leonowicz, seem to be original examples of local Karaite folklore.245 Sources have preserved several Karaite folktales which reflect the historical circumstances of Karaite life in Galicia. As has been mentioned above, in the late eighteenth and into the early twentieth century, East European Karaites developed a mythologeme about their arrival in Poland and Lithuania during the reign of prince Vitold of Lithuania and/or Daniel of Galicia. While the origin of this mythologeme seems to have been motivated by various political and ideological agendas, there is no doubt that later ideas about the arrival of the Karaites started to be enshrouded by the mist of popular fantasy. One such legend was published by Reuven Fahn in Hebrew

240 Mardkowicz added in brackets the words kedar (i.e. a “nomad, Bedouin” or, here, a “Tatar”) and hajdamak (“Haidamak”). 241 “Tałette rabban ełcejd’ tołu, tałetsiz titrejd kołu.” 242 “Rabban panairde choros izdejd’, karaj – atnyn kujruhun.” This slightly sarcastic proverb may have reflected the food preferences of each of these peoples: the Rabbanites favoured fowl, while the Karaites apparently preferred horse meat. 243 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-6, nos. 16-17. 244 See the folktales “Elim ta miśkin” (Death and a poor man) and “Elim” (Death) (Grzegorzewski, “Türk-tatarischer Dialekt,” 68-69, 74-77). See the original of these tales in Hebrew characters in AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-6, Jan Grzegorzewski, no.17. 245 See the tale which starts with the words “Chodza bijde bir birłej uwłu” and “Edi ezine bir chodza adam, edi anda bir uwłu.” These two tales and some of Grzegorzewski’s other materials, which, according to Kowalski, did not have any particular academic value (cf. Kowalski, “Materjały karaimskie,” 25-26), ended up in Tadeusz Kowalski’s personal archive (e.g. AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2/2, fols. 5, 17). Halicz 57

under the title Benei segulah (Heb. “Chosen Ones”). It existed in two variants and was narrated to Fahn in Halicz by his Karaite and Rabbanite informants. Taking into account the oral character of the legend, one may assume that the Karaite version was told to Fahn by the Karaites in Polish while that of the Rabbanites – in Yiddish. The Karaite version dated the settlement of the Karaites in Halicz to the thirteenth century and connected this event with the war between the “King of Halicz” (Heb. melekh Haliṣ; i.e., most likely, Daniel of Galicia) and the Tatar Khan Batu. According to the legend, the King of Halicz knew about the existence of the unusual and interesting people in the realm of the Tatar khan. This people was not Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or pagan. The King of Halicz asked the Khan to send him several representatives of this unique people, and promised to give them land and settle them in his country. The Khan consented to this – and this is how the Karaites were settled in Halicz.246 The local Rabbanites, in turn, popularized a derogatory version of the legend about the origin of the Karaite settlement in Halicz. According to this legend, the Tatar Khan (i.e. Batu) presented a pair of Karaites to the King of the Halicz principality in exchange for a pair of thoroughbred Galician dogs. Since then, according to the legend, the local Rabbanites called the Karaites meḥir kelev (Heb. “dog’s price”).247 The Karaites also had an alternative version of their settlement in Halicz which connected this event with the political activity of another important ruler, the Lithuanian Prince Vitold. At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Samuel Mordkowicz told Grzegorz Smólski a legend about the arrival of the Karaites during Vitold’s time. According to this legend, around six or seven hundred years ago Vitold was passing through Crimea when he heard Karaite children studying the prophecies of Isaiah in the midrasz (a religious school). The prince liked “the academic tone” of their praying, entered the school, and took the Karaites to Lithuania and Poland. He settled about of 80 their families in Lwów, Kukizów, and Halicz. Surprisingly, Mordkowicz added that this event happened 658 years ago (ca. 1245/1246), i.e. during the reign of Daniel of Galicia, even though he himself did not mention Daniel’s name at all and insisted that it was Vitold who had resettled Karaites in Galicia.248

246 Fahn, “Ha-Qaraal pi nusaḥ ha-Qaraal pi nusaḥ ha-Yehudim,” in KRF, 260-261; cf. Yiddish translation in Z. Shohet, “Di Karaimen fun Galitsye: haynt un amolige tsayten,” Der Forverts (06.07.1930), sect. 2, p. 2. Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (a Galician Karaite himself) correctly mentioned that this legend was based, most likely, on a corrupt interpretation of the Polish word “Karait” (a Karaite). When understood as a Turkic expression (kara it), it could be translated as a “black dog” (Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 14). Cf. also the letter of Aleksander Mardkowicz to Professor W. A. Unkrig (Berlin). Mardkowicz insisted that the term “Karait” should not be used because of its pejorative meaning (Adler, “Krim-Karäer,” 105, ft. 2). 248 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 546. 58 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Samuel Mordkowicz briefly recounted to Grzegorz Smólski another short legend related to the Karaites’ glorious past. According to this legend, Karaite Street in Halicz had been originally called Złota ulica (Pol. “Golden Street”) because of the fact that in long-forgotten prosperous times, beautiful and rich Karaite women were dressed all in gold.249 This legend undoubtedly reflects the traditional image of the past as the “Golden age” of prosperity and success. Another story related to the “Golden age” mentioned that in the first years after the re-settlement, when Halicz was a capital town of Ruthenia, the Karaite community was much more numerous. The Tatars supposedly took many local Karaites and Christians in the course of their slave raids – and as a result the Karaite community was reduced to only a hundred souls.250 This tale reflects the devastating Tatar raids in Galicia in late medieval and early modern times. It seems to have historical veracity, save for the fact that Halicz ceased to be a capital in the early fourteenth century, i.e. before the arrival of the Karaites. Another legend is related to a later event of the history of the Karaites in Galicia and Volhynia. It was published by Fahn in Hebrew, but one may assume that there existed also a Karaim version of this folktale. This story tells about the persecution of the Karaites by some unnamed enemy, most likely Haidamak (or Cossack) pogromists. According to the legend, the pogromists entered the city and began killing inhabitants of the Karaite quarter. Several pious young Karaite women tried to hide from the enemy on the Korolówka hill (located in the vicinity of Halicz, not far from the Dniester river). Seeing that the enemy was approaching their shelter, the maidens, having no other option, decided to find salvation in the waters of the Dniester.251 Joseph ben Abraham Leonowicz mentioned that as many as 27 girls drowned during that event.252 This story is very similar to the tale about the Haidamak massacre of the Karaite community of Derażna (Volhynia), which was recorded by Zarach Zarachowicz from the words of the Łuck Karaite, Mrs. Rudkowska. According to this legend, in 1768 the Karaite population of Derażno, Kotów, and Cumań had to hide in a forest out of fear of the approaching troops of the Haidamak leader, Ivan Gonta. After they saw the enemy approaching, nine (or twelve) Karaite women began to pray, put on their wedding dresses, and threw themselves from the hill of Horyń

249 Ibid. 250 This story was told by Joseph b. Abraham Leonowicz in his letter to M. Tenenbaum (Moses Tenenbaum, “Le-qorot ba>alei Miqra<,” Ha-Nesher 4:16 (15 Apr. 1864): 63). 251 See the tale “Ha-nahar ha-yashan” [The old river] in Fahn, Me-aggadot, 12-14; idem, “Das alte Flußbett,” in Fahn, Legenden der Karaiten, 3-8. 252 Tenenbaum, “Le-qorot ba>alei Miqra<,” 63. The Karaites who drowned “in the river Korolówka” (sic) were mentioned also in the “Memorial book” by Aaron Łucki in the early nineteenth century (Mikhail Nosonovskii, Volodimir Shabarovskii (Shabarovs’kyi), “Karaimskaia obshchina XVI-XVIII vv. v Derazhnom na Volyni,” Vestnik EUM 9 (2004): 33). Halicz 59

into the Styr river.253 The existence of a Galician variant of the legend suggests that ca. 1768 Haidamak pogromists went as far as Halicz, where they persecuted local Karaites as well. According to Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, however, this legend is a reference to Chmielnicki’s massacres of the Karaites.254 Fahn also recorded a highly interesting Karaite legend about three pious Halicz Karaite merchants who were far away from home, in the Ukrainian town of Rozdol, when Isaac, one of them, died of cholera. Being forbidden by the religious law to conduct funerals by themselves and having no possibility of transferring Isaac back to Halicz, the Karaites had to ask the local Rabbanite morticians to do it. The local Rabbi agreed to allow the rite to be performed in the Rabbanite cemetery provided that the Karaite be interred... beyond the cemetery fence.255 There is no doubt that Halicz Karaite folklore must have been much richer and more varied and impressive than is shown in this subchapter. Unfortunately, contemporary ethnographers and linguists did not attempt to collect systematically all the folklore material that was available to them in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The local Karaites, on the other hand, did not have their own collector of folklore, like Abraham Szyszman in Troki or Toviya Levi-Babovich in Crimea,256 to record their oral legacy. Now, when the Halicz community has almost disappeared, it is impossible to reconstruct the local folklore in its entirety – and the examples of Galician Karaite folklore analysed in this subchapter seem to be the only material available to us today. Nevertheless, even these meagre examples allow one to reconstruct a vivid world of folk fantasy, colourful legends, and popular wisdom of the local Karaites. Thus, the folklore of the Karaites is an interesting addendum to our knowledge of the folklore of the Galician population, Jewish and Christian alike.

2.2.5 Personalia a) Nowachowicz Family Shalom (Szałom/Sałom) Nowachowicz (26.01.1849–9.06.1922), son of Yosef and Sara, was the community ḥazzan from 1900 to 1922. He was characterized by Bohdan Janusz

253 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2/2, fols. 6, 16; cf. Kowalski, “Materjały karaimskie,” 25-26. It starts with “Deraźniada, kajsy tabułady Wołyńda, edi kart zamanłarda ułłu karaimskij kahał. Andahy karajłar edłer barły, ułtururediłer har biri ez jiwłerinde i kiriedler rastłykba i tenrinin korkuwuba.” A literary version of this folktale was published by Sergjusz Rudkowski in Polish as Krwawe echo Humania na Wołyniu (Rzeź kotowska). Podanie (Łuck, 1932). 254 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 11. 255 Ruben Fahn, Legenden der Karaiten (Wien-Warschau-New-York, 1921), 14-20. 256 See the manuscript collection of Karaite legends collected by Abraham Szyszman in the first half of the twentieth century (Abraham Szyszman, Legendy i predaniia karaimov, 1932-1944: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1531). A critical edition of this collection is being prepared for publication by Mikhail Kizilov. 60 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

as “a man of great wisdom and good pedagogue.”257 During the visit of Grzegorz Smólski to Halicz in 1903 Nowachowicz was away. His colleague, Samuel Eszwowicz, characterized hims as “enlightened and educated man.” According to other data collected by the journalist, Nowachowicz was born in Kukizów, but received his education in midrash ḥazzanim (Heb. “religious college for ḥazzanim”) in Eupatoria in Crimea. He was perhaps the first Galician ḥazzan to receive his religious education in Crimea.258 In 1913 and 1914, after the conflagration, Nowachowicz managed to organize financial help from Russia and partially restored the damaged synagogue and Karaite houses. He was also the leader of the community during the catastrophic period of World War I, the cholera epidemic, Petlura’s invasion and the revolutionary events in Ukraine from 1917 to 1920. In 1922, shortly before his death, Nowachowicz resigned from the duties of ḥazzan and appointed Izaak Abrahamowicz as his successor (for more information on the interwar Halicz ḥazzanim see 3.2.2). Of great interest is Nowachowicz’s tomb with the depiction of cohen’s priestly blessing typical of Ashkenazic tombs. The inscription with veneration mentions that yad va-shem lo bein hakhme Torah (Heb. “his living memory is among the sages of the Torah”).259 His son, Zachariasz Nowachowicz (5.03.1883–25.03.1960) stayed in Halicz and dedicated himself to community matters. He became well-known patron and mecenas of the community in interwar period. Nowachowicz also became a friend, host, and guide of the famous Polish Orientalist Tadeusz Kowalski (1889–1948) during the visits of the latter to Halicz in 1925 and 1937.260 His cousin, Józef Nowachowicz, took part in Polish patriotic movement, and during the First World War became member of one of Polish armed organizations. Later he converted to Christianity and left Halicz.

b) Samuel Mordkowicz Samuel Mordkowicz, another educated leader of the community at the beginning of the twentieth century, guided Grzegorz Smólski during the latter’s visit to Halicz in 1903. It was Mordkowicz that provided Smólski with most important data about the state of the community, translated him some of Karaite prayers and proverbs from Karaim to Polish, and told him the legend about the origins of the Karaite settlement in Halicz. At that moment Samuel Mordkowicz fulfilled the duties of the community shammash. Smólski characterized him as “man in his forties, with thick black hair and beard, of exclusively Semitic appearance, having, however, nothing in common

257 Janusz, Karaici, 101. See also the picture published in the same book, pict. 3, between pages 1 6 -1 7. 258 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 547, 539. It seems that many of Halicz religious authorities received their education in Crimea. 259 Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovysche, 46-47, nr42. 260 Anna Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie Halickich Karaimów dla rozwoju Polskiej turkologii,” Karaїmy Halycha, 41. Halicz 61

with the Polish Jew-Chasid neither in his speech, nor in his demeanours.”261 Smólski also had a chance to talk to Samuel’s wife Ester (Esther) and the daughter Judyta (Judith).262 From 1923 to 1924 Mordkowicz for a short period of time fulfilled the duties of the ḥazzan, but then was replaced by Izaak Abrahamowicz. Of interest is the fact that being learned in the Hebrew language and religion, Samuel Mordkowicz “did not have normal education in the Polish language.”263 At the beginning of the twentieth century such a situation was rather frequent among the Polish Karaites who often had much better command of the Ruthenian, Karaim, or Hebrew language than that of Polish.

c) The Eszwowicz Family Grzegorz Smólski (1903) was highly impressed by his visit to the family of Samuel and Rachel Eszwowicz (“Eszłowicz” according to Smólski’s spelling). Smólski described Samuel as a hospitable person with a good command of Polish, “a man of strong constitution of body, with features much less less Semitic [than S. Mordkowicz].” According to Smólski, his wife, Rachel, looked exactly as would any average woman of Eastern Galicia. At the request of her husband and the journalist, Rachel sang them several folk-songs in Polish and Ruthenian/Ukrainian which were popular also among their Christian neighbours. Much more interesting was the journalist’s impression of young Leon (Levi) Eszwowicz, Samuel’s and Rachel’s son. Smólski described him as “a beautiful sixteen-year-old, dark-haired boy with eyes glittering and black as coal, with a very intelligent face.” The sixteen-year-old boy was preparing a kind of grammar book of the Karaim language in Polish and Karaim. Smólski had written down some examples of Karaim words with the Polish translation and urged young boy to continue his attempts and to compose this kind of whole textbook.264 According to some reports, Leon Eszwowicz studied in the Karaite religious college in Eupatoria later.265 Subsequently, in the 1920s and 1930s, Leon Eszwowicz worked as a

261 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 538. You may also compare the traveller’s description with Mardkowicz’s photo, where the latter is holding the flag with the depiction of magen david in his hands in ibid., 483. 262 Ibid., 539. 263 This is according to Józef Eszwowicz (AAN MWRiOP no. 1461, fol. 111). 264 In September 2002 I have found a manuscript with the textbook of this type among the Yurchenko MSS. This manuscript represented a regular school copybook containing a short textbook (ten lessons) of the Hebrew language, together with exercises, Bible quotations, small dictionary, and grammatical explanations in Polish, German, Hebrew, and Karaim. It seems that its author was Nowach Szulimowicz, the author of a few articles for MK, who is also mentioned by Tadeusz Kowalski as one of the persons who helped him in collecting his Karaim materials; the copybook was given as a present to Leon Szulimowicz. 265 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 7. 62 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

teacher of the Karaim language and religion in Halicz. In 1934, during the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Eliahu Kazas, Eszwowicz delivered to the audience a paper on the activity of this Karaite enlightener.266

d) Zachariah Isaac (Zacharjasz Izaak) ben Samuel Abrahamowicz (9.03.1878–6.05.1903) In spite of the fact that practically every Halicz ḥazzan from the second half of the seventeenth century on composed poetry in Karaim, to date, only several examples of poetry in the Galician dialect of the Karaim language have been published or analysed.267 Many more remain in manuscript form.268 At the beginning of the twentieth century, Galician Karaite intellectuals produced perhaps the most famous secular Karaite poet in Eastern Europe, Zachariah Isaac ben Samuel Abrahamowicz (1878–1903). Some of his Karaim poems had a sentimental lyrical character quite similar to those composed by Polish or Russian poets of that time. Others showed the highly interesting and complex ethnic and of this poet. Abrahamowicz often emphasized his Karaite ethnic origin and affiliation with the Karaite community of Eastern Europe. One such poem, “Karaj edim, karaj barmen” (“I was Karaite, Karaite I remain”), became the unofficial hymn of the Galician (and later, of the whole East European) Karaite community.269 Another poem, “Hanuz Karajłar eksiłmed’” (“The Karaites are not yet extinct”) expressed Abrahamowicz’s hopes for the future unification and renaissance of the Karaite communities.270 Abrahamowicz expresses his religious Judeo-Karaite identity in some verses. Poems of this type are full of references to Karaite religious practices and Biblical topoi, and contain numerous Hebrew loanwords.271 Because of the fact that his poems were published after the poet’s death, during Szapszał’s dejudaization campaign of the 1930s, it seems that at least one of Abrahamowicz’s “Judeo-Karaite” poems was slightly modified by Karaite publishers. The title of the poem “Tachanun le-jom ha-kippurim” (Hymn to

266 Dzymatynda Halicnin,” KA 7 (1934): 25. 267 Grzegorzewski, “Türk-tatarischer Dialekt;” idem, “Caraimica;” Munkácsi, “Karäisch-tatarische Hymnen.” 268 E.g. NLR F. 946, Evr. II A, no. 8; AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, fols. 228-229v; MS LMAB F. 305, no. 220, fols. 9v-11r. 269 [Zacharjasz Abrahamowicz], “Zecharja Abrahamowicznin tiziwleri,” KA 2 (1931): 25. See more about Abrahamowicz in Nowach Szulimowicz, “Ku obchodowi 20-lecia zgonu b.p. Z. Abrahamowicza,” MK 1 (1924): 16-17; Sergjusz Rudkowski, “Korutkan dżuwaherłer,” KA 2 (1931): 19-20; Achad Haam, “Zecharja Jicchak Abrahamowicz,” KA 2 (1931): 21-23. 270 “Zecharja Abrahamowicznin,” 24-25. 271 See esp. “Tenrim, ki biźnin atałarymyzny…” (My Lord, who [crowned] our fathers…); “Ułusum, Jisraeł” (Israel, my people); “Ciwre, Ciwre” (Around, around); “Tenrim, senin ułanłaryn…” (My Lord, your children…) ([Abrahamowicz] “Zecharja Abrahamowicznin,” 25-28). Halicz 63

the holiday of Yom Kippur) was transformed into “Tachanun ułłu king’e272” (Hymn to the great day).273 While writing his poems in Karaim, Abrahamowicz often took inspiration from well-known Polish songs.274 It is even more interesting that in addition to his literary activity in Karaim, Abrahamowicz composed poems in the languages of his ethnic neighbours, that is, in Polish and Ruthenian. His Polish poems show Abrahamowicz’s positive attitude to Poland and , while his poetry in Ruthenian (esp. “Do Ukraїny” – “To Ukraine”) is evidence of his patriotic feelings about Ukraine and Galicia.275 Thus, this talented poet, who died so young, felt a very unusual mixed identity that combined pride in his Judeo-Karaite heritage with a reverent respect for traditional Jewish values, the Turkic Karaim language, Polish history and Ukraine’s historical fate. This peculiar mixture of differing identities is reflected in the life and world-views of numerous Karaite intellectuals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In spite of the fact that other twentieth-century Karaite intellectuals from Halicz continued writing and composing poetry in Karaim, none of them could reach Abrahamowicz’s literary level.

272 This how it is in the original publication in KA. In fact, it should be kin’ge (Dat. “to the day”). 273 Compare the published version (“Zecharja Abrahamowicznin,” 28) with the original manuscript (AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, fol. 84; it is worthwhile mentioning that this seems to be Abrahamowicz’s only extant autograph). 274 Cf. his “Hanuz karajłar eksiłmed” (The Karaites are not extinct yet) and the Polish hymn “Jeszcze Polska ne zginęła”; “Ułłu titinbe” (With heavy smoke) and “Z dymem pożarów” (see “Zecharja Abrahamowicznin,” 24-29. 275 See the excerpts from his non-Karaim poems in Samuel Ickowicz, “Zacharia” (the Yurchenko MSS). This work, written in Gdańsk-Oliwa in 1963 in the Halicz Karaim dialect, represents Ickowicz’s poetic and prose commentaries to Abrahamowicz’s verses written in Polish and Ruthenian. Some of the verses in Ruthenian differ considerably from those published by Stepan Pushyk in his “Karaїms’kyi poet.” 64 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Illustration 3: The sample of Karaite handwriting: poem Kisenc (“Longing”) by Zacharjasz Izaak ben Samuel Abrahamowicz (Karaim in Hebrew characters). Source: Jan Grzegorzewski, “Ein türk- tatarischer Dialekt in Galizien,” 1903.

2.2.6 Relations with Rabbanite Neighbours

There are a few Jewish residents in Karaite houses; this produces a somewhat strange impression when taking into account the notoriously hostile relations between the Karaites and the Jews.

The Polish journalist Grzegorz Smólski (1903)276 It is very difficult to characterize the complex nature of the relations between the Karaite and Rabbanite Jews, which have been formed by representatives of these two different trends in Judaism over the course of more than a thousand years,

276 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 523. Halicz 65

from the emergence of the Karaite movement in the mid-eighth century until today. These relations, which have fluctuated between such polarised feelings as brotherly friendship and bitter animosity, were determined by an understanding of their mutual adherence to a single religious entity on the one hand, and by a hostile attitude towards their brethren’s “heretical” interpretation of religious law, on the other. Traditionally, since the early period of their proximity, the Karaite community of Halicz had been in constant contact with the local Rabbanite community. Relations between these two communities were in many respects much closer and friendlier than in many other regions where Karaites and Rabbanites lived next to each other. On the other hand, paradoxically, these relation were often much more bitter and hostile than in some other places. Traces of both polarities may be found in many documents and sources of the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. As has been mentioned, in 1774 the Karaites of Galicia received special legal status, which – positively for them – differentiated them from the rest of the Austrian Jews. This distinctive, benevolent treatment of the Karaites on the part of the Austrian administration considerably deepened the already existing antagonism between the two communities. Some sources provide readers with the Karaite perspective on the reason for the hostility between the Karaites and Rabbanites. Grzegorz Smólski (1903) asked a local Karaite to explain to him the cause of this hostility. The latter informed the traveller: “The [Rabbanite] Jews blacken us wherever they can… The Jews cannot forgive us our religion. They know that even though we are few in number, the time will come when the whole world will be Karaite.”277 Another Karaite source, questioned by Smólski, added more information on the subject:

– We [the Karaites] are of the Mosaic faith; although we do not recognise the Talmud, we scrupulously fulfil God’s commandments. We say: “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is why, whilst seeing in everyone, even in our enemy, our neighbour, we do not hate anyone, and, consequently, [do not hate] the [Rabbanite] Jews either. If the Jews do not like us, it is their problem, not ours. – Why do the Jews hate the Karaites? – I asked. – Mainly because of the fact that our religion, as they say, allegedly called forth Christ. They say that Christians descended from the Karaites. Furthermore, they do not like us because the Talmud means nothing to us…278

It may be clearly seen from this dialogue that the Karaites put all the blame on the Rabbanites, and suggested that the source of the latter’s aggression lay in the

277 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 539. Cf. in other place: “Jewish books… show us [the Karaites] black as chimney-sweeps” (ibid., 564). 278 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 523. 66 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

specificity of Karaite religious doctrine, which, on the one hand, did not recognize the authority of the Talmud, and supported early Christianity, on the other. Hostile relations between the Halicz Karaites and Rabbanites are also evident in the controversy concerning the historical origins of the Karaite settlement in the town. During the end of the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, the Karaites boasted to the Rabbanites about their early arrival in Halicz, where, in their view, they were settled much earlier than the Ashkenazim.279 The Rabbanites, in turn, popularized a derogatory legend according to which the local Talmudic Jews called the Karaites meḥir kelev (Heb. “dog’s price”).280 Fahn also records that the Rabbanites used two other derogatory terms to denote the Karaites: qal-daq and Ṣadoq.281 Qal-daq was apparently a pun on the guttural phonetics of the Karaim language, whereas Ṣadoq was an allusion to the Karaites’ alleged “Sadducean” origin. Furthermore, according to Fahn, the Rabbanites called Karaite children sheqeṣ/shiqṣah, i.e. “ritually unclean/goyish”.282 In return, the Karaites called them kijik/kijikta which means in Karaim “savage, ignoramus, barbarian.”283 Jan Grzegorzewski mentioned that at the beginning of the twentieth century, local Rabbanites used to interrupt Karaite religious ceremonies which took place outside the synagogue, antagonize them, and mock their liturgy. He himself witnessed how Rabbanite boys entered the Karaite procession and began to mock their singing and bellow like cows. At some point, the Rabbanites’ disturbance of Karaite ceremonial processions became so intrusive and annoying that the Karaites were forced to stop leaving the synagogue and were forced to remain itside its walls.284 ***

As often happens with neighbours, in spite of the aforementioned conflicts, quarrels, and general animosity, sometimes relations between the two communities were comparatively peaceful. Indeed, the Rabbanite and Karaite quarters of Halicz and Kukizów were located next to each other. The same applies to most of the East European Karaite and Rabbanite cemeteries, which were also often situated in the same vicinity. At the time of Grzegorz Smólski’s visit to Halicz (1903), the Rabbanites owned a few houses on Karaite Street. Moreover, some Rabbanites rented rooms in houses belonging to Karaite landlords.285 The local Karaites even borrowed from

279 Fahn, “Ha-Qaraal pi nusaḥ ha-Qaraal pi nusaḥ ha-Yehudim,” 260-261. 281 Fahn, “Me-ḥayyei,” 194. 282 Ibid. 283 Ibid; Grzegorzewski, “Türk-tatarischer Dialekt,” 47; cf. KRPS, 318. 284 Jan Grzegorzewski, drafts entitled “Rytuały, obrządy i zwyczaje” (AN PAN, K III-6, no. 16). 285 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 523, 539. Halicz 67

the Rabbanites the tradition of hanging mezuzah at the entrance to their house.286 D.F. (i.e. Reuven Fahn?) mentions that the local Karaites and Rabbanites had rather peaceful relations, but without any tendency toward rapprochement. He also accused the Rabbanites of undermining all attempts to establish contacts between the two communities.287 Majer Bałaban mentions that Karaite youths attended Rabbanite religious schools, but skipped those lessons that were related to Talmudic practices.288 The scholar did not indicate his source of information; other sources inform us that Karaite boys attended Polish public schools. Close cultural links between the Galician Karaites and Rabbanites can also be clearly seen in the Ashkenazic style of Karaite tombs and in the interior and exterior architectural design of the Karaite synagogue/kenesa of Halicz. Moreover, by the second half of the nineteenth century, the Karaites adopted many Rabbanite practices, such as wearing a ṭallit qaṭan and earlocks. Some later reports attest that the Karaites used to hire not only Rabbanite morticians (until 1848), but also Rabbanite mohalim (circumcisers).289 Archival sources show that it was usually the Rabbanites to whom the Karaites turned for monetary help when they were in financial straits. Given that the majority of the trade in Galicia was in the hands of the Rabbanites, the Karaites were inevitably forced to have frequent commercial contacts with them as well. In spite of the fact that the Galician Karaites were supposed to have their own shoḥeṭ (slaughterer), some of them used to buy kosher (ritually clean) meat from the Rabbanite slaughterers, although Karaites were charged more money than Rabbanite customers. At some point, one of the slaughterers, who considered the Karaites to be goyyim (non-Jews, Gentiles), apparently decided that it was allowed to sell ṭrefah (ritually unclean) meat to the Karaites. The local Rabbi, Joseph Benjamin Reich, who was informed about this, took a Karaite-friendly stand and prohibited the sale of ritually unclean meat to the Karaites.290 In fact, the difference between Karaite and Rabbanite animal slaughter is not very marked: according to both traditions, animals

286 Fahn, “Aus dem Leben der Karaiten,” Ost und West 1 (1912): 69. Mezuza is a piece of parchment containing two small fragments from the Torah, which is rolled up, put into container and then attached to the door-post. Hanging of mezuzot is purely Rabbanite tradition practically alien to the Karaites. Janina Eszwowicz, a head of the present-day Halicz Karaite community, also informed me that local Karaite hanged mezuzot to their houses (private communication, June, 2003); the mezuza which had been for years hanging at the entrance to her house is at present exhibited in MKIK. In Israel today on the door posts of Karaite flats one can often see a small version of the Ten Commandments and not a mezuzah on parchment with biblical passages. 287 D.F., “Pis’mo,” 74-75. 288 Majer Bałaban, “V Galicii karaimy,” EK 9, 291. In nineteenth-century , Karaite pupils attended the schools of the “Alliance Israélite” (Danon, “Karaites in European Turkey,” 359). 289 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. It is known that in sixteenth-century Constantinople, some Karaites had their children circumcised by Rabbanite mohalim, probably submitting even to the peri>ah operation (Danon, “Karaites in European Turkey,” 335). 290 Fahn, “Ha-Qara

are slaughtered ritually at the neck, but different blessings are said and different signs of the animal’s health and suitability for consumption are checked.291 This attempt to sell ritually unclean meat to the Karaites seems to be analogous to the Rabbanite practice of selling ritually unacceptable Torah scrolls to them. A few Rabbanite sources reported that the East European Karaites, who were much poorer than their Talmudic brethren, used to purchase from the latter so-called pasul (invalid) Torah scrolls and prayer-books.292 These were certainly much cheaper than proper Torah scrolls, but religious standards prohibited their use for spiritual purposes. According to Wachsmann, the Galician Karaites sometimes bought such “invalid” Torah scrolls from their Rabbanite neighbours.293 These two cases show that on the every-day level, the Rabbanites indeed often perceived the Karaites as goyyim who could be satisfied even with ritually unclean objects. In the opposite direction, while considering the Karaites equal to non-Jews from a religious standpoint, the Rabbanites often did not want to use their religious objects, which they considered halakhically invalid.

***

To sum up, the fairly small Halicz community was the only East European Karaite qehilah living outside the Russian Empire, in Austro-Hungarian state. As a result, the community did not recognize the authority either of the Troki or Taurida and Odessa ḥakhamim, although they sometimes did ask both for assistance in some complicated legal or financial issues. The community possessed a nineteenth-century synagogue- kenesa and cemetery whose appearance and style was highly similar to those of the local Rabbanites. Because of its belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire territorially, the Halicz community was frequently visited by the local scholars and men of letters (e.g. J. Grzegorzewski, G. Smólski, and R. Fahn) who scrupulously documented its unique folklore, linguistic and epigraphic legacy. Although at this moment of its existence the small and provincial Halicz community did not have any important intellectual leader, the local poet Zachariasz Abrahamowicz composed a beautiful and expressive verse “Karaj edim, karaj barmen” (GVKar. “I was Karaite, Karaite I remain”) which later became the unofficial hymn of the whole East European Karaite community.

291 Daniel J. Lasker, “Karaite Judaism,” The Encyclopedia of Judaism 4:1 (Leiden-Boston, 2003), 1813. 292 Friedrich Albrecht Augusti, Gründliche Nachrichten von denen Karaïten: ihren Ursprung, Glaubenslehren, Sitten und Kirchen-Gebräuchen (Erfurt, 1752), 22. 293 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. Łuck 69

2.3 Łuck

2.3.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900

The first reference to the existence of the Karaite community in Łuck dates back to 1506. However, it seems that the Karaites appeared there about a century earlier, already during Vitold’s reign, at the beginning of the fifteenth century.294 The Karaite community, as well as that of the Rabbanites, heavily suffered during the Chmielnicki (Khmel’nyts’kyi) massacres of 1648. From the end of the eighteenth century onwards many of the local Karaite intellectuals started emigrating with their families to Crimea and other parts of the Russian empire which were more advantageous from commercial standpoint. This is why by the beginning of the twentieth century the local qehilah had become one of the smallest Karaite communities in Eastern Europe. In 1787 there were 141 Karaite living in Łuck and neighbouring villages. No demographic growth had been recorded by the beginning of the twentieth century: in 1911 there were about 150 Karaites living in the town.295 The chronicle of the Łuck community demonstrates that some local Karaites were studying in lyceums and served in the local administration.296 After the end of the First World War the community became more than two times smaller. It is interesting that most of the Łuck Karaites (perhaps, more than in any other community) had Slavic or Slavicized surnames: Bogaty, Bubon, Greczny, Gogol, Gołub, Kaliski (i.e. “from Kalisz”), Kukuryczkin, Rudkowski, Twierdochlieb and other. There also were several surnames indicating that their owners most likely emigrated to Łuck from the Lithuanian communities: Firkowicz, Bezekowicz, Nowicki, Kapłanowski, Pilecki and Szpakowski. There also were some surnames which belonged to the emigrants from Halicz: Abrahamowicz, Leonowicz, Mardkowicz, and Eszwowicz.297 Karaite Street (Pol. ulica Karaimska), along which the Karaite quarter of the town together with the Karaite synagogue-kenesa was located, was adjacent to the Rabbanite quarter of Łuck and its famous defensive synagogue. This fact, when combined with numerous cultural and religious borrowings of the local community from the Rabbanites, tells us much about contacts between these two communities. There were two Karaite cemeteries in Łuck. The old one, dating back most likely to medieval times, was located in the town centre and functioned approximately until the mid-nineteenth century. It was located next to that of the local Rabbanites.

294 One Łuck Karaite author referred to 1508 as to the year of the Karaite settlement in Łuck, without evidence, however, to this claim (Sergjusz Rudkowski, Tutuwłanmahy Karajłarnyn Łuckada (sahync) (Osiedlenie Karaimów w Łucku. Podanie) (Łuck, 1933)). 295 Bałaban, “Karaici,” 89; Sergjusz Rudkowski mentioned that there were 77 men and 74 women in Łuck in 1911 (Sergjusz Rudkowski, “Kart Łucka,” KA 9 (1936): 15). 296 Sabakh 1 (1914): 45. 297 See Anna Sulimowicz, “Nazwiska karaimskie z Łucka,” Awazymyz 2 (3) (1999): 12-13. 70 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

At the beginning of the twentieth century the cemetery had already been in the private possession of a non-Karaite family; its territory was soon built up while the tombstones were destroyed and/or disappeared.298 In 1861 the Karaites purchased a piece of land from the local land-owner and arranged there a new cemetery. In 1958 the cemetery was completely destroyed.299 Thus, all Karaite tombstones from Łuck were lost forever; scholars did not manage either record or photograph any of them.

2.3.2 General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918

One of the earliest reports on the general state of the community in this period dates back to 1912 and belongs to the Polish journalist Józef Smoliński. Unfortunately, the journalist dedicated most of his time to a rather tedious repetition of the generally- known data on the history of the Karaite movement; only several pages of his report contain precious bits of his first-hand impressions from the contacts with local Karaites. Photographs taken by the journalist during his stay in Łuck are also highly important.300 The journalist estimated the number of the Karaite inhabitants at about a hundred souls (six or seven families within the town and about 20 families in adjacent villages). He characterized the local Karaite community as follows:

Their family life is governed by simplicity and righteousness of their customs; this matches the modesty, cleanliness, and order of their houses. Even in the poorest house you would not find dirtiness and neglect typical of the Rabbanite Jews. They give little care to their health and visit the physician only in the last minute […] At present the Karaites of Łuck are rather poor; they are engaged mostly in the petty trade and meat-trade; educated ones occupy official posts in the administration; they have earlier cultivated the soil, produced starch, had hunting grounds and taverns.301

Smoliński observes that the community was so poor that could not afford hiring or educating a ḥazzan. Thus, according to the journalist the functions of the

298 Z. Szpakowski to S. Szapszał, Łuck, 8.03.1938, Polish (LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 220r). 299 On the history of the cemetery, see Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 108-112. 300 Józef Smoliński, “Karaimi i bożnica ich w Łucku,” Ziemia 3:3 (1912):38-40; Ziemia 3:4 (1912): 51- 53; Ziemia 3:5 (1912): 68-70; Ziemia 3:6 (1912): 84-86; Ziemia 3:7 (1912): 99-100; Ziemia 3:8 (1912):116-119. Numerous mistakes and delusions of Smoliński with regard to the history of the Karaites prompted Samuel Poznański to write a critical article (Poznański, “Kilka uwag,” 304-307). Poznański’s critique, in its turn, was refuted by Smoliński (Józef Smoliński, “Jeszcze raz w sprawie Karaimów (Odpowiedź p. Poznańskiemu),” Ziemia 3:22 (1912): 353). Here, as well as in Zajączkowski-Bałaban polemics, both sides were sometimes right, sometimes wrong. However, competence of Poznański, an expert in the field of medieval Karaism, was certainly much higher than that of Smoliński. 301 Smoliński, “Karaimi,” 100, 119. Łuck 71

community ḥazzan were fulfilled by Firkowicz, the community szamesz (i.e. beadle- shammash).302 This Firkowicz, whose first name was not mentioned by Smoliński, should be identified with Abram Isaakovich (Avraham ben Isaac-Nisan) Firkowicz (1847–1914) whose necrology was published in the Łuck Karaite periodical “Sabbakh” in 1914. From 1877 to 1879 and from 1906 to 1914 Firkowicz acted as the ḥazzan and as the shammash in between. The necrology stated that “the deceased served to the honour of his dzhemaat [i.e. community], paying no regard to his own health and spare-time; kenessa was his offspring to which he dedicated his soul, tenderness, and care. With the death of A.I. Firkowicz the Łuck dzhemaat enters a new phase of trials because it shall not find anybody to take his place, and having been left without sufficient means to sustain a ḥazzan, the dzhemaat literally submits itself to the mercy of fate...”303 Smoliński mentioned the bilingualism of the members of the community who could master both Polish and Karaim. The journalist also noted the supplanting of the Hebrew language by Karaim (which he called “the Tatar-Turkic jargon”) as the language of liturgy. Smoliński explained it by “the lack of scholars” knowledgeable in Hebrew. According to Smoliński, in terms of their anthropology the local Karaites preserved their “Asiatic type” and Asian-Mongol features. The photographs of the local Karaites published by him, however, can hardly corroborate this statement.304 A bad economic situation forced many of the local Karaites to emigrate to Crimea, Kiev and Odessa. According to A. Mardkowicz, “Odessa drained from Łuck a half of the increase of the male population.”305 Smoliński also noticed dangerous demographic situation of the Karaites, many of whom have never got married. Perhaps, it was this impossibility of finding Karaites brides within this small community that forced two leading Łuck Karaite intellectuals, Aleksander Mardkowicz and Sergiusz Rudkowski, get married to non-Karaite wives. About half of the remaining members of the community left Łuck during the First World War. 306 The following succession of ḥazzanim served the community from 1900 to 1918: Zecharja ben Ananiyah Rojecki (1879–1902), Abraham Nowicki (1904–1905), Abraham Firkowicz (1906–1914), and Jaakow Leonowicz (1914–1917).307 From 1917,

302 Smoliński, “Karaimi,” 118. 303 Sabakh 1 (1914): 45. Archives preserved a few letters written by Firkowicz in Russian ca. 1910-1911 (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fols. 2, 22). Firkowicz mentions that he had been working for the community for 36 years without any salary. 304 See the pictures of several Karaites individuals published by him in Smoliński, “Karaimi,” 117. Especially this must be said with the regard to the photographs of the shammash A.I. Firkowicz and unnamed kaznodzieja-darszan (Pol. and Heb. “preacher”): ibid., 70, 85. 305 A. Mardkowicz to S. Szapszał, 1928, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 466, fol. 1v). 306 A. Mardkowicz to S. Szapszał, 1928, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 466, fol. 2r). 307 “Ribbiłer, kajsyłar hazzanłyk ettiłer Łuckada basłap burunhu jaryhymdan XIX izjiłnyn,” KA 5 (1932): 16. 72 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

the community was without a ḥazzan. The office remained unoccupied until the arrival of young Rafael (Rafał) Abkowicz in 1929; from 1917 to 1929 celebrations of most important feasts/commemoration days were led by ḥazzanim hired from Halicz of Troki.308

2.3.3 “Kenas, Kineza, Kanza” – a Local House of Prayer

As well as in all other East European Karaite communities, the community of Łuck also had its own synagogue, which had been called by some authors kenesa already before 1911. The building of the Łuck synagogue-kenesa was constructed of wood, in the style quite typical of the nineteenth-century wooden Rabbanite synagogues of Volhynia. Especially interesting are its internal nineteenth-century decorations which were unfortunately altered by the restoration of 1908. Furthermore, in contrast to all other Karaite synagogues in the world (!), aron ha-qodesh of the Łuck Karaite synagogue was oriented to the east and not to the south. Smoliński called the local Karaites’ prayer house by the Polish terms bożnica, synagoga or karaimska synagoga, and by the Karaim terms Kenas/Kineza/Kanza (all these forms are colloquial variants of the term kenesa/kenasa). The journalist’s description of the building is essential in reconstructing the outer and inner design of the synagogue-kenesa.309 This description, when compared with numerous photos and cross-section of the building made by Smoliński, gives us a unique opportunity to recapture the external and internal appearance of this monument which unfortunately has not survived. According to Smoliński, in 1908 this wooden synagogue had been dismantled, and a new one was built. Thus, his description and photos reflect the state of the synagogue before 1908:

Synagogue [Pol. bożnica] has a four-corner shape, with span roof, covered with shingles. A spacious outer entrance hall with a separate single-pitch roof has the same walls as the synagogue, vertically panelled with wooden boards. Inner furnishing of this shrine with its lavish decorations in sort of Oriental style, reminds present-day Jewish houses of prayer.310

308 See “Memorjał” for the Volhynian wojewoda in AAN MWRiOP no. 1466, fol. 145. 309 See also Anna Sulimowicz, “Kenesa karaimska w Łucku w świetle dokumentów z archiwum gminy,” in OLDK, 273-282. 310 Smoliński, “Karaimi,” 117-118. Łuck 73

Then the journalist continues to describe the Ark of the Torah,311 brocade curtains (“Parochet”), silver pointer for reading holy books, crowns of the Torah, the elevation for the ḥazzan (called by Smoliński “Bim” instead of correct Heb. bimah), and “babiniec”, i.e. women gallery (Heb. ezrat nashim).312 Even more interesting and useful are the plan and cross-section of the “bożnicy Karaimów w Łucku” placed by the author at the beginning of his report. It shows that the inner furnishing of the Karaite synagogue in Łuck indeed was very similar to that of their Rabbanite neighbours. First of all, in contrast to Crimean and Oriental Karaite synagogues where floors were covered only by carpets and believers prayed standing, sitting or kneeling on the floor, there were benches in the Łuck Karaite synagogue. Second, Smoliński indicates that the aron ha-qodesh of the synagogue was directed to the east and not to the south as in all other Karaites synagogues. Eastern orientation of the altar part is typical for the Rabbanite synagogues of Ashkenaz and Sefarad.313 This particular feature, which is not to be found in any other East European Karaite community, also shows importance of cultural contacts between the Łuck Karaites and Rabbanites. Smoliński also describes numerous ornaments which decorated the Łuck synagogue; especially interesting is his remark about “the Russian inscription in

311 This part of the synagogue-kenesa was erroneously called by Smoliński pechał, i.e. a corruption of the Hebrew heikhal (“palace;” by this term the Karaites normally called the holy part of their synagogues where the Ark of the Torah was standing). This corruption was quite funny for the Polish ear (Pol. pech means “misfortune”). 312 Ibid., 117-118. 313 Ibid., 39. This eastern orientation of the synagogue, together with the eastern orientation of the tomb of Abraham Firkowicz and his wife Hanna (the only tombs in the Jehosaphath valley near Chufut- Kale whose front parts face east), allow us to highly cautiously suggest that most likely the front parts of the tombs of the Karaite cemetery in Łuck also faced east. There were two Karaite cemeteries in Łuck, the old and the new, the latter containing tombs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The older cemetery was destroyed already in the 1930s. As a result members of the community had to gather remaining bones and bury them in the territory of the new cemetery (Łuck Karaite Szpakowski to S. Szapszał (8.03.1938, Polish) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 220)). The new cemetery was destroyed after WWII. 74 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

which the community thanks the emperor Nikolai I for the deliverance of the Karaite ḥazzanim from the military draft.”314 One noteable description of the kenesa was left by perhaps the most famous Karaite author of the interwar period, Aleksander Mardkowicz. His memoirs, which depict us the serene life of the community at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, contain description of the kenesa and liturgical services which he attended as a small boy. Especially interesting is his description of the babiniec, i.e. women gallery, which was situated close to the entrance, on the second floor of the building:

There were times, during the festivities [moed kinłerde], the babiniec was as crowded and noisy as a bee-hive. Karaite women, local and coming from forty adjacent villages, gathered together and discussed the latest news. Here quarrels began and old disputes were resolved. Here was the struggle for the place where this or that [woman] had to be standing. Channa-tete did not want to stay close to Siona-tete woman whom she could not stand. The wife of the gevir Mosie was not supposed to be standing at the back, behind the women who were poorer than she. It happened sometimes that the echo of these disputes sounded far beyond the borders of the Karaite Street.315

Such was the situation at the end of the nineteenth century. Later, at the beginning of the twentieth, Karaite women changed their priorities. From this period on women preferred staying at the entrance to the kenesa during the prayer, close to the windows. Mardkowicz also mentions the presence of the large bronze skarbonka (GVKar. cedaka chaznasy), i.e. box for collecting alms, standing close to the entrance.316

314 Smoliński, “Karaimi,” 117-118. The journalist was wrong when he said that the community had expressed its gratitude for the deliverance of the ḥazzanim from the service in the army; not only the ḥazzanim, but the whole Karaite community was exempted from the obligatory service in the Russian army in 1827. It seems that Smoliński’s photo is the only source which documented this inscription. It reads as follows: “С[виде]тельствуетъ Сей столбъ [слово]мъ Божiем вовѣкъ быть […] Израиля Сонму Караимовъ слово монаршее объ освобожде[нiи…] отъ рекрутской повинности […] все августейшаго Государя Императора Николая Самодержца все россiйскаго и пр. во вѣкъ и Повеление” (Smolinski, “Karaimi,” 68; there are several additional words and phrases written nearby which cannot be deciphered from the photo). This interesting inscription was left as the token of gratitude to the Russian Tsar Nikolai I who in 1827 exempted the Karaites from the obligatory military service in the Russian army. Exact reasons and circumstances of the event are described in the Joseph Solomon Łucki’s “Iggeret teshu’at Yisra

Even more interesting is the fact that part of the babiniec had been used as a genizah, i.e. the place for keeping worn-out sacred books and scrolls (and all sorts of other documents as well). In medieval and early modern times genizot fulfilled functions of improvised archives and thus became real treasure houses of most valuable Jewish documents. Mardkowicz ecstatically describes the content of the Łuck genizah:

My Creator, how many of them [of the documents] were there! [...] Having put my hand into the middle of this white and thick carpet, I took out greenish and bluish little leaves, I found there separate folios from large books [ułłu seferłer], hymns [zemerłer] written in beautiful script, letters delivered to the local community from other communities, documents in Russian and Polish, accompanied by red and black seals.317

In the turmoil of the First World War the Łuck kenesa, as a place of potentially expensive objects and furniture, attracted marauders who considerably damaged the building. This is why when Mardkowicz returned to Łuck because of the beginning of the revolution in Russia, he discovered, to his great dismay, that the floor of the babiniec had rotted through and only few documents survived.318 A Polish official who was sent to Łuck after the end of the war mentions that the Karaite “” (he uses here the Polish word świątynia) was “considerably devastated by the Jews [?!] and Austrian army.”319 In later reports only the Austrian army is blamed for sacking the Karaite synagogue while participation of the Rabbanites in this act is not mentioned.320 The leaders of the Łuck community complained to the Volhynian wojewoda in their memorandum:

The Karaite temple was damaged and completely devastated by the occupants. Everything that was valuable in it: old pająki321 from Gdańsk, crystal chandeliers, bronze, silver decorations of Torah scrolls, very rare editions of the Bible – everything that had been gathered in the temple since time immemorial was sacked just in a couple of days, packed and most likely taken to Austria.322

317 Ibid., 3-4. 318 Mardkowicz published bits of the survived documents in his article (Al–Mar, “Sahyncyna Babinecnin,” 6–13). Now one may only regret that this unique genizah of Łuck, which could undoubtedly provide us hundreds most interesting community documents, was destroyed. It is also somewhat strange that Abraham Firkowicz, who himself was a member of the Łuck community, did not empty the contents. It is possible that this genizah was made already after the last visit of Firkowicz to Łuck in 1871. 319 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 118-119. The reference to the Jews as the marauders who sacked the Karaite house of prayer can be explained perhaps only by the anti-Semitic biases of this official. 320 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 134. 321 Pająk (Pol. “spider”) is a kind of chandelier typical of the Karaite synagogue of that time. 322 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 142. 76 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

According to Aleksander Mardkowicz, two Karaite women were witnesses of how Austrian soldiers packed their booty on military carts and took it away.323 The kenese was restored in the 1920s in a rather simplistic style without ornaments and inscriptions in Hebrew and Russian which had been decorating its walls and ceiling before the war. A. Mardkowicz suggested placing the depictions of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and Solomon’s Temple above the two windows near aron ha-qodesh. His suggestions were not accepted by the ḥazzan.324 The precious contents of the genizah located in the women gallery, which could provide us with indispensable information about the state of the community in the earlier centuries, were also completely lost.

2.3.4 Publishing Activity: Periodical “Sabakh” (GVKar. “Morning”)

In 1914, i.e. a short while before the beginning of the war, the local Karaites, being most probably inspired by the example of their Moscow and Wilno brethren, decided to publish their own periodical, entitled Sabakh. Despite its Karaim title, Sabakh (Kar. “morning”), this periodical, as well Moscow Karaimskaia Zhizn’ and Wilno Karaimskoe Slovo, was published in Russian. Unfortunately, the war put an end to its existence, and only one issue of the periodical appeared. Its title page announces that the periodical was edited by Emiliia Iosifovna Rudkovskaia. Nevertheless, it seems that her relative, Sergiusz Rudkowski (or Sergei Rudkovskii, 1873–1944), the author prolific in Russian, Karaim and Polish, was the actual editor.325 It seems that Rudkowski initially intended to publish the periodical in the Karaim language: the gubernator of Volhynia mentioned in his letter to the head of the Central Government of Printing in St. Petersburg that there was nobody in Łuck able to understand the “Turko-Tatar language” of the periodical. In his other letter the gubernator stated that there were no printers in Łuck able to print texts in the “Tatar, Karaim and Arabic [!?] languages.”326 Eventually, the periodical was published in Russian. The periodical was rather thin (46 pages), consisting of three polemical articles, dedicated to the urgent issues of the East European Karaite community, three short stories, and a chronicle. Despite its small volume, Sabakh is highly interesting for students of Karaite history and identity. The sharp and uncompromised character of its polemical articles can be perhaps explained by the absence of the influence

323 Aleksander Mardkowicz, Synowie zakonu (Kilka słów o Karaimach) (Łuck, 1930), 19. 324 LMAB F. 143, no. 465, fol. 6v. 325 For more information about this author, see 3.3.4. Cf. also the letter of the gubernator of Volhynia who stated that Emiliia Rudkowska was not the real editor of Sabakh (Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 126). 326 Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 126. Łuck 77

of Karaite authorities who could censor the contents of the periodical. One article, written by the Sevastopol ḥazzan T.S. Levi-Babovich, was dedicated to the organization of a type of… Olympic Games in the territory of Çufut Kale in Crimea. These Karaite Olympic Games, in the author’s opinion, could have served as the point of unification of the East European Karaite communities.327 Another Karaite author, S. Rudkowski, dedicated his article to the existing antagonism between the Troki and Crimean Karaite community. There Rudkowski uses, as he says, the “sorrowful story of Łuck dzhemaat,” as a pitiful example of the vanishing Karaite community. In his article Rudkowski insisted that the fate of his community should not be repeated by all other East European Karaite communities.328 Very revealing of a larger perspective (although only indirectly pertinent to the history of the Łuck Karaite community) is an article by an author who concealed his name under the initials “R. F-cz” (undoubtedly, R. Firkowicz, apparently a member of the Łuck community). The article was dedicated to the problem which the author considered the most urgent for the shaping of the ethnic self-identity of the East European Karaites. Such was, in his opinion, the necessity of full, final and complete separation of the Karaites from the Rabbanite Jews. The author says:

The Karaites and the Jews – are not the same, but completely separate, independent and considerably different from each other entities [....] If our history is not a myth, if, according to the sources, our distressful people absorbed during its wanderings by the way of assimilation about 90% of the Mongol blood and [features of] other non-Semitic races, it means that we, a people without its own proper name, professing a Karaite faith, in any case are not Semites, but newly formed racial organism [....] We should thank Jewry for using their name, and dress ourselves in our personal proper name which would mark the border between us and them [....] In our everyday life, in the language, in our specific physical and moral appearance – we are not Jews.329

It is highly significant that as early as 1914, i.e. before the election of Szapszał to the office of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham, ideas about the alleged Turko- Mongol origin of the East European Karaites had already had zealous proponents such as this Firkowicz. He mentioned that “every Karaite had to blush with pain in his heart when being asked about his nationality.” Clearly understanding that the term “Karaites” had strictly confessional (religious) meaning, Firkowicz suggested inventing a new which would later serve as a term for designation of his people. He suggested that the Karaites should call themselves... “Krymliane” (Russ. “Crimeans”).330

327 T.S. Levi [Levi-Babovich], “Olimpiiskie igry na vysotakh Chufut-Kale,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 1-7. 328 S.Z. Rudkovskii [Sergijusz Rudkowski], “K vyboram Gakham-bashi,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 7-11. 329 R. F-ch [R. Firkowicz], “Neotlozhnyi vopros,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 14. 330 Ibid. 78 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

The periodical also contained short stories. A story signed by the penname “S. R-kii” (i.e. undoubtedly, “Sergei Rudkovskii”) is perhaps the most interesting of the three published in the periodical.331 Its main character, Crimean Karaitess Arzu, leaves her native Bakhchisaray (Bahçesaray) without the permission of relatives. She travels away with the Łuck Karaite Esav Bugovskii to the “endless Volhynian woods”. The novel is written in expressive ironic style. Its heroes speak a mixture of Crimean Tatar and corrupted Russian – the sort of the language spoken by many Crimean Karaite elders of that time.332 After the beginning of the war Rudkowski had to leave Łuck together with the evacuating Russians. This is why only one issue of the periodical appeared in print and was never resumed.333

***

Although officially belonging to the jurisdiction of the Troki ḥakham, at the beginning of the twentieth century the Łuck Karaite community appeared to be highly Russified and Crimea-oriented. This was demonstrated, for example, by the fact that the only issue of the Łuck Karaite periodical “Sabakh” was published in Russian. The community did not possess either ancient cemetery or prayer house, although its wooden synagogue-kenesa, similar to the local Rabbanite synagogues, attracted interest of some visitors to the town. Members of the local community, including its intellectual leader, Sergei/Sergiusz Rudkowski, seem to be much more secularized and emancipated than those of the conservative Halicz qehilah. Although the Karaim dialect spoken by the Łuck Karaites was almost identical to that of their Halicz counterparts,334 the contacts between the two communities were not particularly strong because of the existence of the state border between them.

331 The other two are Sergei Rudkovskii [Sergijusz Rudkowski], “Vsiakomu svoe vremia,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 15-18; Kseniia Abkovich [Abkowicz], “Vstrecha,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 18-21. 332 S. R-kii [Sergijusz Rudkowski], “Malen’kii karaimskii roman,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 21-44. 333 N. Yablonovs’ka’s statement that two issues of the periodical appeared in print seems to be wrong (N. Yablonovs’ka, “Karaїms’ka presa pochatku XX stolittia” (www.turkolog.narod.ru)). 334 M. Németh prefers calling the local variety of Karaim “the Łuck subdialect of Łuck-Halicz Karaim” (Michał Németh, “North-Western and Eastern Karaim Features in a Manuscript Found in Łuck,” Studies on the Turkic World. A Festschrift for Professor St. Stachowski on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, ed. E. Mańczak-Wohlfeld and B. Podolak (Kraków, 2010), 75). Troki 79

2.4 Troki

2.4.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900

The community of Troki335 was most probably the oldest and the largest Karaite community in Poland-Lithuania. Unfortunately, most scholars (including the author of these lines) followed Jacob Mann’s conclusion regarding the fact that the earliest reference to the existence of the Karaite community in Troki is the ketubbah (marriage contract) of 1400.336 My own examination of the ketubbah in question,337 however, revealed that the early date of this document and the reference to Vitold’s name had been inserted there by a later hand, most likely by Abraham Firkowicz himself. This ketubbah dates back to a much later period, most likely to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries – which is still quite an early date for a document of this type. Thus, we are still at a loss with regard to the exact time of the arrival of the Karaites in Lithuania – and can only assume that it happened during Vitold’s reign (1392-1430). The earliest solid evidence of the Karaite presence in Lithuania is a copy of a letter from the Troki Karaite community to Constantinople from 1483/4).338 It appears from this letter that by 1483/4 the Karaite community had already been well-established in Troki. In addition to the Karaite community there also was a Rabbanite qehilah in the town.339 In 1646, however, in order to avoid the competition with the growing in number Rabbanites, the local Karaites send petition to the Polish government and asked to remove the Rabbanite population from the town. From that moment on until the Russian annexation of Poland-Lithuania, the Rabbanites were banned to trade and acquire property in the town.340 In 1804, about the time of the introduction of the Pale of Settlement and forced emigration of the Jewish population from villages to towns and cities, the Rabbanites again started moving to Troki. The Karaites, with the reference to the centuries-old edicts of the Polish kings, again sent petitions to the Troki municipal administration. As a consequence the Rabbanites were again forced

335 On the general history of Troki, see Władysław Zahorski, Troki i Zamek Trocki (Wilno, 1902); Baliulis, Stanislovas Mikulionis, and Algimantas Miškinis, Trakų miestas ir pilys: istorija ir architektūra (Vilnius, 1991) (on the Karaite community see esp. pp. 43-49, 77-81, 109-116, 137-149, 208- 210, 222-224). 336 Mann, Texts, 558. 337 NLR F. 946, Evr. I, Doc. II, no. 1 (3). 338 NLR F. 946, Evr. I Doc. II, no. 37-39. 339 In spite of the fact that the existence of the Rabbanite community in Troki leaves no doubts, present-day Karaite authors and many biased scholars and journalists often state that the Rabbanites appeared in the town only in the nineteenth century (on the existence of the Rabbanite community in the town, see Bałaban, “Karaici,” 59-60). 340 Bałaban, “Karaici,” 60-61. 80 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

to move out of the town. In 1862, however, the Rabbanites were allowed to return to Troki.341 Evidently, the Rabbanite newcomers took most of the trade in their hands so that many of the local Karaites were forced to leave the town in search for better life. There are, however, large discrepancies in the statistical data on the amount of the community. According to Iulii Gessen, there were only 172 Karaites living in the town in the 1830s.342 This number however does not seem to be true. According to the official data of 1860 there were 593 Karaites (298 men, 295 women) in the whole of the Vilenskaia guberniia (i.e. including Troki, Wilno, and the adjacent villages; ca. 400-500 from these 593 Karaites could belong to the Troki community).343 Juljan Talko-Hryncewicz supplies exaggerated number of 760 individuals in the community in 1863.344 The data supplied by Bałaban, who counted 610 Karaites in 1879, also seem to be exaggerated; the official census of 1897 speaks of only 377 individuals.345 Such discrepancy in statistical data may be explained by the remark of Jerzy Tochtermann who mentioned that the Karaites had often been included into and enumerated together with Tatar and Rabbanite inhabitants of Troki (with the former on the basis of their linguististic similarity, and with the latter – because of their Jewish religion).346 To sum up, we may suggest that at the end of the nineteenth century the population of the community could have hardly exceeded 400-500 Karaites.

2.4.2 General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918

In contrast to the community of Łuck, whose members were mostly civil workers and intelligentsia, the Troki Karaite community was very agricultural and even its highest religious authorities-ḥazzanim, in addition to their religious duties, often cultivated the soil. According to the memories of Helena Pilecka (Bezekowicz) Troki was divided into several districts starting from the entrance from Wilno side: Rogatka, Śródmieście, Karaimszczyzna, and Za Mostem. The Karaites mostly lived in the

341 For details see Iulii Gessen, “Bor’ba karaimov g. Trok s evreiami,” Evreiskaia starina 4:3 (1910): 569-579. 342 Gessen, “Bor’ba karaimov g. Trok,” 575. 343 “O naselenii Vilenskoi gubernii v 1860 godu,” in Pamiatnaia knizhka Vilenskoi gubernii na 1861 god, pt. 2 (Wilno, 1861), 73. 344 Juljan Talko-Hryncewicz, Z przeżytych dni (1850-1908) (Warsaw, 1930), 207. The author does not supply the source of his information, but we may suggest that it was hearsay or oral information of his Karaite informants. 345 I.e. 11.6% of the whole population of Troki (Bałaban, “Karaici,” 65; Sinani, “K statistike,” 30-31, 36). 346 Jan Jerzy Tochtermann, Troki. Zarys antropogeograficzny (Wilno, 1935), 14. Troki 81

northern part of the town, in the so-called Karaimszczyzna (Pol. “Karaite quarter”).347 At the beginning of the twentieth century the community had been compactly living along the Wielka Kowieńska Street,348 in the northern part of Troki, where they also had their agricultural plantations. The Rabbanite Jews had been living mostly in the central part of the town, whereas Christian population was living in the central and in the southern part. Multicultural atmosphere of everyday life in Troki was described in a short story by Michał Zajączkowski. The author recalls how he and other little Karaites greeted their neighbours in Karaim, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish depending on neighbours’ ethnicity.349 We do not seem to have too much data on the ethnic identity of the local Karaites before the First World War. An interesting insight into this problem may be provided by the testimony of the Finnish traveller Maila Talvio who visited Troki in 1894, i.e. a short while before the beginning of the twentieth century. The traveller reached Troki in a wooden carriage whose driver turned out to be a Karaite. Later, when the traveller visited the house of the driver, driver’s wife told him:

Think not that we are Jews. Many people think that that is what we are. We are Karaims, we live according to the pure law of Moses, we do not make ourselves guilty of the same gross iniquities as – the Jews.350

The traveller also noticed that the Karaite family which she visited fluently spoke both Russian and Polish. The fact that she does not mention either their command of Karaim, or of Hebrew demonstrates that the acquaintance of Maila Talvio with the community was more than superficial – a result of several hours only spent in the town.351 Tapani Harviainen, who published an English translation of the Karaite- related fragment from Talvio’s travel diary, interpreted it as a direct proof of non- Jewish and non-Semitic identity of the local Karaite community.352 In our opinion, however, one should take into account the fact that here the word “Jews” was used rather in the sense of “Rabbanite Jews.” When seeing a foreign “external” observer, and being aware of the danger of being enlisted among other Jewish inhabitants of Russian Empire, the Karaites would immediately inform such a visitor about the difference between the Karaites and Rabbanite Jews. The claim “We are not Jews”

347 Helena Pilecka (Bezekowicz), “Troki, Karaimszczyzna i moje ciocie,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 7. 348 On 5.09.1938 Wielka Kowieńska Street was renamed into Karaimska ulica (Pol. “Karaite Street;” see S.F. [Szemaja Firkowicz?], “Ulica Karaimska,” MK 12 (1939): 150). During Soviet times it became M. Melnikaitės Street; in the 1990s it again became “Karaite street” (Lith. Karaimų gatvė). 349 Michał Zajączkowski, “Sąsiad,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 8. 350 See Maila Talvio, “II. Two Towns in Western Russia, II: Troki,” transl. Michael Cox, 101-103, in Liisi Huhtala, and Tapani Harviainen, “Maila Talvio, a Finnish Authoress Visits the Karaims in Lithuania in 1894,” StOr 82 (Helsinki, 1997): 99-109. 351 See Talvio, “II. Two Towns in Western Russia, II: Troki,” 101-103. 352 Tapani Harviainen, “III. Karaims,” in ibid., 104. 82 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

should be understood here rather as “We are not [Rabbanite] Jews.” Statements of the local Karaites, which were expressed by them in Karaimskoe Slovo or Karaimskaia Zhizn’ and intended for the “internal” Karaite use, reveal a different picture. There the local Karaites often told about their “Israelite” self-identification and considered themselves part of the larger Jewish civilization (see 2.5.3).

2.4.3 Personalia a) Karaite ḥakham and Lecturer of Polish: Romuald (Romi

353 From 1868 to 1898 the duties of the Troki ḥakham had been fulfilled by Isaac Boaz (Bogusław) ben Zakhariah Kaplanovskii/Kapłanowski (1814 – d. Troki 12.07.1898). His gravestone with epitaphs in Hebrew and Russian is still standing in the nineteenth-century part of the Troki Karaite cemetery (as seen by M. Kizilov in April 2003). 354 His tombstone inscription, which was composed evidently after 1928, was published in Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 283-284. 355 See more about him in Seraja Szapszał, “Ś.p. hachan [sic for ḥakham] Romuald Kobecki (Z powodu 25-lecia jego zgonu),” MK 11 (1936): 80-84. Troki 83

Kobecki was eventually elected ḥakham of the community; at the time of his election he was 79.356 In contrast to Pinachas Malecki, who was an important Karaite exegete and translator, Kobecki appears to be a secular person known more for his pro-Polish sympathies than by his achievements as a religious authority. In 1903 the house of the ḥakham was visited by Talko-Hryncewicz. Kobecki made a highly-positive impression upon the anthropologist:

In the evening Pan Kobecki invited me for a cup of tea. In his study there laid a copy of the Old Testament in Turkish, in the liturgical language of the Karaites,357 right close to Sienkiewicz’s “With Fire and Sword”. We sat together with an old man until the late evening... He clearly remembered his grandfather, a citizen of Troki, who had worn a kontusz, and lived in the old house where Kobecki was born and grew up.358

The ḥakham died in Troki in 1911 at the age of 88.359 The Polish epitaph on his gravestone, erected in the Troki cemetery already during the Szapszał’s times, calls him in Szapszał’s manner, i.e. ḥachan and not ḥakham. However, the Hebrew epitaph provides us the full Hebrew name of the ḥakham (i.e. Romi

b) Isaac Boaz ben Nisan (Bogusław) Firkowicz (1865–1915) and the Lost Karaite Archive Isaac Boaz ben Nisan Firkowicz (a.k.a. Bogusław Firkowicz, b. Troki, 17.06.1865 – d. Sep. 1915, Ostrov).361 In spite of the fact that he was born in Troki, Isaac Boaz Firkowicz received his education in Ermeni Bazar (Armianskii Bazar or Armiansk) in Crimea where he studied under the guidance of Zachariah Kharchenko (Charczenko). In 1892, being quite a young man, he published a Russian translation of Hebrew

356 Talko-Hryncewicz, Z przeżytych dni, 207-208. 357 Apparently, one of the translations of the TaNaKh into Karaim. 358 Talko-Hryncewicz, Z przeżytych dni, 207-208. The scholar continued exchanging letters with Kobecki even during his stay in Siberia. 359 Some Karaite sources inform that the Troki ḥakham’s office had been already vacant since 1910 (Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, “Witaj, Pasterzu!” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 1; “J.E.H. Seraja Bej Szapszał,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 6). 360 As seen by M. Kizilov in April, 2003. Romuald Kobecki’s son, Józef Kobecki (1861-1917), worked as an engineer in Kiev and died during the revolution. 361 For more information on Isaac Boaz (Bogusław) Firkowicz, see “Z powodu 10-tej rocznicy zgonu,” MK 1:3 (1926): 17-18; Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Firkowicz Bogusław,” PSB 6 (1948): 473-474. 84 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

prayers collected by Abraham Firkowicz.362 This book, which became the first collection of Karaite prayers translated into Russian, was used, instead of the Karaites, mainly by the Subbotniki – Russian converts to the non-Talmudic, Karaite type of Judaism.363 While the attitude of the Karaite authorities towards the Subbotniki was rather ambivalent, Russian authorities usually treated them as dangerous sectarian renegades and apostates. Therefore, official publication of the prayerbook in Russian, which was intended specifically for the Subbotniki’ use, was interpreted by the Russian authorities as a challenge to their position with regard to the Subbotniki. As a consequence, a large part of this prayer-book was destroyed.364 Nevertheless, the position of Isaac Boaz Firkowicz in the society remained unmarred, despite his involvement in the prayerbook challenge. In 1901 he was appointed ḥazzan ha-qaṭan in Troki, and in 1905 – ḥazzan ha-gadol. In 1909, together with Jehuda Bezekowicz, Firkowicz published another collection of prayers, this time in Hebrew.365 This collection was entitled Tehillot Yisra

362 Poriadok molitv dlia karaimov, sostavlennyi vkratse Gakhamom i Glavnym uchitelem karaimov Avraamom Samoilovichem Firkovichem, transl. I.B.N. Firkovich, 2 vols. (Tsaritsyn, 1892-1896; 2nd ed. in 1 vol., Tsaritsyn, 1901). 363 Subbotniki (Sabbatarians) were Russian Judaizers (zhidovstvuiushchie), i.e., Russian converts to Judaism. Some converts, who were called “ghery” (gerim, Ghers), identified themselves with Rabbanite Judaism. Other Subbotniki, the so-called russkie karaimy or karaimity, did not recognize the authority of the Talmud and from the beginning of the nineteenth century started professing a type of Judaism somewhat similar to that of the Karaites. The attitude in official Karaite circles with regard to these “Russian Karaites” was rather negative. In 1917, however, the Karaite National Assembly in Eupatoria, headed by the reformer Seraja Szapszał, allowed marriages between the Russian Karaites- Subbotniki and the ethnic Karaites. After this, there were a few cases of mixed marriages between the Karaites and Subbotniki. Although they were racially non-Jews, many Subbotniki were executed by the Nazis during WWII. The Subbotniki lived mostly in the Volga and Astrakhan’ regions, the northern Caucasus, and Crimea. Some still live there today. For more information, see “O russkikh- karaimakh,” KZh 2 (1911): 81-82); Oleg Belyi, “Iz istorii etnicheskikh i konfessionaln’nykh kontaktov vostochnoevropeiskikh karaimov i subbotnikov (“russkikh karaimov”) v XIX – nachale XX vv.,” in Kultur’no-tsivilizatsionnyi dialog i puti garmonizatsii mezhetnichnykh mezhkonfessional’nykh otnoshenii v Krymu, ed. A.I. Aibabin (Simferopol, 2008), 222-268; Alexander L’vov, Sokha i Piatiknizhie (St. Petersburg, 2011); Mikhail Kizilov, “Rukopisnye dvevniki Ch.Ch.Stewena: neizvestnyi istochnik po istorii Kavkaza, Kryma i Yuzhnoi Rossii (s prilozheniem o subbotnikakh g. Aleksandrova, karaimakh, frankistakh i rossiiskom imperatore Aleksandre I),” Istoricheskoe nasledie Kryma 25 (2009): 140-151. 364 For details, see Alexander L’vov, “Delo o karaimskikh molitvennikakh,” Paralleli 4-5 (2004): 48-72. 365 Tehilot Yisra

of the large collection of Karaite documents and objects. In 1912 he had published in Wilno the Karaite calendar embracing the years from 1913 to 1918.366 In 1914, after the beginning of the First World War, Russian authorities evacuated most members of the Troki community Karaite to Russia together with their archive containing old Karaite documents, charters and privileges. Numerous expensive material objects such as Torah scrolls, brocade curtains, chandeliers, lamps, and suchlike also were taken away to evacuation. Isaac Boaz Firkowicz, who went with other members of the community to Russia, apparently was supposed to take care of this unique collection of Karaite documents and objects. Unfortunately, while being in the town of Ostrov in the vicinity of Pskov, Firkowicz suddenly died from an apoplectic stroke and the collection evidently remained unattended. As a consequence, when members of the Troki community returned after the end of the war to their home town, only some documents and objects found their way back to Troki.367 The fate of the rest of the collection remains a mystery. One highly curious archival document, a written request of the Karaite Semen Apollonovich Mashkevich (Maszkiewicz) to Soviet administration in Smolensk, mentions that even in 1926 there still were some Karaite archival documents in the possession of the local Soviet authorities. Maszkiewicz says that he had written his petition at the request of the Troki Karaites.368 It appears, however, that these documents were not returned to the community. Even more interesting is a testimony by Professor Bruno Adler who stated that in the 1920s numerous precious materials objects from Troki (Torah scrolls, brocade curtains, lamps, etc.), which had been evacuated from Lithuania during the First World War, ended up in a small town in Belorussia. At some point these objects were noticed by a certain “Herr Palaes aus Minsk” (according to Adler, he was “an outstanding expert in Jewish ethnography”) who delivered them to a certain Belorussian museum in Minsk.369 The later destiny of this collection remains unknown. Thus, it is quite probable that some objects and manuscript documents are still somewhere in Russian or Belorussian museums and archives.

c) Ḥazzanim Ananii Iefremovich Dubiński (d. 1913) and Zachariasz Mickiewicz (1842–1926) From 1903 to 1913 the duties of the junior ḥazzan in Troki were fulfilled by Ananiia Iefremovich Dubiński (b. ca. 1857 – d. Troki 6.01.1913; from 1899 to 1903 ḥazzan and teacher of Hebrew in Kherson). According to some data, in 1911 Dubiński carried out

366 Luḥot le-qviot roshei ḥodashim, ed. Isaac Boaz Firkowicz and Pinachas Malecki (Wilno, 1912). 367 The documents that were returned after the war were first kept in a special bookcase in the Troki Karaite synagogue; they were subsequently transferred to LMAB (see MS LMAB F. 301). 368 MS LMAB F. 301, no. 10, fol. 242. 369 Adler, “Krim-Karäer,” 128. 86 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

archaeological works on the Karaite cemetery in Troki which led to the discovery of the tomb of the famous Karaite physician, Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe of Troki (1595– 1666). Dubiński also left an unpublished collection of religious poetry and exegetical works.370 In his stead, another interesting Karaite figure, Z. Mickiewicz, was elected.371 Zachariah ben Micha

370 See the text of his tombstone inscription in Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 280; P. [Owadjusz or Mikhail Pilecki?], “Pamiati A.I. Dubinskogo,” KS 1 (1913), 11-13. In case something indeed happened to the tomb of Ezra ha-Rofe after 1854, when it was examined by Firkowicz, so that it was discovered only with the help of Dubiński’s excavations, the tomb (now standing in the very centre of the cemetery), seemed to be re-installed in its present-day place by Dubiński’s expedition. Alternatively, if we accept that it had been standing on the very same place since Firkowicz’s times, we should think that there was no need for archaeological efforts to “discover” the large and massive tomb standing in the very centre of this burial ground. For more information on Ezra ben Nisan, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe of Troki (1595-1666) – A Karaite Physician in Legend and History,” Leipziger Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur 1 (2003): 83-103; idem, “Karaite Joseph Ezra Dubitskii and King John III Sobieski: On Jewish Physicians, Christianity, and a Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscript from Windsor Castle,” East European Jewish Affairs 38:1 (2008): 45-64. 371 “Vybory mladshego gazzana,” KS 1 (1916): 16. 372 For the detailed analysis of his literary activity, see Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, LXXVI-LXXVII, 281-283. 373 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 281, ft. 2. 374 Jan Krywko, O ogórku Trockim (Wilno, 1926), 7-8, 19. 375 Aleksandra Szpakowska, “Hazzan Zachariasz Mickiewicz,” Awazymyz 1 (2009). Wilno 87

members revoked Mickiewicz’s position as ułłu ḥazzan and ḥakham as of 10.03.1922. Young Szemaja Firkowicz was elected in his stead.376 In 1925 J. Charczenko published Mickiewicz’s memoirs about his school years in the Troki Karaite midrasz where he had been once severely physically punished for studying Russian without the ḥazzan’s permission.377 T. Kowalski posthumously published Mickiewicz’s translation of the book of Job into Troki Karaim.378 From 1919 to 1920 the functions of the Troki ḥazzan were also fulfilled by another young Karaite, Rafael Abkowicz.

***

The largest Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania at the beginning of the twentieth century – that of Troki – was also the traditional centre of the local qehilot, the residence of the Troki ḥakham. The oldest Karaite cemetery in Lithuania, with the earliest tombstone monuments from the beginning of the sixteenth century, was also located in Troki. Although most of its members were farmers, the local community demonstrated a noteable number of learned men and high level of preservation of religious traditions. Among its intellectual leaders were important exegetes and translators of the Bible: Z. Mickiewicz, I. Firkowicz, P. Malecki and others.

2.5 Wilno

2.5.1 Short Survey of the History Before 1900

The first data on the existence of the Karaite community in Wilno date back to the eighteenth century, i.e. to the period after the plague epidemic of 1710. In the nineteenth century, when Wilno became the capital of the Vilenskaia guberniia, the growing Wilno Karaite community became one of the most well-to-do, Europeanized and educated Karaite communities in Eastern Europe. According to the census of 1897 there were 155 Karaites in Wilno.379

376 Sz. Firkowicz to S. Szapszał (1927, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 264, fols. 4r-9v). 377 [Zachariasz Mickiewicz], “On jednak będąc miłosierny? (Ze wspomnień starca sędziwego Z. M.) [recorded J. Charczenko],” MK 1:2 (1925): 29-32. 378 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 1-38. 379 Sinani, “K statistike,” 30-31, 36. 88 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

2.5.2 Rav Pinachas Malecki and the General State of the Community from 1900 to 1918

The small Karaite community of Wilno did not evoke much interest on the part of tourists, journalists, and scholars at the beginning of the twentieth century. In contrast to their counterparts in other towns of Rzeczpospolita, the local Karaites had neither ancient cemetery nor synagogue and precious manuscripts. This is why most of data about the community life can be found in the Karaite press and sources. The Wilno Karaite community consisted mostly of well-educated, Europeanized and Russified individuals. Many of the Wilno Karaites were successful merchants and owners of factories and shops with, perhaps, the most famous being the tobacco company “Szyszman and Duruncha” (Шишман и Дурунча). The company was founded in Wilno in 1865; in 1913 and 1914 the company traded in “Tiul’pan” (Russ. “tulip”) cigarettes.380 Another, less important, tobacco shop was owned by I.M. Kozyrowicz.381 Some local Karaites served in the city administration or were army officers. In 1902, “under the pressure of hostile elements of the local [i.e. Troki] Karaite community,”382 Pinachas383 ben Aharon (Finees/Felix Aaronovich) Malecki (1854– Wilno, 1928), from 1892 the senior ḥazzan and ḥakham of the Troki community, moved to Wilno. It is very likely that the opposition against Malecki in Troki was headed by Achiezer Zajączkowski’s (1855-1930) family.384 It appears that he started fulfilling the duties of the ḥazzan of the Wilno community from that moment. In 1911 the Karaites received a place for the construction of the kenesa in the Wilno district of Zwierzynieć, Grodzka Street 6. Although officially the kenesa’s architect was Russian Mikhail Prozorov (1860-1914),385 it was Malecki who elaborated the whole conceptual design and outlook of the building.386 He opened a new Karaite cemetery in 1914

380 See the advertising of the aforementioned tobacco company on the pages of KS in 1913-1914. 381 Ibid. 382 O.P. [Owadjusz Pilecki?], “F.A. Malecki,” KS 5 (1913): 9-12. 383 Sic for the Rabbanite Pinchas. The full name of Malecki runs as follows: Pinaḥas ben Aḥaron ben Avraham ha-shoṭer ben David ha-gabbai ben Simḥah Maleṣki. 384 Szymon Szyszman hinted that Ananiasz Zajączkowski and members of his family (i.e., evidently, his father, Achiezer) were on very hostile terms with Malecki (Szymon Szyszman, Przywódca duchowy Karaimów czy marnotrawca ich dziejowego dorobku kulturalnego? (Chicago, 1966), 14 [offprint from Ameryka-Echo 39-40]). 385 E.K., “Kienesa Karaimska w Wilnie,” MK 1 (1924): 23. 386 See small bilingual Russian-Hebrew leaflet containing prayers recited on the occasion of foundation of the kenesa: Pinachas ben Aharon Malecki, Seder ha-berakhah le-yom ha-naḥat even pinah le-binyan beit ha-kenesset le-edat ha- Qara

in the vicinity of Wilno so that the local Karaites did not have to perform burials in Troki.387 Traditionally-educated Malecki was very important exegete, author of liturgical poetry, and editor of many prayerbooks in Hebrew, Karaim and Russian.388 His command of Hebrew was so excellent that in 1907 he was appointed censor of the literature in Hebrew in the Vilenskii Komitet po delam pechati (Wilno Committee for Printing Affairs).389 His main achievement was having edited the four-volume Karaite siddur published in Wilno from 1891 to 1892. Conceivably, this siddur became the most standard prayerbook used by further generations of the Karaites both inside and outside Eastern Europe. This siddur was edited, corrected and prepared for publication largely by Pinachas Malecki; it was published by Jacob ben Joseph Szyszman in the press of the Rabbanite printer Judah Leib ben Eliezer Lipman (in Russian a.k.a. Л.Л. Мац; his printing house was located on Kvasnoi pereulok in Wilno).390 Malecki’s Karaim was so elaborate and scholarly that Tadeusz Kowalski published a section of his introduction in Karaim as “Ein Muster der gelehrten Prosa.”391 Kowalski, who personally knew Ribbi Pinachas, testified that in addition to the Troki dialect of Karaim, Malecki also spoke Crimean Tatar and Osmanlı.392 Although an expert in Hebrew, Malecki nevertheless wanted all members of the Karaite community – including those who could understand only Karaim and Russian – to understand the meaning of the Scripture and prayers. This is the reason that most of his scholarly activity was directed towards publication of translations from Hebrew into Karaim and Russian. He published his first collection of translations of various piyyuṭim and seliḥot into Troki Karaim in 1890.393 Ten years later, his Karaim translation of the Passover haggada appeared.394 In 1910 Malecki published even more interesting

387 Szemaja-bień-Awraham [Szemaja Firkowicz], “Jarych sahyncz abajły üriatiuwczugia P. Maleckigia (1854-1928),” MK 2:1 (1929): 47. 388 For an analysis of his manuscript and printed translations of the Bible into Karaim, see Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, LXXVII-LXVIII, 285-286, 289-290. 389 O.P., “F.A. Malecki,” 9-12. 390 Siddur tefillot ke-minhag ha-Qara

collection of prayers under the Hebrew title Qol Ya>akov (Jacob’s voice).395 This was perhaps the first collection of Karaite prayers for the entire liturgical year, complete with detailed notes and instructions about the prayers, religion, holidays and fast days – all in Russian. This shift to the visibly signified the growing importance of Russian as the main language of the Karaites in Eastern Europe. Because of its Russian texts Qol Ya>akov was also actively used by the Subbotniks.396 In 1914 Malecki left Wilno after the beginning of the war and returned there only in 1923.397 For some reason in the early 1920s there was another conflict between Malecki and the members of the Wilno community; this led to the dissolution of the recently organized Temporary Spiritual Consistory (Pol. Tymczasowy Zarząd Duchowny) which was supposed to take care of the Karaite religious and administrative matters in Wilno region.398 In 1927, i.e. a year before his death, Malecki published one more collection of prayers.399 Being a conservative and deeply religious person, Malecki was against Szapszał as a candidate for the office of ḥakham of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in 1 9 2 7. 400 By this time he also completed a translation of the Pentateuch and hafṭarot into Troki Karaim. The Karaite newspaper “Sahyszymyz” published in 1927 an appeal to sponsor the publication of these translations.401 This appeal, however, remained unanswered and the current whereabouts of Malecki’s manuscript translations remain unknown.

2.5.3 Publishing Activity: Periodical “Karaimskoe Slovo”

Wilno, which was the centre of Jewish printing in Eastern Europe, also became the centre of Karaite publishing activity. In contrast to Crimea, where the Karaites founded their own printing office, the Wilno Karaites printed their books in Rabbanite printing houses. As an example, it was in Wilno in 1872 in the printing press of Finn

395 Pinachas ben Aharon Malecki, Qol Yaakov/Glas Iakova, 2 vols. (Wilno, 1910). 396 In 2001 I met with a Moscow student, Victoria Dokuchaeva, whose Subbotnik grandmother had used this prayerbook for her personal devotions. The copy of this book is still held by in the family of this student, as a family treasure, although its members do not have any idea about the religious traditions of the Subbotniki. 397 [Firkowicz], “Jarych sahyncz abajły üriatiuwczugia,” 47. 398 The Yurchenko MSS Doc. 25. Sz. Firkowicz to Z. Zarachowicz (19.11.1923), fol. 1r (Russian with Polish, Hebrew, and Karaim insertions). On fol. 1v Firkowicz complains also about the animosity between the Wilno and the Troki communities. 399 Pinachas ben Aharon Malecki, Berakhot le-sheva shabatot ha-sefira: ke-minhag ha-Qara

and Rosenkranz that Abraham Firkowicz published his famous Avne Zikkaron.402 It was also in Wilno in the 1890s–1920s that Pinachas Malecki published his collections of prayers in Russian, Hebrew, and Karaim (see above). Thus, it is no wonder that it was in Wilno that the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites decided to publish a periodical in Russian, entitled “Karaimskoe Slovo” (Russ. “A Karaite Word”). Within less than two years (1913–1914), twelve issues of the periodical appeared. The periodical was published in the press of the Ialovtser brothers, who were Rabbanites. Its editor-publisher was the otherwise-unknown A.I. Szpakowski. However, it seems that the actual editor and the originator of its conceptual design was Ovadiia Il’ich Piletskii (Owadjusz Pilecki).403 Among those who contributed to the periodical were not only Polish-Lithuanian, but also Crimean Karaites. In addtion to “Karaimskoe Slovo”, two other Karaite periodicals printed before the First World War (“Karaimskaia Zhizn’” and “Sabakh”) were also published in Russian. This choice can be explained by two most important factors: first, the use of Russian showed the loyalty of the Karaites to the Russian government; second, before the First World War, Russian was understood by the majority of the Karaite population in Eastern Europe and, certainly, by all educated Karaites.404 Although most of the contributions were published in Russian, some verses were published in Troki Karaim in Cyrillic characters. Many of the articles preserved elements of the former Judeo-Karaite identity of their authors. One can find references to the Ten Lost of Israel as the Karaites’ alleged ancestors, discussions of the Firkowicz’s theories of the ancient Judaic origins of the Karaites,405 frequent references to the Torah, “Old-biblical language,”406

402 Firkowicz, Avne Zikkaron. 403 KS 11-12 (1914): 1. Ovadiia Il’ich Piletskii (a.k.a Owadjusz or Ovadia ben Eliahu Pilecki; 1884 – Wilno, 1930) edited KS from 1913 to 1914; in 1927 he published newspaper Sahyszymyz. For more information about his biography, see Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Owadja Pilecki,” KA 1 (1931): 23-24. In 1921 he published a short Karaite calendar for five years in Russian (Karaimskii kalendar’ na piat’ let ot 5682 po 5686 god, ed. O.I. Pilecki (Wilno, 1921)). 404 One should perhaps mention that the Russian used in the periodical often contained mistakes and misprints; many articles were written in awkward style and faulty grammar. 405 E.g. E.E. Troitskii, “Karaimy. Istoricheskii ocherk,” KS 6 (1914): 3-8; ibid., KS 7-8 (1914): 2-8. 406 Russ. “drevne-bibleiskii yazyk.” This term was a euphemism invented by the Karaites to designate Biblical Hebrew. In general, despite the fact that the periodical tried to preserve traditional Judeo- Karaite values, one seldom finds on the pages of “Karaimskoe Slovo” the word “Jew” or “Jewish” (Russ. evrei or evreiskii). These terms were used by the Karaites only with regard to the Rabbanites, and usually in a rather negative context. One of Crimean Karaite authors, Abraham ben Jacob Kokkei, in 1902, in his primer of the Hebrew language (!), did not use the word “Hebrew” (“ivrit”) a single time! Instead, he used the euphemism lashon toratenu ha-qedoshah (Heb. “the language of our Holy Torah”) (Tapani Harviainen, “Three Hebrew Primers, the Pronunciation of Hebrew among the Karaims in Crimea, and Shewa,” in Built on Solid Rock. Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen, ed. Elie Wardini (Oslo, 1997), 103). It is of interest that at the end of the nineteenth century some Russian Karaites used the Russian term karaimskii iazyk… to designate Hebrew (and not the Turkic Karaim language!) They did so, perhaps, in order to emphasize the fact that they were the only true followers of the Torah whose national (karaimskii) language was the language of the Hebrew Bible. 92 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

Jerusalem407 and other traditional Judeo-Karaite values.408 One can even find Stars of David used as a decorative element in some of the articles.409 Karaite authors often published their contributions under Hebrew pennames such as Dover-Emet, Middor- El-Dur, and Ben-Ammo. Much space was dedicated to the most significant problem of Karaism in Eastern Europe, namely, the election of a new Troki and Eupatoria ḥakhamim whose offices remained unoccupied from 1911.410 Much attention was also devoted to the demographic situation of the Karaites in Eastern Europe. One cannot help noticing that most of the articles dedicated to this problem carried a quite pessimistic and sorrowful character and predicted the fast disappearance of the Karaites as an ethnic entity. In addition to the aforementioned polemical and historical articles, novels, poems, advertisements, and a chronicle of events also were published on the pages of “Karaimskoe Slovo”. One may notice that the periodical, as is mentioned on the introductory page of the first issue,411 was far from being ideologically and politically censored. Sometimes it presented a mixture of absolutely polar-opposite opinions and views. Thus, for example, in spite of the general traditionally “Biblical” atmosphere of the periodical, one of its authors, Abraham Szyszman, openly expressed his views about the possibility of the ethnic amalgamation of the medieval Karaites with the Khazars.412

407 E.g. pictures from Jerusalem and its vicinity (“Vid zdaniia v Ierusalime, gde nahoditsia grobnitsa tsaria Davida i semi izrail’skikh tsarei posle nego,” KS 7-8 (1914): frontal page and p. 2; “Mestnost’ v Ierusalime, gde nekogda zhili izrail’tiane,” KS 9-10 (1914): frontal page and p. 4); cf. R., “Son karaima,” KS 7-8 (1914): 15-16. 408 One Karaite author in his letter to KS suggested teaching the following subjects in school: 1) Law of the Torah; 2) History of the Bible; 3) History of Israel; 4) Objectives of the Karaite faith (S. E., “Pis’mo v redaktsiiu,” KS 7-8 (1914): 24). This S.E. is apparently Saadiah Semenovich El’iashevich/Eljaszewicz who published other works of pedagogical character (e.g. [Saadiah Semenovich El’iashevich/ Eljaszewicz], Priroda i zhizn’, pt. 1 (Moscow, 1894). Equally symptomatic is the novel by M.S. Sinani which contains contemplations on the necessity of following religious traditions. The hero of the novel, Emmanuil Moiseevich Firkowicz, leaves the building of the kenesa on the Paskha (Pesaḥ) and goes back home where, to his bitter sorrow, nobody remembers how to celebrate the holiday (M.S. Sinani, “Prostil,” KS 9-10 (1914): 4-10). 409 E.g. KS 1 (1913): 6; ibid., 2 (1913): 20; KS 5 (1913): 4; KS 7-8 (1913): 16; KS 9-10 (1913): 4. At that time this traditional Jewish symbol, in the context of the frequent and drastic Jewish pogroms, became rather non-welcomed in the Karaite circles. Nevertheless, as can be seen even in the case of KS, magen David still continued to be used by the Karaites even in the 1910s (and later as well). 410 “K vyboram tavricheskogo gakhama,” KS 2 (1913): 1-2; “K vyboram gakhama,” KS 2 (1913): 16- 20; E.E. Troitskii, “Kakoi gakham nuzhen karaimskomu narodu?”, KS 5 (1913?): 1-2; “K karaimskomu obshchestvu,” KS 5 (1913?): 3-4; T-ii [E.E. Troitskii?], “K vyboram tavricheskogo gakhama,” KS 7-8 (1914): 1-2; R., “Son karaima,” KS 7-8 (1914): 11-16; “K vyboram gakhama,” KS 9-10 (1914): 15-16; Mladokaraim, “Svetloe,” KS 11-12 (1914): 7-9; “Otkaz A.I. Kryma ot gakhamstva,” KS 11-12 (1914): 25. 411 “K karaimskomu obshchestvu,” KS 1 (1913): 1. 412 Abraham Szyszman, “Istoricheskaia zametka,” KS 5 (1913): 13. On Avraham Szyszman, the author of several articles, and a collector of the Karaite folklore, see 3.5.4. The Role of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the All-Karaite Events of the 1910s 93

Most other authors, however, despite their mentioning the fact that the medieval Khazars had been converted to the Karaite faith (Russ. “Karaimism”), still considered descendants of the ancient Israelites to be the Karaites’ only forebearers.413 Thus, it seems that only a few local Karaites could have been influenced by the ideas about the Khazar origins of East European Karaites. Most still shared Firkowicz’s and earlier Karaite authors’ theories about the ancient Israelite origin of the Karaites. It appears that in March-April 1914 “Karaimskoe Slovo” started experiencing certain financial problems.414 The situation worsened in May-June 1914 when its main editor, O. Pilecki, left Wilno and thus stopped editing the periodical.415 The issue dated May-June 1914 was destined to be the last issue of the periodical. The First World War and later the Russian Revolution put an end to the existence of this interesting literary enterprise.

2.6 The Role of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the All-Karaite Events of the 1910s

The 1910s were marked with several all-Karaite events which eventually defined and determined the running of Karaite history in the whole of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, who constituted only about ten percent of Russia’s Karaite population, played a minimal role in all these events. Nevertheless, it is still important to examine their reaction to the changes introduced by their Russian brethren and to analyze their exact role in these events. The first national Karaite Assembly of 1910 was undoubtedly one of the most important events in the life of the Karaites in the twentieth century. On the agenda of the Assembly (which took place from 1.11 to 9.11.1910) the following items were discussed: 1. changes of some articles in the statute of the Taurida and Odessa Karaite Religious Consistory; 2. changes of the traditional rituals (marriage laws, travel during the holidays, kindling a light on a Sabbath) “in accordance with the spirit of the present time;” 3. organization of proper religious and moral education for Karaite youth; 4. measures for maintenance of the Karaite shrines – the town of Çufut Kale and the Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem; 5. amount of financial contributions necessary to maintain TOKDP and finance other needs of the Karaite community;

413 E.E. Troitskii, “Karaimy. Istoricheskii ocherk,” KS 7-8 (1914): 6; idem, “Mangup-Kale,” KS 9-10 (1914): 1-3; M.I. Firkowicz, “Poezdka v Mangup,” KS 7-8 (1914): 10. 414 See KS 9-10 (1914): second page of the cover of the periodical. 415 KS 11-12 (1914): 2. 94 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

6. request to the government to grant the Karaites additional rights (the right to be elected as jurymen and assizes, official permission to teach the Karaim language and religion in schools); 7. transformation of Aleksandrovskoe karaimskoe dukhovnoe uchilishche (Alexander’s Karaite spiritual college) into a progymnasium.416

The assembly accepted the following radical reforms: 1) a husband was allowed to marry his sister-in-law after the death of his wife; 2) two brothers were allowed to marry two sisters; 3) allowing the kindling of candles before the beginning of the Sabbath; 4) travel was allowed during the festive days (except for the Sabbath and Yom Kippur).417 In spite of the officially-announced status of the assembly as the first “national” all-Karaite event, in fact, the assembly gathered the representatives of the Karaites mostly living in Crimea and other “Russian” parts of the Russian Empire. Only one member of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities – Isaac Boaz (Bogusław) ben Nisan Firkowicz – was invited to take part in the work of the assembly. One Karaite author, who preferred not to indicate his name (it seems that he was from Poland- Lithuania), left quite a critical evaluation of the work of the assembly on the pages of Karaimskaia Zhizn’. He rebuked its president, Samuel Panpulov, for his decision to make the Assembly closed to journalists, and for not publishing materials from the Assembly afterwards.418 Equally critical with regard to the work of the Assembly was the Łuck Karaite Sergiusz (Sergei) Rudkowski, who, in the darkest colours, depicted the stuffy atmosphere of the “First All-Russian Karaite Assembly”.419 Rudkowski, who as a journalist was not even allowed to be present during the sessions of the assembly of 1910, provided interesting data on the antagonism between Crimean and Lithuanian Karaite communities, and on the position of the Łuck community with regard to this antagonism. Rudkowski claimed that “‘Crimea’ and ‘Lithuania’ are carrying out a harsh and senseless fight for the leadership... this is why these [ḥakham’s] elections, in fact, are nothing new, but an old, known way of our brotherly rivalry on the ground

416 Aleksandrovskoe karaimskoe dukhovnoe uchilishche (Александровское караимское духовное училище) was a religious college in Eupatoria so named after the miraculous delivery of the Russian Tsar Alexander III from a train-wreck at Borki in 1888. Opened on 21.02.1895, it served mainly to train Karaite hazzanim (whence its Hebrew name – beit midrash hazzanim), and to provide vocational and religious education for Karaite youth. It was closed soon after the Russian revolution of 1917. Its building, which was erected in 1913, survives to this day (for more information, see BK, 674-677). 417 “Pervyi natsional’nyi karaimskii s’’ezd v Evpatorii,” KZh 1 (1911): 70-86. 418 “Eshche o pervom natsionalnom s’’ezde,” KZh 2 (1911): 59-63. 419 S.Z. Rudkovskii [Sergjusz Rudkowski], “V Yevpatoriiu i obratno,” KS 3-4 (1913): 5-9. The Role of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the All-Karaite Events of the 1910s 95

of general greed.”420 He asked the Troki Karaites “to liquidate their [i.e. Troki] Spiritual Consistory, which had been transformed, by some evil fate, into a fortified castle.” In his opinion, the Troki community had to forsake its separatist tendency and join, both in cultural and administrative sense, its larger and more influential Crimean brother.421 Other materials published in the Łuck Karaite periodical “Sabakh” in 1914 demonstrate that despite their official belonging to the Troki ḥakham’s diocese, the Łuck Karaites were quite indifferent with regard to the Troki community and felt much closer to Crimean Karaites.422 Two important-yet-tragic events befell the East European Karaite community, soon after the end of the Assembly. In 1911 the East European Karaites lost their two religious and administrative heads: the Troki ḥakham Romuald Kobecki and Taurida and Odessa ḥakham Samuel Panpulov.423 The years of bezgakham’e (Russ. “lack of ḥakhamim, ḥakhamlessness” – the term used by one contemporary Karaite author to denote the absence of the ḥakhamim after 1911) that followed these two deplorable events to a great extent determined the election of the secular leader Seraja Szapszał to the office of the Taurida ḥakham in 1915. While reading the articles published on the pages of three Karaite periodicals published before the First World War (Karaimskaia Zhizn’, Karaimskoe Slovo, and Sabakh) one may notice that from 1912 onwards, the challenging need for the election of new ḥakhamim became one of the most important issues for East European Karaism. Polish-Lithuanian Karaite authors also actively contributed to the polemics related to this problem.424 Their articles provide important data regarding the circumstances that led to the election of Seraja Szapszał to the ḥakham’s office. In these articles, most of which have highly polemical and bitter

420 The fact that in addition to brotherly love and friendship, there were sometimes tensions between Crimean and Polish Karaites is also supported by a letter from Yulia Kovshanly, a Crimean Karaite who lived in interwar Berlin. She mentioned that Ananiasz Zajączkowski – a Troki Karaite himself – once accused Crimean Karaites of being too Jewish; she vigorously objected (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fol. 2r). 421 S.Z. Rudkovskii [Sergjusz Rudkowski], “K vyboram Gakham-bashi,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 7-11. This article, written in ironic Russian, also reflects upon the conflict that started in the mid-nineteenth century when Polish-Lithuanian community separated itself from Crimean hakhamat to establish its own Spiritual Consistory. 422 “K vyboram Gakhama,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 45. 423 Samuil Moiseevich/Shemu’el ben Mosheh Panpulov (Eupatoria, 1831 – Eupatoria, 1911; sometimes spelled as Pampulov) Crimean hakham from 1880 to 1911 (for more information, see BK, 211). 424 S.Z. Rudkovskii [Sergjusz Rudkowski], “K vyboram Gakham-bashi,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 7-11; “K vyboram tavricheskogo gakhama,” KS 2 (1913): 1-2; “K vyboram gakhama,” KS 2 (1913): 16-20; E.E. Troitskii, “Kakoi gakham nuzhen karaimskomu narodu?”, KS 5 (1913?): 1-2; “K karaimskomu obshchestvu,” KS 5 (1913?): 3-4; T-ii [Troitskii?], “K vyboram tavricheskogo;” R., “Son karaima,” KS 7-8 (1914): 11-16; “K vyboram gakhama,” KS 9-10 (1914): 15-16; Mladokaraim, “Svetloe,” KS 11-12 (1914): 7-9; “Otkaz A.Y. Kryma ot gakhamstva,” KS 11-12 (1914): 25; L...., “Odin gakham dla vsekh karaimov,” KS 9-10 (1914): 1-3. 96 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

character, one can clearly see within the Karaite society of the 1910s the discrepancy of opinions with regard to the figure of Szapszał. On the one hand, one may find there high testimonials praising Szapszał, and most bitter and dark representations of this figure, on the other. The article which suggested election of only one ḥakham for the whole of Eastern Europe instead of two is especially significant.425 In 1927 S. Szapszał, who remained the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham even after his emigration from Crimea in 1919/1920, was also elected the Troki ḥakham. This means that after 1927 he indeed became sort of a unified ḥakham both for the Russian and Polish- Lithuanian communities. The debates of 1914 concerning the election of new ḥakhamim were disrupted by the beginning of the First World War. The Troki Karaites, headed by Isaac Boaz (Bogusław) Firkowicz who had been temporarily fulfilling duties of the Troki ḥakham, were evacuated into Russia’s hinterland. Many Karaites took part in military activities as the Russian army soldiers; the Halicz Karaites were recruited into the Austrian army. It is highly symptomatic that it was at this very moment (1915) that Seraja Szapszał finally managed to overcome the resistance of his opponents and agreed to become the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham. Subsequently, as we demonstrate in Chapter 4, Szapszał reformed the Karaite religious tradition and forged a new self-identification for the community.

2.7 Beginnings of Dejudaization: Kenesa/Kenasa – an Official Name for a Karaite Synagogue

Today East European Karaites usually use the term kenesa to denote their houses of prayer. In Russian it is used usually in its indeclinable form, with the stress on the last syllable – кенасá/kenasá. In scholarly Russian literature, this term would decline according to the cases of nouns in Russian grammar, with the double “s” and with the stress placed on the one before the last syllable (кенáсса/kenássa). There is a certain incorrect tendency among some scholars to present the term kenesa and its derivatives as a late phenomenon that appeared only after the reform of 1910/1911.426 In fact, this term definitively predates 1911 and dates back to much earlier times. Practically all East European Karaite sources written in Hebrew in the early modern times and in the nineteenth century used the traditional Hebrew term beit ha-knesset (translated into English as “synagogue”) to designate Karaite houses of prayer. Nevertheless, East European Karaites often used the term kenesa/kenasa (sing.; pl. kenesalar/kenasalar) as a colloquial substitute for the official and literary beit ha-knesset. The word kenesa

425 L...., “Odin gakham.” 426 A.G. Gertsen and Y.M. Mogarichev, Krepost’ dragotsennostei. Chufut-Kale. Kyrk-Or (Simferopol, 1993), 96. Beginnings of Dejudaization: Kenesa/Kenasa – an Official Name for a Karaite Synagogue 97

and its more literary equivalent kenasa were borrowed by the Turkic languages of the East European Karaites (Tatar in Crimea, and Karaim in Poland-Lithuania) from Arabic. Arabic, in its turn, borrowed it from .427 Essentially, this term goes back to the Semitic root k-n-s in the sense of “to assemble, to gather together”. Thus, kenasa/kenesa/kanista – including its derivatives and variants – means essentially “the place for gathering”, i.e. practically the same as beit ha-knesset. To my knowledge, the earliest written usage of the term kenesa for the designation of a Karaite house of prayer is to be found in the poems in the Galician variant of the Karaim language by the seventeenth-century Volhynian Karaite poet Joseph ben Yeshuah.428 To give another early example, the term kienesa can also be found in the Karaim translation of the travel diary of Benjamin ben Elijah to Palestine; although the travel diary dates back to 1785, the Karaim translation is from the beginning of the nineteenth century.429 In the document of 1894 the Troki Karaite prayer house is called at the same time kenesa and sinagoga; the documents from 1907–1908 also contained these two terms to designate Karaite houses of prayer.430 Duvan’s cathecism from 1890 also concurrently employs both terms.431 Rabbanite fairy tales included in the nineteenth- century Crimean Karaite mecuma (collection of folklore) also employ the term kenesa (кäнäса) to designate a Jewish house of prayer.432 All these sources show that the term kenesa was in common use among the East European Karaites well before the reform of 1911. When, at the end of the eighteenth century, most East European Karaites (apart from the Halicz and Kukizów communities) became citizens of the Russian Empire, in addition to the terms beit ha-knesset and kenesa/kenasa, they used the term “synagogue” (Russ. синагога; Pol. synagoga) as the direct translation of the Hebrew beit ha-knesset. To give one example out of many, in 1898 ḥakham Samuel Panpulov called the Karaite houses of prayer “nashi sinagogi” (Russ. “our synagogues”).433 At the end of the nineteenth century, apparently after the wave of the pogroms of the 1880s, when the synagogues had often been attacked by the pogromists, there appeared an

427 Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 182; cf. Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 216. 428 The poet notes that weren ettiłer kahałłarny da kenesałarny (GVKar. “the communities and the kenesalar were destroyed) ([Joseph ben Yeshuah], “II. Tarłyhyndan gałutnun,” KA 2 (4) (1932): 20). In another poem he refers to the prayer houses of Jerusalem as to aziz kenesałary (GVKar. “holy kenesałar;” [Joseph ben Yeshuah], “I. Bijłer biji, nek cydajsen…” ibid., 19). 429 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Opis podróży do Ziemi Świętej,” MK 2:3-4 (1931): 33, 37. 430 MS LMAB F. 301, no. 295, fol. 14; ibid., no. 326. 431 Yakov Veniaminovich Duvan, Katikhizis: osnovy karaimskogo zakona (St. Petersburg, 1890), 71, 99, 106. 432 Vasilii Radlov [Wilhelm Radloff], Obraztsy narodnoi literatury severnykh tiurkskikh plemen, t. 7: Narechiia krymskogo poluostrova/Proben der Volkslitteratur der nördlichen türkischen Stämme, vol. 7: Die Mundarten der Krym (St. Petersburg, 1896), 361, 367-368. 433 TOKDP to the Troki Karaite Spiritual Consistory, no. 659, Eupatoria, 2.09.1898, Russian (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 28r). 98 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

idea among the East European Karaites of replacing the term synagogue with the word kenesa/kenasa. This idea should be considered one of the rare and highly interesting pre-Szapszał manifestations of the Karaite dejudaization tendencies, motivated, first of all, by the wish to avoid the undesirable Jewish connotation connected to the term “synagogue”. The first attempts to officially replace the term “synagogue” date back to the 1890s. The idea of the replacement originated, somewhat surprisingly, not in Crimea but in Troki. In 1892 the Troki ḥakham (apparently, Isaac Boaz (Bogusław) ben Zakhariah Kaplanovskii/Kapłanowski), who evidently felt that this was the high time for the Karaites to get completely disassociated from the Rabbanites, sent to the Tsar Alexander III a petition. In it he asked not to place the Karaites on the same legal footing as the Rabbinic Jews and not to include them into official statistic as “Jews”. Nota bene, he mentioned that during the pogroms of 1881 the Karaites did not suffer because “the Russian people do not consider the Karaites to be Jews and do not recognize that they are enemies of mankind as Jews.”434 In 1892/1893 the Troki ḥakham sent another plea to the Ministry of the Interior, asking permission to call the Karaite prayer houses by the Biblical term kenesa, rather than synagogue.435 It is also of interest here that the Troki Karaite authorities contacted the Tsar and Ministry of Interior not through the mediation of TOKDP (Taurida and Odessa Karaite Spiritual Consistory), but independently and directly – without even informing TOKDP of their actions. This shows once again that relations between the two ḥakhamat’s at the time were not particularly friendly. The reaction of Crimean Karaite authorities was mildly negative. They replied that although they were in general agreement with the idea of the Troki ḥakham about the replacement of the term “synagogue,” they found this problem too insignificant, in view of the fact that the legal distinction between Rabbanites and Karaites had already been determined by the Russian monarch a long time ago. TOKDP also used a philological argument against the replacement. In their opinion, “kenesa is not a biblical term, as Mr. Troki ḥakham says; it is not found anywhere in the books of the Old Testament, and came into existence after the destruction of the Second Temple and is applied in exactly the same way, without distinction, both to the Karaite and houses”.436 Crimean Karaite authorities were certainly incorrect here. The term kenesa has not been usually applied to the Rabbanite synagogues, only to

434 Russ. “русский народ не считает караимов евреями и не признает их врагами человечества, как евреев” (Yulii Gessen, “Pravovoe polozhenie karaimov v Rossii,” EE 9, 295). To our knowledge, the original of this plea did not survive. 435 The letter of the Minister of Interior to TOKDP, 28.05.1893, Russian (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 572, fol. 1). According to Y. Gessen, the Karaites asked to replace the term караимская синагога with караимский собор (Gessen, “Pravovoe polozhenie,” 295). 436 The letter of TOKDP to the Minister of Interior, no. 387, 14.06.1893, Russian (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 572, fols. 2-3). Beginnings of Dejudaization: Kenesa/Kenasa – an Official Name for a Karaite Synagogue 99

those of the Karaites; apparently, they confused it here with the Hebrew term beit ha-knesset which was indeed applied both to Karaite and Rabbanite synagogues. In spite of this, the Troki ḥakhamim continued their attempts to replace the term “synagogue.” On 7.08.1898 the Troki Karaite Spiritual Consistory (this time headed apparently by Pinachas Malecki) sent another official letter to the Taurida and Odessa Consistory with the same suggestion of replacing the term “synagogue” with the term kenesa. The reaction of Crimean authorities this time was exactly the same: they again mentioned the fact that they find this problem too insignificant to worry the monarch.437 Thus, on this occasion this radical reform was, again, rejected. However, at the same time, ḥakham Panpulov suggested a different, equally-radical reform. In his opinion, the terms ḥakham, ḥazzan, and shammash should have been substituted by other terms.438 This time it was the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites’ turn to reject a proposal. The Łuck ḥazzan Zachariah Rojecki definitely was against it and said that he “[did] not see any grounds for changing the title of Gakham, Gazzan and Shammash”.439 It seems that Poniewież and Troki ḥazzanim also did not accept this suggestion. It took about a dozen years for TODKP to change their opinion on the terms synagogue and kenesa. In 1911, Samuel Panpulov (this time, it appears, at his own initiative) sent a petition to the Ministry of Internal Affairs seeking their permission to “rename the Karaite synagogue in the kennasa [sic].”440 At the same time, the acting Troki ḥakham Isaac Boaz Firkowicz – in response to the formal request of the Department of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – reported that the term “kennasa, being derived from the ancient biblical- language root of the verb kanos (to assemble), can be used instead of the term synagogue.”441 From that point, with the permission of the Russian government, the Karaites started officially referring to their synagogue by the term kenesa, and its derivatives. In spite of the implementation of this radical reform, one can still find the term synagogue used by East European Karaites in the 1910s; later, the use of the word almost completely ceased by them because of its obvious Jewish connotation. On the pages of the Karaite press before the First World War one can find such varied spelling of the term kenesa as Kenes, kennasa, kenassa, kenasa, kienesa, kieniesa, kensa and

437 TOKDP to the Troki Karaite Spiritual Consistory, nr 659, Eupatoria, 2.09.1898, Russian (LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 28r). 438 Ḥakham Panpulov to Troki Consistory, 2.09.1898, Russian (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 28r). 439 LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 34. 440 “O naimenovanii ‘kennasa’,” KZh 1 (1911): 109. 441 Ibid. 100 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

more.442 In Hebrew, nevertheless, Karaite houses of prayer continued to be called beit ha-knesset. The importance of this dejudaization reform should not be underestimated: for the first time in their history, the East European Karaites rejected a traditional Hebrew term and replaced it with a different one – without a Jewish connotation. This reform should be viewed as the precursor of later Szapszał’s reforms which were aimed at the replacement of traditional Hebrew terms by Turkic, or invented, ones. It does not appear to be a coincidence that in the same 1911 – the year of the decision on the ban on the term “synagogue” – the Taurida and Odessa Karaite Consistory accepted another radical regulation. According to this regulation there was a prohibition on mixed marriages between Karaites and other ethnic and religious groups (be it with Jews, Slavs or other ethnicities). This decision was directed primarily against mixed marriages of the Karaites and Rabbanite Jews (for more details, see below).

2.8 The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion from Karaism to Rabbanite Judaism (and Vice Versa)

The position of the Rabbanite authorities concerning intermarriage with Karaites and acceptance of Karaites in the Rabbanite community was not unanimous.443 Written documents attest that in medieval Byzantium, and especially in Egypt, cases of intermarriage between Karaites and Rabbanites were considered a normal legal practice. Early Karaite halakhah also permitted marriages with Rabbanites.444 The spouses of such mixed families were allowed to retain their religious views, providing that they would not offend each other’s feelings. Members of such families, nevertheless, had to overcome numerous problems caused by the discrepancy in the Karaite and Rabbanite religious calendars.445 After the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, one cannot find mixed betrothal and marriage contracts. This change came from such an authoritative Rabbanite scholar as Rambam (a.k.a. Maimonides/ Moses ben Maimon; 1138–1204), who argued that the Karaite bill of divorce was

442 KZh 1 (1911): 73, 85, 92, 103, 109, 119. Of interest to note that the Krymchaki Jews (a.k.a. Qrymchaks/ Qırımçaqlar – a small Rabbanite community of Crimea’s Turkic-speaking Jews) also followed the same pattern of dejudaization as the East European Karaites: present day Krymchaki authors call their synagogues with the substitute kaal (Russ. къаал), itself a derivative from Hebrew qahal. 443 Numerous cases of the Karaites’ conversion to Christianity will not be discussed here. 444 Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, “Early Karaite Family Law,” in KJ, 277-278. 445 Mann, Texts, 171-175, 177-180; S.D. Goitein, “A Maghrebi Living in Cairo Implores His Karaite Wife to Return to Him,” JQR 73:2 (1982): 138-145. For a discussion regarding the problems which mixed Karaite-Rabbanite couples faced in medieval Egypt, see Rustow, “Karaites Real and Imagined,” 43- 48. The scholar discussed there a most unusual case of a Rabbanite couple from Toledo which had converted to Karaism in 1057 – but then rejoined the Rabbanite community. The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion 101

invalid – and opened the possibility of illegitimacy of the prospective offspring.446 Maimonides, his ideological campaign against Karaism notwithstanding, was of the opinion that one should sustain friendly relations with the Karaites, and that every effort should be made to return them to Talmudic Judaism.447 It is unclear what the procedure of “return” to Rabbinic Judaism entailed, but apparently it included the oral recognition of the authority of the and the Talmud. In the sixteenth century, a few European and Egyptian rabbis discussed the question of permitting intermarriage of Rabbanites with Karaites, and the “return” of the latter to the Rabbanite fold. While the position of the Turkish rabbis Solomon Cohen of Salonica (ca. 1516-1595) and Elijah Mizrahi (ca. 1450–1526) remains unclear,448 some of their contemporaries (e.g. David Abu Ibn Zimra and Jacob Castro) were inclined to permit them. Nevertheless, several other rabbis (Solomon Gavison, Bezalel Ashkenazi, Joseph Caro, Samson of Sens, and Moses Mitrani) forbade such marriages.449 The final word in the discussion, it seems, was pronounced by Rabbi Moses Isserles, who categorically banned mixed Rabbanite–Karaite marriages in his glosses to the Shulḥan Arukh.450 In one of his studies, the twentieth-century Rabbanite scholar, Zvi Cahn, published a Hebrew text which was, in his opinion, an excerpt from the Responsa of the aforementioned Elijah Mizrahi. According to this excerpt, a Karaite desirous of conversion to Rabbanism was supposed first to convert to another religion (be it Christianity or Islam), and only then would he be allowed to embrace Rabbinic Judaism on the same legal footing as non-Jews.451 According to Cahn, this regulation was later included in Joseph Caro’s Shulḥan Arukh, the sixteenth-century code of Rabbinic Judaism which was accepted in most Jewish communities in Europe and other parts of the world.452 However, according to Alfred Eidlisz, the text published by Cahn is not to be found either in any editions of Mizrahi’s Responsa or in the Shulḥan Arukh. Furthermore, Alfred Eidlisz suggested that, for some unknown reason, Cahn had falsified this text.453 Whatever the case may be, according to Johann Rittangel, in

446 Olszowy-Schlanger, “Early Karaite Family Law,” 278. 447 Schur, Karaite Encyclopedia, 191-192. 448 Elijah b. Abraham (Re’em) Mizraḥi was a Turkish rabbi and mathematician. An enemy of the Karaites in his youth, he became friendlier towards them in his old age. Some students of his biography state that he completely rejected on halakhic grounds the permissibility of intermarriage between Karaites and Rabbanites (Jacob Habermann, “Mizrahi, Elijah,” EJ 12, 182-184), while others are of the opinion that he was inclined to permit them (Danon, “Karaites in European Turkey,” 318-321). 449 Ibid., 321, 334-336. 450 Daniel J. Lasker, “Karaite Leadership in Times of Crisis,” in Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality, vol. 1, ed. Jack Wertheimer (New York, 2004), 222. 451 See his Responsum no. 28 reproduced in Zvi Cahn, The Rise of the Karaite Sect (New York, 1937), 118. 452 Ibid. 453 Alfred Eidlisz, private communication of 18 May 2007. 102 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

seventeenth-century Lithuania the Rabbanites were more willing to accept a Muslim or a heathen into their community than a Karaite.454 Ebenezer Henderson (1821) mentioned that “if they [the Rabbanites of Łuck] saw a Christian in danger of being drowned, it would be their duty to make a bridge of a Karaite in order to rescue him.... they will not receive a Karaite into their communion until he has previously made a profession of the Mohammedan or Christian faith.”455 The quotation shows that even if Cahn’s citation is not genuine, there indeed was a rule among the Rabbanite authorities that Karaites should not be converted into Rabbanite Judaism directly from Karaism. The existence of such a regulation is also corroborated by the case of Zarach and Jacob-Joseph Leonowicz (see below). Needless to say, such a rigorist and intolerant attitude, so different from medieval Rabbinic legislation, could not promote integration of the Karaites into the Rabbanite community and vice versa. The sources are normally rather silent concerning the cases of conversion to a different religion. This meagre information concerning the question of conversion in both Karaite and Rabbanite sources may be explained first of all by the unwillingness of both communities to recognize that such apostasies took place at all. We do not know too much about the attitude of the Karaite authorities to this problem before 1911. One may assume that there were certainly cases of intermarriage and acceptance of Rabbanites in Karaite communities, and of Karaites in Rabbanite ones. An individual accepted into a new community, however, most likely tried to forget about his or her past, and would hardly transmit information about it to his posterity. It is known that the famous medieval Karaite poet, Moses ben Abraham Dar‘ī, converted to Karaism from Rabbanite Judaism.456 On the other hand, important fourteenth-century Rabbanite Crimean thinker, Abraham Kırımi, was most likely a Karaite convert to Rabbanism.457 According to the eighteenth-century author Friedrich Augusti (himself a baptised Jew), there were some cases of Rabbanites converting to Karaism. Moreover, these converts, because of their conspicuous erudition, could become leaders in the Karaite community! At the same time, however, Augusti claimed that he was not aware of a single case of a Karaite’s conversion to Rabbinic Judaism.458

454 The University of Sheffield Library, the Hartlib Papers, Letter of Cyprian Kinner to Samuel Hartlib, Aug. 1648: 1/33, fols. 63A-63B (a copy of Rittangel’s letter in German). We may assume that Rittangel, with his anti-Talmudic agenda, may have slightly exaggerated the Rabbanite animosity towards the Karaites. I would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Jacky Hodgson, the Head of Special Collections of the University of Sheffield Library, for sending me a copy of Rittangel’s report. I am preparing this most interesting account for publication. 455 Henderson, Researches, 323-324. 456 Leon J. Weinberger, Jewish Poet in Muslim Egypt: Moses Dar‘ī’s Hebrew Collection (Leiden, 2000), 7 (English introduction). 457 For more information on Abraham Kırımi, see Kizilov, Krymskaia Iudeia, 229-230. 458 Augusti, Gründliche Nachrichten, 58-59. The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion 103

Karaite Samuel, the main protagonist of Reuven Fahn’s story “Ha-mityahed” (The convert to Judaism), also sought permission from the local rabbis to convert to Rabbanite Judaism. In response, he received a letter suggesting that he convert to Christianity first.459 It seems that Fahn based this story on Leonowicz’s case. Zarach Leonowicz’s relative, Jacob-Joseph Leonowicz,460 was also deeply interested in the Talmud and wanted to marry a Rabbanite woman. Again, as in the previous case, the rabbis suggested that he convert to Christianity, and only then would he be accepted into the Rabbanite community. This case, which is known to us from Karaite sources, seems to be more trustworthy.461 The sources are equally reticent about the opposite case when Talmudic Jews were desirous to convert to Karaism.462 According to Szapszał, in the period between 1837 and 1930 only four non-Karaites (unclear whether these were Rabbanite Jews or not) were officially registered in official Karaite community records as Karaites, all of them when they were still babies in arms.463 It seems however that there much more cases of attempts on the part of the Rabbanites to register as Karaites; furthermore, some Rabbanites were able to register as “Karaites” without informing Karaite authorities about that. Many cases of this kind can be explained only by a desire to avoid double taxation, and not by any interest whatsoever in Karaite religious doctrine.464 Three more cases of similar financially-motivated interest on the part of the Russian Rabbanites in being registered as Karaites in Halicz in the nineteenth century were recorded by Jan Grzegorzewski. In spite of the fact that these cases sound slightly anecdotal, they appear to have been based on actual facts.465 About 1910, eight Warsaw Rabbanites, who did not manage to enter the local university because of the

459 Fahn, “Me-ḥayyei,” 161-166. 460 He lived from the second half of the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century; shoḥeṭ (slaughterer) in Halicz in the 1890s; junior ḥazzan in Halicz before the war, and senior ḥazzan in Łuck from 1914 to 1917. He was perhaps the same person as the copyist of Abraham Leonowicz’s chronicle in 1871, whose name was Jacob-Joseph ben Samuel-Yeshua (NLR F. 946, op. 1, no. 898). Concerning him, see also Fahn, “Ha-Qara

existence of a law regulating the percentage of Jews entering institutions of higher education, expressed their desire to embrace the Karaite religion. The Troki ḥazzan Izaak Firkowicz, however, refused to accept them.466 It was quite a surprise to me that Veniamin Blum (1861–1919), the founder of the Veniamin Blum School of Art in Riga, is often referred to in sources and scholarship as a “Karaite who converted to Russian Orthodoxy.”467 Nevertheless, this artist could not possibly be Karaite since his name clearly indicates Blum’s Ashkenazic origin. He was apparently an Odessa Rabbanite who at some point decided to get register as Karaite in order to avoid the Russian Jewish legislation which was oppressive for the Rabbanites; later he made his third conversion – and opted for Orthodox Christianity. It seems that the absence of the large Karaite community in Latvian lands (Russian Kurliandskaia guberniia) forced the local Karaite into closer contact with the local Rabbanites. In Dvinsk (Dinaburg/Daugavpils) there was a Karaite tobacco shop on Peterbugskaia Street. Its owner was Mark Efremovich (Mordecai ben Ephraim) Turshu. Because of the fact that there was no Karaite mohel in Dvinsk in 1911, Turshu had to ask the Rabbanite merchant, Ovsei Yudelevich Yudensohn (Овсей Юделевич Юденсон), to circumcise his son, who received the name of Nikolai (!) after the ceremony. The same year Turshu sent a letter to Troki where he stated that the aforementioned Rabbanite merchant made the circumcision in accordance with the Karaite tradition (Russ. “po karaimskomu obriadu”).468 It is unclear what was the reaction of the Troki Karaite Spiritual Consistory to this paradoxical situation when the allegedly Karaite circumcision was done by a Rabbanite. We also know of a few cases of conscious conversion to Karaism in Eastern Europe which were based more on religious and ideological principles than on pecuniary motive. An article by Z. Shohet (based, most likely, on some unidentified publication by Reuven Fahn) tell the story of the Halicz Rabbanite, Zanvel Dubiner, a son of the the local shoḥeṭ. Zanvel forsook his Rabbanite wife and young child, converted to Karaism, and married a daughter of the Karaite ḥakham ca. 1905.469 This matter caused a loud scandal in Halicz: Zanvel’s father lost his job, while Zanvel himself relocated to his new wife’s Karaite relatives in Alexandria. The end of the story was very tragic. Zanvel’s first wife and baby died, and he himself left his Karaite wife.470 The whole story sounds highly interesting, but not entirely trustworthy. Two more Russian Rabbanites also tried to register as Karaites in 1908, although one does not know what reasons prompted them to do so. In 1908, Abram Goldfus, a Jew living in Pskov (Russia), asked Ministry of Religious Affairs for permission to

466 “Otkaz neofitam,” KZh 1 (1911): 128. 467 Valters Ščerbinskis, Ienācēji no tālienes (Riga, 1998), 24. 468 LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fol. 64r. 469 In 1905 the office of the Halicz Karaite ḥazzan was occupied by Shalom b. Joseph Nowachowicz. 470 Shohet, “Karaimen,” 3. The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion 105

convert to the “Karaite faith” (Russ. v karaimskuiu veru) from Rabbinic Judaism. The Ministry transferred his enquiry to the Karaite Consistory in Troki. The outcome of the enquiry, however, was not known.471 In 1908 Karaite architect-artist Mikhail, son of Hayim Dubinskii (Dubiński?), asked the Troki Karaite Consistory to give him a Karaite certificate. He claimed that in spite of the fact that his father’s name had been “Khaim” (Хаим), the Karaite pronunciation of this name was “Gaim” (Гаим), which is equal to “Chariton” (Харитон). At the same time, the Troki Consistory received an enquiry from the Ministry of Military Affairs of Russia concerning ethnic origins of Yakov, son of Hayim Dubinskii. The Ministry asked whether the Karaite parents of Yakov were indeed Karaites or Talmudic converts and, in case they were indeed Jewish converts, whether cases of such conversions were numerous.472 We may cautiously suggest that this Hayim Dubinski was indeed originally Rabbanite since the name “Hayim” was widespread mostly among Rabbanites, while the surname Dubinskii/Dubiński was common among Karaites, Rabbanites, and Slavs alike. In spite of the fact that the Karaite press rather denied it, undoubtedly, in the first half of the twentieth century there also were cases of the acceptance of the non- Karaite neophytes to the Karaite community. One such case was registered in Halicz in 1907. Surprisingly, the proselyte was a British citizen, Florence Pauline - Pererova (née Child). According to the Halicz record books, on 17 April 1907 she converted to the Karaite faith from Christianity’s Anglican tradition (Russ. “pereshla iz Anglikanskogo veroispovedaniia v karaimskoe”). Her conversion to Karaism was officially registered by the ḥazzan Shalom Nowachowicz. Afterwards, however, this newly converted Karaite believer left Halicz and never returned there again.473 Her conversion appears to have been motivated by the aim of obtaining permission from the Troki ḥakham to be married to Gedalia Feruz, a Karaite from Crimea. The Troki ḥakham, Isaac-Boaz (Bogusław) Firkowicz, registered their marriage in Troki on 15 August 1907. Crimean ḥakham, Samuel Panpulov, was apparently very dissatisfied when he received news of this rather scandalous marriage. Nevertheless, it seems that the marriage was considered legal even after his official enquiry. The first ḥazzan of the Harbin community (Chinese Russia), Abram Azarovich El, allowed non-Karaites to join the community. Thus, soon two Japanese and one Russian joined the qehilah.474 Several mixed Karaite–Rabbanite marriages were, with some apparent difficulties, registered in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth

471 MS LMAB F.301, no. 326, fol. 13. 472 Idem, fols. 21, 60. 473 GAARK F. 241, op.1, no. 1180, fol. 3r (Russian; a translation from German and Latin). 474 Most of this data might be found in Leonid Lavrin, “Kolonia karaimska w Harbinie,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 12-13. Unfortunately, the author of the article does not provide the readers with a single date concerning the time of the succession of the ḥazzanim. 106 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

century.475 According to F.M. Viner (Wiener) the first mixed marriage of this type was registered in the town of Ol’giopol’ by the local rabbi on 9.02.1873.476 It seems, however, that there were a few more marriages of this type that had been registered in Russia before that.477 The discussion concerning mixed Karaite–Rabbanite marriages continued into the early twentieth century. The question troubled not only Karaite and Rabbanite religious leaders, but the Russian authorities as well. In 1908, the Taurida and Odessa Karaite Consistory asked the Russian government to ban marriages between Karaite men and Rabbanite women registered by Talmudic rabbis.478 The government, however, did not support this petition, but stated that children born out of such marriages cannot be registered as Karaites; having been born by Rabbanite mothers, they were supposed to be Rabbanites (1908).479 The very existence of this petition testifies to the fact that there such marriages indeed took place. The first to suffer from this decision was the future Karaite poet and nationalist, Aleksander Mardkowicz, who married to a Rabbanite woman, Rozalia Sandomirska, in 1910, in the Russian part of Poland. Their marriage was apparently registered by Rabbanite authorities; as a result of the new law, his three children were not officially allowed to be registered Karaites. In 1908 the Troki ḥakham Romi

475 D.A. Prokhorov, “Organy karaimskogo konfessional’nogo samoupravleniia i problema prozelitizma, mezhkonfessional’nykh i mezhetnicheskikh brakov v Tavricheskoi gubernii v XIX – nachale XX veka (po materialam fonda TOKDP),” Istoricheskoe nasledie Kryma 18 (2007): 136. Dr. Prokhorov also informed me that there were many cases of mixed Karaite-Rabbanite marriages discussed in the materials of TOKDP and dated to the second half of the nineteenth – early twentieth century (private communication, June 2013). 476 F. Viner, Kharakteristika prazdnikov evreev: s prilozheniem teorii kabbalistiki i kriticheskogo ocherka obosobleniia karaimov ot evreev-talmudistov (Odessa, 1873), 74, ft. 1; 79, ft. 1. 477 I.I. Armentsov, “O brakah mezhdu karaimami i evreiami,” Novorossiiskie vedomosti (12.08.1871). 478 GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1083. 479 Gessen, “Pravovoe polozhenie,” 295. 480 MS LMAB F. 301-326, fol. 30-31. The Problem of Mixed Marriages and Conversion 107

without prior consent on the part of Karaite authorities.481 The Karaite Consistory, however, a year later, in 1911, accepted a regulation prohibiting mixed marriages between Karaites and other ethnic and religious groups (be it Jews, Slavs or other ethnicities).482 This decision, however, was valid only among the Russian Karaite communities (Volhynia, Lithuania, and Crimea), whereas the Karaites of Halicz, Cairo, and Constantinople did not recognize it as binding.483 The question of mixed marriages and acceptance of proselytes into the Karaite community continued to be discussed during the Karaite conferences of 1917. It seems that the younger and more emancipated Karaite leaders were ready to soften these regulations, but the turbulent events of that period prevented them from implementing any decisions pertaining to this question.484 For further development of this issue, see 3.8.2 and 3.8.3.

***

To sum up, for the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community the time from 1900 and until the beginning of the First World War was the period of comparative stability and prosperity. The wave of Jewish pogroms, which swept various parts of the Russian Empire in the 1900s, practically did not touch the local Karaites. Two communities – those of Łuck and Wilno – published their own national periodicals with materials in the Russian and Karaim languages. Although most community members still preserved their traditional religious views and Judeo-Karaite (“Israelite”) identity, among the young Karaite modernists there already appeared those who considered themselves to be Karaites of Turkic and not of Semitic extraction. Furthermore, starting from the 1890s the Troki Karaite authorities actively lobbied the idea of replacing the traditional term to denote their houses of prayer – synagogue – with Turko-Karaim word kenesa. In 1911 this idea was finally realized by the decision of the Taurida and Odessa Karaite ḥakham Samuel Panpulov. This was perhaps the first – but not the last – step on the long road of dejudaization of the Karaite community in Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. From 1911, after the death of Romi

481 “K voprosu o karaimsko-evreiskikh brakakh,” KZh 1 (1911): 109. 482 Contrary to popular belief, this decision was not taken during the all-Karaite conclave of 1910; materials from this conclave do not contain a single reference to the question of mixed marriages (“Pervyi natsional’nyi karaimskii s’’ezd v Evpatorii,” KZh 1 (1911): 70-86; “Eshche o pervom natsional’nom s’’ezde,” KZh 2 (1911): 59-63). This regulation was accepted a bit later, in Feb. 1911 (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1163). 483 Gini, I Caraimi, 12. 484 Prokhorov, “Organy,” 137-140. 108 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900–1918

local Karaites left the region or were forced into remote evacuations; many were recruited into the Russian and Austrian armies. Many of those who remained in the areas of military action became impoverished, many died of epidemics. The Łuck and Halicz synagogues-kenesalar were robbed by soldiers and civilian marauders, many houses were burnt and damaged, as was the Halicz Karaite cemetery. As a result, the surviving Polish-Lithuanian Karaites met the long-awaited end of the war and military actions with great relief. Their life during the interwar period – with specific emphasis placed on the dejudaization (Turkicization) of the community – is analyzed in Chapters Three and Four. 3 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

3.1 General State of the Karaite Communities in Poland and Lithuania in the Interwar Period

The First World War and the October Revolution divided the East European Karaite community among several newly emerged states: Crimean and Russian Karaites became citizens of the Soviet Union, the Halicz Karaites finally joined their Polish brethren, whereas northern communities (Poniewież and other) became part of the First Republic of Lithuania (Lith. Lietuvos Respublika, Pol. Litwa Kowieńska). In general, most publications on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites refer to the existence of the four most important Karaite communities of the region, those of Troki, Wilno, Łuck, and Halicz. Nevertheless, one should undoubtedly add to this list the fifth, less known, but still very important community, that of Poniewież. This town was the centre for several other small northern communities.485 Traditionally, the communities were divided into two main divisions: northern (Wilno, Troki, Poniewież) and south-western (Galician and Volhynian) communities. Each of the communities, however, had its own specific features. First, there were strong linguistic differences between southern and northern dialects of the Karaim language. Second, in terms of cultural and liturgical traditions, the south-western Karaites seemed to be more prone to the Rabbanite influence than those of the north. Third, there also were state, economic, and political borders which divided them. After 1919 northern Karaite communities (Poniewież, Nowe Miasto, Birża, Upity, Poswol, Kowno, Kiejdany, and some other smaller ones) were included into the territory of independent Lithuania and separated from their brethren in Troki and Wilno. These communities were thus exposed to the Lithuanian cultural influence. The Karaites of

485 Archival sources also mention the existence of a certain damaged Karaite “chapel” (Pol. kaplica) in the village of Kiorklu Sała (district of Nowe Troki) (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 30; no. 1463, fol. 502). In fact, however, Kiorklu Sała (TrKar. “beautiful village”) or Malowanka in Polish, was but a large estate with a considerable plot of land which had originally belonged to the Karaite community. Later it was apparently privatized by Szapszał for his own use. In 1938 the estate built there was officially presented as the “ḥakhan’s house” (S.F. [Szymon Firkowicz?], “Poświęcenie domu J.E. Hachana,” MK 12 (1938): 150). In 1940 it was occupied by the Soviets (see the description of the night visit of the commissars to the estate (A. Pilecki to S. Szapszał, 20.02.1940, Russian, MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1002, fol. 6v)). Later Szapszał tried to obtain both from the German and Soviet administration the right to return the estate, but apparently without any success. There are a number of archival documents dedicated to this estate and the problem of its return (MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 536; 1044; 1002; 1237; 1056, fol. 13; no. 1063 (for the description of the conflict between Sz. Firkowicz and S. Szapszał with regard to this estate, see fols. 4-5)). There Szapszał often accepted important visitors, e.g. T. Kowalski with his family (ibid., no. 1237).

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 110 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Troki, mostly petty farmers, strict in their religious views, were quite different from the wealthy, well-educated and Europeanized Karaites of the capital city of Wilno in terms of their social status and religiosity. These two communities, together with the Łuck Karaites, whilst living on the territory of the Russian empire, were rather Russified than Polonized. The comparatively small community of Halicz, which was until 1918 the part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, turned out to be probably the most unique of them. This small community, being cut off from their religious brethren, seemed to preserve their religious traditions in much more conservative way than all the others. Of great interest are their ambivalent relations with Ashkenazic neighbours with whom the Halicz Karaites had to co-exist within the limits of their small town.486 Speaking about the self-identification of the local Karaites, it seems highly interesting to refer here to the testimony of one Halicz Karaite emigrant to Israel who mentioned that in the 1920s local Karaite children were taught that they were Jews, but whilst on the street they were supposed to manifest themselves as the “Turks”.487 After the end of the First World War the Karaites of Łuck and Halicz found themselves to be inhabitants of the so-called “Kresy” – eastern Polish territories bordering the Soviet Union. These regions, which were inhabited by a considerable amount of non-Polish ethnic minorities (Jews, Karaites, Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Armenians, Gypsies, Lemki to mention some of them),488 had often been considered by the Polish officials as “disputed territories”, hosting a not-too-patriotic population. Especially unwelcome were the pro-Russian tendencies of some inhabitants of “Kresy”. Despite their previous active acculturation into the Russian society, after 1919 the local Karaites started emphasizing their patriotic feelings towards the Polish government. Their pro-Polish tendencies immediately evoked attention of Polish officials who constantly stressed political importance of the Karaites as inhabitants of “Kresy” who were loyal to Poland.489

486 The Rabbanite quarter of Halicz was located next to that of the Karaites; moreover, many Rabbanites rented flats in houses of their Karaite neighbours. 487 Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures,” 688. 488 E.g. J.B., “Staroobrzędowcy, Musułmanie i Karaimi w Polsce,” Orędownik Wrzesiński 12 (1.02.1930), 1. 489 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 85. General State of the Karaite Communities in Poland and Lithuania in the Interwar Period 111

In general, about one third of Poland’s population in the 1920s consisted of ethnic minorities whose legal status sometimes was not clearly defined.490 Polish and Karaite statistical data which stated that there were as many as 1,500 Karaites in interwar Poland undoubtedly considerably overestimated the real number of Karaite population.491 According to the official estimates of 1919 there were approximately 150 Karaites living in the towns of Halicz and Lwów, and adjacent villages of Załukiew, Żyrawa and Bóbrka. The Karaite community of Łuck was considerably less numerous than all other Karaite communities: according to statistics of 1922-1925, the community consisted of only 12 families (65 persons).492 According to the official data, there were 203 Karaites living in Troki on 15.03.1922. The Wilno Karaite community consisted of 127 people on 15.03.1922.493 The Poniewież community comprised about a hundred persons in the 1920s, and 155 in the 1930s.494 Even if one takes into consideration the fact that some Karaites had continued to gradually return from the Russian evacuation, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community could hardly exceed 900-1,000 inhabitants, with only 700-800 of them living within the limits of Poland. According to S. Saggese, in 1931 there were 724-729 Karaites living in Poland and independent Lithuania (215 in Troki, 193 in Wilno, 71 in Łuck, 145-150 in Halicz).495 The Karaites themselves were undoubtedly aware of insignificance of their numbers. The Wilno Karaite, Emanuel Kobecki, emphasized that the Karaite in fact represented “the linguistic and confessional minority.... we are so scarce in numbers that we cannot have any ambitions to be recognized as a national minority”.496 According to one interwar author, the main reason for the demographic decline of the community was the Karaite motto: “It is impossible to become a Karaite; one needs to be born a Karaite.”497

490 Michał Tymowski, Jan Kieniewicz, Jerzy Holzer, Historia Polski (Warsaw, 1990), 282, 286. In interbellum Poland there were about 11,792,200 representatives of non-Polish ethnicity (i.e. 36% of the whole population), whereas in contemporary Poland their number is estimated to 1, 487, 600 – 2,141, 800 (around 3.5%-5.5% only) (Gabriele Simoncini, “National Minorities of Poland at the End of the Twentieth Century,” Polish Review 43:2 (1998): 173-193). On the Jews in interwar Poland, see Jerzy Tomaszewski, Zarys dziejów Żydów w Polsce w latach 1918-1939 (Warsaw, 1990); on the state of local ethnic minorities between the two world wars, see Polska-Polacy-mniejszości narodowe (Wrocław, 1992); Georg W. Strobel, Minderheiten in der Volksrepublik Polen (Cologne, 1964); Jerzy Tomaszewski, Ojczyzna nie tylko Polaków (Warsaw, 1985); idem, Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów (Warsaw, 1985). 491 E.g. Szapszał’s letter to MWRiOP of 29.11.1928 (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 30). 492 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 118. 493 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 166-168. Cf. the list of the Karaite landowners in Troki in the 1920s (61 individuals altogether: “Wykaz Karaimów właścicieli ziemi,” MS LMAB F. 301, no. 10, fols. 226r-227r). 494 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, ix. 495 S. Saggese, “I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania,” Genus 23 (1967): 61. 496 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 298. 497 Hepke, Wilno, 70-71. 112 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Linguistic publications of Tadeusz Kowalski, who visited all Polish-Lithuanian Karaite qehilot498 during his field trips of 1925-1928, provide much important information on the general state of the Karaite community in the 1920s and 1930s. Especially interesting is the introduction to his most important publication, the monograph Karaimische Texte im Dialekt von Troki (Kraków, 1929) which he wrote in German. In general, Kowalski found the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community to be “pious and conservative, however, without any fanatic tendencies.” In his opinion, this feature could explain why the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites had better relations with their Christian or Muslim neighbours, than with the Rabbanite Jews. The scholar claimed that the Karaite anthropological type was much more homogenous than that of the Rabbanites: “the Karaites are in general of average height, with small heads, broad faces, with black hair.” In his view this happened most likely as a result of the ban on mixed marriages.499 In his articles, in addition to valuable linguistic data, Kowalski provides important data on Karaite ethnography. One can find there detailed descriptions of such Karaite religious holidays as chydży maccałarnyn (TrKar. for Heb. ḥag ha-maṣot or Pesaḥ),500 rite of circumcision, marriage and engagement in Troki and Halicz.501 One can even find a precise recipe for the Passover maṣah – the way it was prepared by the Troki Karaites in the 1920s, and how the Karaites cultivated their famous Troki cucumbers.502 In the 1930s, Halicz and Troki were visited by the Jewish author, Gedo Hecht, who had demonstrated his interest in the Karaite history even earlier, before the First

498 Apart from the community of Poniewież which was at that time located in independent Lithuania. In the Polish dedication to his Karaimische Texte im Dialekt von Troki (the rest of the book was written in German) Kowalski express his gratitude to the following Karaite figures: Troki ḥazzan Szymon Firkowicz, Izaak Charczenko, N.R. Jutkiewicz (Warsaw), Seraja Szapszał, Pinachas/ Feliks Malecki (Wilno), Izaak Zajączkowski (Wilno), Rafał Abkowicz, Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck), Zacharjasz Nowachowicz and Nowach Szulimowicz (both Halicz), Ananiasz Zajączkowski (Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, iv-v). Kowalski was also engaged in constant correspondence with many other members of the Karaite communities (e.g. AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4. Tadeusz Kowalski, no. 156). Archival documents kept in AN PAN testify that a considerable amount of Halicz Karaim texts was sent to him by Z. Zarachowicz (see Karaim translations of agiographa sent to Kowalski by Z. Zarachowicz: AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4. Tadeusz Kowalski, nos. 122:1 and 2). 499 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, x-xi. 500 Tadeusz Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji i dialektologji karaimskiej,” RO 5 (1927): 202-212, 221-229. 501 Kowalski Tadeusz. “Pieśni obrzędowe w narzeczu Karaimów z Trok.” RO III (1925): 216-254; one can compare the Troki rite of circumcision with that of Halicz (Grzegorzewski, “Caraimica. Język Łach- Karaitów,” 294-296). 502 Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 202-229. General State of the Karaite Communities in Poland and Lithuania in the Interwar Period 113

World War.503 In spite of the fact that Hecht’s reports contain a number of serious mistakes,504 the author had been observant enough to notice, on the one hand, the Judaic character of Karaite religion, and, on the other, a gradual supplanting of their Jewish traditions with the Turkic liturgy and self-identification:

Karaite religious authorities, as well as intelligentsia, are adamant and constant in their insistence that they are not Jews and that they do not have anything in common with Judaism… Most recently, influenced by an awakening of nationalistic feelings, today’s “Sons of Scripture” are governed by the tendency to rid themselves of anything connecting them to Judaism and Jews.505

Israel Cohen, another Jewish visitor to Troki and Wilno, also noticed the general decline of Karaite religious tradition in interwar Poland. He explained this phenomenon in quite a theological way. In his opinion the indifference of the local Karaites “even to biblical prohibitions seemed to have resulted from declining contact with the traditional form of the Law of Moses, for the scroll [of the Torah] was for the most part kept safe in its repository and was not brought to light except on special occasions.”506 The other aftermath of the interwar dejudaization of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community was the renaissance of the Turkic Karaim language. It was in this period that Karaim stopped being just an Umgangssprache or the language of targumim. It became a literary language, a language of secular poetry, fiction and press. The Karaite leaders of the 1930s (Seraja Szapszał, Szemaja Firkowicz, Aleksander Mardkowicz, Józef Łobanos and some others) ventured to undertake a linguistic reform similar to that of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey. In order to restore “real” Turkic Karaim language, they decided to “cleanse” it from numerous Slavic, Hebrew, and Lithuanian loanwords. Results of these reforms were indeed impressive – the efforts of the Karaite leaders indeed allowed the creation of a literary type of Karaim. Rashid Kaplanov,

503 The author published several articles on the history of the Karaites: Gedo Hecht, “Dawna żydowska twierdza na Krymie,” Jedność 1 (3.01.1908); idem, “Karaici i Fałasze,” Jedność (3.01.1908, 10.03.1911); idem, “O Chazarach, szczepie fińskim, wyznającym judaizm od VII do XI wieku,” Jedność 43 (4.10.1910); idem, “Oaza najmniejszej mniejszości narodowej w Polsce,” Nasz Przegląd (29.09.1936); idem, “U ‘Synow Zakonu’ w Trokach,” Chwilia 6624 (28.08.1937); idem, “Wymierająca sekta żydowska. Karaimi – ‘Synowie Zakonu’,” Krajoznawstwo 10: 3 (29) (1938): 1-4. Later these essays formed a leaflet Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu.” 504 E.g. the author states that the Karaite “form in every country ‘zerety’ (ghetto)” (Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu”, 5). In fact the Karaim term ziyaret/zeret/zieriat’ means… a cemetery (cf. Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 280). 505 Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu”, 26-28, 29. 506 Israel Cohen, Vilna (Philadelphia, 1943), 467. 114 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

one of the earliest students of the Karaim literature in the former USSR, defined the literary Karaim used in the interbellum period as a “literary micro-language”.507 Obtaining official recognition of the legal status of the Karaites as a separate religious entity in the Polish Republic was one of the most important tasks for the Karaite community of the 1920s-1930s. An appreciation of the significance of this task can be enhanced, first of all, by understanding the danger associated with being placed on the same legal footing as the Rabbanite Jews, who were officially discriminated against and oppressed. Furthermore, it was dangerous to retain the legal status that had been given to the Karaite community by the Tsarist authorities in the general anti-Russian atmosphere of interwar Poland. The legal status of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the 1920s, in fact, possessed both dangerous tendencies: the status of the Karaites of Wilno, Troki, and Łuck was defined by the Russian laws (Collection of Russian laws, 1896, vol. 9, pt. 4, §1261-1298), whereas the Karaites of Halicz were considered a Jewish community by the Austrian legislation (statute of 21.03.1890, Nr.57).508 The head of the Polish-Lithuanian interwar community, ḥakham Seraja Szapszał, who clearly understood all this, already in 1928 wrote that “the Autonomous Karaite Church509 in Poland is now governed by still irrevocable regulation of the former Russian Empire; hence comes the utter necessity of reviewing and changing the statute of Karaite religious affairs according to the state rights, spirit of age and present position of the Karaites.”510 The earliest of Szapszał’s projects regarding the status of Karaite religious community in Poland dates back to 1928.511 However, the final version of the legal statute of Karaimski Związek Religijny w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Pol. “Karaite Religious Union in Polish Republic”) was accepted and affirmed only eight years later, in April 1936.512 On 26.04.1936, in solemn atmosphere, the minister MWRiOP, W. Świętosławski, handed to Muslim mufti and to S. Szapszał copies of the

507 Rashid Kaplanov, “K istorii karaimskogo literaturnogo iazyka,” in Malye i dispersnye etnicheskie gruppy v evropeiskoi chasti SSSR (Moscow, 1985), 104. 508 Stanisław Piekarski, Wyznania religijne w Polsce (Warsaw, 1927), 91. 509 One of the officials quite strictly pointed out to Szapszał that the term “kośćioł” (church) is used in Poland only with the regard to Christian denomination; from that moment Szapszał had to use only the term “wyznanie” (confession) (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1462, fol. 9). 510 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 131. 511 Practically two thick folders (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1462 and no. 1463) are dedicated to drafts and corrected versions of the statute; they date back to 1928-1936. 512 For the final version of the statute on luxurious paper with wax seal, officially signed by Szapszał, see AAN MWRiOP, no. 1463, fols. 578-587; cf. its version printed for the session of the Sejm in ibid., fols. 499-504; cf. Szymon Pilecki, “Karaimskie życie rodzinne, społeczne i religijne okresu międzywojennego, czas wojny, decyzje o przyjeździe do Polski,” in Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus (Warsaw, 2012), 38-41. Halicz 115

statutes of their religious unions in Poland.513 As one of the later observers pointed out, statute of the Karaite religious union was a “twin sister of Muslim statute”.514 Having surveyed the general state of the interwar Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community, it is worthwhile examining each community separately.

3.2 Halicz

3.2.1 General State of the Community During the Interwar Period

The Karaite community of Halicz seems to suffer most of all other communities in the course of the World War I. Its houses were especially heavily damaged during the turbulent events and conflagrations which frequented the town at that period; massive and beautiful tombstones of the cemetery were often used for military purposes or simply thrown into the Dniester, whereas the lavishly-decorated synagogue (kenesa) attracted too much attention of the marauders. In general, it seems that the community prospered during the interwar period. The local Karaites again established contacts with their Volhynian and Northern brethren, the young Karaites started to attend Polish schools, colleges and universities.515 According to later Karaite authors, it appears that the social structure of the community also changed for the better: many Karaites started their career as civil workers, while others had been working at the local railroad station. Practically all of the community members had large plots of land at their disposal.516 After the annexation of Galicia by Poland in 1919-1920, Galicia was officially called Małopolska Wschodnia (Eastern Little Poland). It was divided into three województwo (administrative districts/voivodships), those of Lwów, Stanisławów, and Tarnopol. These were further divided into 55 powiaty (counties).517 Interwar Halicz, with its five thousand inhabitants, remained the second largest town in the Stanisławowskie województwo.518 Nevertheless, in the period of the Second Polish Republic, Halicz certainly became even less significant than in Austrian times. Approximately half of the interwar population of Halicz was Ruthenian/Ukrainian (2,300 persons, ca. 50%); the second largest group were the Talmudic Jews (1,060 persons, ca.

513 “Uroczystość wręczenia odznaczeń najwyższym duchownym: karaimskiemu i muzułmańskiemu,” MK 11 (1936): 123-125. 514 Izaak Zajączkowski, “Akty Ustawodawcze o Karaimskim Związku Religijnym w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej,” MK 12 (1938): 75. 515 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje Karaimów w Haliczu,” 15. 516 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 6-7. 517 Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy pivdennozakhidn’oї Ukraїny (Halychyny) na 1.1.1939/Ethnic Groups of the South-Western Ukraine (Halyčyna-Galicia) 1.1.1939 (Wiesbaden, 1983), xx. 518 Ibid., 82. The population of Stanisławów, the centre of the district, was 64,000. 116 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

20%). The Poles (300 persons, i.e. ca. 6% of the population) were in the minority. Linguistically, however, when grouped together with the Polish-speaking Karaites and the Latynnyky (Polonized Ukrainians/Ruthenians), the Poles also constituted an important part of the town’s population.519 Zarach Zarachowicz estimated that, for various reasons, from 1915 to 1920 about 25% of the Karaite population of Halicz died.520 According to the official estimates of 1919, there were about 150 Karaites living in the towns of Halicz and Lwów, and in the adjacent villages of Załukiew, Żyrawa and Bóbrka.521 These data were corroborated by Corrado Gini’s expedition, which found about 145-150 Karaites in Halicz in 1934.522 The Karaites (about 3% of the town’s population) were the smallest ethnic minority of Halicz. Thus, in the interwar period, the Karaite community of Halicz became even smaller than before. Furthermore, the community continued shrinking because of natural decrease, emigration, and conversion to Christianity. According to a Jewish journalist who visited Halicz in 1937, there were apparent traces of physical degradation among members of the community.523 An interwar report on the Karaite community of Troki in Lithuania provided similar information.524 Both of these accounts, however, possess a certain anti-Karaite bias and cannot be fully trusted. Some other observers testified that in the 1920s the tendency toward physical degradation was not very noticeable.525 In general, however, it seems that in many respects the everyday and spiritual life of the community became much better off than during the Austrian period. The Galicians re-established close contacts with their Volhynian and Lithuanian brethren; younger Karaites began attending Polish schools, colleges, and universities.526 In contrast to the local Rabbanite Jews, who continued suffering from both public and state-sanctioned anti-Semitism, the Karaites were treated by the interwar Polish government on the same legal footing as Christian citizens of the Rzeczpospolita, without any ethnic or religious limitations. During Polish times, many Halicz Karaites

519 This is according to the official statistics of 1939 (ibid.). These statistical data do not mention anything about a few other minor sectarian groups that supposedly lived in Halicz between the two wars (cf. Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13). 520 Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 27-28. 44 Karaites died from 1915 to 1920, which indeed seems to represent about a quarter of the community (Z. Z., “Ze statystyki,” 32-33). 521 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fols. 1-2. 522 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 25. 523 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 524 M. Blum, “Ha-Qara

started their careers as clerks and lawyers.527 In addition to their official jobs, most Karaites maintained large plots of land under their ownership.528 Many Karaites worked on the railway. According to a Jewish traveller of the 1930s, it was often the case that the trains running in the vicinity of Halicz were staffed exclusively with Karaites. The traveller even quoted a local Galician adage (perhaps in his translation from Polish): “Wenn ein Karäer zur Welt kommt, wird er gleich in das Eisenbahnerregister eingetragen” (When a Karaite comes into the world, he is immediately registered as a railroad man).529 Indeed, in total, 14 Karaites worked at the railroad station. Moreover, one of them, Szymon Ickowicz, was the stationmaster.530 Nevertheless, most Karaites remained agricultural workers; many were artisans; some worked in the public sphere. Three worked as lawyers, one of whom (Zarach Zarachowicz) was a secretary to the local court of justice; five had the title of “Ribbi,” and thus were allowed to fulfil the duties of the ḥazzan.531 According to Zarach Zarachowicz, the Karaite peasants of Załukiew possessed more land and agricultural equipment than their Slavic neighbours.532

***

In 1919, consistent with the modernization of Karaite society, the local community elected a board of administration which, for the first time, consisted of secular and not spiritual authorities. Its members were: Józef Eszwowicz (chairman), Abraham Leonowicz (vice-chairman), Leon Szulimowicz, David Abrahamowicz, Zarach Zarachowicz, and Ezua (Yeshuah) Leonowicz.533 In 1923 a new board was elected, while Józef Eszwowicz remained its head. Nevertheless, because of the conflict between Eszwowicz and ḥazzan Samuel Mordkowicz, other members of the board resigned from their duties.534 A new board of administration was elected in 1925, and its head was Ezua Leonowicz.535

527 E.g. Józef Samuelowicz (1868-1929), who was a circuit judge (sędzia okręgowy); Zachariah Nowachowicz, a lawyer; Isaac b. Judah Eszwowicz (1862-1904), an official in the state court of justice (Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 29, 47, 51, 83). 528 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 6-7. 529 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 530 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 6. 531 Ibid., 6-7. Ribbi (rarely: erbi) is the Karaim term for rabbi; in this case it is used to designate the teacher of religion and language. 532 Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 26. 533 Elected on 5 Apr. 1919 (Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 28). 534 J. Eszwowicz to the starostwo in Stanisławów, Autumn 1923, Polish (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fols. 111, 114). 535 Apparently, only until 1930 (?). See his letter to S. Szapszał, 1928-1930 (Polish) (LMAB F. 143, no. 428, esp. fol. 9r-v). 118 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

In spite of its small number, in the1920s, before the arrival of Seraja Szapszał, the role of the Galician community in the life of the Karaite communities of Poland was very significant. The leader of the Galician community, Zachariah Nowachowicz, was the chairman of the all-Karaite conference that took place in Wilno on 30 February 1924.536 During the official assembly of representatives of the Karaite communities of the Rzeczpospolita on 28 December 1923, the Galician community showed itself to be perhaps the most conservative Karaite qehilah in Eastern Europe. On that day the Karaites of Halicz rejected the projects of other communities for the establishment of a Karaite Religious Union in Poland on the grounds that, in their view, Karaite spiritual authorities should hold their positions permanently, until death, and not for some temporary period as was suggested by other communities.537 In spite of the fact that other Polish communities (those of Troki, Wilno, and Łuck) composed a unified statute for the Karaite Religious Union of Poland, the Galician Karaites did not accept it until 1925. Only in May 1925, when the Polish administration started becoming anxious about the situation and suggested that the Galicians develop their own independent statute, did the Halicz Karaites decided to join the project proposed by the other communities.538 Evidently, however, that the Halicz community joined Związek Gmin Karaimskich w Polsce even later, in May 1927.539 Soon after this, Halicz became the meeting place of representatives from all the Karaite communities in Poland, on 11 and 12 June 1927.540 According to Szymon Pilecki, the present chairman of the Karaite Religious Union in Poland, the main problem in the formation of a unified statute was of a legal and not a religious character: it was necessary to incorporate elements of the former Austrian code of law together with the Russian legal system, which was valid in Poland even in the 1930s.541 Another problem that remained unresolved during the meetings of representatives of the Karaite communities in the 1920s was that of women’s electoral rights. Karaite modernists (and ḥakham Szapszał) were inclined to grant women the right to vote,542 whereas traditional believers (especially those of Troki) were against it. Nevertheless, in spite of the modernisation of the Karaite community in the interwar period, in 1936 Karaite women were denied this right. Some authors suggest that this

536 Szymon Pilecki, “Rol’ karaimov Galicha v ustanovlenii yuridicheskogo statusa karaimskikh obshchin v 1920-30 gody,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 96. 537 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fols. 30, 47-48; cf. ibid., fol. 288. 538 Z. Z. [Zarach Zarachowicz], “Organizacja gminy,” MK 1:3 (1926): 26. 539 Sz. Firkowicz to the wojewoda (palatine) of Wilno district, 1927 (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 110); Pilecki, “Rol’ karaimov,” 97. 540 “Konferencja w Haliczu,” MK 2:1 (1929): 48; LMAB F. 301, no. 27. 541 Pilecki, “Rol’ karaimov,” 97, 100. 542 By the way, giving women the right to vote was a part of Ataturk’s reforms. This might be another example of numerous parallels between Szapszał’s and Ataturk’s reformist activity. Halicz 119

“undemocratic” decision was taken under the influence of the not very democratic Polish constitution of 1935.543 In the interwar period, most Karaite children attended Polish schools. Thus, there was an obvious need to teach the younger Karaites Hebrew, Karaim, and religion, as these subjects were, of course, not studied in Polish schools. Leon Eszwowicz fulfilled the duties of teacher of the Karaim language and religion in the local public school from 1924 to 1926.544 It seems that the enthusiastic report by Zarach Zarachowicz about the opening of a Karaite religious school in Halicz on 19 April 1925545 was not really true: letters of Izaak Abrahamowicz and other archival documents show that there were still major problems with teaching the Hebrew language and Karaite religion in the Halicz community in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1927, members of the community started worrying about a proper education for their children, and asked the government for additional subsidies. Unfortunately, the representative of the Ministry for Religious Confessions and Public Education, who investigated the situation on the spot, came to the conclusion that because of the presence of only seven children of school age, “there are no conditions either for establishing [the office] of a teacher of the Karaite religion in Halicz, or for carrying out religious study for this confession at the [state] school at all.”546 Therefore, the Karaites had to rely on their own means to maintain the religious education of children on the proper level. In his letter of 11 June 1929, the local ḥazzan, Izaak Abrahamowicz, informed Seraja Szapszał that he had started to teach children (2 boys and 7 girls) in the house of Zarach Zarachowicz. Later, in 1933, he informed Szapszał that 11 children were taught by the shammash Moses Szulimowicz upon the latter’s election to the office of teacher (melammed).547

***

Until the end of the 1920s, i.e. before the arrival of Seraja Szapszał in Poland, the Galician community was perhaps the most traditional and conservative of all Karaite communities in Eastern Europe. Its elders still took an active part in the religious life of the community, read Karaite and , and maintained close contacts with their Talmudic neighbours. A few verses, composed, most likely, by Zarach Zarachowicz for Karaite children in the late 1920s, attest to the fact that the Galician Karaites still maintained their Jewish (or “Israelite”) identity within the community:

543 Ibid., 99. 544 Z. Z. [Zarach Zarachowicz], “Nauczanie religii karaimskiej,” MK 1:2 (1925): 41-42. 545 Z. Z. [Zarach Zarachowicz], “Otwarcie szkoły parafjalnej,” MK 1:3 (1926): 26. 546 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 102. 547 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fols. 23, 40. 120 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Biz ułanłar We are children, Kici Karajłar Little Karaites, Jisraeł ilisi A part of Israel, Onca ułusu. A chosen . [...] […] Karyndasłar biz biz We are brethren, Dostłar barymyz We are all friends. Ribbi-atamyz The Ribbi is our father, Midrasz-jiwimiz. The midrash is our house […] […] Anda jiwrenebiz There we study, Anłajbiz, biłebiz Understand and perceive Ki Adonaj Tenrimiz That the Lord is our God Adonaj birdi. The Lord is One.548

An important role in the internal life of the community was played by Zachariasz Nowachowicz (5.03.1883-25.03.1960), the son of the late ḥazzan, Shalom Nowachowicz. Nowachowicz took an active part in the general renaissance of Karaite spiritual life in Poland after the First World War.549 He was nicknamed “Maecenas Nowachowicz” because of his active financial support of many community projects and events. He was also the friend, host, and guide of the famous Polish Orientalist Tadeusz Kowalski (1889-1948) during his visits to Halicz in 1925 and 1937.550 In spite of his secular position in society, he seems to have been very knowledgeable in religious matters and possessed many valuable Hebrew and Karaim manuscripts.551 Zarach Zarachowicz (alias Zerach Zerachowicz/Zoruchowicz or Zarach, son of Moses and Ester Zarachowicz (21.12.1890–11.12.1952))552 was perhaps the most learned member of the community in the interwar period. Being well-versed in Polish, Russian,

548 Halicz, 1929 (?) (the Yurchenko MSS). I may cautiously suggest that this verse was used as a greeting for S. Szapszał in 1929. There is no doubt that this verse was composed by Zarach Zarachowicz as a verbatim translation of the Hebrew verse for children >ivrim anaḥnu (We are the Jews). The Karaim text represent the exact translation of this verse save that the word “>ivrim” is replaced with the word “Karajłar”. The full text of >ivrim anaḥnu can be found in the textbook of the Hebrew language which was used by Z. Zarachowicz as a textbook in the Karaite midrasz in Halicz; it contains Zarachowicz’s handwritten notes and a most interesting Hebrew-GVKar. glossary (Zvi Sharfsten, Rafael Soferman, Sfatenu. Sefer limud ha-safah ha->ivrit >al fi ha-shitah ha-tiv>it, pt. 1 (Przemyśl, 1910), esp. 124; the Yurchenko MSS). 549 Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, “Zagadnienie chwili obecnej,” MK 1:2 (1925): 1-4. 550 Anna Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie Halickich Karaimów dla rozwoju Polskiej turkologii,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 41. 551 Kowalski, “Zu den türkischen Monatsnamen,” 8. 552 See his tombstone inscription in Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 229, no. 140; El- Kodsi, Karaite Communities, 32. Halicz 121

Karaim, and Hebrew, Zarachowicz composed articles in the first three of these languages. In addition, he copied many important Hebrew manuscripts and translated some of them into Karaim.553 In the 1920s and 1930s, Zarachowicz was actively engaged in the publishing activity of Myśl Karaimska, for which he provided important data on the current state of the Halicz community. Around 1930, he helped Aleksander Mardkowicz to edit his famous “Zemerłer” – one of the best collections of Karaim poetry to date.554 In 1927, together with Nowach Szulimowicz,555 he prepared for publication a translation of the biblical book of Jeremiah in the Galician-Volhynian dialect of Karaim.556 According to Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Zarachowicz also composed literary works in Karaim.557 Unfortunately, apart from a few short verses for children, which have been composed by Zarachowicz, we do not possess any other samples of his literary oeuvre. As a traditional Karaite believer, Zarachowicz apparently did not accept any of Szapszał’s dejudaization reforms. Though never opposing them publicly, in all of his publications Zarachowicz praised and supported traditional Karaite values and customs, without a hint of the Turkic identity popularized by Szapszał in the 1930s. Both before and after the war, Zarachowicz maintained correspondence with Boris Kokenai, A. Zajączkowski, T. Kowalski, A. Mardkowicz, Szemaja Firkowicz, Pinachas Malecki, Abraham Szyszman, Seraja Szapszał, and many other important scholars and Karaite leaders.558

553 Shapira, “Turkic Languages,” 688. Eilon Moreh (Ben-Zvi Institute, Karaite collection, no. 77) copied by Zarachowicz in 1931 is the only extant copy of the eighteenth-century pedagogical treatise by Simcha Isaac Łucki (now published by Golda Akhiezer, Daniel Lasker, “‘Sefer Eilon Moreh’: Qatekhisis le-ḥinukh Qarai me-ha-meamim 90 (2002): 155). For his letters to Szapszał, see MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 723 and 724 (Russian). 122 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

In accord with the Zeitgeist of modernity, the local community also founded a few civic organizations, such as the Union of Karaite Women (Koło pań Karaimskich) with Sabina (Deborah) Nowachowicz (20.01.1885–16.01.1960, the wife of Zachariah Nowachowicz) as its head.559 The young Karaites formed an association called Koło Młodych Karaimów, which was responsible mainly for dramatic performances and similar presentations.560 Originally this union was called “Płomień” (Flame) in Polish, but later this name was not used. Its first chairman was Zarach Zarachowicz.561 In 1937 the Union of the Young Karaites organized a series of cultural events dedicated to the enlightening activity of the greatest interwar champion of the Karaim language and editor of the periodical Karaj Awazy, Aleksander Mardkowicz. On 5 May 1937, Mardkowicz himself arrived in Halicz and read his poem “Halic,” which was dedicated to the local community and its role in the history of the East European Karaites.562 The Karaites of Halicz preserved memories of their abandoned settlement in Kukizów. In the 1930s, they organized a few expeditions to the Karaite cemetery of the town. One of these, undertaken on 25.10.1932 under the aegis of the ḥazzan Izaak Abrahamowicz, was crowned with an important archaeological and epigraphic discovery. In the course of this expedition, the Karaites found the earliest tomb in the cemetery, dated to 1711.563 Another excursion to the cemetery was organized by the ḥazzan Marek (Mordecai) Leonowicz in September 1938.564 Before the beginning of World War II, there were 122 Karaites living in Halicz (59 men, 53 women, 10 children). Fourteen families lived in their ancestral home, the quarter on Karaite Street, eight families in other parts of Halicz, and eight in Załukiew.565 According to Zygmunt Abrahamowicz their numbers were even fewer: 102 souls.566 Official statistics of 1939 provided the number of 140 Karaites in Halicz.567

559 See more on its activity in Zarach Zarachowicz, “Koło pań Karaimskich,” MK 11 (1936): 119; “Wycieczka z Halicza,” MK 10 (1934): 121 (a report on the trip made by fifteen members of Koło pań Karaimskich to Łuck in 1933). 560 MK 12 (1938): 148. The Yurchenko manuscript collection has preserved a copy of an invitation to one such Karaite evening that took place in Halicz on 17 Apr. 1938. The event consisted of a lecture on the role of theatre by Z. Nowachowicz and a recitation of Karaite poetry in Karaim (verses by Z. Abrahamowicz, Sz. Kobecki, and A. Mardkowicz) by members of the Union. Cf. J.S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Karaimski teatr amatorski,” MK 12 (1939): 148. 561 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, fol. 83. 562 This poem was published in Łuck in 1937. Cf. J.S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Aleksander Mardkowicz członkiem honorowym gminy karaimskiej,” MK 12 (1939): 148; Zarach Zarachowicz, “Jały ułus- iścinin,” KA 10 (1936): 22-28. 563 ([Alexander Mardkowicz], “Zeretłerinde Kukizownun,” KA 5 (1932), 12. 564 J.S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Pielgrzymka na cmentarz karaimski w Kukizówie,” MK 12 (1939): 149. 565 This is according to Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 6; cf. Janina Eszwowicz, Natalia Yurchenko, and Ivan Yurchenko, “Halyts’ki karaїmy,” Dnistrova Khvylia 38 (151) (17.09.1998): 7. 566 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16. 567 Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy, 82. Halicz 123

Illustration 4: The exterior of the Halicz kenesa (prayer house) in the 1930s (source: the Yurchenko MSS).

3.2.2 Interwar ḥazzanim, Izaak Abrahamowicz, and the Conflicts of the 1920s and Early 1930s

The internal state of the community after the end of World War I might be best illustrated by the highly ambivalent figure of the ḥazzan, Izaak Abrahamowicz, and a few conflicts developed partly because of his somewhat unscrupulous activities and partly because of the modernisation of Karaite society in the interwar period. The first serious conflict took place from 1923 to 1924. In this period the whole community became divided between the followers of the acting ḥazzan, Samuel Mordkowicz, together with the official head of the community, Józef Eszwowicz, on one side, and Izaak Abrahamowicz, who was also nominated ḥazzan, together with 124 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

his numerous relatives, on the other. The conflict unfolded in the following way: From 1900 to 1922 the duties of the local ḥazzan were fulfilled by Shalom Nowachowicz. In 1922, however, a short while before his death, Nowachowicz resigned from his office, and Izaak Abrahamowicz was elected deputy ḥazzan, or acting ḥazzan. Zarach Zarachowicz wrote that the Galician community had “great hopes regarding this new ḥazzan because he had just arrived from overseas [i.e. from America]; he seemed to be independent, energetic, and properly educated in religious matters.”568 In 1923, though, for reasons which Zarachowicz did not want to discuss in his article, Abrahamowicz left his office and a new ḥazzan, Samuel ben Mordecai-Shalom Mordkowicz, was elected.569 While examining community registers of births, Józef Eszwowicz, the administrative head of the community, discovered that during his tenure as deputy ḥazzan, Abrahamowicz had registered three questionable marriages and one questionable child. He allegedly did so because of bribes that had been given to him. The new ḥazzan, Samuel Mordkowicz, as well as Józef Eszwowicz, decided to consider these marriages unlawful.570 On the holiday of Shavu>ot, Izaak Ickowicz (one of the persons who had allegedly paid a bribe to Abrahamowicz, and whose marriage was declared to be illegal) entered the synagogue during the prayers and swore at the ḥazzan (i.e. Mordkowicz), shouting: “Kusz ty nie jesteś rabinym” (dialectal Polish: “Shut your mouth, you are not a rabbi”). According to Eszwowicz, Ickowicz “was squealing so shrilly that people were asking whether or not there was a fight in the shrine [i.e. synagogue].”571 Eszwowicz suggested punishing Abrahamowicz and Ickowicz for their unlawful actions, but the community’s board of administration, which according to Eszwowicz consisted mostly of Abrahamowicz’s relatives, refused to do so. Moreover, scandalous behaviour involving Eszwowicz, ḥazzan Mordkowicz and Abrahamowicz’s followers continued to occur during other sessions of the board, thus making it impossible to approve a new legal statute for the community. In his letters to the regional government in Stanisławów, Eszwowicz asked the officials to settle this matter so that

568 Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 29. 569 M. Bałaban incorrectly stated that Abrahamowicz left Halicz for good and the office of the ḥazzan remained unoccupied (Bałaban, “Karaici,” 23). Samuel Mordkowicz was the shammash during G. Smólski’s visit to Halicz in 1903. It was he who provided Smólski with important data about the state of the community, and translated some of the Karaite prayers and proverbs for him (Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 538 and passim). During the fire of 1913, Mordkowicz saved from the flames a few important MSS kept in the local synagogue. According to the same source, at that time he was 80 years old (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1334, fol. 2). This would mean that in 1923 he was about 90. 570 J. Eszwowicz to the regional government in Stanisławów, 3 Feb. 1924, Polish (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 120). Eszwowicz mentioned that I. Abrahamowicz received the sum of 500,000 Prussian marks as a bribe (ibid.). 571 J. Eszwowicz to the regional government in Stanisławów, ca. 1923, Polish (ibid., fols. 113-114). Halicz 125

“other people would not make a laughing stock of the Karaite religious community.”572 However, it seems that the government was not really interested in untangling this knot of internal controversies and, most likely, was on the side of Izaak Abrahamowicz and his party.573 The official statute of the community was signed by the community’s board of administration on 10 July 1925, but Eszwowicz was not listed among its members. Moreover, from 1925 to 1933, the duties of ḥazzan were fulfilled by Izaak Abrahamowicz, whose lobby apparently had won this battle.

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According to official Karaite documents (in which there is no mention of this conflict and Mordkowicz’s tenure in the ḥazzan’s office from 1923 to 1925), Izaak (Isaac ben Moses) Abrahamowicz (27.11.1868 – 21.12.1946574) fulfilled the duties of the community’s ḥazzan from 20 July 1922 to 28 May 1934.575 A few words should be said about this individual’s biography and personal qualities. Eszwowicz characterized Abrahamowicz as a most irresponsible person:

In spite of his repeated resignation from the [office of the] ḥazzan, [Abrahamowicz] appeared whenever there was any sort of financial matter, and after settling it, did not care about the fact that the shrine [i.e. synagogue/kenesa] stood closed throughout the whole week because there was nobody to read prayers in the morning and in the evening, as is our custom; he was also not concerned that children were growing up without any religious education.576

Bohdan Janusz sarcastically remarked that Abrahamowicz, who had spent many years in America, was “a frequenter of society, [who] did not fit in with the somewhat old-fashioned and perhaps too modest Galicians.”577 Indeed, his traditional upbringing notwithstanding, Izaak Abrahamowicz apparently was not the easiest person to deal with. His correspondence and some other sources attest that he often preferred his own (usually purely pragmatic) interests to religious matters. Unfortunately, the sources provide virtually no information on

572 See his letters to the regional government in Stanisławów in ibid., fols. 111-122. 573 A Polish police officer from Halicz reported to AAN MWRiOP that Eszwowicz’s letters did not reflect the real situation in the community (ibid., fol. 118). 574 Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 234, no. 210. 575 In fact, he had resigned from his duties already in Dec. 1933. 576 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 113. 577 Janusz, Karaici, 101-102. 126 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Abrahamowicz’s stay in America.578 While the exact reasons for his voyage to that country remain unclear, one should bear in mind that the beginning of the twentieth century was a time of mass emigration of Russian Jews to America. Abrahamowicz probably stayed there with his Karaite emigrant relatives while being engaged, most likely, in some business activity. According to oral reports gathered by me in Halicz in May 2002, he was a quite well-educated and rather well-to-do person. One of my informants mentioned to me that while in America, Abrahamowicz “became too Jewish.” According to Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, Izaak Abrahamowicz’s nephew, his uncle “was inclined to [accept] certain reforms in the religious sphere similar to those that he had seen in Jewish communities of New York.”579 Paradoxically enough, more reliable archival data attest that Abrahamowicz, on the contrary, wanted to abolish some local practices which he found to be too Rabbanite. He appeared to be especially concerned about the “cult of the dead,” i.e. noisy and ceremonious funeral repasts. His attempts to abolish this tradition, which by that time had become extremely popular, caused much animosity on the part of ordinary members of the community towards Abrahamowicz.580 It is very likely that this fact, together with Abrahamowicz’s constant anxiety concerning his salary and his tendency to be involved in conflicts, forced Seraja Szapszał, the official head of the interwar Polish-Lithuanian community, to dismiss Abrahamowicz from the office of ḥazzan in 1933. The development of the quarrel between Abrahamowicz and Szapszał may be best observed through the correspondence between these two community leaders from 1928 to 1933.581 In his letters to Szapszał, Abrahamowicz constantly complained about his lack of money and his poverty.582 He also criticized the local community for its irreverent and irresponsible behaviour:

578 While delivering the paper, “The History of the Karaite Community of Halicz in the Interwar Period,” to the conference The Halych Karaims: History and Culture (Halicz, 4.09-6.09.2002), I was informed by Anna Sulimowicz that Abrahamowicz travelled to America a few times, beginning from 1903 to 1905 and that he spent the whole of WWI in America. 579 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15. It is highly probable that because of the absence of Karaite houses of worship in America, Abrahamowicz could have visited Rabbanite synagogues there. 580 This is according to T. Kowalski’s personal observations (AN PAN, K III-4, no. 122:1, fol. 28). 581 This correspondence is kept in Szapszał’s archival collection in Vilnius (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a). 582 These complaints of his contradict information from oral reports collected by me in Halicz. According to these reports, Abrahamowicz was comparatively well off. Moreover, members of the local Karaite community informed Szapszał that Abrahamowicz had some savings in America; Abrahamowicz stated that these rumours were false (I. Abrahamowicz to S. Szapszał, 24 June 1929: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fol. 9). It is known that he owned a shop (Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 6), but according to his own account, he was working in the fields as well (I. Abrahamowicz to S. Szapszał, 8 Oct. 1929: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fol. 12). Halicz 127

Our Karaites do not want to pay anything, they refuse to be blessed, and do not even pay money for the Torah scroll and chazanłyk.583 I teach children and [they] also do not pay me for this. They owe me [payment] for two and three months; I remind them, but this does not help. Is it at all possible for me to do everything gratis and work for the community for free [?].584

In his letter of 4 February 1929 Abrahamowicz added: “Our Karaites say the following: ‘The government pays for the maintenance of the ḥazzanim, therefore we will not pay.’ Is it at all possible...?”585 The small amount of money paid him by Szapszał made Abrahamowicz demand the following: “I am asking His Excellency [i.e. Szapszał] to esteem me and to treat me properly as a human being, as other ḥazzanim, because I am not worse than they...”586 It seems that after 1929 the financial situation improved, and Abrahamowicz started receiving his ḥazzan’s salary more regularly. In the same year, 1929, after Szapszał’s visit to the community, most likely in order to show the latter his skill and proficiency as ḥazzan, Abrahamowicz sent a letter in which he described in detail the marriage of Zarach Zarachowicz.587 To date, I have been able to locate only one letter from Szapszał to Abrahamowicz (August 1933; in fact, a draft of a letter: the original letter sent to Abrahamowicz has not survived). This letter demonstrates that about this time there was another major conflict between Abrahamowicz and the local Karaites.588 The community complained about Abrahamowicz’s behaviour and his constant cursing of them with foul language.589 Abrahamowicz, in response, accused practically the whole community of being intriguers and wrongdoers. Szapszał sarcastically noted that Abrahamowicz “scrupulously mentions the surnames of each member of the community apart from his relatives. How is that possible?”590 At some point, for personal reasons, Abrahamowicz decided to move to Załukiew. At the same time, his duties as ḥazzan required him to stay in Halicz, at the centre of Karaite life. It needed the arrival of Szemaja Firkowicz in August 1933 to persuade

583 Apparently, GVKar term to denote the “office of the ḥazzan” (cf. Heb. ḥazzanut). This word is absent in KRPS. 584 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fol. 4. 585 Ibid., fol. 21v. 586 Ibid., fol. 21. 587 Ibid., fols. 14-15. 588 This conflict is also mentioned in the letters by Z. Nowachowicz to S. Szapszał (LMAB F. 143, no. 511, fols. 1v, 4v-5r). 589 Szapszał sarcastically said: “There is no qelalah [Heb. “curse”] in our prayer-books, only berakhah [Heb. “blessing”] for the believers.” He also rebuked Abrahamowicz for his constant references to later sifrei ha-miṣvot (Heb. “books of precepts”) instead of quoting the TaNaKh (S. Szapszał, letters and drafts from 1925 to 1953: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 22). 590 Ibid. 128 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Abrahamowicz to move back to Halicz.591 Nevertheless, soon afterwards he resigned from the office of ḥazzan. The exact circumstances of Abrahamowicz’s resignation remain unclear. Some sources suggest that the public (and, certainly, Szapszał) disapproved of his attempts to introduce elements of Rabbanite practice into the Karaite liturgy.592 Some of the aforementioned factors (his scandalous character, frequent conflicts, and unwillingness to follow Szapszał’s dejudaization reforms) undoubtedly played their role as well. It is unknown, though, whether he resigned his duties voluntarily or was forced to do so at Szapszał’s directive. Whatever the case may be, none of the later Karaite authors (apart from his nephew, Zygmunt Abrahamowicz) mention Abrahamowicz’s name after 1933, and only a few archival documents document his activity in the late 1930s. In 1938 Szapszał requested that he come to Łuck for the celebration of Ḥag ha-Shavu>ot (Pentecost). However, Abrahamowicz did not accept the invitation, under the pretext of not having enough money to undertake such a journey.593 In 1939 Szapszał sent him another letter, also from Łuck.594 This shows that at least in the late 1930s there was no open conflict between Szapszał and Abrahamowicz, the former religious head of the Halicz community. On 10 December 1933, a general assembly of the community elected Marek (Mordecai) Leonowicz to the office of ḥazzan.595 He began his duties only on 28 May 1934.596 In the meantime, after Abrahamowicz’s resignation in 1933 and until May 1934, the duties of the ḥazzan were temporarily carried out by Zarach Zarachowicz. Szapszał’s archival collection in Vilnius contains several letters in Polish and Karaim which were sent by Leonowicz to Szapszał from 1934 to 1939. They provide some

591 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fols. 36-37. During his visit to Halicz in 1933, Firkowicz collected a number of important Hebrew and Karaite manuscripts of Galician provenance, currently kept in his personal archival collection in Vilnius (LMAB, F. 305, no. 102 (nineteenth-century collection of sermons, hymns, and prayers in Heb. and GVKar.; donated by Yeshua b. Levi Leonowicz to Sz. Firkowicz in 1933); no. 103 (donated by Izaak Abrahamowicz in 1933)). Other manuscripts of Galician provenance (nos. 51, 101, 104, 105, 134, 139) could have been collected by Firkowicz in 1933 or later, during his visit to Halicz in 1960. 592 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15; Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 593 Or perhaps he really did not have money for travel? (I. Abrahamowicz to R. Abkowicz, 8.05.1938, Karaim: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 268). The language of this letter is highly interesting (GVKar. with a few Hebrew and Slavic loanwords). 594 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1529, fol. 121. 595 “Wybory kandydata na wakujące stanowisko hazzana,” MK 10 (1934): 120. His full name was Mordecai b. Abraham-Zachariah Leonowicz (1885 (or 1894?)–1940). He was apparently another scion of Abraham Leonowicz’s . In 1914, “młody rebbi Mardocheusz Leonowicz” (Pol. “the young Rabbi Mordecai Leonowicz”) provided important linguistic and ethnographic information to Jan Grzegorzewski (Grzegorzewski, “Caraimica,” 288; Kowalski, “Materjały karaimskie,” 28). In 1914 he was recruited into the army (Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 29). 596 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 30. Halicz 129

details regarding the internal life of the local community, which, after the dismissal of Abrahamowicz, seemed to go rather smoothly, without any major conflicts and problems.597 In addition to the duties of the ḥazzan, Leonowicz was also an instructor of religion and Hebrew grammar in the local religious school (midrasz).

3.2.3 The Halicz Karaites, the Poles, and the Ukrainians

In the interwar period, a few significant changes occurred in the relations between the local Karaites and their Slavic neighbours. These changes were caused, on the one hand, by objective factors: first of all by the resurrection of an independent Polish state in 1918 and the growing Polonization of Galicia. On the other hand, the local Karaite community was ready to react to these changes and reconsider its own position with regard to the local Poles, Ruthenians/Ukrainians, and Ashkenazic Jews. In the interwar period, the tiny Karaite community again became a pawn in the political game – this time, however, played by the Polish government. Like the Austrian officials who had tried to use the Karaites as an example to be imitated by other Jews, the Polish administration endeavoured to use the Karaites in ideological combat against anti-Polish sentiments in Galicia. Indeed, after the disintegration of Austro-Hungary in 1818, the local Ukrainian nationalists established the so-called “West Ukrainian People’s Republic” (Ukr. Zakhidno-Ukraїns’ka Narodna Respublyka), a short-lived republic that existed in late 1918 and early 1919 in eastern Galicia, Bukovina, and Transcarpathia. In the summer of 1919 the Polish army under the command of Józef Piłsudski managed to reconquer Galicia and most of Volhynia. In this Ukrainian–Polish conflict the Karaites, who were very Polonized and, moreover, as part of the Jewish population, had no sympathy for militant Ukrainian nationalism with its anti-Semitic agenda, joined the stronger, Polish side. As one interwar Rabbanite journalist sarcastically remarked, the Karaites dienten den Oesterreichern so treu, wie sie heute gute ‘Polen karäischer Nationalität’ sind (Germ. “served the Austrians as faithfully as they [serve the Poles] today as good ‘Poles of Karaite origin’”).598 As may be observed from official archival data, the local Karaites had the reputation of being good citizens in the eyes of the Polish administration, mostly because of the fact that “during the Ukrainian invasion their behaviour was immaculate.”599 In return for their exemplary behaviour, the Polish administration often rewarded distinguished Karaite leaders and financially supported their endeavours.600 Having settled her problems with the Ukrainian nationalists in Galicia and Volhynia, Poland

597 MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 424, 425, 425a. 598 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 599 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 28-29. 600 E.g. J. S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Odznaczenia,” MK 12 (1939): 148. 130 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

also had to deal with the issue of the emergence of an independent Lithuania. In 1921 Poland suggested conducting a plebiscite on the future of Lithuania. In order to emphasize their loyalty to Poland, in 1922 the Karaites of Halicz composed an official appeal to their “Karaite brothers and sisters in the north, especially in Troki and Wilno.” In this document they expressed the hope that during the forthcoming plebiscite the northern Karaites would vote for the union between Lithuania and Poland. Moreover, they also mentioned that even Kowno Lithuania (Pol. Litwa Kowieńska) would also join Poland “as it was in the days of old.”601 The Polish mass media enthusiastically accepted this manifestation of patriotism on the part of a non- Polish ethnic group.602 These manifestations of pro-Polish patriotism on the part of the Polish Karaites stand in utter dissonance to the scepticism of the local Rabbanites with regard to the reborn Polish state. Their general attitude to the re-emergence of Poland may be best described by the words of a Polish Zionist newspaper from 1919: “Poland, we who are about to die salute you”.603 Such negative tendencies among the Rabbanites are to be explained by a number of pogroms perpetrated by Polish soldiers and peasants, and the general anti-Jewish violence from 1918 to 1920.604 Because of the Polonization of Galicia, there was a marked growth of Karaite integration into Polish society. In the interwar period the Galician Karaites started attending local Polish schools. As a consequence, those who were born and received their education during those years usually had a native command of both Karaim and Polish. The former was normally used within the family, the latter – outside the community.605 The Nowachowicz cousins took an active part in the Polish patriotic movement during World War I and even became members of Polish armed organizations.606 As a consequence of the Karaites’ growing assimilation into Polish society, a few Halicz Karaites converted to Catholicism and left their community.607 The Poles also showed more interest in the Karaites than before. As was mentioned above, in spite of resistance by religious traditionalists, in the interwar period at least

601 The full text of the document is published in Janusz, Karaici, 102-103. 602 Ibid.; Grzegorzewski, “Karaimi haliccy a plebiscyt litewski,” Wiek nowy 6185 (Lwów 1922). 603 Ezra Mendelson, The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars (Bloomington, 1987), 40. 604 The first major pogrom took place in Nov. 1918 in Lwów, i.e. in the immediate neighbourhood of Halicz (ibid.). 605 This is according to the late Ms. Janina Eszwowicz, who was born in Halicz in 1931 (private communication, Halicz, Sep. 2003). 606 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15. 607 According to one of the interwar reports, Karaite converts to Christianity had the audacity to invite their relatives to be witnesses at their baptism in a church (Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13). Nevertheless, this information, which contradicts many other testimonies concerning the preservation of Karaite religious traditions in interwar Halicz, can hardly be trusted. Ms. Janina Eszwowicz informed me that even in the interwar period Karaite children and adults were not allowed to enter Christian churches at all, whatever the reason might be (Halicz, May 2002). Halicz 131

two Polish women converted to Karaism and were thus accepted into the Karaite community. The Karaites made great efforts to present themselves to the local administration as faithful patriots of Poland. On 28 May 1929, for example, the local community arranged a special solemn service in the synagogue dedicated to the “thriving of the homeland.” This liturgical service was attended by such important representatives of the Polish government as Tadeusz Chowaniec, the mayor of Halicz, Bronisław Nakoniecznikow-Kulikowski, the governor of the Stanisławów district, and General Łukowski, the commander of the district garrison.608 On many occasions the Karaites demonstrated their loyalty to the memory of famous Polish rulers, such as Stefan Batory, Vitold, and Jan III Sobieski.609 It is also highly significant that, during the interwar period, the local Karaites completely ignored the “Daniel” version of their settlement in Galicia (so popular in their community in Austrian times). As early as 1919 – immediately after the annexation of Galicia by Poland – the Halicz Karaites, in their petition to the Polish govenment, stated that they had been settled in the region by Vitold.610 They changed their historical views for the simple reason that in the Polish period it became rather inexpedient to be associated with Daniel, the champion of the local Ruthenian and Ukrainian population. Vitold, perceived as one of the most valorous Polish rulers, was a much more politically correct person to be associated with.611 The pro-Polish sentiments of the Galician Karaites are also evident in their attitude towards the term “Karait.” In the 1920s the Karaites of Halicz preferred the forms “Karait” (sg.), “Karaici” (pl.), and the adjectives “karaicki/karaitski” instead of the traditional Polish “Karaim(i)” and “karaimski.” As we have shown before, in all other communities, however, the form “Karait” was considered to be pejorative.612 This unusual Galician linguistic preference is to be explained by the specific local issue directly related to the Polish–Ukrainian controversy. As one of the official documents has it, “in Małopolska Polish people apply the name ‘Karaimi’ to the Ukrainians, who are fiercely hostile to Poland; they also consider this word to be offensive.”613 Because of this local attitude to the word “Karaim,” on the early seal of the community one can

608 “Historyczne dni w Haliczu,” MK 2:2 (1929): 42-44. 609 E.g. [Szulimowicz], “Karaimi Haliccy,” 118-120. 610 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 48-49. 611 The “Daniel” version reappeared again after the end of the war, when Galicia became a part of Soviet Ukraine, and Daniel started to be construed as a “Ukrainian” prince and hero. 612 Antoni Nowosielski [Marcinkowski], Stepy, morze i góry. Szkice i wspomnienia z podróży, vol. 2 (Wilno, 1854), 193; Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, viii; AAN MWRiOP no. 1461, fol. 17; Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 14. See more in 5.2.2. The only correct form in modern Polish is “Karaim/Karaimi.” The English language, by contrast, traditionally uses the form “Karaite/Karaites,” derived most likely from Latin “Caraita/Caraiti.” 613 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 11. 132 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

see the inscription “Rada delegatów Karaitskiej [not karaimskiej!] gminy wyznaniowej w Haliczu.”614 Seraja Szapszał also stated that “in the eastern part of Małopolska the word ‘Karaim’ is a synonym for the Ukrainian bandit, Haidamak.”615 Thus, it is evident from all these citations that the term “Karaim” indeed had some sort of additional (and rather pejorative) meaning in Eastern Poland, the exact origins and meaning of which remain unclear.616 In our context it is much more interesting that for a while (until the beginning of the 1930s) the Galician Karaites rejected the ethnonym “Karaimi” in order not to be associated with Ukrainian nationalists. However, during the later 1930s, they started using the term “Karaimi” as the most correct form accepted in interwar Poland. As was mentioned above, the first half of the twentieth century was marked by the growth of national awareness on the part of the local Ruthenians concerning their Ukrainian national and cultural identity. This tendency was accompanied by the manifestation of their explicit separatist and anti-Polish sentiments. It was only after the decisive defeat and persecution of the Russophile movement, and also in the aftermath of the establishment of the short-lived West Ukrainian People’s Republic, that the Galician Ruthenians adopted a homogeneous and clear-cut Ukrainian self- identification. It is also only in this period that they started feeling (and calling) themselves “Ukrainians” – the term I will use to designate the Ruthenian population of Galicia in the interwar and post-war period. In 1919 Galicia was occupied by the troops of Symon/Semen Petliura (1879-1926), a Ukrainian nationalist and one of the military leaders of Ukraine’s unsuccessful

614 I.e. “The council of deputies of the Karaite religious community of Halicz” (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 20-21, 26). 615 Seraja Szapszał, “Nauchnyi obzor predmetov material’noi kul’tury, khraniashchikhsia v karaimskom otdele Istoriko-Etnograficheskogo muzeia AN Litovskoi SSR” (1953) (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 859. fol. 32). 616 Stepan Pushyk (Ivano-Frankivs’k/Stanisławów) mentioned that in his youth inhabitants of the Galician village of Komarów (Komarov) used to tease inhabitants of the adjacent village, Wiktorów (Viktorov), with the offensive term “karaimy.” The latter called them “reusy” in return (the meaning and etymology of both words is unclear, only their pejorative connotation is evident: Pushyk, “Karaїms’kyi poet,” 113). Similarly, the famous Polish Jewish scholar Mosze Altbauer mentioned that in Przemyśl (Galicia), in pre-war times, Ukrainians were called “Karaimi.” This is why local Polish youths nicknamed their Ukrainian peers with the pejorative “huki” and “karaimi” (Mosze Altbauer, Wzajemne wpływy polsko-żydowskie w dziedzinie językowej (Kraków, 2002), 93-94, ft. 1). It seems that the surname “Karaim” was often encountered by people with no relationship to the Karaite community whatsoever, as a pejorative term. E.g. while browsing through the Austrian official documentation of 1787, I found a Ukrainian Christian inhabitant of the Galician village of Ponikowica whose name was Hryts’ko Karaim (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv; Staatskanzlei, Provinzen: Galizien 1, Konv. D., 1787, fol. 181r). The American author Reed Karaim is another example (I am indebted to Leonard Fox for this reference). In Riga before the Second World War there was an Ashkenazic family with the surname “Karaimskii” (Караимский) (Maks Kaufman, Hurbn Letland. Unichtozhenie evreev v Latvii (Riga, 2013), 131, 365). Łuck 133

fight for independence after the Russian revolution of 1917. In the course of Petliura’s military activity, his troops massacred an estimated 100,000 Jews.617 In 1919 the Karaite quarter of Halicz was sacked by Petliura’s pogromists; fortunately, they did not kill anyone.618 The invasion by Ukrainian nationalists considerably worsened the attitude of the Karaites to their Ukrainian-speaking neighbours. Their Polish patriotism, it seems, also contributed to the deterioration of their relations with the Ukrainians. According to one interwar Karaite respondent, in the 1930s the Karaites had much better relations with the Poles than with the Ukrainians.619

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To conclude, the Halicz community remained one of the most conservative Karaite qehilot in Eastern Europe. Before the arrival of Seraja Szapszał its intellectual leaders (first of all, Z. Zarachowicz, N. Szulimowicz, and Z. Nowachowicz) played important role in the life of the Karaites in Poland. In the 1930s their activity was reduced to a minimum. In this period the community managed to overcome internal difficulties caused first of all by the controversial figure of the ḥazzan Izaak Abrahamowicz. In contrast to other communities, in the 1930s the Halicz Karaites did not have their own periodical which could express interests and opinions of the local community.

3.3 Łuck

3.3.1 General State of the Community

The Karaite community of Łuck seems to be considerably less numerous than all other Karaite communities: according to official data of 1922/1925, based on trustworthy reports of local observes, community consisted of only 12 families or 65 persons. Such small number is explained in one of the reports by the fact that “in 1915 larger part of the Karaites was resettled by the Russian government to Crimea whence they are now gradually returning.” According to information from community members, approximately one third of the community got killed or evacuated during the World war; the community itself consisted mostly of intelligentsia, state officials and civil

617 In 1926 Petliura was assassinated by the Jewish anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard, whose family had perished in Petliura’s pogroms (see Henry Abramson, A Prayer for the Government: Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920 (Cambridge, Mass., 1999)). 618 Jan Grzegorzewski to MWRiOP, Halicz, 5 Nov. 1921 (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 39); Zarachowicz, “Listy z Halicza,” 28. Zarachowicz’s information concerning Petliura’s invasion was also corroborated by one of the elderly Halicz Karaites (private communication of 5 May 2002). 619 Trevisan Semi, Gli ebrei Caraiti, 73. 134 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

workers.620 In 1934 the community consisted of 68 persons in 26 families,621 and in 1939, a short while before the beginning of the Second World War – of 61 persons. From roughly 1900/1905 and until 1935 Aleksander ben Samuel Firkowicz (ca. 1875- 1935) served as the administrative head of the community.622 From 1936 function of the head of the community were fulfilled by Zacharjasz Szpakowski.623 In the 1920s the functions of the local ḥazzan had been temporarily fulfilled by Romuald Robaczewski and Jakób Eszwowicz.624 As well as the Halicz Karaites, those of Łuck had been considered the element in the “Kresy” which was loyal to Poland. One Polish official, who was sent to Łuck to investigate the situation on a spot, mentioned that state orders must be directed at favouring and attracting Karaites on the side of the Polish government because of the importance of finding loyal citizens in Volhynian region. Having received his information most likely from the local Karaite, Józef Firkowicz, the official characterized the Karaites as “resolved enemies of the Jews and Bolsheviks... they are loyal towards Polish Republic.”625 Even Ignacy Mościcki, the president of Poland, who visited the community in 1929, highly evaluated moral qualities of the local Karaites: “The Łuck Karaites represent an example for other ethnic groups, from the moral standpoint as well as from the political.”626 The Łuck Karaite community, as well as all other Polish-Lithuanian Karaites communities of that period, considerably suffered from the events of the First World War. The leaders of the community complained to the Volhynian wojewoda in their “Memorjał”:

World war and forced evacuation left its most painful marks and unrecoverable losses. They decreased the number of the community members by one third and destroying its comparatively flourishing state. Some of our brethren had fallen on the battlefield, others became victims of famine and typhus in exile. Only some of them returned to the ashes of their houses, and those who returned were entirely ruined. The Karaite temple was damaged and completely devastated by the occupants. Eve- rything that was valuable in it: old pająki627 from Gdańsk, crystal chandelier, bronze, silver decorations of the Torah scrolls, very rare editions of the Bible – everything that was gathe-

620 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 118, 142, 145. Cf. Karol Wolf, “Tragiczne niedobitki wielkiej ongi gminy Karaimów,” Ilustrowany Kurjer Codzienny 208 (30.07.1931). 621 MS LMAB, F. 301, no. 419. Imienny spis Karaimów, zamieszkałych w Łucku (28.08.1934), fols. 1v-2r. 622 Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 87-88; “Z karty żałobnej,” MK 12 (1938): 144-145; See also Sergjusz Rudkowski, “Aleksander Firkowicz (sahyncłar),” KA 9 (1936): 22. His Hebrew name appears to have been Sarshalom ben Samuel. 623 “Nowy zarząd gminy,” MK 12 (1938): 145. 624 MK 3 (1926): 27. 625 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 118-119. 626 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 140. 627 Pająk (Polish “Spider”) was a kind of chandelier widespread in Poland in that time. Łuck 135

red in the temple since the times immemorial, was sacked just in a couple of days, packed, and, most likely, taken to Austria.628 Communal house... near the Karaite cemetery was destroyed during the war by Russian troops, and its construction materials were stolen.”629 “Stowarzyszenie wyznaniowe karaimskie w Łucku” (Karaite religious union in Łuck) that was created around 1925 was located on Trynitarska Street 1a. Its heads were Józef Firkowicz and Aleksander Mardkowicz.630 Tadeusz Kowalski, who visited Łuck between 1925 and 1928, found the community almost extinct. There were no regular religious services in the kenesa and many youngsters did not speak Karaim.631 The situation had soon been changed through the efforts of Szapszał who provided the community with the new ḥazzan and organized proper religious life there. The knowledge of the Karaim language in its Volhynian dialect was soon improved due to the activity of Aleksander Mardkowicz. On 01.05.1929 Szapszał, who clearly wanted to have religious services in all the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities performed by his younger followers, placed Rafał Abkowicz to function as the community ḥazzan.632 Before 1929, as the representatives of the Łuck community had complained, they had to invite ḥazzanim from Halicz or Troki to perform liturgies during important religious festivities.633 After the appointment, there appeared a necessity to find proper housing for the new ḥazzan. In order to solve this problem the local Karaites composed the “Memorjał” for

628 According to Aleksander Mardkowicz, two Karaite women were witnesses of how Austrian soldiers packed their booty on the military carts and took it away (Aleksander Mardkowicz, Synowie zakonu (Kilka słów o Karaimach) (Łuck, 1930), 19). 629 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 142. 630 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 134. 631 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, vii. 632 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 30; “Ribbiłer, kajsyłar hazzanłyk ettiłer Łuckada basłap burunhu jaryhymdan XIX izjilnyn,” KA 5 (1932): 16. Rafał (Rafael) ben Abraham Szemuel Abkowicz (b. Troki, 16.03.1896 – d. Wrocław, 12.09.1992); on 1.01.1927 he was appointed the secretary in the magistrate of Troki; he was the ḥazzan in Łuck from 01.05.1929; moved to Wilno in 1938; after 1945 – ḥazzan in Wrocław, the last (and the only) ḥazzan in Poland after the war (regarding his biography, see [Owadjusz Pilecki], “Janhy orun/Naznachenie,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 5; “Wspomnienie,” ed. Mariola Abkowicz, Awazymyz 1 (2) (1999): 4-5; M. Boltryk, “Ostatni Hazzan,” Kontrasty 5 (1986): 6-9; Mariola Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne w Polsce po 1945 roku,” in Karaimi, 190-199; his letters to S. Szapszał in Russian, Karaim, and Polish (dated from 1929 to 1958) are kept in MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 161; for more information, see 6.1.2). To our knowledge, his only publications were the articles about the new Turkic Karaite calendar introduced by Szapszał: Rafael Abkowicz, “Ne anłatadłar biźnin moedłerimiz da eźge ajryksy kinłerimiz,” in Łuwachłar dert jiłha (5693-5696), ed. Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck, 1932): 8-9; idem, “Karaj łuchotłary jiłha 5691 jaratyłmysyndan dunjanyn (1930-31),” KA 1 (1931): 31-32. He also composed several interwar Karaite calendars (e.g. Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700, comp. Refael Abkowicz (Wilno, 1939) (a brochure with the Karaite calendar for 1939/1940)). 633 See “Memorjał” for the Volhynian wojewoda in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 145. 136 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

the Volhynian wojewoda where they sought a grant 24,700 zł for the construction of the house for Abkowicz.634 In addition to this plea the authors of the “Memorjał” added a short historical survey of the community history. Paradoxically they seem to be unaware of the existence of the theory about the arrival of the Karaites to Poland during Vitold’s times. As well as the Halicz Karaites they dated this event to the thirteenth century, i.e. to the times of Prince Daniel of Halicz. According to the “Memorjał” the local Karaites had originally been settled on the left bank of the Styr river, in the territory called “Pola Karaimskie” (Karaite fields). At the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, because of frequent Tatar and haidamak raids, they received a permission to settle down of the right bank under the guard of the royal castle. Of interest is a reference to the fact that a Karaite ḥazzan took part in festivities related to the assembly of several kings and princes which took place in Łuck in 1429.635 At the beginning of the 1930s Abkowicz complained to Szapszał about not too friendly relations with the community. In his letter to Szapszał Abkowicz stated that members of the community often applied to him such offensive Russian words as zhandarm (gendarme), desiatnik (ganger), and gorodovoi (policeman).636 For a while Abkowicz lived on Karaimska Street 26; later he had to rent a flat at the house of a local Rabbanite because, in his own words, “[Aleksander] Mardkowicz almost sold his house”.637 It seems that there was some sort of conflict (or misunderstanding) between these two leaders of the community. According to Abkowicz, all the Karaite children used to come to his place, instead of to Mardkowicz’s, to study religion because the latter “does not recognize this learning.”638 In September 1938 Abkowicz left Łuck because of the financial problems and the conflict with the local community.639 He was subsequently appointed ḥazzan in Wilno. On 27.11.1938 Abkowicz swore an official oath to fulfil the duties of the local ḥazzan.640 Józef Łobanos, the former ḥazzan of the Wilno community, was appointed ḥazzan of Łuck on 18.03.1939.641 It seems that Łobanos fulfilled the duties of the ḥazzan until the end of World War II.

634 For the text of “Memorjał” and ground plan of the house (composed by A. Firkowicz and A. Greczny on 3.07.1929), see AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 141-146. 635 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 141-142. This interesting information is not corroborated by other historical sources. 636 R. Abkowicz to S. Szapszał, Polish, 1931 (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 1). All these words have rather negative connotation in Russian in the sense of “policeman, controller, oppressor”. 637 LMAB F. 143, no. 161, fol. 4, 9r. 638 Ibid., fol. 12r. 639 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/1, fols. 1r, 5r-v. 640 See the text of the oath in LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 373r (Wilno, 27.11.1938, Polish). 641 Z.S., “Zmiana na stanowisku hazzana,” MK 12 (1939): 147. Łuck 137

3.3.2 Al-Mar: Poet, Writer, Journalist, Editor and Translator Aleksander Mardkowicz (1875–1944)

The most important role in the cultural life of the interwar Łuck community, undoubtedly, played the prolific writer, poet, journalist, translator, and editor, Aleksander Mardkowicz (penname Al-Mar; b. Łuck, 24.02.1875, son of Marek-Samuel (Mordekhay-Shemuel) Mardkowicz and Anna (Hannah) Łokszyńska – d. Łuck, 5.04.1944).642 Born in Łuck in 1875, in 1901 Mardkowicz left the town for Brest, and then for Yekaterinoslav (Russia). He received education of a lawyer and worked as a notary. It comes as quite a surprise that this outstanding Karaite patriot, nationalist and man of letters was married to a Rabbanite woman, Rozalia Sandomirska (1886- 1959),643 and encountered problems in registering his own son as Karaite. According to Mardkowicz’s own letter to TOKDP, in 1910 he registered in Russian Poland644 a marriage with a Rabbanite woman although such marriages were not allowed by the Karaite authorities of that time. For obvious reasons Mardkowicz preferred not to inform TOKDP about this fact until 1917, when his son Anatol was born in Yekaterinoslav.645 The local community did not feel competent enough to solve the problem of registering Mardkowicz’s son. This is why in 1917 Mardkowicz sent a letter to Samuel ben Moses Neiman (1844–1916), who, for a time, fulfilled the duties of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham, and had asked permission to register his son as Karaite. Alas, the answer of the conservatively inclined Crimean Karaite authorities was negative. According to Neiman, “the question of [permissibility of] marriages

642 For more information about his biography, see Aleksander Dubiński, “Fragmenty korespondencji prof. T. Kowalskiego z A. Mardkowiczem,” CPK, 91-98; Anna Sulimowicz, “A. Mardkowicz – działacz społeczny, pisarz i wydawca,” Awazymyz 2 (3) (1999): 3-4; eadem, “Listy do Łucka. Aleksander Mardkowicz jako adresat korespondencji Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” AK, 37-60. For the critical evaluation of his poems, see Tadeusz Kowalski, “Nowe utwory poetyckie A. Mardkowicza (Kokizowa),” MK 12 (1938): 121-126. In passing, it is worthwhile noticing that it is very unlikely, being born as early as 1875, that Mardkowicz could have received the non-Hebrew name “Aleksander” on his birth certificate. Nevertheless, his original Hebrew name remains uncertain. His sister had the double name Aleksandra-Sara. 643 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Mardkowicz, Aleksander,” PSB 19 (1974): 617-618. 644 The document says that this event happened “в Илжецком округе Варшавской губернии” (Iłża circuit of the Warsaw gouvernement). To our knowledge, however, today the town of Iłża is located in the Masovian Voivodship in Poland. 645 According to Anna Sulimowicz, Mardkowicz’s first child, daughter Tamara was born in 1911, son Anatol in 1917, and son Marek in 1921 (Sulimowicz, “Listy do Łucka,” 40). It is important to note that Sulimowicz managed to personally contact Tamara Mardkowicz in 1987. 138 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

between the Karaites and [Rabbanite] Jews had been decided against as early as the VIIIth century A.D. [sic!]”.646 The answer that Mardkowicz received from Neiman was certainly very formal and even historically inaccurate. Numerous mixed Karaite-Rabbanite were registered in Egypt at least until the beginning of the thirteenth century, i.e. much later than the eighth century A.D. Dissatisfied Mardkowicz wrote to TOKDP:

As a father and a human being, I cannot reconcile my conscience with that callous formalism which, as clutches, chains the spiritual life of a Karaite. With a pain in my soul, I see that our spiritual leaders apply all their strength and authority not to freeing us – a pitiful handful […] from that everyday deadlock into which we came, owing to our small number, but, on the contrary, to drive us into this dreary deadlock ever more deeply.647

Furthermore, in 1911 he even wrote an indignant letter to the periodical “Karaimskaia Zhizn’” where he suggested changing the attitude towards mixed marriages. In the letter Mardkowicz stated that “the national idea is valuable as long as it does not become a blank wall, closing ways to happiness.” He also asked leaders of the Karaite community “to think about the live people and their sufferings” and expressed the opinion that children born as a result of mixed marriages, should be recognized Karaites.648 Furthermore, in 1912 Mardkowicz published a bitter poem in prose entitled “To the Sister.” It was dedicated to the unhappy, in his opinion, destiny of Karaite maids.649 Thus, it seems that his offspring was after all not registered officially as Karaite. In spite of this negative episode in his personal life, he continued living with his Rabbanite wife.650

646 GAARK F. 241, op. 2, doc. 23, fols. 1-5 as cited in Dmitrii Prokhorov, “Religiozno-pravovye aspekty brachno-semeinykh otnoshenii i demograficheskaia statistika v karaimskikh obshchinakh Rossiiskoi imperii vo vtoroi polovine XIX – nachale XX v.,” in Materialy XIX Mezhdunarodnoi Konferentsii po Iudaike, vol. 3 (Moscow, 2012): 316-317. 647 Совесть моя, как отца и человека, не может мириться с тем бездушным формализмом, которым, как тисками, скована духовная жизнь караима. С болью в душе я убеждаюсь в том, что наши духовные вожди прилагают все свои силы и авторитет не к тому, чтобы нас, жалкую горсть… вывести из того житейского тупика, в котором мы очутились вследствие нашей малочисленности, на широкий путь жизни, а наоборот, к тому, чтобы поглубже загнать нас в этот безотрадный тупик. 648 A.M. [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Chto delat’?” KZh 7 (1911): 84, 85. The author of this letter, who for obvious reasons decided to conceal his name under the initials “A.M.”, lived in Yekaterinoslav and should certainly be identified as Mardkowicz. 649 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Sestre,” KZh 8-9 (1912): 37. 650 R. Mardkowicz [Sandomirska] to Z. Zarachowicz; Łuck, 4 Sep. 1944; Polish; the Yurchenko MSS Disc 6. In 1948 Rozalia Mardkowicz, after the death of her husband, sold the remaining books and publications to KZR in Poland (Mariola Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne w Polsce po 1945 roku,” in Karaimi, 189). Łuck 139

Mardkowicz’s first publications, which appeared in print in “Karaimskaia Zhizn’”, were published in Russian. In 1912 he published one more poem in Russian dedicated to the eighteenth-century Haidamak massacre of the Volhynian Karaites.651 In 1921 Mardkowicz had to return from Yekaterinoslav to his native Łuck where he took active part in cultural and administrative life of the local community. In 1936 he was dismissed from his position of the deputy of the notary Wysocki under the pretext of using his personal connections in improper manner. Nevertheless, by the decision of the local court, Mardkowicz was allowed to continue fulfilling his duties in 1937.652 From 1931 to 1939 he was the main editor of the periodical “Karaj Awazy”. Furthermore, he himself was the author of perhaps, from 30-40 up to 80-90% of contributions to each issue of the periodical, where he published his articles also under various pennames. Some of his leaflets and articles were signed with the double surname, Mardkowicz-Kokizow. He also used a penname Al-Mar. In the period from 1930 to 1939, in addition to numerous articles in “Karaj Awazy” and other Karaite periodicals,653 he published 16 (!) separate brochures, 11 of them in Karaim. Among these brochures were such prose fairy-tales as the “Adventures of Elijahu,” “Holy stone,” “A seed of Heaven;” poems “Halic”, “Scattered Corn,” “Shełomit,” and many other plays and poems.654 Each of these was known practically to every Karaite who was brought up in interwar Galicia and Volynia. Until the publication of Karaimsko-russko-pol’skii slovar’ in 1974, Mardkowicz’s Karaim-Polish- German dictionary was the only existing dictionary of the Karaim language.655 He was also instrumental in dissemination of a new calendar system, which was introduced by Szapszał in the 1930s. According to this new calendar all Hebrew names of the months and religious holidays were substituted with their Turkic equivalents.656 In 1936, however, he was seriously thinking about abandoning his publishing activity and emigrating from Poland, most likely to join his friend Toviyah Levi-Babovich, then the Karaite ḥazzan in Cairo.657 In March, 1937, he visited Halicz where the local

651 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Nabeg Gonty (predanie volynskikh karaimov),” KZh 10-11 (1912): 3-4. 652 Sulimowicz, “Listy do Łucka,” 53-54. 653 E.g. Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Okruchy ze stołu ojców,” MK 12 (1938): 105-108 (on Karaite proverbs). 654 In Karaim: Aleksander Mardkowicz, Elijahunun ucuru (jomak) (Łuck 1932); idem, Birtihi kekłernin (Łuck, 1931); idem, Szełomit (jiry ułłu siwerliknin) (Łuck, 1938); idem, Tozdurhan birtik (bary icin – dert surada) (Łuck, 1939); Aj jaryhynda (Łuck, 1933); idem, Halic (Łuck, 1932); idem, Janhy jirłar (Łuck, 1932); idem, Aziz Tas (Łuck, 1934). 655 Karaj sez-bitigi. Słownik karaimski. Karaimisches Wörterbuch, ed. Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck, 1935). 656 See the edited by Mardkowicz calendar for 1932-1936: Łuwachłar dert jiłha (5693-5696), ed. Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck, 1932). 657 S. Szapszał to A. Mardkowicz (draft of the letter, 1936) (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 125, fol. 1). 140 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

community prepared a hearty and solemn welcome on this occasion. Moreover, he received an honourary award as a national poet and public figure.658 In general, Mardkowicz’s standpoint with regard to the history and culture of the Karaites in Eastern Europe represented a paradoxical mixture of traditional Judeo-Karaite values with the militant Turkicness popularized by Szapszał. In spite of being a great champion and patriot of the Karaim language, Mardkowicz was criticized by Szapszał for introducing too many Hebrew loanwords into his Karaim- Polish-German dictionary.659 While being a pious believer, in 1928 he suggested a religious reform, which even Szapszał, with all his reformative radicalism, considered far too advanced.660 While considering Ereṣ Yisra

658 For the report about Mardkowicz’s visitation to Halicz, see Zarach Zarachowicz “Jały ułus- iscinin,” KA 10 (1936): 22-28. 659 Correspondence between Szapszał and Mardkowicz (1934) (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 468, fols. 3-4). 660 In short, Mardkowicz suggested the following steps to be taken (most of them, undoubtedly, were borrowed by Mardkowicz from… the traditions of his Catholic neighbours): 1. all liturgical services should be conducted only in Karaim, without Hebrew; 2. sermons in Karaim with the Polish translation should be introduced; 3. there should be choir singing and church music with the piano or organ; 4. censers should be used; holiday should fall on Sunday and not on Saturday; believers should enter the house of prayer without a head cover (for the project of these reforms, see Mardkowicz’s letter to S. Szapszał (1928): MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 466, fols. 6-9). 661 MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 466, fols. 8v-9r; Al-Mar [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Awazłary ojowłaryn,” KA 3 (5) (1932): 26-29. 662 He bitterly mocked this idea in his verse “Ebgeler,” KA 11 (1937): 20. 663 He discusses this problem in his response to a letter from one of the readers of KA (in Polish): “Bitik da karuw,” KA 12 (1938): 9-12a. Łuck 141

the book was to introduce the Karaites to the general Polish audience.664 The author saw in the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites the descendants of Crimean Karaites, who, in their turn, should be understood as a mixture of the Israelite colonists of Crimea and the autochthonic local population (Khazars et alia), both adhering to the same sort of monotheistic Karaite belief.665 Undoubtedly, a lengthy quotation from Julius Fürst, which emphasized the favourable attitude of Anan ben David, the founder of Karaism, towards Jesus, was also directed at the Polish catholic audience.666 Several other quotations from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors were used to demonstrate the difference between the Karaites and the Rabbinic Jews.667 Finally, the quotation from Tadeusz Kowalski was used by Mardkowicz to stress the necessity of protecting the Karaites as one of the most unique ethnic groups of Poland.668 A few years later Mardkowicz’s brochure was translated into Lithuanian and published in the periodical of the Poniewież Karaites.669 In the same year (1930) Mardkowicz published the brochure Zemerłer (GVKar. “Songs”), an important collection of the genuine Karaim religious and secular poetry. It is very likely that this collection was prepared by the author long before he began his contacts with Szapszał. This collection does not have a single trace of dejudaization tendencies that are so evident in many other Mardkowicz’s publications. The poems and songs included into “Zemerłer” represent precious samples of the early modern poetry in the Karaim language written by various East European Karaite authors. Many of the poems published there had been available to Mardkowicz in a manuscript form and were later lost. Among them were such as “Oh, Jerusalem, a perfect city” (E Jeruszłem, tigiel sahar), “Today on the Sinai mount” (Bigin Synaj tawga), “Torah is sweeter than manna and honey” (Tatłyraktyr Tora mandan da cijbałdan) – all of them testifying to the fact that at least until the end of the nineteenth century the Karaites preserved traditional Jewish values. Moreover, in his commentaries to the poems Mardkowicz seldom used the GVKar. terms Karaj/Karajłar (Karaites) substituting them with common for the pre-Szapszałian period Israeł-el/israeł-kisi/israeł-dzan – i.e. “Israelites.” The general atmosphere of this collection, the texts of the poems published there, and Mardkowicz’s commentaries stay in utter dissonance with most of Mardkowicz’s publications in Polish.670 Moreover, in his main literary project – “Karaj Awazy” – one can find poems, stories and articles expressing the same traditional Judeo-Karaite values. One may ask whether it was Mardkowicz’s conscious position – to present Turko-Karaite part of his identity to the Polish audience – and

664 Aleksander Mardkowicz, Synowie zakonu (Kilka słów o Karaimach) (Łuck, 1930), 4. 665 Ibid., 12. 666 Ibid., 8-10. 667 Ibid., 6, 14. 668 Ibid., 16. 669 Aleksander Mardkovič, “Įstatymo sūnūs,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 8-16. 670 Zemerłer (Karaj sezinde) (Łuck, 1930). 142 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

to express his Judeo-Karaite traditionalist views in his publications in the Karaim language? He also published a few other leaflets in Polish. One of them was dedicated to the biography of Eljasz (Iljasz) Karaimowicz, the seventeenth-century Cossack who was considered a Karaite hero by many twentieth-century Karaite authors.671 Others were dedicated to the general history of the four main Karaite communities in Rzeczpospolita (Łuck, Halicz, Wilno, Troki) and analysis of the Karaim proverbs.672 In addition to the publication of the separate brochures analyzed above, Mardkowicz also contributed to the activity of the periodical “Karaj Awazy” which was edited by him from 1931 to 1939. Among them were belletristic novels, fairy- tales, verses and poems673 dedicated to various events of the Karaite past in Eastern Europe.674 He also composed several articles which have doubtless scholarly value. His “On the memory of Babiniec” is an impressive sample of Mardkowicz’s emotional memoirs dedicated to his child years in Łuck (babiniec is the Polish for ezrat nashim – women’s gallery in a synagogue). Especially important are several interesting nineteenth-century manuscript documents in Karaim and Hebrew found by Mardkowicz in the genizah of the local synagogue-kenesa and published as an attachment to this article.675 The article “Origin of the Karaite names” chronologically was perhaps the first attempt to analyze personal names of the East European Karaites. In this article Mardkowicz mentioned a strong influence of Rabbanite scholars on the Volhynian Karaite tradition – the fact which seldom recognized in the twentieth-century Karaite scholarship.676 One article was dedicated to the analysis of the Karaite proverbs. Unlike most of the post-war collections of the Karaite sayings,677

671 In fact, he was apparently of the Armenian descent and did not have any relation to the Karaite community (for more information about the historical Karaimowicz, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Il’iash Karaimovich i Timofei Khmel’nitskii: krovnaia mest’, kotoroi ne bylo,” Karadeniz Araştırmaları 6: 22 (2009): 43-74). 672 Aleksander Mardkowicz, Ogniska karaimskie (Łuck, Halicz, Wilno, Troki) (Łuck, 1932); idem, Karaim, jego życie i zwyczaje w przysłowiach ludowych (Łuck, 1935). In 2003 I found among the Yurchenko MSS a typewritten article in Polish (7 fols., without a title) which was apparently composed also by Mardkowicz in the 1930s; its content is similar to that of his Ogniska karaimskie. 673 The largest and, perhaps, the most interesting of Mardkowicz’s poems was “Hadzy-Baba,” KA 11 (1937): 1-18 (poetic biography of Abraham Firkowicz). 674 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Jahałarynda Galwenin da Mełarnyn,” KA 2 (1931): 3-13 (a novel about the eighteenth-century Karaite author, Solomon ben Aharon); idem, “Kacan atałarymyz edler,” KA 1 (3) (1932): 3-10 (“When our fathers were young” – a novel about the community of Łuck and destruction of the Volhynian Karaite communities by the Ukrainian Haidamaks); idem, “Burunhu konarłyk Łuckada,” KA 2 (4) (1932): 7-14 (“The first night in Łuck” – a novel about the first Karaite settlers in Łuck); idem, “Aziz Tas,” KA 7 (1934): 1-18; idem, “Taw Garizim,” KA 8 (1935): 9-13 (on the Karaites and Samaritans). Most of these articles were published under the penname “Al-Mar.” 675 Idem, “Sahyncyna Babinecnin,” KA 6 (1933): 1-10. 676 Idem, “Uruw adłary karajłarnyn,” KA 7 (1934): 21-24. 677 E.g. IU.A. Polkanov, Poslovitsy i pogovorki krymskikh karaimov (Bakhchisarai, 1995). Łuck 143

this article presents to the readers real world of the Karaite proverbs which were often related to religious matters and communal life.678 Quite interesting are several polemic articles published by Mardkowicz on the pages of “Karaj Awazy” in the 1930s. Most of them were dedicated to different aspects of controversial issues related to the Karaite-Rabbanite relations in interwar Poland. I.a., Mardkowicz discussed there the problem of the prohibition of the Rabbanite ritual slaughter by the Polish government and polemicized with Polish Rabbanite newspapers.679 In one article Mardkowicz polemicized with his friend, Toviyah Levi-Babovich of Cairo, concerning the role of the Hebrew language and importance of Ereṣ Yisra

678 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Kart da kartajmahan sezler,” KA 8 (1935): 2-7. 679 Idem, “Taslar Karaj bachcasyna,” KA 9 (1936): 23-24; See idem, “Kari biz, ari ałar,” KA 12 (1938): 2-3; “Turałmahy” Karajłarnyn,” KA 12 (1938): 3–4. For more information regarding this polemic, see 4.8.2. 680 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Awazłary ojowłaryn,” KA 3 (5) (1932): 26-29. 681 Idem, “Szkice karaimskie,” KA 10 (1936): 11-15. 682 Idem, “Z dziejów rozwoju gminy karaimskiej w Łucku,” KA 10 (1936): 16-19. 683 Idem, “Bitik da karuw,” KA 12 (1938): 9-12a. 144 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

to Warsaw. His younger son (himself half-Rabbanite!) surprisingly, married (in 1944) the daughter of a Łuck lawyer, apparently of German ethnicity. The newly-married couple emigrated to Łódź where a number of ethnic Germans had gathered in fear of the approaching Soviet army.684 Mardkowicz finished his days in Łuck in April 1944, when the town was bombarded by the Nazis in their attempt to recapture it from the Soviet Army. His death began the final chapter in the history of the Karaite community of Łuck, whose last sorrowful pages were finished with the post-war emigration of the local Karaites to Poland, destruction of the local kenesa and cemetery, and, lastly, the complete disappearance of the community. The Łuck cemetery, where his tomb had been initially located, had been quickly destroyed. A symbolic grave bearing his name was erected by his family in Sopot.685 He remains as one of the most prolific Karaite man of letters of the twentieth century, a prominent Karaite nationalist, and enthusiast of the Karaim language. It is largely due to his self-sacrificing activity that Karaim indeed became a high language suitable for any genre of literary activity. Although being a faithful follower of Szapszał’s Turkic doctrine, he nevertheless did much to preserve the traditional Judeo-Karaite culture and identity. For more details about Mardkowicz’s periodical “Karaj Awazy”, see below.

3.3.3 Karaj Awazy: The Voice of a Karaite

“Karaj Awazy” – “The Voice of a Karaite” (or “Karaite Voice”) – the periodical published by its editor-in-chief Aleksander Mardkowicz in Łuck in the Southern (a.k.a. Galician-Volynian) dialect of the Karaim language, represented a type of moderate and traditionally-oriented opposition to the more-radically Turkicized “Myśl Karaimska.”686 “Karaj Awazy,” now hardly accessible in any state library in Eastern Europe, once had been present in almost every Karaite house in Poland and Lithuania.687 “Karaj Awazy” – widely read by the Karaite audience as the only periodical in their native Karaim language – functioned both as a literary and popular work, containing community news, stories, scholarly articles, poems, and fairy tales. Moreover, in Troki it functioned as a form of textbook for the study of the Karaim language.688 Originally Mardkowicz wanted to call his periodical “Biźnin Jołumuz” (GVKar. “Our way”). In his letter to Tadeusz Kowalski, Mardkowicz wrote:

684 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 27.03.1944 (UO, 197-198). 685 Sulimowicz, “Listy do Łucka,” 48. 686 Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures,” 689. 687 Today it is available online (). 688 Aleksander Dubiński, “Z życia Karaimów trockich w okresie międzywojennym,” in Karaimi. III Pieniężnieńskie spotkania z religiami (Materiały z sesji naukowej), ed. A. Dubiński (Pieniężno, 1987), 35. Łuck 145

The objectives of “Myśl Karaimska” and “Biźnin Jołumuz”, which is planned by me, do not cross each other, but go in parallel: “Myśl Karaimska” presents Karaite culture to the outside [na zewnątrz], while “Biźnin Jołumuz” has the aim to promulgate the native language among the countrymen and wider analyze internal matters.689

Nevertheless, Mardkowicz later changed the name of the periodical to “Karaj Awazy”. In the period from 1931 to 1938 Mardkowicz published twelve issues of the periodical. “Karaj Awazy” was indeed the voice of the East European Karaite community of that time. In spite of its being published in the Galician-Volynian dialect of Karaim, “Karaj Awazy”was open for all Karaite authors from all parts of Eastern Europe. One may find there numerous writings of the Halicz, Łuck, Troki, Crimean and even Egyptian Karaite authors. These included secular and religious poetry, fairy tales, short stories, community news, comic sketches, historical essays, archival documents, and translations of classical Karaite authors of the preceding centuries. Many articles represented quite a curious mixture of Szapszał’s Khazar doctrine alongside traditional Karaite values. In spite of the fact that the main emphasis of the periodical was on Turkic Karaite traditions and language, there were many submissions by contemporary and classical Karaite authors, such as Toviyah Levi-Babovich, Yosef ben Yeshuah, Zeraḥ ben Natan, Moses Dar‘ī, and Zacharjasz Abrahamowicz. All of them wrote about the respectful attitude towards Ereṣ Yisra

689 A. Mardkowicz to T. Kowalski (Łuck, 19.11.1930; Polish) (Aleksander Dubiński, “Fragmenty korespondencji prof. Tadeusza Kowalskiego z Aleksandrem Mardkowiczem,” PO 1 (145) (1988): 62-67; Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 107-108). 690 Seraja Szapszał, “Kabakłarynda Aziz Saharnyn (Chadży-Aha Babowicznin ucuru),” KA 1 (1931): 3-8. 691 Cf. [Seraja Szapszał], “Prikliucheniia Gakhama Khadzhi Aga Babovicha” (Russian) (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 836). This shows that Szapszał could not write in Karaim, only in Turkish or his native Russian and Crimean Tatar. Moreover, most of his early Polish articles for MK and other leaflets were also originally written by him in Russian and then translated into Polish (see letters of A. Zajączkowski to S. Szapszał in AK, 70, 101). It seems that it was only in the second half of the 1930s that Szapszał started writing directly in Polish by himself, without the mediation of Russian. 146 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Furthermore, the last (the twelfth, 1938) issue of “Karaj Awazy” opened with an article dedicated to the tenth anniversary of Szapszał’s election to the ḥakham’s office.692 These two publications appear to contain the only references to Szapszał and his activity on the pages of the periodical. The tenth issue of “Karaj Awazy” (1936) was supposed to be the last one. Having complained about numerous difficulties, Mardkowicz stated that it would not be a jubilee issue, but the last one: “And these are my last words with which I turn to you from the pages of “Karaj Awazy”: believe and you will be saved!”693 However, afterwards he received such an amount of letters from numerous Karaite individuals and organisations (and, perhaps, even more importantly, some financial support) that he decided to continue and published two more issues (eleventh and twelfth, 1937-1938).694 As with the fate of other pre-war Karaite periodicals, “Karaj Awazy” ceased publication with the start of World War II in 1939. The publication was never resumed after the death of its editor-in-chief and the emigration of the local community to Poland. Today, “Karaj Awazy” remains important source on the history of the Galician-Volhynian dialect of the Karaim language. The materials published on its pages provide students of Karaism with indispensable data on the state of the Karaite community in East Europe.

3.3.4 Sergiusz Rudkowski (1873–1944)

Sergiusz/Sergjusz Rudkowski (Russ. Sergei Zarakhovich/Zakharovich Rudkovskii; b. Łuck 21.11.1837 – d. Łuck 1944, son of Zachariasz (Zarach?) Rudkowski and Zara (Sara?) Sinani) was one of the most interesting twentieth-century Karaite litterateurs. His Hebrew name was apparently Simcha ben Zarach Rudyi (Rudy);695 this is why he composed some of his work under the Hebrew penname, ha-Roddi.696 In 1910 he took part in the All-Karaite Assembly in Eupatoria; in 1913 he was de facto the founder and editor of the periodical Sabakh.697 Until 1917 he worked as a secretary to the court in the town of Włodzimierz Wołyński (Russ. Vladimir Volynskii; Ukr. Volodymyr Volyn’skyi);

692 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “On jił,” KA 12 (1938): 1. 693 [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Onuncu atłam,” KA 10 (1936), 3. 694 [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Dostłaryna Karaj Awazynyn,” KA 11 (1937), inner side of the jacket. 695 LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fol. 22v (the community shammash A.I. Fikowicz states that Симха бен Зарах Рудый is called in Russian documents Сергей Зарич Рудковский). In 1809 in the vicinity of Łuck there lived a Karaite Мошко Зарохов сын Рудый (Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 92). He could have been an ancestor of Sergiusz Rudkowski. Shabarovs’kyi called the latter by double name Sergiusz- Szymon (Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 125). 696 Cf. the letter of A.I. Firkowicz in MS LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fol. 22v. Therefore, M. Németh’s suggestion that ha-Roddi is a derivative from Heb. ḥaredi is wrong. 697 For more information, see 2.3.4. Łuck 147

after the revolution he was evacuated to Kiev and Crimea. In 1918 he returned to Łuck. From 1919 to 1929 he registered marriages, births and deaths in the communal records; from 1922 to 1925 he was the chairman of the Board of Administration of the local community. Michał Németh, with reference to the records of Łuck Karaite community, mentioned that Rudkowski had been married to a non-Karaite woman, Tamara Majewska, of mixed Russo-Polish origin; his marriage was officially registered on 9.08.1923 by the ḥazzan Mosze Nowicki.698 This data, however, does not correspond to archival sources which record his wife’s name as Barbara Majewska with the marriage being registered in Halicz by the local ḥazzan Izaak Abrahamowicz. According to the letter of Józef Eszwowicz to the starostwo in Stanisławów, Majewska was converted to Karaism.699 Whatever the case could be, it is somewhat strange that this ardent champion of the Karaite case chose marriage to a non-Karaite. Already in the mid-1920s he was an active proponent of the Turkic theory of Karaite origin. In 1925 he paid a visit to the editorial office of Juljan Podoski, a Polish journalist working for the newspaper “Życie Wołynia.” The journalist recorded, with a touch of irony, Rudkowski’s agitated monologue:

The wide steppes near the Caspian Sea, free landscapes near the Volga, Don, Crimean plains and mountains were our motherland. Our people came from Asia… Our crooked sabres many times sabred the Tatar hordes. We were the people of warriors. Here, in Łuck, we settled down with the name of the Karaites-“subbotniks” [?!] who had been brought here by the Grand Duke Vitold many centuries ago to defend the Łuck fortress… Many would like to consider us Jews [Pol. za żydowinów]. For our people this is the heaviest insult… But we hate them the same way that they hate us. We have never had a drop of Jewish blood… We were, and are still, a race of warriors. War has always been our nature. As a Khazar , which was accepted into the knight’s service by the Most Bright Rzeczpospolita, similar to the detachments of the Polish Tatars, we always eagerly went to war for our homeland’s sake.700

698 Michał Németh, “Rudkowski, Sergjusz,” Awazymyz 3 (2006): 7-8. 699 J. Eszwowicz to the starostwo in Stanisławów, 1923, Polish (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 113). Apparently, after a conversion she could get a new name, Tamar (Tamara). One must say that Eszwowicz, the author of this letter, apparently had only heard rumours about this event: he erroneously called S. Rudkowski “M. Rutkowski”; he further stated that the name “Tamar” was given not to Barbara Majewska, but to another Polish convert, Marja Stankiewicz. For more information, see Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 244-245. In the 1930s T. Kowalski heard rumours that Majewska, Rudkowski’s wife, was from the sect of the Subbotniks (T. Kowalski to S. Szapszał, MS LMAB F. 143, no. 384, fol. 55). 700 Juljan Podoski, “Łuccy karaimi,” Życie Wołynia 25 (72) (21.06.1925), 5-6 (for the Ukrainian translation, see Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 190-193). Although the name of the Karaite is not mentioned in the article, we agree with Volodymyr Shabarov’skyi who identified this unnamed Karaite with S. Rudkowski. 148 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

There is perhaps no need to comment on the numerous historical mistakes in this long monologue. The most important observation is to stress Rudkowski’s Turkic identity which he possessed as early as 1925. In the list of the Łuck Karaite community of 1934 he is referred to as “Sergjusz Rudkowski, gł. rodz. biural. emer.” (Pol. “head of the family, civil worker, retired”). According to the same document, in 1934 he had two sons, Selim and Nazim (apparently, Szałom and Nissim?).701 At the beginning of the Second World War he was living in Rafałówka, 75 km north of Łuck. In order not to be sent to Siberia by the Soviets, he had to hide; in 1940 he burnt most of his manuscripts. In 1942 his son Selim was murdered by the Ukrainian Banderovtsy. In 1943 he with the rest of his family returned to Łuck where he died in 1944, about the same time as another intellectual leader of the community, Aleksander Mardkowicz.702 Rudkowski was prolific in three languages – Russian, Polish, and Karaim; his writings included journalism, polemic reports and articles, prose and poetry. Rudkowski started his literary activity at the beginning of the twentieth century as an author of a few highly sarcastic journalist articles in Russian. His elegant literary style was at the same time both elevated and bitter.703 In the 1930s he published four separate brochures in Karaim and Polish. One of them was dedicated to the settlement of the Karaites in medieval Volhynia,704 another was a play about the contemporary Karaite life (in two separate brochures).705 The most interesting was perhaps a leaflet in Polish on the destruction of the Derażnia and Kotów Karaite communities by the Ukrainian Haidamaks. This short story was, on the one hand, based on the genuine local folk-tradition; on the other, it was somewhat distorted by the author’s wish to present the Karaites as valorous warriors.706 His other publications of the

701 See “Imienny spis Karaimów, zamieszkałych w Łucku” (28.08.1934) (MS LMAB. F. 301, no. 419, fol. 2r). It seems that Rudkowski’s sons were not officially registered as Karaites (Podoski, “Łuccy karaimi,” 7). 702 For more details, see Németh, “Rudkowski,” 7-8; Aleksander Dubiński, “Rudkowski, Sergjusz,” PSB 32, 604; Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 125-127. 703 S.Z. Rudkowski, “K vyboram Gakham-bashi,” Sabakh 1 (1914): 7-11; S.Z. Rudkovskii, “V Yevpatoriiu i obratno,” KS 3-4 (1913): 5-9. 704 Rudkowski, Tutuwłanmahy Karajłarnyn. 705 Idem, “Dostlar”/“Przyjaciele”. Wesoły szkic z życia ujęty (Łuck, 1931). “’Dostlar.” Satyr kotarmkt tirlikten jizip-ałhan (Łuck, 1931); idem, “’Dostlar II.” Caja kotarmak caja ucurłaricin (Łuck, 1939). 706 Idem, Krwawe echo Humania na Wołyniu (Rzeź kotowska). Podanie (Łuck, 1932). If the statement about the warlike Karaites were true, then there arises a logical question: why was the community so easily and mercilessly destroyed by the Ukrainian pogromists? From other sources we know that the local Karaite population was engaged in trade and crafts and had never been engaged in any military activity. Troki 149

1930s were publicist articles707 and poetry.708 Michał Németh, Rudkowski’s great- grandson, had recently discovered several unknown poems by Rudkowski available only in manuscript.709 Rudkowski played important role in the literary life of the East European Karaites in the twentieth century – as a poet, journalist and man of letters.

***

The Łuck qehilah was the smallest – and yet perhaps the most ambitious – Karaite community in interwar Poland. In the given period its members published the only periodical in the world in the Halicz-Łuck dialect of the Karaim language and printed a number of separate brochures and leaflets in the Polish and Karaim languages. Although its intellectual leaders (A. Mardkowicz and S. Rudkowski) were active disseminators of Szapszał’s dejudaization doctrine, they also greatly contributed to the literary renaissance of the Karaim language and, paradoxically enough, to the preservation of traditional Judeo-Karaite values. In 1939 the community was joined by another important interwar intellectual – ḥazzan, poet and translator Józef Łobanos – who unfortunately did not stay in the community long enough to make any impact on its life.

3.4 Troki

3.4.1 General State of the Community

According to official data, on 15.03.1922 the Karaite community in Troki consisted of 203 people.710 Later some of the Troki Karaites, scattered around the world during the First World War, returned to their native town. As a consequence, the community grew up to 300-350 souls. The letter sent by Szemaja (Szymon) Firkowicz and Achiezer Zajączkowski to MWRiOP on 24.11.1925 describes the deplorable state of the Troki community after World War I in the following way:

707 Idem, “Nece sez bizin kutułmahymyznyn,” KA 1 (1931): 14-16; idem, “Korutkan dżuwaherłer,” KA 2 (1931): 19-20; idem, “Kart Łucka,” KA 8 (1935), 14-18; idem, “Kart Łucka,” KA 9 (1936): 12-15; idem, “Komisarjatta,” KA 2 (1931): 35 (transl. from Polish); idem, “Sormakłar da karuwłar,” KA 12 (1938): 5. 708 Especially interesting are the following verses: “Istepłer,” KA 11(1937): 21; “Ułhaj, uwłum!” KA 3(5): (1932): 22-23. For a complete list of his publications, see BK under “Rudkowski, Sergjusz.” 709 One of these verses was published in Németh, “Rudkowski.” 710 Some materials presented in this subchapter had been earlier published in Mikhail Kizilov, “Karaites in North-Eastern Europe: The Karaite Community of Troki between the Two World Wars,” in Orient als Grenzbereich? Rabbinisches und ausserrabbinisches Judentum, ed. Annelies Kuyt und Gerold Necker (Wiesbaden, 2007): 139-155. 150 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Material property is destroyed, the land is exhausted, deficiency of houses, only desolation and ruins are all around... Decorations and valuables from the shrine [i.e. synagogue- kenesa], centuries old archives and the library of the Spiritual Consistory are taken away to Russia on the order of occupying officials… The wooden shrine [i.e. kenesa] of the Karaites in Troki, erected on the place of the [earlier one] burnt at the beginning of the nineteenth century, needs to be repaired: walls are decaying, the roof is leaking.711

Paradoxically enough, most informative descriptions of the Troki Karaite community in the 1930s were left, curiously, by Jewish visitors to the town.712 In spite of a rather biased attitude towards the Karaites, Rabbanite travellers noticed many peculiar religious and ethnographic details that had been overlooked by Christian visitors. In the summer of 1932, for example, Troki had been visited by Israel Cohen.713 The author seems to ignore all other tourist attractions of the town, while focusing his interest only on Rabbanite and Karaite monuments of Troki:

The Karaites do not show any friendship towards the Jews. They are mainly vegetable gardeners, who convey their produce every morning to the market in Vilna... Most of the Karaites live in small, one-story houses of timber, on the principal street, Kowenski ulica... In appearance they differ strikingly from the Jews. Though they are mainly dark, they have the Tatar physiognomy; while some of them, especially the girls, present a fair type.714

Most members of the community survived from the produce of their farms and gardens, especially from the selling of famous Karaite Troki cucumbers (see below). During the “non-cucumber” period many were engaged in the carrier’s trade (Pol. furmanka), especially in delivery of fallen forest to storage places; some worked as teachers, one was the head of the local postal office.715 This short description will serve as an introduction to our analysis of the history of the community from 1918 to 1939.

3.4.2 Poet, Farmer and Religious Authority: ułłu ḥazzan Szemaja ben Abraham Firkowicz (1897–1982)

Szemaja ben Abraham Firkowicz (b. Troki, 28.11.1897 – d. Troki, 16.04.1982) was one of the most interesting figures in the twentieth-century Karaite history. For more than

711 AAN MWRiOP 1466, fol. 155. 712 Israel Cohen, Vilna (Philadelphia, 1943), 463-464; Alexandra Sołowiejczyk, “U Karaimów Trockich,” Nasza Opinja 173 (8.01.1938), 305; H. Aizakson, “Karaimen gehen unter,” Di Idishe Shtime 5004 (03.03.1935). Two other highly interesting reports (by M. Blum and M. Piątkowski) are discussed below. 713 It seems that this was the known Zionist author, Israel Cohen (1879–1961). 714 Cohen, Vilna, 463-464. 715 Pilecki, “Karaimskie życie,” 41-43. Troki 151

60 years (from 1921 until his death in 1982) he was ḥazzan in Troki. At the same time he was the deputy of the ḥakham, the right hand of Szapszał, the person responsible for the spread of the latter’s Turkic ideology among the members of the community. Furthermore, he was one of the most prolific Karaite man of letters in the twentieth century. Firkowicz is known to posterity under a host of different names and spellings. His Hebrew name was Szemaja ben Abraham;716 in Polish he called himself Firkowicz Szymon, syn Adolfa i Zofji z Robaczewskich; in Karaim – Szemaja uwłu Awrahamnyn; in Russian – Semen Adolfovich Firkovich, and in Lithuanian – Simonas Firkovičius.717 Furthermore, he composed some of his oeuvres under the penname Szafir (from the initial letters of his name and surname). He graduated from the Karaite religious school in Pskov (Russia) in 1915. During the First World War and until 1920 he was in Eupatoria in Crimea where he for the first time met Seraja Szapszał. Firkowicz was elected Troki ḥazzan in 1920 and acting Troki ḥakham in 1922 (he stayed in this office until the election of Szapszał as the ḥakham in 1927). This means that he was only 24 when he was elected – perhaps too early an age from the standpoint of Karaite religious tradition. His own letters testify that the beginning of his duties was quite difficult for him: some elders (Pinachas Malecki) criticized him right “in the kenesa before all the believers.”718 In addition to his religious office, Firkowicz was a chairman of the agricultural union “Przyszłość” (Pol. “future”), and himself actively worked in the field of cucumber growing.719 Although he de facto fulfilled the duties of senior ḥazzan already from 1921, he was officially nominated to this office by Szapszał only in 1929.720 Firkowicz was held in great esteem for his unparalleled activity as a litterateur. He published a large number of entries in many Karaite and non-Karaite periodicals.721 As early as 1927, when the young ḥazzan was only 30 years old, his literary talent was highly appraised by Tadeusz Kowalski who published many of Firkowicz’s translations, riddles, proverbs, poems, and four plays in his Karaimische Texte im Dialekt von Troki.722 Firkowicz, his traditional education and religiosity notwithstanding, played a most significant role in the process of the dejudaization (Turkicization) of the Karaite community instigated by Seraja Szapszał. Firkowicz, who, in contrast to Szapszał, was

716 One of his articles was signed “Szemaja-bień-Awraham” (“Jarych sahyncz abajły üriatiuwczugia P. Maleckigia (1854-1928),” MK 2:1 (1929): 46-48); cf. LMAB F. 143, no. 822, fol. 166r. 717 One of his visit cards from the 1930s has the name Szymon Seweryn Firkowicz (LMAB F. 143, no. 242, fol. 23). 718 Sz. Firkowicz to S. Szapszał (1927, Russian) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 264, fol. 5. 719 Jan Krywko, O ogórku trockim (Wilno, 1926), 8. 720 S. Sz-n [Szymon Szyszman], “Mianowanie,” MK 2:2 (1929): 41; see also Zarach Zarachowicz, “Dziesięciolecie kapłaństwa Ułłu Hazzana Szemai Firkowicza,” MK 2:3-4 (1930-1931): 77-81. 721 For a complete bibliography, see BK, 716 (index). 722 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 76-140. 152 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

a native speaker of Troki Karaim dialect, could carry out linguistic reforms directed at purifying the Karaim language. In 1935/6 Firkowicz published a programme article in “Myśl Karaimska” where he announced the necessity of purification of the Karaim language from numerous Slavic and Hebrew borrowings.723 Moreover, it may be largely due to the enlightening activity of Szemaja Firkowicz in Troki and Aleksander Mardkowicz in Łuck that in the 1930s Karaim became a literary and not just an everyday language of the community. Firkowicz’s literary talent had often been used by Szapszał when he needed to justify a new turn in his ideological platform. We may cautiously suppose that it was Szapszał who suggested that Firkowicz compose several treatises and translations reflecting an ideological background (e.g. Karaim translations of the “International” and the hymn of the USSR). It seems that the ḥazzan himself was too engaged in his literary activity in order to come to such radical ideological tasks by himself. In addition to the aforementioned linguistic reform, Firkowicz also created a new Turkicized tradition of Karaite folklore which, in fact, had not existed before the 1920s. Already Kowalski mentioned that many Karaite proverbs, in fact, did not have actual folk roots, but rather represented the fruits of Firkowicz’s literary activity.724 To give another example, it was Firkowicz who composed a fairy tale “Alankasar” (Giant), which, again, was not an authentic piece of Karaite folklore, as it may seem at the first glance, but a literary product of Szemaja Firkowicz.725 We may also suppose that it was Firkowicz who translated into Karaim the Christian prayer Pater Noster (Kar. “Atamyz, ki kioklardia…”) and included it into a small Karaite prayer book published by him in 1935.726 In general, this prayer book, published in Karaim in Latin

723 Szymon Firkowicz, “Przyczynek do zagadnienia wpływów obcych na język karaimski,” MK 11 (1935-36): 69-72. 724 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, 299. 725 This fairy tale was published (without authorship, apparently to suggest its medieval or early modern origin) in KRPS, 685-687. For the roots of this tradition, see Władysław Syrokomla, Wycieczki po Litwie w promieniach od Wilna, vol. 2 (Wilno, 1857-1860), 82; A. Szyszman, “Gonets velikogo kniazia” (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 1531, fols. 31-37v). The fact that it was composed by Firkowicz is mentioned in Aleksander Dubiński, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo S.A. Firkowicza,” RO 44:1 (1985): 125, ft.7; idem, “Szymona Firkowicza twórczość literacka w języku karaimskim,” PO 3-4 (1993): 206. Golda Akhiezer discovered in Abraham Firkowicz’s collection in NLR a seventeenth-century manuscript in Hebrew which contains a story similar to that published in KRPS. In this original manuscript, however, the name of the hero is Natan ben Zarach (G. Akhiezer, electronic letter to M. Kizilov, 29.07.2013). Thus, the name of Alankasar had not been mentioned in original versions of this legend and was inserted there by Szapszał and/or Szemaja Firkowicz. 726 Szymon Firkowicz, Kołtchałar. Krótkie modlitwy karaimskie (Wilno, 1935), 6-7. Paradoxically enough, the Polish part of the book (a translation of the Karaim portion) does not contain many Hebrew terms mentioned in its Karaim version. The Pater Noster in Karaim also appears in the typewritten and manuscript Karaite calendars composed by Sz. Firkowicz in Troki from 1938 to 1958 (Sz. Firkowicz, “Karaj Łuwachłari,” MS LMAB F. 143-1062, fol. 46v.). Troki 153

characters (perhaps, the first Karaite prayer book published in !) together with the Polish translation, as it seems, was supposed to demonstrate to the Polish audience a similarity between Karaite and Christian traditions. This idea was also a part of Szapszał’s doctrine of that period.727 As the community ḥazzan ha-gadol (ułłu ḥazzan), Firkowicz was responsible for the composition of religious calendars. It is of interest that in some of them, in addition to the traditional era beginning from the Creation of the world (TrKar. dunja jaratyłmahyna/jaratyłmahyna dunjanyn728), he used the era Anan bijimiźniń tuwmahyna (TrKar. “from the birth of our lord Anan”).729 This era, which began in the year 715 A.D., was suppose to begin calculation of years from the birth of Anan ben David, the founder of the anti-Talmudic Ananite movement. The last calendar from this series kept in Szapszał’s collection (1958/1959) was composed in Troki Karaim in .730 To my knowledge, this chronology was not generally accepted by the Karaites. So far I have been able to find only a few documents written in accordance with this dating.731 On the other hand, despite his numerous poems and translations Firkowicz very seldom indulged in the composition of historical and ideological works. His lack of activity in this field had often been criticized by Szapszał. Nevertheless, one of the ḥazzan’s rare historical works, “On the Karaites in Poland” played an important role in rescuing the Karaites from the Nazi danger. Composed in 1938, evidently with the idea of proving to non-Karaite audiences that the Karaites were not Jews, this leaflet had later been translated by the Nazis into German and used as a textbook on Karaite history.732 This brochure does not mention the word “Judaism” at all and stresses only the Turko-Islamo-Arabic nature of the East European Karaites and their faith. The term “Karaim” is understood here as a derivative of the Arabic “Karain”, Karaite religion is treated as a product of Muslim influence, while Jesus and Mohammed are mentioned as Karaite prophets.733 Being the community ḥazzan with excellent religious education, Firkowicz could not help realizing that he was not telling his readers the truth: the Karaites, be they either of Near Eastern or East European provenance, never

727 E.g. J. Hopko, “Echa krajowe. Nowe-Troki,” Słowo (13.05.1930) (here the author emphasizes the affection with which the Karaites viewed Catholicism). 728 Karaim equivalent of the traditional Heb. li-vriyat ha->olam (“from the creation of the world”). 729 E.g. the Karaite calendar for 1949/1950 (LMAB, F. 143, no. 1062, fol. 73); this era was used by other ḥazzanim as well (e.g. Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700, comp. Hazzan Refael Abkowicz (Wilno, 1939)). 730 Sz. Firkowicz, “Karaj Łuwachłari” (1938-1958) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1062. 731 E.g. the letter of J. Łobanos to S. Szapszał (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1529, fol. 19r). 732 See Szymon Firkowicz, Die Karaimen in Polen, transl. Harald Cosack (Berlin-Dahlem, 1941; Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, call no. 1942 B 484; typescript; “nur für den Dienstgebrauch”). 733 Szymon Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce (Troki, 1938), 4-5. This leaflet was heavily criticized even by the Karaites themselves, especially for the phrase which suggested the Karaites’ frequent drinking of alcohol (Wł. Zajączkowski, “Sz. Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce (Troki 1938) (recenzja),” MK 12 (1939): 137). 154 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

considered Mohammed and Jesus as prophets. Another of Firkowicz’s interesting historio-ideological work, dedicated to polemics with Jewish scholars concerning the Khazar question, remained unpublished. This paper argued in favour of the Khazar origin of the East European Karaites and negated the possibility that the Ashkenazic Jews could also be the Khazars’ descendants.734 Let us come back to Firkowicz’s biography. In 1936 a Jewish visitor to Troki, Dr M. Piątkowski, met the young ḥazzan. Piątkowski described him in the following way:

He is a beautiful 35-year old man of noble appearance with a face distinguished simultaneously by both importance and softness. I have often seen him on the lakes because he eagerly engages himself in fishing.735 When he is strolling with an air of importance the streets of the town, he resembles an Arabian racer. But in a boat, in his soft black hat with wide brims, overshadowing his noble face, he has something of a Polish poet… I discovered that I saw before my eyes a kind of physiocrat. He himself cultivates his forefathers’ plot of land, and would love to keep his flock on the land. He looks with anxiety on those who enter the social scene – maybe they despise the fathers’ traditions, the faith of the ancestors…736

At the end of his article, however, after the visit to the kenesa where he heard an absolutely ignorant anti-Rabbanite excursion led by the kenesa’s shammash, Piątkowski wrote disapprovingly about Firkowicz’s hypocrisy in this matter. The journalist hinted that Firkowicz, not the shammash, was the actual author of the pseudo-historical text of this excursion.737 In 1937 Firkowicz visited the Karaite communities of Paris and Berlin; about the same time Germany and France were also visited by Szapszał. Although we lack exact data concerning the circumstances that forced these two Karaite leaders undertake such a long and difficult journey beyond the borders of Rzeczpospolita, one may very cautiously suggest that the real aim of both trips was to collect the data about the state of the Karaite communities of these lands and, furthermore, gather information about the growing danger of Nazism for the East European Karaite community. Firkowicz certainly was one of the leading figures in the history of the interwar Karaite community in Poland, a poet, religious authority, language reformer and ideological leader. For more details about his life during and after the Second World war – and his literary activity – see 6.2.2.

734 Szymon Firkowicz, “Odczyt ułłu hazzana Szymona Firkowicza” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 490, fols. 12-17). 735 One elderly inhabitant of Troki, whom I happened to meet during my first visit to the town in December 2000, told me about his frequent fishing trips with Firkowicz in the 1960s-70s. 736 M. Piątkowski, “Karaimszczyzna w oczach Żyda,” Nasza Opinja 64 (191) (01.02.1936): 6-7, part x. 737 Ibid. Troki 155

3.4.3 Poetess Lidia Poziemska (Łobanos) (20.01.1886–2.01.1952)

W duszy mej smutnej brzmią lutni dzwony... (The lute strings sound in my sad soul...)

Lidia Poziemska, “Mój ideał” (My ideal)

Troki Karaite poetess Lidia Poziemska (b. Łobanos, Troki, 1886; returned to Troki from St. Petersburg in 1903; married to Alfred Elifas Poziemski and moved to Moscow in 1905; returned to Troki in 1917; d. Troki 1952; nom de plume – Sfinks), undoubtedly, represents interest both by her literary and social activity. Born into a family of the Troki mayor Józef Łobanos, she was an offspring of the famous Karaite clan of Łobanoss, whose representatives often had been elected Karaite wójts (the head of the community). Her brother, Jozef Łobanos, was the ḥazzan of the Wilno community in the 1920s-1930s. Having been sent in her childhood to the relatives in St. Petersburg, Lidia Poziemska received the best kind of education which the aristocratic capital of Russia could offer. Her husband, Alfred Poziemski, who spent a long time in England, from 1905 to 1917 owned a tobacco factory in Moscow. After the death of her husband, from 1930 onwards Lidia Poziemska actively participated in the cultural life of the community. The poetess tried to introduce into the provincial cultural life of Troki the same sort of aristocratic atmosphere she had experienced in St. Petersburg: organizing courses in studio theatre, piano, dancing, and “savoir vivre”. As most other educated Karaites of that time, she could easily write and read four languages, Polish, Russian, and Karaim among them. Despite her upbringing in the Russian capital, her literary talent blossomed in Polish. Szymon Firkowicz, when translating the collection of the Karaite prayers “Kołtchałar”, drew upon her linguistic Polish competence. Her poems in Polish are reminiscent of the general akmeistic and decadent atmosphere of pre-1917 Russian poetry.738 Seeing the danger of demographic decline of the community because of the severity of marriage law, the poetess suggested allowing mixed marriages – suggestion which was not been attended to.739 In 1936 the Jewish visitor to Troki, M. Piątkowski, happened to meet with the poetess, who suggested that the journalist visit the local cemetery and, in the meanwhile, listen to her poetry. Evidently because of the less-than-positive impression produced upon Piątkowski by a general sepulchral atmosphere of the

738 See a selection of her poems in Konstanty Pilecki, “Cień z przeszłości,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 5-7; Lidia Poziemska (Sfinks), “Elegia,” Awazymyz 2 (2006) (for a manuscript of the poem, see MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1573); eadem, “Wstań rycerzu,” Awazymyz 2 (2006). 739 See more details on her biography in the article by her grandson, Konstanty Pilecki (“Cień z przeszłości,” 3-7). 156 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

scenery, he noticed that “This poetry, whose remotest echoes had already wafted above the gravestones, this poetry is the same as the life of the Karaites – in shapes of the eternally stark.”740 Little is known about Lidia Poziemska’s life in Soviet Lithuania after 1945. Poziemska was perhaps the only twentieth-century female Karaite litterateur, although she carried out her literary activity not in the national vernacular (Karaim), but in the language of the state, i.e. in Polish.

3.4.4 A Periodical of Karaite Teenagers: “Friend of the Karaites” – “Przyjaciel Karaimów” (“Dostu Karajnyn”)

According to Aleksander Dubiński, himself a pupil in the interwar midrasz (Karaim for “beit midrash,” i.e. religious school), two Karaite youth organizations were functioning in Troki in that time – sporting union Karaj Idman Birligi and Koło Młodzieży Karaimskiej “Bir-Baw”.741 The latter organization even published a hectographic742 periodical in Polish and Karaim entitled “Przyjaciel Karaimów/Dostu Karajnyn”. The editorial board of the periodical consisted of Zarach Firkowicz,743 Szymon Kobecki (1911–1985),744 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski (apparently, Ananiasz Zajączkowski’s nephew), and a few other young Karaites. The first issue, which was published in 1930, had a Polish title and contained materials mostly in Polish.745 Most of the materials represented attempts of young Karaites to write stories and verses in Polish and Karaim languages.746 It seems that the periodical was noticed by Szemaja Firkowicz and other Karaite elders, who, most likely, suggested changing the language of the periodical into Karaim. Furthermore,

740 Piątkowski, “Karaimszczyzna,” 6-7, part viii. (“Poetessa”). 741 Dubiński, “Z życia Karaimów trockich,” 38. For the draft of the statute of the Bir-Baw union, see LMAB F. 301, no. 238 (Polish, 1930s); cf. “Kioź sałmach tirliginia igitlarniń,” DK 2 (1932): 13-14. 742 Hectographic edition allowed printing up to a hundred copies of each page. 743 The full name of this author was Z.S. Firkowicz; he lived from 1906 to 1958, and published several poems and a novel in Karaim; he sometimes signed his publications by the acronyme Zefir (see “Aziź bijim,” DK 2 (1932): 3-4; “Galwianiń kyryinda,” DK 2 (1932): 7-8 (signed: Zefir); “Igit’ elangia,” PK 1 (1930): 5-6; “Tienry siuwiarynia bołuszad,” DK 2 (1932): 11-13 (a novel; signed: Zefir). Was it this Zarach Firkowicz that later became the ḥazzan in the Poniewież community? See more in 3.6.1. 744 He published a novel and two poems in DK (Szymon Kobecki, “Burunhu czychmach juwdian,” DK 2 (1932): 9-11; idem, “Rast dinimni…” ibid., 9; idem, “Dostłarha,” ibid., 6). 745 Przyjaciel Karaimów. Czasopismo Koła Młodzieży Karaimskiej w Trokach 1 (Troki, 1930), 16 pp. The title page has a coloured depiction of the Troki castle. The only place where I could find this rare periodical was MS VU F. 185, no. 20. 746 E. Jutkiewicz, “Nierozważny krok (Nowela),” PK 1 (1930): 7-8; E. Jutkiewicz, “Powrót do domu,” ibid., 9-10; “Kronika karaimska,” ibid., 11-14; “Sprytny kłamca (Anegdotka),” ibid., 15-16; Z. Firkowicz, “Igit’elangia,” ibid., 5-6. Troki 157

more space was supposed to be dedicated to such serious matters as religion and education. Thus, the second issue appeared under the Karaim title Dostu Karajnyn. Wydawnictwo Koła Młodzieży Karaimskiej “Bir-Baw” w Trokach 2 (Wilno, 1932). In fact only the cover of the periodical was published in the Szymanowicz’s printing house in Wilno, whereas the rest of this issue was typewritten and copied by hectograph. Its content became much more varied in comparison with the first issue. It contained novels747 and poems748 in Karaim, community news,749 riddles, puzzles, anecdotes750 and one publication in Polish – the end of E. Jutkiewicz’s novel, which was begun in the first issue of the periodical.751 Although the authors of “Dostu Karajnyn” had been following Szapszał’s Turkic calendar, the Karaim language of the periodical still contained quite a few Hebrew loanwords such as suuda, midrasz, ribbi, tałmid, sabat. The third issue of the periodical (1934) turned out to be the last one; it is unclear why its activity was not been resumed. “Przyjaciel Karaimów/Dostu Karajnyn” was the only attempt by the young Polish-Lithuanian Karaites to create their own corresponding of “serious” Karaite periodicals such as “Karaj Awazy” or “Onarmach.” Unfortunately, only three issues of the periodical appeared in print. Because of the fact that they were published in a limited number of copies, “Przyjaciel Karaimów/ Dostu Karajnyn” was accessible perhaps only to narrow circle of the Troki and Wilno Karaite youth and had virtually no circulation in other communities.

3.4.5 Monuments of History a) Kenesa The beautiful nineteenth-century Troki Karaite synagogue-kenesa, believed to have been built after 1812 on the place of the earlier one, is one of the most interesting Karaite monuments of the town.752 The monument is made partially of wood – it seems that this building is practically the only (or one of a few) wooden Lithuanian synagogues which managed to survive the flames of the Second World War. In 1894

747 E.g. M. Firkowicz, “Kiusiancz dżymatcha,” DK 2 (1932): 5-6; Szymon Kobecki, “Burunhu czychmach juwdian,” DK 2 (1932): 9-11. 748 E.g. El. Firkowiczówna, “Kieniasz,” DK 2 (1932): 9. 749 “Kioź sałmach tirliginia igitlarniń,” DK 2 (1932): 13-14. 750 “Ribbi tałmidgia,” DK 2 (1932): 15; “Midraszta,” ibid., 15-16 (the author of these two anecdotic stories was not indicated). 751 E. Jutkiewicz, “Nierozważny krok (Nowela) II,” ibid., 16-17 (I was able to find a copy of this periodical in the Yurchenko MSS). 752 A Karaite author published recently a short popular leaflet about the kenesa in four languages (Michał Zajączkowski, Karaimų kenesa Trakuose/The Karaite Kenessa in Trakai/Kieniesa karaimska w Trokach/Караимская кенеса в Тракай (N.p., n.d., no page numbers [Trakai, ca. 2002, 16 pp.])). Unfortunately, it does not provide any substantial information regarding the history of the monument. 158 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

with the money received from voluntary donations of community members the kenesa was partly rebuilt and renovated. In the course of the renovation works a small decorative tower with a Star of David was erected on the top of the roof.753 The letter written by the young ḥazzan of the synagogue-kenesa, Szemaja (Szymon) Firkowicz, and Achiezer Zajączkowski to MWRiOP on 24.11.1925 describes the deplorable state of the building after the events of the First World War in the following way:

Decorations and valuables from the shrine [...] are taken away to Russia by the order of occupant officials... Wooden shrine of the Karaites in Troki, re-built on the site of the [earlier one] burnt at the beginning of the nineteenth century, needs to be repaired: walls are decayed, roof is leaking...”754

According to Israel Cohen, who visited Troki in 1932, kenesa’s “cupola was originally surmounted by a shield of David, but the removal of this emblem was ordered some ten years ago by the local Hakam [i.e. Szapszał] as smacking too much of traditional Judaism. The offending symbol, however, still remains on the iron gate, from which it could hardly be removed without causing a conspicuous blemish.”755 A similarly bitter remark concerning the removal of the Star of David from the cupola of the kenesa was left by M. Piątkowski: “The same emblem [the Star of David] until recently could have been seen on the top of the kenesa. Today reason directs one to avoid this fatal symbol...”756 Moreover, there also were miniature stars of David in the upper part of each window of the kenesa, and a Star of David above the altar,757 also removed in the 1930s. M. Blum sarcastically wrote: “Who knows, maybe on a spot of Magen David there would appear some sort of… Karaite cross.” He also noted that the sukkah (a temporary hut for Sukkot holiday), which had been standing in front of the kenesa,

753 MS LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fol. 27; ibid., no. 295, fol. 9. 754 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 155. Therefore one is advised not to believe either tourist signs at the entrance to the kenesa or numerous twentieth-century publications telling that the kenesa dates back to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Indeed, there must have been an earlier building constructed, most likely, on the same spot as this one. Nevertheless, the wooden building that one can see today was erected at the beginning of the nineteenth century, most likely, after the fire of 1812. You may find the reproduction of the only surviving depiction of the earlier Troki Karaite beit ha-knesset in Algirdas Baliulis, Stanislovas Mikulionis and Algimantas Miškinis, Trakų miestas ir pilys: istorija ir architektūra (Vilnius, 1991), 89, plate 20: “Synagoga Judeoru[m];” see also a mid-nineteenth century depiction of the building by S. Vorob’ev in ibid., 167, plate 45. 755 Cohen, Vilna, 464. 756 Piątkowski, “Karaimszczyzna,” 7. 757 Yakov Kokkei mentioned that after Szapszał’s “explanatory” efforts, the magen david above the aron ha-qodesh was substituted by the image of the rising sun (Y. Kokkei to S. Szapszał, 1950s, Russian: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 377, fol. 5). Troki 159

was relocated behind the building “so that similar features between the Karaites and Jews would not strike one’s eye.”758 The star situated at the gate of the Troki synagogue was indeed replaced by Szapszał some time after 1932 as a measure of eliminating visible similarity between the Rabbanite and Karaite houses of prayer. The traditional symbol of Judaism had been replaced by two pseudo-Turkic symbols which became part of Szapszał’s newly-invented “coat of arms”, purported to represent the East European Karaite community.759 Cohen took a photograph, in which one can clearly see the Star of David on this gate; there also was a short inscription in Hebrew within the star. On the picture published by Cohen one can also see the date of 5654/1894 in Hebrew lettering and Latinized Arabic numerals on the left and right side of the gate.760 Presently, these two inscriptions are also absent, having being substituted by the dates of 1812 and 1398: the latter to commemorate the supposed date of the legendary arrival of the Karaites to Poland together with Vitold and the former, most likely, signifies the date of the destruction of the earlier synagogue by flames during the French invasion of 1812 and the date of the construction of a new one in its place.761 Cohen continues:

The interior of the synagogue is somewhat similar in plan to that of an orthodox house of prayer [the author, obviously, means here the Jewish orthodoxy], with a gallery for women, except that there is no raised platform for the cantor... A Turkish carpet covers the gangway leading to the Ark of the Torah at the upper end... The Ark is draped with a red plush curtain. Above it, on one side, are the initial words of the Ten Commandments in gilt lettering; and on the other side are twin tablets with the complete text of the Commandments in Hebrew. The Ark contains only one scroll of the Torah... the worshippers who are called to its presence are unable to decipher the unpunctuated script and read their portion from a printed Pentateuch.

758 Blum, “Ha-Qara

The traveller also mentions one interesting detail: according to his information, at that time the Karaites have abandoned Anan’s traditional prescription not to kindle a light on the Sabbath, and were used to have the light, even electric light, on the Sabbath in the Troki kenesa: “They defend this innovation on the ground that the biblical prohibition – “ye shall kindle no light in your dwelling places” – does not apply their house of prayer, for this is not a dwelling place”.762 According to Aleksander Dubiński, himself a pupil in the interwar midrasz in Troki, when entering the kenesa pupils had to kiss the hand of Szapszał’s wife, Vera Egiz, which not all of them really liked.763 According to original Karaite tradition, once the floor of the synagogue-kenesa was covered with rugs. In 1944, however, the rugs were displaced with benches.764 After 1928 many details of the inner furnishing of the kenesa that could potentially point out at the Mosaic belief of the Karaites to visitors were removed from the building. Although before the 1920s there were numerous Hebrew inscriptions inside it, at the present moment (2014) one can find there only one inscription in Hebrew above the aron ha-qodesh. The tablets of the Ten Commandments, once containing inscriptions in Hebrew, are covered with white fabric so that the Hebrew letters that are behind it cannot be seen; the large slabs containing Hebrew prayers on the left and on the right from the aron ha-qodesh are substituted by prayers in Karaim written in Latin characters.

Illustration 5: The exterior of the Troki kenesa (prayer house). Photo by M. Kizilov.

762 Cohen, Vilna, 464-465. 763 Dubiński, “Z życia Karaimów trockich,” 35. 764 El-Kodsi, Karaite Communities, 16. Troki 161

b) Cemetery The Troki Karaite cemetery, one of the most ancient Karaite cemeteries in Eastern Europe, is situated beyond the limits of the Troki island, on the northern shore of the lake Tataryszki, not far from the Karaimszczyzna, a Karaite quarter of Troki. It is the oldest cemetery with Hebrew inscriptions in Lithuania. At present moment it consists of three different parts reflecting chronological stages of the existence of this burial complex. The closest to the town is its most ancient part, with the earliest monuments dated to the first half of the sixteenth century. There are about 70-90 graves within the old part of the cemetery, some of them without inscriptions; many covered by earth and need to be excavated. The graves are mostly of very simple and rude form, without any decorations, with rather succinct epitaphs in Hebrew, without any eloquent Biblical allusions typical for Crimean Karaite cemeteries of that time. A little bit further on to the west is the nineteenth/first half of the twentieth century part of the cemetery, consisting mostly of costly monuments similar to those of Polish and Jewish cemeteries of the area. There one can find monuments with inscriptions in Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and Karaim (Karaim is often transcribed with Cyrillic letters). About 50 metres more to the west is the latest part of the cemetery with the post-war monuments with inscriptions in Russian, Polish, Karaim and Lithuanian. The cemetery contains the gravestones of many community leaders, such as Ezra ben Nisan,765 Izaak Boaz (Bogusław) ben Zakhariah Kapłanowski, Romiel (Romuald) Kobecki, and Szemaja Firkowicz. At the beginning of the twentieth century, because of the fact that religious proscriptions forbade the Karaites from tearing down the plants and trees growing on the grounds of the cemetery,766 the necropolis started to attract the interest of botanists. One of them, Nadzieja Rojecka (her surname suggests that she was a Karaite), published a small leaflet dedicated to rare specimens of flora growing in the cemetery. This small leaflet had been noticed and positively evaluated by Seraja Szapszał.767 In the 1920s the heated discussion related to one gravestone of the cemetery, that of Ezra ben Nisan, had unfolded between Majer Bałaban and members of the Karaite community supported by Tadeusz Kowalski.768 It seems that in the interwar period the Karaite cemetery as, undoubtedly, one of the most interesting Hebrew cemeteries

765 The only (!) non-Crimean Karaite gravestone in Firkowicz, Avne Zikkaron, 251. 766 According to some sources, there was a a Karaite tradition prohibiting the felling of trees and eradication of weeds within a cemetery, allowing the cemetery to gradually return to its original natural state (Pełczyński, Najmniejsza mniejszość, 42; Emanuela Trevisan Semi, “A Brief Survey of Present-Day Karaite Communities in Europe,” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 33:2 (1991): 102). 767 Nadzieja Rojecka, Flora starego cmentarza karaimskiego w Trokach (Wilno, 1934). 768 Mikhail Kizilov, “Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe of Troki (1595-1666) – A Karaite Physician in Legend and History,” Leipziger Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur 1 (2003): 83-103. 162 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

of the area, quite often attracted the interest of Jewish visitors of Troki.769 Israel Cohen visited it in 1932, looking for medieval monuments. He managed only find his way to the nineteenth-century section of the burial ground: “many [tombs] were of black marble, with Hebrew or Russian epitaphs in gilt lettering, and there were also several family vaults with black marble columns... pious Karaites in Vilna always express a particular wish to be buried in its soil rather than in that of the great city.”770 Another Jewish visitor, the journalist M. Piątkowski, visited the cemetery in 1936 together with the Karaite poetess L. Poziemska. He described it in the following way:

The older part is not different in any detail from the Kirkut:771 the same shape of gravestones, the same Hebraisms, even the same conventional style of epitaphs. On more expensive monuments, however, glitter with gold Cyrillic letters which tell the name and the paternal name of the deceased.772 The monuments erected after 1917, however, are immortalised with lamentations in Polish. The older stones are furnished with the Star of David.773

In the eighteenth century the Troki Karaite community was decimated by the plague which lasted from Tammuz 5470 (June/July 1710) until Tevet 5471 (December 1710/January 1711) with the most difficult days in the month of Av 5470 (July-August 1710).774 As a token of commemoration of this drastic community event, it was customary for local Karaites to gather in the Troki cemetery to perform a memorial liturgical service dedicated to the victims of the plague. One of the features of this ceremony was a touching of the grave of the deceased relatives with a handkerchief.775 Solomon ben Aaron of Troki (1670?-1745) composed a special elegy in Hebrew and Karaim that was supposed to be sung by the Karaites after reading of parashah and haftarah starting from the ninth of Tammuz and until the seventh of Av in order to remember victims of the plague. This tradition was in use at least until the 1920s.776

769 See the photo of a group of Jewish tourists while visiting the cemetery in Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu,” 24. 770 Cohen, Vilna, 465-466. 771 Kirkut – in Yiddish and archaic Polish the term for a Jewish cemetery (a corruption of the German Kirchhof – “churchyard”). 772 In general, Piątkowski tends to reproach the Karaites for their pro-Russian sentiments. This is why he emphasized that the Karaites followed the Russian tradition of indicating not only a name, but also a paternal name of deceased (“imia i otczestwo,” as he writes in Russian in Polish transliteration). 773 Piątkowski, “Karaimszczyzna,” 6-7, part viii. 774 Siddur ha-tefillot ke-minhag ha-Qara

Epigraphic investigation of the cemetery, which had been started by Liebmann Hersch, a member of Corrado Gini’s anthropological expedition in 1934,777 has been resumed only in the past few years.778 Compilation of the full catalogue of the cemetery’s tombstones remains a desideratum.

3.4.6 The Karaites and the Troki Cucumbers

What a taste, what a shape, what a nice smell! Known in Wilno and in Warsaw!

Zofia Abkowicz (Juchniewicz) (2000)779

According to Jan Krywko cucumbers had been cultivated in Troki as far back as the fifteenth century.780 Krywko used several unpublished sources, found by him, according to his own assertion in the archive of the Russian archaeologist Bułyczow (Mosalsk, Russia).781 One of these documents dating back, according to Krywko, to 30.04.1428, mentioned plots of lands in Troki cultivated by żydowa (archaic Polish and Russian “Jews/Jewry”). This document did not specify which vegetables were cultivated by the Jews (most likely, the Karaites). Similar data about the Jews’ cultivating the lands in Troki were mentioned in the charter of Zygmunt in August of 1555, while the document of 1[.]80 (Krywko dated this document to 1680) mentioned a sum of money given to the Jew named Kobecki for cultivating cucumbers. Because of the fact that the family name Kobecki was spread among the Troki Karaites, this document is the first reliable evidence of Karaite involvement in cultivating cucumbers.782 According to twentieth-century Karaite authors (and some scholars who based their opinion largely on the data received from Karaite sources) the tradition of cultivating cucumbers had been brought by the Karaites from Crimea or from the

777 Hersch, “Les langues,” 259-294; this article was highly critically (and not too objectively) analyzed in MK 12 (1939): 127-128. 778 Akhiezer, Dvorkin, “Ktovot ha-maṣevot,” 225-260; Kizilov, “Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe,” 83-103. 779 Zofia Abkowicz (Juchniewicz), “Ogórki Trockie,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 11. 780 Krywko, O ogórku, 6. 781 One may ask how these old Karaite-related documents happened to find their way as far as Mosal’sk in Russia. Although Krywko did not mention the archaeologist’s initials, there is no doubt that he meant Nikolai Ivanovich Bulychov (1852 – ca. 1919). He was a Russian statesman, vice- governor of Ufa province (1900-1902), a member of the Archaeological Commission of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. 782 Krywko, O ogórku, 5-6. 164 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Orient.783 As an anonymous twentieth-century Karaite (Aleksander Mardkowicz?) has it, when being resettled from Crimea to Lithuania “the Karaites took with them seeds of cucumbers and other plants, and, having no knowledge about that remote land [i.e. Lithuania], they even took full bags of soil from their Crimean gardens.”784 It is not entirely clear whether this tradition, as a part of late romantic nationalist discourse, reflects historical truth. According to modern research, the Karaites had been resettled in Troki not from Crimea, but from other regions of the . To our knowledge, there is no data confirming that cucumbers had been cultivated anywhere in the territory of the Golden Horde (including Crimea) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Karaites were resettled in Troki.785 According to Jan Krywko, cucumbers could have been cultivated by local Catholic and Orthodox monks.786 Tadeusz Kowalski’s remark that the agricultural terminology of the Troki Karaites related to the cucumber growing is almost exclusively Belorussian, Polish, and Russian,787 also suggests that this agricultural tradition may have been brought from Slavic countries rather than from Crimea or the Orient. On the other hand, the very fact that the Troki Karaites usually used the word chyjar to denote cucumbers, rather argues in favour of the hypothesis about Oriental origin of this tradition. According to botanists and linguists the modern English gherkin, German Gurken, Russian ogurtsy and similar terms in other European languages (and, accordingly, Karaite chyjar as well) can be traced, through the Arabic and Persian khiyar, to Urdu, Hindi and Bengali khira or k-hira, which are widely spoken in the region of the ancestral home of Cucumis sativus (Latin: cucumber), the Indian subcontinent.788 Whatever its origin was – local Slavic or imported Oriental – cucumber-growing became perhaps the most profitable business for the Troki Karaite community. The cucumber plantations had been situated close to the lake shore. From 1915 to 1918, when many of the Karaites had been forced to emigrate to Russia, the tradition of cultivating the Troki cucumber almost disappeared. It was revived only with return of the Karaites from emigration back to Troki. The Troki cucumber represents a special specimen of Cucumus sativus, called in Polish “Ogórki Trockie gruntowe,” or “Karaimskie,” “Wielkie szyszkowate,” and “dołżyki”. Its special feature is (or, rather,

783 Marian Hepke, Wilno. Stadt zwischen Ost und West (Bromberg-Bydgoszcz, 1935), 71; Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, xi; Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 202; Jan Jerzy Tochtermann, Troki: Zarys antropogeograficzny (Wilno, 1935), 15. 784 The untitled article by anonymous Karaite author (Aleksander Mardkowicz?) (the Yurchenko MSS, fol. 3). 785 Harry S. Paris, Jules Janick, and Marie-Christine Daunay, “Medieval Herbal Iconography and Lexicography of Cucumis (Cucumber and Melon, Cucurbitaceae) in the Occident, 1300–1458,” Annals of Botany 108 (2011): 471–484. 786 Krywko, O ogórku, 6. 787 Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 202. 788 Paris, Janick, and Daunay, “Medieval herbal iconography,” 483. Troki 165

was) containing a high percentage of sugar, much higher than in any other kinds of cucumbers.789 The cucumbers had been sold not in provincial Troki, where one could hardly expect an influx of customers, but in the market in Wilno. In spite of the fact that Troki cucumbers – because of their superb quality – had been purchased more eagerly than other kinds of cucumbers, the Karaites did not gain very much income for their work.790 Krywko also told of many superstitious beliefs related to cucumber growing, i.a. belief in the “light hand,” and tradition of the need to plant a couple of young plants that must be stolen from a neighbour’s plantation.791 In 1928 two texts in Karaim related to the cucumber growing in Troki had been narrated to Tadeusz Kowalski by Troki farmers, Aron Szpakowski, and Józef Ławrynowicz.792 The tradition of cultivating the Troki cucumbers was lost soon after the integration of the local Karaite farmers into the Soviet kolkhoz system in 1944.

***

To sum up, the Troki community was the largest and the most agricultural Karaite qehilah in interwar Poland. Its head – ḥazzan Szemaja/Szymon Firkowicz – was an important Karaite man of letters and at the same time the right hand of ḥakham Seraja Szapszał. Perhaps it was Firkowicz who was the key figure in implementation of new, “pure Turkic” version of the Troki dialect of the Karaim language. In contrast to Łuck, Wilno and Poniewież that published their own Karaite journals, the Troki Karaites did not venture to issue their own periodicals other than the short-lived “Przyjaciel Karaimów/Dostu Karajnyn”. As a historical site, Troki and its Karaite community were frequently visited by a number of most distinguished visitors including political leaders, diplomats, journalists, litterateurs and scholars. Many visitors left interesting notes on the state of the local community that often provide much more objective information than data of internal Karaite documents.

789 For details, see Krywko, O ogórku, 9-11; cf. Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 212-220; Helena Pilecka (Bezekowicz), “Chyjarczech, Troch chyjarczechłar. Ogóreczek, trockie ogóreczki,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 9-11; Abkowicz (Juchniewicz), “Ogórki Trockie,” 11-13. 790 Krywko mentioned that the Wilno Rabbanites made more profit than the Karaites by buying from them cucumbers in raw form and selling them after pickling (Krywko, O ogórku, 23). One of Tadeusz Kowalski’s Karaite informants, Aron Szpakowski, described the process of selling cucumbers on the Wilno market to “rabbankałar” (Kar. “Rabbanite women”) (Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 213). Karaim “Rabbankałar” is a curious example how the Karaites composed new words: Slavic female ending “ka” and the Turkic plural suffix “łar” are added to the Turkicized Heb. “rabban.” 791 Krywko, O ogórku, 24. 792 Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografji,” 212-220. 166 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

3.5 Wilno

3.5.1 General State of the Community

Unlike all other Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities, whose numbers considerably diminished, the Wilno community had even grown after the end of the First World War. As the document says: “before the German occupation of 1915 practically all the Karaites had left Wilno and headed to the East, to Russia; however, in 1918 they had already started gradually coming back to Wilno... Returned not only those, who left the country in 1915, but also larger part of the Karaites whose fathers... emigrated to Russia during last fifty years”.793 Thus, by 15.03.1922 the community already consisted of 127 people. In 1921 the local Karaites officially registered “Brotherhood of Wilno Karaites” (Pol. Wileńskie Stowarzyszenie Karaimów).794 In 1922 E. Kobecki, J. Jutkiewicz, and J. Zajączkowski, as a consequence of the growing number of community members, asked the government to allow them to organize in Wilno a separate Karaite diocese and donate funds for constructing the house of prayer.795 E. Kobecki spoke to the government of the political importance of helping the community because the local Karaites “in the course of the last 130 years were under the pressure of Russifying tendencies of the [Russian] occupants.”796 The statute of newly-established community was affirmed by the government on 24.01.1925. Czesław Miłosz, the famous Lithuanian-born Polish litterateur and Noble prize winner, studied in Wilno in the 1910s-1920s. He spoke of local Karaites as his school friends.797 In 1924 Wilno was visited by the German Jewish journalist and writer, Alfred Döblin (1878-1957), who mentioned that around 50-60 members of the community prayed in the synagogue-kenesa. According to Döblin “they [the Karaites] speak Russian to each other, many of them [speak] Polish. Yiddish is not to be heard. They have various [ethnic] origins. Only half of them possess Jewish facial expression; others [look like] Russians or Poles, with Slavic cheek-bones, short wide noses, somewhat Mongoloid.”798 From the words of his Rabbanite guide Döblin documented a highly interesting oral tradition about the conflict between the Wilno Karaite and

793 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 167. 794 E.K. [Emanuel Kobiecki?], “Z Wileńskiego Stowarzyszenia Karaimów,” MK 1 (1924): 24-25. 795 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 166-168. 796 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fol. 171. This statement directly contradicts the loyalty that the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites many times demonstrated to the Russian government before 1917. 797 Czesław Miłosz, Rodzinna Europa (Paris, 1980), 51. Miłosz opined that the Karaites had been descendants of the Essenes, Dead Sea sectaries. Was he influenced by the historical concept of Szymon Szyszman, whom he could possibly know either in Wilno or in Paris? The Karaites’ origin from the Qumranites was a part of Szyszman’s historical views (for more information, see 6.3.7). 798 Alfred Döblin, Reise in Polen (München, 1993), 152-153. Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) is the author of many articles, books, and novels, “Berlin Alexanderplatz” being, perhaps, most famous of them. Wilno 167

Rabbanite community at the time of the Polish kings, a tradition somewhat similar to the legends documented in Halicz by Reuven Fahn.799 One can also notice a swift change in the self identification of the Wilno community members. Being Russian-speaking citizens of the Tsarist Empire, faithful to Russia until 1918, after the end of First World War they suddenly became Polish patriots. The same caveat may be applied to their ethnic identity, which underwent a swift shift (performed, undoubtedly, under Szapszał’s ideological pressure) from the “Israelite” Karaites with some vague theories about their possible Khazar origin (see more in subchapter 2.5.3) – to the “Turkic” Karaites, descendants of the Khazars’ culture.800 In 1942 there were 78 Karaites aged between 20 and 50 living in Wilno.801

3.5.2 Publishing Activity: the ‘Jednodniówka’ Sahyszymyz/Nasza Myśl (“Our Thought”)

After the end of World War I Owadja/Owadjusz Pilecki, who was the de facto editor of the pre-war Russian “Karaimskoe Slovo”, decided to continue his publishing activity and create a new Karaite periodical. It seems that Pilecki nourished the idea of publishing a new Karaite journal already in the early 1920s. Initially Pilecki had intended to entitle the periodical “Jarych” (Kar. “Light”),802 but by 1923 he changed the title to “Sahyszymyz/Nasza Myśl” (Karaim/Polish “Our Thought”). Pilecki informed Szapszał about his idea of publishing “Sahyszymyz” some time before the newspaper had actually been published. In his letters Pilecki expressed the idea that “‘Our Thought,’ or ‘Sahyszymyz’ must unite all the Karaites scattered around the world.”803 The first news about the intended periodical appeared in the local Russian newspaper “Vilenskoe utro” on 16.09.1923.804 A week later Pilecki sent a letter to the newspaper and in detail described the supposed objectives and main idea of the periodical:

799 Döblin, Reise in Polen, 150-151. 800 Israel Cohen remarked that the Wilno Karaites “maintained that they were not Jews by race, but Tatars” (Cohen, Vilna, 467). 801 Was it a list of those who could be potentially drafted to the army or used for obligatory public works by the Germans? Children and elders were for some reason excluded from this list (Rafał Abkowicz, “Wykaz członków Karaimskiej gminy w Wilno wieku od 20 do 50 lat,” Wilno, 20.11.1942, Polish (LMAB F. 143, no. 1080)). 802 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 541, fol. 2v. 803 Ibid., fol. 11. Pilecki also mentioned that he had been working for three years at Szapszał’s office in Eupatoria (perhaps, from 1917 to 1920) (ibid., fol. 13v). 804 “Sredi karaimov,” Vilenskoe utro 697 (16.09.1923). 168 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

On the pages of the intended periodical, which shall be the only printed organ among the Karaites, I shall be an unbiased mouthpiece of peoples’ thought, especially because the historical past remains still unknown to many, and also because today’s social life and activity of the Karaites living in various parts of the world globe is also little known.805

At the end of his letter Pilecki points out that he would be able to publish the periodical only with voluntary financial assistance of Karaite benefactors. In his letter to Zarach Zarachowicz, Pilecki asked him to send information about his plans to members of the Halicz community and to publish the news about the forthcoming periodical in a local Polish newspaper.806 However, members of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities were apparently too impoverished after the war and nobody could manage to invest money into this project. This is why Pilecki managed to realize his dream only four years later. The first donators and sponsors of the newspaper, somewhat surprisingly, were the American emigrants from Poniewież, brothers Awijezer and Isaak Tynfowicz.807 Because of the scarce funding, “Sahyszymyz” was published not as the journal, bus as a newspaper-jednodniówka (Polish “one-day newspaper”). The newspaper was quite small, only eight pages long. Apart from the “kyna” (eulogy) written by Józef Łobanos on the death of Emmanuil Osipovich Kobecki (1864-1927),808 and the poem “Sahyszymyz” by Owadja Pilecki,809 the authorship of all other submissions was not indicated. Most likely, all of them were written by Pilecki himself. Contributions to the newspaper included community news, chronicle of events in the Polish Karaite community, communiqués from Crimea and Jerusalem, and some other materials.810 In order to make his periodical comprehensible to all members of the East European Karaite communities, Pilecki published it in two most common languages of the pre-war Karaite community: Karaim and Russian (his first periodical, “Karaimskoe Slovo,” was published mostly in Russian, with some materials in Karaim in Cyrillic script). The periodical’s format presented Russian text published on the right side, and Karaim on the left. Pilecki did not take into account the changed political situation: even the most minimal manifestations of pro-Russian sentiments were more than unwelcome in the anti-Russian (and anti-Soviet) atmosphere of the Second Polish

805 O.I. Pilecki, “Pis’mo v redaktsiiu,” Vilenskoe utro 704 (23.09.1923); cf. [idem], “Niecza sioź ochuwczułarha/Neskol’ko slov k chitateliam,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 1. 806 O. Pilecki to Z. Zarachowicz (31.10.1923, Polish) (the Yurchenko MSS, disc 6, folder “Ow. Pilecki to Z.Z.,” doc. 19, file 5742). 807 [Owadjusz Pilecki], “Burunhu bołuszuwczułarymyz/Pervye nashi zhertvovateli,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 1-2. 808 J. Łobanos, “Kyna,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 4; cf. [Owadjusz Pilecki], “Jarych gan’ edień I.O. Kobeckigia/Svetloi pamiati E.O. Kobetskogo,” ibid., 3-4. 809 Owad’ja Pilecki, “Sahyszymyz,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 2-3. 810 Sahyszymyz/Nasza Myśl (Wilno: Szymanowicz, 1.06.1927). The only copy of this rare periodical that I could access was that of the library of LMAB. Wilno 169

Republic. On 11.06.1927, quite soon after the publication of “Sahyszymyz”, deputies of the assembly of Karaite communities of Poland denounced “such attempts as this newspaper at introducing disharmony into our [i.e. Karaite] ideological background, as “Nasza Myśl” (“Our Thought”) published in Wilno in the Russian language by Owadjusz Pilecki.”811 An anonymous author (apparently, Ananiasz Zajączkowski) published a highly critical review of “Sahyszymyz” on the pages of “Myśl Karaimska.”812 Thus, Pilecki’s idea of publishing a newspaper in the two most widespread languages of the East European Karaites was interpreted by many Polish Karaites as manifestation of undesirable loyalty to Russia. In order to defend himself Pilecki published an article in the local Russian newspaper813 where he stated that the Karaim part of “Sahyszymyz” was published in “Polish characters and in Polish orthography… In addition, as an exception in this newspaper, the text in Karaim was also translated into the Russian language; this was done especially for those readers who live abroad and can not read either Polish, or Karaim.”814 Nothwithstanding the explanation, opposition was too strong and the newspaper never saw the second issue. As a consequence, “Sahyszymyz/Nasza Myśl” was limited to the publication of the first issue only.

3.5.3 The ḥazzan, Poet, and Translator Józef Łobanos (1880-1947)

From 21.06.1928 to 1937/8 and from 1946 to 1947 the duties of the local ḥazzan were fulfilled by Józef Łobanos (Łabanos), son of Józef Łobanos and Emilja Abkowicz (b. Troki, 07.05.1878 – d. Wilno, 17.06.1947).815 Łobanos completed a course of religious studies in Troki, studied metal work and mechanics in St. Petersburg, and later worked on plants and factories of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Israel Cohen, who visited Lithuania in summer 1932, had a conversation in the Wilno Karaite synagogue- kenesa with its “cantor” (i.e. ḥazzan), who certainly was none other than Łobanos:

The cantor, a middle-aged man, with slight black beard and moustache, and high cheek- bones, wore a black tight-fitting robe bound by a dark blue sash, and topped by a round black hat [...] I remarked to the cantor that the number of Karaites had now dwindled to such an extent that it appeared to be only a matter of time before they would become as few as the Samaritans and perhaps have a similar struggle for existence. He thereupon

811 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 100. 812 MK 1: 4-5 (1928): 74-76. 813 Apparently in “Vilenskoe utro.” 814 A newspaper containing the fragment of this article without the date of publication was found by me in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1139. 815 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 30; Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Łobanos Józef (1878-1947), pisarz karaimski, duchowny,” PSB 18: 369; see also the draft of his curriculum vitae composed in Russian in 1946: LMAB F. 143, no. 1087, fol. 5. 170 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

replied that there were 300,000 Cossacks on the Volga who were also faithful to the Karaite doctrine. But inquiries made afterwards in other circles convinced me that this figure was a fantastic exaggeration...816

The explanation of these mythical “300,000 [Karaite] Cossacks on the Volga” is as follows: As has been mentioned above, in the nineteenth century some Russian Subbotniks started associating themselves with the Karaite variety of Judaism. Many of them (perhaps up to a few thousand members) lived in areas such as the Volga and Astrakhan’ region, the northern Caucasus, and Crimea. Some of those Subbotnik- Karaites indeed served in Cossack regiments of the Russian army. Thus, it seems very likely that speaking about the Karaite Cossacks on the Volga, Łobanos was referring to the Subbotniki.817 However, as Cohen stated, Łobanos certainly considerably exaggerated the actual numbers of these Russian converts to Karaism. It is perhaps worthwhile adding here that Seraja Szapszał later claimed that the Judaized Cossacks had professed the Karaite faith as far back as the seventeenth century (with Iljasz Karaimowicz as the most famous of them). According to him, in 1792 these Karaite Cossacks were resettled by Catherine II from Zaporozhie region to Kuban and the Caucasus. The idea that Karaism was a proselytic faith which spread among such varied people as the Turkic Khazars, Russian Cossacks, Near Eastern Jews, African Berbers and Ethiopians, was mentioned by some other twentieth-century Karaite leaders.818 Łobanos’s statement about the army of the Karaite Cossacks on the Volga should be understood in the context of these ideological claims. In 1937/8, for unclear reasons, Łobanos left the post of the Wilno ḥazzan; on 18.03.1939, however, he was appointed ḥazzan in Łuck.819 In 1941 most likely after (or a short while before) the Soviet annexation of Łuck, Łobanos returned to Wilno. In 1946, when the Wilno ḥazzan, Rafał Abkowicz, emigrated to Poland, Łobanos again became the community ḥazzan. He fulfilled his duties until his death in June, 1947. Although only a handful of his compositions were published during his life- time,820 Łobanos was one of the best twentieth-century Karaim litterateurs, and certainly the most prolific Karaim translator. As the ḥazzan, he was in charge of composing “kynałar”, i.e. elegies/lamentations for funeral services.821 His most

816 Cohen, Vilna, 467-468. 817 Il’ia Kodzhak also spoke about 300,000 Karaite Subbotniki living in the Caucasus (Kodzhak, Oko v okne, 39). 818 Especially by S. Szyszman (see 6.3.7). 819 Z.S., “Zmiana na stanowisku hazzana,” MK 12 (1939): 147. 820 Józef Łobanos, “Bałkuwłu sahynczyna Józef Piłsudskinin,” MK 11 (1936): 6-7; idem, “Bu edi syjły Troch szaharda,” MK 1:2 (1925): 27-28; idem, “Burunhu czozhu,” KA 2 (1931): 18; idem, “Eki konšu (įomaχ),” MK 1:3 (1926): 21-22; idem, “Inamły dostum,” KA 1:1 (1931): 18; idem, “Iułuv,” MK 2:2 (1929): 34. 821 Only one of them was published (Łobanos, “Kyna”); cf. MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1453, fol. 9 (unpublished kyna on the death of A. Szyszman). Wilno 171

interesting secular poem is perhaps “Sahyšlarym” (My thoughts), a poetic essay dedicated to the history, culture, and identity of the Karaite community in Eastern Europe.822 Furthermore, he composed prose in the Troki dialect of Karaim. Especially interesting is the collection of fairy tales entitled “Sözlangian söź” (The word that has been spoken) which contains a number of interesting literary fairy-tales with Oriental flavour somewhat similar to those composed in Łuck by Aleksander Mardkowicz; many of these fairy-tales were dedicated to Crimea and its Karaite community. Some were dedicated to the conflict between the Rabbanites (called by Łobanos exclusively çufutlar, i.e. pejorative for “Jews”) and the Karaites, whom the author considered türklar (Turks).823 Łobanos translated into Karaim such monumental epics as Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Iliad”, Adam Mickiewicz’s “Pan Tadeusz”, many poems by A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, I. Krylov824 and other classical Russian authors.825 He also translated into Russian a few important Hebrew sources such as selected fragments from “Massa Qrim” (Description of Crimea) by Ephraim Deinard.826 Unfortunately, Łobanos’s colossal prose, poetic and translator’s legacy (apart from a few poems published in the interwar Karaite press) remains hitherto unpublished and scarcely known even to students of East European Karaite history. Thus, he is in a way an unsung hero of twentieth-century history of Karaite literature.

3.5.4 Abraham Szyszman, a Military Engineer and Collector of Karaite Folklore

The figure of Abraham/Avraam, son of Jacob Szyszman (or Abram Yakovlevich Shishman;827 1879 – d. Vilnius, 13.06.1946), a member of the Wilno Karaite community, has not been noticed by students of Karaite history so far. Very little is known about the biography of this most interesting man. It seems that he was born in 1879, lived in Troki and Wilno where he died in 1946.828 His father may have been Jacob ben Joseph Szyszman, the sponsor of the Wilno siddur (4 vols., 1891-1892)829 and founder in Wilno in 1865 the large tobacco factory “Szyszman and Duruncza”. His wife was Zinaida Iosifovna Szyszman (daughter of Józef Żarnowski); on 9.29.1930 she gave birth

822 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1459, fols. 3-6v. This poem was so interesting that A. Mardkowicz wrote a response to it (ibid., no. 1453, fols. 24-25). 823 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1452, 152 fols. 824 On the Karaim translations of Krylov, see also: “Basni Krylova na karaimskom iazyke,” Sovetskaia Litva (14.11.1944). 825 See folder “Nasledie Lobanosa” in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1453, 214 fols. 826 GAARK, R-3864, op. 1, no. 482. 827 This is how he was called in Russian by T.S. Levi-Babovich (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1538, fol. 1r). 828 See “kyna” on his death by J. Łobanos: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1453, fol. 9. 829 Siddur ha-tefillot ke-minhag ha-Qara

to their daughter, Elmira Szyszman.830 Szyszman was an engineer by profession; in the 1930s he took part in the construction of the dacha for Szapszał in the village of Malowanka (TrKar. Kiorklu-Sała) in the vicinity of Troki.831 His son Daniel (1921–1989) and daughter Elmira moved to Crimea after the war.832 His first publication (1913) was a short note on Professor Pavel Kokovtsov’s reflections on the contents of the famous Cambridge document.833 In this note Szyszman turns readers’ attention to the fact that the Khazars in his opinion professed not the Jewish (as Kokovtsov has it), but the Karaite faith. Moreover, Szyszman suggested that the Khazars had ethnically mixed with Crimean Karaites – quite a bold statement, considering that at that time the Karaite community of Eastern Europe did not officially accept Szapszał’s Turkic doctrine.834 He was the treasurer of TMHiLK from 24.04.1932 to 1939. During the sittings of this organisation he delivered two papers dedicated to Karaite folklore (they unfortunately remained unpublished).835 In the 1930s Szyszman published two historical essays on the settlement of the Karaites in Polish-Lithuanian lands. Their amateur character notwithstanding, these two essays became classical studies for all later scholars studying the problem of Karaite migration to Poland-Lithuania.836 From today’s standpoint, it is evident that these article certainly lacked objective examination of sources and, consequently, proper conclusions about the history of the Karaite settlement in this area. His later article, also devoted to discussion of the Karaite settlement, is even more biased than the two previous ones.837 In this article, Szyszman stated that the Karaites had been originally called “Tatars” by the local population, and, consequently, all the Troki toponyms containing the root “Tatar” had been named after the local Karaites. This idea certainly originates from the general dejudaization tendency of presenting the Karaites as Turks; all the toponyms with the root “Tatar” from this area are references to the Lithuanian Tatar population and not to the Karaites. Szyszman also wrote an article on the topic not related to his

830 See the manuscript birth certificate no. 32 given to Abraham Szyszman in Troki on 1.05.1930 (signed by S. Szapszał and J. Łobanos; Polish; kept on exhibition in the Trakai Karaite museum). A. Szyszman’s personal documents and photos are kept in the repository of this museum. 831 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1063, fol. 1; no. 1044. Of interest that among the contractors working on this building were the Rabbanites Zukermann, Mal’chik, and Herstein (ibid.). 832 Szymon Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik. Dziennik z lat 1939-1945 (Wrocław, 2009), 384. 833 P.K. Kokovtsov, “Novyi evreiskii dokument o khazarakh i khazaro-russko-vizantiiskikh otnosheniiakh v X veke,” Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia 11 (1913): 150–172. 834 Abraham Szyszman, “Istoricheskaia zametka,” KS 5 (1913): 12-13. 835 “Powstanie i pierwszy okres działalności Towarzystwa Miłośników Historji i Literatury Karaimskiej,” MK 10 (1934): 100; “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H. [sic for M.H. i L.K.],” MK 11 (1936): 111. 836 Abraham Szyszman, “Osadnictwo karaimskie i tatarskie na ziemiach W. Księstwa Litewskiego,” MK 10 (1934): 29-36; idem, “Osadnictwo karaimskie w Trokach za Wielkich Książąt Litewskich,” MK 11 (1936): 40-69. 837 Idem, “W sprawie osadnictwa karaimskiego w Trokach,” MK 12 (1939): 132-135. Wilno 173

field of interests; it focused on the biography of Crimean Karaite Mark Tapsashar, a Russian Army officer, who heroically died during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.838 This point marks the end of the story of the published works of Abraham Szyszman, and starts, perhaps, a much more interesting part of his literary activity – the unpublished ones.839 In the 1930s and 1940s Szyszman started collecting and documenting folklore legacy of the Troki and Crimean Karaites with special emphasis on the legends, tales, and fairy-tales. Chronologically, Szyszman’s legends include medieval, early modern and even twentieth-century tales from Poland, Lithuania and Crimea. The topoi of the legends, as well as chronology, are also varied. They include such varied themes as the future birth of the Messiah in the Crimean mountains; introduction of phone lines in the Crimean Socialist Republic; biographies of Tatar gangster Alim, Armenian painter Aivazovskii, and Isaak Troki; the French invasion of Troki in 1812; the magic horse of Prince Vitold; the cursed daughters of Ezra ben Nisan, and many other. Among the sources for Szyszman were such famous Karaite leaders as Seraja Szapszał and Toviyah Levi-Babovich.840 Some of these legends represent original Karaite oral traditions; others seem to be considerably transformed by the author’s intention to compose literary fairy tales similar to Wilhelm Hauf’s or Hans Christian Andersen’s writings. Szyszman’s manner of presenting oral traditions to his readers demonstrates a curious mixture of traditional Karaite values (messianic expectations, hostility towards converts, etc.) and the militant ideology of Szapszal along with Turkic sentiments. The content of the legends demonstrates that Szyszman possessed excellent command of Hebrew, Karaim, and Russian (and apparently of Lithuanian and Polish as well). Paradoxically, Szyszman’s good knowledge of Karaite history and literature somewhat distracted him from documenting oral traditions in their original “raw” shape.841 Szyszman’s final work was a biographical note on the artist Barri Egiz, which likewise remained unpublished.842 He remains the best – and, in fact, the only – Karaite collector of Karaite fairy-tales in twentieth-century Poland and Lithuania.

838 Idem, “Pieśn epicka o poruczniku Tapsaszarze,” MK 12 (1937-38): 60-72; cf. Simon Szyszman, “Un exploit du lieutenant Marc Tapsašar lors du siège de Port-Arthur,” BEK 3 (1993): 76-80. 839 Only one his fairy-tale was published so far: Abraham Szyszman, “Karaj kašuhu,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 13-14. 840 According to T.S. Levi-Babovich, he himself heard some of his legends from an old Karaite, Rachel Chinak. In the 1920s-1930s Szyszman’s wife, Zinaida Iosifovna Szyszman, had been sending to Levi-Babovich, who lived at that moment in Simferopol, packages with food and clothes (T.S. Levi- Babovich to A. Szyszman (1932, Russian) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1538, fols. 1v, 3r). 841 Abraham Szyszman, Legendy i predaniia karaimov, 1932-1944 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1531; presented by the author to S. Szapszał on 10.06.1944). This unique collection of Karaite folklore is being prepared for publication by Mikhail Kizilov. 842 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1586, fols. 1-4r. 174 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

3.5.5 Kenesa

A short while before the beginning of World War I the Wilno community finally decided to build its own house of prayer. On 30.10.1911 the first stone of the kenesa was installed and blessed843. In addition, a small wooden house temporarily used for praying and as the editorial house of “Karaimskoe Slovo” was erected.844 Municipality also ordered to establish against the facade of the kenesa a new street, which was officially named “Karaimskaia” (Karaite).845 The part of the town where the kenesa was built, had been called Zverinets (Russ.; Pol. Zwierzyniec; Lith. Žverynas – literally, “a place for keeping animals”). Although its conceptual design had been elaborated by Pinachas Malecki, kenesa’s official architect was Mikhail Prozorov (1860–1914).846 In 1913 the building was finished, but furnishing of the interior and aron ha-qodesh needed another 4–5,000 rubles.847 “Karaimskoe Slovo” published an appeal to raise funds for the completion of the kenesa.848 It seems that the building was completely finished and furbished only after the end of the First World War. In 1924 the kenesa (“Tempel der Karaiten” as the traveller has it) was visited by Alfred Döblin who appraised its “protestant purist coolness and soberness”. At the time of his visit the kenesa’s construction had been already accomplished. The journalist recorded a detailed description of the liturgy in the kenesa; he found there about 50-60 praying Karaite believers. He also described a small conflict between the Karaites and a few strangers who, for some unknown reason, wanted to enter the sukkah (“Laubhütte”) together with the Karaites. After a rather heated discussion, the strangers had to abandon their intention.849 Highly interesting is the documentation by a traveller of

843 “Kenasa,” KS 1 (1913): 13-14. 844 In 1922, the local Karaites complained that although the first “węgielny” (Pol. “corner”) stone of the building had been laid back in 1908, the kenesa was still unfinished. At that time the local Karaites still had to pray in the aforementioned small house adjacent to the future kenesa which was still under construction (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 166-168). Both buildings have survived until today. 845 KS 1 (1913): 13-14. This small street still exists under its previous name (Lith. “Karaimų gatvė”), with a few wooden houses which are now inhabited by non-Karaites. 846 E.K., “Kienesa Karaimska w Wilnie,” MK 1 (1924): 23; KS 5 (1913): 22. 847 KS 5 (1913): 22. 848 KS 7-8 (1914): 22. 849 Döblin, Reise in Polen, 152-153. Wilno 175

an oral Rabbanite tradition, according to which the main synagogue of Wilno had originally been in the possession of the Karaites.850 In 1932 the kenesa (the traveller used the term “synagogue”) was visited by Israel Cohen:

It is semi-Moorish in design and is crowned with a cupola, which is surmounted by an iron circle containing the initial words of the Decalogue in two columns. The interior is in general like that of the synagogue at Troki, but rather more ornate. There are rich carpets of Oriental design in front of the Ark... Facing the Ark stands the cantor’s reading-desk, and on either side of this is a comfortable armchair, one for the cantor himself and the other, somewhat more ornate, for the Hakam. Aloft there is a gallery for women, where they can easily hear but not easily be seen.851

The iron circle with the symbolic depiction of the Tablets of Law, mentioned by Cohen, was later replaced by... two pseudo-Turkic tamğalar, the symbols of Szapszał’s “coat of arms” of the Karaite community.852 In 1935 the kenesa was visited by the Polish litterateur, Paweł Maliszewski, who described this event in one of his poems.853 Both Karaite Street of Wilno and its kenesa survived the Second World War and the period of the Soviet regime in Lithuania.

3.5.6 Cemetery

In 1913, two years after the foundation of the kenesa, in addition to permission to erect the house of prayer and establish the Karaite Street, the Wilno city council made one more concession to the local community and donated a parcel of land on the outskirts

850 Döblin, Reise in Polen, 150-151. In fact, practically every Karaite community in Europe and elsewhere possessed similar traditions expressing the idea that the earliest synagogues of a place (or a region) had once been in the hands of the Karaite community, but then was seized by the more numerous Rabbanites. E.g. Halicz Karaites claimed that the Karaite synagogue of Lwów had been originally situated on the place where later the main Rabbanite synagogue of Lwów was built (Jecheskiel Caro, Geschichte der Juden in Lemberg von den ältesten Zeiten bis zur Theilung Polens im Jahre 1792 (Kraków, 1894), 3; cf. Bałaban, “Karaici,” 17). Cf. claims of the Cairo Karaites that Ben Ezra synagogue had been originally Karaite; Theodosia Karaites’ concerning the synagogue of 1309; Istanbul Karaites concerning certain Muslim buildings. Some of these traditions seem to be true, while others represent romantic “embellishment” of historical reality. It is highly interesting that according to Döblin’s tradition even the Rabbanites themselves were of the opinion that the main synagogue of Wilno had once belonged to the Karaites. 851 Cohen, Vilna, 466-467. 852 For the photo of the tablets of law above the cupola of the Wilno kenesa, see Pełczyński, Najmniejsza mniejszość. 853 The poem was dedicated to S. Szapszał (see Paweł Maliszewski, “W kenesie Wileńskiej,” 20.10.1935, Polish (LMAB F. 143, no. 460, fol. 1)). 176 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

of the town, called “Lipovka” (Lith. “Liepkalnis”), to be used as a burial ground. The first burial in the cemetery took place on 21.04.1913.854 The name of the deceased was Sara Shoshana (Zuzanna) Zajączkowska, the wife of Samuel Yedidiah Zajączkowski. The inscription on the monument is in Hebrew; above it is the image of the cupola of the Wilno kenesa.855 This small cemetery consists of approximately a hundred graves. The small size of the cemetery may be explained by the fact that many twentieth-century Wilno Karaites preferred to be buried in the Troki Karaite cemetery.856 The cemetery contains the graves of important Karaite figures such as Owadjusz Pilecki, Pinachas (Finneas/ Felix) Malecki, Seraja Szapszał and his wife, Vera Egiz.857 The establishment of the cemetery signified, perhaps, a new tendency in the Karaite self-identification. This cemetery was established near the Muslim Tatar cemetery, and not near the Rabbanite one, as was the case with many other Karaite burial grounds in Eastern Europe (cf. the close location of the Rabbanite and Karaite cemeteries in Halicz, Nowe Miasto, Birża, Lwów, Theodosia, Sevastopol, Karasubazar and Eupatoria).

***

The Karaite community of Wilno was perhaps the most secular and well-to-do of all the Polish-Lithuanian communities of that period. Among its members were such distinguished Karaite intellectuals as O. Pilecki, J. Łobanos, A. Szyszman, P. Malecki, S. Szapszał and S. Szyszman. Its kenesa was the largest and perhaps the most beautiful of all the local Karaite houses of prayer in the country. Nevertheless, as well as the Troki kenesa it was also dejudaized by Szapszał and his followers and the pseudo-Turkic tamğalar were installed on its top instead of traditional Karaite and Rabbanite Tablets of Law. Although the first attempt of printing community’s own periodical (“Sahyszymyz”) was rather unsuccessful, the community published the Polish-language “Myśl Karaimska” which was perhaps the most ambitious Karaite periodical in the twentieth century.

854 “Novoe kladbishche,” KS 1 (1911): 14. 855 As seen by M. Kizilov in March, 2002. 856 This is according to Cohen, Vilna, 466. Cf. also the fact that although many Crimean Karaites lived far away from Çufut Kale, some of them continued to bury their dead in the valley of Jehosaphath in the vicinity of Çufut Kale. 857 As seen by M. Kizilov in March, 2002. Poniewież 177

3.6 Poniewież

3.6.1 Outline of the History

The history of this fairly small and remote Karaite community seems to be less known than that of other Karaite qehilot. It appeared to be more provincial and less commercially successful as other communities; it also produced much fewer men of letters and important figures. At the end of the nineteenth century the community consisted of 205 members, under the guidance of the ḥazzan Zevulon Rojecki.858 In 1911 “Karaimskaia Zhizn’” published an article entitled “The life which is fading away (a letter from Poniewież)”. This article presented a sorrowful picture of the fading away of the life of the Poniewież community at the beginning of the twentieth century. The author complained that the Poniewież community consisted of only 40 families (around 160 souls); most of them were elderly people while the younger generation had been emigrating to Southern Africa and America. According to the author, in spite of the fact that most of the local Karaites were not in need, they still belonged to the lower social eschalons of the population.859 In the 1930s the local community consisted of 155 members.860 The Poniewież community did not have its own cemetery (apart from the small section in the local Rabbanite burial ground) and most of its members were buried in the Karaite cemetery of Nowe Miasto (Lith. Naujamiestis; Kar. Šaharčech; Heb. Ir hadashah). This small cemetery consists of ca. 150–200 tombstones. It seems that the cemetery started functioning only at the end of the eighteenth century; the earliest tombstone inscription which I found on the site dated back to 1790. There is a Rabbanite section in this cemetery; Rabbanite tombs can be distinguished from those of the Karaites by their west-east orientation.861 In March, 2002, when I visited the cemetery, there still was a small Karaite house nearby where lived a family of keepers of the cemetery. An important role in the life of the local community was played by Nechamja Tynfowicz (Poniewież, 1843 – Melitopol, 1920). From 1896 to 1914 he worked as the community shammash and ḥazzan; in 1915 he, together with the rest of the community,

858 115 women and 90 men (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 302, fol. 3bis, 9). 859 Finees [Pinachas] Rojecki, “Ugasaiushchaia zhizn’ (Pis’mo iz Poniewieża)”, KZh 3-4 (1911): 120- 122. 860 Čiplytė, Panevėžio karaimų, 28. 861 Preliminary study of this cemetery was made by Akhiezer, Dvorkin, “Ktovot ha-maṣevot,” 250-256; cf. the description of these and a few other (Poniewież, Poswol, and Birża/Biržis) northern Lithuanian cemeteries in Daniel Čaprocki, “Konachlychba karyndašlarda,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 17-21; idem, “Kaldychlary ašchan zamannyn,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 21-23. 178 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

had to evacuate to Russia.862 In the 1920s in Poniewież, there lived an important Karaite poet, Szełumiel Łopatto (b. Troki, 14.05.1904 – d. Poniewież, 20.08.1923, son of Yeshayahu Łopatto and Mania Dubińska). During the First World War he studied in St. Petersburg (1915–1916), but in 1916 he moved with the rest of the family to Eupatoria where he studied at the local Karaite Spiritual College until 1920. In 1920 he managed to return to his native land – although not to Troki, but to Poniewież, at that time in independent Lithuania. Unfortunately, he was destined to die very young. In 1923 he was killed by unknown bandits at the age of only 19 on his way to Poniewież (Karaite sources often emphasize that he was going there for Yom Kippur prayer). Among his Karaim poems are such as Awo bigwurot Adonaj Ełohim (Heb. “I will come with courage, Lord God”), Kültküsü gorałnyn (“The irony of destiny”), “Mi jaale bahar adonaj” (Who will ascend to the mount of the Lord?), and “Uszattyrmach Dawidnin mizmorłaryna” (In imitation of David’s psalms).863 As is evident even from the titles of his poems, Łopatto’s poetic imagery was inspired largely by Biblical and religious topoi.864 The local community had its own kenesa, although it remains unclear when exactly it was built. Its building was much less elaborate and impressive than the kenesalar of Troki, Wilno and Halicz. In the 1930s the building of the kenesa needed renovation. In 1939 the community finished the renovation; this was done with financial support from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and wealthy Karaites from Paris, America and Riga.865 After the war, however, the kenesa was confiscated by the Soviet authorities, and in 1970 destroyed. At present only a memorial sign gives witness to its former existence. About 1934 Szapszał received information from a certain Jewish visitor to Poniewież that the local Karaites were actively engaged in “Judaizing and communist tendencies.”866 Other sources do not corroborate this statement. In the 1930s there existed a small theatre called in Russian “Gruppa liubitelei posle Kippura vecherom artistov pri K.P.K. “Onarmach” ponevezhskoi karaimskoi molodezhi” (somewhat

862 [Owadjusz Pilecki], “Jarych gan‘ edień N.M. Tynfowiczcha/Svetloi pamiati N.M. Tynfowicza,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 6. 863 Szełumiel Łopatto, “Awo bigwurot Adonaj Elohim,” KA 4 (1932): 4-5; idem, “Iszancz,” KA 4 (1932): 6; idem, “Klaklar,” KA 4 (1932): 4; idem, “Kültküsü gorałny,” KA 4 (1932): 5; idem, “Kusiancz,” KA 4 (1932): 4; idem, “Mi jaale bahar adonaj,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 14; idem, “Uszattyrmach Dawidnin mizmorłaryna,” KA 4 (1932): 6-7. 864 For more information on his biography and literary activity, see “Szelumiel Lopatto da anyn jirlary,” KA 2 (4) (1932): 1-7; Irena Jaroszyńska, “Szełumiel Łopatto 100-lecie urodzin,” Awazymyz 2 (9) (2004): 9; Jaakov Malecki, “Muzhul jovel,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 15-24. Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Szełumiel Łopatto da anyn jirłary,” KA 4(1932): 1-4; Gabriel Józefowicz, “Pamięci Szełumiela Łopatto,” Awazymyz 2 (9) (2004): 8 (a poem in Karaim). 865 For archival photos, see Čiplytė, Panevėžio karaimų, 16. 866 A. Mardkowicz to S. Szapszał (10.11.1935): MS LMAB F. 143, no. 468, fols. 8r-v. Poniewież 179

incorrect Russ. “The group of amateur artists in the evening after [Yom] Kippur at the club ‘Onarmach’ of the Poniewież Karaite youth”).867 On 11.08.1937 thirty members of the local community took part in the excursion to the remnants of the Karaite historical monuments in Northern Lithuania. Among most important places visited by the community, were the forsaken Karaite cemetery in Birża and the so-called “Hill of the Twelve sages” (Kar. “tavčehy 12 chachamnyn”) in Poswol. Czaprocki informs us that even in the 1930s the Lithuanian Karaites continued visiting this hill where, according to their tradition, twelve Karaite sages had been buried some long time ago.868 A beautiful poem by Michael Tynfowicz dedicated to the cemeteries served as the illustration to the article of Czaprocki.869 It seems that being cut from other Polish-Lithuanian communities by the state border between Poland and independent Lithuania, the Poniewież community desperately needed support of Troki authorities in order to maintain proper religious life and ceremonies. In 1935–1937 the community was visited by such important Karaite communal leaders as ḥazzanim Szemaja Firkowicz and Rafael Abkowicz, and Troki teacher, Zarach Firkowicz. It seems that all the aforementioned visitors helped the community to organize its religious and cultural life. In 1935 the duties of the local ḥazzan were in fact fulfilled by the mitpallel; the gabbai was the main administrative figure in the community.870 In 1937 Grigulewicz, the head of the community and his secretary, I. Rojecki, sent a letter to Szapszał where they asked to appoint Zarach Firkowicz of Troki their ḥazzan. By that time the community had its own seal bearing the Lithuanian inscription “Panevėžio Karaimų bendruomenès” (Poniewież Karaite community).871 In 1938 the community elected Zarach Firkowicz (a.k.a. Zenon Firkowicz, 1906–1958) the community ḥazzan and sent a letter to Seraja Szapszał asking to confirm this decision.872 In 1939 the community was again visited by Szemaja Firkowicz, this time together with the ḥakham (ḥakhan), Seraja Szapszał.

3.6.2 Periodical “Onarmach” – “Success” and “Development” of the North Lithuanian Karaites

The most important cultural achievement of the Karaite communities of Northern Lithuania was a highly interesting periodical entitled “Onarmach” (can be translated from TrKar. as “Success” or “Development”). Three issues of the periodical had been

867 Čiplytė, Panevėžio karaimų, 28. 868 Čaprocki, “Konachlychba karyndašlarda,” 17-21. 869 Michael Tynfovič, “Zeriatliar,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 21. 870 “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H.,” 111-113. 871 Grigulewicz and I. Rojecki to S. Szapszał, 8.01.1937, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fols. 127-128r). 872 Minutes of the meeting of the community sent to S. Szapszał on 15 Tammuz (sic) 1938; Karaim (LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 347r). The minutes were signed by 34 members of the community. 180 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

published in the northern variant of the Troki dialect of the Karaim language in the 1930s.873 All three issues were published in Latin characters with additional diacritical signs used in the . In this respect this periodical differed from “Karaj Awazy”, “Dostu Karajnyn” and “Sahyszymyz” which used Polish diacritics to transcribe phonological peculiarities of Karaim. The editor of the periodical, Michael Tynfovič (Michał Tynfowicz/Mikhail Samuilovich Tinfovich; 1912–1974), at the very beginning of the first issue of “Onarmach” explains the differences between the Russian, Polish and Lithuanian Karaites in a transliteration of the Karaim language. He also supplied the table of correspondence between three variants of the transliteration. Thus, Lithuanian “č” was equal to Polish “cz” and to Russian “ч”, “š” corresponded to “sz” and “ш”; “ž” to “rz” and “ж” etc. According to A. Dubiński, the second issue of “Onarmach” had been published in Pasvalys (Poswol). In his opinion, the correspondence between Michał Tynfowicz, Rafał Griguliewicz (the editors of the periodical), and Aleksander Mardkowicz of Łuck played important role in the activity of the periodical (it is worthy of note that this correspondence managed to find its way through the closed state border between Poland and independent Lithuania via the mediation of the Riga Karaites).874 The local community, consisting of about 155 persons, clearly had a wont of the authors who could contribute to the periodical: about 70–90% of the articles published in Onarmach were, in fact, written by the non-Lithuanian Karaites. Among them were contributions by Toviyah Levi-Babovich, Aleksander Mardkowicz, and Solomon Krym. Originally these were composed in Russian, Hebrew, and Polish and later translated into Karaim.875 A few articles were originally written in the northern Karaim dialect. Nevertheless, their authors, such as Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Boris Kokenai, and Abraham Szyszman, were from Poland and not from independent Lithuania.876 The first issue of the periodical contained a few letters from the Cairo community which were translated from the Tora tili (Kar. “the language of the Torah”,

873 Onarmach. Vachtlych Karaj Tildia 1, ed. M. Tynfovič (Kaunas/Kowno, 1934); no. 2 (Kaunas/ Kowno, 1938); Onarmach. Vachtlych Karaj Tildia 3, ed. J. Rojecki (Panevežys/Poniewież, 1939). It seems that apart from private Karaite collections the only place where this periodical can be found is LMAB. 874 Aleksander Dubiński, “Karaimskaia nauchnaia i obshchestvennaia publitsistika (kratkii obzor),” 3 (unpublished). 875 T.S. [Toviyah ben Simha] Levi-Babovič, “Gyzly joldžy,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 12; idem, “Istorijasy karajlarynyn Litva da Lech Bijlikliarnyn sormachlarda da karuvlarda,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 6-14; idem, “Kaidan čyhad indiav Karaim,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 6-7; Solomon Krym, “Jalbarmahy Hachannyn,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 8-11 (a Karaim translation of the fairy tale “Molitva Gakhama” [ḥakham’s prayer], published by S. Krym in Russian in Paris in 1925. Paradoxically, the editors of the periodical “censored” the word ḥakham and changed it into Szapszał’s neologism, ḥakhan. 876 Boris Kokenai, “Bir-nieča bergianliar Karaj sioz-bitiktian,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 25-31; Avraham Šyšman, “Karaj kašuhu,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 13-14; Ananiasz Zajončkovski, “Karaj tili,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 3-5 (this article was published for the second time without any changes in Onarmach 3 (1939): 2-3). Poniewież 181

i.e. Hebrew).877 It seems that Michał Tynfowicz, Daniel Czaprocki, and Jakub Malecki (1889–1952)878 were the only representatives of the Northern Lithuanian Karaites, who contributed to “Onarmach” with their articles. One article was in French879 and one in Lithuanian.880 There is a sharp difference between the two first issues of the periodical and the last one. The first two issues were rather amateur production composed on a typewriter, in a limited number of copies. However, the content of the first two issues, and, especially, their language, is much more interesting and “uncensored” than in the final one. It seems that the first two issues of “Onarmach” are the only interwar publications, which provide the readers with highly important samples of genuine literary and spoken Karaim. This unmodified variant of Karaim contained a number of Slavic and Hebrew loanwords – whereas in most other interwar Karaim publications Slavic and Hebrew loanwords were consciously replaced by their Turkic equivalents. This was done in accordance with Szapszał’s directive for the Turkcization of the Karaite religion and language. There are scores of Turkicized Hebraisms practically on every page of the first two issues: “jerušša” (“inheritance” here used in the sense “inherited traditions”), “mišpacha/mišpachalar” (family/families), “jisraelliar” (“Israelites”, here used mostly in the sense of “true followers of the Tora” in contrast to “talmudlar” and “rabbanlar” – “Talmudists” or “Rabbanites”), “chachamlar” (“sages”), “seferliar” (“books”), “talmidliar” (“pupils”), Mašiach (“Messiah”), “macceva/maccevalar/ macceva tašlar” (“tombstones”), “chaverliarim” (“my friends”), “nešer” (“eagle’), “zichron” (“remembrance”), “mitpallelik etme” (“to pray”), “kavvana” (“intention”), and many other religious terms: niggun/niggunlar, kyna, tefilla, deraša, Hummaš.

877 “Kairdan,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 17-20. 878 Jakub Malecki, “Muzhul jovel,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 15-24; Čaprocki, “Kaldychlary;” idem, “Konachlychba;” idem, “Sormachlary biugiungiu kiunniun,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 3-5; idem, “Tirligindian Karaj-Džymatnyn Lietuvada,” Onarmach 3 (1939): 36-40 (a series of articles dedicated mostly to the author’s travels to the monuments of Karaite history in the Lithuanian lands). In addition to this, there was a number of community news, notes, and a chronicle of events written by the main editor, Michał Tynfowicz. Jakub (Jaakow) Malecki, a local Lithuanian author, frequently published his writings in KA (e.g. “Bazłyk jerde,” KA 9 (1936): 7-12). 879 Daniele Tchaproski [Daniel Czaprocki], “On écrit de Kaunas,” Onarmach 3 (1939): one page before the last of the journal-cover (Czaprocki’s report about his encounter with a Crimean Karaite Katlama, a sportsman living in Paris. The article was composed in French so that the Parisian Karaites, to whom Czaprocki wanted to send a copy of the periodical, would be able to understand it). 880 Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Įstatymo sūnūs,” Onarmach 1 (1934): 8-16. This was a Lithuanian translation of Mardkowicz’s Synowie zakonu. It was apparently made for the use of the Lithuanian audience so that the Lithuanians would be able to get some historical data about the local Karaites (cf. review of “Onarmach” by Aleksander Mardkowicz in KA 8 (1935): 24-25). 182 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Needless to say, many of these would not be included later in the “Karaite-Russo- Polish dictionary” edited by Zajączkowski, Szapszał, and Dubiński.881 The last issue of “Onarmach,” however, was strikingly different from the first two. It was printed in a regular printing house and, perhaps, could easily compete with “Karaj Awazy” and other Karaite periodicals. Its title was published in Karaim along with with the Lithuanian translation; Johonodav Rojecki was indicated as the new editor. The language, and, as it seems, the content of this issue was strongly censored – one would not find there any Hebraisms and letters from the Cairo community (the latter were usually published with the subheading “Chevrat HeHaclacha HaJisraelim HaKaraim BeMicrajim”). Thus, the periodical was adjusted in accordance with the new, Turkic tendencies in the Karaite historical and literary thought. It seems that these innovations and financial support, which enabled the local community to publish the periodical in a printing press were brought to the community as a consequence of the visits of Seraja Szapszał and Szemaja Firkowicz in the second half of the 1930s. Moreover, it seems that the readers were urged to forget about the existence of two first issues of the periodical: the title page of the new “Onarmach” carried no reminder that it was already the third issue of the periodical and omitted any reference to the first two issues. This might explain why the article by Zajaczkowski was reprinted in the last issue without any changes882 – it was supposed to indicate that the real “Onarmach” began only now, in 1939. Unfortunately, the beginning of the war terminated the existence of this interesting periodical, which has never been resumed.

***

To conclude, the community of Poniewież, which had been cut from their Karaite counterparts by the state border, nevertheless, continued its contacts with other Karaite communities of the world. This was manifested first of all by the printing of a periodical in the Karaim language, which included correspondence and contributions from many other Karaite qehilot. The Troki Karaite leadership also did not remain inattentive to the needs of the Poniewież Karaites, for in the second half of the 1930s they sent to Poniewież the Troki Karaite Zarach Firkowicz to fulfil the duties of the local ḥazzan.

881 See KRPS. 882 Zajončkovski, “Karaj tili,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 3-5; cf. Onarmach 3 (1939): 2-3. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in Other Communities of the World 183

3.7 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in Other Communities of the World

Scattered Karaite communities, whose members originally were of the East European extraction, existed not only in Poland in Lithuania, but in many other countries of the world, mostly due to the establishment of trading routes with Western Europe, America, and China. Karaite diaspora in Eastern and Central Europe especially grew after 1917, when thousands of White883 Army officers, rich merchants and bourgeoisie had to emigrate from Crimea and Russia in order to avoid the Red terror and persecutions. The aim of this subchapter is to outline the interwar history of several smaller Karaite communities of Europe and the rest of the world, with special emphasis on those populated by the Karaites of Polish-Lithuanian origin. Although the largest Karaite communities of that period were located in Crimea and in Egypt, their history shall not be analyzed here because there were virtually no Polish-Lithuanian Karaites living there.884 On the other hand, the history of the smaller communities such as those of Harbin and Riga, will be surveyed here because of the prominence of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in their community life. Contacts between members of these smaller communities and Polish-Lithuanian Karaites are fundamental to this subchapter of the study. For more details about the history of these communities after 1939, see Chapters 5 and 6.

3.7.1 Warsaw

The first presence of the Crimean Karaites – tobacco traders –in Warsaw is reflected in records dated to the beginning of the nineteenth century. There is further information that already by the end of the nineteenth century there were some Karaites, mostly of Crimean origin, permanently living in Warsaw. The land for the cemetery in Warsaw was purchased by the Karaites in 1890 for 465 Russian rubles and 30 kopeikas. There were eight Karaites (perhaps, heads of the families), who took part in the purchase, only one of them (Joseph ben Jehoshaphat Kapłanowski) of Polish origin, with all

883 I.e. anti-Bolshevik. 884 In the 1920s the Egyptian community numbered 700 families (3,500-5,000 souls) (MK 1:3 (1926): 30); 7 to 9 thousand Karaites lived in the Soviet Union (especially in Crimea) in the 1930s. 184 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

other belonging to Crimean families of Prik, Fuki, Kefeli, Kazas, Cohen, and Aga.885 As there was no Karaite kenesa in Warsaw, some of them, as reported by Pesaḥ Kaplan at the end of the nineteenth century, attended services at the main Rabbanite synagogue of the city.886 One Warsaw Karaite, N.R. Jutkiewicz, in the 1920s, provided the famous Turcologist Tadeusz Kowalski with a valuable manuscript.887 It was estimated that in 1934 there were only about 12-15 Karaites living there. It was the Warsaw Karaite, Eugenjusz Nowicki, who took care of the local cemetery in the interwar period. He lived at Marszałkowska 53a and did this work on voluntary basis without payment.888 Ḥazzan Szemaja Firkowicz visited the community and local cemetery in 1932.889 In 1934 representatives of the Polski Kościół Narodowy (Polish National Church)890 in Warsaw asked Karaite officials to allow them to bury members of their church within the bounds of the local Karaite cemetery. The Karaite community did not allow them to do this.891 Since the 1930s the famous Karaite Orientalist, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, who settled in Warsaw with his family, became an unofficial leader of the community. In September 1939, when Warsaw became occupied by the Nazis, the local Karaites immediately realized the potential danger of being persecuted as Jews and asked Szapszał to provide them with certificates confirming their non-Jewish origin.892

885 For the copy of the deed of purchase, see MS LMAB F. 301, no. 403, fol. 7r. The earliest tombstone of the Warsaw Karaite cemetery dates back to 1895 and belongs to a Crimean Karaite, Saduk Osipovich Kefeli (Wrzosiński, “Der älteste karäische Grabstein”). At present moment this small cemetery is situated on the Redutowa Street, close to the Russian orthodox cemetery. Inscriptions on all other tombs are in Polish or in Karaim in Latin characters (regarding this cemetery, see Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 162-173; Maria Emilia Zajączkowska-Łopatto, “Działaność zawodowa i społeczna Karaimóv trockich w Warszawie w XX wieku,” in Orientas Lietuvos, 299-309; Adam Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz w Warszawie,” in Karaimi, 145-179; for the list of the persons interred in the cemetery, see ibid., 230-240). Before the establishment of the separate Karaite cemetery, one Troki Karaite, Yefet ben Mordecai Ławrecki, was buried in 1887 in the famous Rabbanite cemetery on Okopowa Street (Wrzosiński, “Der älteste karäische Grabstein”). During WWII several Karaites were interred in the Muslim cemetery on Młynarska street; some Karaites were interred in other Karaite cemeteries (Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz,” 145-179). 886 Pesaḥ Kaplan, “Bein “aḥeinu” ha-Qara

3.7.2 Latvia and Estonia

The arrival of the Karaite population in the territory of present day Latvia dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century893. As well as in many other places of the Russian Empire, the first Karaite settlers of Latvia were tobacco merchants of Crimean origin. In 1887 one such merchant, Abram Maikapar,894 built a large tobacco factory in Riga. The factory produced “Riga” cigarettes.895 His son, Fedor/Theodor Abramovich Maikapar (b. Moscow, 9.02.1878 – d. in ca. 1943), was the owner of this factory in the interwar period.896 In 1897 there were 60 Karaites living in Riga and its surroundings.897 With the development of Riga as important centre of trade and commerce at the beginning of the twentieth century, more and more Karaites started coming to this Baltic city – an advantageous move from a commercial standpoint. In 1913 there were as many as 95 Karaites living in Riga; 21 of them had Persian and Turkish citizenship, the rest were Russian citizens. It is also highly significant that most of the Karaite inhabitants of Riga were apparently rather secular persons: only some of them indicated their adherence to Karaite religion in official documents; many stated that they were Catholics, Russian Orthodox, Lutherans or did not indicate their confession at all.898 This is why there were no attempts to arrange a kenesa or Karaite house of prayer in Riga; the Karaite cemetery on Aizsaules Street was a part of the Muslim cemetery. Fedor Maikapar, who was a Russian Orthodox, was known as a leading member and benefactor within the local Russian community. Such a curious religious differentiation within the Karaite community is not attested anywhere in the Russian Empire before 1917. It seems that in the interwar period the local Karaite community became much smaller. In 1937 a certain Karaite, P. Beim (apparently, a Crimean emigrant), served as a liason between the Troki and Poniewież Karaites. He

893 The word of thanks goes to Dmitrii Olekhnovich (Daugavpils, Latvia), who provided a written note on the presence of the Karaite population in Latvia in the nineteenth/twentieth centuries. 894 The Maikapars are a famous Karaite family of musicians. Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar (b. Cherson, 1867 - d. St. Petersburg, 1938) and Alexander Maikapar (b. Moscow, 1946) are prominent Russian pianists and theoretics of music, authors of numerous books and articles (see Alexander Maikapar, “Moj ded Samuil Maikapar,” Muzykal’naia Zhizn’ 11-12 (1994): 26-28; see also the family site of the composers: ). They seem to be related to the Riga Maikapars. 895 His house, the so-called “house of Maikapar,” is said to be one of the most impressive buildings in the centre of Riga, on Brian Street. 896 He defended his dissertation in Germany in 1907 (Theodor Maikapar, Staphylokokken- Allgemeininfektion nach den in den Jahren 1903-1906 in der Leipziger Medizinischen Klinik vorgekommenen Fällen (Leipzig, 1907)). Maikapar received his school education in Alexander gymnasium in Riga and started his university education in Kiev; then he moved to Leipzig to complete his studies there. After 1907 he returned and worked as a physician in Latvia. 897 Ščerbinskis, Ienācēji, 24. 898 Ibid., 24. 186 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

lived in Riga, on Brivibas Street 35–18.899 The Maikapars lived at Tserkovnaia Street 22. In 1939 the local Karaite community finally decided to form their first social organization and created the Society for keeping up the Riga Karaite cemetery.900 Ca. 30 Karaites of Crimean and Polish origin lived in Tallinn, the capital of another Baltic state.901 One local Karaite possessed a tobacco factory in Tallinn and employed half of the Estonian Karaite population as assistants.902 Izaak Żarnowski settled in Revel (Tallinn) in Estliandskaia guberniia of the Russian Empire in 1903. Crimean Karaite family, the Babadzhans (Babacan), moved to Tallinn at the beginning of the 1920s. Representatives of both families are still living in Tallinn.903 Archival documents preserved the names of Ester Babadzhan and Moisei Semenovich Aga (Agin) as the Karaite inhabitants of the city after the war.904

3.7.3 Germany, France, Italy and Holland

In the interwar period the Karaites lived also in several Central European countries such as Germany, France, and Italy. These communities consisted largely of Crimean Karaite emigrants who usually were rich individuals, former White Army officers and their family members. Because of the fact that France – and Paris – were the most popular destination of Russian émigré, the largest Karaite community was established in France. In 1926 there were about 120 Karaite living in Paris.905 Archival Karaite records supply an over-estimated number of 500 Karaites living in Paris in 1937; as the Berlin Karaites, they had the Committee for Mutual Assistance.906 Other documents provide more reliable number of about 270 Karaites living in France. They were organized in “Association de Caraimes en France” with Simon Kazas acting as its president.907 Interesting data concerning the Parisian life of the Karaite families of Gelelovich, Pastak, and Efetov can be found in the letters of the famous Russian émigré writer, Ivan Shmelev, to Elisaveta Gelelovich-Duvan.908 In the 1920s-1930s the

899 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 128r. 900 Ščerbinskis, Ienācēji, 26. 901 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fol. 158. 902 Ibid. 903 Andrei Żarnowski, “Moja rodzina,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 16-17. 904 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 178, fol. 1, 8. 905 “Życie Karaimów poza kordonem Rzeczypospolitej. Paryż,” MK 3 (1926): 29-30. 906 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 29. 907 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 28; cf. Emanuela Trevisan Semi, “The Image of the Karaites in Nazi and Vichy France Documents,” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 32 (1990): 89; Warren Paul Green, “The Nazi Racial Policy Towards the Karaites,” Soviet Jewish Affairs 8:2 (1978): 42-43. 908 K.S. Batozskii and N.V. Pavlenko, “Ivan Shmelev i krymskie karaimy v Parizhe,” in Venok Shmelevu (Moscow, 2001), 319-323. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in Other Communities of the World 187

duties of the ḥazzan were fulfilled in Paris by Captain F.S. Forumda, a graduate of the Karaite religious college in Eupatoria.909 According to archival documents there were 18 Karaites living in Berlin in the 1930s.910 A letter of E. Kovshanly (Kowschanly) refers to the names of several other Karaites living in Germany: I.A. Katyk, I.I. Kumysh, A.I. Katyk, Kharchenko.911 In 1937, a Polish Karaite, Ananiasz Rojecki, was registered as a student at the Berlin university.912 A report of Mikhail-Musa (Moses) Kovshanly notes that the number of the Karaites living in Germany was even less, only 11 persons. Most of them were prisoners of the First World War, former Soviet and Turkish citizens who remained in Germany. They were generally engaged in “blue-collar” employment (restaurant waiters, drivers, tailors, metal workers etc.). After 1934 they began to be systematically and persistently humiliated; they lost their jobs, were frequently beaten and interrogated by the German Gestapo and “Russische Vertrauensstelle” (a special committee dealing with affairs of ethnic Russians in Germany). Ovadia Rofe lost his eye in the course of one such interrogation in Gestapo; Aron Rofe was beaten; Veniamin Maksimadzhi was sent to concentration camp; Il’ia Levi and his wife were imprisoned from 1934 to 1936; Mikhail Kovshanly was arrested.913 In July of 1936, in order to defend themselves against the Nazi oppression, local Karaites formed the Berlin Karaite Society.914 One year later all of them had managed to find other places of work. In 1937, the Berlin Karaite community was visited by S. Szapszał.915 In 1934 there were four Karaites living in Italy.916 In 1938 two Polish Karaite émigrés living in fascist Italy (Michele/Michał Łopatto and Raissa Juchniewicz) started experiencing the same type of “racial” discrimination as did the German Jews – and German Karaites. It was with Szapszał’s help that they managed to procure a certificate that testified to their non-Jewish, Khazar origin.917 At least three Karaites (Jaacob Shapshal/Jacques Chapchal, his wife Lydia Chapchal, and André Appak),

909 “Życie Karaimów poza kordonem Rzeczypospolitej. Paryż,” MK 3 (1926): 29; MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 256; Michel Kefeli, “Karaimi we Francji,” transl. from French A. Sulimowicz, Awazymyz 3 (2007). 910 Trevisan Semi, Emanuela. “L’oscillation ethnique: le cas des caraïtes pendant la seconde guerre mondiale,” Revue de l’histoire des 206 (1989): 386; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 37. 911 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 392, fols. 1-3. 912 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1467, fol. 160. 913 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał, ca. 1943, Russian: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fols. 5-6. 914 The Berlin Karaite Society to S. Szapszał (26.07.1936, Russian): MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 1. This petition was signed by seven Karaites, representatives of families of Kovshanly, Rofe, Sariban, and Levi. 915 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 29. 916 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 30. 917 See 4.4. 188 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

lived in 1939 in Holland; they also asked Szapszał to send certificates concerning their Karaite origin.918

3.7.4 Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia

There was also a small Karaite community in Romania, located mostly in the capital town of present-day Moldova, Chișinău (Kishinev) and in Bucharest. Until 1929 Abram (Alexander) Il’ich Dzhigit was the gabbai and the head of the community; after his death these duties were fulfilled by Semen Aronovich Kalfa. Functions of the religious head were fulfilled by S.Yu. Savuskan, a son of the former Odessa ḥazzan.919 In 1932 the local community published a short brochure in Romanian intended to give the Romanians an idea about the new ethnic group which had settled down in the country only a few years ago.920 In 1934 there were 46 Karaites living in Rumania and 54 in 1939.921 Abram-Alexander Dzhigit and I. Sary are mentioned as inhabitants of Bucharest in 1935. On 25.11.1935 Dzhigit sent a letter to Seraja Szapszał in which he stated that he had lost his birth certificate and asked to provide him a new one.922 In 1938, with the introduction of new laws by the local pro-fascist government, the position of the Romanian Karaites also became quite precarious. As a consequence, they composed a memorandum in which they emphasized their non-Jewish racial origin; the document noted that there was a Karaite cemetery in Chișinău, whereas the whole Karaite community in Romania counted about 50 persons, 30 of them living in Bessarabia.923 In 1934 there were 35 Karaites living in Bulgaria (Varna and Sofia);924 according to Szapszał, in 1939 the community comprised 32 individuals.925 In July 1935 a marriage between Todor, son of Avraham Michri and Raisa Gelelovich, was registered in Varna. The couple received official permission from Szapszał for the marriage. The ceremony took place in the presence of ten witnesses, all of them with Crimean Karaite surnames: Kalfa, Aga, Turshu, Shishman (Szyszman), Dzhumuk, Gelelovich.926

918 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fols. 145-149. 919 Isaac Aivaz to S. Szapszał (Russian, 1929-1935): MS LMAB F. 143, no. 164. 920 Caraimii: un scurt istoric (Chisinau, 1932). 921 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 30; MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fol. 158. 922 In his letter Dzhigit mentioned that he had been born in Odessa in 1900; his parents were Boris and Anna Ilidzhi (A. Dzhigit to S. Szapszał, Bucharest, 25.11.1935, Romanian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 42)). 923 See the draft of this memorandum (Russian): MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1061, fol. 4. 924 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 30. 925 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fol. 159. 926 The marriage certificate of T. Michri and R. Gelelovich, Varna, 21 Tammuz 5695 (22.07.1935), Bulgarian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 43). The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in Other Communities of the World 189

In March 1939 Nazi Germany established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Immediately afterwards the local Karaites began experiencing the same difficulties as Jews living in this area. Szapszał started receiving numerous letters from the Karaite families living in Prague, Plzen, and Brno asking to provide them with the certificates testifying to their Karaite (and non-Jewish) origins.927 On 23.02.1939 a group of 16 Karaites living in in Prague, Brno (Brünn) and Plzen sent Szapszał a letter asking to provide them with detailed historical memorandum about the Karaite religion and their Turkic origins; this document was supposed to be presented later to the local authorities.928 Later that year, the local Karaites founded “a Karaite circle” (Russ. karaimskii kruzhok) which was supposed to represent the local community.929 Ca. 20 Karaites lived in 1939 in Yugoslavia; all of them were officers of the former White Army. As well as other Karaites living in Nazi-occupied Europe, they sent letters to Szapszał asking to provide them with the certificates testifying to their Karaite origin.930

3.7.5 China (Manchuria)

A small Karaite colony appeared in Harbin931 almost immediately after the foundation of that city in 1897. Attracted by its rapidly developing trade and industry, Karaite merchants and undertakers from almost all parts of the Russian Empire began settling in this city which came to represent a part of Russia in the Chinese lands. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham Panpulov sent his son to Harbin as a type of “exile” over some misbehaviour. The local Karaites, mostly of Polish-Lithuanian origin, actively participated in tobacco and wine trade. There existed the officially registered Harbin Karaite Society (Russ. Kharbinskoe Karaimskoe Obshchestvo). The first ḥazzan of the community was Crimean Karaite, Abram Azarovich El’; his successors were of Polish-Lithuanian origins: Roman Jutkiewicz, Iosif Łopatto, and, finally, Rafal Grigulewicz.932 Two wealthy Harbinians of Troki origin, Il’ia Aronovich (Eliasz) Łopatto and Abram Łopatto, often sent considerable sums of money to support the Karaites of Wilno and Troki in the 1920s. In 1924 they sponsored publication of “Myśl Karaimska” and, in 1926, the Russian

927 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1068, fols. 1, 10-11. 928 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/1, fols. 2-3; cf. ibid., fols. 51, 60, 62-63, 73-77, 89-91; no. 1064/2, fols. 92- 97, 101 and passim. 929 G. Kal’fa and S. Tanagoz to S. Szapszał, Prague, 11.08.1939, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fol. 122). 930 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/2, fol. 159. 931 Today Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. 932 For more details, see Leonid Lavrin, “Kolonia karaimska w Harbinie,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 12- 13. Unfortunately, the author of the article provides no dates of the the ḥazzanim successions. 190 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

leaflet by T.S. Levi-Babovich.933 Liudmila Il’inichna Lopato (Łopatto; b. Harbin, 1914 – d. Cannes, 2004), who was born in Harbin in 1914, later became a famous cabaret singer in Paris. She left interesting memoirs depicting the life of the Karaite community of Harbin.934 In 1932 Il’ia Kodzhak, a member of the community, published in Harbin several socio-philosophical books in Russian. A subchapter in one of these books presented the Karaites as descendants of the Khazars; other sections were dedicated to non-Karaite matters.935 In 1934 Harbin together with the rest of Manchuria became part of Manchukuo (Mǎnzhōuguó), a puppet state ruled by the Japanese government. In 1936 the group of the Polish Karaites living Harbin organized the “Society of the Polish Karaites in Manchukuo” (Russ. Общество Польских Караимов в Маньчжу- Ти-Го). The Polish consul agreed to support the Society and helped to register it with the government of the country. The local Karaite community consisted mostly of Polish-Lithuanian and Crimean Karaites; a few had Soviet citizenship and were atheists. There was a communal Karaite cemetery; the apartment of the ḥazzan was used as the kenesa (the ḥazzan himself called it Кенесса). In 1934 there were 40-50 Karaites living in Harbin.936 Two years later the ḥazzan sent a letter to Szapszał in which he sought to include the local community into the list of those under his jurisdiction.937 The Karaites were still in Harbin during the Second World War. One of them, S. Szpakowski, even published a short book there on the Karaites in the English language.938 The last Karaites left Harbin in the 1950s.939

3.7.6 United States

Karaite emigration from Eastern Europe to the United States began, or so it seems, about the same time as the general Jewish flight to North America in the wake of the series of pogroms in Russia at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Some of these Karaite emigrants were from Wilno, Poniewież,

933 [Owadjusz Pilecki], “Charbin. Biźniń ummaha bołuszuwczułar/Kharbin. Nashi natsional’nye blagotvoriteli,” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 5. 934 Aleksander Vasil’iev, Liudmila Lopato [Łopatto], Tsaritsa parizhskikh kabare (Moscow, 2011), 2 7-53. 935 Il’ia Babakaevich Kodzhak (Sevastopol 1897 – Sidney 1967), Oko v okne (Harbin, 1932), 31-43 (a courtesy of Konstantin Burmistrov); cf. idem, “Evreiskii vopros”. Kul’turno-gosudarstvennaia problema evreistva (pertsepta) (Harbin, 1935); idem, Sotsiosofiia: novaia nauka o gosudarstve (Harbin, 1937). In the 1930s he maintained correspondence with S. Szapszał (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 371). 936 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 30. 937 LMAB F. 143, no. 444, fols. 6v-7r. 938 S. Shpakovsky (Szpakowski), Short Informations about Karaims (Harbin, 1943) (non vidi; was seen by A. Tokarczyk (Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 30)). 939 Ludmiła Kopycińska, Michał Abkowicz, and Włodzimierz Abkowicz, “Z Dalekiego Wschodu... do Szczecina,” Awazymyz 2 (35) (2012): 4-10; Cf. Pilecki, “Karaimskie życie,” 49; General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 191

and Halicz.940 Local Karaites organized the “American Karaite Aid Society” in the 1920s.941 According to Corrado Gini, the American Karaite emigrants from Eastern Europe often married local Rabbanite Jews. The scholar also stated that in 1934 there were 23 Karaite emigrants in New York.942

***

Thus, the Karaites of Polish-Lithuanian origin were present in many large European cities and sustained contacts with their counterparts living in France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, North America and China. Unfortunately, for political and geographical reasons, their contacts with the largest Karaite communities of the world – those of Crimea and Egypt – remained the weakest. In the 1930s many members of these scattered European communities began experiencing serious problems with their legal status in the ware of the growth of general fascist, Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiments in many European countries. As a result, many of those Karaites, whose life had been jeopardized by anti-Jewish regulations enforced in these countries, turned to S. Szapszał for help and asked to provide them with certificates testifying to their Karaite – i.e. non Jewish – origin. Szapszał reacted positively to their pleas and thus the position of the Karaites living in these pro-fascist countries soon became less precarious than before. These communities (especially that of Harbin) explicitly referred to Szapszał as the head of their communities in diaspora and saw in him the guarantor of their security.

3.8 General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period

3.8.1 The Karaite Periodical “Myśl Karaimska” (Pol. “Karaite Thought”) and Its Role in Shaping Historical Views and Self-Identification of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites

“Myśl Karaimska”943 (Karaite Thought) and earlier Russian “Karaimskaia Zhizn’” were, undoubtedly, two of the most important Karaite periodicals of the twentieth century. Unlike “Karaimskaia Zhizn’”, which was intended for an internal use within the

940 Izaak Abrahamowicz, the future ḥazzan of the Halicz community, spent a long time in America; cf. the list of Karaite sponsors of the newspaper “Sahyszymyz.” 941 For the Constitution and Laws of the Society, see the letter of Natan Yoorga to S. Szapszał (15.02.1924) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 977 (English). Natan Yoorga was apparently a great-uncle of Leonard Fox. 942 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 12. 943 For contemporary reviews of MK, see S. Klaczyński, “Myśl Karaimska,” Kurjer Wileński 25 (30.01.1929): 2; W. Charkiewicz, “Trochę egzotyki,” Słowo 35 (6.02.1934): 2. 192 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

community, “Myśl Karaimska” was, as Tadeusz Kowalski pointed out, “a Karaite visit card to the world”. Twelve issues of the periodical were published in Wilno from 1924 to 1939 and two after the war. The main publisher of the first issues of “Myśl Karaimska” was Ananjasz Rojecki.944 In the 1920s, prior to the arrival of Seraja Szapszał in Poland, the Galician Karaite intellectuals (especially, Z. Zarachowicz, N. Szulimowicz, and Z. Nowachowicz) took an active part in its activity. Two of them, Zarachowicz and Nowachowicz, became members of the editorial board of this periodical.945 The first issue of “Myśl Karaimska” carried an article by Zarach Zarachowicz: a programme for the development of the Karaite community in the years to come.946 However, after the arrival of Seraja Szapszał in 1928 and an active involvement of a young and ambitious follower of his doctrine, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, the editorial policy of the periodical changed considerably. Relations between Rojecki and other members of “Myśl Karaimska” and Karaite community deteriorated. Apparently, the overall tone and content of “Myśl Karaimska” began to be negatively perceived by the religious members of the community. Rojecki, it appears, was attentive to the comments of religious Karaites while Zajączkowski clearly wanted no interference on their part in the process of editing the periodical. At one point he wrote a categorical letter to Rojecki and suggested that he become the main editor of “Myśl Karaimska” in the case that the latter did not respond to his request.947 Rojecki apparently decided to step aside; as a result Zajączkowski became the main editor of the periodical in September 1930.948 According to S. Szyszman, however, it was Szapszał, who was the main editor of “Myśl Karaimska”, whereas Zajączkowski’s participation in the editing was reduced to “a fight over the size of the letters with which his [i.e. Zajączkowski’s] name was to be printed.”949 This statement produces a most odd impression, since

944 Ananjasz b. Eliezer Rojecki (geophysicist, b. Vienna, 19.07.1896 – d. Warsaw, 19.11.1978). See on him also A. Dziewulska-Łosiowa, “Ananiasz Rojecki (1896-1978),” Acta Geophysica Polonica 27:4 (1979): 413-417; Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus (Warsaw 2012), 234, no. 40. 945 In fact, the Halicz Karaites had been originally planning to publish their own periodical- sprawozdanie, but having received news about the establishment of Myśl Karaimska, they abandoned this idea (AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, fol. 83). 946 Zarach Zarachowicz, “Kilka uwag o naszych zadaniach w chwili obecnej,” MK 1 (1924): 5-6. 947 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 22.08.1930 (UO, 55-56). 948 UO, 57. The last page of MK 2:2 (1929): 44 indicates that it was still Ananjasz Rojecki, who fulfilled the duties of the editor. Nevertheless, the copy of MK 2:2 (1929), which is kept in the library of Zajączkowski’s mater – the Oriental Institute of the Warsaw University – contains corrections inserted there by Aleksander Mardkowicz. The name of Rojecki is crossed out and the name of Zajączkowski is written above. Regardless, in the following issue (MK 2:3-4 (1931)) Zajączkowski is officially indicated as the main editor. 949 Szyszman, Przywódca duchowy Karaimów, 10. General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 193

from Zajączkowski’s own correspondence and other sources, we know how much of time and energy the latter invested in editing “Myśl Karaimska”.950 Twelve issues of interwar “Myśl Karaimska” contained a number of very valuable articles with publications of rare and unknown sources related to the history of the East European Karaites. Among them were publications by the non-Karaite scholars (T. Kowalski, M. Morelowski, B. Baranowski, and others); numerous historical and publicist writings of the Karaite authors from Poland (Z. Zarachowicz, A. Zajączkowski, S. Szapszał, Sz. Firkowicz, A. Rojecki) and from abroad (B. Kokenai, T.S. Levi- Babovich); a chronicle of most important events in the life of the Karaite communities in Poland-Lithuania and elsewhere in the world; short stories and poems in Karaim. Having said this, it is necessary to mention that, unfortunately, many historical articles published in “Myśl Karaimska” were marred with references to non-existent or, even, falsified sources, tendencies of the wrtiers to distort and “amend” the authentic content of the original sources, and the general pseudo-historical tendency to present the East European Karaites as descendants of the Khazars and Chuvashes, i.e. as an ethnic group having nothing in common with Jewish civilization. It is on the pages of “Myśl Karaimska” that Seraja Szapszał presented his “revolutionary” concept that Karaites recognized the prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed, and included elements of and veneration of Turkic deities in their religious creed.951 The main language of the periodical was Polish, although some materials were published in Karaim and (rarely) in Hebrew; Karaim was normally published in Polonicized Latin transliterations and not in Hebrew characters. It fulfilled the goals of the periodical’s founders and indeed became the Karaite visit card to the interwar non-Karaite audience; furthermore, it became the main source of information for the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite itself. Although many material published in “Myśl Karaimska” had a distinctive ideological character, the periodical remains the best source of information on the state of the community before the Second World War. Moreover, some of its articles, especially those which published rare sources on Karaite history and linguistics, still have not lost their scholarly importance. For the information about two post-war issues of “Myśl Karaimska,” see 6.1.1.

3.8.2 Relations with the Rabbanite Jews

Considerable changes occurred in the Karaites’ relations with the Talmudic Jews during the interwar period. The general attitude of the Polish government to the

950 For more information about the active participation of Zajączkowski in the editorial process, see UO; AK, 65-163. 951 E.g. S. Szapszał, “Alexandre Baschmakoff, “Cinquante siecles d’evolution ethnique autour de la Mer Noire” Paris, 1937 (Recenzja),” MK 12 (1938): 112-118. 194 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Rabbanites was highly intolerant and bluntly anti-Semitic. After the first wave of anti-Jewish violence of 1918–1920, there followed another one, this time accompanied by a number of discriminatory anti-Semitic laws officially enacted by the Polish government. According to Ezra Mendelson, “the war against the Jews during 1935–1939 took many forms, ranging from legislative efforts to brutal attacks.”952 In some Polish institutions of higher education, Jewish students were required to attend lectures in specially segregated areas (this system was introduced at the Lwów Polytechnicum in 1935 and then at Wilno university). More serious, however, was the economic boycott of Jewish businesses and the pogroms which took place in some cities in the Kresy in the second half of the 1930s.953 The attitude of the Polish state to the Karaites, however, was surprisingly welcoming and warm. This may be explained by the apparent pro-Polish patriotism expressively shown and emphasized by the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites immediately after 1918 and later, and also by their careful representation of the Karaite community as an absolutely separate religious and ethnic entity which was totally unconnected with the (Rabbanite) Jews. In fact, Poland continued the Austrian and Russian policy of legal separation of the Karaites from the Rabbanites, and of granting the former exemptions from many anti-Jewish laws and limitations. For example, in contrast to the Karaites, the local Rabbanite Jews were not allowed to work at the local railway station at all.954 This is why some sources state that after the Polish annexation of Galicia, relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites worsened. According to one of the local Rabbanite merchants, in the 1930s the Karaites lost their “fear of the Jews,” the fear that they had had during Austrian times. In this informant’s view, such “loss of fear” caused relations between the two groups to deteriorate.955 Another interwar source states that the Halicz Rabbanites, on the contrary, developed some sort of irrational fear of the Karaites. As the local superstition had it, a Rabbanite who met a Karaite on the way to a shop or after the end of the Sabbath would not – as a direct consequence of that meeting – have any success in his trade for a day or even during the course of a whole week.956 One of the interwar Jewish journalists reported that the Karaites considered themselves as the “Elite-gemeinde” (Germ. “elite community”). Furthermore, according to the same report, some of the local Karaites were rather “anti-Semitic.”957 On the other hand, many sources testify to the continuing interest of the local Karaites in many Rabbanite practices and traditions. Izaak Abrahamowicz and

952 Mendelson, The Jews of East Central Europe, 73. 953 Ibid., 73-74. 954 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 955 Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Gli ebrei Caraiti tra etnia e religione (Roma, 1984), 73. 956 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 957 Ibid. General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 195

Zarach Zarachowicz, two very learned and educated Halicz Karaites of the interwar period (for a while, both fulfilled the duties of ḥazzanim), are known for their interest in the Qabbalah and Rabbanite religious literature and customs. Zarachowicz copied and translated into Karaim some Rabbanite liturgical works,958 while Abrahamowicz apparently tried to introduce some Rabbanite elements into the Karaite liturgy. Furthermore, one Karaite respondent from the 1930s stated that the Karaites had excellent relations with the Rabbanites, less friendly dealings with the Poles, and even less amicable ones with the Ukrainians. He also added that the little Karaites played mostly with Rabbanite children and even spoke Yiddish with them.959 According to the memoires of Edmund Sulimowicz, which were documented by his niece, Anna Sulimowicz, in interwar Halicz local children often played the game of “Jews and Arabs” (Pol. “w Żydów i Arabów”). Not only Karaites, but also the local Ashkenazim, Ukrainians and Poles took part in these games – which testifies that it was a rather friendly tradition unifying all ethnic groups of this town.960 According to Aleksander Gołub, who spent his youth in interwar Łuck, relations of the Karaite community with the Rabbanite Jews were not uniform:

We often fought against each other as boys; sometimes they were stronger, sometimes we. On our side, however, there was no anti-Semitism. Furthermore, in Łuck there were much more of them than of us. In addition, they often disturbed us during prayers and provoked. They bullied us even in front of the kienesa.961

Moreover, it was the Rabbanite Jews who were hired by the Halicz Karaites to repair their synagogue after the destruction of 1913-1918. In the 1920s the community made the first, superficial, renovation of the synagogue (kenesa). Nevertheless, it needed more financial support to make a complete restoration.962 The final repairs to the synagogue were carried out only in 1927 by a group of the local Ashkenazic Jews (Abraham Wohl, Perly Rosenman, and Israel Spund).963

***

958 Shapira, “Turkic Languages,” 688. 959 Trevisan Semi, Gli ebrei Caraiti, 73. The East European Karaites normally did not use Yiddish at all (cf. Mikhail Kizilov, “Faithful Unto Death: Language, Tradition, and the Disappearance of the East European Karaite Communities,” East European Jewish Affairs 36:1 (2006): 76). 960 Anna Sulimowicz, “Mieczek i Siunek,” Awazymyz 1 (38) (2013): 4-13. 961 Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 158. 962 In 1924 the Karaite community asked the Polish government to grant them 10,000 złoty for the restoration of the kenesa (Z. Z. [Zarach Zarachowicz], “Restauracja kienesy,” MK 1:2 (1925): 42; idem, “Restauracja kienesy,” MK 1:3 (1926): 27). 963 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1466, fols. 43-44, 71. 196 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

There were a few controversial topics and events that were actively discussed in the Jewish, Polish, and Karaite press in interwar Poland. In general, in the 1930s both Polish and Jewish press often used the Karaite example in order to prove this or that doubtful ideological premise. This is evidently seen, for example, in discussion concerning the problem of ritual slaughter. In 1936, the Polish Sejm forbade the Rabbanite sheḥiṭah (ritual slaughter of animals) under the pretext of its alleged “sadistic” character. This anti-sheḥiṭah bill was modelled on a 1930 German law according to which animals were supposed to be stunned before slaughter. This demand violated biblical prescriptions concerning the slaughter: as is known, in order to be considered ritually pure (kosher), an animal should be slaughtered according to a specific Rabbanite ritual. The Polish Rabbanites knew that the Karaite sheḥiṭah (slaughter) was quite similar that of the Talmudic Jews – and decided to use this fact in their fight against anti-Semitic Polish legislation. Thus, the Jewish newspapers objected to the new law by saying that both the Karaites and Muslims also use similar sort of ritual slaughter.964 For the Karaites, of course, such indication of the similarity of their rites to those of the Rabbanites appeared to jeopardize their advantageous legal status. An indignant Aleksander Mardkowicz responded by saying that “animals, slaughtered by the Karaites, would not be consumed by the Rabbanites.”965 Seraja Szapszał went even further and testified to the Polish readers that “in the question of the animal slaughter the Karaites do not recognize any ritual… What concerns the Tatars and Turks, in Crimea, for example… they usually buy meat in the Karaite shops… What concerns the Jews, they do not eat animals slaughtered by the Karaites.”966 In fact, of course, the difference between Karaite and Rabbanite slaughter is not that apparent: according to both traditions, animals are slaughtered ritually at the neck, but a different blessing is said and different signs of the animal’s health and suitability for digestion are checked.967 The Rabbanite Jews’ attempt to use the Karaite case against the new law was unsuccessful: it was adopted by the Polish government in April 1936 anyway. 968 The Karaite theme was also used by a certain Rowno-born Lilienfeld-Lenski, a Jewish seeker of adventures. After some sordid affair in Poland Lilienfeld-Lenski arrived in Leipzig, where he contacted a highly-placed NSDAP authority from

964 “Karaimi pomagają Żydom? Projekt zniesienia polowań wnoszą Żydzi do Sejmu,” ABC – Nowiny codzienne (9.03.1936). 965 [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Tasłar Karaj bachcasyna,” KA 9 (1936): 24. To his article Mardkowicz also attached a few highly curious quotations from the Jewish press of the 1930s concerning the Karaites. 966 “Karaimi nie uznają uboju rytualnego,” Wieczór warszawski (27.03.1936); cf. “Karaimi wobec uboju rytualnego,” Gazeta Wągrowiecka (27.03.1936): 2. 967 Daniel J. Lasker, “Karaite Judaism,” The Encyclopedia of Judaism 4:1 (Leiden-Boston, 2003), 1813. 968 Isaac Lewin, Michael L. Munk, and Jeremiah J. Berman, Religious Freedom: the right to practice Shehitah (Kosher Slaughtering) (New York, 1946). General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 197

Chemnitz. He suggested to the NSDAP to use the rebellion of the Karaites in their struggle against Poland, providing them with false information that the Karaites represented a large group of people. In order to realize this bogus “Karaite uprising”, Lilienfeld-Lenski milked large sums of money out of the NSDAP treasury. The end of the story was rather tragic. By the time the whole absurdity and impossibility of the “Karaite rebellion” was discovered (ca. 1937), the NSDAP leader from Chemnitz had died and Lilienfeld-Lenski had been killed by frontier guards while trying to escape from Germany. The Karaite themselves were totally unaware of this alleged “rebellion” only learning about the whole affair from Polish newspapers.969 Another point of Karaite-Rabbanite controversy was the “Khazar question.” To interwar Karaite leaders, the origin of the East European Karaites from the Khazars was self-evident. However, in the 1930s some few Rabbanite scholars (especially M. Gumplowicz and I. Schipper) suggested that the Khazars played an important role in the formation of the Ashkenazic Jewry as well.970 Of course this caused an indignant reaction from Karaite leaders who did not like the idea of “sharing” their Khazar forefathers with the Rabbanites.971 One should mention here that neither Karaite leaders, nor their Rabbanite opponents were the first, and, certainly, not the last, ones who tried to “find” descendants of the Khazars among some nineteenth/ twentieth century ethnic groups (among them were the Ashkenazim, mountainous Jews of the Caucasus, Don Cossacks, Subbotniki, Brodniki, and some others). Of course, most of such “straightforward” identifications of the Khazars with present- day ethnicities are very naive and unconvincing. However, the debate on the extent of the impact of the Khazar Jews on European Jewry is still going on.972 One more heated discussion centred on the Karaite theme took place in 1934. In general, one can find hardly any information about the involvement of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites in . According to Reuven Fahn, the Wilno tobacco company “Szyszman and Duruncza” was the only Karaite company which hired Rabbanite assistants. Its owners were sympathetic to Zionism and even took part

969 Unfortunately, I was unable to find original Polish reports about this unsuccessful “Karaite uprising.” This information was gleaned from an article in the Karaite press ([Aleksander Mardkowicz], “‘Turałmahy’ Karajłarnyn,” KA 12 (1938): 3–4). 970 Maksymilian Ernest Gumplowicz, Początki religii żydowskiej w Polsce (Warsaw, 1903); Itzhak (Ignacy) Schipper, “Rozwój ludności Żydowskiej na ziemiach Dawnej Rzeczypospolitej,” in Żydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej, ed. Aleksander Hafftka, Itzhak Schipper, and Aryeh Tartakower (Warsaw, 1936), 21- 36; idem, “Dzieje gospodarcze Żydów Korony i Litwy w czasach przedrozbiorowych,” in ibid., 111-190. 971 See [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Kari biz, ari alar,” KA 12 (1938): 2-3 (the title of this article is, undoubtedly, a calque from Russian “Kuda my, tuda oni”). 972 For a survey, see, Mikhail Kizilov and Diana Mikhailova, “Khazary i Khazarskii kaganat v evropeiskikh natsionalisticheskikh ideologiiakh i politicheski orientirovannoi nauchno- issledovatel’skoi literature,” Khazarskii Al’manakh 3 (2004): 34-62; idem, “The Khazar Kaganate and the Khazars in European Nationalist Ideologies and Scholarship,” Archivum Eurasii Medii Aevi 14 (2005): 31-53. 198 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

in a deputation which greeted the arrival of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, in Wilno.973 Gedo Hecht observed that – with that one exception – in the 1930s the local Karaites responded apatheticallly to Zionism.974 Nevertheless, in January 1934 “Palestine Post” published the following report about the Karaites’ appeal to Zionist organization:

Warsaw, Jan. 15.—[1934] A delegation of Karaites, headed by their Hacham, (as cabled briefly), have arrived here from Volhynia, making the long journey on foot because they had no money for the fares, and have visited the Palestine Emigration Office of the Zionist Organisation, asking for immigration certificates to enable them to go to Palestine, and help to establish Chalutzim training centres and to learn the Hebrew language. They explained that there are some hundreds of Karaite families in great want, who are land workers, and wish to settle in Palestine. The Directors of the Palestine Office have promised to transmit the application to the Jewish Agency Executive.975

A few other reports with the same information about the petition of the Łuck Karaites to the Palestine Emigration Office of the Zionist Organisation in Warsaw were published in some other newspapers from January through April 1934. “Gazeta Warszawska” wrote: “The Jewish agency in Jerusalem received a petition from the leaders of the ancient Jewish sect of the Karaites expressing their wish to give them the freedom of emigration to Palestine... The outcome of the Karaites’ petition to the Jewish agency is not known”.976 Further publications added that the petition had been brought by a group of the young Karaites of Łuck.977 A report in Yiddish interpreted this news as a possibility of a reconciliation between Karaites and Rabbanites; however, according to this report the Karaites were refused permission to emigrate.978 In response to the official enquiry sent to him with regard to these reports, Karaite ḥakham Seraja Szapszał dismissed this account as a mere newspaper hoax:

The Crimean-Polish Karaites are not at all interested in Zionism as a movement supporting the creation of Jewish state; they, as the people of Turkic origin, would not have anything in common with the state of such a nation alien to them. What concerns our religion, which is based on Scripture in its original purity, it is as far from the Jewish religion as it is from Christianity. However, the Jews maintain that all other monotheistic religions, as well as the Karaite faith, are nothing but Jewish sects.979

973 Fahn, “Aus dem Leben der Karaiten,” Ost und West 1 (1912): 67. 974 Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu”, 35. 975 PTA, “Karaites Ask in Palestine,” Palestine Post (24.01.1934): 3. 976 “Sekta Karaimów,” Gazeta Warszawska (13.04.1934). 977 “Czy Karaimi zamierzają emigrować do Palestyny?” Dziennik Wileński 64 (7.03.1934). 978 Shaul Yiṣḥaq Stupnicki, “Di Karaimer shtreken-oys di hand tsu unz,” Der Moment 25:17 (19.01.1934). 979 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 35-36; cf. “Czy Karaimi zamierzają emigrować.” General Trends in the Life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Interwar Period 199

What lay behind this “Zionist episode” remains unknown. The information published in newspapers could have been indeed some sort of misunderstanding or “newspaper hoax”, as Szapszał alleged. Some “picturesque” details of the report published in “Palestine Post” force one to doubt their veracity. The Karaites of Łuck could not be “led by their Hacham” because only ḥazzan is the head of their community, not the ḥakham. Their coming to Warsaw on foot from Łuck “because they had no money for the fares” also does not sound very convincing: such a journey (ca. 400 km) would have taken them, perhaps, several weeks; furthermore, the Łuck Karaites were normally rather well-to-do and could afford to buy their own train tickets themselves. On the other hand, it is still possible that some members of the Łuck community could have arrived in Warsaw to enquire about the possibility of emigrating to Palestine. It is known, for example, that at least one Halicz Karaite, Marek (Mordecai) Abrahamowicz, emigrated to Jerusalem ca. 1935 – almost about the time when the question of the Karaites’ interest in Zionism was discussed in the press.980 Further, in 1937 a Rabbanite Abram Bronzaft mentioned in his letter to S. Szapszał that he had been in touch with the keeper of the Karaite synagogue of Jerusalem, Sinani. The latter informed him that he had asked the Va’ad Leumi (Jewish National Council) to grant permission to several Karaites to emigrate to Palestine.981 Thus, although it still remains unclear whether the “Zionist episode” of 1934 reflected any real appeal of the Polish Karaites to the office of the Zionist Organisation in Warsaw, there certainly was some limited interest on the part of some Polish Karaites in emigration to Palestine.

***

Although, as we have demonstrated, there were still close contacts between the Karaites and Rabbanite Jews in interwar Poland both on every day and intellectual level, there is no doubt that in general the Karaites began feeling increasingly different – and differentiated – from their Ashkenazic neighbours. Practically all Rabbanite visitors to interwar Troki noticed that this tendency could be explained first of all by the conscious policy of Karaite intellectual and religious leadership directed at presenting the Karaites as separate ethnic and religious entity which

980 He stayed at the home of the Karaite ḥazzan of Jerusalem (M. Abrahamowicz to his parents, Jerusalem, 21.10.193[5]; Polish; the Yurchenko MSS). He continued living there even after the end of the war and the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1950 he met Mordecai Abraham Alfandari (1929- 1999), a future ḥakham of the Israeli Karaites (Nehemiah Gordon, “The Death of a Karaite Hacham” (). 981 A. Bronzaft to S. Szapszał, 27 Tevet, 5698 (31.12.1937), Jerusalem, in Hebrew (LMAB F. 143, no. 204, fol. 1). 200 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

had nothing to do with Judaism in general and Ashkenazic Jews in particular.982 To give an example, M. Blum wrote in 1936: “Militarization of Karaite youth is no more than a part of senseless actions of Karaite clergy, sowing hatred against the Jewish masses, so that these hostile feelings would consolidate their power over the poor Karaite community.”983 This policy of Karaite leadership, which is called by scholars endogenous dejudaization (or Turkicization), will be analyzed in detail in Chapter 4.

3.8.3 The Problem of Mixed Marriages

In general, the number of mixed marriages between Jews and Christians grew considerably in the interwar period. During this era, in many cities of Western and Central Europe a full third of the Jews married outside the Jewish community.984 In Eastern Europe (apart from the Soviet Union), however, the percentage of mixed marriages among the Jews was relatively small: 1% in Galicia, 2.64% in Latvia, and only 0.2% in Lithuania.985 In spite of the fact that the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community tried to preserve the religious traditionalism of their forefathers, it appears that the lack of potential Karaite brides led members of the community to be much more flexible concerning the rigidity of their matrimonial laws. In 1922, the Halicz ḥazzan, Izaak Abrahamowicz, registered the marriage between Izaak Ickowicz and Zofja Abrahamowicz, who was a sister of Ickowicz’s first wife.986 According to traditional Karaite laws, such marriages were not allowed. Furthermore, having discovered that Izaak Abrahamowicz winked at such “minor” violations of religious law, a few Karaites from other communities brought their non-Karaite fiancées to Halicz for conversion to Karaism and subsequent marriage. Thus, a Łuck Karaite referred to in the documents as “Rutkowski” arrived in Halicz with a Polish woman, Barbara (Tamara?) Majewska, who was converted to Karaism and accepted into the Karaite community.987 In May of 1923, Abrahamowicz converted another Polish woman, Marja Stankiewicz of Wilno, to the Karaite faith. It is of interest that sources have preserved

982 Blum, “Ha-Qara

a description of the rite of conversion. As the report of Józef Eszwowicz has it, in order to convert Marja Stankiewicz to Karaism, Abrahamowicz “did not ask her whether she knew any Karaite prayers; he only read to her the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, which she did not understand at all.”988 After her conversion, Stankiewicz received a new Karaite name: “Tamar.”989 Both conversions were made with one pragmatic purpose: to enable these “proselytes,” who apparently did not seem to care very much about the tenets of Karaite creed, to marry Karaite men. Thus, in the 1920s, against all religious proscriptions, there were cases of proselytism in the Karaite communities at the time. In spite of the opposition on the part of Halicz traditionalists, all of the aforementioned not-too-scrupulous – and legally vague – acts were considered legitimate, and, moreover, the Polish “proselytes” soon married their Karaite partners.990 Especially interesting is the legal aspect of this problem. Why would Karaites from such remote regions of Poland as Wilno and Łuck bring their “converted” fiancées as far as Halicz to be married? The answer may be found in the inconsistent character of the Polish legal system after 1918, which had to incorporate elements of Russian and Austrian laws into a single unified code of law. Somewhat surprisingly, in the 1920s the Polish administration of former Russian territories considered the Russian regulation of 17 April 1905 as binding. It prohibited the conversion of Christians to a non-Christian faith.991 Nevertheless, Polish administration of former Austrian territories (i.e. of Galicia) continued following Austrian laws, and allowed mixed Christian–Jewish marriages.992 This is why the only way around this official ban on such marriages was to have a mixed marriage performed in the former Austrian territory of Halicz. This may explain why, sanctioned by the permission of the Halicz ḥazzan, the two aforementioned Polish Catholic women were officially allowed to convert to the karaimskie wyznanie (Karaite faith) by the local Polish administration (starostwo) in Stanisławów.993 In most other interwar Karaite communities there were similar tendencies. Many secularized Karaite intellectuals clearly understood the danger of demographic

988 J. Eszwowicz to the regional government in Stanisławów, 3.02.1924, Polish (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 120). 989 Ibid. 990 S. Rudkowski continued living with his converted wife in the 1930s (T. Kowalski to S. Szapszał, MS LMAB F. 143, no. 384, fol. 55). 991 A copy of the new confirmation of this Russian regulation by Polish law was sent to the Troki ḥakham in 1924 – which means that the Karaites could not simply ignore it (“Zarządzenie władz w sprawie przechodzenia na wiarę niechrześcijańską,” MK 1:2 (1925): 38-39). Thus, the report to the effect that after 1904 one or two Germans and several Russians converted to Karaism seems very unlikely to be true (Adler, “Krim-Karäer,” 119). 992 Ruppin, Jewish Fate, 106. 993 A report by a police officer from Halicz to MWRiOP, 1923 (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1461, fol. 118). 202 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

decline, and saw mixed marriages as the only solution to this problem.994 A highly curious case is related to the Maikapars, a Karaite family from Riga. In December, 1930, Samuil Abramovich Maikapar and his wife, Rashel Osipovna, asked Szapszał to allow the marriage of their daughter, Inna, to a young Rabbanite lawyer, Horacio Bernhardt (Бернгард; his real name in fact was Goratsii Zakharovich (Zeligovich) Blumental).995 In order to avoid the law prohibiting mixed marriages, Szapszał suggested that they “adopt” this young Rabbanite996 and give them their Karaite surname. After the “adoption” of Horacio by a Karaite family Szapszał had been prepared, according to his own words, to send ḥazzan Kalfa to Riga to perform the marriage ceremony. According to Szapszał, however, the Troki Karaite community somewhow received the news about this forthcoming marriage. As a result, members of the community, in Szapszał’s words, started actively protesting against such deviation from their religious law. Szapszał wrote to the Maikapars: “In observing that this seemingly purely religious problem had taken on a sharp national character, I… could not ignore the pleas of the people.” Consequently, he was obliged to give a negative answer and withdrew permission for the marriage.997 Nevertheless, this marriage still took place on 28.12.1930, after which Horacio took the double surname of Bernhardt-Maikapar while Inna – Blumental.998 According to Corrado Gini, the American Karaite emigrants from Eastern Europe often married local Rabbanite Jews. The scholar also stated that in 1934 there were 23 Karaite emigrants in New York.999 Nevertheless, the Polish Karaite authorities seemed to keep to the letter of the law and did not allow such marriages. This, however, as the aforementioned cases clearly show, does not mean that such marriages did not take place. In spite of these difficulties and the apparent unwillingness to recognize such mixed marriages on the part of Karaite and Rabbanite authorities alike, numerous marriages of this kind were registered in Europe and America in the interwar period

994 E.g. Aleksander Mardkowicz (Łuck) and Lidia Poziemska (Łobanos) of Troki ([Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Bitik da karuw,” KA 12 (1938): 9-12a; Konstanty Pilecki, “Cień z przeszłości,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 3-7). As was mentioned above, Mardkowicz himself was married to a Rabbanite woman – which can explain his eagerness to permit mixed marriages. 995 Latvijas Universitātes Tautsaimniecības un tiesību zinātņu fakultātes. Tiesību zinātņu nodaļas absolventu dzīves un darba gaitas (1919-1944) (Riga, 1999). 996 In spite of the fact that Horacio’s parents were still alive. 997 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1016, fols. 1, 7-10. 998 They both and their two children were killed by the Nazis in 1941 (Kaufman, Hurbn Letland. Unichtozhenie evreev, 92-93; Evgenii Klimov, “Zametki” ). 999 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 12. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 203

and after 1945.1000 Mixed Karaite–Rabbanite marriages were especially numerous under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, where religious and ethnic differences were much less important than in other countries.1001

3.9 The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition to the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania

Karaite, oh, Karaite, a special destiny: Your real ancestors are unknown! As a child lost in the market, You are calling every man with a beard an “uncle”.

Karaite poet Aleksander Mardkowicz (1937).1002

In the summer of 1934 the leading Italian statistician, demographer, and sociologist, Corrado Gini, started negotiations with the Polish government and the head of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community, Seraja Szapszał, concerning his research trip to Poland. Before attempting a critical evaluation of the results of Gini’s expedition, a few words should be said about Gini himself and the general atmosphere of the study of demographics in Italy under Benito Mussolini (fascist leader from 1922 to 1943). Corrado Gini (1884–1965) was one of the leading twentieth-century Italian scientists, who developed the so-called “Gini coefficient,” a measure of income inequality in a society. In the 1920s-30s he founded the statistical journals Metron and Genus, and in 1929 he established the Italian Committee for the Study of Population Problems (Comitato italiano per lo studio dei problemi della popolazione).1003 In the 1920s, however, he became closely associated with Italian fascist circles and maintained a close friendship with Mussolini himself. In 1927 he even published a theoretical work

1000 Ibid.; MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1016, fols. 1, 7-10. The Karaite ḥazzan Abraham Beim (Armiansk, 1918) was forced at gunpoint to register a marriage between the Karaite Emai (Yeremei?) Kodzhak and the Rabbanite woman Berta Berlovich (GAARK F. 241, op. 2, no. 49). Leonard Fox informed me that his parents had registered their mixed Karaite–Rabbanite marriage in 1932. For more discussion regarding Karaite–Rabbanite marriages, see Trevisan Semi, Gli ebrei Caraiti, 39-40; Mann, Texts, 685- 687. 1001 One report – abeit questionable – from the 1930s stated that the Soviet Karaites married Russian, German, Rabbanite, Tatar and Krymchaki women – and that the ideal wife of a Karaite of that time was a German housewife! (Adler, “Krim-Karäer,” 119). I personally know a few descendants of such mixed marriages between Crimean Karaites and their Ashkenazic, Tatar, and Slavic neighbours. 1002 Karaj, Karaj, ajrycty gorałyn:/Biliwsizdłer duhru ebgełerin!/Chaz ułan azaskan panairde,/Char sahałha ajtas: “dede” (Aleksander Mardkowicz, “Ebgełer,” KA 11 (1937): 20). 1003 Corrado Gini, “Recherches sur la population,” Scientia (1934) : 140-155. 204 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

entitled “The Scientific Basis of Fascism,” which discussed the role of power and science in Gini’s conception of a fascist state.1004 He further published several other papers dedicated to various aspects of fascist state and politics.1005 In 1926 Mussolini personally appointed him president of the Central Institute of Statistics in . According to Giovanni Favero, it was Gini’s political role as Mussolini’s “advisor” on demographic issues that had initially protected this institution from pervasive propaganda exploitation.1006 Nevertheless, in 1932, apparently as the result of a conflict with Mussolini’s close associates, Gini resigned from his position; afterwards, it seems, he discontinued his close contacts with the fascist authorities. In the 1930s he continued to be involved in fascist discussions about the qualities of so-called “superior races”. In 1934 he edited a book containing an article on the history of the Jews in Italy, leading one to believe that he also was aware about the demographic situation of the Jewish community in his own country.1007 Initially his opinion on the subject differed drastically from that of the proponents of purity of races who preached against “cross-breeding with inferior races.” On the contrary, according to Gini’s early thoughts, it was important for the “superior races…to recognize the necessity of cross-breeding for the preservation of the races.”1008 By 1937, when the general fascist discourse became increasingly anti-Semitic, Gini drastically changed his opinion: in one of his publications it appears that he rationalized a justification of genocide as a form of “understandable reaction” that could be applied to primitive peoples, Armenians and Jews.1009 He continued to scientifically justify racism after 1938.1010 The main objective of Gini’s expedition to Poland and Lithuania of 1934 was to study the local Karaite community from sociological, anthropological, and statistical standpoints. His interest in the Karaites was stimulated by the general interest of Italian and German scientists in racial and eugenic questions. One may suggest that it was Gini’s Jewish colleagues of Polish origin who recommended that he study the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in 1934 (before 1938 many Italian fascists did not have

1004 Corrado Gini, “The Scientific Basis of Fascism,” Political Science Quarterly 42:1 (1927): 99-115. 1005 For a complete bibliography, see V. Castellano, “Corrado Gini: a memoir,” Metron 24 (1965): 3-84. 1006 Giovanni Favero, “Corrado Gini and Italian Statistics under Fascism,” a paper presented to the XIIIth Congress of the International Economic History Association (Buenos Aires, 23.07.2002). 1007 See Roberto Bachi, “La demografia degli ebrei italiani negli ultimo cento anni,” in Atti del Congresso internazionale per gli studi sulla popolazione, ed. Corrado Gini (Rome, 1934), 79-152. 1008 Michael Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy, transl. by John and Anne Tedeschi (Madison, 2006), 73-74, 315. 1009 Francesco Cassata, Il fascismo razionale: Corrado Gini fra scienza e politica (Roma, 2006), 138. 1010 Annalisa Capristo, “Il Ventennio fascista. Scienze e razzismo,” in Storia d’Italia. Annali 26. Scienze e cultura dell’Italia unita (Torino, 2011), 251. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 205

specifically anti-Semitic agenda). In spite of the fact that many such ethnographic and anthropological studies of the 1930s had some scholarly value, most of them were stimulated and sponsored by local Nazi and fascist authorities – and had rather sinister implications and consequences. From 1933 to 1938 Gini’s Committee for the Study of Population Problems undertook several expeditions which studied the Dauada of Tripolitania, Samaritans of Palestine, Mexican ethnic minorities, the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania, the then-called “Bantu” of , and the Berbers of Giado. Gini himself considered these groups to be “primitive” and “decadent”; study of them, however, was necessary to understand important processes leading to the creation of “new races”. Gini stated that the main task of his Committee was to “collect as many as possible data on these primitive or decadent peoples and especially to study the modality and, if possible, the causes of the decline and gradual disappearance of certain races as well as the causes of the formation and flourishing of new races on which our ignorance is almost complete”.1011 Thus, Gini’s anthropological publications of the 1930s – and his study of the Karaites – should be understood as a part of the general Nazi and fascist racial discourse which had very little to do with actual science. According to archival documents, Seraja Szapszał, the head of the Polish Karaite community, was far from being enthusiastic about Gini’s arrival.1012 Szapszał’s letter to the Director of the Department of Religious Confessions in Warsaw clearly indicated that in addition to purely academic purposes, Gini’s expedition might pursue (as the Polish authorities stated in their letter) political or perhaps even espionage functions:

I received a private communication revealing that Prof. Gini had allegedly been informed by a certain Polish Jew1013 that the Polish Karaites supposedly belonged to disappearing people and that this [situation] was made worse by conditions provided by our state [i.e. Poland] with regard to ethnic minorities... initially I decided to oppose, though in indirect manner, prof. Gini’s arrival... However, unusually strong resolution of this scholar [to do his research on the Karaites], together with information that I received about the fact that he was Mussolini’s close friend, evoked my doubts: could my refusal possibly cause some (even most minimal) undesirable consequences for our government? I think that my personal explanations... would be able to disprove and ruin insinuations of this unknown to me Polish Jew. Thus, having no personal abilities to restrain scientific expedition of prof. Gini to Poland, I supply the information mentioned above to your attention and have

1011 “Uno degli scopi essenziali del Comitato sarà quello di raccogliere su queste popolazioni primitive o decadenti la quantità di dati più estesa possibile e di studiare specialmente le modalità e, se possibile, le cause della decadenza e della scomparsa graduale di certe razze così come le cause della formazione e della fioritura di razze nuove sulle quali la nostra ignoranza è quasi assoluta” (as cited in ibid., 135). 1012 For numerous documents related to Gini’s arrival in Poland, see AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 42-56. 1013 Gini’s source is believed to have been a Polish citizen and one of his students in Rome, Benjamin Freilichmann. 206 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

an honour to inform you that it comes from [our] correspondence that there still remains one month until the arrival of prof. Gini. Prof. Gini intends to start his research in Łuck, then move to Halicz, and from there, in September, he plans to visit the Wilno region.1014

Polish officials, while being aware of Gini’s closeness to Italian fascist circles, also were rather alarmed at his sudden interest in the local Karaites. A letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 10 August 1934 warned MWRiOP:

Professor Corrado Gini is a prominent Italian scholar knowledgeable in population issues, which are highly topical in the context of fascist national policy… It would be, however, most desirable to turn our attention to the research activity of [his] committee in order to make sure that it indeed does not exceed the officially determined limits of its activity. Professor Gini’s stay in Poland should be arranged in such a way that he will not be able to establish any undesirable contacts.1015

Indeed, while visiting the Karaite centres in Poland (Łuck and Halicz), Polish Lithuania (Wilno, Troki), and independent Lithuania (Poniewież), members of his expedition could have easily gathered some other, unscholarly information. However, if the scientific side of this expedition is well-known, its tentative “political” mission, to my knowledge, was not documented by any written source apart from the aforementioned letter. Until further documentation is gathered, one may well presume that this expedition remained purely scientific.

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In the course of their visit to Poland in August–October 1934, Gini’s expedition examined 549 Karaites (175 families), i.e. approximately 60 percent of the whole Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania. The expedition measured and recorded such parameters as skull dimensions, proportions of body members, weight, height, finger- and footprints, blood groups, colour of eyes, hair, and skin. In addition, each examined Karaite was photographed, and his/her genealogy was documented. Furthermore, some members of the expedition asked Karaite respondents about their world-views, the historical and ethnic origins of the Karaites, and their religious and everyday traditions. As many as 549 anthropometric, 547 medical, and 175 demographic questionaires were completed.1016 Apart from Professor Corrado Gini, the expedition included a few other notable scholars: Nora Federici (1910–2001), who together with Gini was one of the founders of the science of demographic in Italy;

1014 S. Szapszał to the Director of the Department of Religious Confessions in Warsaw, 16.07.1934, Polish (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 44-45). 1015 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 49. 1016 Corrado Gini, “Appunti sulle spedizioni scientifiche del Comitato Italiano per lo studio dei problemi della popolazione (febraio 1933-febraio 1935),” Genus 2: 3-4 (1937): 237; Gini, “I Caraimi,” 36. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 207

Annibale Del Blue (Rome); Liebmann Hersch (Geneva);1017 Benjamin Freilichmann (a Polish citizen and student in Rome; after his emigration to Israel, a.k.a. Benjamin Zvi Gil).1018 A few Polish scientists (Jan Czekanowski,1019 Stanisław Zejmo-Zejmis, Tadeusz Henzel, Martyna Puzynina, Izabella Wojkowska, Jerzy Guthke) assisted them in Poland. Among these was, surprisingly, the Karaite physician Konstanty Łopatto of Wilno.1020 Solomon Czortkower, a Polish Jewish anthropologist, who wrote several articles about the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, initially was also supposed to take part in the expedition.1021 In the end, however, he did not go. Some sources say that that among the members of the expedition there also was the influential Italian racist author, Carlo Magnino.1022 The Galician Karaites, as the Karaite community geographically located closest to Rome, were the first to be visited. The expedition arrived in Halicz during the last days of August 1934. Research in Halicz was conducted mainly by the Rabbanite Jews, Hersch and Freilichmann. Altogether 86 Halicz Karaites in 37 families (ca. 65% of the community) were examined. After studying the local Karaites, Freilichmann, himself an Ashkenazic Jew of Galician origin, also examined 197 Halicz Rabbanites.1023 The work of the members of the expedition was overseen by the most influential leaders of the Halicz community – Zachariah Nowachowicz and Samuel Samuelowicz. On 28 August 1934 the expedition donated 270 złoty towards the construction of a Karaite National House (dom narodowy), which was later erected in the vicinity of the kenesa.1024 After their stay in Halicz, Gini and his colleagues also visited the Karaite communities of Łuck, Wilno, Troki (4.09 – 16.09.19341025) and Poniewież. 38 Karaites were examined in Łuck, 168 in Troki, and 137 in Wilno. The expedition also discovered

1017 For his biography, see G. Frumkin, “From Conventional Demography to Potential Demography – in Memoriam of Liebmann Hersch (1882-1955),” Population Investigation Committee 9:3 (1956): 276- 2 7 7. 1018 He was the head of the Statistics department in the Israeli government in the 1950s (Yitṣḥaq Ben Zvi, Niddeḥey Yisra

in the local museum in Łuck 11 Karaite skulls taken from the old Karaite cemetery of the town; these skulls were also measured and examined.1026 It seems that no other East European Karaite community welcomed the expedition as cordially as that of Poniewież. The expedition, which arrived in Poniewież, as the Lithuanian report claimed, “incognito”, stayed there from 2 to 8 October, 1934. Practically all members of the community were examined, except for a few elders, who were “ashamed and confused to show their bodies.” As many as 120 local Karaites were examined, i.e. about 80 percent of the community.1027 According to A. Mardkowicz, many Karaites arrived in Poniewież from adjacent localities in order to be studied; as a result, Liebmann Hersch “looked like a person having a birthday” (Russ. имел вид именинника) while Gini set the Poniewież community as an example to be followed.1028

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The expedition left Poland and Lithuania in autumn 1934. The Karaite community and its leaders anticipated the publication of the results of Gini’s expedition with anxiety. Aleksander Mardkowicz even wrote him a letter with request to send information about the results of the expedition; the letter remained unanswered.1029 A letter explaining the hierarchy of Karaite communal structure was sent to Gini by the Troki ḥazzan Szemaja/Szymon Firkowicz in 1935. Firkowicz stated that Z. Nowachowicz of Halicz informed him that Gini had found similarities between the blood groups of the Karaites and Turkic peoples. This information made him, in Firkowicz’s own words, extremely happy (Russ. очень обрадовало).1030 Especially anxious, undoubtedly, was ḥakham Seraja Szapszał. He was engaged in the active correspondence with Gini both before and after the expedition.1031 He knew that Gini and his colleagues’ conclusion that

1026 Gini, “Appunti sulle spedizioni,” 237. 1027 See the article in Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Aidas 238 (18.10.1934) translated into Karaim as “Üvriatiuv ekspedicijasy Italjanlarnyn,” Onarmach 2 (1938): 22-24; cf. “Nauka bada Mohikanów,” Słowo 255 (18.10.1934); [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Ełcejdłer…,” KA 8 (1935): 7; “Nieznana polska mniejszość narodowa. 900 Karaimów nie łączy się z innemi rasami,” Nowy Kurjer 253 (4.11.1934): 9; Aizakson, “Karaimen gehen unter” (this article, which I initially considered to be an original piece of work, after a more detailed examination turned out to be… a mixture of second-hand data about Corrado Gini’s anthropological expedition with a compilation from Reuven Fahn’s account of his stay in Halicz at the beginning of the twentieth century). 1028 A. Mardkowicz to S. Szapszał, 10.11.1935, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 468, fol. 9). 1029 [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Isi icin Prof. Cininyn [sic],” KA 9 (1936): 24a. 1030 See the draft of the lettter of Sz. Firkowicz to C. Gini (22.12.1935, Russian) (LMAB. F. 301, no. 494, fols. 1r-v; published in Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 403-404). 1031 Szapszał’s personal archive contains 16 letters sent by Gini to Szapszał in the period between 1934 and 1937 (LMAB F. 143, no. 211); see also drafts of Szapszał’s letters to Gini (1934-1937) in ibid., nos. 116 and 117. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 209

the Karaites belonged to the Semitic anthropological type would seriously jeopardize his dejudaization policy, especially in the eyes of Polish officialdom. Undoubtedly, as well, the presence of two Jewish anthropologists among the members of the expedition strengthened his fears. During Gini’s stay in Poland, in order to provide the Italian scholar with the “proper” Turkic perspective on Karaite history, Szapszał gave him a few articles by himself and other interwar Karaite nationalists – all of them attesting to the Turkic origin of the East European Karaites and their historical development from the Khazars and .1032 Many modern East European Karaite authors refer to Gini’s work as the ultimate proof of Karaites’ Turkic-Mongolian origins. This, however, is certainly far from the truth. In spite of the fact that the influence of Szapszał’s historical information is evident throughout the whole of Gini’s work, the anthropological results of the expedition, which were published in the Italian periodical Genus, were rather unexpected. Gini and his colleagues came to the following conclusions: First, the Karaites who lived in different parts of Poland, Lithuania, and Crimea did not represent a unified anthropological type. Surprisingly, in terms of their anthropological composition, the Karaites of Halicz were distant from their nearest neighbours, the Karaites of Łuck, and were very close to their brethren from Troki and Wilno. Moreover, even more surprising, the Karaites of Halicz and Wilno turned out to be highly similar to the Indo- (sic; this was the term used by Gini in his study), Chuvashes, Permyaks, Manchus, Buryats, and several other Turkic, Mongol, and Finno-Ugric ethnic groups of European Russia and Siberia! The Karaites of Łuck (another surprise) were almost identical with the Oriental Jews, and very close to Crimean Karaites and the Finno-Ugric Votes (Votyaks). On the whole, Gini came to the conclusion that the general anthropological type of the East European Karaites was most similar to that of the Chuvashes, whom he considered to be a group of Finno-Ugric origin. As a consequence, the scientists came to the “learned” conclusion that the Karaites were not of Turkic Cumano-Khazar, but of Finno-Ugric origin. Gini explained the predominance of Finno-Ugric anthropological features in the Karaites by the fact that their ancestors were the Tauro-Cimmerians. According to Gini, the latter were Ugric tribes, who had lived in Crimea and were later assimilated by the Khazars. On the other hand, he admitted the possibility that the Khazars themselves might have been Finno-Ugrians who had accepted a Turko-Tatar language.1033

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1032 This fact is corroborated by Gini himself (Gini, “I Caraimi,” 3-4 (ft. 2), 39). 1033 Ibid., 52-56, fig. 1; see also Corrado Gini, “Inchiesta demografico-antropologico-sanitaria sui Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania,” Genus 2 (1937): 236-237; Nora Federici, “La curva di sviluppo individuale presso alcune popolazioni isolate,” Genus 3 (1939): 323-343; Corrado Gini and Nora Federici, Appunti sulle spedizioni scientifiche del C.I.S.P. (Rome, 1943). 210 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

To date, there has been no critical analysis of Gini’s study. Jan Czekanowski (who nota bene could not find access to this work in post-war Poland) criticized Gini’s expedition and stated that members of his group did not have proper scientific qualifications.1034 The naiveté of Gini’s historical arguments is more than obvious from today’s perspective. They cannot withstand any critique from either historical or anthropological perspectives. Historically, the and Cimmerians (two absolutely different ethnic groups!), whose origin is still being debated, certainly were not of Finno-Ugric origin. Moreover, they could hardly have been assimilated by the Khazars, whose influence in medieval Crimea also seems to be considerably exaggerated by nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship. Moreover, the Chuvashes (a.k.a. Čavaš/Çuvaş), who, according to Gini, were Finno-Ugric, are considered today to be a Turkic (or Turkic-speaking) people of a mixed Finno-Turkic anthropological composition.1035 There certainly were some Finno-Ugric tribes among those belonging to the Khazar Kaganate, but their impact on the ethnic composition of the Khazar state is also rather murky. Furthermore (if we follow Gini’s line of argumentation), why would the Karaites assimilate only the Finno-Ugric anthropological features of the Khazar tribes and “ignore” the Turkic features of the Savirs, Khazars, Kök-Turks (Göktürkler), and other Turkic groups which lived in Khazaria? Anthropologically, one may also question the veracity of the results of Gini’s expedition. Why would the Karaites of Halicz be so different from their immediate neighbours, the Karaites of Łuck, with whom they intermarried and were closely connected historically and linguistically? Why did Gini decide to correlate the Karaites with Finno-Ugric groups from remote parts of Russia and not compare them to the Armenians, Italians, Greeks, and other Mediterranean peoples who are usually found to be highly similar to the Oriental and European Jews? Furthermore, the results of Gini’s expedition did not correspond to those of other pre-war anthropologists who had studied the East European Karaites. Most of those studies came to the conclusion that the Karaites, who indeed differed somewhat from their Ashkenazic neighbours (quite an expected conclusion, when taking into consideration the prohibition of

1034 Czekanowski, “Z zagadnień antropologii,” 20. 1035 In Gini’s times, however, the theory of the Finno-Ugric origin of the Chuvashes prevailed (see Chuvashi. Etnicheskaia istoriia i traditsionnaia kul’tura, ed. V.P. Ivanov, V.V. Nikolaev, V.D. Dmitriev (Moscow, 2000)). The closest ancestors of the Chuvashes seem be the Turkic Volga Bolgars: “It cannot be absolutely proven that the Chuvashs are indeed the direct descendants of the early Bolgars, but it does seem very likely. Naturally, they have been subjected to much infusion and influence, not only from Russian and Turkic peoples, but also from neighboring Finnic tribes, with whom they were persistently and mistakenly identified for centuries, perhaps aided by the fact that the is a highly divergent form of Turkic, and was not easily recognized as such… Racially, the Chuvash seem to be a mixed Finnic and Turkic type, with rounded heads and generally flat features, and light eyes” (John R. Krueger, Chuvash Manual. Introduction, Grammar, Reader, and Vocabulary (Hague, 1961), 7-8). The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 211

Karaite–Rabbanite marriages), possessed mixed Semitic, Mediterranean, Slavic, and even Armenoid features.1036 Finally, ethnic self-identification is understood today as a phenomenon of social and psychological nature that often has nothing (or very little) to do with physical or anthropological characteristics. From this standpoint, the Judeo-Israelite identity of the nineteenth-century Karaites and their understanding of the Karaites’ indisputable affiliation with Jewish civilization and “the people of Israel” (>am Yisra

1036 For more details, see 1.5.3; for the bibliography, BK, 165-169. 1037 Gini, “I Caraimi,” 55. 1038 E.g. recent research carried out by the team of Michael Hammer showed that the Ashkenazic Jews correlate best with the Greeks and Turks (Hammer et al., “Jewish and Middle Eastern,” 6769- 6774). 1039 The theory of the Turko-Khazar origin of European Jewry is not corroborated by any historical source and is purely conjectural. Gini was not the only one to suggest the Turkic origin of the Ashkenazic Jews. Indeed, there were some Jewish authors who claimed that the Ashkenazim were the descendants of the Khazars, or of the mixed Slavic-Khazar population (e.g. Avraham Poliak, Kazariyah. Toledot mamlakhah yehudit be-Eiropah (Tel Aviv, 1951); Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe (New York, 1976 (see esp. Chapter VIII. Race and Myth, pp. 181-200)); Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria (Northvale, NJ-Jerusalem, 2002), 281; Wexler, Ashkenazic Jews. Nevertheless, these authors have always been in the minority, and the vast majority of European Jews have never claimed to be of alleged “Khazar” origin (see more in Kizilov, Mikhaylova, “The Khazar Kaganate;” idem, “Khazary i Khazarskii kaganat;” Dan Shapira, “Khazars and Karaites, Again,” Karadeniz Araştırmaları 4/13 (2007): 43-64). 212 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

questionnaires with detailed information on every Karaite that had been examined in 1934 – remains hitherto unpublished. Furthermore, they remain uncatalogued and are currently kept in the basement of the Nora Federici library of the Faculty of Demographic Science at the University of Rome.1040 Substantial studies based on the data retrieved in the course of the expedition were also published after the war.1041 How did Gini’s expedition arrive at such erroneous conclusions? This question cannot be easily answered. Mistakes in the physio-anthropological aspect of Gini’s study can certainly be explained by the primitive and underdeveloped state of physical anthropology of the 1930s. Nevertheless, Gini’s erroneous conclusions about the “Finno-Ugric” origin of the Karaites and the “Turko-Tatar” proselyte nature of the Ashkenazim, which he made on the basis of historical, rather, than anthropological, data, deserve additional attention. Could Gini have developed these two theories on his own? Indeed, it seems very likely that it was his own conclusion that the Karaites represented descendants of the Finno-Ugrian Khazars. There were great many factors that could have suggested this idea to him. As early as 1932 (i.e. two years before the expedition to Poland), the influential Italian newspaper L’Osservatore Romano – the daily newspaper of the Vatican City State and unofficial voice of the Holy See – published an article “The Karaites of Poland: The last Remnant of a Vanishing Race.”1042 The author, Mario de Mandato, had met Szapszał in Poland and, using the latter’s information as a source, subseqently wrote of the Karaites as the remaining descendants of the Khazars in Europe. The article is full of references to the “racial” dimension of Karaite history. The Karaites were presented in the article as “the Tatars by race and Hebrews by faith” (It. Tartari di razza, ebraici di fede) who led a “pure existence” in Poland because of their unwillingness to mix with any other race, and especially with the Jews.1043 The concept of “racial purity” was part of the general fascist discourse in Italy.1044 Thus, it seems that Gini, who most likely could have read this article, was aware in which manner he should analyze the Karaites’ anthropology. Furthermore, Gini personally met with Szapszał and other Karaite proponents of Turkic theory, read their publications and was perfectly aware of their Turkic view

1040 When examined, this collection could potentially become a most significant source on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites community in the 1930s. For a preliminary analysis, see Trevisan Semi, Gli ebrei Caraiti, 63-77. Unfortunately, for technical reasons I was unable to examine this collection although I visited the library personally in June 2008. 1041 S. Saggese, “I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania,” Genus 23 (1967): 43-180; Nora Federici, “Caratteristiche demografiche di alcuni gruppi di Caraimi e di un gruppo di Ebrei dell’Europa orientale,” Genus 9 (1950-1952): 138-175. 1042 Mario de Mandato, “I Caraimi di Polonia. L’ultimo residua di una razza che si spegne,” L’osservatore Romano 19 (21.777) (24.06.1932). 1043 Ibid. 1044 For more information, see Sarfatti, Jews, 72-74. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 213

on Karaite ethnic history and their eagerness to be recognized as the Khazars’ only descendants. However, the other important conclusion of his study – the idea of the Turko-Tatar origin of the Ashkenazim – could hardly be a product of his own observations. There is no doubt that some parts of Gini’s study were composed not by the demographer himself, but by his collaborators (N. Federici, A. Del Blue, L. Hersch, and B. Freilichmann). It is known that a few twentieth-century Polish Rabbanite scholars (e.g. M. Gumplowicz and I. Schipper) suggested that the Khazars played important role in the formation of Ashkenazic Jewry in general.1045 Gini, who did not know Polish, could hardly be aware of the existence of this hypothesis. Thus, it seems very likely that it was Benjamin Freilichmann, a Polish-speaking member of the expedition interested in anthropology and demography of Polish Jewry who suggested this idea. Why did the ideas about non-Semitic origin of the Karaites and Ashkenazim surface in the study written by the fascist demographer and his team? From about 1934 onwards, the public image of Italian Jews began to be viewed with an increasingly pejorative bias. In March/April 1934, articles began appearing that depicted the Jews as “anti-fascist” and “anti-Italian.” Although these articles did not have lasting consequences, the new image of the Jews projected by the Italian press was hardly a sympathetic one.1046 German racial theory began to find an echo in Italy about 1936. A violent anti-Jewish campaign was launched in the autumn of 1936, about the same time that Gini had published his study.1047 Although Gini was a fascist interested in racial questions, he apparently was not an anti-Semite. Furthermore, even Mussolini himself had intially rejected Hitler’s racial theories.1048 Thus, it is very likely that Gini’s study, which explicitly expressed the idea about the non-Semitic origin of the European Karaites and Rabbanites (Ashkenazim), could have been written as some sort of rejection of Nazi theories about the “underhuman” nature of the Jews. Furthermore, it is not entirely impossible that this idea was suggested to Gini by his Jewish collaborators (L. Hersch and B. Freilichmann), who were certainly aware of the fact that Nazi anti-Semitic discourse represented serious threat to the existence of the Jewish community in Germany; they were also by all means aware about the growth of anti-Semitism in Poland. Thus, by stating that both Karaites and Rabbanites were not Semitic peoples, they could hope to alleviate the situations of both communities in Europe. Gini’s study provided a serious argument in favour of the non-Semitic origin of the Karaites at the time of the examination of the “Karaite question” by the Nazis. To our knowledge, it has never been used to prove the same for the Rabbanite

1045 Gumplowicz, Początki religii; Schipper, “Rozwój ludności;” idem, “Dzieje gospodarcze.” 1046 Sarfatti, Jews, 74. 1047 Sarfatti, Jews, 158; Meir Michaelis, Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question 1922-1945 (London/Oxford, 1978), 102, 116. 1048 Ibid., 100. 214 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory

Jews of Europe – although that it was clearly stated in the study that the Ashkenazim were not Semites either.

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What was the reaction in Karaite circles to Gini’s discoveries? Immediately after the publication of Gini’s work, his theory was bitterly mocked in Łuck in a poem by Aleksander Mardkowicz, who considered this hypothesis to be another journalist fabrication:

Chabar sa jiraktan kełed’, From afar there came the news Ki ebgen Czuwaszba indełed’. That our ancestor is called “Chuvash.” Czuwasz bu tiwild’ chor tuwmus; Chuvash is not the worst relative; Bołhyjd chorrak, bołsyjd Tunguz. It could have been even worse, It could have been Tungus.1049

Alas, Mardkowicz apparently did not know that Seraja Szapszał at that moment was seriously contemplating new changes in his Turkic doctrine. If he knew this, he would have hardly dared to ridicule Gini’s study. Szapszał’s reaction also was not consistent. It seems that he had initially found the results of Gini’s expedition somewhat frustrating. Indeed, they did not prove the Turkic origins of the Karaites! On the other hand – and this was much more encouraging – they did not show any Semitic racial affiliation either. This is why the conclusions reached by Gini’s expedition, which found a resemblance between the Karaites and the Chuvashes, forced Szapszał to considerably alter his theory.1050 An abridged version of Gini’s historical introduction to his study was published in 1938 (without a reference to Gini as a source of his information) by Carlo Magnino.1051 Whatever the case may be, in spite of the ironic timing of Mardkowicz’s poem, Gini’s “scientific” approval of Szapszał’s Khazar theory also produced a strong impression on many members of the East European Karaite community. From this point on, many of those who earlier doubted the possibility of the non-Semitic origin of the Karaites started to believe it – mainly because of the fact that after Gini’s discoveries, not only Szapszał’s directives, but also secular scientific “evidence,”

1049 Mardkowicz, “Ebgełer,” 20. 1050 Szapszał, “Corrado Gini,” 111-112. 1051 Carlo Magnino, “I Caraimi: storia di una setta giudaica,” La Difesa della Razza 2:2 (1938): 13- 14. Magnino became interested in the Karaites, whom he understood as a non-Jewish people, in 1933 (idem, Il complesso etnico dei Carpazi. Escursioni nella Rutenia carpatica (Rome, 1933), 138); cf. also his “Gli ebrei e l’agricoltura,” La Difesa della Razza 1:1 (1938): 37. Some sources say that Magnino was a member of Gini’s expedition of 1934 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 29). The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological Expedition 215

led them to do so.1052 For a further application of the results of Gini’s expedition in interwar period, see 4.7.3; on the role of Gini in rescue of the Karaites from the Nazis during the Second World War, see Chapter 5. The next chapter is dedicated to the role of Seraja Szapszał in the further dejudaization of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community.

1052 Referring to Gini’s work as alleged “proof” of the veracity of Szapszał’s Khazar theory is a commonplace in the writings of modern Karaite authors (e.g. Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15; Yu.A. Polkanov, Karai – Krymskie karaimy-tiurki/Karais – the Crimean Karaites-Turks (Simferopol, 1997), 18; Karai (Krymskie karaimy), 10, et al.). Evidently, most of them never saw this rare pre- war publication de visu and based their arguments on Szapszał’s distorted retelling of Gini’s work (Szapszał, “Corrado Gini”). 4 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961) and His Role in Shaping of the Turkic Identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community

Кто с верой, любовью и правдой Who with faith, love and truth Трон славный гахама займет? Shall keep the ḥakham’s throne? Кто вечной заботой и лаской Who with eternal care and kindness К добру свой народ поведет? Shall bring his people to prosperity?

Karaite poet M. Sinani, 19131053

Detailed narration of Szapszał’s biography would require from us writing a whole book about him and his life-adventures. His life was as full of them as the life of Count of Monte Cristo. Krymchak historian Lev Kaia, 19881054

4.1 Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927)

The author of numerous publications and hero of a few belletristic novels whose life- story is enshrouded in the mist of most dramatic myths and legends, the last ḥakham of the East European Karaites, Seraja Szapszał1055 (1873–1961), spent a lengthy and

1053 M. Sinani, “Kto tron pochivshego zaimet?” Svetloi pamiati S.M. Panpulova,” KS 3-4 (1913): 2. 1054 “Подробное изложение биографии Шапшала потребовало бы написания нами целой книжки о нем и его жизненных приключениях. Его жизнь была ими не беднее, чем жизнь графа Монте-Кристо” (L.I. Kaia, Balovni sud’by. Ocherki po istorii karaimov v Rossii (Simferopol, 1988), 37 (Archive of Vaad of Russia, L.I. Kaia collection (uncatalogued)). 1055 In Russian: Серая/Серайя/Серайа/Сергей Маркович Шапшал or sometimes incorrectly Хан Шапшал (this is how he is called, for example, on his symbolical grave in the valley of Jehosaphath :Adib as-Soltan, i.e. “Sultan’s lawyer”) and Shapshal Khan; in Polish) ادیب السلطان :in Crimea); in Persian Hadży Seraja Han Szapszał (the title of Hadży (“pilgrim” in the Turkic languages of the Karaites) was added after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land; Han (Khan) – during his stay in Persia); in Turkish: Thüreyyâ/Süreya Şapşaloğlu (it is important to notice here that in Muslim countries he normally altered his Hebrew name to the Turkic Süreyya which sounds almost identical with Biblical Serayyah); Serayah ben Mordecai Shapshal; in his/שריה בן מרדכי שפשל :in Lithuanian: Seraja Šapšalas; in Hebrew is a ((שְׂרָ יָה)ו) (early student papers he also used a penname Ibn-Karay. The name Serayah/Seraya(hu highly rare masculine Hebrew name, although it is referred to several times in the Bible (e.g. 2 Kings (It originates from the verb sarah and Yah (name of God .(שְׂרָ יָה כֹּהֵן הָרֹאׁש/Seraiah the chief priest – 25:18 and means “Yah persists”. Shapshal/şapşal is a Turkic word which means “lazy, sluggish, slovenly, untidy” (KRPS, 644; cf. other dictionaries of the Turkic languages).

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 217

eventful life.1056 In spite of the fact that much has been written on Szapszał’s biography, the topic is far from being exhaustively examined.1057 In my study I use the Polish spelling of his name (pronounced as Seraya Shapshal/Şapşal). Although originally a Crimean Tatar- and Russian-speaking Karaite, he lived in Poland and Lithuania from 1928 to 1961; furthermore, it was the Polish variant of his name – Seraja Szapszał – that he normally used for his publications in the interwar period. Nevertheless, when referring to his relatives, who lived in the Crimean Khanate or Russia/Soviet Union, I apply the standard English transliteration – Shapshal. Historians possess little information about his childhood. Seraja Szapszał himself said in his official autobiographies on this subject only a few brief and not too informative sentences. The only reliable data about Szapszał’s early biography and about his genealogy was found by me among the Lev Kaia uncatalogued manuscript documents. One of these documents, ḥakham’s biography which had been prepared (evidently, on the basis of some unpublished documents) by Szapszał’s follower, Karaite Boris Yakovlevich Kokenai, was copied by Kaia on 22.04.1964. According to the document, the earliest-known member of the family, Szapszał’s grand-grand- grandfather, Alyapaq (Elijah?)1058 Moses Shapshal, lived in Çufut Kale in the 1720s. His son Mordecai Shapshal (b. Çufut Kale, 1742/3) was a learned person, shammash, of the larger synagogue-kenesa of Çufut Kale. His son, Moses ben Mordecai (b. Çufut Kale, 1772), together with Seraja’s father Mordecai ben Moses, moved from Çufut Kale to Bahçesaray in 1846. Szapszał’s father, Mordecai ben Moses Shapshal (b. Çufut Kale,

1056 Szapszał’s life can be roughly divided into the following periods: 1873-1884 – years spent in Crimea; 1884-1901 – in St. Petersburg; 1901-1908 – in Persia; 1915-1919/1920 – as the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham in Eupatoria (Crimea) and St. Petersburg; 1919-1928 – in Turkey; 1928-1939/1944 – as the ḥakham of the Polish Karaites in Wilno; 1944-1961 – as an assistant of the History Institute of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Soviet Vilnius. 1057 I intend to dedicate a separate monograph to S. Szapszał’s biography. The following studies on this problem deserve to be mentioned: Yola Yanbaeva, “Iz materialov k biografii prof. S.M. Szapszała,” in Evrei v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1995), 27-29; Dan Shapira, “A Jewish Pan-Turkist: Seraia Szapszał (Şapşaloğlu) and his work ‘Qırım Qaray Türkleri (1928)’,” AOH 58 (2005): 349-380; Mikhail Kizilov, “New Materials on the Biography of S.M. Szapszał (1928-1939),” in Materialy Deviatoi Mezhdunarodnoi Konferentsii po Iudaike (Moscow, 2002), 255-273; D. Prokhorov and M. Kizilov, “Seraja Szapszał,” in Krym v litsakh i biografiiakh (spravochno-literaturnoe izdanie), ed. A.I. Dolia (Simferopol, 2008), 396- 400; Il’ia Zaitsev, Mikhail Kizilov, and Dmitrii Prokhorov, “Shapshal Seraya (Sergei) Markovich,” in Vostokovedy Rossii: XX – nachalo XXI v.: biobibliograficheskii slovar’ v 2 kn., ed. S.D. Miliband, vol. II: N–Ya (Moscow, 2008), 991; Mariusz Pawelec, “Listy do Wilna. Seraja Szapszał jako korespondent Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” AK, 19-36; Hannelore Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung. Zur religionshistorischen Dynamik der Karäer im Osten Europas (Wiesbaden, 2010), 107-115. Articles by Karaite authors often provide important data which cannot be found in other published or archival sources (Khadzhi D.[avid] Tiriyaki, “K 140-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia gakhama S.M. Szapszała,” IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 2-4; Szymon Pilecki, “Rol’ prof. S.M. Szapszała v pravovom ukreplenii polozheniia karaimov v dovoennoi Polshe” (Russian; unpublished)). 1058 Alyapaq seems to stand for Eliya-apaq (i.e. Hebrew name and Turkic nickname). 218 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

1811 or 1812 – d. Bahçesaray, 1895), according to this biography, lived on the estate near the village of Oysun-köy (Oysuñki). He held conservative views and possessed a traditional “Biblical” countenance, with long beard and Semitic features.1059 He apparently did not know any Russian and for certain period of time had been working as the gabbai in the local Karaite community of Bahçesaray. In 1879 he was elected candidate to the ḥakham’s office. He was buried in 1895 in the valley of Jehosaphath near Çufut Kale.1060 Seraja ben Mordeсai Szapszał (b. 8.05.1873, village of Oysun-köy in Crimea1061) was the last – the twelfth – child in the family; his mother, Akbike Kazas, died when he was only a babe-in-arms in 1874. He attended a Karaite beit midrash in Simferopol from 1880 to 1884, where his instructor was Samuel ben Shemariah Pigit, an influential Karaite author and the ḥazzan in Ekaterinoslav (b. Çufut Kale, 1849 – d. Ekaterinoslav, 1911).1062 Szapszał was open and sincere concerning his early years only once – in a story, which he narrated as a type of a Karaite folktale to Abraham Szyszman. According to this story, young Szapszał demonstrated his independent and revolutionary way of thinking by asking his teacher (apparently, S. Pigit) an awkward question concerning the non-Jewish ethnic origin of the Karaites. In reward for this initiative he was physically punished, first at school, and later – by his father

1059 There is the portrait of Mordecai ben Moses Shapshal made by Boris/Barri/Barukh Egiz (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1260, fol. 7). It appears to be a copy of another portrait of photo no longer extant. A short note in ink on the reverse side of the picture calls him “Murat-Khayri Musaevich” (this is a Turkicized corruption of his Hebrew name) and mentions that he participated as a volunteer in the defence of Sevastopol during the . For more information about the Karaite painter Egiz, see Bari Egizas: tapyba, piesiniai/Bari Egiz: zhivopis’, risunki/Bari Egiz: paintings, drawings (Vilnius, 2009); a biographical note on B. Egiz by Abraham Szyszman, 1945, Russian in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1586, fols. 1-4r. 1060 His large tombstone with inscriptions in Russian and Hebrew, and a large magen david engraved on its side, was erected in the most prestigious part of the cemetery. The stone was near the so-called grave of “Isaac Sangari” (on this “grave,” which in fact was one of Firkovich’s numerous forgeries, see Dan Shapira, “Yitshaq Sangari, Sangarit, Bezalel Stern i Avraam Firkovich,” Materialy po Arkheologii, Istorii i Etnografii Tavridy 10 (2003): 535-555). One may speculate whether young Szapszał started thinking about the connections between the East European Karaites and Khazars after visiting his father’s tomb and having an inquistive look at “Sangari’s” grave located nearby. 1061 Oysun-köy (Oysuñki), today Rastushchee near the Pochtovaia train station in the vicinity of Simferopol; later Szapszał was apparently registered in the Bahçesaray Karaite community. This is why it is written in many Szapszał’s biographies that he was born in Bahçesaray. In 1915, there was still an isolated homestead (Russ. khutor) and two gardens that belonged to A.M. and Yu.M. Shapshal, who were apparently Seraja Szapszał’s brothers (Statisticheskii spravochnik Tavricheskoi gubernii, comp. F.N. Andrievskii, M.E. Benenson, pt. 2: Spisok naselennykh punktov Tavricheskoi gubernii, issue 6: Simferopolskii uezd (Simferopol, 1915), 100). 1062 Samuel ben Shemariyah Pigit, Iggeret Nidḥe Shemu

– at home.1063 Szapszał’s silence concerning his father, a traditional Karaite believer, and a story told to Szyszman testify to the fact that relations between “revolutionary” Szapszał and his traditionalist father were far from being friendly. In 1884, as Szapszał himself stated in one of his biographies, he was “sent to St. Petersburg in order to get a command of the state language” (i.e. Russian) where he studied in Okhtinskoe remeslennoe uchilishche (Russ. “Okhtinskoe vocational school”). Until then he apparently could speak fluently only Crimean Tatar. In 1886 (being already 13!1064) he entered the first class of Ya.G. Gurevich’s1065 private gymnasium in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the gymnasium in 1894, at the age of 21. His relatives, who lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow, were rich merchants, owners of tobacco factories and some other enterprises. One of them was mentioned in a comical verse of the famous Russian akmeist, Nikolai Gumilev.1066 In 1894 Szapszał entered the faculty of Oriental languages of St. Petersburg University. Archival documents preserved one of his early student papers written under the supervision of Professor N.I. Veselovskii (1848–1918) in 1898/9.1067 About two years after entering the university, Szapszał published a small, but very revolutionary booklet dedicated to the history of the Karaites in Çufut Kale. This was his earliest publication in which he openly expressed his views about Turko-Khazar

1063 This is according to a story “E pur si muove” recorded by Abraham Szyszman from S. Szapszał’s words in the 1930s (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1531). 1064 In that period the usual age for entering a gymnasium in the Russian Empire was 8-9 years. 1065 Yakov Grigor’evich Gurevich (1843–1906) was important Russian-Jewish historian and pedagogue. His gymnasium was a home to many important pedagogues and students of Russian and Jewish origin. 1066 Gumilev graduated from Gurevich’s gymnasium in 1900, i.e. 6 years after Szapszał’s graduation. See his comical verse “O deva Roza, ia v okovakh” which was dedicated to Rosa Vasil’evna, a Jewish speculator who had been selling to Gumilev various goods (including Shapshal’s produce) on credit: О дева Роза, я в оковах,/Я двадцать тысяч задолжал,/О сладость леденцов медовых,/Продуктов, что творит Шапшал. 1067 This paper is extremely helpful towards understanding the development of Szapszał’s scholarly views and his vision of Karaite history (e.g. he severely criticizes there Abraham Firkowicz’s activity and recognises that before his life-time the Karaites considered themselves to be Jews (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 891. Seraja Szapszał. “Nekotorye voprosy kasatel’no istorii krymskikh karaimov i Chufut- Kale. Zachetnaia rabota studenta IV kursa Seraii Shapshala (1898/1899)”). For a better understanding of Szapszał’s worldviews, see also ibid., no. 917. “Vypiski iz razlichnykh sochinenii, imeiushchikh kasatel’stvo k karaimam (1900s-1940s)” (a copybook containing Szapszał’s miscellaneous notes, quotations from sources and literature on the Jews and Karaites in various languages); ibid., no. 918. “Vypiski iz sochinenii razlichnykh avtorov. Materialy po istorii i literature karaimov” (started in Constantinople, 1927); ibid., no. 822. Drafts for the monograph “Istoriia tiurkov-karaimov v Krymu, Litve i Polshe”, the 1930s-1942). 220 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

origins of the Karaites.1068 He stated in his letter to the famous Crimean historian, A.I. Markevich, that this booklet had been written at the request of the ḥakham Samuel Panpulov and was intended only for sale in Çufut Kale as a guidebook intended “to satisfy the curiosity of the tourists visiting this fortress.”1069 MS LMAB houses a few early drafts of the booklet, one of them signed by a penname “Ibn-Karay.”1070 Most of the information for this book, however, was borrowed by Szapszał from the two small historical treatises published in the nineteenth century by the Çufut Kale and Odessa ḥazzan Solomon Beim whose name Szapszał hardly mentioned in his booklet.1071 In 1901 Szapszał was invited to Persia as a teacher of Russian for the young prince Mohammed Ali of the Qajar dynasty (1872–1925). Mohammed Ali, who became shah in 1907, had to leave the country in 1909 and thus became the last Qajar ruler of Persia. In addition to his duties of prince’s instructor, Szapszał also lectured in Tebriz in Loqmaniye lyceum. This part of Szapszał’s biography, namely, his stay at the shah’s court, is often referred to in Karaite sources or in memoirs of those who were in contact with Szapszał – the “picturesque” details of which force one to doubt their credibility.1072 After the coronation of Mohammed Ali, Szapszał became one of the most important figures in the country, becoming the shah’s advisor and apparently an unofficial Adib) ادیب السلطان minister. During his stay in the country he was nicknamed in Persian as-Soltan, i.e. “Sultan’s scholar”) and Shapshal Khan – the title khan used in the sense of “nobleman”. (Claims by later Karaite authors that Szapszał would be viewed as a type of medieval Turkic khan, i.e. “the head of the state” or “prince”, certainly exaggerate the real situation.) From this moment on, Szapszał made the title of khan part of his name, often placing it before or after his real name. It was observed by Dan Shapira, however, that after Szapszał’s participation in the anti-Constitutional coup he earned from the Persians the nickname Šapšal-e xûn (“bloody Szapszał”). This was a pun on xân (pronounce: xūn), which, in colloquial Persian, sounds the same as the

1068 Seraja Szapszał, Karaimy i Chufut-Kale v Krymu (St. Petersburg, 1896). The copy of this leaflet, which is kept in NLR, contains Szapszał’s marginal notes which he inserted there after 1896; these notes are currently being prepared for publication by the author of this study. Szapszał’s brochure was republished many times in the 1990s; each time, however, without terms and sentences in Hebrew and Arabic characters used by Szapszał in the original edition. Prior to his departure to Persia in 1901 Szapszał published also the following articles: “Karaimy,” Zapiski krymskogo gornogo kluba 11 (1897): 23-30; idem, “Otkrytoe pis’mo g-nu A.Ya. Garkavi,” Salgir (05.07.1899); idem, “Oproverzhenie mneniia A. Garkavi i ego posledovatelei o prebyvanii v Chufut-Kale evreev,” Salgir 16 (20.01.1901): 2. 1069 See his letter to A.I. Markievich of 1897 in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 905, fol. 16. 1070 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 833a. 1071 Solomon Beim, Pamiat’ o Chufut-Kale (Odessa, 1862); idem, Chufut-Kale i karaimy (St. Petersburg, 1861). Solomon Avraamovich (Shelomo ben Avraham) Beim (b. Çufut Kale, 1818 – d. St. Petersburg, 1867), was from 1843 to 1861 ḥazzan in Bahçesaray and Çufut Kale, and later in Odessa. See more on him in Kizilov, Karaites through the Travelers’ Eyes, 7 9 - 8 7. 1072 E.g. M.M. Kazas, “Uchenyi, diplomat, dukhovnyi glava karaimov S.M. Szapszał,” Karaimy i Moskva (Moscow, 1997), 13. Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 221

word for “blood”, and on account of his being a political reactionary who urged his former student – shah Mohammed Ali – to crush the Constitutional Movement.1073 “The Daily Telegraph”, in 1909, called Szapszał “Adjutant-General Chapchal.” This, however, seems to be a considerable exaggeration since, to our knowledge, Szapszał had never been advanced as far as general’s or even any officer’s rank.1074 Active participation of Szapszał in the stormy political events in Persia of 1908 (though not yet fully documented) is recorded in many archival and published sources. According to some sources, at the time of the anti-Constitutionalist coup d’état, carried out by Mohammed Ali in 1907–1908, Szapszał de facto ruled the whole country and was the key figure in counterrevolutionary opposition. English Iranologist Edward Browne (1862–1926) dedicated much attention to Szapszał in his book on the revolutionary events in Persia in 1908. There, with reference to unpublished manuscript sources and testimonies of eyewitnesses, Browne gives a most negative portrayal of Szapszał and his activity, while calling him “shah’s tutor and evil genius,” “a notorious Russian Jew,” “notorious Jewish Russian agent,” etc. Moreover, one of Browne’s sources, M. Panoff, goes even further and accuses Szapszał of acquiring enormous illegal sums of money during his stay in Persia. Panoff alleges that Szapszał was an important Russian secret agent-provocateur who ordered many Iranian revolutionaries be executed and even spat “on the corpse mutilated by tortures.”1075 In addition to Browne’s sources, a number of documents in Persian, Russian, and other languages kept in MS LMAB confirm that Szapszał indeed was seriously involved in the inner political affairs of the country and actively participated in coup d’état.1076 A letter from the Archival directorate of the Ministry of Inner Affairs of the USSR of 2.10.1953 shows that Szapszał was in the service of the Tsarist Ministry of Inner Affairs in the period from 1901 (i.e. from his appointment to Persia) until

1073 Shapira, “Jewish Pan-Turkist,” 354. 1074 “Anarchy in Persia. Shah’s Evil Genius,” The Daily Telegraph 16,771 (26.01.1909): 13. Perhaps this is how British journalists translated Szapszał’s title of khan. 1075 Eward Granville Browne, A Brief Narrative of Recent Events in Persia Followed by a Translation of “The Four Pillars of the Persian Constitution” (London, 1909), 38-41, 58; idem, The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909 (Cambridge, 1910), 105, 130, 170-171, 198-200, 202, 207, 214, 279, 324, 418-420. The author is grateful to Dr Dan Shapira for his pointing out at this valuable source. For more information on Szapszał’s stay in Persia, see K.N. Smirnov, Zapiski vospitatelia persidskogo shakha. 1907–1914 gody, ed. N.K. Ter-Oganov (Tel Aviv, 2002), 20-24, 43-44 and passim; O.V. Petrov-Dubinskii, “S.M. Shapshal (Edib-Us-Sultan) – uchitel’ naslednika persidskogo prestola,” Vostok/Oriens 5 (2007): 64-78. 1076 E.g. letters from Shahin Shah to Szapszał and secret ciphered telegrams about the state of affairs in the country (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 932; MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1608, fols. 1-2, 4-6); cf. handwritten notes on the events in Persia composed by anonymous author and based on the data received from Szapszał and the author’s own observations; these notes defend Szapszał (ibid., no. 833a, fols. 83-86), cf. ibid., nos. 929a-943a. 222 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

1917.1077 Browne states that upon his return from Persia Szapszał was immediately received by the Russian emperor Nicolai II; this seems to be another evidence of high importance of Szapszał’s mission in Persia.1078 Szapszał remained in contact with his tutee after the revolutionary events as well. It is known that in September 1909 Szapszał visited overthrown Mohammed Ali in his exile in Odessa.1079 In light of this evidence there is no doubt that Szapszał indeed fulfilled some special tasks of the Russian secret service at the court of the Persian shah. Moreover, there is no doubt that Szapszał played an important role in the suppression of the Constitutionalist uprising. Nevertheless, as Browne himself states in his work, the exact circumstances of the Szapszał’s participation in the events in Persia still await elucidation. Szapszał remained associated with many important figures involved in political changes in Persia many years after his departure.1080 In an interview given by Szapszał to The Daily Telegraph in St. Petersburg on 25.01.1909, he tried to justify his actions by saying that “he first exhorted the Shah, who was then Heir-Apparent and Governor-General of Tabris, to inaugurate certain reforms by creating the States General, as in France before the Revolution, in order to familiarise the nation with representative institutions. General Chapchal acted thus in the capacity of a teacher, whose duty it was to instruct the Prince in the European sciences, including Constitutional law. When reaction began to flourish, and the Persian Government moved towards Absolutism, General Chapchal tendered his resignation, and declared his motives frankly by protest. The real evil genius of the Shah is Emir Djeng, an obscure untutored fanatic, who […] has risen to a position of absolute dictatorship by dint of canine fidelity to the Shah and his dynasty.”1081 Szapszał’s role in the coup d’état of 1908 and his anti-Constitutionalist actions had been later severely criticised by many Karaites and non-Karaites alike. In 1911, after the death of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham Samuel Panpulov when Szapszał was mentioned as a candidate to the ḥakham’s office, there appeared several articles by Karaite authors severely criticising even the hint of the possibility of Szapszał’s being elected to the position of the ḥakham. One article stated that “blood was shed in rivers and seas in the misfortunate country [i.e. in Persia], and many, many of its

1077 The Archival directorate of the Ministry of Inner Affairs of the USSR of 2.10.1953 to S. Szapszał (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 29, fol. 36). 1078 Browne, A Brief Narrative, 419. 1079 Memorandum of S.M. Shapshal on his trip to Odessa to Mohammed Ali Shah (20.09.1909) (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1135). 1080 E.g. telegramme sent to him by Mehdi Choa (Mehdi Quli Khan?) in 1924, French (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1529, fol. 21r); cf. numerous letters in Persian in ibid., fols. 27-32. 1081 “Anarchy in Persia,” 13. Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 223

streams are on the conscience of the “famous” [Szapszał].”1082 On the other hand, the fame and participation in the drastic political events gained him even more popularity among the pro-Szapszał oriented Karaites. In response to critical articles Szapszał started his own campaign against defamation and, according to his own words, won a few legal processes against his slanderers.1083 Ideological struggle against Szapszał was continued by some of his opponents even after 1915 when he was elected the ḥakham.1084 With the stormiest period in his life over, Szapszał continued his scholarly, political and state activity. In August 1911 Szapszał undertook a travel to the Ottoman Empire, apparently also with a secret task from the Russian government. The diary of this trip seems to be the only remaining part from Szapszał’s personal diaries (others were lost or destroyed).1085 The fact that he had been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is corroborated, for example, by the fact that his correspondence from 1910 was addressed to St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.1086 One should especially mention that among Szapszał’s students at this time was A.N. Samoilovich (1880–1938), an important Orientalist, who dedicated much time to the study of Crimean Tatar and Karaite literature.1087 In 1911, without even being officially informed about an election campaign, Szapszał was appointed the Troki ḥakham. Nevertheless, he refused to take this position. As “Karaimskaia Zhizn’” poisonously stated, while being involved in political games in Persia, he deemed

1082 “Protest protiv kandidatury S.M. Szapszała,” KZh 7 (1911): 117-118. Documents collected by L.I. Kaia contain references and quotations from the following publications by Karaite and non- Karaite authors severely criticizing Szapszał’s activity in Persia: Z.I. Zoil [E.M. Emeldesh?], Pravda o Shapshale persidskom, gakhame karaimskom (N.p., 1917), 32 pp.; M. Krizhskii’s article in newspaper Rus’; article “Prezritel’nyi Tersit” in Zhizn’ i sud 3 (1916); A. Tamarin, an article in newspaper Utro Rossii (4.02.1917). Unfortunately, for technical reasons I have been unable to find de visu any of these publications. It seems that not a single copy of Zoil’s pamphlet survived in Russian state libraries; the reference to the article “Prezritel’nyi Tersit” is incorrect since the indicated issue of Zhizn’ i sud does not contain it. 1083 One of his private diaries contains a draft of a paper (in pencil) entitled “Kleveta” (Russ. “calumny”) and dedicated to the processes against Szapszał’s slanderers and defamation of his name (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 917, fol. 66). See also “The case of a private accusation by the titular councilor S.M. Shapshal accusing V.I. Sinani and S.S. Raetskii (15.02.1912 – 27.10.1912);” GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1230). For the apologetic Karaite version of Szapszał’s Persian activity, see Sima El’iashevich (Eliaszewicz), Yego preosviashchenstvo, karaimskii Gakham Seraia. Gazetnye materialy 1908-1909 godov, otnosiashchiesia k deiatel’nosti S.M. Shapshala v Persii (Theodosia, 1917). 1084 “Minutes and drafts of materials of several conferences of 1917 which represented the disguised struggle against the person of ḥakham S. Shapshal (3.04.1917 – 3.12.1917)” (GAARK F. 241, op. 2, no. 3). 1085 Fragments from this diary were published in Ilya Zaitsev and Mikhail Kizilov, “Puteshestvie Seraia Shapshala po Turtsii v 1911 godu,” Vostochnyi arkhiv 1 (27) (2013): 25-34. 1086 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1608, fol. 31r. 1087 E.g. A. Samoilovich, “O materialakh Radlova po narodnoi slovesnosti krymskikh tatar i karaimov,” Zapiski Krymskogo Obshchestva iestestvoispytatelei i liubitelei prirody 6 (1916): 1-7, 118-124. 224 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Troki ḥakhamate to be too financially and politically insignificant.1088 In 1912, he received a proposal from the Karaite public to become Taurida and Odessa ḥakham. This time his answer was also negative. Nevertheless, Szapszał agreed to become the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham three years later, in May 1915.1089 Although Szapszał now was the official head of the Karaite community, it is highly probable that Szapszał did not really follow the traditional Karaite rules concerning ritual cleanliness of the food. According to Israel Cohen, in the 1930s the “religious head” of Wilno Karaites (i.e. Szapszał) was often seen during official receptions where he “was not at all particular about the food that he ate.”1090 Even after the ascension to the position of the ḥakham he continued his political and state activity. During the First World War he fulfilled linguistic tasks of military import: he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, being engaged in the translations of military documents found on the Turkish ship “Hamidiye”.1091 In 1915-1917 Szapszał’s thesis on the Khazar origins of the East European Karaites was accepted as an official Karaite doctrine, although not all members of the community, and especially the elder generation and clergy, were eager to accept it. In order to disseminate his Khazar doctrine, Szapszał, as the religious head, had been delivering special lectures dedicated to the history and ethnic origins of the Karaites in Eupatoria, in Alexandrovskoe Karaimskoe Dukhovnoe uchilishche (Alexander Karaite Spiritual College).1092 Although the ḥakham’s residence was officially in Eupatoria, Szapszał often travelled outside it. He especially often travelled to St. Petersburg.1093 According to the memoirs of Anna Vyrubova in August 1916, Szapszał had been often received by the Russian empress and heir of the throne in Tsarskoe Selo. Szapszał amused the heir with Oriental tales and legends and used this opportunity to warn the Empress about the treacherous character of the British ambassador George Buchanan (1854–1924).1094 This again demonstrates Szapszał’s deep involvement in political and diplomatic affairs of the state. On 17.03.1917 he received the prestigious title of statskii sovetnik (Councillor of the state).1095

1088 See “Vybory Trokskogo gakhama,” KZh 3-4 (1911): 115-116; “Otkaz S.M. Szapszała,” KZh 3-4 (1911): 116-117. 1089 “On the election of the Taurida and Odessa Karaite ḥakham S.M. Shapshal (16.03.1915 – 22.02.1916)” (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1307). 1090 Cohen, Vilna, 467. 1091 “Avtobiografiia Prof. Sergeia Markovicha Szapszała” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 25, fol. 4v); “Certificate and family list of the interpreter of the 6th grade of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Markovich Shapshal (8.03.1917)” (GAARK F. 241, op. 2, fol. 33). 1092 For the texts of these lectures, see Seraja Szapszał. Zapiski o karaimakh [manuscript and type- written public lectures in various languages] (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 881). 1093 “Correspondence with S.M. Shapshal in Petrograd (27.02.1916 – 7.03.1916)” (GAARK F. 241, op. 1, no. 1328). 1094 Anna Vyrubova, Freilina ee velichestva (Moscow, 1990), 269. 1095 El’iashevich (Eliaszewicz), Yego preosviashchenstvo, 3-4. Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 225

After the February revolution of 1917 Szapszał organized in Eupatoria the Karaite National Assembly (Russ. Караимский Национальный Совет) becoming its first chairman. It is unclear how this organization shared its jurisdiction with TOKDP. In April, 1917, at the same time when Lenin had been spreading his “April theses,” Szapszał arrived to Petrograd in order to settle some matters in capital still enflamed by revolutionary fervor and to read a few public lectures dedicated to his new vision of the Karaite history.1096 Szapszał was also actively involved in social and charitable activity. In 1916 he had organized in Eupatoria the first Karaite national library, which he named Karay Bitikliği (Karaite library). It housed a number of most interesting Karaite-related books and precious manuscripts.1097 In 1917 he initiated publication of the periodical “Izvestiia TOKDP”, published in Russian, but also containing materials in the Karaim ethnolect of Crimean Tatar and Hebrew (both in Hebrew characters). In 1919, witnessing impoverishment of the local Karaites, he organized in Eupatoria a “poorhouse” (bogadel’nia) “Yardım” (Cr.Tat. “help, assistance”) in Eupatoria, named after his mother, Akbike Kazas (Shapshal).1098 Szapszał’s family life remains somewhat murky. In 1936, in an interview with the French journalist Abel Moreau, Szapszał stated that Karaite clergy were supposed to be married1099 and yet he himself was apparently still single during his election to the ḥakham’s office in 1915. According to Szapszał’s official curriculum vitae (composed after 1945) he was married to Vera Kefeli (née Egiz) in 1909. The Karaite author, O.V. Petrov-Dubinskii, retold a somewhat legendary story about this marriage. According to this story, Mohammed Ali’s wife needed an eye operation; for religious reasons, it was required that the operation could only be performed by

1096 An invitation to attend a public lecture by S.M. Szapszał on religion, ethnic origins, history and literature of the Karaites (Petrograd, 20.04.1917) (LMAB F. 143, no. 1519, fol. 14r). 1097 Organized by S. Szapszal in 1916, this library was liquidated by the Soviet regime in the 1920s; its important manuscript and print holdings were transferred, for the most part, to other central Soviet libraries and research institutions in Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, in the process of closing down the library many of its precious books and manuscripts were lost. An estimated number of several hundred Karaite manuscripts were transferred to the library of the Institute of Oriental manuscripts in St. Petersburg (on its history, see S. El’iashevich, “Karai – bitikligi,” Izvestiia TOKDP 2 (1918): 11-13; V.I. Kefeli, “Karai-Bitikligi i propazha natsional’nykh knig i svitkov karaimov,” KV 22 (1996)). A horrible picture of the destruction of the library and its holdings in the 1920s was described by the Karaite author, S. Szyszman (Simon Szyszman, Le Karaïsme: ses doctrines et son histoire (Lausanne, 1980), 166-167; it is not clear, though, on which sources Szyszman based his information and to what extent this information is true). Karay Bitikliği was resurrected by the Eupatoria Karaite community in the second half of the 1990s, largely through the efforts of Victor (David) Tiriiaki, the local ḥazzan. Today it houses printed and manuscript Karaitica. 1098 “About the Karaite poorhouse Yardım named after Akbike Shapshal, ḥakham’s mother (14.12.1919)” (GAARK F. 241, op. 2, no. 10); “Godovoi otchet po soderzhaniiu i oborudovaniiu Karaimskoi Bogadel’ni Yardım imeni Akbike Shapshal v g. Yevpatorii,” Izvestiia TOKDP 1 (1919): 28. 1099 Abel Moreau, “En Pologne. A Troki, chez le Hachan des Karaїmes,” Revue Bleue 6 (1936), 392 cf. Green, “The Karaite Community in Interwar Poland,” 107. 226 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

a woman. Unfortunately, at that moment there were virtually no women in the East with an ophthalmological educational background. This is why shah’s choice fell on the Karaitess, Vera Kefeli-Egiz, who was one of the first women to study medicine in Switzerland; her professors were the reknown Theodor Kocher and Hermann Sahli.1100 Dr. Kefeli-Egiz had been working at that time in Odessa and, before that, in Paris. She was invited to Teheran to perform the operation, which was a success. One of the coincidental results of this event was a romance between Szapszał and Vera Egiz – who were later married. According to some sources and studies, this happened in 1909 and according to others – in 1919.1101 Indeed, it is very likely that Szapszał and Vera Egiz could possibly have met in 1909 in Persia. Yet, it was hardly possible for them to be officially married in Russia in 1909. According to the memoirs of the Polish physician, Wincenty Tomaszewicz, at the age of nineteenth (i.e. ca. 1890) Vera Egiz was married to a Karaite (a certain Kefeli) who was much older than she. Nevertheless, when, five years later (ca. 1895), she had wanted to break up the marriage, her husband refused to divorce her. Thus – being the wife of another man – she could not possibly have married Szapszał in 1909. Furthermore, in the 1910s she was the civil wife of Solomon Krym, an influential Karaite financier who became the head of the Provisional Crimean government in 1919. It appears that she was officially married to Szapszał only in 1919 while the aforementioned Krym married a French pharmacist from Theodosia, Lucy Clarie.1102 In passing, it is also worthwhile mentioning that Szapszał apparently had a rather bad relationship with his siblings. Although Szapszał’s personal archive in Vilnius contains thousands of letters to the ḥakham from throughtout the East European Karaite communities, not a single letter from his brothers or sisters exists. This seems to be clear evidence to this hypothesis. The data about his life and activity after the October revolution of 1917 are not consistent. In his autobiographies composed for Soviet officials, Szapszał usually stated that in March 1919, being persecuted by the denikintsy (i.e. followers of the general A.I. Denikin), he was forced to leave Crimea and went first to the Caucasus and then to Constantinople. In the curriculum vitae compiled by Szapszał for the Soviet authorities in 1954 he mentioned that he did this because of his “open sympathy

1100 Hans Zbinden, Polen einst und jetzt. Reisen und Wanderungen (Frauenfeld/Stuttgart, 1969), 91. Vera Egiz was a daughter of Isaac and Toteke Egiz (b. 12.02.1871, Odessa – d. 1850, Vilnius); studied medicine in Bern (Switzerland) from 1891 to 1897. 1101 O.V. Petrov, “S.M. Shapshal (Edib-Us-Sultan) – uchitel’ valiakhda Mokhammeda-Ali, general- ad’’iutant Mokhammed-Ali-shakha,” in Sviatyni i problemy sokhraneniia etnokul’tury krymskikh karaimov. Materialy nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Simferopol: Dolya, 2008), 162-183; idem, S.M. Shapshal v Persii. Puteshestvie po ‘shapshalovskim’ mestam 100 let spustia,” KV 6 (87) (2008). 1102 This period of Vera Egiz’s life remains unclear (see Wincenty Tomaszewicz, Ze wspomnień lekarza (Warsaw, 1965), 254-289; cf. Mikhail Kizilov, “Karaim Solomon Krym: zhizn’ i sud’ba,” Istoricheskoe nasledie Kryma 10 (2005): 86-96). Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 227

for the Soviet system”.1103 Nevertheless, Szapszał’s curriculum vitae of the 1920s (composed by officials, but based on Szapszał’s own data) informs the reader that “after the explosion of the revolution he [Szapszał] was arrested by the Bolsheviks and only under exceptional circumstances did he manage to escape from death”.1104 One Polish Karaite informant, originally from Eupatoria, narrated me an interesting story according to which Szapszał in fact managed to escape together with his friend on a Tatar cart (araba), while being disguised as an Oriental woman, her face, covered with a veil. When Soviet soldiers wanted to check the “woman’s” identity, Szapszał’s friend so skilfully played the role of a jealous Tatar husband that the soldiers did not dare to uncover the veil.1105 However, the Karaite Mikhail Sarach of Paris recorded a completely different version of Szapszał’s escape. According to this version, Szapszał was caught by the Bolsheviks in Eupatoria in 1918 and was delivered to a ship for his execution. Nevertheless, the commissar who took him to the ship where “the bourgeois” were to be executed, searched Szapszał’s pockets and found there photos of the Armenian Catholicos. Having learned that Szapszał was the Catholicos’ friend, the commissar let him free.1106 It is unclear whether or not any (or all) of these picturesque stories reflect true events. From archival sources, it is known that Szapszał had been in Constantinople not later than mid-August 1919.1107 On the other hand, according to D. Prokhorov, archival documents kept in GAARK testify that Szapszał was also in Crimea at the beginning of 1920.1108 If these documents contain correct data, this means that Szapszał travelled back and forth from Crimea to Constantinople, depending on the political situation in the peninsula. It is also known that he fled Crimea in haste, having left his valuables (golden objects and diamonds) in the care of the Eupatoria ḥazzan, Berakhah Eljaszewicz (Boris El’iashevich).1109 In 1921, Szapszał visited Palestine and Jerusalem and received the honorary title of Yerushalmi (Heb. “pilgrim to Jerusalem;” Yeru in abbreviated form) that was bestowed upon the Karaites who

1103 For the text of this curriculum vitae, see Yanbaeva, “Iz materialov k biografii,” 29. 1104 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 13; AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 99-100. 1105 This story was recorded by me in Warsaw in March 2000. According to V. Kropotov, the name of the person who secretly moved Szapszał from Eupatoria was Mark (Mordecai) Moiseevich Kumysh (Kumysh-Karaman) (Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 94). 1106 M.S. Sarach, Anan’s Teaching, transl. from Russan A. Komen (Paris, 1997); idem, Anan ben David. Ego vera i uchenie VIII veka, shiroko primeniaemye v XX veke (Paris, 1996). 1107 See the letter of count Amiradzhibi to S. Szapszał (Russian, 14.08.1919) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 171. 1108 Prokhorov, Kizilov, “Seraja Szapszał,” 396-400. 1109 Further destiny of these objects remains unknown (see Szapszał’s handwritten commentaries on B.S. Eljaszewicz’s letter to S. Szapszał, Moscow, Russian, 4.08.1945, MS LMAB F. 143, no. 239, fol. 6v). 228 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

visited ereṣ Yisra

The person of “Szapszał” vel Czapczal has the name of Szapsa,1114 and in the local territory, where he often takes on a Turkish name in order to facilitate contacts with local population, calling himself “Sureya Bey” – Szapsa comes from Crimea, is about 50, is married, his wife [Vera Egiz] is doctor of medicine (oculist), [they have] no children... In 1915 he was elected to be the head of Crimean Karaites. He possessed considerable property there, which was destroyed and sacked by the Bolsheviks in 1919; in the same year he was forced to escape from Russia and came to Constantinople. Having been left without any means [to survive], he found himself in a very difficult material situation, but due to his knowledge of the Turkish and Persian languages he managed to find a position in the “Turkish-Persian Bank”. This bank, which was founded by emigrant , is a financially weak institution; it is actually vegetating – this is why a position occupied by Szapsa is very scarcely paid... His moral qualities also seem to be very high; Szapsa has a reputation of very serious and honest man worthy of being trusted. He is not involved in politics, seems to be apolitical; nevertheless, he is an enemy of the Bolsheviks.1115

1110 He used this title in some documents of the 1920s, during his stay in Istanbul (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1016, fols. 2, 3r). Having moved to Poland, he began calling themselves Haci (Khadzhi/Hadży). In East European Karaite tradition this term was equivalent to that of Yerushalmi and was used to denote pilgrims to the Holy Land of Israel. Szapszał, however, used it because of its similarity to Arabic . used to denote pilgrims to Mecca in Muslim tradition ّالحجي 1111 This address was mentioned in a letter of Natan Yoorga to S. Szapszał (15.02.1924) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 977; cf. ibid., no. 1608, fol. 19v. 1112 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 138. 1113 Maria Emilia Zajączkowski-Łopatto, “Listy Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego do J.E. Hadży Seraji Chana Szapszała,” AK, 10. 1114 As one may notice, in the 1920s Polish authorities and journalists encountered many problems with transcribing ḥakham’s name. One may come across such variants as Czapczal, Szapsa, Szap-Szał, Ben Szapszał, Szaszłap et alia. 1115 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 127-129. Łazarski based his opinion about Szapszał on his own observations and on information of T. Kowalski. Seraja Szapszał’s Biography Before the Arrival in Poland (1873–1927) 229

Because of the fact that his financial straights did not leave him much time for scholarly activity, Szapszał printed only two short publications in Istanbul.1116 One of them was a French and Russian translation of the novel “Mumun şekvası” by Ruşen Eşref.1117 According to D. Shapira, he also worked as a librarian in the manuscript department of Vehîdüddîn libraries cataloguing their holdings.1118 It is also important to state here that although Szapszał later introduced a number of Turkicization changes in Karaite every-day and religious traditions and thereby completely dejudaized the Karaite community, he certainly was not an anti- Semite. One cannot find any open anti-Semitic or judeophobic statements in any of his publications, letters, diaries or other archival materials. Furthermore, throughout his life he certainly maintained positive contacts with the Rabbanite Jews. To give an example, in 1937 Szapszał received an unusual letter: composed in Hebrew, it was sent to him from Jerusalem by a certain Rabbanite, Abram Bronzaft. Bronzaft called Szapszał mori ve-rabi (Heb. “my teacher and my master”) and expressed his gratitude to Szapszał for being his teacher not only in academia, but also in savoir vivre (Heb. ḥokhmat ḥayyim). Apparently, Bronzaft was one of Szapszał’s students from Wilno.1119 Let us, however, continue the analysis of Szapszał’s biography and turn to the Polish-Lithuanian period of his life.

1116 Seraja Szapszał, Kırım hanları ve kadiaskerleri tarafından Karaimlere verilen yarlıklar ve hücet-i şeriyeler (Istanbul, 1928; 20 pp.; non vidi). 1117 Ruşen Eşref, “Mumun şekvası,” İnci (Yeni) 15 (1 Nisan 1336/1.04.1920): 7 (Turkish in Arabic characters; see the copy of this periodical in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1591; it contains Szapszał’s handwritten notes regarding the translation of Eşref’s novel). All the previous scholars who wrote that the novel was called “Mumun şikayeti” were wrong and apparently never saw this publication de visu. According to some unverified data, Szapszał’s translation appeared as “La plainte d’une bougie/Zhaloba svechi,” transl. into French and Russian by S. Szapszał, Indicateur du commerce des finances et la navigation (29.08.1920). While this publication was not located in the present author’s research, Szapszał’s archive has a draft version of the translation of this novel into Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1591, fols. 1-4r; on fol. 4r one can also find a draft of an article about the modern Turkish literature written for the Russian Constantinople newspaper “Russkoe ekho”). For some reason, at the beginning of the translation, in his own hand, Szapszał indicated that the translation was done by F.V.Ya (Ф.В.Я.). 1118 Shapira, “Jewish pan-Turkist,” 355. 1119 A. Bronzaft to S. Szapszał, 27 Tevet, 5698 (31.12.1937), Jerusalem, Hebrew (LMAB F. 143, no. 204, fol. 1). 230 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Illustration 6: Seraja Szapszał, the creator of the Turkic identity of the East European Karaites (source: periodical Myśl Karaimska 12, 1938).

4.2 Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939

4.2.1 Election and Arrival in Poland

Because of the hostile attitude of Polish officials to all reminiscences of loyalty to Russian government and Russian legislative system whatsoever, the Polish- Lithuanian Karaite communities clearly understood the necessity of re-organizing the old administrative structure of their community life in the new Poland from the beginning of the 1920s. One of the most important tasks of this period was securing a new legal status for the Polish Karaite community and electing the new Troki ḥakham. The office of the Troki ḥakham was empty since the death of Romuald Kobecki in 1911.1120 For various reasons the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites of the 1920s could not

1120 See more about him in 2.4.3; some other Karaite sources inform that the Troki ḥakham’s office was unoccupied already in 1910 (Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, “Witaj, Pasterzu!” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 1; “J.E. H. Seraja Bej Szapszał,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 6). Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 231

find anybody from their local surrounding influential enough to take this office. Even though after 1922 the duties of the Troki ḥakham were temporarily fulfilled by Szemaja Firkowicz, the Karaites understood that young Firkowicz did not possess sufficient authority to become the head of the community who could present the Karaite minority to the state officials and lobby its interests. This is why their choice fell on Seraja Szapszał, the former Taurida and Odessa ḥakham. Some documents mention that in the 1920s two local Karaite leaders (Pinachas Malecki and Szemaja Firkowicz) also nourished hopes of getting the position of the Troki ḥakham.1121 In 1927, however, Malecki stated that he had not aspired to this position even when he had been younger. He called Szapszał’s supporters “Panurg’s herd of cattle which is led into the abyss by beasts in the image of humans.” In his letter to Szapszał he strongly advised him not to occupy this post and suggested that he read the words of the Psalmist: “Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20/48:21).1122 Another leader of the Wilno community, Owadjusz Pilecki, nevertheless, evaluated the possibility of Szapszał’s election to the position of the Troki ḥakham in a positive light.1123 In the eyes of the majority of Polish-Lithuanian Karaite leaders Szapszał apparently was the only figure who could have been promoted to the ḥakham’s office. Władysław Raczkiewicz (1885–1947)1124 mentioned “Czapczał” as “the unofficially-elected candidate”.1125 Official Polish circles explained the importance of Szapszał’s being elected ḥakham by political reasons: in their opinion Szapszał was very popular in “Asiatic countries, especially in Persia, with which Poland is now closely connected.” Moreover, it was supposed that in addition to his ḥakham’s activity, Szapszał would also promote development of Oriental Studies in the Wilno University. According to some financial estimates, if Szapszał were elected ḥakham, he would receive 12,000 złoty a year; if somebody else was to become the ḥakham, he would receive 6,000 złoty only. The sum of 12,000 zloty in interwar Poland was an impressive salary: the whole amount of money for the up-keep of the Karaite religious community (including ḥakham’s salary) was supposed to be 30,000 złoty, which means that Szapszał would receive more than one third of money intended for the Karaite community needs.1126 According to S. Saggese, in 1934 Szapszał’s annual salary was 60,000 złoty a year.1127 It is unclear, however, whether one can trust this information.

1121 See the letters of Owadjusz Pilecki (1920–1928) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 541). 1122 F. Malecki to S. Szapszał (13.10.1927, Russian) (MS LMAB, F. 143, no. 459, fol. 1r). 1123 “Bołurmy Krymski Hacham Hachamba Trochta?/Budet li Krymskii Gakham – Gakhamom v Trokakh?” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 7. 1124 Wojewoda (governor) of Wilno region in the interwar period, the president of Poland in exile during World War II, friend and patron of the Karaites. 1125 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 70-71, 83. 1126 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 101, 111, 115-117. 1127 S. Saggese, “I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania,” Genus 23 (1967): 54. 232 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

On 17.08.1927, a special enquiry was dispatched to the Polish embassy in Turkey requesting the councillor of the embassy, Łazarski, to send to Poland information about Szapszał.1128 On 11.06.1927 the conference of the Karaite communities of Poland approved a new regulation concerning the ḥakham’s elections. It was decided that the elections of the new ḥakham would take place on 23.10.1927.1129 As has been planned, on 23.10.1927 representatives of four main Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities nominated Szapszał as the only appropriate candidate and unanimously (four voices “pro” against none “contra”) elected him by secret ballot in the presence of official Polish authorities.1130 E. Kobecki was the representative of the Troki community, Dr. Z. Nowachowicz – of Halicz, I. Zajączkowski – of Wilno, and Z. Szpakowski – of Łuck. On the same day a congratulatory telegramme was dispatched by I. Zajączkowski to Szapszał in Constantinople. Szapszał immediately sent an affirmative answer; in contrast to previous elections, this time Szapszał did not hesitate for a minute to accept the position of the most important Karaite leader in Eastern Europe.1131 Szapszał’s election to the ḥakham’s office received a most warm welcome in the Polish press. Journalists praised the establishment of the independent Karaite union in Poland and did not conceal their pride at the fact that the head of all European Karaites would have his seat in Poland.1132 For various reasons the newly-elected ḥakham moved to Poland only about half a year after the election: he first had to arrange his financial and other matters in Turkey, obtain permission to enter Poland, and finally receive Polish citizenship.1133 A letter of 28.05.1928, signed by Sz. Firkowicz and A. Zajączkowski, asked the government to provide Szapszał with 3,000 złoty for his travel from Turkey to Poland and 2,000 złoty to furnish his apartment.1134 Szapszał arrived in Wilno on 9.05.1928.1135 The next day, in the presence of Polish officials and Karaite community leaders, Szapszał swore a solemn public oath of loyalty and fidelity to Poland.1136 Official inauguration of Szapszał into the ḥakham’s office took place some months later, on 11.09.1928. Such influential persons as Wł. Raczkiewicz,

1128 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 127-129. 1129 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 89-96. 1130 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 131-135,139-140; see also N.S. “Zjazd w Trokach,” MK 2:1 (1929): 49. 1131 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 136. 1132 See “Zjazd Karaitów,” Kurjer Poranny (25.10.1927); Cz.J. [Czesław Jankowski], “Wielki dzień w życiu Karaimów polskich,” KW (25.10.1927); idem, “Historyczny dzień w Trokach,” Słowo (25.10.1927); B.W. Święcicki, “Ogólnopolskie uroczystości Karaimów w Trokach,” Epoka 297 (29.10.1927); “J.E. Hacham karaimski Rzpltej Polskiej,” Słowo (20.11.1927); Tor-wicz, “Karaimi polscy,” KW (23.10.1927); “Wyznawcy mozaizmu,” KW (23.10.1927); cf. newspaper of the Egyptian Karaites published in Arabic: al-Ittihad al-Isra’ili 18 (27.12.1927) reprinted in El-Kodsi, Communities, plate 1, pp. 54-55. 1133 See Szapszał’s petition in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 137; while being in Turkey, he and his wife Vera Egiz held Persian citizenship (AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 100). 1134 Ibid., fol. 118. 1135 B.s., “Przybycie Hachama Seraja Chana Szapszała,” Słowo (9.05.1928). 1136 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 2. Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 233

Tadeusz Kowalski, and a number of representatives of other confessions were invited to attend this ceremony.1137 After Szapszał’s election Wł. Raczkiewicz emphasised in his speech the patriotic feelings of the Karaites, their fidelity to Poland and their diligence. He predicted that the ḥakham’s election would herald “the beginning of a new stage” in Karaite life. Indeed, Szapszał’s election did signify the beginning of a completely new era in the history of the East European Karaites, irrespective of whether one evaluates this new period positively or negatively.

4.2.2 Public Activity, Private Travels, Official Visits, and Meetings with Important Persons

In this subchapter I highlight the most important events in Szapszał’s biography from 1928 to 1939, largely in terms of their chronological order rather than in terms of their importance for the ḥakham’s life. Upon arrival in Poland Szapszał settled in Wilno at Stroma Street 5, Apartment 6.1138 As early as May of 1928 he had changed the name of his office – from Hebrew ḥakham to pseudo-Turkic ḥachan (for details, see below). Furthermore, he started adding to his name several additional titles which he had received, for various reasons, before 1928: khan/han as well as bey/bej (Both were received apparently in Persia and should be understood in the sense of “nobleman”), the honourific khadzhi/haci/hadży (Kar. “pilgrim to Jerusalem,” received in 1921; originally, he used its Hebrew equivalent – Yerushalmi), and, lastly, Jego Exellencja (Pol. “His Excellence”). As a result, his full name started looking as weighty as those of Muslim rulers of the East. For example, in one of the documents he called himself “Szapszał Hadży Seraja Han, son of Mark and Ak-Bike from the house of Kazas.”1139 The public activity of Szapszał as the religious and administrative head of the Karaite community included participation in public meetings, conferences and sessions. Szapszał often had to pronounce public speeches, carry out official visitations, contact state officials, compose official documents and fulfil many other pressing tasks required by his position. In this subchapter I survey most important events of Szapszał’s public life from 1928 to 1939. About a year after his arrival to Poland, in May 1929, Szapszał paid his first visit to the Karaite communities of Galicia and Volhynia. From 16 to 21 May 1929 he visited the Łuck community, and from 22 to 28 May, the community of Halicz.1140 While his visit to Łuck was reflected only in the official Karaite chronicle of events,1141 his stay in Halicz

1137 Apart from the Jews; as a journalist bitterly noticed: “Jews were not invited.” 1138 This was also the postal address of MK. 1139 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 30, 97. 1140 “Historyczne dni w Haliczu,” MK 2:2 (1929): 42-44. D., “Karaimi w Haliczu,” Kurjer Stanisławowski (16.06.1929). 1141 S. Sz-n [Szymon Szyszman], “Wizytacja Arcypasterska,” MK 2:2 (1929): 41-42. 234 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

was described by many other sources. A Karaite witness to Szapszał’s visit compared it to the arrival of Joseph ha-Mashbir in Halicz in the seventeenth century and to the visit of Abraham Firkowicz in 1871.1142 In addition to representatives of the local community, Szapszał was welcomed at the railway station in Halicz by the governor (wojewoda) of the Stanisławów district, Mr Winiarski. A group of local Karaites covered his path from the station with flowers. During his visit Szapszał was accompanied by the ḥazzanim of Łuck and Troki, Rafał Abkowicz and Szemaja Firkowicz. Moreover, during his stay in Halicz he met such important representatives of the Polish administration as the mayor of Halicz and the commander of the Stanisławów garrison.1143 Within the community, Szapszał was greeted with a few verses in Karaim, composed, most likely, by Zarach Zarachowicz. One of these verses clearly attests to the preservation of Judeo-Israelite identity by the local Karaites:

Tadzy basymyznyn The crown of our heads, Bijimiz biźnin Our master, Adonenu Our lord, Morenu Our teacher, Werabbenu And our Rabbi, Wa ateret roshenu. And the crown of our heads.1145 Karaj ułanłarny He greatly loved Kici tałmidłerni The Karaite children, Astry siwedi. The little pupils. Hammese ałarny He always Esinde tutady, Remembered them, Da bahady, And observed Ki Torany uchuhajłar That they would read the Torah Karaj dinin sakłahajłar. And keep Karaite faith. Da jiłdan jiłga And from year to year Bu sahyncły kinde He has been sending presents to his children, Kacan ułłu jarłyhas His little friends, Bołdu Jisraełde, On this memorable day Ijedi ułanłaryna, When great joy Kici dostłarynay Bernełer!1144 Was in Israel!1145

1142 “Historyczne dni w Haliczu,” MK 2:2 (1929): 42. 1143 Ibid., 42-44. 1144 The Yurchenko MSS. I have italicized Hebrew loanwords. The official report on Szapszał’s stay in Halicz also mentioned the fact that local Karaite youths sang “ethnic Karaite songs” to the ḥakham (“Historyczne dni,” 43). Another poem composed as a greeting for Szapszał was published in Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 396. 1145 The same honorary title is repeated twice, first in Karaim and then in Hebrew. Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 235

During his visit to Halicz, Szapszał met an outstanding historic personality, Isaac Ben Zvi (a.k.a. Isaac Shimshelevich and Yitshaq ben Zvi; 1884–1963; president of Israel from 1952 to 1963). Isaac Ben Zvi, then a Zionist leader and an ethnographer interested in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, visited Halicz and met there with Seraja Szapszał in order to become acquainted with the local Karaite community.1146 Szapszał did not miss this opportunity to disclose his Turkic doctrine to the scholar and “enlighten” him concerning the Khazar origins of the Karaites. It is evident from Ben Zvi’s memoirs that he, an ethnographer and historian deeply convinced of the Karaites’ belonging to the Jewish cultural milieu, was not particularly impressed by the information received from Szapszał.1147 Having spent about a week in Halicz, Szapszał left the community on 28 May 1929. One may assume that the Turkic ḥakhan (as he now called himself) Szapszał was not particularly happy to be addressed with such traditional Hebrew terms as “adonenu, morenu ve-rabbenu” (see the verse above). In 1930 Szapszał met with the Polish president Ignacy Mościcki during the latter’s visit to Troki (17.06.1930). The president listened to Szapszał’s public speech regarding the history of the Karaites in Poland; Mościcki also attended a special prayer to his and Poland’s health and flourishing and visited the Troki kenesa, where he tasted traditional Karaite sweets.1148 In the 1930s, thanks largely to Szapszał’s Turkicization activity and his renomée of an important Orientalist, the Polish Karaites were often visited by all sorts of important visitors from Turkey (for more information, see 4.3.1). In 1932 Szapszał welcomed in his Wilno flat the Swiss writer, Hans Zbinden (1893-1971). The latter was very much impressed by the fact that although “der russische Gelehrte Schapschal” lived in a modest flat in a multi-storey apartment house, he kept there a unique theological book, the other copy of which, according to Zbinden, was in the Pope’s library in Rome. He was also interested in connections of Szapszał’s family to Switzerland (Szapszał’s wife studied in Bern while Swiss writer, Lilli Haller, acquired a position as governess in a Karaite house in through Szapszał’s mediation).1149 Another important journalist, representative of the semi-official newspaper of the

1146 In 1951 he visited the colony of Crimean Karaite emigrants in Istanbul (Yiṣḥaq Ben Zvi, Niddeḥey Yisra

Holy See, Mario de Mandato, met with Szapszał in June 1932. He not only published an article about the Karaites in the newspaper, but also placed a large photo of the “hachan Seraiá bei Sciapsciál” in it.1150 In 1935 Szapszał’s dwelling in Wilno was visited by the writer and journalist Marian Hepke. The visitor found Szapszał’s dwelling highly exotic and Oriental, with carpets on the walls and an Ottoman sofa (a samovar represented the only exception from the Oriental atmosphere). Hepke drank Turkish coffee prepared by Szapszał and listened to his romantic Oriental tales and proverbs. He described “Hachan Szaraja Szapczał” as a “tall man of approximately 50, with hollow-cheeked head and very clever blue eyes.”1151 Strangely enough, Szapszał had not mentioned to him his theory of the Khazar origin of the Karaites, but rather emphasized military services rendered by them to the Polish kings:

They [the Karaites] have arrived here in the same way as the Tatars did. Together with the latter they were settled by the King Vitold on the Lithuanian border [in order to fight] against the . The King has donated them land there. This was – emphasized the owner of the house in his typical mild manner of speaking – a special distinction. [At that time] the land and earth were something sacred. The earth is our mother and when we share it with somebody this person becomes our brother. And our forefathers – continued Hachan his explanations – had always known how to thank the Polish King for this reward. In earlier times, in the case of war, the Karaites raised two cavalry regiments.1152

Thus, in this speech Szapszał emphasized the similarity between the Karaites and the Tatars and the Karaites’ military valour. As has been mentioned above, there is no evidence that the Karaites ever took part in military actions in medieval or early modern times. Szapszał did not limit his activity only to Polish-Lithuanian Karaite matters, but often travelled to Romania, Bulgaria, France, Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, and Egypt, with the aim of visiting his Karaite brethren abroad. One document reveals Szapszał’s ambitions to unite all the European Karaite communities under his aegis.1153 In the summer of 1935 Szapszał undertook trips to Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey where he, inter alia, visited the local Karaite communities.1154 On 26.04.1936 Szapszał was awarded a Commander’s Cross with the star of “Revival of Poland” for his “service in

1150 Mario De Mandato, “I Caraimi di Polonia. L’ultimo residua di una razza che si spegne,” L’osservatore Romano 19 (21.777) (24.06.1932): 3. 1151 Szapszał, a man of strong constitution and, as it seems, excellent health, indeed looked much younger his real age: at that moment he was already 62! 1152 Hepke, Wilno, 70-71. 1153 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 29. 1154 “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H. [sic for M.H. i L.K.],” MK 11 (1936): 113. Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 237

the field of organisation of the Karaite confession in Poland.”1155 In August of 1937, he visited the Karaite communities of Paris and Berlin where he apparently learned about the imminent danger of Nazism for the Rabbanites and the Karaites. At the end of 1937/beginning of 1938, Szapszał suffered from a serious disease.1156 Despite his illness, sometime in 1938, he undertook a research trip to and visited Istanbul, Beirut and Damascus.1157 In October of 1938 Zarach Firkowicz, a Karaite of Troki, was elected ḥazzan of the Poniewież community. As a result, Szapszał started thinking about appointing ḥazzanim to all the existing Karaite communities of Europe (France, Romania, Serbia, Germany, and Bulgaria1158) so that all of them would be subjected to the jurisdiction of the Polish ḥakham (or ḥachan, according to Szapszał’s terminology).1159 This project of unification of all the European Karaites under his aegis was not realized because of the beginning of the war. The last pre-war issue of “Myśl Karaimska” (no. 12, 1938) was officially entitled Księga pamiątkowa ku czci J.E. Hachana H. Seraji Szapszała w X-tą rocznicę jego ingresu (Pol. “The commemorative book in honour of H[is] E[xcellency] the Hakhan H[adży] Seraja Szapszał on the 10th anniversary of his inauguration”). Its panegyric introduction described the sufferings of the Polish Karaite community which it had endured without its religious head and it surveyed Szapszał’s main achievements during ten years of his holding the office of the ḥakhan.1160 This was to be the final reference to his name in this Karaite periodical: post-war “Myśl Karaimska” (only two issues were published in 1946 and 1947), when Szapszał was forced to remain in Lithuania, fails to mention his name at all.

4.2.3 Academic and Publishing Activity

Szapszał started his academic activity as a scholar and lecturer in Polish research and educational institutions almost immediately upon the arrival in Poland. He became a member of the Polish Oriental Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Orientalistyczne; in 1935 he became its vice-chairman), and in 1929 – a member of the Orientalist Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU) in Kraków. From December 1930 he started teaching Turkish at the School of Political Science at the Research Institute

1155 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fols. 9-13; this award can be seen on the ḥakham’s picture published in MK 12 (1938): 1. 1156 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1467, fol. 74. 1157 Seraja Szapszał, “W poszukiwaniu śladów karaimskich w Damaszku,” MK 12 (1938): 81-89. 1158 Excluding the Soviet Union, but including even Harbin (China) where the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites were living. 1159 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 53-54. 1160 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “W X-tą rocznicę ingresu J.E. Hachana H. Seraji Szapszała,” MK 12 (1938): 3-5. 238 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

for Studies on Eastern Europe (Szkoła Nauk Politycznych przy Instytucie Naukowo- Badawczym Europy Wschodniej) in Wilno. He also occasionally lectured and delivered papers in various academic institutions in Warsaw, Lwów and Kraków.1161 In his curriculum vitae of 1954 Szapszał stated that in 1930 he had received a doctoral degree in the field of Oriental languages at the Lwów University; according to the same document, in 1939 he was elected extraordinary professor in the Department of Oriental Languages at the Philological faculty of the Wilno University.1162 While it is theoretically possible that Szapszał could have received his doctoral degree (PhD) in Lwów honoris causa, it is highly unlikely that he could have received it via the official procedure of earning the degree. He never revealed the title of his doctoral thesis or when he had presented its official defence. The possibility of current research oversights notwithstanding, there appears to be no documentation of the award of a PhD from the Lwów University in Szapszał’s personal archive in LMAB.1163 In 1932, Szapszał organized the Society of Supporters of Karaite History and Literature (Pol. Towarzystwo miłośników historji i literatury karaimskiej). This society regularly organized public lectures on the history of Karaite literature and culture, which were attended both by Karaite and non-Karaite public and scholars.1164 One of the most ambitious of Szapszał’s enterprises during this period was undoubtedly the organisation of the Karaite museum in Troki.1165 His first attempts to organise a Karaite ethnographic museum date back to the 1890s when young Szapszał nourished the idea of establishing the exhibition in Çufut Kale. In 1896, he contacted ḥakham Panpulov and suggested establishing such a museum. In response, according to Sz. Firkowicz, ḥazzan J. Sultanskii provided Szapszał with the letter of support from Panpulov; furthermore, Panpulov asked Szapszał to describe the state of Çufut Kale. This was done by Szapszał in the brochure “The Karaites and Çufut Kale in Crimea.”1166 Szapszał subsequently visited the Karaite communities of Crimea and gathered a number of important ethnographic objects which were temporarily kept

1161 For more details, see Helena Romer, “Turcja w Wilnie,” KW (25.02.1936); B.W. Święcicki, “U żywotnych źródeł wiedzy orjentalistycznej w Polsce,” KW 114 (21.05.1932); Mariusz Pawelec, “Seraja Szapszał i jego wkład w polską orientalistykę,” Awazymyz 1 (34) (2012): 4-8. 1162 “В 1930 г. Львовский Университет присудил мне степень доктора философии по разряду восточных языков... В 1939 году я был избран Филологическим факультетом Вильнюсского университета экстраординарным профессором по кафедре восточных языков” (Yanbaeva, “Iz materialov”). 1163 It is very unlikely that Szapszał would have been awarded his degree for the study KKT (as Mariusz Pawelec stated in his “Seraja Szapszał i jego wkład”). This amateur brochure (29 pp. in the periodical, 43 pp. as a separatum) could hardly qualify for a doctorate. 1164 See Statut towarzystwa miłośników historji i literatury karaimskiej (Wilno, n.d. [1932?]) 12 pp.; “Powstanie i pierwszy okres działalności Towarzystwa Miłośników Historji i Literatury Karaimskiej,” MK 10 (1934): 97-100; “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H.,” 111-113. 1165 See the statute of the museum in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1467, fols. 66-68. 1166 Szapszał, Karaimy i Chufut-Kale. Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 239

in the Karaite guest-house in the vicinity of the Bahçesaray kenesa.1167 In the 1910s, Szapszał, then the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham, attempted to establish a Karaite museum in Eupatoria. After his arrival in Poland, Szapszał began collecting materials for a new museum. In 1935 the idea of establishing a Karaite museum was financially supported by MWRiOP.1168 Unfortunately, when selecting items for the museum, Szapszał followed not so much academic or historical, but rather propagandistic aims. This can be clearly seen, especially, in the list of items purchased by Szapszał from and Karaites in Turkey in 1935. In the list of 54 items purchased by Szapszał for the museum, one finds objects of everyday life (, pottery, clothing), musical instruments, and costly weaponry (expensive early modern flint-rifles, sabres, guns, chain-mail: in total, 14 objects of this type).1169 Most of these items belonged to local Muslims with virtually no relationship to Karaite ethnography. In one of his letters Szapszał mentioned that he intended to display in the museum “Persian and Turkish manuscripts... Persian, Kurdistan, and carpets; Turkish, Bukharian, and Persian clothes; coins of Abbasid Khalifat and Crimean Khanate; images of Muslim saints,” etc.1170 Although these objects certainly represented much historical value, one would rather expect to find in a Karaite ethnographic museum Karaite ethnographic and religious objects, such as Hebrew and Karaim manuscripts, menorot, kettubot, mecumalar, Torah scrolls, tables-tałky, etc., i.e. objects that could represent to the audience the picturesque world of Karaite life in Eastern Europe. To get a better understanding, one may compare Szapszał’s museum holdings kept in the National Museum of Lithuania in Vilnius and Karaite Ethnographic museum in Troki with the exhibition of the Karaite museum in Halicz/Halych (MKIK). The Halicz museum was created in the 2000s without any propagandistic aims: as a result, Karaite manuscripts, menorot, kettubot, mecumalar, Torah scrolls and other religious and ethnographic items are abundantly represented there. There is no doubt that Szapszał could, without any difficulty, collect Karaite manuscripts and religious objects in all of the countries that he visited (to give an example, Boris Kokenai, Szemaja Firkowicz, Józef Sulimowicz and Il’ia Neiman, who were active in the interwar and postwar period, collected large collections of Karaite manuscripts although they certainly did not have Szapszał’s authority and funding when they had been carrying out their collector’s activity). However, Szapszał’s main intention in creating the museum was not the preservation and collection of Karaite ethnographic

1167 This is according to Szymon [Szemaja] Firkowicz, “O Karaimskim Muzeum Historyczno- Etnograficznym na Krymie i w Polsce,” MK 12 (1938): 22-23. 1168 “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H.,” 113. 1169 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1467, fols. 21-23. 1170 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1467, fol. 89. 240 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

lore, but presenting Karaites as a Turkic people with Turkic traditions to visitors to Troki. In 1938, the Polish government granted 33,000 złoty for the museum’s construction, which began on 6.07.1938.1171 The building of the museum on Karaite Street in Troki was more or less finished before the beginning of the Second World War.1172 Although the museum was not officially opened, there had been Karaite exhibitions presented to visitors as early as 1939 as well as during the Second World War.1173 Szapszał achieved the propagandistic aims which he intended to reach by opening the museum: demonstration of weaponry and Oriental ornaments certainly contributed to the general perception, in the eyes of those who visited Troki, of the Karaites as a non-Jewish Turkic group, invincible guards of the prince Vitold. One should not underestimate this part of Szapszał’s dejudaization propaganda: thousands of tourists visited Troki before, during and after the Second World War and saw his Karaite exhibition. Having critiqued Szapszał’s museum activity, it is worthwhile remembering that in arranging the exhibition in such a “Turkic” and “military” manner, Szapszał undoubtedly was driven by the wish to defend his people from Polish anti-Semitism. Later, this exhibition helped the Karaites to present themselves to the Nazi and Soviet authorities as a Turkic people.1174

***

Szapszał’s strongest side (if one is to discuss his academic merits) was his excellent knowledge of a number of West European, Slavic, and Oriental languages. His first native language was Crimean Tatar (or Karaite ethnolect of Crimean Tatar); upon arrival in Russia in 1884 he acquired a native command of Russian – which became his main language for the rest of the life. While studying at the Karaite midrash in Simferopol he must have learned some Hebrew (although Hebrew has never been his strong suit, he must have certainly improved his knowledge of the language as the ḥakham in Russia and Poland). At the university in St. Petersburg he learned Arabic,

1171 “Poświęcenie kamienia węgielnego pod muzeum karaimskie w Trokach,” MK 12 (1938): 139-141; see also “Muzeum Karaimskie w Trokach,” Słowo (24.2.1938); Henryk Szczerba, “Pierwsze na świecie Muzeum Karaimskie w Trokach,” Kurjer Poranny (10.07.1938). 1172 Alvyra Zagreckaitė, “Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego w ekspozycji i zbiorach Trockiego Muzeum Historycznego,” in Karaj kiuńlari: Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego we współczesnej Europie (Wrocław, 2004), 57; UO, 158. 1173 Furthermore, there was also the Karaite museum in Vilnius – located in Szapszał’s apartment – which was shut down by the Soviet authorities in 1949; the Karaite Ethnographic Exhibition (Museum) was officially opened in Soviet Lithuania only in 1967 as part of the Trakai History Museum. See more in 6.2.1. 1174 See the reports by a Nazi journalist (Werner Klau, “Von der Krim nach Wilna,” Wilnaer Zeitung 148 (26.06.1942); idem, “Standgut der Geschichte,” Die Woche 45 (11.11.1942): 15). Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 241

Ottoman Turkish, Farsi, and French. He was certainly able to read all other Turkic languages and was especially strong in Azeri dialects. After arrival in Poland he also learned Polish and after 1939 (when this language started to gain importance) – some Lithuanian. Szapszał’s wife, Vera Egiz, helped him when Szapszał needed translation from, or into, German. Although Szapszał could certainly understand and read texts in Karaim, it seems that he was not really able to write in this language. In 1931 he published a short story – Szapszał’s only known belletristic story – in the Halicz-Łuck variety of Karaim (nota bene this was also Szapszał’s only publication in Karaim).1175 This story described the adventures of Simcha Babovich (called in the text Chadży-Aha Babowicz) on his trip to Jerusalem in 1830. Nevertheless, the story had been originally composed by Szapszał in Russian, and most likely translated into Karaim by Aleksander Mardkowicz.1176 The same caveat applies to Szapszał’s knowledge of Polish. Most of his early Polish articles for “Myśl Karaimska” were also originally written by Szapszał in Russian and then translated into Polish. It seems that it was only in the second half of the 1930s that Szapszał started writing in Polish by himself, without the mediation of Russian. Nevertheless, even in the 1940s Szapszał preferred reading public lectures on the history and identity of the Karaites – to Karaite audience – in Russian. Many local Karaites, who were Polish, rather than Russian- speaking, had certain difficulties with understanding these lectures.1177 It was in the interwar period that Szapszał published most of his scholarly and ideological oeuvres. Especially important were his strictly scholarly studies on the Azeri folk-literature1178 and the influence of the Catholic tradition on the depictions of Muslim saints in Persia.1179 He was also the first European scholar to draw attention to the importance of the travel account of the Ottoman traveller, Evliya Çelebi, for the history of Crimea.1180 In the review of Osman Aqçoqraqlı’s Russian article on the history of Çufut Kale Szapszał provided many important details about this Karaite settlement, which were known to him not only as to a scholar-Orientalist, but also as

1175 Seraja Szapszał, “Kabakłarynda Aziz Saharnyn (Chadży-Aha Babowicznin ucuru),” KA 1 (1931): 3-8. 1176 See [Seraja Szapszał], “Prikliucheniia Gakhama Khadzhi Aga Babovicha,” Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 836). 1177 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 173, 183, 190. 1178 Seraja Szapszał, Próby literatury ludowej turków z Azerbajdżanu perskiego (Kraków, 1935). 1179 Seraja Szapszał, Wyobrażenia świętych muzułmańskich a wpływy ikonograficzne katolickie w Persji i stosunki persko-polskie za Zygmunta III (Wilno, 1934). See also the bibliography of his publications from 1896 to 1937 in Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Bibliografia prac J.E. H. Seraji Szapszała, Hachana Karaimów w Polsce (1896-1937),” MK 12 (1938):6-9. For the detailed bibliography, see Yanbaeva, “Iz materialov,” 31-35. 1180 Seraja Szapszał, “Evliya Çelebi seyahatnamesi. Yedinci cild. Istanbul 1928 [review],” MK 2: 3-4 (1930): 63-67; idem, “Ewlija Czelebi o Chanacie Krymskim [1931],” MS LMAB F. 143, no. 835; idem, “Znaczenie opisu podróży Ewlija Czelebiego dla dziejów Chanatu Krymskiego,” RO 8 (1931-1932): 167- 180. 242 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

a frequent visitor to the town and member of the Karaite community.1181 Of interest, is also Szapszał’s description of the research trip undertaken by him in 1938 to find traces of Karaite presence in Damascus.1182 His other articles, which were published in the Karaite, Polish and Turkish press, with more of an ideological than any scholarly intention, are of importance mostly for understanding the development of Szapszał’s Turkic views and doctrine. In 1928, when he had already been in Poland, Szapszał published in Turkey in the language (in Arabic characters) a highly curious pan-Turkist study Kırım Karay Türkleri, i.e. “Crimean Karaite Turks.”1183 This pan-Turkist work, which tended to present the Karaites as some sort of Crimean Turks of Mosaic belief, was the first comparatively large work of Szapszał’s publications that presented, in detail, his Turkicized version of the history of Crimean Karaites.1184 It was in this work that Szapszał for the first time resorted not only to conscious manipulation of historical truth, but also to direct falsification of sources. In order to prove the alleged (and, in fact, non-existent) Khazar origin of Crimean Karaites, he published there two verses- baits, in Crimean Turkish, that he presented as “popular songs preserved from the times of the ancestors and mentioning the Khazars”. These verses read as follows (in modern Turkish spelling and English translation):

Lapa lapa kar yava Flakes, flakes of snow are falling Erbi baba koy soya Father-erbi is slaughtering a ram Baylarımız toy çala Our rich men are celebrating a wedding Hâzâr oğlu at çapa Khazar son is riding on a horse

Ata mindim sağdağım bar Having mounted a horse I have my quiver Sağdağımda üç okum bar In my quiver I have three arrows Üçü bilen üç yat ursam If with these three [arrows] I kill three enemies Hâzâr bekten tartağım bar I get my reward from the Khazar bek1185

1181 Seraja Szapszał, “Aqçoqraqlı O. Novoe iz istorii Chufut-Kale (Recenzja),” MK 2:1 (1929): 37-42. 1182 Seraja Szapszał, “W poszukiwaniu śladów karaimskich w Damaszku,” MK 12 (1938): 81-89. ,[قريم قراي تركلر :Süreya Şapşaloğlu (Seraja Szapszał), “Kırım Karay Türkleri” [in 1183 Türk Yılı 1 (1928): 576-615; also sep.: Istanbul: [s.n]., 1928. 43 pp. This work had been recently republished in a Latin transliteration; the citation here is from a later re-edition (Tülay Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a Göre Karay Türkleri ve Karayca,” Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları 12 (2002): 97-188). 1184 For details, see the analysis of this study in Tadeusz Kowalski, “Turecka monografja o karaimach krymskich,” MK 2:2 (1929): 1-8; Shapira, “Jewish Pan-Turkist,” 349-380. 1185 KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 141; cf. “Starinnye stikhi na tiurksko-karaimskom yazyke, v kotorykh upominaetsia imia Khazar,” in the National Museum of Lithuania, Collection of S.M. Szapszał, no. 178, R-13.164; Seraja Szapszał, “Karaimy Kryma (1942 g.)” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 822, fol. 81). These verses were also published after his death in idem, Karaimy v Krymu, Litve i Pol’she (Karaimskaia Narodnaia Entsiklopediia, vol. 1) (Moscow, 1995), 64-65 as well as in many other recent publications. Seraja Szapszał’s Life, Public and Academic Activity from 1927 to 1939 243

Szapszał never mentions where he found these verses. Needless to say that they are not attested in any manuscript including Crimean Karaite mecumalar (collections of Karaite folklore).1186 The baits, which are written in modern prosody and in Crimean Turkish (with some Crimean Tatar words), certainly cannot be samples of genuine medieval or early modern Karaite folklore. According to Dan Shapira, even “the mere fact that these baits are in Crimean Tatar-Turkish makes their antiquity impossible.”1187 There is no doubt that these verses were composed by somebody living in Crimea in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, i.e. most likely by Szapszał himself or one of his contemporaries. This publication contained the first, but not the last of Szapszał’s falsifications.1188 Kırım Karay Türkleri, full of other false statements and manipulation of historical truth, had been in detail analyzed by T. Kowalski and D. Shapira, warranting no further mention here.1189. In 1934, Szapszał published a letter which was supposedly composed in French by the famous Polish litterateur, Henryk Rzewuski (1791–1866) in 1825. The letter described the visit of Rzewuski’s and Poland’s greatest poet – Adam Mickiewicz – to the Karaite community of Eupatoria.1190 Although, indeed, the letter itself seems to provide an original nineteenth-century source (its facsimile was partly published in Szapszał’s article), its dating and interpretation raise a number of questions. This letter was found and published in the 1930s – when the Karaites so much desired to be noticed by Polish public audience as one of Poland’s unique ethnic minorities. The fact that Mickiewicz – as one reads in this letter – had close contacts with Crimean Karaites certainly produced a strong impression on Poland’s non-Karaite audience. The references to this letter, which was first published by Szapszał in “Myśl Karaimska,” can be found in any standard biography of the poet. The authenticity of this letter was called into question by Polish scholar St. Makowski, who considered this letter to be either falsified or incorrectly dated.

1186 E.g. there is not a single references to these or other verses referring to the alleged Khazar origin of the East European Karaites in the following published mecumalar: Radloff (Radlov), Obraztsy; Tülay Çulha, Kırım Karaycasının Katık Mecuması: Metin – Sözlük – Dizin (Istanbul, 2010); Gulayhan Aqtay, Eliyahu Ben Yosef Qılcı’s Anthology of Crimean Karaim and Turkish Literature: Critical Edition with Introduction, Indexes and Facsimile, 2 vols. (Istanbul, 2009). The same caveat applies to several dozens Karaite mecumalar consulted by me in state and private archival collections (in MS LMAB F. 143 and F. 301; NLR F. 946; cf. two Crimean mecumalar in the possession of A. Efimov in Moscow and one mecuma of A. Eidlisz in New York). 1187 Shapira, “Jewish Pan-Turkist,” 369, 372. 1188 For the analysis of his other important falsification, the note about the attempt to house Timophey, the son of the Cossack hetman Bohdan Chmelnicki, in Çufut Kale, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Il’iash Karaimovich i Timofei Khmel’nitskii: krovnaia mest’, kotoroi ne bylo,” in Fal’sifikatsiia istoricheskikh istochnikov i konstruirovanie etnokraticheskikh mifov (Moscow, 2011), 208-237; ibid., Karadeniz Araştırmaları 6: 22 (2009): 43-74. 1189 Shapira, “Jewish Pan-Turkist;” Kowalski, “Turecka monografja.” 1190 Seraja Szapszal, “Adam Mickiewicz w gościnie u karaimów,” MK 10 (1934): 3-12. 244 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

In his view, it was hardly possible that Adam Mickiewicz, who visited Crimea in August–October 1825, could be there as early as June of 1825.1191 Furthermore, there are many other strange details concerning Rzewuski’s letter. Szapszał published a facsimile of the document without its first and last pages, i.e. its most important parts containing the name of the addressee, the signature and/or the name of the sender and its date. Furthermore, one phrase had been censored out of the text. Present-day searches in Szapszał’s collection – in MS LMAB and every other Karaite collection in Eastern Europe – have yielded neither facsimile nor original of Rzewuski’s letter. As has been mentioned, there is no doubt about the authenticity of the letter. It is evident from its fragments that were published by Szapszał that this was an original nineteenth-century document. However, there still remains a question as to whether the Mickiewicz mentioned there was indeed the Adam Mickiewicz or someone else (in the nineteenth century there were other Mickiewiczs who visited Crimea),1192 whether the letter was correctly dated, and whether its sender was Rzewuski. None of these questions can be convincingly answered without consulting the missing and illusive original or facsimile. Several other ideological articles published in “Myśl Karaimska” were devoted to various problems of the history of Crimean Karaites;1193 one article was dedicated to the general history of the Karaites with specific emphasis on their history in Eastern Europe.1194 Two public letters emphasized the fidelity of the Karaites to their Polish- Lithuanian motherland.1195 Two review articles, where Szapszał presented his new vision of Karaite history and ethnic origin, are analyzed below, in the subchapter dedicated to Szapszał’s dejudaization doctrine (4.3.5).1196 In these publications it was important for Szapszał to emphasise the following: the local Karaites’ anti-Bolshevist tendencies; their non-Jewish origins and adherence to separate, non-Jewish religious tradition; recognition by Anan ben David and early Karaites of prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed; conversion of the Khazars to Karaite (i.e. non-Rabbinic) form

1191 Stanisław Makowski, Świat sonetów krymskich Adama Mickiewicza (Warsaw, 1969), 189. 1192 The grave of certain Mickiewicz, who lived and was buried in Crimea in the nineteenth century, can be seen in the lapidarium of Taurida Central Museum in Crimea; there is also a nineteenth-century graphito in a cave in Mangup also containing the name of Mickiewicz. Thus, there were at least two more Mickiewiczs who visited Crimea in the nineteenth century in addition to Adam Mickiewicz. 1193 Seraja Szapszał, “Uzupełnienia i wyjaśnienia,” MK 2:3-4 (1931): 1-11; idem, “Karaimi w służbie u chanów krymskich,” MK 2:2 (1929): 5-22; idem, “Słów kilka o książętach karaimskich Czelebi i ich działalności oświatowej,” MK 11 (1936): 8-11. 1194 Idem, “Przeszłość i teraźniejszość Karaimów”, Wiedza i Życie 3 (1934): 213-224. 1195 “List Pasterski J.E. Hachana Karaimów w Polsce,” MK 2:1 (1929): 3-4; “List Pasterski J.E. Hachana H. Seraja Szapszała,” MK 11 (1936): 5 (a public letter on the death of Marshal Józef Piłsudski (12.05.1935)). 1196 Seraja Szapszał, “Corrado Gini, “I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania” (Recenzja),” MK 12 (1938): 111- 112; idem, “Alexandre Baschmakoff, “Cinquante siecles d’evolution ethnique autour de la Mer Noire” (Paris, 1937) (Recenzja),” MK 12 (1938): 112-118. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 245

of Judaism; the proselyte character of Karaite belief and, consequently, the professing of Karaism by various ethnic groups and nations such as the Jews, Turks, and Russian Cossacks;1197 the important role played by Karaites in redeeming Polish soldiers from Crimean Tatar captivity; the heroic role of Eljasz Karaimowicz, a Karaite-Cossack fighter against Bogdan Chmielnicki’s treachery; military deeds of Karaite knights at the service of Polish kings and the centuries-old honorary status of the Karaite community in Poland; the Karaites’ use of their Turkic language (Karaim) both for everyday and liturgical activity (without any reference to their use of Hebrew); the anthropological affinity between the Karaites and Mongoloid/Turkic peoples (the , Bashkirs, Chuvashes, Buriats, Tatars, Nogays, Khazars et al.). All these innovative postulates of his historical and religious doctrine are to be found in his numerous speeches and publications from 1928 to 1939. Unfortunately, because of the fact that Szapszał falsified sources both before and after the 1930s (see 4.2.3 and 6.2.1) any document that had ever been published by him should be carefully analyzed and additionally examined. He was certainly careful while writing his purely scholarly Turkological studies. And yet whenever he wrote about the history of his own people, the Karaites, he always resorted to manipulation of historical truth and sometimes even to direct falsification of sources. It is understandable why he did this in the 1930s and 1940s – he had to defend his flock from the Polish state anti-Semitism and, later, from the Nazi regime. However, why he did this in his Istanbul brochure of 1928 or in Soviet Lithuania after 1945 – when there was no immediate danger to the wellbeing of the Karaite community – remains less clear and understandable.

4.3 Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939

4.3.1 Influence of Kemal Atatürk’s Reformist Activity and Pan-Turkic Doctrine on Szapszał

One cannot help noticing the apparent similarity between the interwar reformation of the Karaite community and the modernisation of Turkish society in the 1920s- 1930s. There is no doubt that Szapszał’s radical changes were to a large extent copied from the linguistic and calendar reforms which had occurred at about the same time

1197 In order to justify his vision of the Karaites as the later nomadic proselytes in his private papers and diaries Szapszał constantly refers to Ex. 12:49, Num. 15:15-16, 29; 9:14; 35:15 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 912). 246 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

in Turkey during the rule of Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk” (1881–1938).1198 Szapszał, an Orientalist interested in Turkic languages, who lived from 1920 to 1928 in Turkey, was well informed about the transformation of the and society, and took an active part in many linguistic congresses in the country in the 1930s. The first contacts between Szapszał and leaders of pan-Turkist doctrine date back perhaps to the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. There is no doubt that he was acquainted with the father of pan-Turkism – Crimean Tatar nationalist and litterateur, Ismail Gaspirali (Gasprinskii; 1851-1914). His famous pan-Turkist newspaper “Terciman” (The Translator) published several reports about Szapszał in 19011199 and of his 1915 elevation to the office of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham.1200 It is highly probable that it was from Gasprinskii’s article of 1913 that Szapszał derived the idea of corrupting the Turkic toponym Çufut Kale (“The Jews’ Fortress”) to non-existent Cüft Kale (“Double Fortress”).1201 This is additional evidence that Szapszał was acquainted with pan-Turkist literature already in the 1910s. It does not seem to be very likely that Szapszał himself ever happened to meet with Atatürk personally; at least, Szapszał and his colleagues never mentioned this in any of their speeches or publications. On the other hand, he had certainly seen Atatürk at public events that he attended in Istanbul and often been in touch with Atatürk’s closest associates, both in Turkey and outside it. His contacts with Kemalists began almost immediately after his emigration to Turkey in 1919. In 1920, Szapszał translated the novel “Mumun şekvası” (A Candle’s Complaint) by Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın (1892-1959) who later became an influential Turkish diplomat and politician, a close friend and biographer of Kemal Atatürk.1202 Ünaydın also was a member of the famous Language Commission (Dil Encümeni) whose task was also to modernize the Turkish language, replace the Arabic alphabet with Latin, and purify the language of foreign loanwords (as will be shown below, a similar reform was implemented by Szapszał in Poland in the 1930s). There is no doubt that a close relationship existed between Szapszał and Ünaydın. It was to Ruşen Eşref Bey (i.e. Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın) that Szapszał dedicated his study “Kırım Karay Türkleri”, published in Istanbul in Turkish in 1928. This work, which represented Crimean Karaites not as an independent

1198 Space contraints restrict discussion of theories about Mustafa Kemal’s possible origin in the Jewish sect of dönme. However, a possible “Karaite” episode in his biography is noted: according to Itamar Ben-Avi, nota bene the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (!), Mustafa Kemal told him that it was a Karaite teacher who had taught him to read Jewish prayers in his youth (Hillel Halkin, “When Atatürk Recited Shema Yisrael,” Forward (28.01.1994)). 1199 Perevodchik/Terciman (16.01.1901): 6 (communiqué about Szapszał’s arrival in Persia and his elevation to the position of khan). 1200 See Terciman (25.12.1915); Terciman 2 (3.01.1916); Terciman 5 (8.01.1916) (cf. Yanbaeva, “Iz materialov”). 1201 I. G-ii [Ismail Gasprinskii], “Krymskie azizy,” Vostochnyi sbornik 1 (St. Petersburg, 1913), 214-217. 1202 “La plainte d’une bougie/Zhaloba svechi.” Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 247

ethnic group, but as Crimean Turks (!) of Karaite faith, was obviously written by him under the influence of pan-Turkic doctrine spread in Kemalist Turkey of that period. It was first printed in the almanac Türk Yılı (The Turkish Year), published by Türk Ocakları (Turkish Hearths), a highly influential cultural organization founded in 1912, responsible for the dissemination of pan-Turkic and pan-Turanianist ideas in Turkey. Szapszał’s study was published in Türk Yılı alongside other pan-Turkist articles which aso presented the Kazan, Caucasian and Crimean Tatars not as distinct ethnic groups, but as Caucasian, Kazan, and Crimean Turks.1203 According to Dan Shapira, Türk Yılı included numerous articles on the ongoing reforms as well as a contribution dedicated to calendar reform.1204 All this means that Szapszał, who published his contribution to Türk Yılı, was well- acquainted not only with the most recent trends in Kemalist reforms, but also with the pan-Turkist authors who published their contributions in Türk Yılı. Furthermore, Szapszał’s “Kırım Karay Türkleri,” which presented the Karaites as an integral part of the larger pan-Turkic nation, seemed to play a certain role in the general formation of pan-Turkic ideology. This study was a few times quoted by a Tatar nationalist leader Cafer Seydahmet (1889–1960) in his introduction to a larger pan-Turkist book by Mustafa Edige Kırımal (Kırımal-Szynkiewicz, 1911–1980). There Seydahmet presented the Karaites as “Krimkaraimtürken,” i.e. Crimean Karaim Turks of Mosaic faith.1205 Mustafa Edige Kırımal, in his turn, also had close contacts with the Karaites (perhaps including Szapszał as well) during the Second World War (for more information, see Chapter 5). “Kırım Karay Türkleri” was cited by many other pan-Turkist authors, including Abdulla Zihni Soysal, Hüseyin Namık Orkun and others.1206 Szapszał also continued his contacts with Kemalist and pan-Turkist leaders after the emigration to Poland in 1928. On 27.07.1930, the town of Troki was visited by Reşit Saffet Atabinen (1884–1965) who was a member of Turkish parliament, president of the Turkish Touring Club and a friend of Kemal Atatürk. In his public speech, Szapszał referred to the centuries of friendly relations between Poland and Turkey and emphasized the fact that the Turkic-speaking Karaites presented a vital cultural link between these two countries. He also read a special prayer in honour of Atatürk. Instructed by Szapszał, Atabinen was happy to recognize in the Troki Karaites his Turkic “blood brothers”. Later Atabinen mentioned that he could not hold back his

1203 See Kafkasya Türkleri by Resulzade Mehmet Emîn; Kırım Türkleri by Câfer Seyid Ahmet (Seydahmet); Kazan Türkleri by Battâloğlu Abdallah (as referred to in Shapira, “A Jewish Pan-Turkist, 358). 1204 Ibid. 1205 Edige Kırımal, Der Nationale Kampf der Krimtürken (Emsdetten, 1952), xvii-xviii, xxiii. 1206 Abdulla Zihni Soysal, Z dziejów Krymu (Warsaw, 1938), 65; Hüseyin Namık Orkun, Türk Dünyası (Istanbul 1932), 179-180. 248 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

tears of excitement at meeting a Turkic-speaking people so far away from Turkey.1207 In 1934 he published a pan-Turkic pamphlet on the history of the Khazars in which he wrote extensively about East European Karaites as “the Khazar-Turks of our days.”1208 This book was one of a few pan-Turkic historical pamphlets published by Atabinen.1209 In August 1934 Szapszał and Ananiasz Zajączkowski took part in the Second Congress of the Turkish Language (II Türk Dili Kurultayi). This Congress, where main principles of Kemalist language reforms were discussed, had been organized by Atatürk himself. He, together with many other members of the cabinet, attended the opening ceremony of the Congress. During the Congress Szapszał delivered a paper entitled “Türk dilinin gücü, kuvveti, zenginliği ve Karayim lehçesinin hususiyet” (Turk. “The strength, power and richness of the Turkish language and characteristics of Karaim dialect”). As a result, a number of Turkish newspapers published interviews with Szapszał and articles on the Polish Karaites.1210 What was perhaps even more important, when the Congress concluded on 26.08.1934, Hamdullah Suphi Bey (a.k.a. Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver (1885–1966), an influential pan-Turkist, politician, litterateur and – for a while – chairman of “Turkish Hearths”), organized a special reception in honour of the Karaite visitors. The reception was attended by a number of significant pan-Turkist figures, including the national poet, Mehmed Emin Yurdakul, Reşit Saffet Atabinen, Atatürk’s close associate of Tatar origin – Sadreddin Maksudov (Sadri Maksudi Arsal), and some others. The official chronicle of the events again emphasized the role of the Turkic Karaites as a link between Turkey and Poland.1211 In the 1930s, Szapszał maintained contacts with noted Turkologist of Azeri origin Ahmet Caferoğlu (1899–1975) of Istanbul. The latter had reviewed Szapszał’s study on the Turkish literature from Persian .1212 In 1937 the Turkish professor, a Slavic specialist of Tatar origin, Akdes Nimet Kurat (1903–1971) visited the Karaite and Tatar settlements in the Wilno region, where he delivered a public speech in which he emphasized the role of Szapszał as an important Turkologist.1213 In December of

1207 Sz. Firkowicz, “Przyjazd Reszyd Saffet Beja,” MK 2:3-4 (1931): 75-77; “Tureccy turyści na ruinach zamku w Trokach,” Ilustrowany Kuryer codzienny (11.08.1930). 1208 Kara Şemsi Reşit Saffet [Reşit Saffet Atabinen], Hazar Türkleri Avrupa Devleti (VI-XII asır) (Istanbul, 1934). This book was sympathetically reviewed by Szapszał in MK 11 (1935/6): 104-105. 1209 E.g. Reşit Saffet Atabinen, Türklük ve Türkçülük İzleri (Ankara, 1931). 1210 E.g. Bulletin périodique de la presse turque 103 (1934): 7. 1211 Haber 837 (27.08.1934); S. Sz[apszał], “Turecki Kongres językoznawczy,” MK 11 (1936): 108- 109. Although Szapszał left an enthusiastic description of their stay in Istanbul during the Congress, Zajączkowski’s letters to T. Kowalski (22.08.1934, 20.06.1936, 8.07.1936) were much less ecstatic and contained explicit critique of the general ideological atmosphere of the event (UO, 92-93, 108-111). 1212 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 225; cf. Türkıyat Mecmuası 5 (1935): 353-355. 1213 “Prof. Bay Akdes Nimet u Turkologów Słuchaczy Szkoły Nauk Politycznych w Wilnie,” KW (7.07.1937): 7. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 249

that same year, the Karaites of Halicz were visited by a group of Crimean Tatars from Romania and Turkey, headed by Haci Fazil and Bekir Akcar, editors of the Crimean Tatar periodical Emel, published in Romania.1214 In 1936 Emel puiblished two articles about the Polish Karaites; the author of one of them, Crimean Tatar Ibrahim Otar, spent three weeks in Halicz and described impressions of his stay among the “Crimean Turkic brethren” – the Halicz Karaites.1215 These are only a few examples of close contacts between Szapszał and his associates with the Kemalist movement’s ideological leaders, perpetrators and introducers of Atatürk’s reforms. A detailed history of these contacts invites further study. Regardless, it is important at this juncture to emphasize that leading Karaite reformists (S. Szapszał, A, Zajączkowski, Sz. Firkowicz and others) were personally acquainted with leaders of pan-Turkist movement and Atatürk’s close associates. Szapszał, who spent more than seven years in Istanbul in the 1920s, and A. Zajączkowski, both took part in the Second Congress of the Turkish Language in 1934. Zajączkowski visited Istanbul many times in the 1930s for academic purposes. He attended the 1936 Third Congress of the Turkish Language (III Türk Dili Kurultayi).1216 Zajączkowski and Szapszał visited Istanbul again in 1938.1217 As a result, they would be, therefore, acquainted with the latest agenda in Kemalist reform activity, read Kemalist publications – and later published on the pages of “Myśl Karaimska” surveys of what they had seen and read. On the other hand, such influential Kemalists as Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, Sadri Maksudi Arsal, Akdes Nimet Kurat, Reşit Saffet Atabinen, Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın, and others were also acquainted with the Karaites and their leaders whom they considered a part of a larger pan-Turkic nation in Europe’s utmost north. Atatürk’s secularization policy and his legal and economic reforms find no direct parallels to Szapszał’s reformist activity. However, such aspects of Atatürk’s activity as Turkicization (deottomanization and dearabization) of the Turkish society, language, calendar and liturgy have direct parallels to Szapszał’s policy of Turkicization (dejudaization) of the Karaite spiritual, intellectual and religious life and identity in the 1930s. After his emigration to Poland in 1928, Szapszał apparently sought to apply the Turkish experimental model to the Karaite community, which, of course, drastically differed from Turkish society. This is why – although Szapszał’s reforms were indeed much influenced by those of Kemal Atatürk and his followers – they had different aims, strategies and agendas. The fact that Szapszał’s reforms were cloned from those of Mustafa Atatürk is mentioned by one of his younger contemporaries,

1214 J. S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Tatarzy krymscy w Haliczu,” MK 12 (1939): 148. 1215 J. Szulimowicz [Sulimowicz], “Emel Medżmuasy, Nr. 99,” MK 11 (1936): 107. 1216 UO, 58-64, 108-111. 1217 UO, 143-144. 250 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Aleksander Dubiński, a reknown Polish Orientalist of Karaite origin.1218 The necessity of using Kemalist reforms as an example to be followed by the Karaites was mentioned in 1935 by Szemaja Firkowicz.1219 Immediately after his election, inauguration and settling in Wilno in May 1928, Szapszał began to energetically reorganize Karaite religious, social, and cultural life. While managing the community, Szapszał introduced a number of radical religious and linguistic reforms, which considerably transformed the ethnic identity of the East European Karaites. Szapszał’s reforms were first of all aimed at Turkicization of the Karaites’ ethnic identity, language and religious tradition. Alternatively, this process may be also defined as “endogenous dejudaization,” i.e. the internal policy of the community directed at the conscious and deliberate replacement of traditional Jewish values and practices. One interwar Rabbanite journalist called this process “Reformbewegung” (reform movement).1220 For details of Szapszał reforms, see below.

4.3.2 Ḥakhan: the New Naming for the Head of the Community

The reasons which prompted the Karaite leader to start his dejudaization reforms were quite understandable from a survival point of view, as it had become rather “awkward” – even dangerous – to be a Jew in Europe in the interwar period. It was the time of the emergence of fascist and Nazi ideology in many European countries, and even though none could predict the Holocaust nor knew it was coming until it was upon them, Szapszał, with his amazing political acumen and prudence, apparently could feel the growing danger of Nazism for his people. As early as the second half of the 1930s, he began receiving communiqués from his Karaite brethren living in Germany and Italy who provided him with detailed information regarding the persecution of the Rabbanite and Karaite population of those countries (see 3.7.3 and 3.7.4). It is evident that, in this respect, Szapszał turned out to be much more prudent and far-sighted than the Rabbanite leadership, which did not foresee the danger that was coming. Growing anti-Semitism in Poland, where the Jews were constantly publicly and privately humiliated and suffered from numerous legal limitations,1221 was another important factor which influenced Szapszał’s decision to start his reforms. In addition to these objective factors, as an absolutely secular person and

1218 Aleksander Dubiński, “ karaimskogo yazyka v pervoi polovine nashego stoletiia,” RO 49:2 (1994): 59-63. 1219 Szymon Firkowicz, “Przyczynek do zagadnienia wpływów obcych na język karaimski,” MK 11 (1935-36): 69-72. 1220 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. 1221 Mendelson, Jews of East Central Europe, 73-74. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 251

a great devotee of Turkic languages, Szapszał did not have any particular sentiments with regard to the Karaite Jewish past at all. His first reform, implemented immediately upon his arrival in Poland, was the invention of a new name for the head of the Karaite community. Initially, the Hebrew term ḥakham (Heb. “sage”, “wise man”, “a person learned in religious and scholarly matters”) was used both in the Rabbanite and Karaite nomenclature to simply denote learned members of a community. In the Karaite community of Russia this term received an additional meaning starting from 1839: it began to be used to denote the religious, ideological, administrative and (in a sense) political head of all the Karaite communities in Russia (heads of each particular community were called ḥazzanim; they were the ḥakham’s subordinates). Nevertheless, in the 1850s the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania organized their own consistory headed by the Troki ḥakham – and this was the office that Szapszał received in 1927. Szapszał, whose intention was to turkicize the life of the Karaite community in interwar Poland, was apparently unhappy about being referred to by the traditional Hebrew term. In his opinion, this could evoke unneeded associative link to the Rabbanite community which also used the term ḥakham, although in a slightly different manner. This is why practically immediately upon his arrival in Poland he began calling himself not by the traditional Hebrew ḥakham, but by the pseudo-Turkic ḥakhan. This alteration of just one letter made a great difference: first, the traditional Hebrew form was practically dropped; second, the connotation, which is humorous to the Slavic ear, was avoided (in Russian and Polish the word cham/kham means a “rude and insolent person of low origin”). In addition, for anyone knowledgeable in European history, this term would immediately be linked to the Tatar khans – or to the Khazar rulers-kagans. Needless to say, that the term ḥakhan had never been used by the Karaites – or by any other people or ethnic group – before 1928.1222 Before 1928 only the term ḥakham (or, in Russian pronunciation, gakham/гахам) was used in the writings of Karaite authors composed in the Russian, Polish, Hebrew, and Karaim languages. To give an example, even Szapszał himself, in his article of 1918, used the term ḥakham (and not ḥakhan) to denote the heads of the Karaite community before 1915.1223 One can also compare welcoming publications praising Szapszał’s election to the ḥakham’s office published in “Myśl Karaimska” in 19281224 and his own

1222 Balkan Judezmo is the only language where the term ḥakhan does exist – in the sense of “rabbi” (Paul Wexler, “Is Karaite a Jewish Language?” Mediterranean Language Review 1 (1983): 47). It seems to be very unlikely, though, that Szapszał could have used Balkan Judezmo as a source for his introduction of this term. 1223 G.S [Gakham Seraya, i.e. Seraja Szapszał], “Istoriia proiskhozhdeniia dolzhnosti i kharakter deiatel’nosti karaimskikh gakhamov,” Izvestiia [TO]KDP 1 (1918): 4-6; cf. “List Pasterski J.E. Hachana [sic] Karaimów w Polsce,” MK 2:1 (1929): 3-4. 1224 See Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, “Witaj, Pasterzu!,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 1-4; “J.E. H. Seraja Bej Szapszał,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 5-7. 252 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

speech published in the same periodical a year later, where Szapszał called himself “Karaite Hachan in Poland”.1225 In this study, because Szapszał began in 1928 to designate himself as the ḥakhan (and not ḥakham) – when I analyze his biography after this point – I shall also call him by this term, its pseudo-historical character notwithstanding. The earliest Karaite documents which mention the term ḥakhan (in the form hachan) date back to May 1928. In one of them, typed by a secretary, Szapszał with his own hand, in black ink, replaces the last letter of the word hakham with an “n” – demonstrating that in May 1928 the Karaites were not yet accustomed to this new name to denote the head of the community.1226 In 1911, when the term synagogue was replaced by the word kenesa, this decision was publicly and officially announced in Karaite press.1227 This time, however, there was no specific public announcement or explanation whatsoever; evidently, there existed only some sort of a secret instruction, for internal use, which prohibited the use of the term ḥakham. It is also very likely that Szapszał orally explained to his flock the reasons for the abolition of the term. However, how exactly he did this remains a mystery. To our knowledge, it was only once that Szapszał gave the official explanation regarding the emergence of the new term. In his letter to the Minister of Religious Affairs and Public Education in Warsaw of 29.11.1928, he stated that “Hachan (according to the Russian transcription – “Gacham”) is the head of the Karaite autocephalous church.”1228 Thus, here Szapszał attempted to explain his invention of the term ḥakhan simply by the difference in Russian and Polish orthography. This explanation is certainly incorrect: in numerous publications by the Karaites in Polish, which appeared before Szapszał’s arrival in 1928, they used the term ḥakham and not ḥakhan.1229 Szapszał’s insincerity is also evident in his article about Romuald (Romi

1225 See “List Pasterski,” 3-4 (cursive is mine). 1226 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fol. 121. 1227 See 2.7. 1228 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1462, fol. 4. This interesting document also contains an historical sketch of the emergence of Karaism as a religious movement and the Karaites’ settling down in Poland and Lithuania (ibid., fols. 1-6). 1229 E.g. Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, “Witaj, Pasterzu!,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 1-4; “J.E. H. Seraja Bej Szapszał,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 5-7. 1230 Seraja Szapszał, “Ś.p. hachan [sic] Romuald Kobecki (Z powodu 25-lecia jego zgonu),” MK 11 (1936): 80-84. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 253

on his visit card.”1231 Gedo Hecht suggested that hachan originated from Hebrew chacham (this is how he transliterated the word ḥakham in Polish). He was right to notice the Hebrew origin of the term; he nevertheless had no idea that the term hachan was, in fact, only an invention and not a product of historical etymology.1232 Thus, use of the Hebrew term ḥakham stopped, and the new one, pseudo-Turkic ḥakhan, came to the fore, starting in 1928. This was the first, but not the last of Szapszał’s radical dejudaization reforms implemented after his arrival in Poland. Official inauguration of Szapszał into the ḥakhan’s office took place on 11.09.1928. He was met in Wilno by representatives of the Karaite (ḥazzanim I. Abrahamowicz, Sz. Firkowicz, J. Łobanos, lawyer Z. Nowachowicz, and poet S. Rudkowski) and non- Karaite audience (i.a. governor of province Wł. Raczkiewicz, Orientalist T. Kowalski, and members of the local Muslim and Evangelical communities). The choir of young Karaites, somewhat surprisingly, sang the famous Jewish hymn Ein ke-Eloheinu (Heb. “there is none like our God”) as a greeting. The journalists who witnessed this event seemed to be especially impressed by the most exotic part of the ritual: Szapszał, who was seated on a special carpet made of yellow felt, was given the so-called “Altın baş”1233 and lifted up in the air.1234 Szapszał, with his knowledge of Oriental traditions, apparently copied this ceremony from those of the Khazar qagans and Muslim rulers of Crimea, and Kokand in the Middle Asia.1235 This ceremony of the ḥakham’s investiture was certainly invented by him: no other East European Karaite ḥakham before him had been inaugurated in such a pompous and theatrical manner. After all, by September 1928 he already called himself ḥachan and not ḥakham. This is why one may say that this was the first inauguration of the ḥakhan in Karaite history (although after his election to the position of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham in 1915, Szapszał was inaugurated in a similar Oriental fashion).

1231 Ks. Nikodem Ludomir Cieszyński, “Najmniejsza mniejszość w Polsce,” Dziennik Poznański (29.09.1929). 1232 Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu,” 8. 1233 Turk. “Golden head,” a kind of cane with the golden ball at the top with the depiction of certain symbols which were to become later a part of the coat-of-arms of the East European Karaite community (see 4.3.6). 1234 In fact, only the corners of the carpet were lifted up; see “Uroczysty ingres pierwszego chachama Karaimów w Polsce,” Nasz Przegląd (19.09.1928); “Uroczysty ingres pierwszego chachama Karaimskiego w Polsce” in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1465, fol. 4; “Ingres J.E. Hachana Karaimów,” MK 2:1 (1929): 49-50; “Ingres Hachama Karaimów,” Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny 256 (15.09.1928); “Powitanie Hachama Seraja Chana Szapszała,” Słowo 106 (10.05.1928). 1235 Cf. the rite of lifting the rulers on a carpet in László Balogh, “Vostochnye korni rituala utverzhdeniia yazycheskogo vengerskogo vozhdia,” Hungaro-Rossica II. Biulleten’ Obshchestva Vostokovedov 12 (2005): 7-22. 254 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

4.3.3 Language Politics a) Liturgy and the Position of the Hebrew Language From the foundation of the Karaite movement in the Middle Ages, one of the main features of the movement was a diligent study of the Torah as well as the Hebrew language and grammar as the only means to understand the true meaning of Scripture. Even in the nineteenth century, when there appeared more and more targumim of the TaNaKh in the Turkic languages of the East European Karaites, the study of the Torah in its original language, that is in Hebrew, was still one of the main points of the creed of the Karaite faith. The necessity of studying Hebrew is mentioned as the sixth/seventh) article of faith in most Karaite catechisms of this period. This is how, for example, the seventh point of Karaite creed reads in Sifrei ḥinukh le-fetaḥ tiqvah edited by Abraham Firkowicz and published in the Hebrew and Turkish languages in Istanbul in 1831: “The Torah was given in the Hebrew language [in original: bi-leshon >ivri/ivri lisani], and for this reason it is a religious obligation to study the language of the Torah and to read it while understanding the meaning.”1236 Practically the same was said by Yakov Duvan in his catechism of 1890: “I believe with the full faith that every son of Israel, believing in the Supreme God and His Torah, is obliged to know the language of the Torah and its explanations/commentaries.”1237 For Szapszał, who grew up and matured both physically and educationally in an entirely secular non-religious surrounding in St. Petersburg, however, these integral parts of Karaite faith, tradition, culture, and mentality apparently had no specific meaning or importance. Moreover, the study of the Hebrew language and adherence to this traditional part of the Karaite culture meant, for him, only a dangerous association with Judaism and Jews that had to be avoided. Although Szapszał never stated this in public speeches or publications, there is no doubt that he was unhappy about the status of Hebrew as the main language of Karaite liturgy that was an obligatory part of academic curriculum in Karaite religious schools and colleges. The sixth/seventh article of faith indicating the necessity of studying the Torah in its original language was deliberately omitted by Szapszał in his main principles of the Karaite creed published in 1928.1238 Some students of Szapszał’s biography state that

1236 Sifrei ḥinukh le-fetaḥ tiqvah, ed. A. Firkowicz (Istanbul, 1831) as translated into English by Dan Shapira in his Avraham Firkowicz in Istanbul (1830-1832). Paving the Way for Turkic Nationalism (Ankara, 2003), 46; the respective original pages of this source are reproduced in ibid., 112, ill. 10a. 1237 Yakov Duvan, Katekhizis. Osnovy Karaimskogo zakona (St. Petersburg, 1890), 64; cf. Shapira, Avraham Firkowicz, 46-47; the respective original pages of this source are reproduced in ibid., 113, ill. 10b). Cf. also catechisms of J. Shamash (1913), S. Prik (1917), and M. Firkowicz (1915) which contain identical statements about the necessity of studying Hebrew as the language of the Torah (Veronika Klimova, “Polish Catechism by A. Zajączkowski in the Light of Russian Catechisms from the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” Jewish History Quarterly 4 (2012): 493-496). 1238 KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 111-112; cf. Shapira, Avraham Firkowicz, 4 7. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 255

soon after his election to the office of the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham in 1915, Szapszał banned the study of Hebrew in Karaite schools in Crimea. This, however, seems to be an overstatement. Although Szapszał never welcomed the study of Hebrew, the fact that he explicitly ordered Hebrew to be banned, to our knowledge, is not mentioned in any published or archival source.1239 Already in 1928, i.e. almost immediately after Szapszał’s arrival in Poland, when writing his Karaimische Texte, Tadeusz Kowalski noticed Szapszał’s determination to introduce changes into the religious life of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites:

Present day Chacham [i.e. Szapszał] is anxious to establish the common liturgy in all the communities. In order to accomplish this, he introduced some innovations in accordance with Crimean pattern. Thus, for example, hazzans did not have to wear beards as before and perform liturgy without shoes – something that had not been seen in the Polish Karaite communities before.1240

What exactly the “innovations” that were introduced by Szapszał looked like (apart from those mentioned above) is unknown. Furthermore, we can only guess what was the “Crimean pattern” that had been mentioned by Kowalski (apparently, this was the liturgical pattern that had been formed by Szapszał himself during his being the Taurida and Odessa ḥakham from 1915 to 1920). Again, we can only guess at what exactly this “Crimean pattern” looked like and how different it was from the traditional Karaite liturgy predating Szapszał’s times. At the end of the nineteenth– beginning of the twentieth centuries the main language of Karaite liturgy was Hebrew; only certain formulas (benedictions, texts of marriage contracts, etc.) were read first in Hebrew and then repeated in peshat, i.e. in Karaim translation. In Kowalski’s opinion, Karaim, in terms of its usage as a liturgical language, had been understood

1239 The periodical “Izvestiia TOKDP,” which was edited by Szapszał in Crimea from 1917 to 1919, published materials and quotations in Hebrew or in Hebrew script. E.g. Szapszał’s own speech in the KCrTat on the holiday of Shemini Aṣeret was published there in Hebrew characters ([Seraja Szapszał], “Slovo, skazannoe Tavricheskim Gakhamom v Evpatoriiskoi Sobornoi Kenase na prazdnik ‘Shemini aceret’,” Izvestiia [TO]KDP 2 (1918): 2-3). Furthermore, in his early publications he did use the Hebrew language and characters (Szapszał, Karaimy i Chufut-Kale). 1240 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, xii-xiii, ft. 5. 256 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

by the Karaites only as a “Hilfssprache”.1241 Nevertheless, he remarked that despite the bilingual Hebrew-Karaim character of praying, in 1928 the Hebrew language was gradually being edged out by Karaim “as a consequence of the growing national consciousness.”1242 However, in the following year, in Halicz, the liturgical service still was conducted mostly in Hebrew; only szetar hakabała (Heb. “the certificate of the reception [to the status of ribbi]”) was read first in Hebrew and then repeated in Karaim.1243 A similar situation prevailed also in Łuck, at least until 1931. Aleksander Mardkowicz complained to Szapszał that although he had many times stressed the necessity of minimizing of the role of Hebrew in liturgy, his efforts produced virtually no effect.1244 This present research reveals that, as well as in Crimea in the 1910s, Szapszał never issued an official ban on the use and study of Hebrew in Poland in the 1930s. However, there is no doubt that young ḥazzanim (Sz. Firkowicz in Troki, R. Abkowicz in Łuck, M. Leonowicz in Halicz, J. Łobanos in Wilno, Z. Firkowicz in Poniewież) who acquired their positions in most of the Karaite communities in the 1920s and 1930s, were active followers and disseminators of Szapszał’s Turkic doctrine. Unfortunatley, any published or archival sources containing exact descriptions of Karaite liturgical celebrations in the the way it was done in Poland in the 1930s and 1940s have not yet surfaced. One may suppose that although the ḥazzanim may have introduced as many Karaim elements into the service as possible, they could not perform liturgy without the mediation of Hebrew: after all, all the prayer-books available at that moment contained mostly Hebrew prayers while the Bible also was supposed to be read first in the Hebrew original and only subsequently in Karaim peshaṭ. The situation could have changed after 1935 when the Troki ułłu ḥazzan Szymon (Szemaja) Firkowicz composed a short prayer-book (published as a small brochure) containing prayers in Karaim, the new Turkic calendar and new names of the months.1245 One cannot help noticing the

1241 Ibid., xx. Claims of modern Karaite authors that Karaim had been in use for liturgical purposes since medieval times (e.g. Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Die Karaimische Literatur,” in PTF, vol. 2, 793) are not based on any historical evidence. The earliest extant manuscript translations of the Bible into Karaim date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and it does not appear that there existed earlier manuscripts of this type (Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 164). The so called siddur (1528), which is often referred to as the first printed prayer-book in Karaim, in fact, does not contain a single Karaim word; it consists of prayers in Hebrew, two songs in Greek, and a few Turkish words (Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures,” 691-692). The earliest examples of literature in Karaim date to the late sixteenth century (Mikhail Kizilov, “Two Piyyutim and a Rhetorical Essay in the Northern (Troki) Dialect of the Karaim Language by Isaac ben Abraham Troki,” Judaica 1/2 (2007): 64-75). Even if there were earlier attempts at literary activity in Karaim before that, no evidence has yet arisen to this effect. 1242 Kowalski, Karaimische Texte, xiii-xiv. 1243 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fols. 14-15. 1244 A. Mardkowicz to S. Szapszał, 1931, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 465, fol. 16r). 1245 Firkowicz, Karaj Kołtchałary. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 257

explicit similarity between Szapszał’s Turkicization of Karaite liturgy and Atatürk’s reform directed at the decrease of the role of Arabic as the liturgical language and strengthening of the role of Turkish. For example, in Turkey in the 1920s ezan (the call to prayer) was changed from Arabic to Turkish.1246 Important evidence regarding the supplanting of Hebrew by Karaim was left by the Rabbanite author of the 1930s, Gedo Hecht. The journalist wrote:

In liturgy, at the expense of the recently dominant Hebrew language, the Karaim language was introduced into prayers, sermons, and ritual blessings. This tendency, leading to the shaping of common ideas in order to obtain a better future, brings Hebrew to a gradual decline... the Karaim language is becoming a literary language... The language of liturgy is presently mixed: partly Karaim, partly Hebrew.1247

It seems, however, that position of Hebrew remained quite strong in the Karaite liturgy and community of Poland even after the publication of Sz. Firkowicz’s reform prayer-book and complete Turkicization of the Karaite religious calendar. This is evident, for example, in the curriculum of the courses of Karaite religion and liturgical language in the Łuck Karaite community (ca. 1938; these courses apparently took place only a few times a year when pupils were free from studying in Polish state schools). According to this curriculum, a young Łuck Karaite was supposed to receive five hours of Hebrew per week while an adult student was to receive as many as 10 hours per week. Furthermore, they were supposed to attend liturgical services in the local kenesa twice a day during the week, and once during and on Sunday. Among the textbooks used for the study were such books as the Bible in Hebrew, Hebrew prayer-books, Duvan’s “Catechism”, E. Kazas’s and M. Sułtański’s textbooks of the Hebrew language and grammar. This means that despite all Szapszał’s dejudaizatory reforms the Karaites continued studying the Hebrew language, TaNaKh and Karaite liturgy in its original form.1248 In 1930s Troki, Karaim and Polish also started to be used as the main languages of tombstone inscriptions. A few tombstones dated 1900s-1920s were in fact erected in the 1930s; they contain such terms as ḥachan and Turkic names of the months that were introduced by Szapszał after 1928. These few tombstone inscriptions remain perhaps the only Karaite tombs with epitaphs in the Karaim language in Hebrew characters.1249 In other Karaite cemeteries in Eastern Europe before the war Hebrew certainly remained the main language of the epitaphs; only short formulas were written in Karaim in Latin or Cyrillic characters.

1246 Özcan Başkan, “Turkish Language Reform,” in The Transformation of Turkish Culture. The Atatürk Legacy, ed. Günsel Renda and C. Max Kortepeter (Princeton, 1986), 100. 1247 Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu,” 26-28, 29. 1248 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 147. 1249 Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 283-285, 287-288. 258 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Unfortunately, we do not have at our disposal any information about the changes in Karaite liturgy in Nazi-occupied Poland when any association with Jews and Jewish civilization was a mortal danger to the local Karaites.

b) “Purification,” Turkicization and Dehebraization of Karaim Having raised the status of Karaim to that of a liturgical language on equally- important terms with Hebrew – for centuries known to the Karaites as their only leshon ha-qodesh (Heb. “sacred language”) – Szapszał had to modify Karaim as well. In the 1920s, before Szapszał’s arrival, Karaim was certainly the most important language of everyday use in the Karaite communities in Poland, although practically all local Karaites of the 1930s could speak Polish (as well as some Russian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian – depending on where they lived). The Karaim of the 1920s was full of Hebrew, Slavic, Arabic and Persian loanwords and was usually written down in Hebrew characters.1250 One may examine the unpublished play by Szemaja Firkowicz (?),1251 a Galician text written down by T. Kowalski ca. 1925,1252 S. Rudkowski’s play “Dostłar”1253 and two first issues of “Onarmach” as vivid samples of this “live” and natural sort of spoken and written Karaim of the 1920s and 1930s.1254 Szapszał, who had just observed the language reform of Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, applied reforms of Kemalist type to the Karaim language. It is only due to Szapszał’s and his associates’ efforts that in the 1930s Karaim became not only a full-recognized liturgical language, but also a literary language. It is in this period that a number of periodicals were

1250 The role of Hebrew loanwords in Karaim has not yet received proper scholarly attention. For a preliminary analysis, see Altbauer, “O tendencjach dehebraizacji,” 51-60; idem, “>Al ha->ivrit she- be-fi Qaraal ha-yesodot ha->ivriyot she-bi-leshonam,” Leshonenu 21 (1957): 117-126; ibid., 22 (1958): 258-265. For more information on loanwords in Karaim from other languages, see Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Die arabischen und neupersischen Lehnwörter im Karaimischen,” FO 3 (1961): 177-212; idem, “Beitrag zur Erforschung des karaimischen Wortschatzes,” FO 18 (1977): 199-204; idem, “Die mongolischen Elemente in der karaimischer Sprache,” FO 1:2 (1960): 296-302; idem, “Zapożyczenia litewskie w języku Karaimów trockich,” Sprawozdania Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności 49 (1948): 360-362; Aleksander Dubiński, “Über die slawischen Einflüsse in der karaimischen Sprache,” Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 15 (1969): 139-144; Wolf Moskovich and Boris Tukan, “The Slavic Component in the Dialects of the Karaim Language,” Jews and Slavs 1 (1993): 296-303; Paul Wexler, “The Byelorussian Impact on Karaite and Yiddish,” Journal of Byelorussian Studies 4 (1980): 99-111. 1251 “Bytovaia kartinka iz karaimskoi zhizni,” the Yurchenko MSS (TrKar. in Cyrillic characters, typescript copy, 1 fol.). Although the title is in Russian, the play is in TrKar. 1252 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III-4, no. 122:2, fols. 81–83; published and translated in Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 398-401. 1253 See its analysis in Michał Németh, “Karaim Literature as a Source of Information on the Spoken Language,” Karaite Archives 1 (2013): 113-132. 1254 Cf. also the long list of Slavic loanwords in Karaim in the poem “Sahyšlarym” (My thoughts) by Józef Łobanos (LMAB F. 143, no. 1459, fols. 3-6v). Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 259

printed in Poland in the Karaim language and it is in this period that Karaim for the first time in its history started to be used for composition of journalistic and polemic articles, fairy tales, comic stories, etc. (secular and religious poetry had been already composed in Karaim well before the 1930s). Szapszał’s language reform – the essence of which was the replacement of traditional Hebrew terms with Turkic ones – was evidently cloned from the Kemalist reforms (save for the fact that, unlike Szapszał, who was eradicating Hebrew terminology, the Kemalists replaced the Persian and Arabic loanwords and the names of months). The Turkish language reform consisted of two different undertakings: the change of the script (from Arabic to Latin), and reduction/renovation of vocabulary.1255 Szapszał’s language reform also had two goals: to change the script (from Hebrew to Latin), and to purify vocabulary of foreign (mostly Hebrew and Slavic) loanwords. In the 1920s Atatürk abandoned the Arabic script traditionally used by the Ottoman Turks, replacing it with the . Szapszał, similarly, replaced Hebrew script with Latin alphabet in official publications in Karaim. Thus, in spite of the fact that even after his reforms the was still used for writing letters and other private documents, official interwar publications were printed only in Latin characters. Apart from some short verses published in “Myśl Karaimska,” perhaps the only known interwar publication in Hebrew characters was the Karaim targum of Jeremiah printed in Halicz in 1927 (i.e. before Szapszał’s arrival in Poland).1256 In addition to the alphabet reform, Atatürk decided to purify Turkish from numerous Arabic and Persian loanwords. In September of 1934 Szapszał and A. Zajączkowski took part in the Second Congress of the Turkish Language (II Türk Dili Kurultayi) which was organized by Atatürk himself.1257 It is apparently during this visit to Turkey that Szapszał learned the details of the Kemalist language reforms directed at purification of the language from foreign loanwords. It seems that it was only after this congress that he began to apply similar reforms in the sphere of the Karaim language. In 1935/6 Szapszał published an article in which he described, in

1255 For more details, see G.L. Lewis, “Atatürk’s Language Reform as an Aspect of Modernization in the Republic of Turkey,” in Atatürk and Modernization of Turkey, ed. Jacob Landau (Leiden, 1984), 195-213; Özcan Başkan, “Turkish Language Reform,” in The Transformation of Turkish Culture. The Atatürk Legacy, ed. Günsel Renda and C. Max Kortepeter (Princeton, 1986), 95-111. Özcan Başkan called this process “re-” (ibid.). This term can hardly be applied to the Karaite language reform: in contrast to the Turks, who were originally Turkic-speaking (hence “re-Turkification”), the first Karaite settlers in Eastern Europe were originally speakers of Greek and/or Arabic. Furthermore, there is no doubt that Hebrew loanwords entered their Turkic Karaim language at the earliest stage of its existence. Hence the process of purification (expurgation) of the Karaim language should be called Turkicization and not re-Turkicization. 1256 Yirmiyahu, ed. Z. Zarachowicz (Halicz, 1927). This targum was hectographically reproduced in 27 copies and was intended mostly for the circulation within the Halicz and Łuck community. 1257 S. Sz[apszał], “Turecki Kongres językoznawczy,” MK 11 (1936): 108-109. 260 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

detail, the essence of the Kemalist language reform and also reviewed the study of Turkish philologist, Hamit Zubeyr Koşay. According to Koşay, there were 330 words from the Turkic languages of the Troki, Łuck, and Crimean Karaites on a list of Turkic words that could be used as substitutes for Persian and Arabic loanwords.1258 Two years later Szemaja (now Szymon) Firkowicz, the Troki ułłu ḥazzan and Szapszał’s closest associate, published his language programme in “Myśl Karaimska”, based on his paper read to the session of TMHiLK on 22.04.1935. He wrote that the Karaites should follow the example of “forty-million ” and start purifying their language from foreign loanwords, which the ḥazzan characterized as “barbarisms” (Pol. barbaryzmy). He said that a special Karaite institution should be organized, similar to that in Turkey dealing with the problems of purification of the language. Furthermore, he stated that the Karaite ḥazzanim should start using this “purified” sort of Karaim in their sermons.1259 Firkowicz’s paper was actively discussed during the seventh session of TMHiLK on 22.04.1935; his idea of purifying the Karaim language was supported by Szapszał, A. Zajączkowski and other speakers.1260 Such a special institution was never organized, but the campaign aimed at the purification of the language started soon afterwards. The main promoters of the purification reform were the ḥazzanim, Turkic-oriented intellectuals and periodicals in the Karaim language that published articles and communiqués in the new, “purified” Karaim. They often simply had to invent new Karaim words in order to find replacements for Hebrew and Slavic loanwords. As a case in point, T. Kowalski praised A. Mardkowicz for the “skilful use of newly-invented [words]”.1261 The Karaite purification politic differed slightly from that of the Kemalists. Purification of Arabic and Persian from Karaim was not of great importance to Karaite reformers, although Turkish words certainly were preferred to those of Arabic or Persian origin.1262 However, in accordance with his new vision of the Karaim language, Slavic and especially Hebrew loanwords were not supposed to be used at all. As a result, in the 1930s Karaim began to be purged of most Slavic and (especially) Hebrew borrowings, which had to be replaced by “pure” Turkic words. Thus, for example, the term often used by the Karaites for “island” – wyspa (a loanword from Polish) became otrac/otracz; “book” (Heb. sefer) became bitik; yerushah (Heb. “inheritance”, in the

1258 Seraja Szapszał, “Osmanlicadan Türkçeye Karşiliklari Tarama Dergisi, Istambuł, 1934 r. str. 1309 (w 12 zeszytach) [review],” MK 11 (1935-1936): 105-107. 1259 Szymon Firkowicz, “Przyczynek do zagadnienia wpływów obcych na język karaimski,” MK 11 (1935-36): 69-72. 1260 “Działalność T-wa M.H. i L.H.,” 112. 1261 Tadeusz Kowalski, “Karaimskie wydawnictwa A. Mardkowicza,” MK 10 (1934): 110. 1262 Szapszał criticized A. Mardkowicz for the inclusion of numerous Hebrew and nota bene Arabic loanwords in the latter’s Karaim-Polish-German dictionary (S. Szapszał to A. Mardkowicz, 8.02.1934, Russian: LMAB F. 143, no. 468, fols. 3-4). Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 261

sense of “inherited traditions”) became adietliar (Kar. “traditions, customs”),1263 etc. What was even more important, the Hebrew names of God, which had been most frequently used by the Karaites (Adonai and Elohim), were replaced with the Turkic word Tengri (Tenri). After the war this provided Szapszał and some other Karaite authors (e.g. M. Sarach, Yu. Polkanov, M.M. Kazas and many others) with the ground to state that the Karaites, in fact, had originally worshipped not the God of Judaism, but a pagan Turkic deity, Ten(g)ri. Striking language differences between the first two and the third issues of the periodical “Onarmach” clearly demonstrate the way in which the Karaim language was purged of loanwords and turkicized. If the first two issues (1934, 1938) contained scores of Hebrew and Slavic loanwords almost on every page of the periodical, its third and the last issue (1939) was published after the arrival in Poniewież of Zarach Firkowicz, an evident follower of Szapszał’s reforms. The periodical’s new editor was Johonodav Rojecki; it was published not in Kowno, but in Poniewież, most likely under the direct surveillance of Szapszał. As a result, the periodical was published in “pure” Turkic Karaim, practically without any Hebrew and Slavic loanwords (for details, see 3.6.2). Michał Németh is certainly correct when he says that dehebraization of the Karaim language should be always mentioned alongside its “deslav[ic]ization”.1264 Yet, these two processes certainly arose out of different agendas and cultural meanings. The elimination of Slavic loanwords that had penetrated the language at a rather late stage of its existence1265 was quite a natural process similar to, for example, avoidance of English terms by today’s purists of the German or French languages. One can quite easily imagine the existence of literary texts in Karaim without colloquial and everyday Slavic words. At the same time, it is simply unthinkable to imagine scholarly or religious texts in Karaim written without hundreds of Hebrew loanwords such as tefiłła, Elohim, Adonaj, sefer Tora, Israeł(łer), hachamłar, caddikler, šabbat, mitsva, gan eden’, gałut, etc. These loanwords penetrated the language at the very beginning of its existence and had constituted an unalienable part of it, at least since the end of the sixteenth century.1266

1263 The word jerušša/yerushah was crossed out by Abraham Szyszman (the owner of the copy of Onarmach that was used by me) and changed to Turkic adietliar. This is how Karaite intellectuals replaced Hebrew terms with Turkic loanwords in the process of the Turkicization of the Karaim language. 1264 Németh, “Karaim Literature,” 116. 1265 Early Karaim texts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contain but a few Slavic loanwords; active inclusion of Slavic lexica into Karaim dates back perhaps to the period after the partitions of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century. 1266 The earliest samples of literature in TrKar from the end of the sixteenth century contain scores of Hebrew loanwords (Mikhail Kizilov, “Two Piyyutim and a Rhetorical Essay in the Northern (Troki) Dialect of the Karaim Language by Isaac ben Abraham Troki,” Judaica 1/2 (2007): 64-75). 262 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Thus, these two processes of language changes reflect the varying agendas of their respective proponents and the cultural meanings borne within the recipients. To sum up, it was this sort of “purified” reform version of Karaim that was used by Karaite intellectuals and religious authorities of the 1930s. Ordinary Karaites, nevertheless, continued using Slavic and Hebrew loanwords both for everyday and religious purposes.

c) Replacement of Hebrew Names and Surnames Generally speaking, starting roughly from the nineteenth century onwards it was quite usual for the European Jews to have two names: a Biblical Hebrew name and a secular European one. The Hebrew variant was usually used within the community, whereas the Europeanised equivalents or nicknames (Heb. qinnui) were employed when dealing with the wider non-Karaite environment.1267 The Hebrew name was usually given at the birth of a child while its secular equivalent was chosen by an individual (or his family) at a later stage. Sometimes it was European officials that gave the Jews Europeanized variants of their names during the registration process. Originally this tendency (among the Rabbanites and Karaites alike) had very little to do with dejudaization. It was a marker of a growing secularization of Jewish society and its wish to be more European and less Jewish. Principles of finding an appropriate secular variant for a Hebrew name were not uniform. Let me provide a few examples of the policy of finding such secular equivalents on the basis of Karaite first and family names. Official “European” name usually had to be either similar in the spelling of the name (Szemaja = Szymon, Mordecai = Mar(e)k, Ester = Stera/ Stefania), or start from the same letter (Abraham = Adolf, Boaz = Bogusław, Simcha = Sergei, Isaac = Ignat/Izidor, Moses = Monio/Mundek/Edmund/Zygmunt, Menuḥa = Mincia). It seems that sometimes secular names were given just by chance (Nisan or Sar Shalom = Alexander, Ruḥama = Janina, Rebecca = Lina/Regina).1268 In many cases Biblical names were substituted by local Christian varieties of these names (e.g. Shimon = Semen, Yeshayahu = Ivan/Jan, Yosef = Józef). In the 1920s and 1930s this originally non-ideological tendency, which reflected the natural integration of the Karaites into Polish society, began to acquire an evident dejudaizing flavour. This was noticed by the Rabbanite author Gedo Hecht. He quite correctly remarked that despite the fact that such tendency of adjusting traditional names to conventions of the larger Gentile environment had been typical for all

1267 Anna Sulimowicz, “Imiona Karaimów z Halicza,” Awazymyz 1 (8) (2004): 3-8; Michael Nosonovsky, “Judeo-Turkic Encounters in Hebrew Epitaphs from Ukraine: Naming Patterns,” in Omeljan Pritsak Armağanı/A Tribute to Omeljan Pritsak, ed. Mehmet Alpargu and Yücel Öztürk (Sakarya, 2007), 283-301. The Rabbanite Jews also often had Yiddish names. 1268 MS LMAB F. 301, no. 332, fol. 22. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 263

dispersed Jewish communities, for the Karaite community in interwar Poland it was especially symptomatic: it signified a complete breaking up with the Hebrew legacy and Judaism.1269 Indeed, many Polish-Lithuanian Karaites started actively changing their Hebrew names that sounded too Jewish. Szapszał, for example, dropped the patronymic from his official name and from Seraja ben Mordechaj Szapszał “Yeru” became Hadży1270 Seraja Szapszał. During the Soviet times Biblical “Seraja” was substituted by neutral Russian “Sergei”, whereas the name of his father, “Mordecai,” was referred to as “Mark.” Thus, in the end, Szapszał became Seraja (or Sergei) Markovich Szapszał/Shapshal. To give another example, Troki ḥazzan Szemaja ben Abraham Firkowicz in the interwar period became Szymon, syn Adolfa, and then Russian Semen Adolfovich Firkovich; nevertheless, in the community documents in Karaim he was referred to as Szemaja uwłu Abraham Firkowicz. Famous Karaite exegete Pinachas Malecki started to be posthumously referred to either Finneas or Felix Malecki. Furthermore, a new tendency appeared in the replacement of Biblical Hebrew names with their variants used by the Tatars, Arabs, and other Muslim people. In this way, Polish Karaites named Mosze (Moses/Mosheh) started to be called Musa, Solomon – Suleiman, Abraham – Ibrahim, Szałom – Selim, etc. Furthermore, in 1939, with the growth of Nazism and anti-Semitism in Europe, there appeared the practice of replacing typically Karaite surnames of Halicz origin, which sounded conspicuously Jewish. Most typical among the Halicz Karaites were such surnames as Nowachowicz (from “Nowach” – a Karaim form of Heb. “Noaḥ”), Eszwowicz (from “Eszwa/ Yeshu>ah”), Leonowicz (from “Levi/Leon”), Zarachowicz, Ickowicz, Mordkowicz, Szulimowicz, Abrahamowicz, et al. – all of them, perhaps without a single exception, derivatives of Hebrew names with the Polish ending “-icz.” Surprisingly, some of the family names reflected not the Polish, but the Polish-Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew names (e.g. Icko instead of Polish “Izaak,” Mordko instead of “Mordechaj,” Szulim instead of “Szałom” etc.).1271 These family names were given to the Karaites at the end of the eighteenth century, most likely by the local Austrian officials, apathetic toward differences between Karaite, Yiddish, and Polish pronunciations of Hebrew. Nevertheless, it appears that the Karaites themselves never objected to surnames of a Jewish “nature” until 1939, when any association with the Jewish civilization became, at best, unwelcome. Thus, in accordance with the new reform, the family name Ickowicz was to be replaced with “Isakowicz”, Eszwowicz with “Jewsiewicz”,

1269 Hecht, Karaimi: “Synowie zakonu”, 34. 1270 The Hebrew honorary title Yeru[shalmi] (the pilgrim to Jerusalem) was replaced with Turkic equivalent Hadży. 1271 Grzegorzewski, “Türk-tatarischer Dialekt,” 48; cf. Fahn “Le-qorot,” 48, ft. 1. 264 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Mordkowicz with “Markowicz”, Zoruchowicz with “Zarachowicz”, and Szulimowicz with “Sulimowicz.”1272 The programme of the reformation of the Karaite family names was not fully realized. Our current research reveals only one surname (Szulimowicz – Sulimowicz) that was actually changed. Nevertheless, the other part of this reform – replacement of Hebrew first names was certainly successful. As a result of this reform, many Polish- Lithuanian Karaites stopped using their original Hebrew names and started taking on their Muslim or Christian equivalents.

4.3.4 New Turkic Calendar and Names of Religious Holidays

Having started his dejudaization reforms, Szapszał certainly realized the necessity of transforming the Karaite religious calendar with its almost exclusive use of Hebrew terminology thereby explicitly demonstrating the Judaic nature of the Karaite religious tradition. Szapszał’s calendar reform was one of the most important and boldest of his dejudaization changes. Since the very beginning of their movement, the Karaites had used Hebrew names of the months and celebrated practically the same religious holidays as the Rabbinic Jews, although their interpretation sometimes, as did the appearance of some holidays and observances of fasts.1273 The fact that the East European Karaites used exclusively and names of the months is reflected in numerous printed and handwritten prayer-books, calendrical and astronomical treatises, correspondence and many other sources.1274 In accordance with Szapszał’s new calendar, introduced in the end of the 1920s – early 1930s, the Hebrew names of the months and holidays were replaced with Turkic names, ostensibly used by the Karaites in preceding centuries. According to Szapszał’s new concept of the Karaite religious tradition, the Turks- Karaites had been initially using Turkic names of the months. However, later, under the pressure of Mosaic religion, they started using Hebrew terminology. How did the ḥachan arrive at this conclusion? According to Szapszał’s own assertions, while visiting

1272 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/1, fol. 71; no. 1064/2, fols. 143, 144. 1273 E.g. the Karaites do not celebrate Hanukah as a post-biblical holiday. For more information on the Karaite religious calendar and holidays, see Magdi Shamuel, “The Karaite Calendar: Sanctification of the New Moon by Sighting,” in KJ, 591-629; Samuel ben Moses al-Maghribi, “The Karaite Holidays,” in Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature, ed. Leon Nemoy (New Haven, 1952), 196-229; Aaron ben Elijah, “The Karaite Holidays,” in ibid, 172-189. For the complete bibliography, see BK, 424-437. 1274 E.g. the Karaite calendar from 1735 to 1790 at the end of Meqqabeṣ niddeḥey Yisrael (Qale, 1934); cf. Moledot le-34 shanim mi shnat 5567 >ad shnat 5600, ed. Isaac ben Solomon (Qale, 1805/1806); Duvan, Katekhizis, 82-83; M.Y. Firkowicz, Karaimskii katikhizis vkrattse (Melitopol, 1915), 33-34; for the complete bibliography, see BK, 424-437. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 265

the Karaite prayer house in Hasköy quarter of Istanbul in the 1920s, he discovered a copy of the Karaite prayer book commonly known as “Mekkabech”.1275 At the end of this book he discovered a note in a Turkic language in Hebrew characters containing a small glossary with Hebrew names of the months and their Turkic equivalents.1276 According to Szapszał this was a pristine calendar of the Turkic Karaites which they used before they converted to the Karaite Mosaic faith; the Karaites had originally referred to the months by the Turkic names, but by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they had forgotten them and substituted them with Hebrew names. He first published his discovery in his study in 1928.1277 By 1929, Szapszał’s associates were using the new Turkic names.1278 In 1931/1932 Szapszał publicly announced that from then onwards East European Karaites should “return” to their “original” tradition of using only Turkic names, as being more appropriate for them as they are a Turkic people.1279 It is very likely that this is a case of dealing with one of Szapszał’s forgeries. There are many strange details surrounding the claim of an allegedly pristine Turkic calendar. The original of this note had been seen only by Szapszał; modern scholars have at their disposal only its facsimile, published by Tadeusz Kowalski. Let us analyze the note from a palaeographic and historical point of view. In fact, the folio of “Mekkabech”, wherein this calendar note was inscribed, contains two handwritten notes. One of them is written in Hebrew; the other one, with the calendar, is almost entirely in Turkish or Crimean Tatar (definitely not in Karaim), in Hebrew characters. The question arises: why would the Hebrew-speaking author of the first note suddenly switch the language of the second note to Turkish or Crimean Tatar? In 1737, when this note was allegedly written, it was extremely seldom that Karaites would write in Turkic languages – the dominant written lingua of that time was Hebrew. In the

1275 Meqqabeṣ niddeḥey Yisrael (Qale, 1934). I used a copy of this prayer book originally belonging to Jacob Sinani, son of Moses Sinani-Yerushalmi of Qusdina (Constantinople). In the nineteenth century, this book found its way to the Łuck Karaite community. It was stamped with a seal, bearing inscriptions in Hebrew and Russian; the Russian inscription mentioned that the book was from “the Karaite qehilah of Łuck” (ibid., fol. mem [40])). It later became a possession of Szapszał. The book contains Szapszał’s numerous marginal notes and corrections of a linguistic character (LMAB F. 143, no. 1178). Another copy of Meqqabeṣ, also with numerous handwritten marginalia, is kept in LMAB F. 305, no. 20. Neither of these copies has a “Turkic calendar” analysed in this subsection. 1276 A photo of the glossary is kept in LMAB F. 143, no. 1179; it is reproduced in Tadeusz Kowalski, “Zu den türkischen Monatsnamen,” Archiv orientální 2 (1930): 3-26. 1277 KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 129-130. 1278 See references to Turkic and Hebrew names of the months in accordance with Szapszał’s new calendar in Szemaja-bień-Awraham [Firkowicz], “Jarych sahyncz abajły,” 46-48. To my knowledge, this is the first printed use of Szapszał’s Turkic calendar. 1279 The story of the “discovery” of this calendar is narrated in Kowalski, “Zu den türkischen Monatsnamen” and in [Aleksander Mardkowicz], “Mekabbec da biźnin łuwachłarymyz,” in Łuwachłar dert jiłha (5693-5696) (Łuck 1932), 10. 266 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

eighteenth century the Istanbul Karaites would use either the Hebrew or Byzantine Greek that they inherited from their medieval forefathers, not Turkish. For Szapszał, however, both Crimean Turkish and Tatar were native languages. Although the handwriting in both notes looks very similar, in fact, it is more than likely that they were written by different hands. Before writing the first (Hebrew) note, its author imprinted special lines on which he intended to write the note. If one carefully compares both notes, one can clearly see that the first (Hebrew) note is written below the lines, while the second (CrTat. in Hebrew characters) is written above the lines. This also produces a somewhat strange impression. Furthermore, the Hebrew date above the second note is written according to the praṭ gadol (Heb. “large i.e. 5497 of Hebrew calendar or 1737). However, the) ' ה'ת'צ'ז ;”[calculation [of years which ל'ק' author of the second note had written after the date with his own hand Heb. “small calculation [of years]”). It is highly improbable that) לפרט קטן stands for the author of the note could make such a rude mistake and confuse praṭ gadol with (1737) ١٧٣٧ praṭ qaṭan (it is also interesting to notice on the right margin the date of written in pencil in Arabic numerals, apparently by Szapszał himself). Furthermore, the standard ;ל'ק' as לפרט קטן it is highly unusual that the author of the note abbreviated The abbreviation .ל'ק' but not ,ל''פק or ל'פ'ק' abbreviation for the “small calculation” is .is very seldom to be met in genuine Hebrew texts or tombstone inscriptions ל'ק' The note itself contains a number of strange details. Its first line contains a reference to ulugata sanavınıŋ ayları (CrTat. “months according to the calculation of the Great Father”). There is no reference to this “Ulug Ata calculation” in any of the Karaite manuscripts predating Szapszał’s time. However, from the end of the 1920s, Szapszał actively started using it and even stated that the Karaite Turkic folk calendar had been based on this “calculation of the Great Father”. The note starts calculating the year from the spring month of Nisan and equates it to the Turkic month of artaryk. This also looks highly unusual: in that period, the Karaites, as well as the Rabbanites, began the new year in autumn, in the month of Tishrei and not in Nisan! Shifting the beginning of the new year from Tishrei to Nisan (artaryk) was included in Szapszał’s subsequent calendar reform. The Turkic calendar of the note also appears unusual. Most of its names do not have parallels in any other folk calendar of other Turkic peoples, including those of the Kypchaks and Crimean Tatars, from whom the Karaites borrowed their Turkic languages.1280 Even the Karaites themselves informed Liebmann Hersch in Troki in 1934 that such words simply did not exist in their language.1281 According to Peter

1280 Szapszał’s Turkic names of the months, for example, are not attested in any traditional Turkic calendrical system analyzed in Louis Bazin, Les systèmes chronologiques dans le monde Turc ancient (/Paris, 1991). 1281 “...ils m’affirmaient que pareils mots n’existaient pas dans leur langue” (Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 267 (ft.)). Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 267

Golden, “Shapshal’s forms have the look of invented names. None of them correspond to the Cumanic system, which has largely been Russianized today (cf. Qarachay). Some are clear, e.g. jaz aj/yaz ay (“summer month”), kys aj/qïš ay (“winter month”), karakys aj/qaraqïš ay (“deep winter month;” kara kış (lit. “black winter”) is used in Turkish to describe the harsh winter season, but not as the name of a month). This seems to me to be another of Shapshal’s creations… The Karaites would have no reasons to create Turkic names for Christian months and would have used the standard Hebrew names. Alphabets and calendrical usages were quite conservative.”1282 All of the aforementioned lead one to conclude that this calendrical note was most likely composed and inserted on the folio of “Mekkabech” by Szapszał. It was apparently done by him the same way he inserted his other forgeries – the song of Crimean peoples and the story about Timofei Chmielnicki – on the folios of Karaite printed books and genuine manuscripts (for details, see 6.2.1). Even if this calendrical note were genuine (which is highly unlikely), it would be the only testimony to the fact that the East European Karaites ever used Turkic names of the months. As has been mentioned above, all other manuscripts and printed Karaite prayer-books and calendars in Hebrew, Russian and Karaim use only Hebrew terms for the holidays and months.1283 The only exception is the book Moledot le-34 shanim mi shnat 5567 >ad shnat 5600 (1805/1806) in which one can also see the Turkic equivalents of the European months’ names.1284 However, these Turkic names were completely different from those “found” by Szapszał in Istanbul. Furthermore, there is no indication in the book that these Turkic equivalents had ever been in use in the Karaite community: it seems that Isaac ben Solomon, the editor of the book, provided them together with Christian and Muslim names of the months simply to help his Karaite readers to navigate through different calendars which had existed in the Russian empire at that time. This Turkic calendar was also incomplete (e.g. offering no indication as to how to name January, July and August), which made it useless for liturgical purposes. To give an example, Isaac ben Solomon refers several times to a given Hebrew month as a hodesh shelanu (“our month”)1285 – which argues that Hebrew months were the only months that the Karaites considered “theirs”. Eliyahu Kazas, in the 1890s, informed Wilhelm Radloff of the existence of three Turkic names of the months – çürük ay, küz ay, and sohum ay.1286 The fact that this great

1282 P. Golden to M. Kizilov (31.10.2013). 1283 For the bibliography of Karaite calendars, see BK, 424-437. 1284 Moledot le-34 shanim, fol. 38v; cf. B. Kokenai to S. Szapszał, 1945: MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375. 1285 E.g. Moledot le-34 shanim, fol. 40. 1286 W.W. Radloff (Radlov), Opyt slovaria tiurkskikh narechii/Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk- Dialecte, vol. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1893), 9; cf. Léon Cahun, Introduction à l’histoire de l’Asie (Paris, 1896), 69-70. These three names of the months correspond to those from Szapszał’s calendar. There is no doubt that Szapszał, who read Radloff’s studies, used these three names while inventing his Turkic calendar. 268 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Karaite scholar knew only three months by Turkic names, is also evidence that the Karaites used only Hebrew calendrical terminology. An interesting manuscript from Lithuania, which contains various folk (i.e. unofficial non-religious) materials from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, contains references only Hebrew and Polish names of the months. This is more evidence that even non-religious Karaites had no knowledge of Turkic names of the months, either in the early modern period or in the nineteenth century.1287 In passing, one can also question the authenticity of the so-called Karaite tradition of Turkic names for the days of the week that had been so actively popularized by Szapszał and his associates in the interwar period.1288 Present research reveals that the first reference to the existence of the Turkic names of the Karaite calendar dates back to 1923 and belongs to a non-Karaite Turkologist, A. Samoilovich (Szapszał’s student in St. Petersburg).1289 It appears that not a single reference can be found to Turkic names for the days of the week in original archival or in published Karaite documents predating 1917. One cannot help noticing the evident similarity between Szapszał’s and Atatürk’s calendar reforms. In 1926, Atatürk replaced the traditional Arabic lunar-based Hijri calendar, used for religious matters, and the Ottoman Rumi calendar with the new Turkish Gregorian calendar. Although some months of this calendar revealed Arabic (Aramaic) roots (şubat, nisan, haziran, temmuz), they had nothing in common with the traditional religious Muslim (Arabic) calendar. Four names of the months which had Ottoman origin (Teşrin-i Evvel, Teşrin-i Sânî, Kânûn-ı Evvel and Kânûn-ı Sânî) were later replaced by Turkic names Ekim, Kasım, Aralık and Ocak in 1945. Thus, it is very likely that Szapszał took Atatürk’s eradication of Arabic religious calendar as a template for his calendar reform, directed at the eradication of Hebrew calendar.

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The names of religious holidays also underwent Turkic replacements. According to Szapszał’s logic, the Turkic Karaites were expected to have accepted “pristine” Turkic names for Hebrew holidays. For example, Pesaḥ (a.k.a. Ḥag ha-Maṣot or Passover; in earlier Karaim tradition also chydzy/chydży macałłarnyn) began to be referred to in the new Karaite calendar as the chydzy/chydży tymbyłłarnyn (“the holiday of tymbyłs”; tymbył is a Karaim word to denote Heb. maṣah). The traditional holiday of Sukkot began to be called in Karaim ałac(z)ych or chydz(ż)y ałac(z)ychłarnyn (“the holiday of

1287 Piotr Muchowski, Folk Literature of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. Abkowicz 3 Manuscript, Part 2 (Paris, 2013), 382-383. 1288 E.g. KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 130. 1289 A. Samoilovich, “Nazvaniia dnei nedeli u tiurkskikh narodov,” Yafeticheskii sbornik 2 (1923): 99-119. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 269

huts”), Yom Kippur – bosatłych kini/boszatłych kiuniu (“the Day of Atonement”), Simḥat Torah – bijency Toranyn (“joy of the Torah”), Ḥag ha-Shavuot – chydz(ż)y aftałarnyn (“holiday of the weeks”), Rosh ha-shanah (or Yom Teruah)1290 – byrhy kiuniu (“the day of trumpeting”). Similar Turkic equivalents were found for all other traditional Karaite and Rabbanite holidays.1291 It is not difficult to notice that most of these new Turkic names of the holidays represented direct Karaim calques from original Hebrew names. Sometimes Szapszał replaced traditional Hebrew terms with Arabic and Turkic words which were phonetically close to Hebrew, but had absolutely different meanings. Thus, for example, the day of Khurban ha-bait (Heb. “destruction of the Temple”) was replaced with Turkic Kurban (“[day of] Sacrifice”). Szapszał’s explanation that the Karaite holiday of Kurban (sic) comes from sacrifices made on that day1292 is absolutely false: in genuine Karaite tradition Khurban was a day of commemoration of the destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar on the 10th of Av.1293 On this day, which is a day of fasting and mourning, both Karaites and Rabbanites never made any sacrifices. It certainly had nothing to do with the Muslim ) which is celebrated on the 10th of Dhu al Hijja and isعيد األضحى) holiday of Eid ul-Adha known in Turkish as the Kurban Bayramı (“Feast of Sacrifice”). The beginning of the calendar year was officially moved from the Hebrew month of Tishrei (dubbed, according to Szapszał’s new terminology ajryksy aj; both correspond to September-October) to Nisan (according to Szapszał’s calendar – artaryk aj or March-April). Perhaps this was done in order not to celebrate the Karaite New Year (Rosh ha-shanah or Yom Teruah, now Turkic byrhy kiuniu) at the time when the Rabbanites celebrated Rosh ha-Shanah (New Year).1294 The aforementioned Turkicization of the calendar terminology was intended to produce the impression upon any external observer that the Karaite religious tradition was somewhat similar to that of the Muslim Turks and Arabs, and thus make Karaite religion look less similar

1290 Both Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Teruah can be found in the nineteenth and twentieth-century Karaite catechisms (Klimova, “Polish Catechism,” 499; cf. “The Day of Shouting (Yom Terouah – Rosh Hashana – New Year),” KJA Bulletin (Sept. 1989): 2-3; Philip E. Miller, “Karaite Perspectives on ‘Yôm tĕrû´â,’” in Ki Baruch Hu: Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Judaic Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine, ed. Robert Chazan, William W. Hallo, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Winona Lake, IN, 1999), 537-541. 1291 See the list of the Karaite holidays with new Turkic names in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 71-72; Firkowicz, Karaj Kołtchałary, 22-27; cf. Klimova, “Polish Catechism,” 496-502. 1292 This is how he explained it to Tadeusz Kowalski (Kowalski, “Zu den türkischen Monatsnamen,” 14). 1293 According to the Karaite tradition, the Temple was destroyed on the 10th and not on the 9th of Av (thus, ‘asarah be-av and not tisha be-av; see “Tishah o >asarah be-av,” Dover Bne Miqra 22 (1976): 2, 13). 1294 In fact, the tradition to start the calendar year in Nisan had been an ancient Karaite custom (in accordance with Ex. 12:2), which was later replaced by the tradition of starting the year in Tishrei (most likely under the influence of Rabbanite environment). 270 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

to Judaism. The artificial character of this reform is obvious to anyone knowledgeable about the Karaite religious tradition and calendar. In spite of the fact that some educated Karaites could be aware of the existence of the Arabic and Turkic names of the months, before Szapszał’s time the Karaites of Eastern Europe used exclusively the Hebrew calendar system. Furthermore, as is clear from archival materials, in the second half of the 1930s the great founder of the new Turkic Karaite calendar himself continued using the Hebrew names of religious holidays in his private diaries.1295 Thus, beginning in the early 1930s, the Karaites began officially to live in accordance with the new Turkic calendar and use Turkic terminology to denote their traditional religious holidays and fasts. In our opinion, both Turkic names of the months and of the holidays were invented by Szapszał himself and had never been in use among the East European Karaites before the 1930s. We examine the Karaite community’s reactions to Szapszał’s reforms in 4.4.

4.3.5 “Ecumenisation” of the Karaite Religious Creed

This aspect of Szapszał’s reform activity did not have parallels either in Turkey or in any other country in Europe. In the 1930s, Szapszał and his followers attempted to present the Karaite religion to external readers (and apparently to Karaite audience as well) not as a non-Talmudic variety of Judaism, but as an absolutely distinct tradition – a type of “ecumenical” mixture of Mosaic beliefs, Islam, and Christianity, with elements of paganism. Szapszał was the first Karaite ideological leader to claim that the early Karaites – and particularly the founder of the Karaite movement Anan ben David – recognised the prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed (Muḥammad). Evidence shows that Szapszał formulated his revolutionary ideas for the first time in his Kırım Karay Türkleri in 1928. According to Dan Shapira, Szapszał emphasised there that Anan had recognised Mohammed and Jesus (Yeşû hâsâdîk/‘Îsâ al-Sâdiq) as prophets sent to the Gentiles. Szapszał stated that early Christianity was highly similar to Karaism, and only later in its development did Christianity adopt characteristics which drew a clear-cut borderline between it and Karaism (e.g. the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and Jesus’ role in that concept as the divine “Son of God”, the use of icons, abolition of circumcision, the transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, etc.). Furthermore, Szapszał claimed that Christianity did not completely separate from Karaism until in the eighth century. According to Szapszał, Anan’s teachings derived from those

1295 S. Szapszał’s private diary, 1920s-30s: LMAB F. 143, no. 917, fol. 128r. In his letter to Zarach Zarachowicz of 1948, Szapszał greeted the latter on the holiday of Yom Kippur (sic) and inserted a phrase in Hebrew, in Latin characters (S. Szapszał to Z. Zarachowicz, Wilno/Vilnius, 8.10.1948, Russian; the Yurchenko MSS). Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 271

of Jesus; Anan ben David proscribed his followers to avoid intermarriage and any dealings with the Jews (!), thus establishing a completely separate religion.1296 He repeated these radical “ecumenical” statements in many of his later published or archival studies, in memoranda sent to state officials, and during private and official meetings with Karaite and non-Karaite audience alike.1297 In 1932, he repeated what he had written about Christianity and Islam in his Kırım Karay Türkleri to the Swiss writer, Hans Zbinden.1298 In a 1936 interview with French journalist Abel Moreau, he said “We call him “Echou Hatchadik”, that is the “Just”. For us Christ did not modify the Old Testament. On the contrary, he affirmed it... Many of us believe that Christ was a Karaite… Christ is for us a great prophet, but not the Messiah.”1299 These statements caused much interest on the part of Christian missionaries and Muslim thinkers and ideologists. In 1928, Szapszał was visited by the Reverend I.E. Davidson, director of the British Mission to the Jews, who later sent him a copy of New Testament in Hebrew and wrote: “I was interested to learn that you accept the person of the Lord Jesus, as being the Son of God, Who made the Vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the whole World…”1300 In the 1930s there appeared many publications in the press which characterized the Karaites as those who at the same time recognized the prophetic nature of Moses, Mohammed and Jesus. In 1936 Mehmed Handžić (1906– 1944, Sarajevo), the leader of Bosnian Muslim revivalists, professor at Gazi Husrev- beg madrasa in Sarajevo, dedicated an article to the Karaites whom he characterized as those who believe in Mohammed and Jesus.1301 It seems that Szapszał personally met with Handžić during his visit to Sarajevo.1302 Szapszał, in his turn, also tried to establish contacts with noted Christian authorities. In the 1930s he gave several of his publications to Corrado Gini with the request that they be delivered to the Pope Pius XI. According to Gini, the pontiff read these publications with interest.1303 In 1935, Szapszał sent to the Vatican library his

1296 Shapira, “Jewish pan-Turkist,” 361-362. 1297 See Seraja Szapszał, “Przeszłość i teraźniejszość Karaimów,” Wiedza i Życie 3 (1934): 215; idem, “Corrado Gini, ‘I Caraimi di Polonia e Lituania’ (Recenzja),” MK 12 (1938): 111-112; idem, “Alexandre Baschmakoff, ‘Cinquante siècles d’évolution ethnique autour de la Mer Noire’ (Paris, 1937) (Recenzja),” MK 12 (1938): 112-118; cf. his statements in AAN MWRiOP, no. 1462, fol. 2; ibid., no. 1464, fol. 129. 1298 Zbinden, Polen, 92-95. 1299 Abel Moreau, “En Pologne. A Troki, chez le Hachan des Karaїmes,” Revue Bleue 6 (1936): 392 cf. Green, “The Karaite Community in Interwar Poland,” 107). Abel Moreau (1893 – 1977) was a French writer, the author of the novel L’île du Paradis (Paris, 1935). Echou Hatchadik is a French rendering of the Hebrew Yeshuah ha-ṣadiq (Jesus the Righteous); in accordance with the Crimean Karaite pronunciation Szapszał spelled ṣade as ch (hence hatchadik and not haṣadik). 1300 Rev. I.E. Davidson to S. Szapszał (29.07.1929, English) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 218, Fol.1. 1301 Hadži Mehmed Handžić, “Karaimi (Karaiti),” Novi Behar (01.11.1936): 92-94 (in Bosnian). 1302 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1492. 1303 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 211, fols. 23-24. 272 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

study on Catholic influence upon the images of Muslim saints in Persia. He received a letter of gratitutde from Cardinal Pacelli, on the Pope’s behalf.1304 Szapszał demonstrated his “ecumenist” perspective with regard to religious differences to Marian Hepke, the traveller and journalist who visited the ḥakhan in his apartment in Wilno in 1935. Szapszał outlined to the visitor the peaceful picture of serene coexistence of eight various denominations in Wilno and told him a story about a religious dispute between a Turk and a Greek which had been solved by a certain passing-by Muslim scholar. By using a philosophical metaphor, the Muslim scholar showed to the both sides that each of them was, in his own way, correct and that real truth can hardly to be found.1305 One cannot help noticing here the casuistic manner of Szapszal’s rhetoric in arguing for harmony among such divergent traditions. In fact, such argumentation, became his life-motto – which he also made obligatory for his followers. Szapszał’s idea about the Karaites’ alleged recognition of Mohammed and Jesus as prophets was further disseminated by his followers, the interwar ḥazzanim. This is evident in the brochure “On the Karaites in Poland” published by the Troki ḥazzan Szemaja/Szymon Firkowicz in 1938.1306 Furthermore, in an interview, given apparently after the war, Firkowicz told the reporter that the Karaite faith “is close to Islam, although the Karaites recognise Mohammed and Christ as equivalent Prophets.”1307 In passing, one cannot help noticing that part of Szapszał’s agenda involved making the Karaite religion appear somewhat similar to Christianity. This is why Karaite religious holidays were sometimes called by Christian Polish names: Pesaḥ = Wielkanoc (Pol. Easter); Shavu>ot = Zielone Święto (Pol. “Green holiday,” i.e. Pentecost).1308 Szapszał also tried to introduce a new terminology for Karaite spiritual officials. As one visitor to Troki noticed, there was a tendency to replace traditional Hebrew terms with Polish-Catholic ones: ḥazzan was called “ksiądz” (priest), ḥakham – “biskup” (bishop), shammash – “zakrystjan” (sacristan).1309 In the 1940s there was a tendency to spell the term ḥazzan as hassan – apparently to provide this term with a supposed “Muslim” flavour.1310 However, presentation of Karaism as some sort of mixed Mosaic-Islamo- Christian faith was not enough for Szapszał. In 1938, under the influence of pseudo-

1304 “Błogosławieństwo Jego Świętobliwości Papieża Piusa XI,” MK 11 (1936): 109-110. 1305 Hepke, Wilno, 72-73. 1306 Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce, 4-5. 1307 “Karaimi, ogórki, historja”, Express, n.d. (a fragment of this article without the date of its publication was found by me in the Yurchenko MSS). 1308 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 71-72. 1309 Blum, “Ha-Qara

scholarly studies by Alexandre Baschmakoff (Башмаков)1311 and Corrado Gini, his theological doctrine underwent a new change. In his review of Baschmakoff’s study, Szapszał stated that the Karaite religious doctrine, which included elements of pre- Talmudic Judaism together with the recognition of the prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed, also comprised elements of pagan practices typical of the Chuvashes (!).1312 These non-existent “Karaite” (and Chuvash) practices consisted of the veneration of trees, specifically of the so-called “sacred oaks” growing in the Karaite cemetery near Çufut Kale in Crimea.1313 To our knowledge, this seems to be the first time when Szapszał openly announced that Karaite religion included pagan practices – and the importance of this statement cannot and should not be underestimated. This was, perhaps, the first case in Karaite history when a Karaite religious or secular leader (furthermore, a head of several comparatively large communities) ventured to say such a thing.

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Needless to say, the main postulates of his “ecumenical” creed were invented by Szapszał himself and were not based on any historical evidence: the Karaites never considered Mohammed and Jesus to be prophets (even in the course of Szapszał’s reforms of the 1930s – 1950s the Karaites certainly never included the names of Mohammed and Jesus in public prayers, liturgy and prayer books). Nevertheless, in the 1930s–1940s, the questionable nature of Gini’s and Szapszał’s argumentation concerning the Karaites’ closeness to the Chuvashes and the Khazars seemed far less evident than today, since the scholarship of that time possessed much less information about Khazar history and the methodology of anthropological work. Today the nonsensical nature of Szapszał’s statements is more than evident. Indeed, the pagan beliefs of the Chuvashes did include the veneration of trees. However, the

1311 Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bashmakov/Baschmakoff (1859-1943) was a Russian scholar, supporter of Marr’s Japhetic theory. His letters to Szapszał are kept in LMAB F. 143, no. 191. 1312 The reference to the Chuvashes was included by him certainly under the influence of Gini’s “discovery” that the Chuvashes were anthropologically close to the East European Karaites (see 3.9). 1313 Szapszał, “Alexandre Baschmakoff,” 112-118. In this article and in KKT (1928) Szapszał used the Turkic toponym Balta Tiymez (“The axe may not touch”) to designate the valley of Jehosaphath near Çufut Kale in Crimea. This toponym, which is not attested in any historical source prior to Szapszał, was most likely simply invented by the Karaite leader. Cf. Alexandre Baschmakoff, Cinquante siècles d’évolution ethnique autour de la Mer Noire (Paris, 1937); idem, “Les origines ethniques des Сaraїtes de Crimée,” Journal Officiel de la République Française 232 (3.10.1935). Like Gini’s study, the aforementioned absolutely ignorant and pseudo-scholarly book by Baschmakoff was later often used by the Karaites to support their claim of non-Jewish origins to the Nazi and fascist authorities. 274 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Karaites, rigorous monotheists, never practised such superstitious rituals.1314 Nor did the Karaites recognize the prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed. Indeed, there are a few medieval Arabic authors (al-Makrizi, Abu-l-Fida, and al-Shahrastani) who mentioned that Anan ben David and his followers were friendly with regard to Jesus and Mohammed. These sources, however, were composed by Arab (i.e. non- Karaite) authors who lived much later than the eighth century; furthermore, there was much difference between the Ananite and Karaite doctrine.1315 Finally, there is much difference between being friendly to the teachings of Jesus and Mohammed and recognizing them as prophets. None of the later authoritative Karaite authors (Yefet ben Eli, Aaron ben Elijah, Elijah Bashiachi, Isaac Troki, Solomon ben Aaron, Abraham Firkowicz, Mordecai Sułtański, Elijahu Kazaz etc.) had ever mentioned that the Karaites recognized Jesus and Mohammed as prophets. Numerous later Karaite exegetes criticized both Christianity and Islam.1316 In the 1940s, the tendency to present the Karaite religion as a mixture of Islamic, Mosaic and Christian tradition, was used by the Karaites in order to mask the Jewish character of their religion to the Nazi authorities.1317 Statements of some later Karaite authors (e.g. A. Zajączkowski, M.S. Sarach and Yu. Polkanov) about the “ecumenical” nature of Karaite religious tradition which includes Islamic, Christian and even pagan rituals take their roots certainly in Szapszał’s dejudaization reforms and are not based on any actually existing historical tradition. For the refutation of these “ecumenical” tendencies, see the statement of today’s Eupatoria ḥazzan, Victor/David Tiriyaki.1318 It is important to mention that in the interwar period a tendency to secession from Judaism due to fear of religious and racial persecution, similar to that postulated by Szapszał and his followers, was also present among Ashkenazic Jews.1319 Some interwar Jewish leaders attempted to introduce reforms highly similar to those of Szapszał. To give an example, Angelo Sacerdoti, the chief Rabbi of Rome, in the 1930s attempted to decrease the use of Hebrew as the liturgical language (one may recall that Szapszał, similarly, also tried to decrease the use of Hebrew in liturgy).1320 A few other examples also may be mentioned. However, secessions among the Ashkenazim

1314 For a critique of the non-existent cult of “sacred oaks” see Kizilov, Karaites through the Travelers’ Eyes, 124-126; Aleksandr Babadzhan, “O dubakh i posviashchennykh,” Caraimica 2 (2007): 34-36; idem, “O dębach i o wtajemniczonych,” Awazymyz 1 (2006). 1315 For more details on the attitude of the Ananites and early Karaites to Christianity and Islam, see Moshe Gil, “The Origins of the Karaites,” 89, 110; Camilla Adang, “The Karaites as Portrayed in Medieval Islamic Sources,” in KJ, 191, 196. 1316 Aaron ben Elijah, Eṣ ḥayyim (Gözleve/Eupatoria, 1847), 7. 1317 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 115-117; for more information concerning the Karaite strategy of the survival during WWII, see Chapter 5. 1318 As recorded by Vladimir Matveyev in his “Karaites in Crimea,” Frontier 11 (2006): 30-32. 1319 Ruppin, Jewish Fate, 282-290. 1320 Sarfatti, Jews, 75. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 275

represented individual decisions that never had such an elaborate ideological background as Szapszał’s policy of “ecumenisation” and dejudaization of Karaite religious tradition.

Illustration 7: Szapszał’s Turkic “coat of arms” that replaced the Star of David at the gate of the Troki Karaite kenesa. Photo by M. Kizilov.

4.3.6 Changes in Traditional Symbolism and Invention of the Karaite “Coat of Arms”

As have been mentioned in subchapters 3.4.5 and 3.5.5 in the 1930s Szapszał and his followers began removing from the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite kenesalar images, reliefs and depictions of such traditional symbols of Judaism (Rabbanite and Karaite alike) as the Star of David and luḥot ha-brit (Heb. “tablets of Law”). In this way the Stars of David were removed from the gate and the top of the Troki and Halicz1321 kenesalar, while Tablets of Law – from the cupola of the Wilno kenesa. From the 1930s the Karaites stopped carving images of the Star of David on their tombstone

1321 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. See the photo of the Star of David on the top of the Halicz kenesa in Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 414, pl. 25. Ivan Yurchenko informed me that he had seen the Star of David, supposedly originating from the local Karaite synagogue, in a private collection in Halicz in 2002 (private communication, May, 2002). 276 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

monuments. Although the Star of David remained on earlier Karaite tombstones, in the 1930s many of them were removed or erased.1322 However, the empty space (in the physical and metaphorical senses of the word), which appeared as a result of the removal of Stars of David and other traditional symbols, was supposed to be filled by something else. In the late 1920s a new symbol for the East European Karaites was invented. It was intended to imitate the heraldic coats of arms of Polish-Lithuanian noble families on the one hand, and show the Karaites’ military valour and Turkic origin, on the other. Although some authors suggest that this Karaite “coat of arms” was designed by the Karaite artist, Lidja Szole (a.k.a. Lidia Karakasz-Szole; 1896-1943),1323 there is no doubt that the idea of the emergence of this new symbolism was created by Szapszał. As will be shown later, Szapszał was the first to interpret the symbols scratched on the defensive wall of Çufut Kale as the Karaite “bicorn and shield.” Before Szapszał’s arrival in Poland in 1928 these symbols were unknown to the local community – therefore, Szapszał was the only person who could suggest that Lidja Szole use them for the Karaite “coat of arms”. Furthermore, it seems that these Karaite “bicorn and shield” surfaced already in September 1928, during the ceremony of Szapszał’s inauguration to the office of the ḥakham, i.e. apparently before Szapszał got acquainted with Szole. During this ceremony he received the so-called “Altınbaş” (CrTat. “Golden head”) – a kind of a cane with a golden ball at the top with the depiction of a bicorn and a shield above the image of a castle. It was given to Szapszał by the oldest member of the community, 77-year-old Ławrynowicz.1324 Later Szapszał apparently requested Lidja Szole to create a Karaite “coat of arms” and use these two symbols for it. In the end, bicorn and shield were placed in the centre of the “coat of arms”. The ḥakham’s headgear and ṭallit gadol with ṣiṣit (chichit) were placed above these two symbols. The Eastern wall of Çufut Kale (or, according to some, the entrance to the Troki castle) was situated below. This imagery became the official “coat of arms” of the East European Karaites in the 1930s1325 – and continued to be used as such by all the Karaite communities in Eastern Europe even today. What is the actual historical origin of these two mysterious fork- and heart-shaped symbols which Szapszał interpreted as the non-existent Karaite weaponry? These two signs were carved (or, rather, scratched) on the marble plate placed above the entrance to Büyük Kapı/Biyuk Kapu (Turk./CrTat. “Large Gate”) of the Eastern defensive wall of

1322 During the field work on the Karaite cemetery in Troki in 2014 I discovered at least six cases of erasure of Stars of David from local tombstones; although no further evidence is available, it seems that this was done in the 1930s. 1323 Aleksandr Dziuba, “Kop’io i shchit. Kak drevnie tamgi stali gerbom karaimov,” IKDU 7 (16): 8-10; Mariusz Pawelec, “Płomień zgasły przedwcześnie,” Awazymyz 2011, 1 (30), 12-14. 1324 S. Klaczyński, “Uroczystość ingresu J.E. Hachana Karaimów, Seraja Ben Szapszała,” KW (12.09.1928); “Ingres Hachama Karaimów,” Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny 256 (15.09.1928). 1325 See MK 2:3-4 (1931), figs. 5-6. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 277

Çufut Kale in Crimea. In fact these symbols could hardly have any relationship to the local Karaite community. Most likely, they were the symbols (so-called tamğalar) of the Yaşlov (Yaş-Dağı) bey clan of Crimean Tatars who were de facto owners of Çufut Kale in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A strong argument in favour of this hypothesis is the presence of exactly the same signs on the Middle Gate (“Orta Kapı”) of Çufut Kale. The Middle Gate most likely belongs to the fourteenth/fifteenth centuries. This was the time when the Karaite community of Çufut Kale was not very numerous, and hardly influential enough to put its putative community signs at the central gate of the Muslim town. Moreover, it is very unlikely that the Karaites, skilful carvers and sculptors, would engrave such a simple, rough emblem, without biblical allusions and ornate carving. 1326 Although these two signs, which were emblems of Tatar , had no relationship to the Karaite community whatsoever, the Karaite nineteenth-century intellectuals began interpreting them as having belonged to the local community. The Karaite ḥazzan of Çufut Kale, Solomon Beim, was one of the first to pay attention to these signs in the second half of the nineteenth century. He interpreted them as symbols of the military victories (stirrups, pitchfork, and a bullet) of the forty Karaite families who had fought together with Toktamish and Mengli Giray.1327 As has been mentioned above, this interpretation did not have any historical background. Simcha Saadievich Eljaszewicz/El’iashevich (1911) suggested an absolutely different interpretation of these signs: according to him, the heart-shaped sign was in fact the Hebrew letter samekh while the fork-shaped sing – the letter >ayin. When grouped together, they constituted the initial letters of the placename Sel>a [ha] >ibrim.1328 This is how, according to Eljaszewicz, the fortress was referred to by the Karaites in the preceding centuries. The unfeasibility of this theory is self-evident. Szapszał, who carefully read Beim’s publications, in 1928 suggested a different interpretation, similar to that offered by Beim. In his opinion, they were depictions of Karaite military weapons: the fork-shaped sign (“senek tamğa”) was, in his opinion, a kind of Karaite military weapon-bicorn, whereas the heart-shaped sign, “kalkan tamğa” (Turk. “shield sign”), was the depiction of shield.1329 In addition to all the aforementioned historical factors against this hypothesis, there is also an additional argument of physical nature against it: within the heart-shaped sign one can clearly see two round incisions which is impossible for a shield. In the 1930s (most likely, between 1933 and 1935), these Tatar emblems replaced traditional Karaite symbols – the Star of David and Tablets of the Law in the Troki and

1326 For more details, see Kizilov, Karaites through the Travelers’ Eyes, 193-195; A.G. Gertsen and Y.M. Mogarichev, Krepost’ Dragotsennostei. Chufut-Kale. Kyrk-Or (Simferopol, 1993), 75-77. 1327 Beim, Pamiat’, 37. 1328 [Simcha Saadievich Eljaszewicz/El’iashevich], “Tainstvennaia nadpis’,” KZh 3-4 (1911): 114. 1329 KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 141-142; cf. Kowalski, “Turecka monografja,” 6. 278 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Wilno Karaite synagogues-kenesalar. In Halicz the local Karaites simply removed the Star of David, but did not replace it with these tamğalar. However, the Galicians were perhaps the first to show the new coat of arms to a wide Polish audience. In 1933, Poland celebrated the 250th anniversary of the victory in the battle of Vienna (1683). On 17 September 1933, the city council of Stanisławów organized a solemn ceremony to commemorate this event. The Karaite delegation, which consisted of a few Galician Karaites, was dressed in slightly modified traditional clothing and carried a “Karaite banner” of white, blue, and yellow colours.1330 Moreover, they carried a large shield with a depiction of the aforementioned “coat of arms” with the inscription “Karaimi Haliccy opiekunowi swemu królowi Janowi III-mu w hołdzie” (the Halicz Karaites in homage to their patron Jan III Sobieski). According to an eyewitness report, the Karaite delegates were greeted with the words “Bravo and long live our Karaites!”1331 There is no doubt that it was Szapszał who gave them detailed instructions regarding their dress and the shield with the “coat of arms.”1332

Illustration 8: Szapszał’s Turkic “coat of arms” the way it was presented in Myśl Karaimska 2: 3-4 (1930).

1330 Again, this “banner with national colours” (chorągiew o barwach narodowych) seems to be Szapszał’s invention. 1331 [Leon Szulimowicz], “Karaimi Haliccy opiekunowi swemu królowi Janowi III-mu w hołdzie,” MK 10 (1934): 118-120; cf. the draft of this article in MS LMAB F. 143, no.1587. 1332 Z. Nowachowicz to S. Szapszał, Halicz, 28 Aug. 1933 (LMAB F. 305, no. 511, fols. 58r-59r). Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 279

In the 1930s this newly invented “coat of arms” was placed on various community seals, official and internal Karaite documents, on the bookcase used for storing the community archive,1333 etc. Thus it became the central symbol of East European Karaism after the 1930s, having completely ousted out such traditional symbols as the Star of David, Tablets of the Law and seven-branch candelabrum. This “coat of arms” is still used by Polish, Lithuanian, Crimean and Russian Karaites as the main symbol of Karaism in Eastern Europe, although hardly any member of these communities remembers now that its origins date back to the late 1920s and not to any medieval past.

4.3.7 Turkicization (Dejudaization) of the Karaites’ Historical Views and Cultural and Ethnic Identity

All the aforementioned Turkicization (dejudaization) changes were carried out by Szapszał with the intention of presenting the Karaites as Turks to Polish authorities and Turkicize the Karaites’ religious, cultural and ethnic identity. This new identity denied all historical links that, throughout the centuries, had connected the Karaites with Jewish civilization and with Jews in general. In order to achieve this end, Szapszał and his associates (Sz. Firkowicz, A. Mardkowicz, J. Łobanos, R. Abkowicz, S. Rudkowski and some others) published in the late 1920s/1930s a number of articles and brochures in various languages in the Karaite and non-Karaite press, delivered a number of public speeches, and propagated their Turkic vision of Karaite origins to visitors to Troki. Szapszał tried to prove his main idea – the ethnic origin of the East European Karaites from the Turkic Khazars – starting from his first publication of 1896.1334 Nevertheless, in order to “prove” the non-Semitic racial origin of the Karaites to the Karaites themselves and to a non-Karaite audience in the 1930s, Szapszał had to use a few new pseudo-scholarly eugenic theories attesting to the Karaites’ supposedly Khazar anthropological origins. Especially important for the transformation of his theory was the study by the fascist demographer Corrado Gini, who, for some reason, came to the conclusion that the Karaites in fact closely resembled not the Turkic Khazars, but Finno-Ugrian Chuvashes.1335 In order to comply with this new theory, Szapszał published in 1938 a small article, a review of Alexander Baschmakoff’s pseudo-scholarly anthropological monograph. There he announced that the Chuvashes were also to be included in the list of non-Semitic ancestors of the East European Karaites. He explained the presence of Chuvash blood in the Karaites

1333 This bookcase was donated to the community by president Mościcki and placed in the Troki kenesa. It can be still seen there by visitors to Troki. 1334 Szapszał, Karaimy i Chufut-Kale. 1335 See 3.9. 280 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

by the fact that the Chuvashes were assimilated by the Khazars, and thus became ancestors of the Karaites.1336 This was neither the first nor the last twist added by Szapszał to his Turkic theory. Professor Bruno Adler, for example, who had seen in Crimea in 1929/1930 an unpublished paper by Szapszał, mentioned that according to the latter, the Karaites were neither Jews nor Khazars, but members of a different Turkic entity.1337 Needless to say that Szapszał’s theory was not historically accurate and the participation of the Chuvashes, Khazars, and Cumans in the Karaites’ ethnogenesis is not reflected in any written, epigraphic or archaeological source.1338 Although the Turkicization (dejudaization) of the interwar Karaite community was to large extent a unique process, to some extent, it resembled the interwar de-Ottomanization1339 of Turkish society which, had to not only return to its Turkic identity, but also reconsider it. The Karaite community, which did not really have any Turkic historical past, simply had to invent it. Szapszał was successful in inventing for the Karaites the new Turkic calendar, symbols, to some extent, language, religion, creed, terminology and ultimately ethnic identity. Numerous published and archival materials testify that in the 1930s many (but not all!) Polish-Lithuanian Karaites indeed accepted Szapszał’s reforms and new Turkic identity.

4.3.8 Ways of Implementing Szapszał’s Turkic Doctrine in Interwar Poland

Having analyzed the character of Szapszał’s interwar Turkicization reforms, it is important to understand how exactly these changes were implemented. Active implementation of Szapszał’s reforms in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Turkicization of the interwar Karaite community was a gradual process that started from initial, seemingly small and insignificant terminological reforms, and later resulted in a complete transformation of Karaite society. Turkicization found its first followers among the most emancipated segment of the Karaite intelligentsia, and only then was it disseminated amongst ordinary members of the community, who often failed to understand the necessity of eliminating “obsolete and inconvenient” Jewishness. As will be shown later, complete Turkicization of Karaite society was achieved, perhaps, only after the Second World

1336 Szapszał, “Alexandre Baschmakoff,” 112-118. 1337 Adler, “Krim-Karäer,” 114-115. 1338 For the detailed critique of the Khazar theory of the origins of the East European Karaites, see Kizilov, Mikhaylova, “Khazar Kaganate;” idem, “Khazary i Khazarskii kaganat;” Shapira, “Khazars and Karaites.” 1339 On de-Ottomanization, see Başkan, “Turkish Language Reform,” 99-101. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity from 1928 to 1939 281

War. There were a few ways to disseminate reforms: via printed word, through oral directives, financial channels, in official public speeches and excursions for tourists. Analysis of the Karaite press of the 1930s is, perhaps, the easiest way to follow the Turkicization of Karaite life in interwar Poland. Szapszał and his associates published a number of leaflets and articles in the Polish language aimed at the dissemination of his Turkic doctrine not only among the Karaites, but also among the Poles.1340 Calendars with new Turkic names of the months and holidays were printed and distributed among members of the communities. Today, many academic readers of these interwar publications will simply ignore them because of their appallingly pseudo-scholarly and amateur character. However, in the interwar period, the attitude towards the printed word was much more deferential and less critical than it is now. However, these publications do not provide enough information on the actual mode of introduction of the main postulates of Szapszał’s doctrine in different Karaite communities. If there were any written instructions as to the mode of dejudaization or Turkicization Karaite traditions and identity, they did not survive. Nevertheless, one may suggest that Szapszał gave his instructions (either in oral or written manner) to ḥazzanim who later transmitted them to their respective community members. It is known that, for example, in Troki kenesa the Star of David, which was above the aron ha-qodesh, was removed after Szapszał’s explanation (apparently, a public speech) to the community members. Later it was substituted by the image of the sun with rays.1341 To give another example, in 1933, Halicz was visited by the Troki ḥazzan Szemaja Firkowicz, one of the most active proponents of Szapszał’s doctrine. According to Izaak Abrahamowicz, he arrived in Halicz to introduce some changes in the internal order of the local kenesa and the manner of praying.1342 Abrahamowicz did not explain the exact nature of these “changes.” Nevertheless, one may assume that they were related to the wider usage of Karaim for liturgical purposes and the removal of some conspicuously “Jewish” decorative elements from the synagogue. There is no doubt that Firkowicz was instructed by Szapszał to introduce these changes in Halicz. The Turkic doctrine could have been disseminated also via public speeches and lectures. In the late 1920s/1930s Szapszał often had to deliver public speeches both to Karaite and non-Karaite audience alike. During these speeches Szapszał always emphasized the Turkic origin of the Karaites and other dejudaization propaganda accents he needed to stress. Sources mention that during the war years Szapszał lectured a series of lectures dedicated to the history and essence of the Karaite

1340 E.g. Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce; Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Elementy tureckie na ziemiach polskich (Zamość, 1935); idem, “Karaimi na Wołyniu (pochodzenie i dzieje),” Rocznik Wołyński 3 (1933): 149-191; Mardkowicz, Synowie zakonu; idem, Ogniska karaimskie; idem, Karaim, jego życie i zwyczaje. Cf. also references to Szapszał’s publications above and numerous pro-Turkic articles in MK. 1341 Ya.F. Kokkei to S. Szapszał, Russian (LMAB F. 143, no. 377, fol. 5). 1342 I. Abrahamowicz to S. Szapszał, 22 August 1933 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 172a, fols. 36-37). 282 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

movement in his apartment in Wilno.1343 This was another handy way to distribute his new, Turkic vision of Karaite history to members of the community. During the war years, when it was mortally dangerous to manifest any relationship of the community to Judaism, Jewish people and civilization, this was especially significant. Szapszał could also control his flock not only through spiritual, but also via financial channels. In addition to his spiritual and administrative power over the community, Szapszał was also responsible for the distribution of financial support provided to the Karaites by the Polish state. Exact financial documentation is lacking in regard to funding of the Karaite community by the state in the 1930s, but in 1928 the total amount of money for its maintenance was supposed to be 30,000 złoty per annum. 12,000 złoty of this sum was supposed to be paid annually to Szapszał as his ḥakham’s salary.1344 Furthermore, the Polish administration provided additional funding and supported various Karaite community projects, such as publication of the periodical Myśl Karaimska and renovation of their houses of prayer (kenesalar). It seems that it was Szapszał who was in charge of distributing state money among the various communities; furthermore, it was he who paid salaries to the interwar ḥazzanim out of this money. It was through Szapszał that the ḥazzanim received their salary, while the communities obtained additional subsidies for its religious school, public centres, renovation works, etc. It was certainly clear to the ḥazzanim and other important members of the communities that funding was directly linked to the following of Szapszał’s reforms. Excursions arranged by Karaite guides to numerous visitors to Troki were another way of transmitting the Turkic doctrine to non-Karaite audience. Starting from the nineteenth century the romantic ruins of the Troki castle became an important site, visited annually by thousands tourists and official visitors. In 1929, the Troki kenesa was visited by the president of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, minister Witold Staniewicz, marszałek Sejmu (Marshal of the Sejm) Ignacy Daszyński, the famous British writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936), a group of Polish litterateurs, members of the French parliament, Latvian state officials, members of the Thirteenth Congress of Naturalists and Healers, etc.1345 In 1930, it was visited by the minister of agriculture, J. Połczyński, vice-wojewoda S. Kirtiklis, a group of catholic priests from Kraków, officers from the High Military School, group of French journalists, artists and scholars from Lille.1346 Among other visitors to kenesa of the 1930s one can find Polish and foreign ministers, pedagogues, statesmen and officers, lawyers, automobilists,

1343 Szymon Pilecki, “Karaimskie życie rodzinne, społeczne i religijne okresu międzywojennego, czas wojny, decyzje o przyjeździe do Polski,” Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus (Warsaw 2012), 47; cf. A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 30.03.1942 (UO, 175). Szapszał arranged public lectures on Karaite history also earlier, in 1917 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1519, fol. 14r). 1344 AAN MWRiOP, no. 1464, fols. 101, 111, 115-117. 1345 S. Sz-n [Szymon Szyszman], “Wycieczki i wizyty,” MK 2:2 (1929): 41. 1346 “Wycieczki w Trokach,” MK 2: 3-4 (1931): 75. Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms 283

tourists, merchants, journalists, scholars, professors, artists, poets, and writers. The list of noteable visitors to kenesa can be continued ad infinitum.1347 Inside the kenesa visitors were guided by specially-trained Karaite cicerones who unfolded to the visitors the Turkic vision of Karaite ethnic history and religion. The pseudo-scholarly speeches of these guides, who championed this new interpretation of Karaite history, had been documented by several visitors to Troki in the 1930s.1348 After taking part in one such excursion in 1936, an angry M. Piątkowski wrote that “the visit to kenesa resonates as unpleasant dissonance in every person of good will.”1349

***

Having analyzed the main agenda and ways of transmitting Szapszał’s Turkicization changes in the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities in the interwar period, it is important to understand the reaction of ordinary members of the communities to his radical reforms.

4.4 Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms

It is important to understand to what extent Szapszał was successful in his reformist activity. Indeed, many of his dejudaization reforms were more or less successfully introduced in the late 1920s/1930s. There is no doubt, however, that before the beginning of the Second World War many East European Karaites accepted most of Szapszał’s innovations only superficially and with serious reservations. The word ḥachan became the only word to denote the religious and administrative head of the Karaite community; the term ḥakham practically ceased to be used although in many less-official publications the Karaites continued using it to denote learned or righteous members of the community.1350 The role of Hebrew was considerably reduced; there

1347 “Wycieczki,” MK 10 (1934): 117; “Wycieczki,” MK 11 (1936): 115-118; S.F. [Szemaja Firkowicz], “Wycieczki,” MK 12 (1938): 151-152. 1348 Piątkowski, “Karaimszczyzna;” Blum, “Ha-Qara

appeared the first Karaite prayer-book in Latin characters which contained prayers only in the Karaim language.1351 Official Karaim, which had been purged of most of its Hebrew and Slavic loanwords, became the Karaites’ most important everyday, literary and (with some reservations) liturgical language. Nevertheless, on an everyday level the ordinary Karaites certainly continued using both Hebrew and Slavic loanwords;1352 this is also attested by the fact that, for example, the first two issues of Onarmach were full of numerous Hebrew and Slavic terms. Although Latin characters now became the Karaites’ main script, traditionalists still continued using the Hebrew alphabet for religious purposes and correspondence.1353 Traditional Jewish symbols (Star of David and Tablets of the Law) were indeed removed from the kenesalar and from some old tombstones in the Troki cemetery (see 3.4.5, 3.5.5, 4.3.6). Furthermore, the Star of David was removed from the official seal of the Halicz community; its later variant contained a depiction of the Karaite kenesa of Wilno.1354 In the interwar period most Hebrew inscriptions disappeared from the walls of the Halicz kenesa (it is unclear whether this happened during the renovation of the building in 1927 or later, in the 1930s). One interwar Jewish visitor remarked, with disapproval, that “in früheren Zeiten waren sie [the interior sides of the synagogue walls] vielfarbig mit Bibel- und Gebetssätzen bemalt, heute mutet das Haus wie das Zimmer eines kleinstädtischen Hotels an.” The same person noted that a certain “national Karaite house” was built in the vicinity of the synagogue.1355 The invented by Szapszał non-existent coat of arms – the pseudo-Turkic senek and kalkan tamğalar depicted above the symbolic image of Çufut Kale fortress – now became the new symbol of the Karaite community. It was placed at the entrance to the Troki kenesa and on the top of the Wilno kenesa – on the spot where the Star of David and Tablets of Law once had been. It became integral part of the ḥachan’s and ḥazzanim’s seals and was often shown to the public as the Karaite coat of arms during various official events. The calendar reform was accepted in the 1930s extremely superficially. Thus, for example, in officially-printed interwar Karaite calendars one can see both Hebrew and Turkic names of the months printed with Latin characters.1356 In internal community

1351 Firkowicz, Karaj Kołtchałary. 1352 E.g. Szymon Pilecki in his diary used numerous Hebrew terms and loanwords (Purym, Rożyszczana, Kippur, Sukkot, mila, tiefinła, hamiećlamiak, hagada, chewra, etc.) from 1939 to 1945 (Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 31, 77, 79, 101, 111-112, 159, 236, 282). 1353 See the calendar for 1944/1945 and “Luaḥ roshei ḥodashim/Karaimskii kalendar’ na 5710 god ot sotvoreniia mira (1949-1950)” (the Yurchenko MSS). 1354 The personal seal of the Halicz ḥazzan, however, still contained the depiction of Tablets of the Law (see their photos in Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 445-447). 1355 Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13. On the other hand, the synagogue’s exterior design became much more expressive: it now also included elegant reliefs in the form of the Karaite ṭallit gadol (prayer- shawl) on the corners of the building (see ibid., 414). 1356 E.g. Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700, comp. Refael Abkowicz (Wilno, 1939). Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms 285

documents, however, the Hebrew alphabet and names of the months were usually used. The hand-written Karaite calendars composed in Halicz in Hebrew characters in the 1940s-1950s contained only Hebrew terms.1357 Moreover, although the year officially started with the holiday of Jył Baszy in the month of Nisan (artaryk aj), many Karaites continued to celebrate Rosh ha-Shanah (also called by the Karaites in Hebrew Yom teruah) in Tishrei (ajryksy aj) and not in Nisan as was prescribed by Szapszał.1358 Szymon Pilecki celebrated this holiday, which he called by the old name – Rożyszczana (a folk corruption of the Hebrew Rosh ha-Shanah) – in the Troki Karaite community in October 1940; A. Zajączkowski celebrated Rosz-ha-szana (sic) in Troki on 8.09.1926.1359 Liebmann Hersch spent a few days in 1934 conducting interviewing both male and female residents of Troki. The conversations revealed that ordinary local Karaites had virtually no knowledge of the existence of the new Turkic calendar! They still referred only to the Hebrew names of the months and mentioned that “such [Turkic] words do not exist in their language”:

J’ai demandé à plusieurs simples Caraïmes (pas des intellectuels) des deux sexes de me dire les noms des divers mois de l’année en caraïme; ils m’ont tous indiqué les noms hébreux. Quand je leur prononçais des noms dé mois d’après le vocabulaire officiel caraïme, ils m’affirmaient que pareils mots n’existaient pas dans leur langue. La même réponse­ me fut donnée, en particulier, par le vieux Caraïme Marek Lawrynowicz (âgé alors de 83 ans) dont la mémoire phénoménale a rendu d’inestimables services à la Commission d’enquête pour l’établissement de la généalogie et des dates de naissance et de décès des Caraïmes de Troki depuis près d’un siecle. A mon observation que ces noms de mois («caraïmes») ignorés de lui figurent pourtant sur des tombeaux, il me répondit: «ce sont là des nouveautés», accompagnant ses paroles d’un geste significatif dans la direction de la rési­dence hachanale [i.e. Szapszał’s house].1360

1357 “Luaḥ roshei ḥodashim/Karaimskii kalendar’ na 5710 god ot sotvoreniia mira (1949-1950)” (the Yurchenko MSS). 1358 This is evident even from the officially published Karaite calendars (e.g. Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700). 1359 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 77-78; UO, 26. 1360 Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 267 (ft.). 286 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

Illustration 9: The Karaite religious calendar for the year 5711 (1950/1951) from Halicz prepared by Z. Zarachowicz. One may notice that it uses only the Hebrew names of the months and religious holidays (Yom Teruah, Sukkot, Yom Kippur, etc.). Source: the Yurchenko MSS. Furthermore, when Hersch asked the Troki ḥazzan Szemaja Firkowicz for the Hebrew equivalent of the Karaim months of kysz (kys) aj, the latter’s answer was that it was Kislev; in fact, however, kysz aj corresponds to Tevet and not to Kislev! This demonstrates that even the interwar Karaite ḥazzanim of the 1930s had problems with switching from the traditional Hebrew calendar to the new Turkic one. Most of the religious holidays also continued to be referred to by their Hebrew (or Hebrew-Karaim) names and not by the newly invented Turkic equivalents. Thus, even the officially printed Karaite calendar of 1939/1940, composed in Wilno in Latin characters by Rafael Abkowicz, contained the following terms: Chydzy Pesachnyn (i.e. Pesach), Chydzy Szawuotnyn (i.e. Shavuot), Jom Terua, Kippur, Simchat Tora, Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms 287

Purym etc.1361 Handwritten calendars prepared in Halicz by Zarach Zarachowicz in Hebrew characters, naturally, used only Hebrew terminology and Hebrew names of the months.1362 It seems that only young and educated members of the community accepted Szapszał’s new Turco-Karaite identity in the 1930s. Furthermore, there is no doubt that in the 1930s many local Karaites preserved their Judeo-Karaite identity, religious traditionalism and notion that the Karaites were a part of the larger Jewish civilization. For example, the Karaites living in interbellum Halicz were taught within the community that they were Jewish. Outside their homes, however, they were expected to tell strangers that they were of Turkic origin.1363 This double standard is especially evident in the unpublished materials of Corrado Gini’s expedition of 1934. The official administrative leaders of the community, Ezua Leonowicz and Zachariah Nowachowicz, told the members of the expedition about the Tatar origins of the local community, its loyalty to the local government, and its difference from the Ashkenazic Jews. Ordinary members of the community, though, perhaps less informed about Szapszał’s policy, stated that the Karaites had excellent relations with the Jews. Another respondent mentioned that the term “Karaites” meant exclusively a religion, not a nationality, since the Karaites themselves were descendants of the Israelites.1364 Zarach Zarachowicz of Halicz composed a few verses for children where little Karaites were called in Karaim Jisraeł ilisi/Onca ułusu (“part of Israel/A chosen people”).1365 A highly interesting example of the continuing interest in the study of the Hebrew language in the Halicz community was a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Karaite pedagogue and scholar Elijah Kazaz (1832– 1912) in 1933. On that day, Karaite children gathered under the guidance of their teachers (Z. Zarachowicz, L. Eszwowicz, and M. Leonowicz) and recited Kazaz’s Hebrew poems.1366 In 1935, Halicz Karaite children performed a play in Karaim entitled “Mescheracyłany-Purimnin,” which was apparently a Karaim analogue of the Ashkenazic “Purimspiel” – a special comic performance based on the traditional Jewish holiday of Purim.1367 The curriculum of the Karaite religious schools, which

1361 Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700. 1362 See the calendar for 1944/1945 and “Luaḥ roshei ḥodashim/Karaimskii kalendar’ na 5710 god ot sotvoreniia mira (1949-1950)” (the Yurchenko MSS). 1363 Oral communication by the Karaite Magdi Shemu

functioned in Łuck and Halicz up until the Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland in 1939, also attests that the Hebrew language and literature were still taught to Karaite children at that time.1368 Some Galician intellectuals continued copying Hebrew manuscripts and translating Hebrew texts into the local variety of Karaim. Isaac ben Yeshua Szulimowicz was translating Hebrew prayers into Karaim in Hebrew characters as late as November 1940, when Galicia had already been annexed by the Soviet Union.1369 Zarach Zarachowicz (1890-1952) copied not only Karaite, but also Rabbanite liturgical works into Hebrew in the 1930s.1370 Janina Eszwowicz of Halicz informed me that in spite of the fact that the Turkic term tymbył, which was so favoured by Szapszał, had been sometimes used by the local Karaites, they normally designated unleavened bread by the Hebrew term maṣah.1371 Even in 1942, during the Nazi occupation (!), the local Karaites were not afraid to draw up a marriage contract in Hebrew, using the traditional Hebrew calendar, and employing such terms as “the land of Israel,” “qehal ha-Qara

1368 See this curriculum in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 147. 1369 Moreover, he did this from 7 to 10 Nov. 1940, when the whole Soviet Union was celebrating the holiday of the October Revolution. His translations were written on the empty folios of Seder tefillot ha-Qara

a stranger, who – although fluent in Crimean Tatar and Russian – needed to improve his command of Polish, Karaim and Lithuanian. Whatever the case may be, this most radical part of Szapszał’s reforms was only accepted in his native land, Crimea, and not in the place of his final, and most lengthy place of abode, Poland-Lithuania.

***

At the same time, Szapszał’s reforms certainly did not pass unnoticed. In the interwar period, the spiritual and intellectual life of the community became much more secular, and there was a clear tendency to abandon many traditional Jewish practices and to acquire more and more numerous “Turkic” features. Furthermore, the ban imposed on the use of Hebrew provoked a sudden rise of literary activity in Karaim. It is in this period that Karaim started to become a full-fledged literary language used for secular poems, stories, historical and polemical articles, translations from foreign languages, and even fairy tales. The renaissance of literary Karaim ended in 1939, with the Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland and Lithuania and the beginning of the Second World War. A famous Karaite Orientalist, Aleksander Dubiński, who himself witnessed Szapszał’s reforms as a young pupil in interwar Troki, claimed that Szapszał’s radical changes in the linguistic sphere could not have been fully introduced in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, in his opinion, in spite of the fact that it is very difficult to calls this programme a “linguistic revolution,” one may define it at least as the beginning of the “evolution” of the Karaim language, which was hindered by the beginning of the war.1374 In our opinion, though, the process of Turkicization (or dejudaization) of the Karaim language and Karaite religious tradition – so drastically transforming Karaite society – certainly struck many Karaites as “revolutionary” event indeed. Public and official reaction to Szapszał’s reformist activity also deserves to be discussed. Polish officialdom enthusiastically welcomed the patriotism of the Karaites and their apparent distancing of themselves from the Rabbanite Jews. The “discovery” that the Karaites were descendants of the Khazars, of obscure Turko- Ugric origin, produced quite a strong impression on official bureaucracies and public opinion in Poland, Italy, and, later, in Nazi Germany. Practical application of the Karaite-Khazar theory became evident quickly. For example, in the year of the official introduction of anti-Jewish legislation in Italy (1938), local Karaite emigrants began experiencing the same “racial” problems as the German Karaites. According to the royal decree 1381/1938 the foreign Jews were to be expelled from Italy.1375 This was apparently the fate which awaited two Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, Michele Lopatto (i.e. Michał/Mikhail Łopatto) and Raissa Iouchniewicz (Juchniewicz), who had settled

1374 Dubiński, “Obnovlenie,” 63. 1375 Sarfatti, Jews, 129, 162. 290 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

in Italy. Nevertheless, in 1938, in order to avoid being identified as Jews, they received a certificate which stated that they were of “of the Karaite religion and from the Khazar race” (Ital. religione caraima e di razza casara) and did not have any connections either with the Hebrew race or Jewish religion (Ital. ne con la razza giudaica ne con la religione ebrea).1376 Gini’s and Szapszał’s publications, which attested to the Karaites’ non-Semitic origins, were one of the main factors that helped them to procure this document of survival.1377 It is worthwhile contemplating here why Szapszał’s radical reforms were so easily implemented in such a religiously conservative community as that of the Karaites. Indeed, somewhat surprisingly, the sources have not preserved a single testimony regarding any firm, open public protest or opposition to Szapszał’s reforms – only scattered data regarding mild resentment on the part of some traditionalist intellectuals.1378 No doubt, there were those who were unhappy about Szapszał’s activity but simply could not openly express their indignation with ḥakhan’s reforms because of censorship in the interwar Karaite press. Personal contacts in Poland and Lithuania in the 2000s failed to yield any evaluations critical of Szapszał’s activity. Only one Warsaw respondent did reveal that “not everybody was happy” about the fact that Szapszał gave Turkic names to all the Karaite holidays; he also pointed out that Szymon Szyszman expressed frustration at Szapszał’s activity (the fact that Szyszman never said a word about Szapszał in any of his publications strongly supports reports of his discontent with Szapszal). Two Troki Karaites, Izaak-Aleksander Abkowicz and Jakób Poziemski, even initiated a legal process against Szapszał’s decision concerning the so-called Pola Karaimskie (Pol. “Karaite fields”).1379 This case, however, was related to property issues and not to Szapszał’s ideological reforms.

1376 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1023, fol. 371. It was in 1938 that the Italian authorities introduced the law restricting the rights of the Jews (Ruppin, Jewish Fate, 10). 1377 For the further application of Szapszał’s Khazar theory and the “Turkicization” of the East European Karaite community during the Second World War and the Holocaust, see Chapter 5. 1378 E.g. the reaction of Marek Ławrynowicz (Hersch, “Les langues des inscriptions,” 267 (ft.)). In 1932 one Halicz author (most likely, Zarach Zarachowicz) sorrowfully complained that the works and writings of Shalom Zacharjasiewicz, a pious leader of the community at the beginning of the nineteenth century, stood in drastic contrast to current developments in Karaite society (Karaucu, “Unutkan Ribbimiz,” KA 4 (1932): 17). 1379 S. Szapszał attempted to register “Pola Karaimskie” as a property of the Troki Karaite religious union. Most likely, as well as the estate Kiorkłu sała, he intended to use these lands practically for his own needs. Nevertheless, a few members of the Wilno and Troki community, who considered these lands to be property belonging to the members of the community and not to the Troki Karaite religious union, decided to oppose Szapszał’s attempts to get these lands. Two of them (Izaak-Aleksander Abkowicz and Jakub Poziemski) even sued Szapszał to the court. This may have been the only case in the Karaite history, when members of the community tried to sue their ḥakham (see appellation of I. Abkowicz and J. Poziemski to the district court in Wilno (10.01.1938, Polish) in MS LMAB F. 301, no. 10, fols. 130-131v). Outcome of Szapszał’s Reforms 291

One should not forget that in spite of the growing secularization of the Karaite community, there was a traditional reverent fear and veneration of the ḥakham, the highest spiritual authority of the East European Karaites. Moreover, Szapszał’s charisma as an outstanding politician and Orientalist scholar was perhaps too intimidating for there to be any attempt to oppose him. Furthermore, in the 1930s Szapszał and several non-Karaite scholars had reported to have found a variety of anthropological and historical “evidence” supporting his Turkic theories. With today’s historical and ethnographic knowledge, one can easily prove the nonsensical nature of this “evidence,” but in the interwar period, especially among the less educated members of the Karaite community, this was much less apparent. It is also important to remember that Szapszał’s authority and the dissemination of his ideas were largely dependent on his closest associates and assistants – the ḥazzanim of Troki, Łuck, and Wilno. Paradoxically, all of them (Szemaja Firkowicz, Józef Łobanos, and Rafael Abkowicz) happened to be young and quite secularized persons, who enthusiastically accepted Szapszał’s reforms and the new Turko-Karaite identity. The only exception, Izaak Abrahamowicz of Halicz, who was representative of the older generation – and who apparently demonstrated some mild opposition to Szapszał’s reforms – was soon replaced by Marek (Mordecai) Leonowicz, another young supporter of the ḥakhan’s theories.1380 Thus, Szapszał’s directives were usually given to the ḥazzanim, who then disseminated them among the members of their communities. Again, in spite of the growing secularization of the community, it would have been rather unthinkable for one to disobey the word of a ḥazzan that had had the power of excluding one from the kenesa, could excommunicate, refuse to perform a marriage, to withhold child registeration, etc. Furthermore, the younger Karaites apparently had a much less reverential attitude to the religion than their traditionalist forefathers, and were quite happy to be rid of the “obsolete” Jewishness of their ancestors. Thus, there were several factors which helped Szapszał to successfully carry out his reformist activity and drastically change Karaite identity in the course of only a few years – an unparalleled event if one thinks about the static conservative life-style of the Karaite community in preceding centuries. Among these factors were Szapszał’s charismatic personality and academic prestige; the growing secularization of Karaite society and its readiness to abandon its Jewish past; dissemination of Szapszał’s ideas through the press and his closest associates, the ḥazzanim; increasing anti-Semitism in Poland; and, finally, the financial support and enthusiastic welcome of his reforms by the Polish state. Many of his innovations were first accepted only very superficially, especially among Karaite traditionalists. Nevertheless, later, after the Second World

1380 It is important to mention that theoretically the ḥazzanim were supposed to be elected by the community. In practice, however, in the 1930s they were simply appointed by Szapszał. This was noticed even by an external observer such as Corrado Gini (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 211, fol. 35r). 292 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961)

War, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the Soviet anti-Semitic policy of the 1950s to the 1970s, Szapszał’s doctrine of their rejection of Jewish past became deeply rooted in the Karaites’ consciousness. It is also important to emphasize here that Szapszał’s frequent visits to the German Karaites and his political acumen served to alert him to the forthcoming Nazi danger and peril, which existed by way of the Karaites’ similitude to the Rabbanites in religious and other matters. Thus, undertaken by Szapszał measures of Turkicization of Karaite religious and historical tradition of the 1930s can be explained not only by his personal preferences, but also by his sincere wish, as the head of the community, to rescue his flock from mortal danger – even at the expense of losing all ties with the Jewish tradition that had linked the East European Karaites to Jews and Judaism in the course of many centuries of their coexistence.

***

To sum up, in 1939, before the Soviet and German partition of Poland and beginning of World War II, the Karaite community had already been considerably (though by no means completely) dejudaized and ready to embrace the new Turkic identity. The processes of endogenous and exogenous dejudaization of the community were radically accelerated by the drastic events of the Second World War and the Holocaust. This period in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community is examined in the next chapter.1381

1381 For more information on Szapszał’s biography after 1939, see Chapter 6. 5 Between Scylla and Charybdis: Polish-Lithuanian Karaites between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (1939-1945)

[The] verdict on the fate of the Crimean Karaites was delivered by Reichsführer SS in person. This attests to the enormous importance attached to the Karaite issue in Nazi Germany, way beyond proportion of the group’s numerical strength.

Kiril Feferman, 20111382

5.1 The Karaites During the Second World War: Introduction to the Problem

During the Second World War the East European Karaites were forced to oscillate between the Scylla of Bolshevism and the Charybdis of Nazism: although both regimes used different approaches towards the community, they were equally hostile and mortally dangerous to the Karaites.1383 For the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community the period from 1939 to 1945 was the time of trials and tribulations when one authoritarian regime was replaced by another. Three times during this period changes of their citizenship were forced upon them: from Polish to Soviet in 1939, from Soviet to German in 1941, and back to Soviet in 1944. All this time they lived in constant fear of persecutions, be it Stalin’s anti-bourgeois purges or the Nazi “solution” of the “Jewish question.” Like other inhabitants of Eastern Europe, the Karaites suffered from the atrocities of the war, starvation, the cruelty of occupiers, and the general destruction of community life. The Karaites, after long debates, and with much hesitation, were recognized by the Nazis as non-Jews, both religiously and racially, in 1943. In general, the Karaites were not the only “suspect” group of alleged Jewish origin that was spared by the

1382 Kiril Feferman, “Nazi Germany and the Karaites in 1938-1944: Between Racial Theory and Realpolitik,” Nationalities Papers 39: 2 (2011): 284. 1383 Many of these questions were discussed by me with Il’ia Lempertas (Vilnius) and Kiril Feferman (Moscow), to whom goes a special word of thanks for their help and insightful remarks concerning many aspects analyzed in this chapter. I intend to dedicate a separate monograph to the history of the Karaites during WWII and the Holocaust.

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 294 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Reich authorities.1384 Nevertheless, the Karaite case represents a most interesting and rare example of an ethnic group with such evident linkage to Jewish history and civilization that was not exterminated. Here, one must speak of circumstances of the survival of approximately 10,000 Karaites living in the Nazi-occupied territories of Central and Eastern Europe in 1941.1385 In spite of the fact that much has been written on a subject in the course of last several decades, the topic is still far from being thoroughly investigated.1386 Such state of the problem can be explained by several factors. First, even though much archival evidence had been discovered by students wrestling with this challenge to date, one still lacks precise archival data related to its

1384 Bryan Rigg, in his study on German soldiers of mixed Jewish descent, found only two cases of exemptions being granted to “racially” non-Jewish groups practicing Judaism (Bryan Mark Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers. The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military (Kansas, 2002), 283). According to Warren Green there were as many as six cases of exemptions being granted to such groups with the overall amount of 70,000 persons theoretically exempted from extermination (Warren P. Green, “The Nazi Racial Policy Towards the Karaites,” Soviet Jewish Affairs 8 (1978): 37, 43-44). Although this number seems to be rather exaggerated, indeed, several “exotic” Jewish groups of Iranian, Caucasian, Afghan and Bucharan origin were partly exempted from the Nazi anti-Jewish laws. As in the case of the Karaites, these groups used their unconventional “exoticness” to compose pseudo-scholarly theories about their non-Semitic origin – and thus managed to trick the Nazis. 1385 In 1926 there were 8,324 Karaites living in the Soviet Union with 4,213 of them resident in Crimea (M.S. Kupovetskii, “Dinamika chislennosti i rasselenie karaimov i krymchakov za poslednie dvesti let,” in Geografiia i kul’tura etnograficheskikh grupp tatar v SSSR (Moscow, 1983), 80; Shirin Akiner, Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union (London/Boston, 1986), 425). As we have demonstrated above, ca. 900 had been living about this time in Lithuania and Poland. If we add to this number a few hundred Karaites living in Latvia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Rumania, Italy, and some other countries, we shall get a rough number of about 10,000 Karaites residing in Europe and the Soviet Union before WWII. 1386 See most important: Dan Ross, Acts of Faith. A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity (New York, 1982), 31-135; Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 84-96; Green, “The Nazi Racial Policy,” 36- 44; Warren P. Green, “The Fate of the Crimean Jewish Communities: Ashkenazim, Krimchaks and Karaites,” Jewish Social Studies 46 (1984): 169-176; Emanuella Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation ethnique: le cas des Caraites pendant la seconde guerre mondiale,” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 206 (1989): 377-398; eadem, “The Image of the Karaites in Nazi and Vichy France Documents,” Jewish Journal of Sociology 32:2 (1990): 81-93; Richard H. Weisberg, Vichy Law and (New York, 1996), 218-219; Philip Friedman, “The Karaites Under Nazi Rule,” in On the Track of Tyranny, ed. Max Beloff (London, 1960), 97-123; Itzhak Ben-Zvi, The Exiled and the Redeemed, transl. Isaac A. Abbady (Philadelphia, 1957), 155-162; Kiril Feferman, “Nazi Germany and the Karaites in 1938- 1944: Between Racial Theory and Realpolitik,” Nationalities Papers 39: 2 (2011): 277-294; idem, “Fate of the Karaites in the Crimea during the Holocaust,” in Eastern European Karaites in the Last Generations, ed. Dan Shapira and Daniel Lasker (Jerusalem, 2011), 171-191. For a most detailed and based on newly discovered archival evidence insight into the problem, see Hannelore Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung. Zur religionshistorischen Dynamik der Karäer im Osten Europas (Wiesbaden, 2010), 133-164; eadem, “Gunst und Tragik einer Privilegierung: Karäer im Osten Europas,” Judaica 67:1 (2011): 48-96. The Karaites During the Second World War: Introduction to the Problem 295

many aspects. Second, the issue of Karaite behaviour during the Holocaust was often approached not with a scholarly mind-set, but rather with an ideological agenda, which hindered proper understanding and study. In various countries this ideological tendency has different biases: Israeli and Western scholarship often tends to attack the Karaites and accuse them of collaboration with the Nazis, whereas in Crimea, Ukraine, and Lithuania there is a tendency to protect this vanishing minority and not to mention many “awkward” details of their history during the Holocaust. Third, members of the Karaite communities, both in Crimea and Poland-Lithuania, seem to be unwilling to supply scholars with any information in this regard.1387 For obvious reasons, only a few Ashkenazim able to provide information on the history of the Karaites during the Holocaust survived. Any scholar studying the history of the East European Karaites during the Second World War faces several uneasy and complicated questions: 1. historical development of the status of the Karaites: how did the Karaite case develop from 1939 to 1945 and why the Karaites were exempted from the German laws for Jewish population? 2. the Karaites and the Nazis: was the Karaite collaboration limited only to the work in the German civil administration or did it also included military service in the Wehrmacht? If one answers in the affirmative to the second part of the question, there arise several others: how many Karaites had been in the Wehrmacht and other military units, where and when? 3. the Karaites and the Rabbanites: have the Karaites themselves ever participated in anti-Jewish actions of the Nazi killing squads? Have the Karaites ever saved or helped the Rabbanites? Did Szapszał indeed provide the Nazis with precise list of members of the Karaites community and thus condemned to death those Rabbanites who possessed forged Karaite identity cards? 4. The role of Jewish scholars in saving the Karaites: under- or overestimated? 5. The Karaites-victims of Nazi and Stalin persecutions: why, where and when were the Karaites massacred by the Nazis? Were the Karaites persecuted by Stalin as an ethnic minority after 1944? Were there any cases of deportation of the Karaites from Crimea?

In the upcoming section, responses to those questions arise from archival and published sources and secondary literature. Additional data were gleaned through

1387 This is according to an oral communication of Mikhail Tiaglyy (Simferopol, July 1999) who participated in Steven Spielberg’s project “Survivors of the Shoah” and had to interview Crimean Jewish survivors. According to the scholar, unlike most of the Krymchaks or other Crimean Jews, the local Karaites refused to be interviewed on the basis that they “do not know anything about this”. There were, however, several Crimean Karaites who were interviewed by assistants of S. Spielberg’s project. It is only recently that memoirs of the members of the Karaite communities about their experiences during WWII appeared in print. 296 Between Scylla and Charybdis

interviews and Internet correspondence with members of the Karaite and Rabbanite communities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The primary focus of this section is on the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, although some information about European and Soviet Karaites during the Second World War will be provided as well.

5.2 Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom

As has been examined in detail in Chapters 3 and 4, there were several external factors that forced the Karaites to distance themselves from the Jews in the 1930s: first, the general atmosphere of the interwar Polish anti-Semitism; second, the shadow of the upcoming fascism and Nazism. This was clearly felt not only by the German Karaites, but also by their Polish-Lithuanian counterparts, when in 1934 the expedition of the Italian pro-fascist scholar Corrado Gini came to investigate their “racial” origins. As early as 1934, i.e. a year after Hitler’s ascension to the post of Reichskanzler (30.01.1933), several Berlin Karaites asked Szapszał to provide them with official certificates of their non-Semitic origin because of the growth of “the general national self-identification” in Germany!1388 Thus, already at that time, as a prudent and cautious politician, Szapszał became aware of an increasing, dangerous threat of being identified with the Semites. As a result, in the second half of the 1930s he started the next, even more radical wave of dejudaization reforms. In general, the attitude of the German administration concerning the Karaites from 1937 to 1945 was not uniform. Although as early as 1938/1939 the Karaites were officially recognized as a non-Jewish religious community, in remoter parts of the Reich there were tendencies to treat them as Jews. As a result, the Karaites were sometimes attacked and killed; new commissions and new debates concerning the racial origin of the Karaites were raised even as late as March 1945.1389 It seems that the Nazis started dealing seriously with the “problem” of the Karaites in the late 1930s, with the preparation of the regulations for enforcement of the anti-Semitic laws. According to Teofil Szanfary, German officialdom began investigating the Karaite case in the late 1930s when, while forming the anti-Bolshevik detachment comprised of former Russian officers, they were presented with a number of Karaite officers with Jewish names such as Abraham, Isaiah or Ezekiel.1390

1388 The German Karaite Y. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał, Berlin, 23.07.1934 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 393, fol. 1). 1389 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 223. 1390 Teofil Szanfary, “Najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa,” W drodze 9 (1.09.1943) (courtesy of B. Firkowicz). Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 297

On the other hand, it is known that the Karaites themselves had applied to German authorities with petitions concerning their status: in 1938 Semen Duvan (a.k.a. “Serge von Douvan” or “S. de Douvan”), representative of the Paris Karaite community, asked the German authorities to exempt them from the Nazi anti-Jewish legislation. So, just who was this most interesting man, the key figure in the process of rescuing the Karaites from the Nazis? Some western scholars refer to Duvan as “the head of the small Karaite community in Berlin” which is certainly incorrect. Semen Ezrovich Duvan (Eupatoria, 1870 – Beaulieu-sur-mer, 1957) was a wealthy Karaite benefactor and statesman from Eupatoria who fulfilled the duties of the city mayor; he fled from Crimea in 1917, settling in Paris.1391 Early in 1938,1392 prompted by the Paris Karaite Yeremiia Kodzhak (Jérémie Kodjak),1393 he went to Berlin (evidently remaining there until the beginning of 1939, when the fate of the Karaites was determined in a positive light for that community). In July of 1938 Duvan, while in Berlin, changed his place of residence – his mailing address now being that of his nephew, Arnold (i.e. Aron) Rofé (Berlin-Schöneberg, Geisberg Str. 35).1394 At this point, we posit (from evidence heretofore unobserved by other Karaite studies to date) that there is no doubt that Duvan coordinated his actions with Seraja Szapszał: both sustained active correspondence in 1938 and informed each other about their actions.1395 On 28.09.1938 the Reichsminister für die kirchlichen Angelegenheiten (Minister of State for Ecclesiastical Affairs) received Duvan’s letter concerning the racial composition of East European Karaites. The Ministry accepted Duvan’s petition and on 14.10.1938 asked him to obtain two further references (from the Russian Orthodox

1391 For more information on his biography, see S.E. Duvan, Ya liubliu Yevpatoriiu, comp. M.V. Kutaisova, V.A. Kutaisov (Simferopol, 2013). 1392 S. Szyszman is certainly wrong when he states that Duvan arrived in Berlin in September 1938 (Simon Szyszman, Le Karaïsme: ses doctrines et son histoire (Lausanne, 1980), 121); archival evidence testifies that he travelled there not later than spring 1938. 1393 Yeremiia Kodzhak is known as the author of the 16-page pamphlet on the history of the Karaites in Russian (Yeremiia Kodzhak, Kratkii obzor istorii karaimskoi religii i ee rasprostraneniia sredi razlichnykh narodov (Paris, 1948)). Mr. Brad Sabin Hill allowed me to use a photocopy of an unpublished typescript article by this author which he discovered in London (E. Kodjak [Yeremiia Kodzhak], “Remains of Khazar words in the language of their descendants Karaïmes of Crimea” [typescript article in the British Library General Reference Collection, shelf-mark 12907.S.15, 5 pp.]). According to Szymon Szyszman, Yeremiia Kodzhak (b. Sevastopol, 18.05.1894 – d. Villamblain, 22.02.1960, son of David Kodzhak and Anna née Oksüz) was a cavalry officer who emigrated from Russia and worked as a taxi driver in Paris (Szyszman, Le Karaïsme, 217). 1394 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 53; no. 224a. 1395 S. von Douvan (Duvan) to S. Szapszał, 11.07.1938, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 224a). 298 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Bishop Serafim1396 and German Professor Benjamin Unruh1397) to support his claims. At the same time, a Ministry’s official (Dr. Muhs) warned Duvan that even in case of the government arriving at some definitive general conclusions concerning the racial nature of the Karaites, the origin of each member of the community would be dealt with separately. Dr. Muhs also mentioned that he had contacted the Ministry of Interior (Reichsstelle für Sippenforschung, i.e. Reich Agency for Genealogical Research, responsible for examination of questions of belonging to the Aryan race) concerning Duvan’s application.1398 Duvan’s petition reached the Agency on 5 September 1938; on 10 October 1938 additional materials had been apparently inserted into the application.1399 Unfortunately, history did not preserve the text of Duvan’s petitions. From other sources we know that they consisted of 21 attachments and four photos; the petitions apparently presented the Karaites as a Turkic-speaking people of mixed Turko-Mongol-Ugrian descent, who had converted to the Mosaic religion with an admixture of Muslim, Christian, and pagan traditions. Duvan substantiated his claims with references to a few interwar publications, articles about the Karaites from various encyclopaedias, a study by P.A. von Ackermann (П. Аккерман)1400 and the results of anthropological studies by Corrado Gini and Alexander Baschmakoff, all as “conclusive” proofs of their non-Semitic origins. Also, one may safely assume that Duvan’s petitions were similar in their content to “Memoire sur les Karaimes” submitted by the Karaites to French authorities in 1941.1401 There still remains a question concerning the reasons that made Duvan and his Parisian colleague, Yeremiia Kodzhak, begin their campaign of lobbying the Karaite case as early as spring of 1938, i.e. before the November Kristallnacht and beginning of the implementation of Hitler’s final “solution” to the Jewish “question”. Indeed, the Karaites of Germany and several other European pro-fascist countries started having problems with their legal status from approximately the mid-1930s. Yet, this fact does

1396 Aleksander Ivanovich Luk’ianov (1879-1959). 1397 Benjamin Heinrich/Veniamin Andreevich Unruh (1881-1959) was born in a Mennonite colony in Crimea; in 1900 he graduated from a secondary school in Simferopol; in 1920 he moved to Karlsruhe. He apparently became acquainted with the Karaites in Crimea. It is unclear whether or not he ever wrote anything on the Karaites, but after the end of the war he continued to be in contact with one of them, amateur historian Szymon Szyszman (see correspondence between Unruh and Szyszman from the 1950s in MS VU F. 243, no. 55). 1398 Der Reichsminister für die kirchlichen Angelegenheiten to S. von Duvan, no. III 3249/38 (14.10.1938, German) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 45). 1399 Dr. von Ulmenstein to S. Duvan, 5.01.1939, German (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 44). 1400 P.A. von Ackermann, “Denkschrift über die Karaimer,” typescript (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1084, fols. 1-30). This was the German translation of P. Ackermann, “Pamiatnaia zapiska o karaimakh” (Berlin, 15.08.1938, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1060, fol. 20). 1401 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fols. 28-39; for the detailed analysis of this document, see Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 138-147. Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 299

not sufficiently explain why the Parisian Karaite Duvan went as far as Berlin, where he had to spend several months, to defend the rights of a relatively small number of 18 Karaites living in Germany about that time. Could he foresee – or foretell – that the decision taken in Germany soon will be of crucial importance for the Karaites living in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe? In this case he was much more astute than most politicians of his epoch who could not imagine what would happen in 1939/1941. The Reich Agency for Genealogical Research, in its turn, forwarded Duvan’s materials to Gerhard von Mende (1904–1963), one of Alfred Rosenberg’s leading specialists in the Turkic minorities of the Soviet Union. The author of a radical anti- Semitic study,1402 von Mende had no particular sympathy for Karaites and was not at all impressed by what he viewed as Duvan’s pseudo-scholarly rhetoric. As a result, on 30 September 1938, von Mende wrote a negative response to Duvan’s claims, stating that “the proof of the non-Jewish origin of the Jewish sect of the Karaites is by no means provided by the materials attached by S. von Douvan.”1403 Furthermore, in May 1938 and February 1939 several other Nazi “experts” (e.g. Königsberg Professor Lothar Löffler) explicitly stated that the Karaites were Jews and should be treated as such.1404 Now, it comes as a surprise that even after such negative responses to Duvan’s claims, on 22 December 1938 Hermann Hering, a ministerial assistant secretary (Ministerialdirigent) in the Ministry of the Interior, issued the first provisional decision with the conclusion that the Karaites should not be considered as part of the Jewish religious community.1405 On 5 January 1939,1406 Dr. Christian Ulrich von Ulmenstein, Leiter and Referent of the Reichsstelle für Sippenforschung1407 sent this decision to Duvan’s address at Tauentziehnstrasse 7a in Berlin. The essential part of this edict reads:

The sect of the Karaites [Karaimen] should not be considered a Jewish religious community within the meaning of paragraph 2 point 2 of the First Regulation of the Reich’s Citizenship Law. However, it cannot be established that the Karaites in their entirety are of blood-related stock [artverwandten Blutes], for the racial categorization of

1402 Gerhard von Mende, Die Völker der Sowjetunion (Reichenau, 1939). 1403 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 143; cf. BArch R 1509/1152 as published in eadem, “Gunst und Tragik,” 92-96. 1404 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 281. 1405 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 134; cf. BArch R 1509/1152, fol. 13 as published in ibid., 226. 1406 Ph. Friedman dates this document to the 9th of January, 1939 which seems to be a mistake (Friedman, “Karaites,” 99). 1407 Christian Ulrich von Ulmenstein was the author of several studies on heraldry; he was responsible for the examination of the Karaite case from June 1938 (see Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 203). Although his name has hardly been mentioned by other students of this topic, he undoubtedly was a key figure in a positive examination of the Karaite case in 1938/1939. 300 Between Scylla and Charybdis

an individual [Karaite] cannot be determined by further [investigation] of his belonging to a particular people, but should always be carried out by [examining] his personal ancestry and racial biological characteristics.1408

It is difficult to explain why and how the Karaite case received such a quick and in-their-favour solution. Roman Freund opines that it was M. Kovshanly, a Crimean Karaite on Nazi service in Berlin, who was instrumental in obtaining the edict of 1939.1409 Archival data show us, however, that this cannot be true: even in mid-1939 Kovshanly was still “paying” for his non-Aryan origin in forced labour.1410 Furthermore, although the general tone of Hering’s decision was rather favourable for the Karaites, one cannot help noticing its somewhat ambivalent nature. In general, the religious affiliation of the Jews was not a problem for the Nazis: no matter what religion Jews belonged to, they remained Semites racially. Thus, the decision that the Karaite were not a religious Jewish community, in fact, did very little to save them from further enquiries as to their racial origin. Furthermore, the January decision explicitly mentioned that the racial classification of the Karaites should be decided not according to their belonging to a specific ethnic collective, but rather according to the personal genealogy of each Karaite in question.1411 This important addendum shows that, in spite of the generally positive decision taken with regard to the Karaite case, the German authorities still entertained doubts as to the racial composition of the Karaites. Furthermore, they were concerned about a possible Jewish admixture in their blood. This is the reason that, in spite of the existence of the aforementioned “January edict” – which, in one sense, recognized the Karaites’ non-Semitic status – practically in every place where they encountered the Karaite population between 1939 to 1945 the Nazi authorities usually required from the local Karaite communities “confirmation” of their non-Jewish origin and organized additional investigating commissions. Furthermore, in some instances the Nazis “on the ground” had not been informed of the Berlin decision not to exterminate the Karaites; as a result, as will be demonstrated below, the Karaites had often been treated in the same way as Jews. As early as July of 1939 (i.e. only half a year after the “January edict”!) Duvan’s argumentation was seen by the Berlin Nazi authorities as unreliable. Moreover, the Nazis were informed that this petition had been in fact composed by some unidentified “Russians who make Yids to be Karaites” (Russ. “russkie, delaiushchie zhidov karaimami,” i.e. by Russians producing fake Karaite identity cards).1412 Furthermore,

1408 Dr. Christian von Ulmenstein to S. Duvan, Nr. 1110/A/17.6-3.9,10., 5.01.1939, German (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 44). Cf. Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 37-38. 1409 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 91. 1410 MS LMAB. F. 143, no. 394, fols. 5r-v. 1411 See the photocopy of the document in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1981, fol. 44. 1412 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fols. 5r-5v. Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 301

SS officials – in contrast to the opinion expressed by specialists of the Reichsstelle für Sippenforschung – continued to consider the Karaites to be Jews, characterizing them, on 13.02.1939, as a Jewish sect which should be treated as such.1413 In 1941, Ananiasz Zajączkowski had at his disposal a copy of the January edict; nevertheless he did not give too much weight to this document and clearly understood its half-way policy. Apparently he could not defend the Warsaw Karaites with its contents.1414 It seems that the claim of ethnic origin of the Volhynian and Galician Karaites was the most doubtful for the German authorities. The Nazi specialists, who expressed their opinion about the Tatar-Mongol-Khazar origins of Crimean Karaites, stated that the Karaites of Halicz and Łuck were closely related to the Oriental and Sephardic Jews.1415 Furthermore, one Nazi officer filed this opinion directly in his report on the Karaites in Eastern Europe.1416 Especially cautious was the attitude of German officials in Galicia, where the Nazis were inclined to analyse the origins of each separate Karaite on an individual basis, harbouring no doubts that many of the local Karaites were intermarried with Jews.1417 The German authorities encountered the Karaite problem again after the beginning of the First World War in occupied France. The Nazi officials of Vichy France apparently were either unaware of the Berlin edict or did not want to accept it. The local Commissariat General aux Questions Juives (General Office for Jewish Affairs) suggested that the Karaites be treated as Jews. According to the order of 2.06.1941, they were recognized as Jews because “they practice certain rites of the Jewish religion.”1418 This time, another Karaite, Simon Kazas, applied for exemption of the Karaites from the anti-Jewish laws. The complete text of his application consisting of “Memoire sur les Karaїmes” and 25 separate appendices was analyzed in detail by Hannelore Müller.1419 Although Kazas submitted his application on 29 November 1941, it was only in 1943 that the French Karaites received official non-Jewish status.1420

1413 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 281. 1414 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 10.10.1941 (UO, 171). 1415 Trevisan Semi, “Image of the Karaites,” 85; eadem, “L’oscillation,” 387. 1416 Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 38; Friedman, “Karaites,” 107-109. Cf. a copy of the German report to the Gebietskommissar in Schaulen/Šiauliai (16.09.1941, German) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fol. 34). In spite of the fact that the Nazis could hardly have had any documentation from Galicia and Volhynia concerning mixed Karaite–Rabbanite marriages, the obvious Semitic features in the appearance of the local Karaites were too evident to exclude the possibility of such marriages. 1417 Friedman, “Karaites,” 111, ft. 52. 1418 This law was quoted in 1943 by Pavel Bogdanovich in his essay “Les Caraïtes” (see Mémorial de la Shoah – Archives du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine CCXVI-8, fol. 4; the facsimile of the document was published in Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 239-246). 1419 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 138-147. 1420 For the development of the problem and decisions concerning the legal status of the Karaites in France, see Trevisan Semi, “The Image of the Karaites,” 89-93; Weisberg, Vichy Law, 218-223; Ross, Acts of Faith, 133; Friedman, “Karaites,” 100-106. 302 Between Scylla and Charybdis

A small Karaite community also lived in occupied Warsaw. According to data supplied by Stellvertreter des Mufti (deputy of the Muslim mufti) Bari Chalecki to Herr Gouverneur des Districts Warschau there were 24 Karaites in that city in 1943.1421 In October 1940, the highest Nazi officials of occupied Polish lands took a preliminary step in exempting the local Karaites from the anti-Jewish measures.1422 Not later than 1941, Professor Ananiasz Zajączkowski, as the leading member of the Warsaw Karaite community, had to cope with the problem of securing a positive position for the local Karaites with the Nazi administration. According to Zajączkowski, in 1941, thanks to his contacts with the local Muslims (many of them were his students), the Warsaw Karaites were allowed to be considered members of the local Muslim community; furthermore, they were even allowed to use the Tatars’ hall of prayer for liturgical purposes.1423 Zajączkowski himself tried his best to be on good terms with his Tatar colleagues; in his own words, he did so not for his own sake, but for the whole Karaite community of Warsaw. He also emphasized that relations between the Warsaw Tatars and Karaites were much better than those between the Tatars and the Karaites of Wilno.1424 The situation became much more tense after March of 1943, when one local Karaite, artist Lidja Szole (Karakasz), was murdered on a street by the Nazis.1425 Zajączkowski mentioned that the problem of the recognition of the Karaites’ non- Jewish status in Warsaw became a real issue for him that had been occupying most of his spare time. He mentioned that after the murder of Lidja Szole he finally had to “sort out these matters and qualify the Kar[aites] – in accordance with their origin – to the Tatar group; the relevant certificates were received.”1426 Thus, it seems that through Zajączkowski’s efforts the Warsaw Karaites were recognized as a group of Turkic (Tatar) origin in May of that same year. In 1941, the Germans encountered the Karaites in several republics and regions of the occupied Soviet Union, first of all in Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Crimea. Although the Nazis did not massacre the Karaites of the Soviet Union systematically, one may cautiously estimate (largely on the basis of discoveries for this current work found in archival data) that about 500 Karaites were executed by the Nazis in the whole of the USSR between 1941 and 1945. The reasons for the Nazis’ murdering the

1421 Warsaw, 17.02.1943, German (MS LMAB. F. 143, no. 917, fol. 85r). Also, there was the precise list of the local Karaites (original orthography is preserved): Dubinski (1), Bezikowicz (1), Kobecki (3), Malecki (3), Maszkiewicz (2), Michajlowicz (1), Charczenko (1), Jutkiewicz (3), Nowicki (2), Penbek (1), Szole (1), Zajączkowski (4), Szpakowski (1). 1422 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 282, 291. 1423 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 12.08.1941 and 23.09.1943 (UO, 168, 192). One must mention the impermissibility of the use of a Muslim prayer house for any liturgical purposes by non-Muslims. 1424 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 23.12.1942 (UO, 182). 1425 [Ananiasz Zajączkowski], “Pamięci tych, co odeszli,” MK s.n. 1 (1946): 140; Mariusz Pawelec, “Płomień zgasły przedwcześnie,” Awazymyz 1 (30) (2011): 12-14. 1426 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 2.06.1943 (UO, 188). Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 303

Karaites were varied. Sometimes the Mosaic nature of the Karaites’ religion played a role. In some places, residents would report local Karaites to the Nazis as being a kind of sectarian Jews. Some murdered Karaites were members of mixed Karaite- Rabbanite families that were usually treated by the Nazis as Jews. The local Nazi authorities often did not know about the Berlin decision of 1939 and treated them as Jews without examining differences between the Karaites and the Rabbanites. This happened in such places as Babii Iar where the Nazis did not have enough time for proper investigation of the Karaite case. To give another example, it is known that in November of 1941 the Theodosia Karaites were registered by the Wehrmacht as “Jews without Talmud.”1427 According to some sources, 80 of them were later killed. Many Karaites were murdered as Soviet citizens during the massacres of the local civilians performed by the Nazis without consideration of one’s ethnic origin. The Berlin edict of 1939, which did not explicity state that the Karaites were racially non-Semites, often did not help the Karaites. Furthermore, according to the Nuremberg Trials “ and Einsastzkommando leaders were authorized to take executive measures on their own responsibility,” i.e. without additional consultations with Berlin authorities.1428 This is why the Karaites did not feel absolutely secure until the complete liberation of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Army in 1945. Before analyzing the cases of individual and mass killings of the Karaites by the Nazis, this present research confronts the falsehood of reports of a “Karaite Holocaust”, as disseminated in many publications in 1942 and republished as late as the early 1950s.1429 This paper hoax – perpetuating an entirely incorrect account of the total extermination of Polish and Lithuanian Karaites – has its roots apparently in an oral report of a certain Łuck Karaite who in 1943 appeared in Jerusalem (!) in the office of the Jewish National Council (Va’ad Le’umi) and “in a constrained voice left an account of the tragic fate of the Karaite communities in the Polish territory and in Lithuania.” According to this report, all the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania were exterminated by the Nazis.1430 Our research leads us to name the Łuck Karaite as Michał Nowicki – the same man who joined the army of Anders in 1940 and lived in Germany after the end of the war. In the interim year of 1943, Nowicki left highly interesting evidence of his stay in Palestine in 1943, namely, a detailed description of

1427 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 284. 1428 Rudolf Loewenthal, “The Extinction of the Krimchaks in World War II,” American Slavic and East European Review 10:2 (1951): 134. 1429 Friedman, “Karaites,” 98, ft. 7. See also “Hitlerowcy wymordowali 1,500 Karaimów w Polsce,” Nasza Trybuna 4:4 (44) (12.04.1943): 8; Gizela Weinfeld, “Powrót do gniazda po dwunastu wiekach...: Karaici zapędzeni do ghetta,” Nasza Trybuna 3:3 (28) (2.03.1942): 8 (reports on the article published in East London Observer (23.01.1942) about the total extermination of the Karaites by the Nazis). 1430 I found a detailed report, in Polish, on this event in a rare newspaper, published by the army of the general Anders in Palestine: Szanfary, “Najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa.” 304 Between Scylla and Charybdis

the Karaite cemetery of Jerusalem.1431 It is not entirely clear what prompted Nowicki to supply this incorrect data to his readers. Had he left Łuck some time after 1942, he would have known that the local Karaites were not killed at all. Whatever the case may be, reports – republished and presented to the public as fact, of the obliteration of Polish-Lithuanian Karaites at the hands of the Nazis – were certainly not true. Let us however turn now to the real story of the Karaite massacres during the war. Anatolii Kuznetsov, who witnessed the Holocaust in occupied Kiev in 1941 as a young boy, reported:

There came the rumour that the Karaites had passed us somewhere nearby.... ancient elders were walking in long robes reaching their heels, they had spent the whole night in the Karaite synagogue, walked out and were preaching: “Children, we are going to death, prepare themselves. Let us accept death as bravely as Christ did”.1432

There are some details in this report that force one to question its credibility. First, the author himself in fact did not see the Karaites walking to Babii Iar. Second, the report states that the Karaites “spent the whole night in the Karaite synagogue.” This seems to be impossible because the Kiev Karaite synagogue-kenesa was confiscated from the community in 1926 and, since then, could not be used for religious purposes. Third, it is hardly possible that the Karaites – pious believers in the Jewish faith (as shown in the report) – would mention the Christian Messiah. Therefore scholars doubt the veracity of this testimony which does not really correspond to other examples of Karaite behaviour during the Holocaust. Warren Green suggested that the Christian reference can be explained by Szapszał’s tendency to “ecumenize” the Karaite religious tradition and accept Jesus as a prophet.1433 The research of this present work does not support Green’s explanation. Evidence shows that it is highly unlikely that Szapszał’s speculative ideas regarding acceptance of Jesus and Mohammed as prophets were taken seriously by anyone – especially not by the Kiev Karaite elders who, as Soviet citizens, were not exposed to Szapszał’s propaganda. Witnessing the inevitable death from the Nazi butchers in front of them, they could hardly cite Szapszał’s propaganda. The Karaite data with regard to the Kiev community during the Second World War is also not unanimous: according to

1431 I had an opportunity to see a copy of Nowicki’s description of the cemetery in May, 2002, at the home of Janina Lwowna Eszwowicz in Halicz. 1432 Разнесся слух, что где-то тут прошли караимы (я первый раз слышал это слово, оказывается, это такая маленькая семитская народность)­ – древние старики шли в хламидах до пят, они всю ночь провели в своей караимской синагоге, вышли и проповедовали: «Дети, мы идем на смерть, приготовьтесь. Примем ее мужественно, как прини­мал Христос» (Anatolii Kuznetsov, Babii Iar (Zaporozh’e, 1991), 69). 1433 Warren Paul Green, “The Karaite Passage in A. Anatoli’s ‘Babi Iar,’” East European Quarterly 12 (1978): 283-287. Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 305

B. Kokenai the community did not suffer at all, whereas according to M. Kovshanly, 70 persons (practically the whole community) were killed.1434 Roman Freund suggested that in the event that information about the massacre of the Karaites in Babii Iar is correct, it is possible to cautiously suppose that it were local Ukrainian nationalists who could have informed the Germans about Jewish origins of the Karaites.1435 Presently, we caution against making any final conclusions about the fate of the Kiev community until further evidence is gathered. The occupied Crimea represented a sort of microcosm of Ostpolitik in the occupied Soviet Union. Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg had been nourishing plans of renaming Crimea into Gotenland (or Gotengau) and turning the peninsula into a “racially pure” part of ethnic Germany. Upon entering Crimea in 1941 the Nazis encountered there two Turkic-speaking Jewish groups of undefined racial status: Crimean Karaites and the Talmudic Krymchaks. Although both groups spoke similar ethnolects of the and had analogous ethnographic traditions, they received absolutely different treatment. During the Nuremberg Trials, Otto Ohlendorf (1907- 1951), head of Einsatzgruppe D, operating in Crimea, mentioned that he had to send additional enquires to Berlin concerning the problem of defining the status of the local Karaites and Krymchaks. The answers, coming most likely from such high- ranking Nazi officials as Reinhard Heydrich or Heinrich Himmler, instructed them to spare the Karaites and to exterminate the Krymchaks.1436 In an attempt to secure the survival of Crimean Karaites, on 22.11.1941 S. Szapszał wrote to Rosenberg requesting that the Berlin decision of 1939 also be applied to Crimean Karaites.1437 In December 1941 the German composed the official report “Vorläufige Angaben über die Krim” where it was stated that the Krymchaks, unlike the Karaites, must be considered to be Jewish. Only after this, albeit with some official hesitation, the Karaites were temporarily recognized as non-Jews.1438

1434 Kovshanly referred to the information that he received from the German official Heinrich Huse (see report of M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 7v); B. Kokenai to S. Szapszał (3.11.1944, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 26r)). 1435 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 89. 1436 Unfortunately, none of these written instructions survived (see Friedman, “Karaites,” 106; cf. Loewenthal, “The Extinction of the Krimchaks,” 135; Helmut Krausnick, “Judenverfolgung,” in Anatomie des SS-Staates, vol. 2: Konzentrationslager, Kommissarbefehl, Judenverfolgung, ed. Hans Buchheim, Martin Broszat, Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Helmut Krausnick (Olten und Freiburg, 1965), 370-371). The Krymchaks, as well as the Karaites, also tried to save their lives by composing petitions about their Khazar origins. Unfortunately, the Nazis did not believe this and the Krymchaks were mercilessly massacred. For more details, see Kizilov, Krymskaia Iudeia, 306-307. 1437 Krymchak L.I. Kaia, a small boy at that time, incidentally saw a letter from the Nazi authorities to Duvan during his visit to the Eupatoria Karaite K. (undoubtedly, Semita Isaakovna Kushul’) (L.I. Kaia, “Balovni sud’by”, 31-32). This means that Crimean Karaites did possess the copy of the Berlin decision of 1939 as a means of defence against Nazi persecutions. 1438 Green, “Fate,” 172. 306 Between Scylla and Charybdis

In spite of this decision, there were 120 Karaites killed by the Nazis in Eupatoria at the beginning of January 1942 and 80 in Theodosia; 100 persons (i.e. practically the whole community) were executed in Khar’kov. These Karaites, however, were executed not because of the suspicion that they were Jews, but as citizens of the Soviet Union during mass massacres of the local population.1439 94 Karaites were killed as Jews in Krasnodar and a few in Novorossiisk.1440 Three Karaite families were arrested in Rostov-upon-Don: the Karaites’ neighbours informed local Gestapo that the Karaites were Jews. Soon they were released after the meddling of a local Karaite activist, Boris Kokenai, who managed to persuade the Nazis that the Karaites were not Jews racially. Nevertheless, two Karaite women were executed as Jewesses before Kokenai’s meddling.1441 According to Karaite sources of unidentified origin, in 1942 Kokenai, together with the Russian lawyer M. Demidov, explained to the Nazis the Turkic ethnic origin of the Karaites. In order to achieve this end, he translated into German excerpts from his own study “Crimean Karaites”.1442 In 1941 the Nazis also learned about the Karaites living in Lithuania, Latvia and Western Ukraine (Eastern Poland). It seems that most doubtful for the Nazi authorities was the ethnic origin and history of the Lithuanian (Wilno, Troki, and Poniewież) and Polish (Łuck and Halicz) Karaites: some scholars who expressed their opinion about Tatar-Mongol-Khazar origin of Crimean Karaites, mentioned that the Halicz and Łuck Karaites were closely related to Oriental and Sephardic Jews or even intermarried with the local Rabbanites.1443 The German Nazi official, H. Bernsdorff, mentioned that in 1941 there were plans of sending the Lithuanian and Latvian Karaites to ghetto; furthermore, some Wilno and Troki Karaites were already in ghetto.1444 The Karaite Szymon Pilecki mentioned in his diary that in 1941 the local Lithuanian police thought that the Karaites were the same as the Rabbanite Jews. One Lithuanian policeman,

1439 See the report of M. Kovshanly sent to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 7v); cf. A.V. Kiskachi, “Pamiat’ o tragedii,” Meshchanskaia gazeta (28.01.1995); [I.A. Shaitan], “Chto izvestno o karaimakh, uchastnikakh bor’by s fashistskimi zakhvatchikami?” in Krym v VOV (1941-1945). Voprosy. Otvety, part 4 (Simferopol, 1994), 155). 1440 B. Kokenai to S. Szapszał (3.11.1944, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 26r). A few documents concerning the Karaites killed in these two cities were found by Ekaterina Kozachok who analyzed archival documents of the “Tsentr Dokumentacii Noveishei Istorii Krasnodarskogo Kraia in Krasnodar” (private communication, October, 2002). 1441 Kokenai’s brother was killed in Krasnodar (B. Kokenai to S.Szapszał (3.11.1944, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 26r). Szapszał’s letters to Kokenai (1945-1959; 49 letters and 23 postcards) are currently kept in the archive of “Karay Bitikligi” library in Eupatoria (IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 7). 1442 “Pamiati B.Ya. Kokenaia,” IKDU 6 (15) (2013): 1; Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 128. 1443 Trevisan Semi, “The Image of the Karaites,” 85; eadem, “L’oscillation,” 387. 1444 H. Bernsdorff to S. Szyszman, 3.03.1965, German (Archive of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fols. 72-73). It is unclear whether one can really trust this information. Sz. Pilecki, who was a member of the Wilno and Troki communities, did not mention that there were any local Karaites sent to ghetto (Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik). Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 307

who happened to stop and interrogate Pilecki on a street, knew that the Karaites were circumcised and used it as argument to prove that the Karaites were identical with the Jews.1445 Apparently before any instructions came from Berlin, several Karaites were murdered in northern Lithuania: six young Karaites were killed in Poswol (Pasvalys); there may have been also victims in Poniewież and Birża.1446 Several Karaites were murdered in 1941 in Riga. According to the data of the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum there were three Karaites killed: Rachel, Liudmila and Samuil Maikapar.1447 German sources inform that two daughters of the tobacco factory owner, Samuil Maikapar, were executed by the Germans in Riga in 1941. Later, when the Nazi general responsible for this act received the information that the Karaites had been directed to be spared, he… donated to Liudmila Maikapar, mother of the executed daughters, a bunch of red roses as a token of apology.1448 Furthermore, Riga Holocaust survivors testifie that Inna Blumental-Maikapar and her two children were killed because she was married to a Jew, Horacio Bernhardt (a.k.a. Blumental, after the marriage – Bernhardt-Maikapar). Together with her family, Inna was hiding in the vicinity of the lake Baltezers. Being denounced by a neighbour, who wanted to get their property, she was shot together with her Rabbanite husband and children in the Riga Jewish cemetery.1449 Many more names of murdered Karaites – or those of them who died during the war for some other reasons – can be found through the search engines of Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.1450 Thus, according to my estimates, several hundred Karaites (not less than 500 souls, perhaps, even more than that) were murdered by the Nazis either as Jews, members of Jewish families or Soviet citizens from 1941 to 1945. In the summer of 1941, Galicia and Volhynia were completely occupied by the German army. Soviet Galicia was reorganized into the German Distrikt Galizien belonging to the Generalgouvernement (i.e. former Poland). The German authorities

1445 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 149-150, 301. 1446 B. Kokenai to S. Szapszał (3.11.1944, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 26v; cf. UO, 172). Semen Grigulewicz wrote to Szapszał from Poniewież in August 1941 that the local government “equalizes us with the sects of the Jews” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1079, fol. 5r). 1447 These three names appear on an exhibition with the names of the in Riga (as seen by Mikhail Kizilov on 23.06.2014). 1448 St. Szwendowski (?) to H. Bernsdorff, Valencia, German, 10.03.1962 (Archive of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fol. 46). 1449 Kaufman, Hurbn Letland. Unichtozhenie evreev, 92-93; for a different (less reliable) version of their murder, see Evgenii Klimov, “Zametki” . 1450 . Crimean Karaite community already published the list of several hundreds Karaites that are in this database (“Spisok ubitykh i zamuchennykh karaimov v gody voiny,” ). Names of 244 Karaites who died during the war were inscribed on the special memorial plaque placed in the Marble yard of the Eupatoria kenesalar (see IKDU 6 (15) (2013): 14-16; IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 14-16). 308 Between Scylla and Charybdis

of Galicia had come across the Karaites in August 1941 while discussing the racial definition of the term “Jew” in the Generalgouvernement. The Nazis received a report on two Karaite communities in Galicia (Halicz and Załukiew) with as many as 300 members (in fact there were not more than 150 Karaites in the region); at that moment they accorded the local Karaites a status that was different from that of the “Rassejuden.”1451 Our investigations conclude that not a single Karaite was killed by the Nazis in Halicz and Łuck. Nevertheless, it does not mean that they did not have any problems with the Nazis and that they felt absolutely secure. In Galicia German officials were inclined not to treat the Karaites as a unified homogenous group, but to analyze origins of each family separately, having no doubts that “many of their members had intermarried with the Jews.”1452 The Galicians often had to prove to the local German authorities their Karaite origin and were obliged to sign documents certifying the absence of Jewish admixture in their genealogical tree. Thus, for example, in the summer of 1942 the Family Agency of the Generalgouvernement in Kraków sent a letter to Halicz requesting confirmation of the Karaite origin of Zarach Zarachowicz.1453 It was only in December 1943 that Zarachowicz’s personal papers, photos, and certificates (altogether twelve different documents!) were sent back to him. These materials apparently satisfied the inquisitiveness of the German officials in Kraków, and his non-Semitic origins were not questioned again.1454 Some local Karaites were requested to sign a special certificate in three languages (German, Polish, and Ukrainian). It had to be signed by its bearer and attested that the individual was not a Jew in any meaning of this term. These certificates, most likely, were supposed to be signed by every member of the Halicz Karaite community.1455 Furthermore, not only Nazis, but also radical Ukrainian nationalists also had been killing the Karaites. Two Łuck Karaites, Selim Rudkowski and Józef Gołub, were killed by the Banderovtsy in 1943.1456 In Warsaw Karaite cemetery there is a cenotaph

1451 Dieter Pohl, Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944 (Munich, 1996), 102 (with reference to the “unbetitelte Politikübersicht für den Distrikt Galizien,” ca. August 1941, kept in Derzhavnyi arkhiv L’vivs’koї oblasti R-35/13/109, fol. 5). For the history of the Holocaust in Galicia, see Friedrich Katzmann, Lösung der Judenfrage im Distrikt Galizien/Rozwiązanie kwestii żydowskiej w Dystrykcie Galicja, ed. Andrzej Żbikowski (Warsaw, 2001). 1452 Friedman, “Karaites,” 111, ft. 52. 1453 Regierung des Generalgouvernements (Sippenstelle) an Herrn Zoruch Zoruchowicz, Sekretär, Krakau, 10.6.1942 (the Yurchenko MSS, Z. Zarachowicz’s collection). 1454 Regierung des Generalgouvernements (Sippenstelle) an Herrn Zoruch Zoruchowicz, Sekretär, Krakau, 8.12.1943 (ibid.). 1455 One such certificate was shown to me by a local Karaite in May, 2002. 1456 Anna Dubińska, “Garść danych o Karaimach z Łucka,” Awazymyz 2 (3) (1999): 9–10; Firkowicz, “Ogniska karaimskie po latach,” 88; UO, 197. Historical Development of the Karaite Case: the Karaites in the Eyes of the Nazi Officialdom 309

with inscription: “The symbolical grave of 22-year-old Józef Gołub who was murdered during the Wołyń massacre on 17 April 1943”.1457 From 1941 to 1943, the Nazis organized several commissions and asked the opinion of numerous scholars that examined the problem of the racial origin of the Karaites in Lithuania and other parts of occupied Poland (Western Ukraine) and Crimea (for details, see 5.4). For various reasons, practically all of these commissions came to the conclusion that the Karaites were not Jews, either in religious or racial sense of the word. As a result, in May/June 1943 “specialists” of the Ministry for the Occupied Territories in the East came to the conclusion that the Karaites were of “a Near Asian-Oriental substrate (Grundlage) with Mongoloid racial components.”1458 Furthermore, it was decided that “equating the Karaites with the Jews therefore is not to be considered. They should be treated… like other Turko-Tatar peoples. On the basis of their racial features they should be described as those of alien [i.e. non- Aryan] blood. Consequently, mixing of the Germans with the Karaites is to be rejected on racial grounds.”1459 Carefully reading this conclusion, one may notice that although the Karaites were supposed to be treated not as Jews, but as Turkic peoples, they – as non-Aryans – were still not allowed to intermarry with the Germans. This decision was sent to practically all Nazi institutions involved in the Karaite case: NSDAP Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, Wehrmacht commandment, Reich Security Main Office, Reich commissar for the East in Riga, Reich commissar for Ukraine in Rovno, Reich Agency for Genealogical Research and Department of Work in the East of NSDAP. It seems that after this decision, although some Nazis (e.g. Mara Krüger in 1943/1945) still expressed the opinion that the Karaites were Jews, the status of the Karaites remained unchanged until the end of the war and the defeat of the Germans. What were the reasons for the Germans’ positive attitude towards the Karaites and their recognition as non-Jews, especially in the face of the fact that a number of persons in authority involved in the issue (e.g. von Mende in 1938) did not support the Karaites’ claims to non-Jewishness? Some scholars have expressed the opinion that by decent treatment of the Karaites the Nazi authorities hoped to win the sympathy of Crimean Tatars and Turks who spoke almost the same language as the Karaites and had friendly relations with them. Indeed, in 1943, the Germans needed the assistance of the Muslim minorities because of the defeat in Stalingrad and the withdrawal from the Caucasian front. Letters of the German authorities corroborate

1457 Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 172. 1458 See the text of the decision from 13.05 and 12.06.1943 published in Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 158. 1459 “Eine Gleichstellung der Karaimen mit den Juden kommt daher nicht in Betracht. Sie sind meines Erachtens wie andere turk-tatarische Völker zu behandeln. Infolge der bei ihnen vorhandenen Rasseeinschläge sind sie als artfremdes Blut zu bezeichnen. Vermischungen von Deutschen mit Karaimen sind infolgedessen aus rassischen Gründen abzulehnen” (ibid., 157). 310 Between Scylla and Charybdis

this hypothesis: “in respect to the close relations between the Crimean Tatars and the Crimean Karaites, no steps should be taken against the latter because it would upset the former” (emphasis added).1460 Similar ideas about the necessity of being careful with the Karaites in order not to spoil relations with “Turko-Tatar peoples” were expressed in June of 1943 by Georg Leibbrandt.1461 Another letter of 1944 advised that in order “not to infringe the unified anti-Jewish orientation of the nations led by Germany... this small group be given the opportunity of a separate existence (for example, as a closed construction or labour battalion) and that their existence be kept secret from the public.”1462 However, this hypothesis can be true only with regard to Crimean Karaites (possibly, the Polish-Lithuanian as well since they were closely related to Crimean ones). It cannot possibly explain the positive attitude towards the Karaite petitions in Berlin in late 1938 and early 1939 because the need to establish good relations with Crimean Tatars appeared only in 1943. At that time (1938/1939) no one from the German leadership could possibly foresee the necessity of having good relations with the Tatars and Turks who were then largely considered by the Nazi ideologists as inferior nations if not as “subhumans”. Thus, the reason for the positive examination of the Karaite case on 22 December 1938 – although the German leading expert, von Mende, had expressed his evident scepticism1463 – still remains a central question which at the moment cannot be answered on the basis of presently-available archival evidence. In July of 1944 Ostministerium was contemplating the possibility of evacuation the Karaites from occupied areas and re-settling them in Germany. However, later, because of the fear of unfavourable reaction of the German public in response to Mara Krüger’s book,1464 where the Karaites were depicted as fanatic Russian Jews and conspirators, this plan was cancelled.1465 In May of 1944 an estimated amount of a thousand Crimean Karaites, who could have been involved in the collaboration and were afraid of the possible retaliation on the part of the Soviet regime, retreated with the German army to the west. They found refuge in Vienna and created there the “Verein der Tataren und Karaimen zu Wien” (Association of the Tatars and Karaites in Vienna). Later, however, the word “Karaites” was dropped most likely because of

1460 The letter of the party chancellor Gerhard Klopfer to SS Major General Karl Brandt from 27 September 1944. In another letter, it was stated that the Karaites should not be discriminated against, on account of past services which they had rendered to the Reich (Green, “Fate,” 174). 1461 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 158. 1462 Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 41. 1463 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 134; cf. BArch R 1509/1152, fol. 13 as published in ibid., 226. 1464 Dagmar Brandt [penname of Mara Krüger, née Brandt], Gardariki. Ein Stufenbuch aus Russischem Raum (Berlin, 1943; by 1944 published three times). 1465 Friedman, “Karaites,” 117. General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 311

the fact that the Karaites started to leave the Association and the conflict between the representative of the Karaite community, M. Kovshanly, and Tatar nationalist leader, Edige Kırımal.1466 Existence of this organization in February of 1945 is also verfied by a handwritten memo composed by Kovshanly.1467 There is no doubt that if the Germans were successful in their military campaigns, after the end of the war they would have started investigating the status of the Karaites “in earnest.” After all, they had never been recognized a full-right “Aryan” population. It is very likely, that after they fulfilled their service for Reich, the Karaites would have received the same treatment as their Rabbanite brethren – or at least as other artfremd (i.e. non-Aryan) ethnic groups. Speaking about the possible fate of the Karaites after the war, one may quote the words of Nazi official Dr. Wetzel who in 1942 wrote that “one of these days.... we will proceed to the question... of re-settling the Karaites to the areas where live similar to them people;” he also stated that “politically, the Karaites are useless.”1468 Fortunately for the Karaites, however, the Third Reich was defeated, removing the Nazi danger ever after.

5.3 General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War

5.3.1 The Fate of the Karaites from 1939 to 1941

Unfortunately, until recently scholars did not have at their disposal any personal accounts of representatives of the East European Karaite communities on their state and every day life during this most difficult period. It is only in the past few years that several memoirs and collections of letters composed between 1939 and 1945 were published by Karaite publishers.1469 These important sources provide much first- hand information concerning the problem. In September 1939 most of Eastern Poland (Galicia, Volhynia, Lithuania and some other regions) was annexed by the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, formally known as the “Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”1470 The annexed territories of Eastern Poland became

1466 Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation,” 387, ft.21; 398, ft.48; Schur, Karaite Encyclopedia, 138. 1467 Green, “Fate”, 174. 1468 Friedman, “Karaites,” 116. 1469 E.g. Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik; UO; Veniamin Tongur, Frontovoi dnevnik (1941-1945), ed. E.I. Lebedeva, V.N. Lebedev (Simferopol, 2006); Savelii Al’ianaki, O tom, chto pomniu… (Kiev, 2009). 1470 This pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 and was valid until the German invasion on 22 June 1941. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact included a secret protocol, according to which a few European countries (the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland; Poland, and Romania) were divided into “spheres of interest” between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. 312 Between Scylla and Charybdis

the parts of the Ukrainian and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics, with Lwów (now called “L’viv”) and Wilno (now “Vilnius”) as the largest cities of the regions. Thus, the Karaite minority again became subject of a different state, this time of the Soviet Union. This state of things continued until the beginning of the German offensive on the Soviet Union in June 1941. During almost two years of its despotic rule, Soviet authorities, under the mask of their traditional accusation of state treason, belonging to “bourgeoisie,” etc., executed and deported thousands inhabitants of the Second Republic. Some Karaites, as wealthy and “bourgeois” Polish citizens, also became victims of persecutions. As soon as the Soviet administrative system was introduced in Halicz, Soviet authorities started purges and repressions of the local “bourgeois” population. Their attitude to the Karaites, with their comparatively well-to-do status and loyalty to the Polish state, was certainly highly negative. The Soviets started by renaming the centuries-old Karaite Street “Nikolai Shchors Street.”1471 Soon afterwards they arrested a wealthy Karaite, the administrative head of the community, Ezua (Eszwa/ Yeshua) Leonowicz. After a public trial, Leonowicz was sent to Siberia, where he died ca. 1940-1941.1472 The same destiny awaited a Karaite train driver (most likely, Leon Sulimowicz), who was found guilty of such crimes as sabotage (vreditel’stvo) on the railway – a typical accusation of the Soviet “judicial” system of the 1930s.1473 In addition to the head of the community, Ezua Leonowicz, the Karaites also lost their religious leader, ḥazzan Marek (Mordecai) Leonowicz, who died in 1940.1474 After that, the duties of the ḥazzan were fulfilled by shammash Moses/Mosze Szulimowicz. According to Bogusław Firkowicz, in 1939 one Karaite family (three persons) from Poland was deported to Kazakhstan.1475 At least one member of the Łuck community, the poet and journalist Sergiusz Rudkowski had to hide from the Soviets in Rafałówka, 75 km north of Łuck. In 1943 there were 19 Karaites living in Latvia; in 1939 the community was supposed to be a bit larger since some of its members perished in Soviet purges and Nazi massacres.1476 It is known that after the Soviet annexation of independent Latvia two members of the Maikapars’ family, Fedor and Samuil Abramovich Maikapars

1471 Nikolai Alexandrovich Shchors (1895–1919) was a Bolshevik field military commander during the Civil War in Russia. He was killed in the vicinity of Kiev. 1472 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15. 1473 Ibid.; cf. Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie,” 40-41. 1474 According to Ms. Janina Eszwowicz, Leonowicz died of anaemia in 1940. Leonowicz was her teacher in the pre-war religious school for Karaite children in Halicz (private communication, June 2003, Halicz). Cf. Janina Eszwowicz, “Svetlaia pamiat’ o gazzane Galicha,” KV 3 (61) (2001); Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 229, no. 139. Some less reliable sources state that Leonowicz died in 1942 (“Pamięci tych, co odeszli,” MK s.n. 1 (1946): 141). 1475 Firkowicz, “Ogniska karaimskie po latach,” 88. 1476 Ščerbinskis, Ienācēji, 26. General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 313

were arrested by the Soviets (both were apprehended on 23.06.1941). Fedor Maikapar received five years of imprisonment as an “enemy of the state”.1477 According to memoires of Bernhard Press he was killed by the Nazis together with other Karaites as a Jew.1478 This data, however, seems to be a mistake. More reliable sources inform that both Maikapars were executed by the Soviets in Kazakhstan sometime after the arrest and deportation.1479 When the Nazis occupied Latvia in 1941, their brother, confectioner Mikhail Abramovich Maikapar, was the main representative of the community. He was authorized to serve as such by S. Szapszał.1480 As far as I know not a single Karaite was arrested by Soviet authorities in Lithuania. This does not mean though that the local Karaites enjoyed the new regime since some “bourgeois” Karaites certainly suffered from it. Thus, for example, Szapszał’s estate in Kiorkłu-Sała (Malowanka) was confiscated1481 while he himself for a while remained unemployed. Then, however, the new, even more dangerous invaders – the Nazis – came to the East European regions where the Karaite population lived.

5.3.2 Karaite Participation in the War and the Problem of the Armed Collaboration with the Nazis

After the beginning of the German offensive in June 1941, the Soviet authorities started recruiting Polish citizens who lived in the Soviet-occupied territories to the Red Army. A future Orientalist, Halicz Karaite Józef Sulimowicz, was forced to abandon his plans to complete his master’s dissertation, and was drafted into the Soviet Army.1482 The Łuck Karaite Leon Pilecki died on Karelo-Finnish front.1483 Many other Karaites, especially those who lived in Crimean Soviet Autonomous Socialist Republic and Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic were likewise recruited to the army. The book by the Karaite author Alexander Fuki, which is based mostly on the oral data and private documents collected by the author, informs about a few hundreds of the Karaites – participants in the military events of the Great Patriotic War as the Red

1477 1478 Bernhard Press, Judenmord in Lettland 1941-1945 (Berlin, 1988), 146. 1479 L. Maikapar to H. Bernsdorff, 1.03.1965, Russian (Archive of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fol. 4). 1480 H. Bernsdorff to S. Szyszman, 3.03.1965, German (ibid., fol. 72). 1481 For the description of the night visit of the commissars to the estate, see A. Pilecki to S. Szapszał, 20.02.1940, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1002, fol. 6v). 1482 His military destiny took him as far as Stalingrad. Only in 1944 was he transferred to the Polish army (see the article by his daughter: Anna Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie,” 42; cf. Aleksander Dubiński, “Józef Sulimowicz,” PO 4 (88) (1973): 365). 1483 Dubińska, “Garść danych.” 314 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Army soldiers. The author provides details of the biographies of 247 Soviet Karaites who actively participated in the military events of the Second World War (most of them as Red Army soldiers);1484 one can also find a list of 176 Karaite Soviet soldiers, whose fate is not precisely documented.1485 Less reliable Karaite authors speak about ca. 849 Karaites who took part in the Great Patriotic War as soldiers of the Red Army and partisans.1486 However, the Soviet Army was not the only military unit where one can find names of the Karaites: members of the community fought practically in every army that took part in military actions of the period. Nine French Karaites (among them the famous post-war maecenas of pro-Turkic Karaite publications, M.S. Sarach) were recruited to the French army.1487 One Karaite, Sergei Shapshal/Szapszał (Serge Chapchal; Odessa 1905 – UK, 1970), from 1941 to 1944 served in the British army; it seems that in the 1930s he also lived in France.1488 Michał Nowicki, a Karaite of Łuck, joined the army of Anders.1489 According to some data, the only son of the Troki Karaite poetess, Lidia Poziemska (see on her 3.4.3), who served in Łuck as the rotmistrz ułanów (Pol. “captain of cavalry-uhlans”) in the Polish army, was killed at the beginning of the Second World War.1490 More information about the participation of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in resistance movements, partisan activity, Home and People’s Army and other Polish military units can be found in several studies by Karaite authors.1491 Finally, one should analyze an extremely complicated – both from academic and ideological standpoint – problem of the Karaite collaboration with the Nazis. This question had often been misused both by Karaite and non-Karaite authors alike. If the former always denied even a hint to the effect that some Karaites did collaborate with the Nazis, the latter often produced too negative portrayal of the Karaites in this period. Here I would like to discuss not the cases of the so-called “passive collaboration” (i.e. work in the Nazi civil institutions or other types of civil activities), but the issue of the Karaite participation in military units of the German army and SS. No exact data concerning the number of Karaites-recruits of the German army is available so far. Yet, even the Karaite sources themselves recognize that there were cases of such collaboration with the Nazis. For example, M. Kovshanly mentioned that two Karaites (Semen Fuki and Assan Shamash) were fighting in Wehrmacht as

1484 Alexander Fuki, Karaimy – synov’ia i docheri Rosii (Moscow, 1995), 57-140. 1485 Ibid., 140-146; [Shaitan], “Chto izvestno o karaimakh,” 154-156. 1486 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 86. 1487 Fuki, Karaimy, 55-56. 1488 See documents from Stephen Shapshal’s archive published online: . 1489 Szanfary, “Najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa.” 1490 Pilecki, “Cień z przeszłości,” 5. 1491 Karaimai kariuomenėje – Karajlar javanlychta – Karaims on Military Service, ed. Michailas Zajončkovskis (Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus, 2000). General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 315

soldiers; one more (Mark Saraf) was listed as assistant of the Institute of Hygiene of Waffen SS in Berlin.1492 According to Michel Kefeli, Karaite Yakov Avakh (Fr. Jacques I. Avache) entered the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (Fr. Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme) which fought together with the German army against the Soviet Union. He was subsequently captured and returned to France from Siberia as lately as 1956.1493 These, however, seem to be cases of individual collaboration. The main evidence of the alleged mass collaboration of the Karaites with the Nazis is the letter of the Staatssekretär Gerhard Klopfer to SS Standartenführer Karl Brandt from 27 September 1944. In this document Klopfer speaks about 500-600 Crimean Karaites serving for Wehrmacht, Waffen SS and the Tatar legions of the German army.1494 Now, it is highly unusual that the Nazi official – who were normally quite precise and scrupulous – provides such imprecise and evidently incorrect figures. According to our estimates, before the beginning of the German offensive of 1941 there were not more than ca. 10,000 Karaites living in the whole of the USSR and Central and Eastern Europe.1495 Usually, the number of males capable of being recruited is around 10 percent of the whole population. This means that there were potentially only ca. 1,000 Karaites who could take part in military actions of the Second World War. Practically all of those male Karaites were recruited to the Soviet army and partisan detachments: it is known that at least ca. 450 (or even ca. 850) Karaites fought there from 1941 to 1945. It is simply unthinkable that as many as 500-600 of them could at some point join the Nazis.1496 Archival documents provide only several names of those Karaites that were registered in military units of the German army and SS: two Karaites (Semen Fuki and Assan Shamash) serving the Wehrmacht as soldiers1497 and one in the Legion of French Volunteers, who fought together with the German army.1498 Although M. Kovshanly (see on him 5.6) did work for “Reichsarzt SS und Polizei,”1499 it seems that his only task there was saving the Karaites and lobbying the Karaite case in the

1492 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 3r-v). 1493 Michel Kefeli, “Karaimi we Francji,” transl. from French A. Sulimowicz, Awazymyz 3 (2007). 1494 Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation,” 398; Green, “Fate,” 174; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 40. 1495 An estimate based on various statistical data (cf. above 5.1). 1496 Warren Green, according to his own words, discovered a list with names of 150 Crimean individuals recruited into the German army, out of which he was able to identify a few surnames which definitely belonged to Crimean Karaites (e.g. Tomalak, Kokos, Dedaliya Karai and some other) (Green, “Fate,” 174; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 40). However, my own examination of the archival document to which Green referred reveals that the scholar simply misread (or misinterpreted) the names: there is not a single Karaite surname in the list of these recruits. 1497 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 3v). 1498 Kefeli, “Karaimi we Francji.” 1499 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 92. 316 Between Scylla and Charybdis

eyes of the Nazi administration. Cases of Karaite participation in anti-Jewish actions in occupied Łuck and Crimea will be discussed in 5.7.1. According to T. Szanfary, some of the Berlin Karaites were supposed to be recruited into German detachments which comprised former White Army officers of the Russian Civil War ca. 1938.1500 There is no evidence, however, that this plan had ever been realized. On the contrary, archival evidence testifies that the Berlin Karaites had a hard time with the Nazis in the 1930s, were often beaten and humiliated by them and were conscripted into forced labour.1501 As has been mentioned above, in May 1944 an estimated amount of one thousand Crimean Karaites left Crimea with the retreating German army. It is known that some of them later turned up in Vienna1502 and allegedly wore Nazi uniforms.1503 However it also remains unclear how many – and how actively – these Karaite émigrés collaborated with the Germans. According to the Soviet official data, by 1949 there were 170 Karaites registered as spetsposelentsy- vlasovtsy, i.e. those who in the eyes of the Soviet authorities joined the German army and were later sent away to Siberia and other regions.1504 Again, however, one can doubt that all these persons were indeed involved in the active armed collaboration. All these data appear to clearly indicate that evidence of individual collaborations (hardly more than one hundred) does not support a general allegation of complicity of the whole community of that period. On the contrary, most members of the community heroically fought against Nazism in the Soviet army and resistance movements. Many Karaites saved their Jewish friends and colleagues and even died with them (see 5.7.3).

5.3.3 Every Day Life of the Community in the Nazi-Occupied Territories

Generally speaking, the Karaites, now living in the territories of Poland and Soviet Union occupied by German troops, shared and experienced the same difficulties as other inhabitants of these regions: lack of food, impoverishment, diseases, persecutions, and the general turmoil involved in the necessity of coping with the occupying regime. The Karaites living in Nazi-occupied areas had the same legal status as other non-Aryan and non-Jewish ethnic groups. In Poland and Lithuania they were often allowed to continue working on their previous places of work or in the

1500 Szanfary, “Najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa.” 1501 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fols. 5v-6r). 1502 Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation,” 387, ft. 21; 398, ft. 48; Schur, Karaite Encyclopedia, 138. 1503 Dr. Rashid Kaplanov (Moscow) narrated to the author of this study that his Viennese friend, a specialist in Oriental Studies, was a witness to a joint concert of the Tatar and Karaite folk-musicians in Vienna in 1945. The Karaite musicians were German uniforms for the event (private communication, Moscow, 15.07.2002). This, however, seems to be the only testimony to this effect. 1504 V.N. Zemskov, Spetsposelentsy v SSSR 1930-1960 gg. (Moscow, 2003), 134 (a courtesy of V.S. Vikhnovich). General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 317

civil administration. Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, for example, was allowed to continue his lawyer’s practice in Halicz in 1941.1505 Reknown scholar, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, worked in the Department of Statistics of the new city council of Warsaw.1506 Some Karaites were appointed by Nazi officials to responsible positions, such as, for example, directors of chemical and plywood factories in Wilno.1507 According to some sources, Szymon Szyszman, who later became an important amateur historian, worked as an assistant director of the chemical factory “Chemijos Išdirbiniai” in Wilno; others state that he was the director of the factory “Dajiva.”1508 Semion Sultan was the manager of the canning factory “L.W. Goegginger” in Riga; after the war he was accused by the Soviet authorities of collaboration with the Nazis.1509 In Simferopol many Karaites worked as accountants.1510 In Crimea the Karaites were often used by the Nazi authorities as interpreters for dealing with Crimean Tatars since many of them were bilingual, having Russian and Crimean Tatar as their mother-tongues.1511 Many of those Karaites, who continued working during the war, were later accused of collaboration with the Nazis – although their collaboration often consisted of fulfilling – to all appearances – innocuous positions as accountants or train drivers.1512 During the Second World War, many Polish-Lithuanian Karaites could enjoy the right of travelling through the country, since they were able to obtain permits from Nazi authorities allowing them to travel.1513 On the other hand, one should not a wrong impression that the Nazis favoured the Karaites more than other non-Aryan ethnic groups living in Eastern Europe. In the Paris of 1940, after the seizure of France by Germany and establishment there of Parisian department of Gestapo, the local Karaite community began to experience the same difficulties as did the Berlin Karaites in the mid-1930s. They were suspected of being Jews; as a result, some Karaite shops and workshops were closed and confiscated as property of the German government.1514 The situation improved for them only in

1505 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 29.12.1941 (UO, 173). 1506 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalaski, 1.12.1941, ibid. 1507 Friedman, “Karaites,” 115. 1508 Leonid Lavrin, “In memoriam Semenu Shismanu,” in Karaj kiuńlari: Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego we współczesnej Europie, ed. Mariola Abkowicz, Henryk Jankowski, and Irena Jaroszyńska (Wrocław, 2004), 177-179, p. 177; cf. A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 25.10.1943 (UO, 194). 1509 Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii F. 7021, op. 93, no. 3692 (courtesy of Dmitri Olekhnovich (Daugavpils, Latvia)). The canning factory “L.W. Goegginger” had been producing tin tobacco boxes for the Karaite tobacco factory “A.S. Maikapar” in interwar Riga. 1510 Viacheslav Zarubin, “K voprosu o nasil’stvennoi vysylke gruppy karaimov iz Kryma v 1944 g.,” in Materialy XIX Mezhdunarodnoi iezhegodnoi konferentsii po iudaike, vol. 3 (Moscow, 2012), 335. 1511 Ibid. 1512 E.g. a Karaite train driver in Halicz, who was viewed as a Nazi collaborator because of the fact that some German trains carried military equipment (Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15). 1513 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178). 1514 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fols. 6v-7r). 318 Between Scylla and Charybdis

1943 when they were finally recognized to be non-Jews. Furthermore, as has been mentioned above, many Karaites were killed as Jews or as Soviet citizens. According to some sources, in order to improve their position and avoid further persecutions, the Eupatoria Karaites donated considerable sums of money to the Nazis.1515 In Riga in 1941, the Karaites were not allowed to buy sugar because there was an official ban on selling sugar to Jews.1516 The Karaites had been also often taken to Germany as Ostarbeiter.1517 According to M. Kovshanly, in the 1940s there were 13 Karaites brought to Germany from the Soviet Union for forced labour.1518 The future Orientalist scholar Zygmunt Abrahamowicz of Halicz was taken to Lower Silesia for the same purpose.1519 Mojsiej Nowicki, who died during the bombarding of Essen in Germany, also had been taken there for forced labour. The life of the Karaite Ostarbeiter in Germany was extremely difficult. To give an example, in 1943 Tamara Kul’te of Simferopol had been taken to Seefeld where she worked in the kitchen. Her working day started at 6 am and continued until 10-11 pm without holidays with only one hour break; occasionally, even this short break was revoked. Yet, she was allowed to send letters home.1520 Several Polish-Lithuanian Karaites faced the choice of either being arrested by the Nazis or hiding from them in order not to be arrested. Ibrahim (Abraham) Samuelowicz twice managed to run away from the German captivity. Szymon Nowicki and Aleksander Gołub hid for a while, in 1941, in Lwów, at the latter’s aunt’s home in.1521 Isaj (Jan) Pilecki was interned in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, and Wansleiten.1522 Pilecki met his future wife Genowefa Duszczak in Auschwitz, where their son was born.1523 Mixed

1515 Norbert Kunz, Die nationalsozialistische “Gotengau”-Konzeption und die Krim im Zweiten Weltkrieg während der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft, M.A. Dissertation (, 1997), 96, ft. 539. 1516 “Karaīmiem cukuru nepārdod,” Tēvija (24.07.1941). 1517 Ostarbeiter (Eastern workers) were slave workers gathered from Central and Eastern Europe to do forced labor in Germany during WWII. 1518 M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 3). 1519 He was taken as far as Lower Silesia (Aleksander Dubiński, “Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923- 1990),” Folia Orientalia 30 (1994): 227-229). 1520 I.Ya. Kul’te to the head of the Karaite community in Berlin, 28.07.1943, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1527, fol. 1rv). 1521 Later Gołub reached Halicz where he witnessed a fight between the retreating Soviet detachment and the Germans (Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 144-145, 150-151). 1522 He was buried in the Warsaw Karaite cemetery (27.01.1913-1.07.1992; see Karaimi, ed. B. Machul- Telus, (Warsaw, 2012), 236, no. 59). In January 2012 I received a letter from a granddaughter of Jan and Genowefa Pilecki who informed me that Genowefa Pilecki was still alive and that her grandparents had been both “political prisoners in Auschwitz, but they were there individually. They did not yet know each other [then].” In the late 1930s/early 1940s, Jan Pilecki had asked Szapszał to provide him with a document certifying his Karaite origin (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fol. 4). 1523 Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 128-129. General State of the Karaite Communities During the Second World War 319

Karaite-Rabbanite family of Al’ianaki from Theodosia spent several months in the concentration camp in Dzhankoi.1524 During the time of the war the Karaites still could profess their religion. However, they certainly had to disguise its Jewish nature. In order to erase all traces of the Jewish religious legacy which could have been noticed by external (i.e. Nazi) observers, many Jewish symbols (Stars of David, inscriptions in Hebrew, manuscripts in Hebrew characters) were hidden, removed, or even destroyed. In the numerous letters and memoranda, composed by the French Karaites during the Second World War, in order to distance themselves from the Jews, they constantly had to state that their religion recognized prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed. It seems that as the consequence of these statements and their closeness to Russian émigré society, many local Karaites converted after the war to Russian Orthodox Christianity and were buried in the Russian Orthodox cemetery in Paris. The Karaite leaders of Poland and Lithuania (especially Firkowicz and Szapszał) also had been constantly forced to repeat to the public nonsensical statements about the recognition of Jesus and Mohammed as prophets by the Karaite religious doctrine. This certainly did not improve the religiosity of the community either. On the other hand, in Crimea the Nazi authorities, although it sounds rather surprising, allowed the Karaites to perform religious services and gave them back all the kenesalar that were confiscated by the Soviet government. According to Avraam Kefeli, even during the Nazi occupation, liturgical services in Eupatoria kenesa were carried out in Hebrew.1525 In Simferopol there even were joint exhibitions of the Tatar and Karaite folk-art.1526 The Karaites were also allowed to perform traditional religious ceremonies such as wedding, burial or circumcision. Szymon Pilecki testifies that even during the war the Troki and Wilno Karaites continued to circumcise their children.1527 To give another example, in August 1942 the Galician Karaites celebrated the marriage of one of the members of their community. Even then the local Karaites were not afraid to draw up a marriage contract (shetar/ketubbah) in Hebrew, using the traditional Hebrew calendar, and such terms as “the land of Israel,” “qehal ha-qara

1524 Al’ianaki, O tom, chto pomniu. 1525 Avraam Kefeli, Karaimy. Raz’’iasnitel’naia broshura (Ashdod, 2002). 1526 “Na vystavke tatarskogo i karaimskogo iskusstva,” Golos Kryma no. 44 (11.04.1943): 4. 1527 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik. 1528 The marriage contract between Mordecai-Shalom b. Yeshua Mordkowicz and Esther bat Joseph, Halicz, 6.08.1942, Hebrew (the Yurchenko MSS, Z. Zarachowicz’s collection). 320 Between Scylla and Charybdis

monuments as synagogues and cemeteries,1529 neither the Karaite cemeteries, nor the Karaite kenesalar were destroyed.1530 The Paris Karaite community was divided into those who supported the Germans and supporters of the Soviet army.1531 The local community maintained close relations with Russian emigrants in Paris, including the famous writer, Ivan Shmelev.1532 It is of interest to know that the local Karaites (Pastak brothers) asked the writer to take part in the liturgy (apparently in the local Orthodox church) expressing gratitude for “delivering Crimea from the Soviet regime”. Shmelev did come to the liturgy which was misinterpreted by many as the support of the Nazi regime both on the part of the writer and of the local Karaite community. This certainly was not the case. According to Shmelev’s letters, although the aforementioned liturgy did express the gratitude for the deliverance of Crimea from the hands of the Bolshevik “torturers and executioners,” not a word was said about thankfulness to Hitler or Nazi Germany.1533 In 1942 Nazi authorities suggested that the Wilno and Troki Karaites join the Tatars and emigrate to Crimea with the latter; as many as 80 Karaites signed up to emigrate by 3.10.1942.1534 This project eventually was not realized; the Polish Karaites considered it nevertheless quite significant that Karaites were being viewed on the same footing as the Muslim Tatars.1535 In autumn 1944 practically the whole of Eastern Europe was liberated by the Soviet Army. Some Karaites, who passively or actively collaborated with the occupying regime and were evidently afraid of the possibly retaliation on the part of the Soviet authorities, emigrated with the retreating German armies to the west. Among important figures who left Eastern Europe for this reason were Szymon Szyszman of Wilno and members of the Maikapars’ family of Riga. Several Maikapars

1529 E.g. they entirely obliterated one of the Rabbanite cemeteries of Halicz, which was located next to that of the Karaites. 1530 The attempt to destroy the Troki kenesa in 1942 was stopped after Szapszał’s meddling into this matter (A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178)). 1531 Kefeli, “Karaimi we Francji.” 1532 K.S. Batozskii, N.V. Pavlenkova, “Ivan Shmelev i krymskie karaimy v Parizhe,” in Venok Shmelevu (Moscow, 2001), 319-323; K.S. Batozskii, N.V.Pavlenkova, “Ivan Shmelev i krymskie karaimy v Parizhe,” in I.S. Shmelev i literaturnyi protsess nakanune 21 veka (Simferopol-, 1988), 74-78. One cannot help noticing that the relations between Shmelev and the Karaites were not as immaculate as these two authors present. The letter of O.A. Bredius-Subbotina to Shmelev from 12.06.1947 mentions that she was deeply offended by Elizaveta Semenovna Gelelovich-Duvan’s careless attitude to the writer (). 1533 I.A. Il’in, Sobranie sochinenii: Perepiska dvukh Ivanov (1947-1950) (Moscow, 2000), 140-141. 1534 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178). 1535 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 25.11.1942 and 23.12.1942 (UO, 181, 183). Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 321

had been living as refugees in West Germany in the late 1940s.1536 Practically all other members of the Riga community left the country in the 1944. Their further fate was rather varied. Nina Penerdzhi settled in Tunis where she died ca. 1959; Boris Kushliu and Sultan family went to New York.1537 Some of those Karaites, who remained in the territories that were annexed by the Soviet Army, were recruited to the Red Army in 1944. For example, three young Karaites from Halicz, Michał Abrahamowicz, the brother of Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, and two Leonowicz brothers were recruited and were killed during the last stage of the war.1538 With the end of the war in this region began a new, Soviet, era in the history of Galicia, Volhynia and Lithuania.

5.4 Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case and “Scholarly” Discussion on the Subject

5.4.1 Nazi Approaches to the “Karaite Question”

In their “scientific” investigation of the “Karaite question” Nazis used several strategies. From 1937 to 1945 a number of officials and scholars, including Nazi, non- Nazi, and even Jewish specialists were asked to express in writing their opinions about the ethnic origin of the Karaites. First of all, they usually asked the opinion of “their,” i.e. Nazi, scholars, usually specialists in Russian or Oriental studies. While speaking about the Nazi specialists, who were involved in the examination of the Karaite case, one may sometimes use the word “scholars” either in inverted commas, or without them. Indeed, although holding academic titles, many persons involved in this issue (e.g. Fritz Steiniger, Gerhard von Mende, and Werner Essen) could hardly hold their claim to engagement in serious scholarship, given their fanatical, racist and/or pseudoscholarly convictions. This is actually why many of them sympathetically viewed the Karaites’ claims to non-Jewishness: fortunately for the Karaites they simply did not have enough academic qualifications to notice that the Karaite Turkic theory was not based on historical sources. Nevertheless, among the Nazi scholars, who were consulted while analyzing the Karaite case, there indeed were trained scholars who held important academic positions before, during and

1536 Ščerbinskis, Ienācēji no tālienes, 27; cf. Archive of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fols. 9-10, 14. 1537 Ibid., fol. 1. 1538 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16. According to an oral testimony by my grandfather, colonel of the Sovier Army Mikhail Fomin, in 1944-1945, when the Soviet Army started suffering from a shortage of human resources, many youngsters lacking any military training were recruited. According to his estimate, seven to eight out of ten such new recruits were usually killed during the very first encounter with the enemy (Simferopol, May 1994). 322 Between Scylla and Charybdis

after the war and whose scholarly qualifications cannot be denied (e.g. Karl Georg Kuhn, Reinhart Maurach, Johannes Benzing, and Gotthard Jäschke1539). In general, a number of serious scholars such as philosopher Martin Heidegger, archaeologists Hans Reinerth and Herbert Jankuhn, economist and Slavicist Peter-Heinz Seraphim, Semitist Karl Georg Kuhn1540 and Orientalist Berthold Spuler joined the Nazi ranks and supported NSDAP and its leaders in their ideological agenda. Occasionally, the Nazis asked members of the Karaite community and their scholars (e.g. S. Szapszał, G. Yalpachik, M. Kovshanly) to write historical memoranda on the history of their people. Naturally, all these studies presented the Karaites as an ethnic group of mixed Turko-Ugro-Mongol extraction professing a sort of syncretistic Muslim-Christian religion. Nevertheless, in order to obtain a second – apparently more objective – opinion for decisions concerning the Karaite status, the Nazis often asked scholars of non-Aryan origin. Astonishingly, among those who were asked to express their opinions regarding the Karaite case one shall find not only Polish and Russian historians, members of Catholic and Russian Orthodox clergy, but even Jewish scholars and Ashkenazic rabbis. As if this was not enough, the Nazis also organized several anthropological commissions which examined the Karaites’ claims concerning their Turkic racial origin de visu. Furthermore, they also actively used existing publications on the Karaites in West European languages and dienstliche Übersetzungen (Germ. “official translations”) of Polish and Russian books to the . Nazi officials, historians and journalists published in the Nazi press quite a number of newspaper reports favourable to the Karaites.1541 While the history of questioning the Jewish scholars will be more fully examined in 5.7.2, a survey of Nazi methodology in investigating the “Karaite question” and their “scholarly” discussion of the subject follows.

1539 On Benzing’s and Jäschke’s positive evaluation of the Karaite case, see Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 285. 1540 He consulted the Nazis concerning the Karaites in June 1942 (Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 157). 1541 E.g. Herbert Kirrinis, “Die Karaimen,” Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 3/4 (1943): 100- 101; Fritz Steiniger, “Die Karaimen,” Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland 2:314 (15.11.1942): 1 (considered the Karaites to be “Turaniden”); Werner Klau, “Standgut der Geschichte,” Die Woche 45 (11.11.1942): 15; Werner Klau, “Von der Krim nach Wilna,” Wilnaer Zeitung 148 (26.06.1942); Werner Klau, “Traken, die seltsame Stadt” (1942; a press-cutting of this article can be found in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fols. 56-57); Herbert Caspers, “Auf den Spuren der Goten vor Sewastopol,” Mitteldeutsche Nazional- Zeitung (25.04.1942): 3; “Abenteuer im Labyrinth des Jaila,” Signal (1.03.1942): 5-7 (a report concerning the seizure of Çufut Kale by German soldiers); Max Bergemann, “Im befreiten Wilna,” Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 234 (17.05.1943): 1; Kurt Krause, “Die Halbinsel Krim,” Geographischer Anzeiger 3/4 (1943): 46; Otto Weisser, “Die Karaimen,” Deutsche Krim-Zeitung 239 (11.07.1943): 3; idem, “Karaimy,” transl. from German, Golos Kryma 3 (9) (8.01.1942), 2. Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 323

5.4.2 “Aryan” and “Non-Aryan” Scholars Express Their Views on the Karaites’ Racial Origin

For about ten thousand Karaites living in the Nazi-occupied territories, as many as several dozen scholars, lawyers, journalists, religious and secular leaders were assigned by the German authorities to express their views regarding the Karaites. One may only wonder at the persistence of the Nazi bureaucratic machine which, until its very end in May of 1945, obstinately continued attempting to find traces of Jewishness in the Karaites, although a number of their specialists had already stated that there were none. When surveying opinions of various scholars hired by the Nazis to investigate the Karaites, one can notice that they evidently did not hold unanimity of opinion. Each of them had their own vision of the Karaite ethnic history and racial origin: some considered the Karaites to be of Turkic, Mongol or even Ugrian extraction and suggested not to imply Nuremberg regulations towards them, others – suspicious artfremd nation with a Jewish “strain” (einshlag). Although the former party, which was sympathetic to the Karaites, clearly had a first hand in the discussion, there were a few influential figures (e.g. M. Krüger and B. Spuler) who were of different opinion. In their “scholarly” zeal the Nazi specialist often made curious mistakes; once they mistook for the Karaites... the group of the Polish Tatars living in Białystok and its vicinities.1542 The reference to this non-existent Karaite community in Białystok is to be found in the erroneous works of several later authors. Several “academic” studies on the origins of the Karaites were carried out by the members of Alfred Rosenberg’s infamous Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories). The reports from among the Aryan scholars (e.g. Fritz Steiniger and Johannes Benzing) contain memoranda of special interest from “Dr. Michael Kowschanly” (M. Kovshanly), a Karaite living in Berlin, who also worked for the Ministry.1543 In general, in their mission to obtain first-hand data about this group impressions received from their personal contacts with the Karaites were, for many Nazi scholars and officials, of great importance: most of those who were in charge of the “Karaite case” often visited, among others, S. Szapszał, Sz. Firkowicz, and the Crimean Karaite Tanagoz.1544 The evidence of all Nazi reports that were based on personal acquaintance with Karaites supported the conclusion of their non-Jewish origin: apparently, the traditional Oriental hospitality and charisma of Szapszał and

1542 Friedman, “Karaites,” 111. 1543 On Kovshanly, see 5.6. 1544 According to Y.A. Polkanov, Tanagoz, who had a good command of the German language, held lengthy conversations with the officer Alfred Karasek whose task was to compile a memorandum concerning the Karaites (Y.A. Polkanov in a foreword to the book by his father: A.I. Polkanov, Krymskie karaimy (N.p., n.d. [Simferopol, 1990s]), 4). 324 Between Scylla and Charybdis

other Karaite leaders, which so often helped the Karaites in their contacts with various officials of different states, did not fail them this time, either. Claims that the famous German Orientalist Paul E. Kahle (1875–1964) was the first German scholar to do research on the Karaites at the request of the Nazi authorities do not seem to borne out by the historical record. According to these claims, Kahle was sent to Leningrad in 1938 in order to investigate the Karaite question there.1545 Nevertheless, as Hannelore Müller has persuasively demonstrated, Kahle went to Leningrad to examine Firkovich collection in 1926; it does not seem to be very likely that he had ever travelled there again in the 1930s.1546 Thus, it seems that Gerhard von Mende (1904–1963), who was asked to compose a memorandum regarding the Karaites as early as May 1937 (!)1547 and September 1938, was the first Nazi specialist to express his opinion about the ethnic origin of the Karaites. As has been mentioned above, he was not impressed by the Karaites’ pro-Turkic rhetoric and came to the conclusion that the Karaites seemed to be racially Jews.1548 Practically about the same time, a historical memorandum about the Karaites was composed in Berlin by the attorney of the Wilno circuit, P. Ackermannn (P.A. von Ackermannn). Contrary to von Mende’s opinion, Ackermannn characterized the Karaites as faithful White Army officers, enemies of Marxsim and Bolshevism.1549 In 1939, lawyer Reinhart Maurach1550 composed an article on the legal status of the Karaites in the Russian Empire. Although rather cautious in his racial conclusions, he presented the Karaites as similar to Crimean Tatars.1551 This article served as the basis for many subsequent official examinations of the Karaite case. That same year, a memorandum on the Karaites was composed by Lothar Löffler, Professor at the Racial Biological Institute at the Königsberg University. Löffler, as well as von Mende, clearly saw the historical unfeasibility of the Karaites’ claims. He stated that, although the Karaites liked to portray themselves as “opponents of the Jews,” they were in fact but “a camouflaged Jewish organization.”1552

1545 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 37; Trevisan Semi, “The Image,” 85; Friedman, “Karaites,” 99. 1546 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 146-147. 1547 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 203 (with reference to BArch R 1509/1152). 1548 Ibid. 1549 The memorandum exists in German and Russian versions: P.A. von Ackermann, “Denkschrift über die Karaimer,” typescript (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1084, fols. 1-30); idem, “Pamiatnaia zapiska o karaimakh” (Berlin, 15.08.1938, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1060, fol. 20). 1550 It is very interesting that Reinhart Maurach (1902-1976), a German lawyer who actively supported the Nazi regime, was born in the Russian Empire in Simferopol. This was perhaps the reason he was asked to be an “expert” on the Karaite case in the 1930s. 1551 Reinhart Maurach, “Die Karaimen in der russischen Gesetzgebung,” Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde 10: 2–3 (1939): 163–175. 1552 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 281. Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 325

Soon after the seizure of France by Germany, the local authorities also started debating the “Karaite problem”. In 1941, they turned to the Catholic Bishop Bénusart who supported the Karaites and stated, with reference to the data obtained apparently from the Parisian Russian émigrés, that they should not be treated the same way as Jews.1553 The authorities also sought the opinion of influential French race scholar and ethnographer, George-Alexis Montandon (1879-1944). The latter expressed the same opinion as Bénusart and supported the Karaites.1554 In general, however, it appears that it was largely Russian clergy and men of letters who championed the Karaites case in Vichy France. In 1942, one Parisian Karaite, S. Pastak, sent to Szapszał a large parcel containing a number of highly noteworthy documents, memoranda and notes related to the life of the Karaite community in France in the interwar period and during the Second World War.1555 These documents testify that in order to defend themselves against Nazi accusations of being Jewish, the Karaites often turned to Russian Orthodox priests living in Paris (first of all, to bishops Evlogii and Serafim) for help. The Orthodox clergy, who knew them from Tsarist times as faithful White Army officers, eagerly supported the Karaites’ and added that the Karaites “reconnait Jesus Christe et Mahomed comme de Grande Prophéts et repudie Talmud” – a statement cloned evidently from Szapszał’s publications on the subject.1556 At the same time, in order to show their anti-Jewish character, the Karaites also gathered testimonies of their Russian comrades-in-arms, officers of the Tsarist White Army, concerning their active fight against the Bolsheviks. Their most known advocate was none other than General Nikolai Kniazhevich (a.k.a. Nicolas Kniagevitch; 1871–1950), the last governor of Taurida (1914–1917). Kniazhevich mentioned the Karaites’ faithfulness to the Russian and characterized them as staunch enemies of Marxism, communism and internationalism. One may notice, though, that he did not venture to express any opinion concerning the Karaites’ racial composition.1557

1553 Weisberg, Vichy Law, 218-219. 1554 Ibid., 219. It is very likely that he was instructed to do so by his Russian wife, Maria Konstantinovna Zviagina. 1555 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, 52 fols. 1556 A copy of the certificate given to the Karaites by methropolite Evlogii (5.11.1941, French) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 27); cf. the letter of methropolite Serafim, 10.11.1941, French (ibid., fol. 40). 1557 N. Kniazhevich to the President of the Association of the Karaites in France, 10.11.1941, French (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1081, fol. 49). See the list of the French Karaites, former White Army officers and soldiers (35 individuals) in ibid., fols. 46-47; see the list of the Karaites executed by the Bolsheviks in Crimea (38 individuals): ibid., fol. 48. Memorandum composed by P. Ackermann mentioned that more than 400 Karaites were shot in Eupatoria in January 1918 by the order of Leyba Bronstein (Trotskii); according to Ackermann, the list of the Karaites destined for execution was prepared by the Jews. The marginal note in pencil left by Szapszał (“Sovershennaia lozh’!” (Russ. “Utter lie!”)) forces one to doubt the veracity of this information (see P. Ackermann, “Pamiatnaia zapiska o karaimakh” (Berlin, 15.08.1938, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1060, fol. 20)). 326 Between Scylla and Charybdis

There were also a few Russian men of letters who helped the Karaites in their struggle for the official recognition as non-Jews in France. One of the defenders of the Karaites in France was a historian Vladimir Abdank-Kossovskii (1885–1962), a Russian émigré who actively supported the Nazi regime during the Second World War. With reference to pseudoscholarly studies by the Marrist, Alexander Baschmakoff (another Russian émigré in Paris), he characterized the East European Karaites as descendants of the Tauro-Cimmerians.1558 The most important figure, whose argumentation apparently was a decisive factor in positive solution of the Karaite question in France, was Pavel Nikolaevich Bogdanovich (1883–1973; a.k.a. Paul Bogdanovitch). The editor of the Russian newspaper “Parizhskii vestnik” and active member of the Office of Russian Emigrés in France, on 8.02.1943 Bogdanovich composed an eight-page historical essay on the Karaites. There he tried to persuade the Vichy authorities (who had been by that time still inclined against the Karaites and considered them to be Jewish) that the Karaites should not be treated on the same legal footing as Jews.1559 Bogdanovich’s argumentation was apparently found persuasive enough and soon afterwards (in 1943) the Karaites received the status that was different from that of the Jews.1560 Soon after the occupation of Lithuania and Poland by Germany, the local Nazi authorities also turned their attention to the Karaite problem. On 31 August 1941 Dr. Theodor Adrian von Renteln, the Generalkommissar (general commissar) of Generalbezirk Litauen in Kowno (Kaunas/Kauen),1561 sent three of his assistants (Dr. Werner Essen, Dr. Dexheimer and Baumgürtel) to Troki in order to investigate the problem on a spot. They meet there with S. Szapszał and ḥazzan Sz. Firkowicz who explained to them the tenets of the Karaite religious tradition and showed some of historical artifacts and documents. The conversation was carried in Russian because the Karaites did not understand German. The members of the delegation were, apparently, impressed by this meeting; one of them, Werner Essen, sent a favourable report to the Generalkommissar. The latter, in his turn, issued an order of 1.09.1941 to his Gebietskomissaren in Kowno, Wilno and Šiauliai stating that the 1,200 Karaites living in these areas should not be regarded as the Jews.1562

1558 Vladimir Abdank-Kossovskii, “Karaimy,” Parizhskii vestnik 74(13.11.1943): 3, 7. 1559 Mémorial de la Shoah – Archives du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, no. CCXVI-8 (see it published in Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 239-246). 1560 Weisberg, Vichy Law, 219-220. 1561 Theodor Adrian von Renteln (1897–1946) was one of the key perpetrators of the Holocaust in Lithuania. There is no doubt that his positive attitude towards the Karaites helped them to survive the Shoah. 1562 Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 38; Friedman, “Karaites,” 107-109. Cf. a copy of the German report to Gebietskommissar in Schaulen/Šiauliai (16.09.1941, German) (MS LMAB F. 143-1082, fol. 34; Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 149-151 (contains a long quotation from Essen’s report)). Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 327

A few other Nazi officials expressed their opinion about the Karaite ethnic history in 1941. They were much more cautious concerning the racial definition of the Karaites. Georg Leibbrandt, the Ministerialdirektor in the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, on 1.10.1941 sent a letter to the Reichskomissar für das Ostland in Riga where he advised against a hasty decision concerning the problem because of the evident existence of mixed marriages between the Karaites and the Rabbanite Jews.1563 The Reichskommisar, apparently on the basis of Leibbrandt’s opinion, stated on 14.10.1941 that the Karaites living in the mixed marriages with the Jews should be treated on the same legal footing as the latter; the same caveat was supposed to be applied to their children.1564 In October 1942, although the Nazi “experts” already examined the Karaites from anthropological standpoint, Leibbrandt was still undecided concerning their racial affiliation. Still, he advised against treating them as Jews until a final decision was made.1565 In that same year, Troki was visited by the group of five Nazi officials, including certain Drs. Müller and Himpel. Another group of German visitors came to see the Karaite museum around May 1942; they acquired from Szymon Firkowicz the Wilno address of Szapszał, promising to visit him there.1566 The previous year, the Institut für Grenz- und Auslandstudien (The Institute for the Studies of Foreign Countries and Borderlands) had published a reference book on the ethnic groups and people of the Soviet Union. This book contained a short entry on the Karaites.1567 In 1942, assistants of the Institute sent a request to Szapszał that he improve and enlarge their entry; this improved entry was published in 1942.1568 In January–April of 1943, the task of examining Karaite history was assigned to the East Prussian historian, reserve-force Lieutenant Herbert Kirrinnis (1907–1977). The latter carefully studied all the lexicons and encyclopaedias that were available to him at that time. Because of the fact that he had evidently held a preconception that the Karaites were non-Jews, Kirrinnis dismissed those articles that were written, in his opinion, from “the Jewish standpoint.”1569 He gave special weight to the 1939 Meyers

1563 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 153. 1564 Ibid., 153-154. Thus, according to this decision Aleksander Mardkowicz, his Rabbanite wife and their children were all supposed to be considered to be Jews, not Karaites. Fortunately for Mardkowicz, the Nazis never found out who his wife really was. Sarra Abramovna Al’ianaki (née Moshevich) of Theodosia, who was married to a Karaite, and her two half-Rabbanite children also remained alive, although they had many encounters with German police and were even interned in the concentration camp in Dzhankoi (Al’ianaki, O tom, chto pomniu). 1565 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 158. 1566 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1002, fol. 2. 1567 Verzeichnis der Völker, Volksgruppen und Volksstämme auf Gebiet der ehemaligen UdSSR, ed. Gerhard Teich, E. Wieber, and Gerhard von Mende (Berlin, 1941), 154. 1568 Verzeichnis der Völker, Volksgruppen und Volksstämme auf Gebiet der ehemaligen UdSSR: Geschichte, Verbreitung, Rasse, Bekenntnis, ed. Gerhard Teich and Hanz Rübel (Leipzig, 1942). 1569 See Kirrinnis’s letters to Szapszał in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1084, fols. 31, 42. Cf. ibid., fols. 32-35. 328 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Lexikon that supported the Karaites’ claims to being a nation different from the Jews. As a result, he published an article favourable for the Karaites.1570 In 1943, the Karaite community of Eupatoria was visited by Dr. Kurt Scharlau (1906- 1964), Hauptsturmführer and assistant of the infamous Institute of Hygiene of the Waffen SS. It is evident from his letter to S. Szapszał that Scharlau sustained contact with many members of the community, including Szapszał and M. Kovshanly.1571 It is very likely that one of Scharlau’s tasks was to compose a memorandum on the Karaites. This memorandum was published in article form after the war. Scharlau characterized Crimean Karaites as descendants of the Khazars who were often “falsely characterized as a Jewish sect; however, in fact, they kept their own mixed religion consisting of Mosaic and Islamic elements.”1572 Additional scholars were questioned by German authorities in other Nazi-occupied territories. In order to rescue the Karaites from annihilation, all of them testified to the Karaites’ Turkic origin. In Melitopol, the local Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) asked Karaite engineer Gelii (Hillel) Yalpachik to write a memorandum regarding the Karaites’ ethnic origin. He was given a three-day deadline to finish the memorandum. On 13.10.1941 the document was submitted to the Sicherheitsdienst. It can be credited with helping the Karaites to survive during the first days of the occupation.1573 In Kraków, they posed questions about the Karaites to the famous Polish Turkologist Tadeusz Kowalski.1574 In Eupatoria the task of writing a historical memorandum on the Karaites was assigned to Victor Beletskii; he also presented the Karaites as Turks.1575 In Simferopol, Nazi authorities assigned a similar composition of the memorandum on the history of the Karaites to Russian historian Alexander Ivanovich Polkanov (1884-1971). It is very odd, however, that all-seeing and all-knowing Nazi officials were not aware of the fact that Polkanov’s opinion could not be objective and impartial because of the fact that his wife – Anna Il’inichna Kal’fa – was Karaite. According to Polkanov’s son, Yuri Alexandrovich Polkanov, in January of 1942, German officials in Crimea received a private denunciation that the Karaites were Jewish. To verify this information, Polkanov was asked (or, rather, ordered) by the officer Karasek to prepare a survey of the history of Crimean Karaites. Polkanov had already been asked several times by the Nazis to compose such a study. According to Polkanov-junior, in order not to do it, his father wore a bandage on his hand, pretending to be unable to

1570 Herbert Kirrinnis, “Die Karaimen,” Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 3/4 (1943): 100-101. 1571 K. Scharlau to S. Szapszał, Berlin, 10.09.1943, German (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 633, fol. 1). 1572 Kurt Scharlau, “Landeskundliche Charakteristik der Krim,” in Ergebnisse und Probleme moderner geographischer Forschung. Hans Mortensen zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (Bremen, 1954), 267. 1573 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 128-129. 1574 Edward Tryjarski, “Coming to the Rescue of the Karaites during the Second World War,” RO 56:2 (2004): 107. 1575 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 283, 291. Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 329

write. Alas, this time he was given a firm deadline of 17.03.1942. He managed to write this study in time – supporting the stance that Karaites were Turks.1576 This is how this story of the Karaites’ salvation is presented by Polkanov’s son. However, according to Krymchak L.I. Kaia, who had lengthy conversations with Polkanov1577 after the war, the story unfolded in a completely different manner. According to Kaia, Polkanov, who was the director of the Museum of Local Lore in Simferopol during the occupation, took home all the books from the museum library because he was afraid that these books could reveal dangerous truth about the Karaites’ Jewish origin. Nevertheless, this was not enough to save the Karaites. Soon he was approached by SS-Obersturmführer Alfred Karasek, a Nazi officer of Czech origin, who had to compile the “academic” work (or, rather, an official report) on the Karaites. They apparently met in the “Taurica” library in Simferopol: it is known that Karasek conducted his research there1578 while Polkanov was the director of the museum where the library was located. Polkanov understood the danger of the situation: Karasek could gather information about the Karaites’ Jewish origin and inform his authorities. Therefore, Polkanov himself (and not by the Nazi order, as his son says) volunteered to write such a work. Karasek gave him only three days (not “months,” as Polkanov-junior says) to do this. Moreover, L.I. Kaia and O. Belyi, who had in their hands numerous unpublished works composed by the local Karaite authors in the 1930s, came to the conclusion that Polkanov, who had only three days to write the memorandum on the Karaites, compiled his work on the basis of the study by the interwar Karaite author, Efet (Yefetov).1579 This version of the Polkanov story seems to be much more realistic than the one narrated by his son. Whatever the case may be, the final decision regarding the Karaites in all Nazi- occupied territories in Eastern Europe, Germany, France, Italy and some other countries was taken only in May/June 1943. On 13.05.1943 Erhard Wetzel, head of the Special Department of Racial Policy (Sonderdezernats für Rassenpolitik) in

1576 Yu. A. Polkanov, foreword to A.I. Polkanov, Krymskie karaimy (n.p., n.d. [Simferopol, 1990s]), 4-5. Polkanov’s memorandum had been several times printed after 1991, in Crimea and in Paris. According to O. Belyi (private communication, September, 2002), the Paris edition was considerably corrected by some anonymous editor whose participation in the “editing” was not even mentioned. This work, which was composed in the period of two or three days at the Nazis’ request, obviously was not intended to be published. Its Russian grammar is incorrect and awkward, as well as the style and syntaxes, with scores of most obvious mistakes on every page of the book and the general pseudoscholarly tendency to present Karaites as the Turko-Mongol-Asiatic people of part-pagan, part- Muslim faith. The only way to publish such a testimony of those terrible days was to provide it with a scholarly introduction and commentaries. This was not done by its editors; one may be surprised that it was recommended for publication in this “raw” form by recognized historians such as V.F. Kozlov, I.A. Baranov and I.V. Kutaisov. 1577 Strangely enough, Kaia himself always misspells Polkanov’s surname as “Palkanov.” 1578 Feferman, “Nazi Germany,” 283, 291. 1579 Kaia, “Balovni sud‘by”, 60-63; O. Belyi (private communication, Sep. 2002). 330 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Leibbrandt’s Hauptabteilung I Politik, composed a directive (Verfügung) for Reich commissars in occupied Eastern territories and Ukraine. The directive was signed by Leibbrandt on 12.06.1943 and sent to practically all Nazi institutions involved in racial treatment of peoples in the occupied territories. Fortunately for the Karaites, according to this directive, from that moment onwards they were to be treated not as Jews, but as a Turko-Tatar people.1580 Nevertheless, this was not the end of the “Karaite problem” for the Nazi authorities, since there still were German experts unwilling to agree with the decision regarding their non-Jewish status. Reknown German Orientalist Bertold Spuler in his book on Idel-Ural idea of an independent Turkic state, which he composed for “Dienstgebrauch” of the Nazi officials in 1942 (i.e. only a short while before the final decision was taken), expressed the opinion that “supposed connections between the Turkic-speaking Mosaic Karaite sect … and the Khazars cannot be proven.”1581 This means that the scholar considered the Karaites to be a Jewish sect with nothing in common with the Turkic Khazars. Although this statement was historically accurate, Spuler apparently was not aware of the sinister complications his scholarly precision could bring to the vanishing ethnoreligious group. The real danger to the Karaites’ well-being was represented by the German Nazi journalist and writer Mara Krüger (née Brandt, hence her penname – Dagmar Brandt).1582 The bloodthirsty Schriftstellerin called them “the fanatical followers of the Messianism” and insisted that they must be exterminated. On 11.05.1943 M. Krüger even wrote to Hitler concerning the Karaite case and demanded their execution.1583 In addition to this letter she also sent to the Nazi authorities an essay entitled “The Karaites. On the interesting ‘ethnic metamorphosis’ of a Jewish sect” (Germ. Die Karäer. Von der interessanten ‘Volkwerdung’ einer jüdischen Sekte). There she alleged to have exposed the Karaites as the “Jewish sectaries who suddenly turned out to be a ‘Tatar people’” and insisted that their non-recognition of the Talmud did not play

1580 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 158-160. 1581 Bertold Spuler, Idel-Ural (Berlin, 1942), 14-15. Later Spuler became a famous Orientalist, the author of the classical monograph on the history of the Golden Horde (Bertold Spuler, Die Goldene Horde (Wiesbaden, 1965)). 1582 Born Liepāja (Libau) 1882; she spent several years in St. Petersburg during WWI, hence her knowledge of the Russian language and history. After the war she defended herself and claimed that she “has never been an anti-Semite.” Nevertheless, her bloodthirsty letter to Hitler, her desire to exterminate the Karaites and finally the anti-Semitic content of her opus magnum – the novel “Gardariki” – clearly demonstrate that she was part and parcel of the violent Nazi Judeophobic propaganda. For more information regarding her biography, see Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Literatur des Baltikums und St. Petersburgs. Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 1 (Berlin, 2007), 279-280. From the standpoint of the present-day, it is very difficult to imagine how Krüger – a woman and an author of several novels – could be ultimately so atrocious as to demand the death of several hundred innocent civilians guilty of only their rather doubtful Israelite or Khazar origin. 1583 Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation,” 388, ft. 24; Friedman, “Karaites,” 114. Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 331

any significant role in this matter.1584 Furthermore, in 1943, she published the novel “Gardariki” which received a wide acclaim and circulation and by 1944 was published at least three times.1585 “Gardariki”1586 represents a huge volume of about a thousand pages dedicated to various periods of the Russian history, starting from the ancient Ostrogoths, through medieval period and up to the Soviet times. The novel is divided into twelve books, each of them demonstrating the malicious role of the Semites in Russian history with typical Nazi propaganda about a Jewish conspiracy, secret plots, etc. The eleventh book is dedicated to the assassination of the Russian Tsar in 1881, organized, according to the author’s literary fancy by a Crimean Karaite, Georg Sinani. Basing her ideas about Karaite history mostly on the pseudoscholarly Japhetic theory of the Soviet academician N. Marr, Krüger presented there the Karaites as a steadily developing Semitic nation, sons of Japheth – Lost Tribes of Israel – Khazars – Karaites, who lived in Crimea since times immemorial and always ruled “Kanaan,” i.e. medieval Russia.1587 Thus, as well as followers of the Turkic theory of Karaite origin, she also considered the Karaites to be remnants of the Khazars; nevertheless, in her opinion the Khazars themselves were... nothing less than descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Paradoxically enough, Brandt’s allusions to Karaite documents and Karaite history sometimes are quite deep and sophisticated: in order to compose her book the author diligently studied publications of such authors as P.S. Pallas, A. Harkavy, D. Chwolson, A. Kunik, J. Fürst, N. Marr, and many classical authors. Although the final solution regarding the Karaites’ non-Jewish racial origin had already been taken, the Nazi authorities could not ignore appeals and letters of the acclaimed belletrist. Two more Biblical scholars (Karl G. Kuhn and Anton Jirku) were asked to analyze Krüger’s novel. Both wrote rather sceptical reviews; as a result, on 22.03.1945 Walter Groß, the head of the NSDAP Office of Racial Policy sent the authoress a negative response to her claims. The Special Department of Racial Policy of the Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories came to the conclusion that “Frau Krüger’s observations are neither racially, nor politically tenable.”1588 Thus, fortunately for the Karaites, Krüger’s bloodthirsty claims were not attended to. This issue was the last line in the Nazi “scholarly” discussion concerning the Karaite problem. In April and May 1945, when the Soviet army had been approaching Berlin, there was apparently no time for further elaborations on this small and insignificant – in comparison to the general retreat from the East and inevitable collapse of the murderous Nazi regime – problem.

1584 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 160. 1585 The first edition was published in 45,000 copies! 1586 Gardariki (Islandic Garðaríki/Garðaveldi, Swedish Gårdarike) – old Scandinavian name of Russia. 1587 Dagmar Brandt [Mara Krüger], Gardariki (Berlin, 1944), 741-837. 1588 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 160-161. 332 Between Scylla and Charybdis

5.4.3 The Nazis Are Doing Anthropological Examination of the Karaites

Physical anthropology played crucial role in defining the status of “racially inferior” peoples and ethnic groups in the eyes of Nazi leadership. This is why, in order to get a better idea about the Karaites’ racial extraction, in addition to historical research, the Nazi authorities used already published anthropological studies – and also tried to undertake their own anthropological examination of the Karaites. In many of his studies, official interviews and meetings Szapszał stressed that the Karaites were not allowed to intermarry with the Rabbinical Jews from Anan ben David’s times, i.e. from the eighth century A.D.1589 This meant that anthropologically even then, in early medieval period, the Karaites were different from the Rabbanites. Sources inform that virtually all Nazi and non-Nazi anthropologists, who studied and examined the Karaites in the 1930s and 1940s, read and actively used Szapszał’s publications and certainly were aware about this statement of the Karaite leader. According to some Karaite authors, Corrado Gini’s anthropological study, which “proved” the non-Semitic origins of the Karaites, was one of the main factors in saving them from Nazi persecutions.1590 To facilitate for German “experts” the work with Gini’s study, which had been originally composed in Italian, Giulio Fochi made in Berlin in 1942 an abridged translation of Gini’s “The Karaites of Poland and Lithuania” into German.1591 Nevertheless, it seems that the Karaite authors often exaggerated the role of Corrado Gini’s work. In my opinion, it was just one of the numerous factors that saved the Karaites during the Holocaust. This hypothesis is attested by the fact that from 1941 to 1945 the Nazi authorities in Poland, Lithuania, and Crimea organized a number of special commissions to investigate the Karaite case in spite of the existence of Gini’s study and the decision of 1939 (both excluded the Karaites from the ranks of the “Rassejuden”). It seems that most of the Nazis’ anthropological commissions focusing on the Karaite problem were organized in 1942, when the final decision about the Karaites’ non-Semitic racial origin had not yet been taken. In the autumn 1942, Drs. Otto Bräutigam,1592 Günther Holtz and Fritz Steiniger carried out a series of anthropological examinations in Troki, Wilno, and Riga.1593 Steiniger, who was a specialist in natural sciences, was appointed director of the Medical Zoological Institute in Riga; nevertheless, the Nazi authorities apparently considered him to be knowledgeable enough to do anthropological study of humans. According to H. Müller, he was also

1589 KKT as republished in Çulha, “Sereya Şapşal’a,” 107-109; cf. De Mandato, “I Caraimi di Polonia;” Moreau, “En Pologne.” 1590 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15; Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 7. 1591 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 928. 1592 Otto Bräutigam (1895-1992) – German diplomat and lawyer who was actively involved in the Holocaust. 1593 Friedman, “Karaites,” 112-113. Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 333

Rassenpolitischer Referent der Abteilung Politik in Reichskommissariat Ostland.1594 The anthropological examination of the Wilno and Troki Karaites took place from 6 to 7 December 1942 in the First Wilno policlinic on Gedimino Street 27; the Nazi anthropologists wanted also to examine at the same time the local Muslim-Tatars.1595 Later Steiniger published a pseudoscholarly article in the Nazi press about his studies.1596 The Polish anthropologist Jan Czekanowski was engaged in a scientific discussion with the Nazis about the ethnic origin of the Polish Karaites in Lwów in 1942. He expressed the opinion that Tatar features (he used the term “tatarszczyzna”) in the anthropological composition of the Karaites should be explained by the “infiltration of the Karaites with Alanian blood” (how exactly the Iranic Alanians could “Tatarize” the Karaites the scholar did not explain). Similar point of view was expressed by Dr. Hans Niemann who was assistant of the Lwów department of the Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit.1597 At the end of 1942 a German commission from Kraków was supposed to arrive in Halicz in order to examine the local Karaites; certain R. Böhm was appointed to be its head.1598 German scholar, whose name is not mentioned by the sources (was it the aforementioned Böhm?), was sent to do anthropological research in Halicz. Surprisingly, he had anti-Nazi convictions, and therefore composed a report on their racial structure favourable to the Karaites. Furthermore, he made good friends with the Halicz Karaites and even helped one of them, Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, to rescue some of his valuable possessions.1599 In addition to such larger commissions or expeditions which were supposed to examine the Karaites from the anthropological standpoint, it seems that there also were individual cases when the Karaites, whose racial origin for some reason was found suspicious by the Nazi authorities, had to undergo the procedure of anthropological investigation. Archival data demonstrate that at least one German Karaite had to undergo anthropological examination in order to be recognized as a non-Jew.1600 It is possible to suppose that in some other cases, when Karaite origins of members of the community seemed to be suspicious, similar anthropological expertise may have been applied.

1594 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 157. 1595 F. Steiniger to S. Szapszał (14.11.1942, German) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fols. 8, 14; H. Bernsdorff to S. Szyszman, 3.03.1965, German (Archive of the Museum of “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fol. 73); H. Bernsdorff to F. Steiniger, 6.01.1965, German (ibid., fol. 68). 1596 Fritz Steiniger, “Die Karaimen,” Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland (15.11.1942); idem, “Bilder von Karaimen und Tataren im Ostland,“ Natur und Volk 74:1/2 (1944): 39–48; ibid., 74:3/4 (1944): 78–83. 1597 Jan Czekanowski, “Z zaganień antropologii Karaimów,” MK s.n. 2 (1947): 21. 1598 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 26.10.1942 (UO, 179-180). 1599 Tryjarski, “Coming to the Rescue,” 107-108. 1600 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fols. 5r-v. 334 Between Scylla and Charybdis

5.4.4 The Role of Translations in the Nazi “Solution” of “the Karaite Question”

In order to get a better view on the problem and arrive to definite conclusions concerning the Karaites’ racial origin, the Nazis also needed translations of most important Karaite-related publications and sources, written both by Karaite and non- Karaite authors. It was often non-Nazi linguists that were hired by the German to do such translations. These translations either remained in typewritten manuscript form or were published in a limited number of copies with indication that these publications should be used only for the dienstliche Gebrauch. To the great relief of the Karaites, the Nazis selected for the translations and official use a number of recently published works of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites authors. These publications of course emphasized Turkic roots of the Karaites and thus greatly promoted the positive “solution” of the Karaite case. One such “official translation” was that of the highly tendentious leaflet on the Karaites in Poland of 1938 by Szemaja (Szymon) Firkowicz.1601 Another publication that was translated into German was Corrado Gini’s anthropological study of 1934.1602 It seems that the largest collection of the German translations of Karaite-related publications is kept in YIVO archive in New York.1603 These items were used by the Nazis during their study of the Karaite case in Easter Europe. The collection consists of typewritten and manuscript German translations of studies on the Karaites in Eastern Europe by Raphael Mahler, Reuven Fahn, T.S. Levi-Babovich,1604 Ananiasz Zajączkowski,1605 and A. Kahan.1606 These translations were done between 1941 and 1943 in the Wilno ghetto by the group of Jewish scholars headed by Zelig Kalmanowicz (Kalmanovich) by the order of the Nazi authorities; among other translators were Drs. Yakov Gordon, Dina Yoffe, and Y. Lam.1607 The translations were done from the

1601 Szymon Firkowicz, Die Karaimen in Polen, dienstliche Übersetzung von Dr. Harald Cosack (Berlin-Dahlem, 1941) (the Manuscript department of the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, 1942 B 484; 11 pp. of typewritten text with the subheading “nur für den Dienstgebrauch”). This was the official German translation of Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce (Troki, 1938) (misattributed by Trevisan Semi to Harald Cosack, the translator of the book: Trevisan Semi, “The Image of the Karaites,” 92, ft. 19). 1602 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 928. 1603 YIVO Archive RG40. 1604 T.S. Levi-Babovich, “Ueber die gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen den Karäern u. Tataren in der Krim.” (ibid., brown folder without a number). This is the German translation of the article first published in Tatar periodical “Ileri” in Simferopol; the German translation was done from the Polish translation by Ananiasz Zajączkowski. 1605 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Randbemerkungen zu Bałaban’s Studie ‘Die Karaer in Polen’” (ibid.) (the German translation of Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Na marginesie studium Bałabana “Karaici w Polsce”,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 35-69). 1606 A. Kahan, “Ein Karäer über die Karäer” (the German translation of the biography of Il’ia Kazaz published in Hebrew in Ha-shiloaḥ 42 (1924): 13-19, 121-135). איבערזעצט דורך א געטא בריגאדע בראש מיט ז. קלמנאוויטש :One folder has a subheading in Yiddish 1607 Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 335

Russian, Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew languages. It is interesting to note that in this case the Nazis wanted to translate studies not only by Karaites scholars (e.g. T.S. Levi- Babovich and Ananiasz Zajączkowski), but also by the Rabbanite authors. Thus, the Nazis apparently desired to see a perspective on the subject that was different from that offered by the Karaite authors. The largest study, which was translated into German by Kalmanowicz and his colleagues, was entitled “The Karaites of Crimea.” Although the author of the study was not indicated, there is no doubt that its Russian original was penned by Seraja Szapszał since Kalmanowicz himself mentioned a few times in his diary that his task was to translate Szapszał’s study. This was apparently Szapszał’s study “Karaimy Kryma” that was finished by him in 1942.1608 According to this diary, in 1942 Kalmanowicz was ordered to translate “the Russian book of the Karaite hakham” [i.e.Szapszał], to compile a full bibliography of Karaite studies and later, to correct the translation of the “hakham’s” manuscript. Kalmanowicz left quite a sarcastic characteristic of Szapszał received by him while reading the latter’s study: “How limited is his horizon! He is proud of his Turkish-Tatar descent! He has a better understanding of horses and arms than of religion, although he is religious in the Christian sense”.1609 The fact that Szapszał was about to finish his larger study on the Karaites in German at the end of 1942 is mentioned also by Ananiasz Zajączkowski; according to Zajączkowski, Szapszał’s study was about 400 pages long.1610 It seems that the translation kept in YIVO is the only extant copy of this work. The Karaites were certainly presented in this translated study as the Turkic people, descendants of the Khazars.1611 Szapszał’s personal archive in Vilnius contains the following German translations of Szapszał’s studies: Die Abstammung der Krimer und Litauischen Karaimen (194[2], 4 fols.); Die Stellung der Karaimischen Konfession unter anderen monotheistischen Bekenntnissen (1942; 2 fols.); Die Glaubenslehre der Karäer. Die Khasaren (1942; 80 fols.).1612 As one can notice, these studies are different from the large work on Crimean Karaites that was translated by Kalmanowicz. Szapszał’s historical works were

1608 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 822 (this manuscript comprised 387 fols.; this roughly corresponds to the volume of the German translation). 1609 Kalmanowicz’s personal diary kept in Hebrew with some passages in Yiddish which narrates us a tragic and touchy story of the last days of Kalmanowicz and the Wilno ghetto, was published as Zelig Kalmanovitch, “A Diary of the Nazi Ghetto in Vilna,” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 8 (1953), 9-81; on Szapszał see the pp. 23, 29, 37, 50, 52, 54. 1610 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 and 24.03.1943 (UO, 179, 185). 1611 The German translation of the work “Die Karäer der Krim”, in 5 parts, done apparently by Kalmanowicz (YIVO Archive RG40, box 1, folder 268). Box 2 contains the folder with the German translation of the study regarding the Karaites in Lithuania and Poland and about the literature in Karaim. These also seem to be translations of Szapszal’s studies. 1612 MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 846, 845, and 899. 336 Between Scylla and Charybdis

translated into German also by M. Kovshanly and Hebraist, Dr. Herbert Gotthard.1613 Gotthard, who was an assistant of Rosenberg’s Arbeitsstab,1614 after the war stated that Kalmanowicz, Yoffe and Gordon had helped him to translate one of Szapszał’s studies into German. In 1947 he was accused of robbing Strashun Jewish library of Wilno of its manuscript and printed treasures. Gotthard tried to defend himself and asked Szapszał to confirm that he, on the contrary, helped Jewish scholars to survive.1615 Thus, the German translations that were used by the Nazi authorities as a source of information on the East European Karaites, also played role in the general salvation of the Karaites from the Holocaust. On the other hand, some of the translated studies that revealed to their readers the real world of Karaite religious traditions and truth about their Jewish origin (e.g. studies by R. Fahn, R. Mahler and A. Kahan), on the contrary, could have been used by the Nazis as an argument against the favourable treatment of the Karaites.

5.4.5 The Role of Encyclopaedias

Where does an ordinary man turn to in order to find information about a certain phenomenon, geographic name or ethnic group which is not known to him? Before the invention of Internet, in such cases people usually turned to various encyclopaedias, lexicons and reference books. The Nazis, who never heard about the Karaites before 1939, also usually began their research from reading European encyclopaedias concerning the Karaites. Furthermore, the Karaites themselves often attached to their petitions to the Nazi and fascist authorities lengthy quotations from encyclopaedias that were supposed to demonstrate the difference between the Karaites and the Rabbanite Jews. These quotations (photocopying machines did not exist at that time) usually were carefully prepared and selected by the authors of these petitions: necessary passages were cited at full length while those that could point out at the Jewish nature of Karaite movement were dropped and avoided. Furthermore, fortunately for the Karaites, some later encyclopaedias, published at the end of the 1930s, contained references to Szapszał’s Turkic theory that supported the idea about the Karaites’ non-Jewish origin. To give an example, Bol’shaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia from 1937 stated that the Karaites were a product of ethnic mixing

1613 The latter is mentioned by Szapszał as the translator of his studies in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 74v. 1614 Zentralarchiv zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Zentralkomitee der Befreiten Juden in der Britischen Zone, Bestand B. 1/28, Gemeindeabteilung Lübeck, no. 695: Korrespondenzen von Norbert Wollheim über die des ehemaligen Mitarbeiters im Arbeitsstab Rosenberg, Dr. Herbert Gotthard, an Polen, 1945-1947. 1615 See four letters sent by Gotthard to Szapszał in 1947-1948, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 290). Nazi Methodology in Investigating the Karaite Case 337

between the followers of Anan ben David and the Turkic Khazars.1616 What was even more important, the last pre-war issue of the German Meyers Lexikon (1939) stated that the Karaites “perceive themselves as a separate nation and do not want to be Jews; the fact that the Jews prohibit marriages with the Karaites probably corroborates this.”1617 Both the Karaites and the Nazis rejected data of Jewish encyclopaedias as biased and partial. Yet, some inquisitive Nazis read other, less favourable for the Karaites encyclopaedia entries (especially dangerous was the Spanish encyclopaedia that presented the Karaites as a Jewish sect). Ananiasz Zajączkowski, for whom the task of saving the Karaites from 1941 to 1944 represented exhausting everyday labour, mentioned that “a stupid note in an encyclopaedia” was one of most dangerous factors that could jeopardize the position of the Warsaw community.1618 In the end, however, even such unfavourable for the Karaites encyclopaedia entries were recognized as irrelevant. As a result, they did not play a decisive role in the positive solution of the Karaite case.

***

Even as late as March 1945 the Nazi authorities were still “scientifically” discussing racial origins of the Karaites.1619 Thus, the opinion that there was no Nazi danger for the Karaites after the edict of 1939, which is often expressed by modern East European Karaite authors, is not true. The heated debates around their origins were going on as late as March of 1945 and the Karaites often felt themselves on the verge of being recognized a part of the Jewish nation.

5.5 Seraja Szapszał’s Life and Activity from 1939 to 1945 – Real and Imagined

5.5.1 Life Real

It seems that the period after the Soviet annexation of the Polish-Lithuanian lands, with its anti-bourgeois and anti-religious propaganda, was one of the most dangerous periods for the Karaite community. During this time Szapszał again (for the third, but

1616 “Karaimy,” Bol’shaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia 31 (Moscow, 1937), 435-437. 1617 Sie betrachten sich als eine besondere Nation, wollen keine Juden sein, was die Tatsache, dass die Juden die Ehe mit den Karaїmen verbieten, vielleicht bestätigt (“Karäer,” Meyers Lexikon, 8. Auflage, vol. 6 (Leipzig, 1939), 838). 1618 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, Warsaw, 2.06.1943 (UO, 188). 1619 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 223. 338 Between Scylla and Charybdis

not for the last time!) was forced to change his citizenship and became a citizen of the Soviet Union. In 1941 he had received a Soviet Lithuanian passport, which was later was confiscated, according to his own words, by the German officials.1620 In order to show his loyalty to the Soviet government he denounced his religious office. About this time he also asked Barri (Barukh) Egiz,1621 his wife’s brother, to paint portraits of the Soviet leaders, Lenin and Stalin, perhaps, also to show the faithfulness of the Karaites to the new regime (these portraits, hidden after the coming of the Nazis, shall surface again in 1944).1622 After the Soviet annexation of Lithuania in 1939 Szapszał’s financial position was absolutely disastrous. He stopped receiving his ḥakhan’s salary and had to sell some of his private belongings on a market.1623 Already in the winter of 1940, i.e. during the Soviet period, in his habitation at Stroma Street 5, Szapszał could show Teofil Szanfary a copy of “Reichgesetzblatt”, which mentioned the non-Jewish origin of the Karaites.1624 In order to start receiving a salary from the state, he transferred to his private apartment in Vilnius a part of the collection of Karaite ethnographic objects which had been gathered by him in the 1930s for the future Karaite museum in Troki. He hoped to present these objects to the Soviet authorities in his apartment as the location of a new Karaite museum and to obtain a position of its director.1625 Indeed, on 16.01.1941 Szapszał’s museum became part of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian SSR; on 1.02.1941 Szapszał became its first director.1626 By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (22.06.1941) two assistants of the Museum (Szapszał and Lidia Okulewicz/Okulevich) compiled an inventory of its holdings.1627 The Museum was open also during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania while Szapszał continued working as its director and had been receiving a salary.1628 Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Szapszał personally and the Karaite community as a whole were far from feeling secure: while the Soviet regime persecuted them as suspicious “bourgeois” elements, the Nazis started seriously investigating their racial origin. From 1941 to 1944 Szapszał was in constant contact with German authorities, in order to defend his congregation from the danger of Nazi persecutions. As the main representative of the community, he was often called upon to settle many official matters with the Nazi authorities, show them the Karaite museum, write and

1620 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 9a, fol. 6r. 1621 For more information about Egiz (1869-1946), see Bari Egizas: Tapyba, piešiniai. 1622 For more information, see 6.2.1. 1623 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 6.08.1940 (UO, 162). 1624 In all probability, Szapszał showed to the journalist a copy of the Berlin edict of 1939 (Szanfary, “Najmniejsza mniejszość narodowa”). 1625 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 29.11.1940 (UO, 164). 1626 Romuald Firkowicz, Karaimika v Litve (Trakai, 1969), 4. 1627 Ibid., 4-5. 1628 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 25.10.1941 (UO, 172). Seraja Szapszał’s Life and Activity from 1939 to 1945 – Real and Imagined 339

sign official papers, appear in public places, etc. This certainly was quite a precarious business that undoubtedly required from him much courage and self-control.1629 He also had been engaged in correspondence with some of the Nazi officials. His wife, Vera Egiz, a graduate of a Swiss institute, translated Szapszał’s letters into German and from German to Russian. For sealing official Nazi papers of this period Szapszał had a special seal bearing two inscriptions: one in Turkish with the words “Karay hakani” and the other in German with inscription “Hachan der Karaimen.”1630 The Nazi official Baumgürtel (in some sources also spelled as “Baumgärtel”), who met with Szapszał in 1941, was instrumental in securing for the latter the salary higher than the one that Szapszał had being receiving from the Polish government. Moreover, Baumgürtel even recommended to the government that Szapszał’s estate in Körklü- sala or Malowanka, that had been confiscated by the Soviets, should be returned to him.1631 Szapszał’s scholarly activity of explaining to the Nazis the peculiarities of the ethnic history of the Karaites had been perceived by the German authorities as a work done for the Reich. Szapszał was even paid for doing this: on 25.06.1943 he received from Rosenberg’s Einsatzstab the honorarium of 600 Reichsmark for the study “Die Karaimen.”1632 From 1941 to 1944, Szapszał was often called to entertain and welcome in his apartment all sorts of the German visitors – from Nazi officials to journalists and scholars. H. Bernsdorff, a German physician working for the civil government in the occupied territories in the East, several times visited Szapszał and Vera Egiz in their apartment. Szapszał, in turn, escorted him to the Wilno kenesa. Herbert Bernsdorff, who received the best impressions from his visit to Szapszał, was instrumental in saving the Karaites of Riga from assignment to the local ghetto.1633 In 1942 Szapszał showed the Karaite part of Troki to the Nazi journalist Werner Klau.1634 In January–April 1943 he was visited several times by the East Prussian historian, lieutenant of reserve forces, Herbert

1629 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 143, fol. 2v; no. 1082, passim. We may also suppose that at the end of the war, when the Nazis were retreating from Lithuania, Szapszał could have destroyed some of the German documents in his possession in order to avoid the danger of being accused of collaboration. Nevertheless, he was courageous enough to keep many of such documents in his private archive in spite of the fact that in the 1940s he could expect Soviet purges, perhaps, anytime. 1630 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 822, fol. 185. 1631 Misspelled by Friedman as “Sarklü-Sala” (Friedman, “Karaites,” 116). This suggestion of Baumgürtel was refuted. See archival documents analysed by Trevisan Semi, “The Image of the Karaites,” 84. 1632 A receipt, issued to S. Szapszał by Rosenberg’s Einstatzstab in Wilna, 25.06.1943 (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1085, fol. 1). 1633 H. Bernsdorff to S. Szyszman, 3.03.1965, German (Archive of the Museum of “Jews in Latvia” III/106, fols. 72-73). 1634 Werner Klau, “Traken, die seltsame Stadt,” (1942; a press-cutting with this article is kept in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fols. 56-57). 340 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Kirrinnis (1907-1977).1635 Szapszał also had non-Nazi visitors. In 1942 the Jewish scholar Zelig Kalmanowicz at least once, on 18.05.1943, had to visit Szapszał’s house (on Stroma Street 5) in Wilno. Kalmanowicz apparently needed from Szapszał some clarifications which were necessary to him in order to complete the translation of Szapszał’s study into German. The Jewish scholar sarcastically remarked: “Refreshments, coffee. Small talk. He [Szapszał] showed us his archives. An excellent tribe in its way.”1636 According to A. Zajączkowski, Szapszał experienced quite a lot during the war years and it is only thanks to his activity that the Troki Karaites were saved from the Nazis.1637 The same Karaite author also mentioned in a letter that by March 1942 Szapszał managed to get from Rosenberg’s ministry official recognition of the Karaites as “arisch” (Aryan) and that he also had plans of travelling to Berlin.1638 Both statements certainly exaggerate the truth. While Szapszał certainly did much to save the local Karaites, there is no doubt that he was not the only person who championed the Karaite case: as we have demonstrated above, there were many other figures involved in the process of rescuing them from the Holocaust. Furthermore, he could not possibly have received official recognition of the Karaites’ status in 1942: such a decision was taken only in 1943 and even then it was not stated anywhere that the Karaites were equal to the “Aryans.” Nevertheless, Szapszał’s accomplishments are noteworthy. In 1942, for example, he personally protested and apparently stopped some persons from following an order (of the Nazi administration?) to demolish the Troki kenesa.1639 He travelled to Riga in that same year; the aim of the trip was most likely to help the local community.1640 The most important part of Szapszał’s activity with regard to the Karaite case was providing Karaite certificates to the members of the community residing in different European countries. These certificates were to free them from the danger of being treated as Jews. From 1939, when more and more East European territory and countries became part of Nazi Germany, Szapszał began receiving scores of letters from Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria (Varna), France (Paris), Romania and Poland (Warsaw) asking for documents certifying their Turko-Karaite, i.e. non-Jewish origin.1641 Composition of hundreds of such certificates certainly became a very exhaustive type of work, occupying most of his time during the Second World War. Although not a single such certificate survived, Szapszał’s archival collection contains a number of drafts of these certificates. They were of different types, sometimes in German, sometimes in

1635 See Kirrinnis’s letters to Szapszał in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1084, fols. 31, 42. 1636 Kalmanovitch, “A Diary,” 23, 29, 37, 50, 52, 54. 1637 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 24.03.1943 (UO, 185-186). 1638 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 30.03.1942 and 20.08.1942 (UO, 175-176, 177); MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fol. 18. It appears that, in the end, Szapszał did not travel to Berlin. 1639 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178). 1640 F. Steiniger to S. Szapszał, 14.11.1942, German (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fol. 8). 1641 For the numerous letters of the members of the Karaite communities asking to provide them with such certificates, see MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 176, 1064/1, 1064/2, and 1068. Seraja Szapszał’s Life and Activity from 1939 to 1945 – Real and Imagined 341

Lithuanian,1642 sometimes bilingual (normally German-Polish or German-Russian). All those that I have seen were without photographs and apparently served as a document additional to the official German Ausweis (passport). A typical certificate of this type (issued for a Berlin Karaite) looked like this:

Wilno, dnia 13 lutego 1939 r.

Zaświadczenie. Bescheinigung.

Niniejsze zostało wydane na dowód, że Es ist darin erteilt, dass Herr Aron Rofe, Pan Aron Rofe, zamieszkały w Berlinie wohnhaft in Berlin W30. Geisbergstr. W30, Geisbergstrasse 35, urodzony w 35, geboren in Kiew (Ukraina) am Kijowie (Ukraina), dnia 27 października 27[.] October 1892, - der karaitischen Religion u. karaimisch-türkischen 1892 r. jest wyznania karaimskiego i Stammenangehörigkeit ist. Sein Vater pochodzenia karaimsko-tureckiego. Theodor und seine Mutter Maria, die Ojciec jego Teodor i matka Maria, legitime Gatten, wie auch ihre Vorfahren, małżonkowie ślubni, jak i pr[z]odkowie von Geburt Karaimen waren [below ich, byli pochodzenia karaimskiego added: und keine Juden in dieser [below added: i żydów w rodzie ich Familie waren,] was mit eigenhändigen nie było,] co podpisem własnoręcznym Unterschrift und Andrückung des i odciśnięciem pieczęci urzędowej Amtssiegels bestätigt wird. Haupt des stwierdza się. karaimischen Glaubenbekentnisses.

№21/39-[stamp]1643

According to some sources, he also provided Nazi authorities with the list of the members of the Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania. All those Karaites who were on the list did not have to be afraid of Nazi persecutions.1644 Around 1943, Szapszał moved to the apartment at Kęstučio Street 17. He also transferred there his museum. During these times of trials and tribulations Szapszał found it especially important to continue his Turkic propaganda and explain to his congregation the necessity of presenting themselves as Turks. It was at this time (winter 1941/1942) that he arranged the first series of public lectures on the history and origin of the Karaites. They were attended by a number of Karaite youths (there were so many of those willing to attend that they were divided into two groups). The lectures took place either in his apartment in Zwierzyniec or in the communal house

1642 E.g. MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1085, fol. 2. 1643 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/1, fol. 45r. 1644 This and some other “awkward” details of Szapszał’s activity related to the problem of the forged Karaite papers by which the local Jews tried to save themselves from the Nazis are discussed in 5.7. 342 Between Scylla and Charybdis

in the vicinity of the Wilno kenesa.1645 They were conducted in Russian which means that even by that time the ḥakham still preferred speaking Russian to Polish.1646 Szapszał was one of the first inhabitants of Wilno in 1944 to greet the return of the Soviet army with the red banner.1647 The time of the Nazi occupation was finally over.

5.5.2 Life Imagined and Belletricized

After the war, Szapszał’s activity during the time of the Nazi occupation became enshrouded in the mist of very unreliable – and often simply fantastic – stories. Let us now sample the sources of these reports, trusting in their veracity cum grano salis. There are several oral traditions which ascribe the salvation of the Karaites from the Holocaust solely to Szapszał’s acumen and wisdom. According to the information documented by L.I. Kaia from the words of the Karaite from Rostov-upon-Don, B.Y. Kokenai, soon upon the German occupation of Lithuania Szapszał paid a visit to the Gestapo. There he informed a certain German general that the Karaites were not Jews, but Turks speaking a Turkic language. This general, whose name is not mentioned by Kokenai, asked Szapszał for the name of their God. Szapszał answered that the name of the Karaites’ god was “Tengri.” At that moment, the general’s assistant from the adjacent room announced: “This is the name of the god of the ancient Turks.” The general was satisfied and, as the result, the Karaites were saved.1648 Hypothetically, such a curious episode could have possibly taken place. However, it strains belief that such an apparently serendipitous comment, or knowledge of the pantheon of the ancient Turks, would be blurted out by a military staff officer. Furthermore, this short and insignificant episode simply could not have played such a decisive role in the Karaites’ salvation. A.L. Gorbova, probably basing her information on the data from the Troki Karaite informants, recorded a different version of this event. According to this version, Szapszał brought to a German officer a trunk-load of books on the Karaites, published in Kraków. As the consequence of this conversation between Szapszał and the officer, the Germans decided to spare the Karaites.1649 Again, although it is entirely feasible that Szapszał could bring a load of “proper” Turkic-oriented books on the Karaites to

1645 Szymon Pilecki, “Karaimskie życie rodzinne, społeczne i religijne okresu międzywojennego, czas wojny, decyzje o przyjeździe do Polski,” in Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus (Warsaw, 2012), 47; cf. A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 30.03.1942 (UO, 175). 1646 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 173, 183, 190. 1647 For more information, see 6.2.1. 1648 Kaia, “Balovni sud’by”, 50. 1649 A.L. Gorbova, Vysokie ravniny (Moscow, 1979), 261-164. Kaia was very sceptical about the veracity of this story. Seraja Szapszał’s Life and Activity from 1939 to 1945 – Real and Imagined 343

the Nazis (in fact, we know that he certainly did so), this could not be the only factor that determined the Karaites’ salvation. Some additional data on Szapszał’s life during the war can be found in the memoirs of the Soviet dissident Alexander Nekrich (1920-1993). Nekrich, who often socialized with Szapszał after the war, mentioned that the Karaites were in fact saved because Szapszał had friendly relations with a certain German colonel from Rosenberg’s service. The latter advised him to compose a memorandum on the history of the Karaites; the memorandum in question was composed by Szapszał so skilfully that “the Karaites’ extermination was stopped.” Moreover, so the story goes, Szapszał even managed to fool the Germans and, being ordered to send objects from the Karaite ethnographic museum to the Reich, in fact, packed all the museum boxes with bricks and dispatched them to Germany.1650 This information, which was received by Nekrich, also apparently from Szapszał’s own words, can hardly be trusted: Szapszał’s memorandum was not the only factor that helped the Karaites to survive, while the story about the shipment of the bricks to Germany sounds more apocryphal than historical. Szapszał’s biography during the war became a plot for the short story by Meir Yelin; it was written by the author in Yiddish years after the war. The core of this story is a tragic destiny of Bjana Nowitsch, a daughter of the Jewish scholar Zalman Nowitsch (i.e. undoubtedly Zelig Kalmanowicz), who tried to save her life while presenting herself as a Karaitess. As a quite interesting and intelligent, but not too sympathetic figure, there appears the Karaite ḥakham, Gedeon Tartal (one can easily recognise Seraja Szapszał under this pseudoname). Yelin not only attempts to show the ambivalent character of the situation in which the Rabbanites and Karaites found themselves during the occupation, but also to help the reader visualize the inner thoughts of Tartal-Szapszał concerning the necessity for the small Karaite community to survive during the war. Yelin also describes Szapszał’s trip to Troki, his visit to the kenesa and old Karaitess Esnat. The latter attempted to rescue from the Nazis Bjana, Zalman Nowitch’s daughter, whom she in vain tried to present to them as her remote relative from Halicz (Bjana was eventually caught by the German executioners).1651 One may wonder whether Yelin based his information about Szapszał and other historical (if they are indeed historical) facts mentioned in his story on some unknown oral sources, or was all this just his belletristic imagination? This question, as well as the issue of the veracity of other sources referred to in this subsection of this study, is still subject of scholarly debate.

1650 Nekrich, Otreshis’ ot strakha, 32-34. 1651 Yelin, “Ein Tog un a Nacht,” 94-117. 344 Between Scylla and Charybdis

5.6 “Mit Dem Deutschen Grüss” from the Karaite Mikhail-Mussa (Moses) Kovshanly

Mikhail (or Mussa/Moshe/Moisei/Moses) Kovshanly,1652 a son of Crimean Karaite emigrant, who escaped to Germany from the Soviet Union in the 1920s, was destined to play an important role in salvation of the Karaites from the Holocaust. The first data about Mikhail-Mussa date back to the late 1920s. In a letter dated 29.12.1929, his father, E. Kovshanly,1653 greets Szapszał upon his arrival in Poland and asks him to provide his children, Alexandra, Galina, and Mikhail-Mussa (sic!) with Karaite metrical certificates.1654 We do not know whether they received these papers, but in 1934 they were again forced to ask Szapszał to give some sort of official explanation to German officials about their non-Semitic ethnic origin.1655 In 1929 the Kovshanlys were often visited by young Ananiasz Zajączkowski who stated in his letter to Szapszał that “this is the only family that managed to retain their Karaism.”1656 Kovshanly’s mother, Yulia Kovshanly supplied to Szapszał many details of the life of her family in Yalta and mentioned that Mikhail often communicated with the Tatars and perfectly knew the Crimean Tatar language. She asked Szapszał to give them money for emigration to Poland because their position in Germany was getting worse with every passing day and Mikhail was under the threat of being sent “nobody knows where to”.1657 Szapszał dispatched her money, but it seems that the borders had been already closed and there already was no possibility to emigrate to Poland. In 1936, Levi-Babovich reported that Yulia Kovshanly stopped receiving some type of social payments from the German government because she had visited a Jewish physician.1658 In July of 1936, the Berlin Karaites, facing the threat of being enlisted among Jewish citizens of Germany, formed themselves into the Berlin Karaite Society. They asked Szapszał to endorse its existence and appoint M. Kovshanly as its head.1659 It seems that by the mid-1930s – long before the beginning of the Holocaust – there

1652 The English spelling of this name is used here, although many other spellings can be found in the documents as well (Kowschanly, Kowszanły, Kaushanli, Ковшанлы etc.). Distorted form “Kovshalny/ Kowschalny”, however, is absolutely unacceptable. The name Kovshanly was not widespread among the East European Karaites. This surname, most likely, was a reference to Qavşan, an important town of the Tatar administration in Budzhak in the eighteenth century (see Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Aus den Aufzeichnungen des Sa’id Giray Sultan (Freiburg, 1975), 91, ft. 50). 1653 It appears that he should be identified as E.M. Kovshanly, who was elected secretary of the Karaite community in Sevastopol in 1914 (“Izbranie gevira,” KS 7-8 (1914): 19). 1654 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 392, fol. 1. 1655 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 393, fol. 1. 1656 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 703, fol. 15. 1657 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fol. 1-2. 1658 T.S. Levi-Babovich to A.Ya. Szyszman (14.02.1936, Egypt, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1537, fol. 1v). 1659 The Berlin Karaite Society to S. Szapszał (26.07.1936, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 1). “Mit Dem Deutschen Grüss” from the Karaite Mikhail-Mussa (Moses) Kovshanly 345

were numerous cases when the Rabbanite Jews tried to present themselves as Karaites in order to avoid Nazi oppression. In order to elucidate the question in the eyes of the Nazi authorities, Szapszał appointed Kovshanly to be the official representative of the Karaite community in Germany from December, 1936.1660 When “Russische Vertrauenstelle” (a special committee dealing with affairs of ethnic Russians in Germany) found out that Kovshanly was appointed the head of this society, it informed about it central offices of Gestapo. As the result, Kovshanly was arrested and accused of espionage.1661 He was soon released, but his position had hardly improved. In 1939, it became even worse: in spite of the fact that Szapszał already sent some papers, Kovshanly still needed metrical data certifying that there were no mixed marriages with the Jews in the genealogy of his parents.1662 Kovshanly needed these metrical certificates in order to apply for the German citizenship; only with citizenship could he be released from obligatory participation in forced labour. He was also aware of the fact that even if his Karaite certificates were to be acknowledged as genuine, there would be an anthropological examination to be faced.1663 The next year, Kovshanly was requested to take part in the official meeting at the main department of Berlin Gestapo, where, according to his words, “academic” assistants of the Gestapo tried to prove that the Karaites were Jewish. In order to champion the Karaite cause, Kovshanly applied a cunning strategy: he referred to the works of Jewish anthropologists Weissenberg and Reicher,1664 who, in his opinion, proved Turkic origins of the Karaites. As a result, he was released and the position of the Karaites in Germany and France became much better.1665 Here Kovshanly, certainly, overestimates his own impact on the successful treatment of the Karaite case: in 1940, the German authorities had already issued the edict of January 1939,

1660 S. Szapszał to M. Kovshanly (draft, 11.12.1936, Polish) (MS LMAB F. 301, no. 246). 1661 Report of M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 6v). 1662 In 1937 the Ministry of Inner Affairs of Poland received a similar petition from the student of the Berlin University, Ananiasz Rojecki, to send him a certificate that he “does not have ancestors either of Jewish origin, or of Mosaic belief” (AAN MWRiOP 1467, fol. 160). Usually the Polish authorities did not give any straightforward answers to German official enquiries concerning the racial origins of Polish citizens resident in Germany. They normally answered that the Polish legal system does not use this sort of terminology at all and has no idea about racial origins. Response concerning Ananiasz Rojecki was slightly different: the Ministry testified his Polish origins in order to avoid acceptance of the German racial laws, and to give to Rojecki possibility to continue his education in Germany (the author is grateful to Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewski for this remark). 1663 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fols. 5r-5v. 1664 It does not seem that Kovshanly really read the studies of these scholars, who were quite far from “proving” Turkic Karaite origins; moreover, Kovshanly misspells the surname “Weissenberg” as “Weissberg,” and added to the list of “Jewish” scholars W. Bang-Kaup, who was, in fact, German and not Jewish. 1665 Report of M. Kovshanly to S. Szapszał (ca. 1943, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1053, fol. 7r). 346 Between Scylla and Charybdis

which stated that the Karaites were not a part of the Jewish religious community. The very fact of this meeting with Gestapo, however, shows once again how insecure the position of the Karaites was, even after the edict of 1939. Unfortunately, we do not have exact data about the later development of Kovshanly’s case. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that his non-Semitic origin was recognised: in 1942-1943 Kovshanly’s name is mentioned in the list of German officials. During the war he was working as a representative of Szapszał in Germany and in occupied areas: in his letters to SS officers he calls himself “deputy of H[is] E[xcellence] the Hakhan of the Karaites, S. Szapszał”. Each of his letters is finished with traditional “mit dem deutschen Grüss, Heil Hitler!” Other scholars inform that Kovshanly had been working for “Reichsarzt SS und Polizei” (Reichsphysician SS and Police).1666 It seems that one of the Kovshanly’s duties was to find and rescue those Karaites who had been somehow caught by the Nazis and did not have any documents proving their Karaite non-Jewish origin. Such Karaites, whose whereabouts were located by Kovshanly, normally had to ask Szapszał to provide them with Karaite metrical certificates. In order to illustrate how it worked, let us analyze the case of the Khar’kov Karaite Mikhail Avakh. In a letter from 11.09.1943 he reported that he had been taken to a labour camp for workers from the East (Russ. “lager’ dla vostochnykh rabochikh”). There – in some unknown way – he was found by Kovshanly. In his letter, Avakh asked Szapszał to give him a certificate verifying his Karaite origin.1667 On the reverse side of Avakh’s letter one can find a list of 14 Karaites (written in pencil with Szapszał’s hand) who also needed new Karaite certificates. The next folio of this archival document represents a draft of Avakh’s Karaite certificate which mentions that “Michael Awach.... is of Turkish-Karaite origin of the Karaite faith.”1668 As another example, in July of 1943, Il’ia Kul’te, a Karaite from Simferopol, sent Kovshanly a request (proshenie) to help his daughter, Tamara Kul’te who had been taken to Germany as Ostarbeiter. Kul’te asked Kovshanly to attempt to shorten his daughter’s stay in Germany and return her to Crimea.1669 It is very likely that Kovshanly had authority to help the Karaites who happened to be in Germany during the war in such difficult situations.

1666 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 92. 1667 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 176, fol. 1r; on the reverse side of his letter Avakh supplies the exact data about his parents (ibid., 1v). 1668 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 176, fols. 1v-2r. The list of the Karaites who needed new certificates was the following: Mikhail Avakh, Elena Bakkal-Yanchevskaia, Elena Penbek, Mark Saraf, Nataliia Neiman, Tamara Kul’te, Tamara Arabadzhi, Vera Piasor, Anna Erak, Lidiia Boriu, Vera Levi, Ina Khodzhash, Boris Koichiu. All of them were of Crimean origin (cf. ibid., no. 1053, fol. 3r-v). 1669 I.Ya. Kul’te to the head of the Karaite community in Berlin, 28.07.1943, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1527, fol. 1rv). “Mit Dem Deutschen Grüss” from the Karaite Mikhail-Mussa (Moses) Kovshanly 347

Two letters of Crimean Karaite Yakov Borisovich/Yaakov Berakha [Shamash] written in 1942 testify that Kovshanly was in close contact with the Tatar nationalist (or one may say “national socialist”) leader Edige Kırımal-Szynkiewicz.1670 These letters also demonstrate that Kırımal himself also often contacted the Karaites in Germany, as well as in Wilno and in Crimea.1671 In 1942, Włodzimierz Zajączkowski was supposed to travel together with Szynkiewicz to Crimea in order to clarify whether Crimea was ready to accept the Lithuanian Tatar and Karaite emigrants.1672 This again clearly shows that Berlin was contemplating the Karaite question in conjunction with Crimean Tatar case. In his letters, Yakov Borisovich [Shamash] describes the state of Crimean Karaite communities at that moment and asks Kovshanly to supply the support for the poorest Crimean Karaites from Berlin. The letters also demonstrate that the position of Crimean Karaites was not particularly secure: this is why the author of the letters asks to send to Crimea all publications on the Karaites printed in Germany. One letter, written in the Karaite ethnolect of the Crimean Tatar language, in Cyrillic characters with some Latin letters, has no date; moreover, the name of a person to whom it was supposed to be sent is cut out, as it seems, by the hand of Szapszał. There is no doubt, however, that the addressee of this letter was Kovshanly. This letter also mentions the name of Kırımal-Szynkiewicz. More important is that as the attachment to the letter Yakov Borisovich [Shamash] sends “historical notes of Polkanov” so that Kovshanly will be able to use them as example for composing memoranda on the Karaite history in Berlin. Of interest is also that these two letters, brought to Berlin by Edige Kırımal from Crimea, for some reason later ended up in Szapszał’s personal archive in Vilnius.1673 Kovshanly visited Szapszał in Wilno and brought to him some letters from Crimean Karaites.1674 It seems that he spent quite an extended period of time there, apparently having some Karaite-related task to be fulfilled for his Berlin authorities. Szapszał

1670 Mustafa Edige Kırımal (Krimmal-Schinkiewitsch/Krymmalov; 1911-1980) – Crimean Tatar, who emigrated from the Soviet Crimea in 1928, spent some time in Turkey and Poland and later found himself in Nazi Germany. He enthusiastically accepted the Nazi occupation of Crimea as the beginning of the emancipation of Crimea from the Bolshevist yoke. In November of 1942, he was allowed to visit Crimea – this is when he could bring the letters of Kovshanly. In spite of his active collaboration with a number of the Nazi officials and organisations, including Rosenberg’s Ostministerium, he continued his professional career in West Germany after the war. In 1952 he published his doctoral dissertation entitled “The National Struggle of the Crimean Turks”, in which he poeticized the Tatar participation in the Nazi military units as their “national war” against Bolshevism (Edige Kırımal, Der Nationale Kampf der Krimtürken (Emsdetten, 1952), esp. 303-329). 1671 One of these letters, written in Russian, was sent to Berlin through the mediation of Kırımal on 20.12.1942; Kovshanly is called there “mnogouvazhaemyi Musa Kovshanly” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1500, fols. 1-2). 1672 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178). 1673 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1500, fols. 1r-1v. 1674 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 633, fol. 1. 348 Between Scylla and Charybdis

mentioned in a letter that Kovshanly, who apparently had an excellent (native?) command of German, did much work in Wilno and translated into German parts of the manuscript of Szapszał’s study on the history of the Karaites.1675 On 23.05.1943 Kovshanly delivered a short public speech in the Troki kenesa.1676 This testifies how important his position was: normally only ḥakham, ḥazzanim or important visitors were allowed to make speeches in the kenesa. One can find reports by Kovshanly among the documents of Alfred Rosenberg’s infamous “Reichsministerium für die besetzen Ostgebiete” (the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories). Kovshanly is named there “Dr. Michael Kowschanly;” it can be deduced from his report that he worked for this Ministry. His paper examined the origin of Crimean Karaites and highlighted their differences from the Krymchaks and other Jews.1677 A Karaite source points out at Kovshanly’s further connections to Rosenberg’s Ministry: in 2004 Leonid Lavrin (Ławrynowicz/Lavrinovich) informed me that – according to Kovshanly’s own words – his wife had been working as Rosenberg’s secretary.1678 Among Kovshanly’s acquaintances were not only the Germans and Tatars, but also Japanese collaborators. In the 1940s, Kovshanly several times met with the Japanese attaché in Berlin, Colonel Nakamura, who was interested in the Karaites.1679 In February of 1945 Kovshanly wrote a memo about Crimean Tatar and Karaite refugees who created in Austria the “Association of the Tatars and Karaites in Vienna”.1680 It seems that by that time there was growing animosity between “Krimtatarische Leitstelle” in Berlin and the Karaites. In a letter dated February 12, 1945, Kovshanly accused his former friend and colleague Edige Kırımal of not being of purely Tatar origin and working for NKVD.1681 One cannot be sure how this conflict unfolded later, but it is known that both Kırımal and Kovshanly survived the war; on the other hand, the word “Karaite” was soon dropped and the aforementioned organization started to be called simply “Association of the Tatars in Vienna.” Post-war fate of Mikhail Kovshanly is not reflected in published or archival sources. We do not know whether he emigrated to Vienna with the aforementioned Karaite refugees or remained in Berlin to witness the fall of the Third Reich. One may cautiously suggest that in the post-war period, in order to avoid persecution for his

1675 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 143, fol. 2v. 1676 Pilecki, Chłopiec z Leśnik, 282. 1677 Green, “Fate,” 175. In the other article of his Green misspelled his name as “Kowschalny” and called him “Aryan” scholar (Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 39, ft. 9). 1678 L. Lavrin to M. Kizilov, e-mail from 10.01.2004. 1679 Leonid Lavrin, “Kolonia karaimska w Harbinie,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 12-13. 1680 Green, “Fate,” 174. 1681 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 92. Aleksandr Efimov (Moscow) reported that, according to archival sources that he had discovered, Kırımal was indeed a double agent, working simultaneously for the Nazi and Soviet sides (personal communication, December of 2012). Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 349

collaboration with the Nazi authorities, he had to emigrate to South America. In 2002 Leonid Lavrin mentioned in his letter to the online discussion group “Karaylar”, that Kovshanly had contacted him some time ago “from one of the South American countries” (?) and provided him with some additional information on the events of the war period.1682 Undoubtedly, if Kovshanly would have written memoirs on this matter, they could tell us about the factors that allowed the Karaites to survive the Holocaust virtually unscathed more than any other archival document available to us so far. It is rather a pity that he, as well as most other Karaite survivors of the Second World War, have not shared their information on these events with the academic community and public audience. To sum up, Kovshanly remains an unsung hero of Karaite history in the twentieth century. Although his role in the Karaites’ salvation from the Holocaust was not less than that of Seraja Szapszał, his name remains virtually unknown to anyone apart from several scholars-archivists. Even the members of the Karaites community in Eastern Europe hardly know his name. And yet, his role and activity cannot be underestimated. It is apparently thanks to his firm hold on the Turkic theory that the Berlin Gestapo officials got the “proper” understanding of the Karaite case. Thanks to his efforts – and his connections in Nazi circles – a number of the individual Karaites scattered all over the Third Reich received Karaite identity cards, which saved their lives. On the other hand, he remains perhaps the only Karaite who worked for Rosenberg’s infamous Ministry and Himmler’s Reichsphysician SS and Police. Although he had been working for these two horrible organizations, it seems that his only duty there was taking care of the Karaite case (at least all the available documents mention his name only with regard to his Karaite-related duties). If one believes the information about the fact that his wife was Rosenberg’s secretary, one may get an explanation why the Karaite case was so positively examined by the Nazi officialdom. Thus, he remains the only Karaite accepted among high-ranking Nazi officials – and the only Karaite who could possibly tell us how exactly and why the Karaites managed to trick the Nazi officialdom and remain alive.

5.7 Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust

5.7.1 The Complexity of the Problem and Mutual Accusations

The relations between the Karaites and the Rabbanite Jews during the period of the Second World War and the Holocaust were not consistent. One can come across such polar feelings as brotherly help, care and self-sacrifice – and indifference, anger and

1682 A letter of 8.11.2002. 350 Between Scylla and Charybdis

even open betrayal and denunciation. On the one hand, many Karaites are known for their help accorded to the Rabbanites. On the other, some of them – actively or passively – collaborated with the Germans. Both sides of the problem (i.e. the Karaites1683 and the Rabbinic Jews) often hurled heavy accusations of betrayal and treachery at each other. An examination into the veracity of some of these mutual accusations now leads us sine ira et studio. The behaviour of the Karaites during the Holocaust became a sensitive topic after the war, especially in Israel. One of the Rabbanite survivors from Troki protested in a letter to the Jerusalem Post: “The Karaites gladly accepted non-Jewish status... they were loyal servants of the Nazis... I do not know even a single case of a Karaite who was prepared to shelter a Jewish child”.1684 Although this statement can be true for the Troki and Wilno region (the sources do not provide a single case of the local Karaites’ helping the Rabbanites), as will be demonstrated in 5.7.3, the Karaites many times helped the Ashkenazim to survive in other Nazi-occupied areas of Eastern Europe. The most popular accusation is that the Karaites (willingly or unwillingly) collaborated with the Nazis and thus participated in the Holocaust on the German

1683 An article by the modern Israeli Karaite, Nehemia Gordon, attempts to explain the accusation of the Karaite collaboration with the Nazis by “a case of mistaken identity.” Here the Karaite author, somewhat surprisingly, supports Szapszał’s pseudo-scholarly theory of the Turkic origin of the East European Karaites and claims that “all accusations against ‘Karaites’ in the holocaust refer to the Karaylar-Karaites, not the Karaite Jews” (Nehemia Gordon, “Karaites in the Holocaust? A Case of mistaken Identity” ). Although I completely agree with the author that all these accusations were directed against the East European Karaites only, I cannot help noticing that before coming to decisive conclusions regarding such a difficult topic as that, one should definitely do more reading of historiography of the question than the seven articles examined by Gordon, in composing this article. Furthermore, one certainly needs to study archival sources. A member of the Eupatoria Karaite community, V. Kropotov, also attempted to write a revisionist survey of the problem in his Voiskovye traditsii krymskich karaimov (Simferopol, 2004), 116-117. The whole motif of the Nazis’ sending inquiries to Jewish scholars unfortunately became a type of folk-myth among the East European Karaites who, in my opinion, should certainly know better the history of their salvation from the Nazis. Cf. two newspaper articles in Russian where scholars are called “three rabbis” and the whole purely historical event is described with some non-existent fantastic details (Mikhail Kazas, “Karaimov zabyvaiut sprosit’,” Krymskoe vremia (23.10.1996); Yurii Spasskii-Boriu, “Karaimy otvechaiut,” Krymskoe vremia (23.10.1996)). 1684 As cited in Ross, Acts of Faith, 135. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 351

side.1685 Apart from the highly odd and imprecise German source concerning the alleged service of Crimean Karaites in Wehrmacht and Waffen SS,1686 it seems that there exists only one reference to the participation of the Karaites in the actions of the Nazis against the Jewish population in Poland and Lithuania. According to the Łuck ghetto survivor, Yakov Eilbert, local Rabbanites referred to the Karaites, who served as a liaison between the Germans and the Łuck , as “Semitic Nazis”. Eilbert testified that the Karaites had often entered the ghetto, beaten children and women, extorted big sums of money from Judenrat and even assisted in the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1942.1687 This information, if indeed true, seems to be the only such episode of exceptional brutality in the history of the Rabbanite-Karaite relations during the time of the Holocaust. Moreover, the interwar Karaite community of Łuck was the smallest Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania of that period, consisting of only 60-70 individuals; this means that only a handful Karaite males (not more than a score of them) were able to serve in the army. Thus, in the event that the terrible scenes described by Eilbert indeed took place, they were product of the actions of a handful of demoralized individuals who could not really be considered representative of the position of the whole Łuck Karaite community, which often helped the Rabbanites during the Holocaust.1688 We also know that the Łuck Karaites were used by the Nazis as interpreters in their contacts with the local Judenrat. It is also known that the Łuck Karaite Zacharjasz

1685 Emanuela Trevisan Semi came to the conclusion that the collaboration with the Nazis was a natural, logical continuation of the traditional Karaite “chameleon” defensive mechanism: being a small ethnic group they used to identify themselves with representatives of predominant ethnic surrounding (i.e. behave as Poles in Poland, as Russians in Russian Empire, as Jews in Israel, and as the Nazis whilst under the Nazi regime) (Trevisan Semi, L’oscillation ethnique, 398). Despite interesting approach and many valuable observations, this hypothesis does not, in our opinion, really embrace the whole complexity of the social mechanisms of the self-identity of the East European Karaites. One may notice that the Karaites living in Arabic countries always considered themselves to be Jews and never identified themselves with the Arabs; the same Jewish self-identification might be found among the Karaites living in Turkey and USA; present-day East European Karaites living in Russia and Lithuania consider themselves to be Turkic, not Slavic or Baltic people. Thus, the suggested by Trevisan-Semi mechanism of Karaite social mimicry does not really work. Furthermore, as we demonstrate below, the testimony of only one source (that of Yakov Eilbert) simply cannot and should not be used to accuse the whole community, which so often rescued the Jews during the Holocaust, of conscious and systematic collaboration – and identification – with Nazism. 1686 Trevisan Semi, “L’oscillation,” 398; Green, “Fate,” 174; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 40. For details, see 5.3.2. 1687 M. Unger, “Di Karaimer in Luzk,” Der Tog (26.10.1954), 10; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 41. 1688 To give another example, Bryan Rigg found many cases of Jewish Mischlinge (“partial Jews”) serving the Nazi regime, including decorated veterans and high-ranking officers (Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers). These individual cases of Jewish Nazi collaboration, however, by no means can be used to represent the position of the whole Rabbanite community in Europe which was mercilessly murdered by the Nazis. 352 Between Scylla and Charybdis

Szpakowski had been working in the Gebietskommissariat in 1942, but there is no information what exactly were his duties there.1689 According to Bogusław Firkowicz, the Łuck Jewish ghetto was located between the Karaite quarter and a central part of the town. In order to get to the central part, the Karaites received special permits allowing them passing through the ghetto territory.1690 Thus, it is possible also very cautiously to suggest that the Karaites who entered the ghetto with the Nazis could have been in fact Karaite interpreters or just Karaites with the permits allowing them passage through the ghetto. This also can be corroborated by the testimony of Adam Frostig, who was rescued by the Karaites of Łuck, and was of the opinion that the Polish Karaites served only in “Arbeitsdienst” (labour service).1691 Thus, in order to be sure about what had really happened in Łuck ghetto at that time, one needs more testimonies of the eyewitnesses which would either corroborate or disprove Eilbert’s testimony about the Karaites’ participation in the liquidation of the ghetto. Several cases of Karaite collaboration with the Nazis were registered in Crimea. According to the memoirs of H.G. Lashkevich, the Karaites together with the Armenians “immediately became estranged from the Jews and eagerly escorted the Germans to the Jewish apartments.”1692 Especially active, in his opinion, was a certain “Shamash” who most likely should be identified as Yakov Borisovich Shamash, head of the religious Karaite community in occupied Crimea.1693 Two letters written by Crimean Karaite Yakov Borisovich (or Yaakov Berakha) is additional evidence of the contact by this figure with Nazi authorities. That correspondence removes all doubt about the identity of this collaborator as Y.B. Shamash.1694 The Karaitess A.S. Erenchek, who lived in the village of Demerci (Demerdzhi, today Luchistoe), had “close relations” with members of the local military intelligence service (razvedshkola) “Zeppelin.”1695 V. Vikhnovich saw on the display in the Museum of Local Lore in Eupatoria a partisan leaflet (listovka) which mentioned the name of one Nazi collaborator, Prik. This surname could belong only to a local Karaite.1696 A Karaite in Dzhankoi informed the Nazis that his neighbour Grigorii Purevich was Jewish.1697 To restate our case:

1689 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 30.03.1942 (UO, 176). 1690 Bogusław Firkowicz, “Ogniska karaimskie po latach,” RM 4:3 (1995): 88. 1691 Freund, Karaites and Dejudaization, 94, ft. 30. Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service) consisted of auxiliary forces that provided Wehrmacht with vital support such as food, ammunition, reparation of roads etc. 1692 Russ. “сразу стали отдаляться от евреев, охотно водят немцев по еврейским квартирам.” 1693 Zarubin, “K voprosu,” 335, 338. 1694 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1500, fols. 1-2. It seems paradoxical that this Nazi collaborator (Yakov Berakha Shamash) had a Hebrew name, patronymic and surname. 1695 Zarubin, “K voprosu,” 335. 1696 V.L. Vikhnovich, “Massovye etnicheskie deportatsii iz Kryma v 1944–1945 godakh i krymskie karaimy,” Paralleli 4-5 (2004): 87–98. 1697 Feferman, “Fate of the Karaites.” Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 353

the actions of several individuals must not be allowed to sully a whole community otherwise known for its active participation in the military activity of the Soviet Army. Ph. Friedman points out that after a number of forged “Karaite” certificates appeared, the leaders of the Karaite communities in the occupied areas were ordered to keep precise lists of community members ready for examination.1698 Another widespread accusation is that Szapszał provided the Nazis with the precise list of the members of the Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania. Those Rabbanite who possessed forged Karaite identity cards were not on this list. As the result, they were rounded up and massacred. This assumption is corroborated by Wilno ghetto survival, Mark Dvorzhetski (Dworzecki):

It was said in the ghetto that the Karaite Hakham Seraya-Szapszał had sent a list of names and addresses of all the known Karaites to the Gestapo. All Karaites not on the list were considered to be false.1699

In the event that he was actually ordered by the Nazis to compile such a list, one hardly can blame Szapszał of doing this: to refuse the order would have undoubtedly meant a mortal danger for him and for the whole Karaite community in general. A short story published in Yiddish by M. Yelin, however, directly indicates this that it was under Szapszał’s own initiative (and not the order of Nazi officials) to provide Nazis with an exact list of the names and addresses of local Karaites.1700 Regardless, even if Szapszał did this on his own initiative, Nazi officials sooner or later would have undoubtedly ordered him to do it. Furthermore, as we have stated above, Szapszał’s list was not all-embracing: an estimated number of several dozen Rabbanites (or perhaps even more than that) managed to survive the Holocaust with forged Karaite identity cards, although they clearly were not on Szapszał’s list (for more details, see 5.7.4). This current research has not yielded any comprehensive list of Lithuanian Karaite community members, composed ca. 1942, from Szapszał’s archival collection in Vilnius. The list of names of 78 Wilno Karaites (ages 20-50) years, which was compiled by the ḥazzan Rafał Abkowicz on 20.11.1942, does not match this list.1701 It is very likely that the Nazis sometimes had to ask Szapszał about the “Karaite- ness” of the Rabbanites who attempted to pass themselves off as the Karaites and because of this were rounded up by the Nazis. There were at least two cases in which German authorities asked Szapszał to certify the questionable “Karaite” origin of Rabbanite Jews. One of these was Duvid-Ghers Malamud, son of Sloima Malamud, who was born in Romania, and the family of the Szmulewiczs, which was related to the family Rahat-Haci (Khadzhi). We do not know the reaction of Szapszał with

1698 Friedman, “Karaites,” 116. 1699 Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 42. 1700 Yelin, “Ein Tog un a nacht.” 1701 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1080. 354 Between Scylla and Charybdis

regard to Duvid-Ghers Malamud, but in the second case he refused to certify the “Karaite” origin of the Szmulewiczs. In his letter to the German authorities Szapszał wrote that “such a surname [Szmulewicz] never and nowhere had been found among the Karaites.”1702 However, the surname “Samulewicz,” which is almost identical to “Szmulewicz,” was spread among the Lithuanian Karaites;1703 moreover, the surname “Haci/Khadzhi” is also a typical Crimean Karaite surname. Thus, Szapszał could conceivably have tried to save the Szmulewiczs, but he did not. It is very likely that in the first case his answer also was in the negative. Thus Szapszał lost his chance to become a Karaite “Schindler” saving the Rabbanites with forged identity cards. One archival document, however, seems to contradict the seemingly apathetic behaviour of Szapszał with regard to the tragedy of the Jewish people and their cultural legacy. This document, a letter from the Jewish Museum in Vilnius (Strašuno Street 6), expressed deep gratitude to Szapszał for “collecting and purchasing, during the time of the Nazi occupation, objects of Jewish culture which had been saved by you [by Szapszał] from the destruction by the Nazis and were given to the Jewish museum.”1704 Furthermore, there is one case when Szapszał apparently did help a Rabbanite to conceal his true identity. Adam Frostig, who was sent to the concentration camp in Volhynia, managed to escape and by pure chance was saved by the Karaites in the vicinity of Łuck (this data rather contradicts Eilbert’s testimony about the Łuck “Semitic Nazis”, i.e. the Karaites). Having being informed that the Karaites were exempt from extermination, he decided to pass himself as a Karaite. When captured by the Nazis in Lwów – and having no documents to prove his Karaite origins – he was forced to to wait until the Germans had asked Szapszał concerning his identity. Szapszał not only verified Frostig’s

1702 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1082, fol. 9; cf. the draft of the letter of S. Szapszał to the head of the Russian Archive [of Berlin Gestapo?], Wilno, 13.07.1942, Russian (ibid., no. 135, fol. 1r). 1703 Romualdas Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios jūros iki Trakų (Trakai, 2013), 83. 1704 The Jewish Museum in Vilnius to Seraja Szapszał (7.09.1945) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 29, fol. 2). Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 355

“Karaite” origins, but even advised him to change his surname to “Frostidze” so that it would sound less Ashkenazic.1705 The Karaites, in their turn, on a number of occasions accused the Rabbanites of being informers who told the Nazis about the Jewish nature of the Karaite religion and ethnicity. P. Ackermann stated in 1938 that the German Rabbanites had been spreading information that the Karaites were Jews.1706 It is unclear, however, whether one can trust this evidently anti-Semitic author. According to Boris Kokenai, the head of the Rabbanite community of Krasnodar, certain Tarnovskii, insisted on the fact that the Karaites were the same as Jews. As the consequence the whole Karaite community (94 individuals) of Krasnodar was massacred. The German officials that were dealing with the Jewish question in Krasnodar were appointed to do the same in Novorossiisk – with the same disastrous outcome.1707 According to Y.A. Polkanov, in January, 1942, German officials in Crimea received private communication that the Karaites were Jewish.1708 Modern reports from several Karaite sources have noted that it was local Rabbanites who informed the Nazis; this was also the opinion of Crimean Karaite activist, Semita Kushul’.1709 Yet, the truthfulness of this information is in grave doubt. Crimean Rabbanites (Ashkenazim and Krymchaks) could have allegedly informed the Nazis about the Jewish nature of the Karaites only before the mass massacre of Local Jews in December of 1941. After that, only a handful of Jews remained alive in Crimea, all of them in hiding or under forged documents. We maintain that in 1942, this informers’ activity could have been perpetrated only by the non-Jews. Another case of rather odd insistence of the Rabbanite community on the historical truth about the Jewish origin of the Karaites was registered in France. On 7, 14 and 21 August 1942 the Bulletin de Union Générale des Israélites de France published a series

1705 This is according to Roman Freund, who met Adam Frostig in 1983. One cannot help noticing that Szapszał’s advice was rather odd: “Frostidze” is a Georgian and not a Karaite surname. In 1980 Frostig (at that moment he was a “Fachreferent für slawische Ethnologie” at the Royal Library in Cobenhaven) published an article on the Polish Karaites where he claimed that the Karaites were racially (sic!) similar to the Tatars. He stated that the Karaites were characterized by their “ruhiges Temperament, logisches Denken und eine nüchterne Einstellung.” These features, in his opinion, were absolutely alien to their Jewish neighbours. Such strange “racial” statements, reminiscent of the anti-Semitic literature of the 1930s, seem to be especially odd when one takes into account the fact that the author was Jewish himself. Later Frostig confessed to Freund that this article of his, which had been initially supposed to stress Jewish origins of the Karaites, was heavily censored by the editorial board of the periodical “Anthropos” with the aim to demonstrate Turkic origins of the Karaites (see Freund, Karaites, 58, ft. 18; Adam Frostig, “Zur Ethnogenese und Geschichte der Karäer in Polen,” Anthropos 75 (1980): 25-48). 1706 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1060, fol. 1, 28. 1707 B. Kokenai to S. Szapszał (3.11.1944, Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 26r). 1708 Polkanov, a foreword to Polkanov, Krymskie karaimy, 4. 1709 Leonid Lavrin, a letter to the Internet discussion list “Karaylar” of 8.11.2002. 356 Between Scylla and Charybdis

of articles in which the Karaites were represented as a Jewish sect, differing from other Jews only by its refutation of the Talmud and some other minor details.1710 Fortunately for the Karaites, these historically accurate reports were not directly attended to and in 1943 the French Karaites were officially excluded from the local anti-legislation. These publications and the position of the local Rabbanite authorities, however, can explain why the government of Vichy France, for a time, maintained a more rigorous position with regard to the Karaites, treating them as Jews. Thus, there were only a few documented cases of negative relations between the Karaites and the Rabbanite Jews during the Second World War, as well as any behaviours which could be qualified as passive or active collaboration with Nazism. By contrast, we turn now to the more numerous cases of mutual and reciprocal help, brotherly understanding and self-sacrificing assistance.

5.7.2 The Role of Jewish Scholars in Saving the Karaites

Paradoxically enough, in order to get a better idea regarding the ethnic origins of the Karaites, in summer 1942 the Nazis ordered several important Jewish historians to compose historical memoranda concerning the Karaites. Professor Majer Bałaban (1877–1942) and Dr. Ignacy Schiper (a.k.a. Yitshaq/Ignaz Schiper/Szyper; 1884–1943) were asked to prepare two essays of this kind in the ; Zelig Hirsz Kalmanowicz (1883–1943) was assigned a similar task in Wilno; Philip Friedman (1901–1960), Dr. Leib Landau, and Dr. Yaakov Schall were employed for this purpose in the Lwów ghetto in Galicia.1711 Here one can clearly see the acumen of the Nazi authorities: being aware of the antagonism between the Karaites and Rabbanites, they probably expected that at least one of the Karaites’ ideological opponents would testify to their Jewish origin. All of the aforementioned scholars, however, apparently understood the sinister implication of this “scholarly” enquiry. This is why, in their wish to save the Karaites from the fate of other Jews, the scholars unanimously expressed the opinion that the Karaites were not either of Jewish extraction or of Jewish religion. Friedman, who himself observed the composition of one such paper, mentioned that it was prepared very carefully, with emphasis on the controversial nature of the Karaites’ ethnic history and the existence of the well-argued Khazar theory of the Karaites’ origin.1712 The answers by the Jewish scholars to the Nazis’

1710 This fact is mentioned in Pavel Bogdanovich, “Les Caraїtes” (8.02.1943, French) (Mémorial de la Shoah – Archives du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, no. CCXVI-8, fols. 6-7; the facsimile of the document was published in Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 239-246). 1711 Friedman, “The Karaites,” 97-123; Shemuamim 29 (1986): 90-108. 1712 Friedman, “Karaites,” 110-111. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 357

inquiry certainly played an important role in rescuing the Karaites. The destiny of the Jewish scholars, asked by the Nazis, was different from the fate of the Karaites whose lives they tried to save with their “academic” reports: only one of them, Philip Friedman, survived the Holocaust. All the others perished.1713 As has been noted in 5.4.3, the Jewish scholars were also ordered by the Nazis to translate several important studies on the Karaites into German. According to some sources, they additionally organized a sort of religious debate between Szapszał and Kalmanowicz. Obviously, Kalmanowicz “let” his opponent defeat him before several Nazi observers and allowed Szapszał to “prove” the Turkic origin of the Karaites to the Nazis.1714 In one of his post-war letters Szapszał refers to the tragic death of Kalmanowicz, but supplies no details about his personal contacts with the latter.1715 Kalmanowicz himself does not mention this public debate in his private diary either. This debate is referred to, however, by several other scholars and Wilno ghetto survivors: M. Dvorzetski, E. Gershater,1716 and Meir Yelin. Yelin’s testimony is especially interesting. The author spent the Second World War in Kowno (Kaunas); after the war he lived in Wilno (Vilnius) and in 1975 emigrated to Israel. In 1972 he published a novel “A Day and a Night” written by him, in Yiddish, in the Soviet periodical “Sovetish Heimland”.1717 The novel describes the discussion between the old Jewish historian “Nowitsch” (i.e., undoubtedly, Kalmanowicz) and the “Karaite hakham Tartal” (undoubtedly, Szapszał). According to Yelin, it was organised by the Nazi official, a certain Martin Beil. In Yelin’s words, the Nazi official tried to organise a type of debate based on a presumed hostilility between Karaites and Rabbanites. However, his plan failed because of the wise and calm behaviour of the Jewish scholar, who – unlike his over-excited Karaite opponent – calmly argued there was nothing in common between the Rabbanites and the Karaites.1718 It is still unclear, though, whether or not Yelin based his story on the reports of Wilno ghetto survivors or a fantasy of his own making. A similar scenario was played out by the Nazis in Halicz, where the Gestapo asked the local Ashkenazic rabbi about the ethnic origins of the Karaites.1719 The latter, as

1713 Incredulously, one German author attempted to devaluate Bałaban’s and other Jewish scholars’ generous deeds, aimed at sparing Karaites from the Holocaust, by stating that Jewish scholars viewed the Karaites as “pseudo-Jewish heretics” (Alfred Schubert, “Chasarische Herkunft,” Die Zeit 25 (16.06.1995)). The falsehood of this statement can be clearly seen by anyone acquainted with Bałaban’s studies on the Karaites published before the Holocaust. 1714 Friedman, “Karaites,” 110. 1715 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 74r-v. 1716 Friedman, “Karaites,” 110. 1717 Yelin, “Ein Tog un a nacht,” 94-117. 1718 Ibid., 96-99. 1719 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15. Unfortunately, Abrahamowicz did not mention the name of this Rabbi. 358 Between Scylla and Charybdis

well as Kalmanowicz and other Jewish scholars, also informed the Nazis that the Karaites were not Jews.1720 How important was the aforementioned noble deed of the Jewish scholars of Poland and Lithuania? There is no doubt that it played its significant role in salvation of the Karaites from the Nazis: if the scholars confirmed the historical truth about the Jewish origin of the Karaites’ religion and ethnicity, it would have certainly considerably worsened the position of the Karaite community. On the other hand, one should not overestimate the importance of the Jewish scholars’ role in this process. Even Philip Friedman, the only Jewish scholar who managed to survived from those asked by the Nazis, stated that “the opinions of Jewish scholars did not carry much weight with Nazi officialdom” because they considered them to be “a party to the issue... not qualified to give an impartial opinion.”1721 The Karaite question had already been positively resolved in Berlin in 1939 – and extended in 1943 – rather for political grounds than because of the historical memoranda written by the Jewish historians. One should also bear in mind that at that time, because of rather scarce knowledge about the Khazar language and Khazars in general, the unfeasibility of Szapszał’s “Khazar theory” was not that obvious to the scholarly world. It was undoubtedly clear to the majority of Jewish scholars and leaders that in terms of their cultural and religious affiliation the Karaites were a part of the Jewish civilization. What concerned the Karaites’ ethnic origins, however, they were much more cautious and usually supposed that the Karaites indeed represented a mixture of Semitic and Turkic- Khazar features. M. Bałaban, for example, in his entry in the pre-1917 Evreiskaia Entsiklopediia in Russian, mentioned that according to the latest anthropological studies the Karaites were closer to the Finno-Ugric and Turkish-Tatar anthropological types, than to the Semites.1722 Ignacy Schipper also cautiously agreed with the Khazar theory of the origin of Crimean Karaites.1723 The next section examines instances of the Karaites’ coming to the rescue of Rabbanite Jews.

1720 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 15. 1721 Friedman, “Karaites,” 111. 1722 Majer Bałaban, “V Galitsii karaimy,” EE 9, 291. 1723 Ignacy Schipper, Studja nad stosunkami gospodarczymi żydów w Polsce podczas średniowiecza (Lwów, 1911), 28. Cf. also Yulius Brutzkus, “Di opshtamung fun di Karaimer in Lita un Poiln,” YIVO Blatter 13 (1938): 110. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 359

5.7.3 The Karaites Are Coming to Rescue the Ashkenazim

Numerous cases of the Karaites’ help accorded to the Rabbanite Jews during the Holocaust are recorded largely in memoires, letters and recollections of members of the Karaite community and the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. This research has been the beneficiary of several touching family stories of Karaite Valentin Kefeli (formerly of Moscow, now USA);1724 practically all of them were corroborated by other sources. Following, are first-hand reports of known cases of such assistance. These examples are presented as sufficient to disprove allegations that the Karaites “were loyal servants of the Nazis.”1725 Most cases of this type come from occupied Crimea, home of the the largest Karaite community in the world, with many members connected to local Rabbanites through intermarriages. Many of these marriages took place after 1917, when many local Karaites were forced to accept the Communist atheist doctrine. The Soviet Karaites did not follow the religious proscription of 1910 that prohibited mixed marriages with other ethnicities; as a result, a number of Karaite-Rabbanite marriages were performed in Crimea during the interwar period. The Karaite-Rabbanite family of the Lis-Khodzhazhs lived in the 1940s in Simferopol. One male member of the family (father of Svetlana Khodzhash) went with his Rabbanite wife to the Gestapo for “registration of mixed marriages.” Both had not been seen ever after; there is no doubt that both were killed, since the order of 14.10.1941 ruled that Karaites living in mixed marriages with the Rabbanites were to be treated as if they were Jews.1726 Later 13 members of the Lis-Khodzhazh family, having been denounced as Jews, were taken away by the Gestapo. Twelve members of the family were later set free except for seven-year-old Svetlana who had never been seen again.1727 Samuil Moiseevich Khodzhash (Hocaş) (1881–1942) was killed by the Nazis together with two relatives because of his refusal to collaborate with them and to take up the office of the mayor of Eupatoria;1728 according to Kefeli he saved several Jews in Crimea. Members of Valentin Kefeli’s family rescued starving Jewish refugees in Kazan’ in 1942; Alisa Kefeli together with Jewish physicians Aminadav and Klara Rabinovich had been feeding malt sugar (maltose) to starving children in occupied Leningrad.1729 Boris Sakav, a Karaite shoemaker of Eupatoria, was married to a Krymchak woman with whom they had two daughters. As soon as he received news of horrible circumstances

1724 Valentin Kefeli to M. Kizilov (22.04.2006; 11.01.2005). 1725 Ross, Acts of Faith, 135. 1726 Müller, Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung, 153-154. 1727 This story was corroborated in a memoir by a member of this family (Valentina Lis, “Semeinaia geografiia,” in Liudmila Ulitskaia, Detstvo 45-53: a zavtra budet shchast’ie (Moscow, 2013), 439-450 (p. 440). 1728 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 127-128. 1729 V. Kefeli, “Razmyshleniia v den’ iubileia,” Karaimskoe nasledie 5 (2012): 55. 360 Between Scylla and Charybdis

surrounding the Krymchak “registration”, they moved to a remote village where everyone thought them to be a Karaite family. Thus Sakav rescued his Krymchak wife and two daughters.1730 The Rabbanite, E.M. Kal’fa (her maiden name was not provided in the source), was saved by her husband’s Karaite parents.1731 One Rabbanite girl, who managed to escape from the registration point, had been sheltered for several months by a Karaite family.1732 Sarra Abramovna Al’ianaki (née Moshevich) of Theodosia and her two half-Rabbanite children were saved only because of the fact that her husband was a Karaite, Mark Abramovich Al’ianaki. Although they experienced a number of obstacles to their survival until the very end of the occupation, this fact helped them to avoid forced registration as Jews – and saved their lives.1733 Especially sorrowful is the story of the Pastak (Pastak-Briskin) family. Anna Abramovna Pastak (1900-1942) was married to Rabbanite Arkadii Briskin, and had changed her surname to “Briskina.” Anna Abramovna, who apparently had a Karaite identity card (or the respective entry in her Soviet passport), did not let her daughter, Valeria Briskina, go to the Jews’ assembly point but instead hid her at the home of her sister, Sofia Abramovna Pastak (1898-1942). Sofia Pastak also hid another Jewish girl, Vera Red’kina, in her house. On 5.07.1942, when Anna Briskina (Pastak) visited her daughter at Sofia Pastak’s place, a neighbour informed the Gestapo that she was hiding Jews. As a result, both Briskins and Vera Red’kina were executed; Sofia Pastak, although she could stay alive as a Karaite, willingly went to be shot with her relatives.1734 It is also important to mention that Anna Briskina (Pastak), before her death, gave shelter to her Rabbanite friends, Mikhail and Minna Fishgoits (Fischheut).1735 Oral sources also shared accounts of several Karaites from Pastak family (presumably relatives of the Paris emigrant Pastak) being shot on the tenth kilometre of the Feodosia highway in the vicinity of Simferopol.1736 Veniamin Tongur described in his diary how his aunt Riva (Revekka) and daughter Sara (Aleksandra) in Simferopol sheltered a Rabbanite girl, Svetlana, for two years during the occupation.1737 H. Lashkevich recorded in his diaries that the

1730 This is according to David Moiseevich El’ (Eupatoria) (Mark Purim (Agatov), “V poiskakh Krymchakskogo pereulka,” Krymskie izvestiia 183 (5.10.2006)). 1731 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 90. 1732 Ibid., 91. 1733 Al’ianaki, O tom, chto pomniu. 1734 Yad Vashem, Daf ed 205071 and 205073; cf. Gitel Gubenko, The Book of Sorrows (New York, 2003), 43-44 (I would like to express my gratitude to Kiril Feferman for pointing out at this valuable source). Information about Sofia Pastak’s case was supplied to me also by Professor Kefeli. 1735 Mikhail Fishgoit, “Krym. Nachalo voiny” 1736 M.P. Kobus, the director of Concentration Camp in Sovkhoz Krasnyi museum, to M. Kizilov (oral communication, 10.07.2014). M. Kobus was informed about it by the local Karaite activist, Viacheslav Lebedev. 1737 Private communication of V. Kefeli. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 361

Karaite physician T.D. Yazydzhi (Yazıcı) sheltered and provided food to a Rabbanite Jewess in the attic of her house; later she also sheltered another Jewish woman at her flat. When this was discovered, she was taken several times to the Gestapo office for interrogation.1738 According to V. Kropotov, Yazydzhi saved the lives of Efim Rabotnikov and a Krymchak woman, Revekka Achkinazi.1739 More accounts were discovered in archival sources by K. Feferman.1740 It is also highly important to mention that a number of Crimean Subbotniks – Russian converts to Karaite type of Judaism (a.k.a. russkie karaimy) – were saved thanks to the meddling of the Eupatoria ḥazzan Mark (Mordecai) Moiseevich Kumysh (Kumysh-Karaman).1741 At least two Crimean Karaites – Boris and Anna Cohen (Коген) received the status of pravedniki Ukrainy (“the righteous of Ukraine”) for the help they accorded to the mixed Karaite- Rabbanite family of Al’ianaki.1742 A few cases of this type were recorded also in Poland. According to Z. Abrahamowicz, in Halicz, there were three occasions when the Karaites sheltered their Jewish neighbours. The local Karaite lawyer, Zacharjasz Nowachowicz, sheltered his Rabbanite colleague, Doctor Joczes in the attic of his house. Unfortunately, Doctor Joczes was soon arrested by the Nazis – and Nowachowicz himself managed to avoid the death penalty for sheltering a Jew only through a substantial bribe.1743 Furthermore, in Halicz there were two other cases where the local Karaites sheltered their Jewish neighbours.1744 Even as late as 1944 there was a Rabbanite laryngologist who was in hiding in a Karaite house in Łuck. He survived thanks to the help of the local Karaites.1745 Adam Frostig, who was sent to the concentration camp in Volhynia, was also saved by the Karaites in the vicinity of Łuck.1746 Assistance given to the Rabbanites turned around to lead to assistance for the Karaite Romuald Łopatto to receive permission to emigrate to Poland after the war. In 1942/3, when he had been living with his family in the town of Szyłele (Lith. Šilalė), somebody knocked on their door and asked for food. It was Ryfka Szmul, a Jewess from Mejszagoła (Maišiagala). His mother took her dressing gown, filled it with food

1738 Zarubin, “K voprosu,” 338. 1739 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 91. 1740 Feferman, “Fate of the Karaites.” 1741 Kropotov, Voiskovye traditsii, 92-94. 1742 Al’ianaki, O tom, chto pomniu, 53. 1743 Before the war, the two colleagues had their offices in the same building (Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16). 1744 Ibid. Printed, archival, and oral sources attest that there were many other cases where the Karaites accorded help to the Jews elsewhere in Eastern Europe. It is known that in Crimea, however, some Karaites joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht and wore Nazi uniforms (Green, “Fate,” 174; idem, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 40). For more details, see 5.3.2. 1745 Sulimowicz, “Listy do Łucka,” 48. 1746 Freund, Karaites, 58, ft. 18. 362 Between Scylla and Charybdis

and gave it to the beggar. Two years later, while Łopatto’s mother awaited trial for an attempted illegal crossing of the German border, the prosecutor, Colonel Ignacy Szmulewicz (Icek Szmul), who was from the family of Ryfka Szmul, released Łopatto’s mother having recalled the help that she had rendered to his family. Łopatto’s family subsequently found their way to Poland.1747 There is no doubt that many more cases of the Karaites’ helping and sheltering the Rabbanites during the war will be revealed in the future, with accumulation of further oral data and more detailed work with archival documents and memoirs of eyewitnesses. We now turn to cases of counterfeit Karaite identity cards used by Rabbanites in order to survive.

5.7.4 Fake “Sons of Scripture”: the Rabbanite Jews Save Themselves by Using Forged Karaite Identity Cards or Presenting Themselves as Karaites

Although, as we have demonstrated above, the final decision concerning the Karaite case was taken by the Nazis as late in the war years as 1943, having a fake Karaite identity card certainly meant for a Rabbanite Jew the possibility of survival – or at least provided some time for the flight before the truth about their Rabbanite origin was found out. Many Rabbanite Jews saved their lives by producing false certificates attesting to their Karaite origin. This research has documented several such cases, involving more than 30 rescued individuals of Jewish origin. It is impossible to estimate how many Jews saved their lives by way of forged Karaite certificates, but we may suppose that there were at least a few dozen cases of this kind. Furthermore, there is no doubt that there were also numerous cases of “Karaite” passports being discovered as fakes and their owners were then treated as Jews. At some point the Nazis apparently became aware of the fact that a number of Jews managed to procure fake identity cards. As a result, they ordered the head of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, Seraja Szapszał, to prepare a list of the members of the Karaite community in order to ascertain that those not on the list were “fake” Karaites.1748 It seems, however, that Szapszał’s list provided only the names of the Karaites of Wilno, Troki and, possibly, Poniewież area. There was no list of Karaite community members in Crimea (nor, most likely, in other countries and regions as well) where the community was apparently too numerous to be enlisted. This is why many Rabbanites in other parts of the occupied Europe still managed to escape Nazi detection – and death – through fake Karaite identity cards.

1747 Romuald Łopatto, “Jak z wilnianina stałem się wrocławianinem,” Awazymyz 4 (33) (2011): 10- 14. 1748 Friedman, “Karaites,” 116; Green, “Nazi Racial Policy,” 42. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanites During the Holocaust 363

The cases of survival through the fake Karaite identity cards are recorded practically in every Nazi-occupied country and region. Especially numerous were the cases in the areas of historical settlement of the Karaites. It is known that at least one Galician Jew, the historian Żanna Kormanowa of Lwów, saved her life by using such a false Karaite certificate.1749 In Łuck in Volhynia, Yaakov Eilbert and his brother also possessed forged Karaite papers.1750 Rozalia Sandomirska (1886–1959), the Rabbanite wife of the famous Karaite men of letters, Aleksander Mardkowicz (1875–1944),1751 and their three children also managed to survive only thanks to Mardkowicz’s Karaite identity.1752 The case of Adam Frostig, who had been saved by the Karaites of Łuck and who later presented himself as a Karaite had been analyzed above, in 5.7.1. A Jewish couple from Wilno, Nechemiah and Ida Glezer, who were living under the forged “Karaite” certificates of Jakob and Ema Adryowicz, were seized and sent to Warsaw. There they were questioned by Karaite Orientalist Ananajasz Zajączkowski, who worked as a liaison between the Karaites and Germans. Zajączkowski agreed to provide cover for the couple, who survived and in the 1970s were still living in New York.1753 In Odessa the Kantorovich family (mother Miryam and her daughters, Olga and Elena) saved by the fake Karaite papers not only their lives, but also provided a shelter to several other Jews in the basement of their house. These “Karaite” documents were made for the Kantorovich sisters by their brother’s Russian wife. Although they did manage to survive, the sisters were twice arrested by the Romanian authorities, were beaten, but then for some reason released.1754 In Eupatoria Mika Seferova (an Armenian?) who had been working as translator for the Nazis, provided her Rabbanite friend, Mikhail Fishgoit (Fischheut), with the passport of Anna Borisovna Neiman who died during

1749 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16. Żanna Kormanowa (née Zelikman; pseud. Zosia, Zofia, Orm (1900- 1988)) – Polish historian. 1750 This, however, did not help them too much. Yaakov Eilbert, who survived the Holocaust, had been sent to Stutthof concentration camp in the vicinity of Gdańsk/Danzig, while his brother had been killed by the Banderovtsy (“Di iberlebenisn fun Yakov Elbert,” Sefer Luṣq (Tel Aviv, 1961), 500- 504). 1751 Zajączkowski, “Mardkowicz,” 617-618. 1752 Furthermore, if his wife’s Jewish identity were revealed, Mardkowicz himself was to be murdered in accordance with the Nazi regulations concerning the mixed marriages with the Semites. From other documents (see 3.3.2) we know that Mardkowicz’s half-Rabbanite offspring was not allowed to be officially registered as members of the Łuck Karaite community. Although one lacks exact data about their case, there is no doubt that Rozalia Sandomirska and her children could survive only by using Karaite identity cards. 1753 This is according Spector, “Ha-Qara; L. Kalika to M. Kizilov (electronic letter from 18.06.2014); cf. Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Odesskoi oblasti F. П-92, op. 1, no. 3, fol. 119. 364 Between Scylla and Charybdis

bombardment of Eupatoria some days before. This passport saved the life of Mikhail’s mother, Minna Fishgoit.1755 The Jews also often used the motif of their “Karaite” origin when they were caught by the Nazis as prisoners of war. Mosheh Bel’ferman reported in a personal letter that his father, Isaac Bel’ferman, managed to escape Nazi executioners by presenting himself as a Karaite after he had been captured by the Germans in the battle near Kiev in 1943. He was advised to do so by his colleague who apparently knew that the Karaites were not executed by the Nazis.1756 Mikhail Anatol’evich Vodovozov, a soldier of the 2nd Udarnaia Armiia (shock army), was exposed as a Jew in a camp for prisoners of war because he was circumcised. Nevertheless, he explained the circumcision as a token of his Karaite origin and thus managed to escape death.1757 Scholars often mention that Mordecai Tenenbaum (1916–1943) and members of his resistance group possessed forged papers that presented themselves as being of Karaite or Tatar origin.1758 According to Warren Green, “until his death in the Bialystok Ghetto revolt Tenenbaum and other members of his resistance group were able to save an unknown number of Jews by forging papers certifying that the holder was of Karaite or Tatar descent.” According to Green, many Jews with forged Karaite papers thus managed to escape from the Wilno ghetto to live in the Aryan section of the city.1759 Current research has failed to date to locate supportive and reliable evidence to the effect that a number of the Wilno Jews were saved by this trick. The Green hypothesis contradicts claims of a Szapszał’s list, allegedly used by the Nazis to track down such counterfeit “Karaites”. There were several cases of this type in the places where the Karaite population had not been present or appeared only after 1917. One Krymchaki Jew, who left Crimea soon after 1917 in fear of Wrangel’s forced recruitment into the army and emigrated to Paris, saved his life by indicating in his passport that he was Karaite.1760 Reports of two more cases of escape from the Gestapo’s grip by presenting oneself as a Karaite in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (i.e. German-occupied Serbia) became known to me with the help of Dr. Milan Koljanin (Belgrade). On 26/27.01.1942 Dr. Venijamin Novogradski was arrested by the Serbian Special Police Department by the order of Gestapo under the suspicion of being a Jew. Although he apparently was a Rabbanite, baptized in 1918, he claimed that he his mother “was a real Christian, while father was allegedly Karaite.” Dr. Novogradski’s wife Vera (who also seemed to be a baptized

1755 This is how this story is narrated in the memoirs of Mikhail Fishgoit (Fishgoit, “Krym”). Sh. Spector provides a slightly different version of this case narrated by Minna Fishgoit (Spector, “Ha- Qara

Jew herself) mentioned in the plea addressed to the Belgrade Police Prefecture that her husband’s father “was Karaite by his origin, which is evident from the attached certificate of the Belgrade Police Prefecture Section I, No. 3916/42. In Russia the Karaites were an old religious sect deriving its origin from Islam [by religion] and from the Khazars, by nationality”. It is unclear whether Novogradski’s and his wife’s statements played any role in his further destiny, but it seems that their “Karaite” argumentation produced the desired impression upon the Nazi authorities. According to Aleksandar Novogradski (Venijamin Novogradski’s son), having spent some time in the imprisonment, his father was soon released while the Gestapo’s suspicions were recognized as ungrounded. In 1943, Venijamin Novogradski illegally joined the Partisan units in Bosnia as a military physician.1761 Another case was that of Anatolij Ivanović, a White Russian emigrant and the owner of Paper and Cardboard factory “Umka” in Umka, a small town near Belgrade. Because he was suspected to be a Jew, in 1941 his property was confiscated and sold. Soon after his arrest (on the 12th of July of that year), German authorities received a confidential note informing that in Russia Anatolij Ivanović’s real name was Anatolij Ivanović Pritzker. In the small explanation attached to the note it was stated that he was Karaite. It seems that thanks to this he managed to survive the Holocaust.1762 Another interesting case of the use of fake Karaite identity, though not directly related to the Holocaust, was registered in Egypt. In December, 1943, two “Karaim sisters Rose Kulta and Sara Bonder” (as the document says), applied to Elijah Sinani, the keeper of Anan ben David’s Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem, for financial help.1763 While the surname “Kulta,” a corruption of Kilti/Kiultiu, is undoubtedly, a Crimean Karaite surname, “Bonder” is an Ashkenazic surname which is not to be found among the Karaites. Was this Sara Bonder a Karaite married to a Rabbanite – or a Rabbanite pretending to be Karaite? Unfortunately, we do not have any other documents related to these two allegedly Karaite sisters. One interesting case of salvation with the help of the “Karaite identity” was recorded by me in Vilnius from the words of Professor Irena Veisaitė (Vilnius), who survived the Holocaust in occupied Wilno as a young girl (December, 2002). At that time she has been working, under the cover of false papers, in a day nursery in Wilno,

1761 Istorijski arhiv Beograda, fond Uprava grada Beograda (Historical Archives of Belgrade, Belgrade Police Prefecture documents), SP III-8/13, k.144/15. After the war Venijamin Novogradski remained a military physician and retired with the rank of a colonel. He died ca. 1971 in Belgrade. I would like to express my gratitude to the historian Dr. Milan Koljanin (Belgrade) who sent me this source, translated it into English, and provided me with information which he received from Mr. Aleksandar Novogradski. 1762 This source was found by Dr. Milan Koljanin in National Archives Washington, Office of the Chief Deputy for the Serbian Economy (Genaralbevohlmächtigter für die Wirtschaft in Serbien), T 75, roll 17, frames 191-240 and roll 53, frame 1378. 1763 El-Kodsi, Karaite Jews of Egypt, 43, plate 7. 366 Between Scylla and Charybdis

on the Subačiaus Street. Once the nursery was visited by the Gestapo men who wanted to take out all circumcised children to use their blood for wounded German soldiers. While they were examining children (and many of them were circumcised), the owner of the nursery, Dr. Izidorius Rudaitis, told the Nazis that these were Karaite children who also had the rite of circumcision. As a result, the Gestapo left and children remained alive. According to Proessor. Veisaite, these circumcised children were, in fact, Jewish. Although the Karaites themselves were not involved in this matter, they volens nolens helped these Rabbanite children to survive. Unfortunately, not all the attempts to use the fake Karaite identity as the means to avoid gas chambers were successful. According to Leonid Lavrin (Lavrinovich), who, most likely, received his information from Mikhail Kovshanly, there were 126 Rabbanite Jews in Berlin, who had been registered as Karaites. Their true identities were apparently discovered and they were executed later.1764 In 5.7.1 I analyzed two additional cases when the Rabbanite Jews (D. Malamud and the Szmulewicz family) in vain tried to save themselves by pretending that they were Karaites. It seems that in both cases their true – Rabbanite – identity was discovered. An unsuccessful story of an attempt to present herself as Karaite became the topic of the short story by Meir Yelin.1765 To our knowledge, only one such forged “Karaite” identity card has been published to date. This document saved the life of “Frau Frieda Malsky-Tolstow, geb. Rieklmann,” whose name clearly attests to her Ashkenazic origin.1766 Discovering and recording further cases of escape from the Holocaust by using fake Karaite papers is a task for future researchers.

5.8 The Impact of the Second World War and the Holocaust on the State of the East European Karaite Community

In spite of the fact that, Karaites received the status of a non-Jewish religious community in January of 1939, it is not until 1943 that they were recognized as racially non-Semitic, Turko-Tatar people. Nevertheless, their history and ethnic origin had been discussed by the Nazi officials until the ruin of the Third Reich in 1945. During all this time the position of the Karaites was highly unstable and they always felt them themselves on the verge of being enlisted among other groups of “subhuman” Semitic

1764 A letter to the online discussion list “Karaylar” of 8.11.2002. The information provided by Lavrin should always be treated with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, an archival source did mention that some Berlin Russians produced fake Karaite identity cards for the Jews (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 394, fols. 5r-5v). 1765 Yelin, “Ein Tog un a nacht,” 94-117. 1766 Freund, Karaites, 130. Cf. this forged certificate with a real Karaite certificate from Wilno (Vilnius) published in Hopeavuori, Harviainen, Nieminen, Rannalla päärynäpuu. The Impact of the Second World War and the Holocaust 367

origin. In spite of the availability of numerous sources on the historical development of the “Karaite case” as seen through the eyes of the Nazi officialdom, there continues to be a lack of documentation that could account for such a relatively quick answer from the German authorities in response to S. Douvan’s petition in late 1938 – early 1939. Generally, the position of the Karaites in the Nazi-occupied areas was similar to that of others whom the Nazis had determined to be “non-Aryan”. During the Holocaust the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania often continued to be employed at their previous places of work or served in German civil administration. Only one testimony of a Holocaust survivor, Yakov Eilbert, recounts the active participation of Łuck Karaites in the anti-Jewish activity of the Nazis. There is still no exact data concerning the number of the Karaite Nazi collaborators in Crimea and other occupied territories. Although German sources speak about 500–700 Karaites involved in the service in the Wehrmacht, Tatar legions and Waffen SS, other sources indicate that the number of instances of active Karaite collaborators was considerably – and significantly – lower. Furthermore, this study presents evidence to about 500 Karaites killed by the Nazis either as Jews or as Soviet citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity. Relations between the Karaites and Rabbanite Jews during the war were not consistent: on the one hand, on both sides there were cases of denunciation and treachery; on the other, there were many more examples of brotherly support and help. Furthermore, many Rabbanites managed to save their lives by using forged Karaite identity cards. It seems that at some point the head of the Karaite community, Seraja Szapszał, being either ordered by the Nazis or on his own initiative, provided the Nazi authorities with exact list of the local Karaite community members, thus endangering lives of those Jews who lived under the cover of falsified Karaite metrics. There is no doubt, however, that sooner or later the Nazis would have forced him to do so anyway. Several Jewish scholars and religious leaders, in different times and in different places (in Halicz, Łuck, Warsaw, Wilno, and Lwów), were ordered by the Nazis to compose historical memoranda on the ethnic and religious history of the Karaites. Against their own historical views and convictions, they unanimously recognized the Karaites to be non-Semitic people having nothing in common with Jewish civilization. Their opinion certainly helped the Karaites to present themselves as the Turks to the Nazis. Nevertheless, their role in the saving of the Karaites from the Nazi danger should not be overestimated: the Nazis never fully trusted these Jewish scholars and always thought them to be partial experts. The fate of the Karaites, which was decided in 1939 and 1943, was a card in the German political play in the East. Therefore, the heroic behaviour of Jewish scholars, in spite of its importance, was one of numerous factors that helped the Karaites to survive. Very important role in saving individual Karaites as well as the whole community in Eastern Europe in general was played by two outstanding Karaite personalities, Mikhail (Moisei/Mussa) Kovshanly and Seraja Szapszał. The role of the former has 368 Between Scylla and Charybdis

been hitherto practically unknown to the scholarly world; the activity of the latter, on the contrary, has been much discussed, abeit in varying degrees of debatable objectivity – from both pro and con perspectives. Yet, it is only now, with the help of new archival sources, that one can get a properly balanced perspective on the activity of both aforementioned figures. After the war, the number of the Karaites in Eastern Europe considerably decreased. Some Karaites left Crimea and Poland with the retreating German armies in 1944, some died or were killed during the war. Out of approximately 10,000 Karaites living in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union before the war, perhaps as few as six to seven thousand remained in this area.1767 The tactic of presenting themselves as non-Jews helped the majority of the Karaites in Eastern Europe to survive the Holocaust. However, it was simultaneously a watershed moment which sealed the complete disassociation of Karaites from other representatives of the Jewish population. It appears that during this period the Karaites realized not only how dangerous, but also how precarious was their connection to the Jewish civilization and to the history of the Jewish people. This connection could have been noticed even by such external observers as the Nazi officials in spite of all the assiduous efforts of the Karaite leaders to Turkicize their history and religion. It seems that the events of the Second World War – when the word “Jew” or “Jewish” started to be equated with mortal danger (not just discrimination in rights or double-taxation, as before) – provided the impetus for the accelerating process of “endogenous dejudaization” within the East European Karaite community in the 1940s. There is no doubt that further archival work will continue to yield more of the Karaite story during the Second World War and the Holocaust. We turn now to an exploration of the history of the Karaite community in historical Poland (now Poland, Lithuania and Western Ukraine) after 1944.

1767 For exact statistics, see 6.1.1. 6 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

The schools are closed, the gates of the are locked. It is right that we are called “karayim”. What shall I do, to whom shall I complain and where shall I go?

Unknown Karaite author, ca. 19451768

6.1 General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania Until the Time of “Velvet” Revolutions and the Disintegration of the Soviet Union

6.1.1 General Tendencies in the History of the Karaite Community After 1945

One should not be surprised by the fact that five chapters of this book represent the first 45 years of the twentieth century and only one chapter to the postwar period. Such brevity is explained by the fact that from 1945 to the end of the 1980s relatively little upheaval came upon to the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community, especially in comparison to the epoch of its cultural renaissance in the first half of the twentieth century. The Soviet regime tried to suppress practically all manifestation of nationalistic tendencies of dispersed ethnic minorities of the country. The Karaites suffered from this pressure as well. In general, the post-war period (until the “velvet” revolutions of the end of the 1980s) can be characterized as a period of the stagnation in the religious and cultural life of the East European Karaites. The face of Eastern Europe was completely changed as a result of the war, the ruin of pre-war life, the massacre of the local Slavic and Jewish population, and the new demarcation of state borders. In 1945 the city of Przemyśl with its surroundings, together with the western part and a small section of north-western Galicia were given back to Poland, whereas the rest of the Polish Kresy (Wilno region, Volhynia, and Galicia) were annexed by the Soviet Union. Galicia became a region

1768 Mektebler kapatı, me’bedlerin kapısı bağlı/Tevekkeli degil ki bizlere derler karayim./Neyleyim, kime diyryim ve nere varayim? This elegant verse, composed in Crimean Tatar with elements of Turkish influence, was written in pencil with Seraja Szapszał’s hand on the reverse side of a letter from the Troki Karaite E.P. (Pilecka?). Was it composed by Szapszał – or some other East European Karaite – in the moment of sorrowful reflections on the destiny of his people? Szapszał wrote down another version of the verse, which was slightly different from the first one. It began, Soruyorsun: ne haldevir milleti karayim? (“You ask: what happened to the Karaite people?”) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 60v).

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 370 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. This territory embraced the L’viv (Lwów), Stanislav (Stanisławów; from 1962 – Ivano-Frankivsk), and Ternopol regions (oblasti). Centuries-long inter-ethnic relations that were established in this region also underwent a transformation. The Jewish population, which had inhabited this land since the Middle Ages, was almost entirely annihilated by the Nazi Endlösung (final solution) to the “Jewish question.” The majority of the Poles from Galicia, Volhynia and the Wilno region emigrated to Poland after 1945. The Poles who decided to stay in Soviet Ukraine became gradually Ukrainized, whereas the Ukrainians who remained in Poland were Polonized. Because of the fact that Galicia and Volhynia and its Karaite communities, now located mostly in Halicz and Łuck, became part of Western Ukraine, it would appear permissible for the purposes of this present work to refer to these communities as West-Ukrainian. Similarly, Karaites living in the territory of socialist Poland after 1945 (mostly in Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk and its vicinity) may be designated as Polish, and Karaites of Wilno/Vilnius, Troki/Trakai, and Poniewież/ Panevėžys, who continued living in socialist Lithuania, as Lithuanian (the same as before 1945). In addition to human losses, general devastation, and the disastrous economic situation, the psychological and moral climate of the region also changed irrevocably from that of the pre-war period. For many Jews who survived the Shoah, the Holocaust became a traumatic experience that forced them to abandon their religious and cultural traditions.1769 Ukrainian–Polish relations became much worse largely because of the emergence of the militant Ukrainian nationalism of Stepan Bandera (1909-1959). The so-called “Banderovtsy,” followers of this radical nationalist leader, killed thousands of Polish, Jewish, and Russian civilians during and after the war. Only the firm establishment of the Soviet regime in Galicia and Volhynia suppressed the movement of Bandera’s followers in these regions although some armed organizations of this type existed even in the 1950s. After the war, the number of the Karaites in Eastern Europe decreased considerably: some left with the retreating German army in 1944, some died during the war. Furthermore, even though there was no organized massacre of Karaites, in the whole of the Soviet Union (Ukraine: Kiev, Kharkov; Crimea: Eupatoria, Theodosia; Russia: Krasnodar, Novorossiisk; Lithuania: Poswol), according to my estimates, around 500 Karaites were killed by the Nazis despite all the directives from Berlin to spare their lives. Altogether, out of approximately 10,000 Karaites living in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union before the war, perhaps as few as six to seven

1769 After the Holocaust, many Jews had a much more sceptical attitude to religion than before. It was mostly traditionally-raised families and religiously-educated people who preserved their faith in its original form (Sebastian Rejak, “Jews in Contemporary Poland: Their Attitude towards Assimilation, Religion, and the Holocaust,” Dialogue and Universalism 11:5-6 (2001): 71-84). General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 371

thousand remain living.1770 Quite complicated is also the problem of the deportation of the Karaites among other ethnic minorities from Crimea in 1944. According to official Soviet data, on 1.01.1953 there were thirty Karaites deported from Crimea.1771 According to other data, in 1949 there were as many as 170 Karaites who were sent away as spetsposelentsy (“special colonists”) and were characterized as vlasovtsy.1772 In one of the petitions submitted by Crimean Tatars to return to Crimea one may find the name of Il’ia Gabai.1773 This means that there certainly were some – not very numerous – Karaites that were deported from Crimea in 1944, but their exact number remains unknown. The East European Karaite community emerged from the war largely demoralized. After 1944 a considerable number of the Karaites (perhaps ca. 1,000–2,000) emigrated with withdrawing German troops from the territory of the Soviet Union, Poland and Lithuania, seeking refuge in the West. They had later settled in West European countries and in North and South America, often renouncing their belonging to the Karaite community and registering there as Russians and Poles.1774 During the war, the Karaites were constantly forced to testify to the Nazi officialdom that they did not belong to the Jewish civilisation – ethnically, religiously or culturally. Hence, the post- war period became the time of the firm establishment of the Turkic identity among East European Karaites. After the end of the war, relations between the Polish Karaites and those Rabbanites who had managed to survive the Shoah apparently became friendlier than before 1939–1945. Post-war Karaite emigration from occupied areas began to turn its face to Israel.1775 Doubtless, interest of the local Karaites in the return to the Holy Land is reflected in the eager response of Halicz Karaites-early emigrants to Israel soon after the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948. It is known that at least 37 Karaite families from Poland (most of them, apparently, from Łuck and Halicz) emigrated to

1770 In 1959 there were 5,727 Karaites living in the Soviet Union (mostly in Crimea; 423 in Lithuania), and perhaps 400-500 in Poland. 1771 Vikhnovich, “Massovye etnicheskie deportacii;” cf. slightly exaggerated data of Crimean Karaite authors (E.I. Lebedeva speaks about several tens of deported Karaites: E.I. Lebedeva, Ocherki po istorii krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov (Simferopol, 2000), the page of the book cover which follows the page 116; it is absent in the recent re-edition of the book. I.A. Shaitan stated that 40 Karaites from Crimea’s southern coast were sent to Ural ([I.A. Shaitan], “Chto izvestno o karaimakh,” 155; see also B.S. Bebesh, “Karaimy i deportatsiia,” KV 22 (1996); V. Lebedev, “Karaimy i deportatsiia,” Leninets 25 (22.06.1991); A.S. Kefeli, “Oshibochno deportirovannye,” KV 4 (1994)). 1772 Zemskov, Spetsposelentsy, 134; Zarubin, “K voprosu.” Vlasovtsy – soldiers of the General Vlasov’s army; they broke away from the Red Army and fought against Soviet troops during WWII. 1773 Green, “Fate,” 376, ft. 31. 1774 The fate of these refugees is recorded in hundreds documents kept in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 1775 Friedman, “Karaites,” 117. 372 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Israel in 1950.1776 More details on post-war Karaite–Rabbanite contacts may be found in the manuscript version of an article by Zygmunt Abrahamowicz. Unfortunately, the present-day East European Karaite community conceals these Rabbanite– Karaite relations – and at the request of Abrahamowicz’s relatives, his article was posthumously published without the highly important passage on contacts between the Galician Ashkenazim and the Karaites after the war.1777 After the war, when most of the Wilno Karaites moved to Poland, the main headquarters of the periodical “Myśl Karaimska” were transferred to Wrocław, where two more issues of the periodical appeared (they appeared as “seria nowa,” Wrocław, 1946 and 1947). The content of the periodical became drier and more academic, with half of the contributions by non-Karaite authors. Ananiasz Zajączkowski was indicated as its only editor. The name of Seraja Szapszał, most probably because of the fact that he looked quite suspicious in the eyes of the Soviet authorities, was altogether avoided. Zajączkowski, now the editor of the periodical, mentioned the fact that he had received, in 1946, an article from Szapszal about the “Khazar-Turkic” language.1778 However, this article never saw print. The second (and the final) issue of the new series did not even contain a chronicle of events in the Karaite community although this had been an integral part of all previous issues of the periodical. After 1947, in socialist Poland, the periodical was transformed into “Przegląd Orientalistyczny” – the name under which the periodical exists to this day. The first issue of the periodical… did not contain a single article from the field of Karaite studies. In spite of such a drastic reorganisation, many Karaite scholar-specialists in the field of Oriental Studies (e.g. Z. Abrahamowicz, A. Zajączkowski, W. Zajączkowski, A. Dubiński et al.) continued to be published in “Przegląd Orientalistyczny”. According to S. Szyszman, it was A. Zajączkowski, who decided to end “Myśl Karaimska” in order to satisfy his own ambitions and set up a periodical more scholarly than “Myśl Karaimska”, intended for a wider academic audience.1779 It is difficult to stay whether this accusation is true: it seems that at least the idea of renaming was coming from Dr. T. Jaczewski – and not from Zajączkowski.1780 After the war the rite of circumcision and many other traditional religious ceremonies ceased being practised or had entirely lost their initial importance and centrality for the East European Karaite community. According to Polish sociologists, their holidays (i.e. holy-days) were transforming for the Polish Karaites into strictly family events without religious reference, with special attention only to funerals and

1776 American Hebrew 160:14 (28.06.1950): 7. 1777 See Stefan Gąsiorowski’s foreword to Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 4. Nevertheless, Abrahamowicz himself clearly wanted to see this passage published. 1778 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 19.04.1946 (UO, 211). 1779 Szyszman, Przywódca Duchowy Karaimów, 10. 1780 Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 188. General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 373

weddings. Sociologists began noticing a new type of lay tradition: group readings of letters from relatives from other cities or abroad.1781 The knowledge of the Hebrew and Karaim languages began to rapidly deteriorate since there was nobody to take care of religious education of youth. In contrast to the prolific literary activity of the interwar years, there were only a few publications by Karaite authors in the Soviet period. Non-Karaite press also started dedicating much less space than before to the Karaites; moreover, popular articles on the Karaites started to become more superficial and tendentious than during the interwar period.1782 Another interesting feature of the period was a number of the so-called “remote” Karaite marriages. In order to keep their Karaite identity, many post-war Polish-Lithuanian Karaites continued observing traditional proscription against mixed marriages with other ethnic groups. However, one often could hardly find a spouse in their extremely small sub-communities of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. This is why after 1945 marriages between the Karaites living in such remote regions as, for example, Poland and the Crimea, Kiev and Troki, took place much more often than earlier. Suppression of Karaite communal life, culture and religion in Poland continued until the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s, i.e. by the time of the so-called “velvet” revolutions in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. There was the rapid renaissance of national sentiments of numerous ethnic groups inhabiting these countries in 1989/1991, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and liberation of East European countries from the ideological dictate of the communist regime. The Karaites also took part in this process. I discuss below the history of each distinct Polish-Lithuanian community from 1945 to the end of the 1980s.

6.1.2 The Karaite Community in Socialist Poland: the First Secular Karaite Community in Eastern Europe

As the consequence of the annexation of many Nazi-occupied territories by the Soviet Union (Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia etc.), most Karaites again became citizens of the same country, this time of the Soviet Union. Many of them, however, as former Polish citizens, decided to leave the areas annexed by the Soviet Union and move to Poland. According to Szymon Pilecki the Karaite emigration from Łuck and Halicz to Warsaw started already during the Nazi occupation. It was caused first of all by the fear of violent Ukrainian nationalists who often represented mortal

1781 Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 36-38. 1782 E.g. Andrzej Tokarczyk, “Polska muslimów i Karaimów,” Kultura (9.02.1968). The author calls the Karaites “population of Tatar origin” and states that “Karaite rituals are approximating to Christian”. 374 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

danger to the Karaites.1783 In 1945, according to the agreement between Poland and the USSR, the Polish and Jewish population of the former Polish lands was allowed to emigrate to Poland. The Karaites, however, being neither Poles nor Jews, were not included in the agreement. The Soviet authorities allowed the Karaites of the former Eastern Polish lands (Volhynia and Galicia) to emigrate to Poland on the basis of their Polish citizenship. On the other hand, Soviet administration did not grant an official permission to emigrate to Poland to the Karaite inhabitants of Lithuania despite the fact that they had also been former Polish citizens. According to a Karaite source, the Soviet officials were unwilling to do this because the Karaites had been settled in Lithuania a long time ago by Grand Duke Vitold.1784 In fact, however, the Lithuanian Karaites were not allowed to emigrate because local administration knew them to be Karaites, not Poles or Jews. Thus, as non-Poles, many of them were not allowed to join their Karaite brethren in Poland. This was especially difficult for the Troki Karaites – they were known as Karaites to practically everyone in the small town of Troki; it was somewhat easier for the Wilno Karaites. Later, however, many Lithuanian Karaites managed to cross the Polish border and settle in Poland.1785 In 1945, the Karaite case was championed by Tadeusz Kowalski, who asked “Polski Urząd Repatryacyjny” (Polish Committee for Repatriation) to allow the Karaites to emigrate to Poland.1786 By November of 1946, about 300 Karaites had managed to find their way to Poland and settle down there.1787 Some Karaites were allowed to emigrate to Poland as former soldiers of the Army of generals Berling and Anders; some as repatriates from Manchuria (Harbin), some as Ostarbeiter forcefully taken to Germany. Many post-war Karaite emigrants managed to cross the Soviet-Polish border in half-legal or entirely illegal way.1788 From 1945 to 1947, Karaite emigrants from Volhynia-Galicia, and those of their number who managed to leave Lithuania, joined scattered groups of the Karaites who lived in central Poland before 1939. Soon they organized several new communities in Wrocław, Warsaw, and Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot). Thus, the Karaite population of the former Polish lands was then divided between Poland itself, and the Lithuanian (Troki, Wilno, Poniewież) and Ukrainian (Łuck, Halicz) Soviet Socialist Republics. The second wave of the

1783 Pilecki, “Karaimi w Polsce po 1945 r.,” 42. 1784 Ibid., 41. 1785 More about the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in post war period see in Anna Sulimowicz, “Życie społecznosci karaimskiej w Polsce,” RM 3:2 (1994): 47-50; Firkowicz, “Ogniska karaimskie po latach,” 87-89; Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 180-205. 1786 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 703, fol. 73. 1787 Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 184. 1788 This is according to the speech of Szymon Pilecki as quoted in Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 31. General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 375

emigration to Poland started after 1955-1956, in a general atmosphere of thaw after the death of Stalin.1789 The emigration from former Polish lands to Poland became a real tragedy for many Karaites: they had to live in some sort of “mild exile”, far away from their traditional settlements, houses of prayer, cemeteries, dwelling quarters and customary occupations. Further settlement of the Karaites in “Ziemie Odzyskane” (Pol. “Returned lands” – the term to define former East German territory) and Central Poland was determined mostly by the direction of transport delivering Polish citizens from the Soviet Union. Thus, the Volhynian Karaites were transported to Lower Silesia, whereas the Wilno Karaites – to the north of Poland. In this way several small scattered communities were formed in Warsaw and its vicinities, in Wrocław,1790 Opole, and Trójmiasto. A few families lived in , Szczecin, Kraków, Gorzów, Słupsk, Ełk and some other places.1791 The journey to Poland and further settlement in the country were far from being pleasant. A letter of a Troki (or Wilno?) Karaite emigrant describes all the vicissitudes of her and her husband way from Wilno to Toruń after the war. The whole journey to Poland lasted a few days. They often had to stop and change trains and were often undernourished. In Toruń they had to spend several nights without a roof over their heads until the husband found a job and own place to live.1792 Apparently, many other Karaite emigrants had similar stories to tell. According to some estimates as a result of the emigration around 300 Karaites had been living in Poland in the 1950s. In 1945 and 1946, the Polish Karaites expected Szapszał’s emigration to Poland and hoped that he would become the head of their community in socialist Poland.1793 This, however, did not happen and the Polish Karaites organized their communal life in Poland without Szapszał’s authoritative care. The first Karaite community organization was formed in 1945. It was called “Komitet Organizacyjny KZR” (Organisation Committee of KZR); its head was Ananiasz Zajączkowski, and two members – Zacharjasz Szpakowski from Łuck and Ananiasz Rojecki from Wilno. In October of that year, Zajączkowski contacted the Polish administration and informed it of the necessity of officially registering the forming Karaite communities in

1789 Pilecki, “Karaimi w Polsce po 1945r.,” 42-43. 1790 For more information about the life of the Karaites in post-war Wrocław, see Szymon Pilecki, “Karaimi we Wrocławiu po II wojnie światowej,” Awazymyz 2 (35) (2012): 14-21; Mariola Abkowicz, “Karaimi we Wrocławiu,” AK, 107-110. 1791 Pilecki, “Karaimi w Polsce po 1945r.,” 43-44. 1792 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 60. 1793 See letters of Zajączkowski and other Karaites to Szapszał (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 703, fols. 78, 82). According to Szymon Pilecki, Seraja Szapszał several times tried to get permission to emigrate to Poland, but was refused (Pilecki, “Karaimi w Polsce po 1945r.,” 44; cf. Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 184; A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 10.05.1946 (UO, 212, 215)). 376 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Warsaw, Pomorze, Gdańsk, Silesia, and Wrocław.1794 In January 1946, the Committee received the first funding from the state.1795 On 31.05.1947 and again on 1.06.1947, the first two (and the only) sessions of the newly elected “Wielki Karaimski Zarząd Duchowny” (Great Karaite Spiritual Consistory) took place in Podkowa Leśna. These two sessions were marked by a heated contest between the traditional leader of the Karaite community, ḥazzan Rafał Abkowicz, and a secular leader, professor of the Warsaw University, Ananiasz Zajączkowski. Most of the participants of the session voted for the secular leader. In this way Zajączkowski was elected head of the Karaite community in Poland. According to Abkowicz, however, it was he, as the only ḥazzan living in Poland, that was required to serve as head of the Polish Karaites. Some scholars consider that this conflict contributed considerably to the dispersion and laicisation of the Polish Karaites in the post-war period.1796 Archival documents testify that the Polish Karaites were quite frustrated by the quarrel between both leaders and were of the opinion that the reason for the disagreement was of a materialistic rather than a spiritual nature.1797 This moment is highly significant for understanding of the growing secularization of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites after the war. The conflict went on after these two sessions of the Consistory. In the summer of 1947 Abkowicz and other members of the Wrocław Karaite community created another communal structure that was to serve as an alternative to that headed by Ananiasz Zajączkowski. In an official letter, Abkowicz stated that he, “because of the absence of Ułłu Hazzan, had accepted the role of temporarily fulfilling the duties of the Hachan from 1.08 of the current [1947] year.”1798 Furthermore, he announced that the Organisation Committee of KZR, headed by Zajączkowski, should be abolished as having no legal grounds to exist.1799 Nevertheless, the government apparently did not want to deal with any further complications involving the Karaites and, hence, did not recognize the validity of Abkowicz’s claims. Thus, the Organisation Committee of KZR and decisions of the Great Karaite Spiritual Consistory were recognized as the only existing legal bodies for the Polish Karaites, while Abkowicz’s claims to the position of the Consistory ḥachan, i.e. the head of the Polish Karaites, remained unrecognized. Abkowicz attempted to acquire elevation to the position of ḥachan again in 1970, after the death of Ananiasz Zajączkowski. He was not successful in his attempts this time either.1800 In post-war Poland there was no kenesa where the local Karaites could practice their religion. Moreover, it seems that the community did not have any intention

1794 “Sprawy organizacyjne Karaimskiego Związku Religijnego w R.P.,” MK 1 s.n. (1946): 142-143. 1795 Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 185. 1796 Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 34-35. 1797 Sz. Firkowicz to S. Szapszał (1948, Russian) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 264, fol. 62. 1798 Abkowicz, “Karaimskie życie społeczne,” 193. 1799 Ibid., 194. 1800 For more details, see ibid., 197-199. General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 377

of constructing one. In order to address the situation, a couple of houses of prayer situated in private apartments had been established. From 1946 to 1992, the Wroclaw Karaites gathered for the services in the house of Rafał Abkowicz, often called the “ostatni Hazzan” (the last ḥazzan).1801 Religious ceremonies in Warsaw had been sometimes performed in the house of Aleksander Dubiński. On 18.03.1973 the congress of the delegates of the Karaite communities approved a new statute of the KZR. The composition of this statute had been started by Ananiasz Zajączkowski and finished by Józef Sulimowicz. On 10.05.1974 the new Statute of the KZR in Poland was approved by the Department of Religious Affairs. The present-day KZR in Poland is still functioning on the basis of this statute.1802 At the very end of the 1970s, the time of the foundation and early actions of “Solidarność”, a group of Polish Karaite youth started publishing an underground “samizdat” periodical entitled “Coś” (Pol. ”Something”).1803 Fifteen copies of the periodical were printed – each on on a typewriter. Its editor, Marek Firkowicz, explained his attempt as arising from a wish to begin publishing “something” after the 30 years of silence after the war, when all the interwar Karaite periodicals ceased to exist. The editor also wanted to show that at least “coś” (something) has been done by the Karaites to revive their language and culture. Only two issues of the periodical were published in 1979. Later, however, the periodical resumed its activity as “Awazymyz” in 1989, i.e. ten years later (see more below). These two thin issues of “Coś” contained a chronicle of events in the Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania, lyrics and translations of famous Karaite and Polish poets in Polish and Karaim, crosswords and announcements. This undertaking of the youth was supported by their elder Karaite colleague, professor Aleksander Dubiński, who published in “Coś” two small articles dedicated to the history of Karaite literature.1804 In 1985 there were about one hundred Karaites living in Poland (mostly in Warsaw, Trójmiasto and Wrocław) and 43 half-Karaites. Those who lived in Trójmiasto (i.e. Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) were mostly of Troki origin. According to Sykała, many Karaites did not practice any religion and often indicated their religious affiliation as

1801 Rafał Abkowicz brought with him to Poland the Torah scroll from Łuck dating back to 1786 (Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 89). See about him the documentary Ostatni Hazzan (director Ewa Straburzyńska). OTV Wroclaw. 1985; cf. 3.3.1). 1802 A copy of this legal document was given to me in 2001 in Warsaw, by the late Professor Juliusz Bardach (1914-2010). 1803 Coś. Periodyk młodzieży karaimskiej w Polsce. Nakład 15 egzemplarzy. Redakcja i wydanie Marek Firkowicz. Numer 1. Rok I. 1.01.1979, 16pp.; Numer 2. Rok I. 1.04.1979, 16pp. 1804 Aleksander Dubiński, “Polscy Karaimi,” Coś 1 (1979): 10-12; idem, “Przekłady literatury polskiej w piśmiennictwie karaimskim,” Coś 1 (1979): 2-5. 378 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

bezwyznaniowcy (Pol. “non-denominational/unbeliever”).1805 Several Karaites lived in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz.1806

6.1.3 Halicz

During World War II the Halicz Karaite community lost most of its intellectual leaders. As has been mentioned, the ḥazzan Mordecai Leonowicz died in 1940, whereas Ezua Leonowicz, the administrative head of the community, was sent to Siberia. Samuel Eszwowicz, the new head of the community, also died during the war.1807 In 1946 Izaak Abrahamowicz, the former ḥazzan and one of the most educated members of the community, passed away.1808 Two promising young Karaites, future Orientalist scholars, Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923–1991) and Józef Sulimowicz (1913–1973), left Halicz after the end of the war. Nowach Szulimowicz, another intellectual leader of the interwar Halicz community, severed all ties with the Karaites after 1945.1809 The catalogue of the cemetery contains the names of eight Karaites who died between 1939 and 1945.1810 In the 1940s and 1950s, in total, 45 Karaites left Halicz, most of them for Poland (24 persons) and Lithuania (11 persons). In order to obtain permission to emigrate, the Karaites had to prove their Polish origins and the presence of relatives in Poland to the Ministry of Recovered Territories (Ministerstwo Ziem Odzyskanych).1811 Several Halicz Karaites settled in the town of Opole, in the vicinity of Wrocław (Breslau).1812 Relations between the Galician Karaites and the local Ukrainian population were highly complicated, both during the war and after it. The Polish-oriented Karaites, and their Jewish religion, certainly were disliked by the Ukrainian nationalists, with their anti-Semitic and anti-Polish agenda. According to an oral report, during World

1805 Janusz Sykała, “Z państwa Chazarów na wybrzerze Gdańskie,” Rocznik Gdański 45:1 (1985): 217-218. 1806 Konstanty Pilecki, “‘Trockie ogórki’ na Kuźniczkach,” Awazymyz 3 (2008). 1807 “Pamięci tych, co odeszli,” 141. 1808 His grave is, surprisingly, one of the most modest tombstones in the cemetery. It was erected there, according to some reports, only in the 1960s, i.e. a years after his death. Its inscription is in Karaim, in Ukrainian transliteration in Cyrillic characters: “Абрагамович Iзак М. 27.XI.1868р 21.XII.1946. Уцмак дзанина” (as seen by M. Kizilov in May, 2002). 1809 Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie Halickich Karaimów,” 42. 1810 See Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche, 218-233. 1811 The Yurchenko MSS have preserved a copy of one such certificate, which granted the family of Zofja Eszwowicz permission to join her brother, Szymon Nowicki, who lived in Opole in Poland (Udostoverenie/Zaświadczenie given to Zofja Eszwowicz, her husband, Samuel Eszwowicz, and their son, Gabriel Eszwowicz, by the Ministry of Recovered Territories; Polish/Russian, Warsaw, 17.02.1948). 1812 See the letter of Ignacy Eszwowicz to Helena Eszwowicz written in the 1960s (Polish; the Yurchenko MSS). General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 379

War II one of the local Ukrainians blocked the road and did not let the Karaites carry out a burial in the cemetery. Surprisingly, this conflict was settled by the German authorities, who allowed the Karaites to perform the ritual.1813 In spite of this Karaite–Ukrainian animosity, two Halicz Karaites, Anna-Amelia Leonowicz (1925-1949) and her mother, Helena (Ruhama/Ruḥamah) Leonowicz (1890-1967), paradoxically, became members of the radical organisation of Ukrainian nationalists, Orhanyzatsiia Ukraїns’kykh Natsionalistiv (OUN).1814 The mother, Helena- Ruhama, left her house at the disposal of OUN members, who used it as a hiding place. In 1948, after a fight with Soviet militia in her house, Helena-Ruhama was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. However, in 1954, only six years later, she was released and returned to Załukiew, where she lived until the end of her days. In 1949, nine months after the arrest of her mother, Anna-Amelia (known among the nationalists by the nickname “Galia”), while being surrounded by Soviet forces, locked herself in a church and committed suicide together with another member of the organization.1815 According to oral reports by the local Karaites, however, the Leonowicz women collaborated with the Ukrainian nationalists not of their own free will, but under compulsion, while being threatened by the latter.1816 Those Halicz Karaites who decided to stay in their native town, the place where their ancestors had lived for so many years, again changed their citizenship and became citizens of Soviet Ukraine. From the 1940s to the 1950s, the community dwindled to ca. 40-50 souls because of emigration and natural decrease. Only five Karaites were born in Halicz during the whole of the post-war period from 1946 to

1813 Private communication, Halicz, May 2002. 1814 Orhanyzatsiia Ukraїns’kykh Natsionalistiv (OUN) was founded in 1929 and took Mussolini’s fascist state as their example. Its main thesis was “Ukraine for the Ukrainians.” While the Poles and Communists were considered the main enemies of the OUN, its members also actively took part in mass murders of Jews in 1941. During the war the SS battalions Nachtigall, Roland, division SS Halychyna and some other military units formed from ethnic Ukrainians participated in military activity against the Soviet Army and killed thousands of Polish, Russian, Jewish, and Gypsy civilians in Galicia. After the war the OUN continued fighting against the Soviet Army and killing civilians. Its last units were exterminated only at the beginning of the 1950s (for details see John-Paul Himka, “Ukrainian Collaboration in the Extermination of the Jews during World War II,” in The Fate of the European Jews, 1939-1945: Continuity or Contingency, ed. Jonathan Frankel (New York-Oxford, 1997), 170-189; Basil Dmytryshyn, “The Nazis and the SS Volunteer Division ‘Galicia’,” American Slavic and East European Review 15:1 (1956): 1-10). Surprisingly, not only these two Karaites, but also some Rabbanite Jews joined radical organizations of Ukrainian nationalists during the war (Taras Hunczak, “Problems of Historiography: History and Its Sources,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 25:1/2 (2001): 136). 1815 Petro Zin’kovs’kyi, “Uchast’ halyts’kykh karaїmiv u vyzvol’nykh zmahanniakh 40-ykh rokiv XX st.,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 140-141. Anna-Amelia Leonowicz (1925-1949, a teacher in Halicz in the 1940s) seems to be identical with Amalja Leonowicz, a student of Hebrew and Karaim, who recited a poem by Elijah Kazas during the latter’s centenary celebration in Halicz in 1934 (“Dzymatynda Halicnin,” 25). 1816 Ivan Yurchenko (May, 2005). According to Ivan Yurchenko, her father (Ezua Leonowicz?) was sent to Siberia by the Soviets. 380 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

2002, and only two marriages were celebrated. At the same time, 17 Karaites died and many more emigrated from Halicz.1817 The Soviet regime did not welcome either the Karaites’ religion or the study of their language. According to Janina Eszwowicz, young Karaites were officially forbidden to enter the local kenesa because they were pioneers and Komsomol members. Nevertheless, they often attended closed religious ceremonies which took place in private homes.1818 Furthermore, many Karaites were considered quite suspicious because of their religiosity and pro-Polish sentiments. Thus, for example, Zachariasz Nowachowicz, known as an ardent Polish patriot, was not allowed to continue his legal practice.1819 Soon after the end of the war he, together with several other Halicz Karaites, moved to Poland and settled in Chrzanów.1820 Zarach Zarachowicz, who played an active role in the spiritual life of the community until his death in 1952, officially worked as an accountant after the Soviet annexation of Halicz. In general, the post-war dejudaization tendencies, which were so strong in most other East European Karaite communities, were much less evident among the Halicz Karaites. Some Karaite elders preserved their Judeo-Karaite identity even after the war. Thus, for example, in the 1950s one of the local Karaites called his people “the true Israelites” (pravil’ny Izraelitiane).1821 Zarach Zarachowicz normally began every letter to Szapszał with Hebrew quotations from the Bible.1822 Furthermore, in spite of the loss of their spiritual and administrative leaders, the Karaites continued practising their religion after the war as well. In order to follow the Karaite religious calendar, they compiled hand-written pocket calendars, which were composed in the Hebrew language and contained traditional Hebrew terms.1823 From 1940 to 1960 the duties of the ḥazzan were fulfilled by the shammash Moses (Mosze) ben Shalom Szulimowicz (1882-1974). In his letters to Szapszał, he calls himself by the Karaim men oł szammasz kahałyndan halicnyn juwuzrak jumuscunuz (I, the shamash of the Halicz community, your lowest servant).1824 It seems that Szapszał, as the former spiritual head of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, continued sending financial support to Szulimowicz for

1817 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 8. 1818 Janina Eszwowicz, private communication (Halicz, June, 2003). 1819 According to Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, this was because of his pro-Polish sentiments (Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16). 1820 Edward Tryjarski, “Restoration of Oriental Studies in Poland after the World War II as Reflected in Five Letters by Tadeusz Kowalski,” Studia Turcologica Cracoviensia 5 (1998): 273-274. 1821 A handwritten marginal note in broken Russian in Alexei Yugov, Svetonostsy. Epopeia (Moscow, 1946), 148 (this book was given by Boris Kokenai as a present to Zarach Zarachowicz and is currently kept among the Yurchenko MSS). This short note was left, most likely, by a relative of Z. Zarachowicz. 1822 MS LMAB F. 143, nos. 723, 724. 1823 See the calendar for 1944/1945 and “Luaḥ roshei ḥodashim (1949-1950)” (the Yurchenko MSS). 1824 Moses Szulimowicz to Seraja Szapszał (no date) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 652). The archives have preserved a few other letters of Szulimowicz to Szapszał written from 1950 to 1955 in Polish, Ukrainized Russian, Hebrew, and Karaim (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 652). General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 381

fulfilling his religious duties even after the war.1825 Mosze Szulimowicz and Zarach Zarachowicz continued teaching Hebrew and religion to Karaite children after the war.1826 Thus, even in Soviet times the local Karaites were able to receive some religious education. In the 1940s the community attempted some, but inadequate, repairs to the synagogue. In a letter to Szapszał in 1948 Zarachowicz mentioned that most members of the community attended services in the kenesa. He characterized the whole state of community affairs with the sorrowful quotation from the prophet Haggai: “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm.”1827 He stated that “the Almighty who saved us from the atrocities of the war will continue protecting His people and take care [of the Karaites] with divine providence.”1828 Unfortunately, in 1952, persecuted by the Soviet government because of his “connection to religious matters,” Zarachowicz sought “asylum in the waters of the Dniester.”1829 His death was another heavy blow to the shrinking and inertia-bound community. After the war, because of the decline of the Halicz community and the lack of control on the part of Soviet officials, the local Ukrainians started vandalizing the Karaite cemeteries in Załukiew and Kukizów. As a consequence, many valuable tombstones were taken as building materials. The constant collecting of clay seriously damaged the eastern part of the Halicz cemetery.1830 The cemetery in Kukizów was entirely obliterated in the 1960s by one of the local tractor drivers, who tore down the tombstones and moved them aside.1831 The Halicz Karaite synagogue was functioning until 1960, when it was finally closed by the Soviet administration. Thus, the only Karaite synagogue (kenesa) which remained open after 1960 (and throughout the whole Soviet period) was that in Troki (Lithuania). In 1960 the Troki ḥazzan, Szemaja Firkowicz,1832 visited Halicz and tried to prevent the closure of the local kenesa, but to no avail. Fortunately, in 1960, several days before the planned appropriation of the building by the Soviets, a member of

1825 In 1948 he was going to send Szulimowicz 200 roubles (S. Szapszał to Z. Zarachowicz, Wilno/ Vilnius, 8 Oct. 1948, Russian; the Yurchenko MSS). 1826 Z. Zarachowicz to S. Szapszał, Halicz, 22 June 1947, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 724, fol. 1v). 1827 Haggai 1:6 (Zarachowicz quoted it in the Hebrew original). 1828 Z. Zarachowicz to S. Szapszał, Halicz, 8.07.1948, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 723, fol. 1v). 1829 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,”16. One may notice that the time of Zarachowicz’s death overlaps with the end of the Stalinist period, which was characterized by an explosion of anti-Semitic persecutions and sentiments, culminating in the famous trial of “poisoner-doctors.” 1830 Yurchenko, Yurchenko, “Doslidzhennia,” 4 7. 1831 Oral communication received by me from a local resident during my field trip to Kukizów in May 2002. The informant also added that other inhabitants of Kukizów had strongly disapproved of this action. 1832 After the war, a.k.a. Szymon/Semion Adolfovich Firkowicz. 382 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

the local administration warned the community about the forthcoming “abomination of desolation.” Moreover, the Karaites also received secret permission to go inside the building and claim items of significance to them. Smaller things were removed without any special problems (prayer books, Torah scrolls, two crystal chandeliers, electric lamp-brackets,1833 etc.). The rescue of the massive and heavy wooden Torah closet was much more difficult. Nevertheless, in an atmosphere of utter secrecy, early in the morning, it was transported to the house of Sabina Zajączkowska at 60 Osmomysla Street. 1834 Soon afterwards the synagogue was closed. From 1960 to 1985, the synagogue building was used as a warehouse and maintenance shop. In the post-war period, in spite of all the efforts by Karaite intellectuals, knowledge of religious traditions and of the Hebrew and Karaim languages rapidly deteriorated – in Halicz, as well as in all other East European Karaite communities. In the 1950s and 1960s, most Halicz Karaites who possessed a native command of Karaim and Polish switched to Russian and, especially, to Ukrainian as the main languages of everyday communication. Karaim was used primarily within the family circle. Nevertheless, some Karaite elders continued using Hebrew and Karaim even in the 1970s. In April 2005 I discovered a few copybooks with Karaim prayers written in Hebrew characters. They were most likely written in the 1970s by Moses Szulimowicz, the last shamash of the Halicz community.1835 Samuel Ickowicz, one of the Galician emigrants to Poland, was perhaps the last to compose poetry in the Galician-Volhynian dialect of Karaim (he used the Latin script for this purpose).1836 A short while before his death, Zygmunt Abrahamowicz translated into Galician-Volhynian Karaim “Zapovit” (“Testament”), the most important poem by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, a symbol of present-day independent Ukraine.1837 In the 1980s, linguists interested in the Karaite pronunciation of Hebrew in Eastern Europe recorded Zygmunt Abrahamowicz’s

1833 These lamp-brackets were later donated to the Wilno kenese, which was re-opened in the 1990s. 1834 The whole story is narrated in detail by Viktor (David) Zakhar’ievich Tiriiaki, in his “Sokhranenie religioznykh traditsii karaimov Galicha na rubezhe XX-XXI vv.,” in Karaїmy Halycha, 76-83; idem, “Poezdka v Galich,” KV 16 (1995). 1835 The Yurchenko MSS, collection of Janina Eszwowicz. 1836 Samuel Ickowicz, “Zacharia” (ibid). 1837 Published in ‘Zapovit’ movami narodiv svitu (, 1989), 63. Some sources state that he also translated another poem by Shevchenko, “Hamalia” (Eszwowicz, Yurchenko, Yurchenko, “Halyts’ki karaїmy”). General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 383

reading of Hebrew texts.1838 The late Ms Janina Eszwowicz (1930–2003) used Karaim (in Latin characters) for correspondence until the end of her days.1839 The study of the Galician dialect of the Karaim language, which was begun by Russian and Austrian Orientalists at the end of the nineteenth century, was continued in the post-war period as well. In the 1950s and 1960s, Halicz was visited by the academician Kenesbay Musaev and the Karaite amateur linguist from Odessa, Ilya (Elijah) Neiman, who collected linguistic materials for a Karaim–Russian dictionary.1840 Boris Kokenai, another important collector of Karaite manuscripts and an expert in Karaim linguistics, visited Halicz in 1958.1841 Despite their small numbers, in the post-war period the Galician Karaites attracted the interest of many Soviet poets and writers. One of them, Alexei Yugov, devoted a few passages to the story of the Karaite settlement in Galicia in his novel about Prince Daniel and his times.1842 This book was enthusiastically read by the Galician and other East European Karaites. Stepan Pushyk, the Ukrainian writer and journalist, and ardent Ukrainian nationalist, made the local Karaites the focus of his novels, essays, and poems.1843 He also translated into Ukrainian several poems by Zachariah Abrahamowicz, the Karaite poet from Galicia.1844 Petro Hets’, a Ukrainian poet, composed a verse dedicated to the Halicz Karaite Samuel Eszwowicz. This poem described the world-views of the local Karaites and the history of their settlement in Galicia and Volhynia.1845 In the 1970s, after the closure of the synagogue, the spiritual life of the community was largely stagnant. As far as I could ascertain from my social interaction with

1838 At the present time, this and other Karaitica recordings are available in the Tape Archives of the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (The Language Traditions Project) (Tapani Harviainen, “Three Hebrew Primers, the Pronunciation of Hebrew among the Karaims in the Crimea, and Shewa,” in Built on Solid Rock. Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen, ed. Elie Wardini (Oslo, 1997), 109, ft. 30). 1839 Cf. her speech in Karaim (Cyrillic script in Ukrainian orthography) in Karaїmy Halycha (Appendix), 204. 1840 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 9. Neiman’s materials, unfortunately, have never been published. Musaev, though, authored several very valuable language studies (esp. Musaev, Grammatika) and was one of the main contributors to KRPS. 1841 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 375, fol. 232v. 1842 Yugov, Svetonostsy, 148. 1843 Stepan Pushyk, “Pid krylom Halycha,” Prykarpats’ka Pravda (4 Jan. 1969); idem, “Zolotyi tik,” in Stepan Pushyk, Khmarolom (Kiev, 1998), 24; idem, Halyts’ka brama (Uzhhorod, 1989), 117-124; idem, “Karaїmshchyzna,” Ridna Zemlia 29 (1995). 1844 Z. Abrahamowicz, “Ya – karaїm,” transl. S. Pushyk, Dnistrova Hvylia 11 (124) (12 Mar. 1998). Cf. Stepan Pushyk, “Holos halyts’koho karaїma,” Prapor peremohy (13 Jan. 1970); idem, “Holos halyts’koho karaїma,” Zhovten’ 5 (1972): 10. 1845 Petro Hets’, “Monolog luts’koho karaїma (S.Eszwowiczu)” (Łuck, 13 June 1973, Ukr.; the Yurchenko MSS). S. Eszwowicz lived at that time in Łuck, hence the title – “The monologue of a Łuck Karaite.” 384 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

members of the community, in the 1960s to 1980s the local Karaites, with some reservation, accepted Szapszał’s theories and indeed considered the Khazars their historical ancestors. Nevertheless, unlike Crimean and Lithuanian Karaites, they never rejected the fact that the Jews had also played a considerable role in the Karaites’ ethnogenesis. Furthermore, in contrast to Crimeans, who adopted Szapszał’s concept of the Karaite religious tradtion as a multi-faith mix, the Galicians never accepted Szapszał’s view with regard to the recognition of the prophetic nature of Jesus and Mohammed (Muḥammad). Especially indignant was the reaction of the remnants of the Galician community to the news about the “restoration” of the pseudo-Karaite cult of the so-called “sacred oaks” in Crimea.1846 In 1985, at the very beginning of the Mikhail Gorbachev era, the local Soviet administration destroyed the Karaite synagogue/kenesa.1847 In spite of its evident historical and architectural value, the Soviet authorities built in its place the town’s first nine-storey structure. This was the last Karaite synagogue that remained in Galicia and Volhynia during the Soviet period.1848 By that time, the young Karaites had left the town and only eleven elderly Karaites, all of them born before the Second World War (some even before the First World War), remained in Halicz.1849

6.1.4 Łuck

According to Anna Dubińska, ca. 1939 the community consisted of 60 persons only. Four of them died during the military events. Leon Pilecki, who was recruited to the Soviet army, died on Carelo-Finnish front; Selim Rudkowski and Józef Gołub were murdered by the Banderovtsy, whereas Moisiej Nowicki died during the bombarding of Essen in Germany.1850 According to some data, the only son of the Troki Karaite poetess, Lidia Poziemska, who served in Łuck as the rotmistrz ułanów (Pol. “captain of cavalry-uhlans”) in the Polish army, was killed at the beginning of the Second World War.1851 On 2.01.1944 the Germans left the town at the disposal of the Red Army. The intellectual leader of the community – Aleksander Mardkowicz – died on 5.04.1944. That same year, the Łuck Karaites were given the right to join the evacuation of the

1846 On this pseudo-cult, see 7.3. This paragraph is based on a series of interviews with members of the community carried out by Mikhail Kizilov in Halicz from 2002 to 2004. 1847 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 8. 1848 The Kukizów synagogue had burnt down in the second half of the nineteenth century, whereas the Łuck kenesa was destroyed by a fire in 1972. 1849 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 16. 1850 Was he taken there as an Ostarbeiter? 1851 Pilecki, “Cień z przeszłości,” 5. General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 385

Polish citizens to socialist Poland; as a result, many of them did emigrate. Anna Dubińska described the last days of the community:

Before the departure we all visited the cemetery in order to say farewell to our relatives. For the last time gathered we to pray in kienesa. On the 15th of July we all left Łuck on the same train and settled in Opole.1852 Today there is no kienesa in Łuck – it was burnt during the conflagration of 1972, and on the place, where once was a cemetery, grew a new district of the town. The traces of the Łuck Karaites were erased...1853

Indeed, the building of the Łuck kenasa was burnt by accident in 1972 while the local cemetery was obliviated in 1958.1854 In 1989, there was only one Karaite family remaining in Łuck.1855

6.1.5 Lithuania: Troki, Wilno, and Poniewież

According to S. Szapszał, in 1946 there were approximately 400 Karaites living in Soviet Lithuania (200 in Troki, 80 in Vilnius, 40 in Poniewież, 80 in other places).1856 In 1959 there were 5,727 Karaites living in the Soviet Union (mostly in Crimea; 423 were living in Lithuania). In 1970 their number dwindled to 4,571 (with 388 of them living in Lithuania). In 1979 there were 352 Karaites living in Lithuania.1857 Because of the fact that Seraja Szapszał, the main champion of the Karaite case, had been living in the direct vicinity of the Lithuanian Karaite communities and could immediately react to all problems related to his congregation, the local Karaites experienced less trouble during the Second World War than did the Karaites of other communities. In spite of all efforts of Szapszał and official protective edicts, several Karaites were massacred by the Nazis in Poswol, and possibly, in Birża and Poniewież. In addition to this, many of them died for natural reasons (famine, epidemics, age etc.). Nevertheless, during the Nazi occupation the Lithuanian Karaites could openly profess their religion (though they had to mask its Mosaic Hebrew character); Wilno and Troki keneseler were open, and in Troki midrasz children were studying Polish and German (see more in Chapter 5).

1852 A town near Wrocław. 1853 Dubińska, “Garść danych,” 9-11. The author also attached a list of members of the community in 1939. 1854 Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 109. 1855 That of Szymon Eszwowicz. This family was still living in the town in June, 2003. 1856 S. Szapszał, “Karaimskii religioznyi kul’t v Litve,” draft of the paper, Russian (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1087, fol. 2). 1857 Suzanne Purchier-Plasseraud, “Les karaїmes en Lituanie,” Diasporiques 24 (2002): 35; Romualdas Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios jūros iki Trakų (Trakai, 2013), 32. 386 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

In 1944, when the victory of the approaching Red Army became inevitable, Szapszał denounced his ḥakham’s (ḥakhan’s) duties. Thus, Troki ḥazzan Szemaja/ Szymon (in the German and Soviet period “Semen Adolfovich”) Firkowicz became the main Karaite religious authority in the Soviet Lithuania in spite of the fact that Szapszał was still often referred to as the informal head of the community. In 1949 the duties of the shamash were fulfilled by Ya. Poziemski.1858 In general, post-war period, until the perestroika renaissance, can be characterized as the period of stagnation in the cultural and religious life of the Lithuanian Karaites. They still could profess their religion and speak the Karaim language, but were not supported by the state, as was during the Polish times. In spite of the fact that officially the Troki kenesa had never been closed – and remained open during Soviet times – visiting it was not welcome by the authorities, especially for Komsomol and Party members. According to some reports, from 1951 those Karaites who were afraid to attend services in the kenesa, gathered for religious purposes in the private house of Sz. Firkowicz.1859 The Wilno kenesa was appropriated by the Soviet authorities in 1949. According to Halina Kobeckaitė, this was done under the pretext that there were no Karaite believers and religious authorities left in the city. Later the kenesa building was used to lodge the archive; than it functioned as a dwelling house.1860 The Poniewież kenesa was nationalized in 1953 and destroyed by the Soviets in 1970.1861 The Soviet authorities undertook a campaign of complete transformation of the local toponymy. Within the parameters of this campaign all the Polish toponyms received new, Lithuanian transliterations: thus, Polish town of Troki was renamed into Lithuanian Trakai, Wilno became Vilnius, Poniewież – Panevėžis. Because of the fact that from this moment on sources started using the Lithuanian toponymy, when I speak about the events that happened after 1945, I shall use these new Lithuanian transliterations as well. Integration of the Troki Karaite farmers into Soviet kolkhoz system became a real tragedy for their centuries-old agricultural tradition of cucumber growing. Already in 1941, during the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, Bolshevist authorities organized the community under the guidance of the Исполком застенка Петровщизна (Russ. “executive committee of Pietrowszczyzna settlement”) with Osip Nowicki as its head. In April, 1945, a short while before the end of the war, the Soviet волостная земельная комиссия (Russ. “volost’’s agrarian committee”) decided that the so-called Pola Karaimskie (alia: Pietrowszczyzna/Popowszczyzna), the main agrarian lands

1858 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 178, fol. 6. 1859 Halina Kobeckaitė (Galina Kobetskaite/Kobecka), Kratkii ocherk o karaimakh v Litve (Vilnius, 2011), 25. 1860 Kobeckaitė, Kratkii ocherk, 25. 1861 Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios jūros, 25, 79. General State of the Karaite Community in Poland and Lithuania 387

of the Troki Karaites, would be owned not by the community, but would be divided between the members of the community.1862 In 1967 a local newspaper published an article dedicated to the establishment of the Soviet regime in Troki in 1939–1940. The article mentioned anti-Soviet sentiments of the local Karaites.1863 Soon there followed a response by the Karaite author Mikhail Samuilovich Tinfovich (Michał Tynfowicz) who certified that the Karaites on the contrary were active supporters of Communist ideas in the region. Undoubtedly, the article was written only with defensive aim: the Karaites had never been particularly enthusiastic about communist ideology and Soviet regime in spite of the fact that some of them, undoubtedly, supported communists as well.1864 In 1967 the Karaite Ethnographic Exhibition (Museum) was officially open as a part of the Trakai History Museum. It became perhaps the first separate Karaite exhibition (museum) in the Soviet Union. Apparently in the wake of this historic event one local Karaite activist, the aforementioned Tynfowicz1865 organized in 1968 the official study group (sektsiia) which was supposed to be studying the Karaite history and culture in Lithuania. It was called Секция караимоведения (Russ. “Group for Karaite Studies”) and was part of the Trakai department of the Society of Local Lore and Preservation of Monuments of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. The society consisted of the Karaites and scholars of non-Karaite origin working in the area of Karaite studies.1866 To our knowledge, the study group published only one separate brochure in Russian in 19691867 and, according to Karaite sources, it was soon closed by the government for ideological reasons.1868 In 1974 there were 190 Karaites living in the town. In 1978 and 1984 Troki was visited by the Russian-Jewish belletrist David Shrayer-Petrov. The writer got rather mixed impression from his visit. On the one hand, one local Karaite told him that the Karaites were “Tatars, Khazars, Turks, anyone, but not Jews”. On the other, one local

1862 MS LMAB F. 301, no. 10, fols. 164, 180r. 1863 “Pervyie,” Udarnik (19.12.1967). 1864 M. Tinfowicz “Trakaiskie karaimy,” Udarnik (2.07.1968). Tinfowicz mentioned the following supporters of revolutionary ideas and the Soviet regime: Mark Nowicki (arrested by the “white Poles” (Russ. belopoliaki) in 1920); a secretary of the Troki Bolshevist party from 1919 to 1920 whose name Tinfowicz did not mention; the Soviet ambassador in foreign countries and “companion-in-arms” of Lenin, Mikhail Veniaminovich Kobecki (1881-1937; although Kobecki is indeed a Karaite surname, other sources considered him to be Rabbanite). 1865 Was he the same Michał Tynfowicz that edited the interwar periodical “Onarmach”? 1866 M.S. Tinfowicz to L.I. Kaia, Trakai, 13.06.1969, Russian (Archive of Vaad of Russia, L.I. Kaia collection). L.I. Kaia himself wanted to get registered as a member of this study group (L.I. Kaia to M.S. Tinfowicz, Simferopol, 08.06.1969, Russian, ibid.). Apparently, he was refused. 1867 Romual’d Firkovich, Karaimika v Litve (Trakai, 1969). This was a Russian translation of Romualdas Firkovičius, “Karaimika Lietuvoje,” Muziejai ir paminklai 12 (1968): 24-27. The translation was edited by M. Tinfowicz and had a short introduction by the latter. 1868 Kobeckaitė, Kratkii ocherk, 25. 388 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Karaitess emotionally interrupted a lecture by a Lithuanian guide and shouted: “He [the guide] is lying! We are not Muslims at all. We have the Jewish Bible!”1869 In 1989 Karaite communities of Vilnius and Warsaw were visited by Italian scholar Emanuela Trevisan Semi. The scholar noted striking difference between the self-identification of the Israeli and East European Karaites: unlike the former, who considered themselves Jews, the latter emphasized their Khazar-Turkic origins.1870 Another interesting observation made by the scholar was that the local Karaites often made a first marriage to someone of the Karaite religious tradition. This was done in order to produce a “pure” Karaite child and then – having fulfilled the traditional obligation – believed themselves free to divorce and seek a non-Karaite spouse.1871 The scholar also had a chance to celebrate Passover (Pesaḥ) with the Karaite family in Troki. The scholar noticed a quaint mixture of the rudimentary remains of Jewish religious tradition and yet being almost completely oblivious to its traditional Biblical meaning:

The sense of the ritual meal has been lost together with the written text [i.e. Haggadah] and its message. Nothing is remembered of what the biblical text recited about Passover, not even the fact that it contained references to Jewish history. Only some traditional dishes have remained, all stripped of their meaning… the composition of the [Karaite] Lithuanian ritual meal could therefore be considered as a symbolic sign of past sentiments of identification by the Karaites with the historical path common to all Jews… they celebrate Passover because it is the custom but they do not want to ask themselves [for] the reason behind it.1872

One can compare the observations of Trevisan Semi with a small note on the celebration of “Chydży Tymbyłłaryn” (Szapszał’s substitute for Heb. Ḥag ha-maṣot) by Michał Jaroszyński who described a celebration of the holiday in a private Karaite house in 2000. One should notice that neither the word Pesaḥ/Ḥag ha-maṣot, nor the term maṣah were mentioned in the text being replaced by the terms Chydży Tymbyłłarnyn and tymbył.1873 In order to notice changes in the tradition one can compare these two descriptions with the texts about the customary Karaite way of celebrating Passover in 1928 in Troki and Halicz.1874 In 1989 there were 289 Karaites living in Lithuania.1875

1869 David Shrayer-Petrov, Moskva zlatoglavaia (Baltimore, 1994), 139-142. 1870 Emanuela Trevisan Semi, “The Pasha Karaite Meal and the Process of Transformation of Contemporary Lithuanian Karaism,” Nemzetiseg-Identitas (Debrecen, 1991), 399. 1871 Trevisan Semi, “The Pasha Karaite Meal,” 399. 1872 Ibid., 400, 401, 402. 1873 Michał Jaroszyński, “Święto Chydży Tymbyłłaryn,” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 14; cf. Traczyk, “Obrzędowość i obyczaje u Karaimów,” 65-66. 1874 Kowalski, “Przyczynki do etnografii,” 202-212, 221-229. 1875 Purchier-Plasseraud, “Les karaїmes en Lituanie,” 35. Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 389

6.2 Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period

6.2.1 Autumn of the Patriarch: Seraja Szapszał After the War

The period from the end of the Second World War and until the death of the former ḥakham/ḥakhan in 1961 constituted the last period of his life which, using Gabriel García Márquez’s metaphor, one may call “the autumn of the patriarch”. This period, which Szapszał spent in Soviet Lithuania, was rather a difficult time for him: he had to leave his religious office; his unique museum collection was taken from him and transferred to the careless hands of Soviet officials; he was denied possibility to join his brethren in Poland; his academic achievements had been for a while not recognised and he was considered only worthy of receiving the title of “starshii nauchnyi sotrudnik” (Russ. “senior academic assistant”) of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The general question which is usually asked by those interested in Szapszał’s biography is “How could he survive when the Soviets came? Why he remained alive and was not arrested?” Indeed, in the eyes of the Soviet administration Szapszał was a former religious leader, a head of something which was perceived by the Soviet authorities as a small nationalistic group of people, a former Russian emigrant and servant of the Tsars, also known for his contacts with German authorities. The neighbours thought him to be a “millionaire” and the Soviet newspapers wrote harsh articles about him. Even one of these accusations could have theoretically been sufficient for sending him to gulag. However, Szapszał finished his life in Soviet Vilnius in 1961 without being arrested or even taken to NKVD for interrogation (at least, no records of this type survived). Unfortunately, none of the relevant documents supplies any additional information. According to Dan Shapira, Szapszał remained alive and was not arrested most likely because of his connections with high-ranking Soviet scholars-Orientalists who could defend him against potential attacks of the regime.1876 This seems to be the only feasible explanation.

***

When the inevitable fall of the Nazi regime became evident, Szapszał, with political prudence which was so typical of him all his life, tried to secure his position with all possible measures. Already in October, 1944, when the victorious Soviet Army was liberating Wilno, Szapszał hanged out a red banner on the wall of his house. In his later petitions to the Soviet government Szapszał mentioned that during the war he “with the mortal risk for his own life” had been keeping portraits of the comrades

1876 Private communication, August, 2003. 390 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Stalin and Lenin and many Soviet publications, which he, according to his words, saved from “destruction and offence”.1877 The story of these portraits is indeed very curious. Already in 1939, when Wilno was annexed by the Soviet Union, Szapszał asked his wife’s brother, a well-known Karaite painter Barri Egiz, to compose large portraits of Lenin and Stalin. In 1941, when the Germans came, the portraits were hidden in a cellar, but were not destroyed (perhaps, Szapszał foresaw that the Soviets might return). In 1944, when the victory of the Red Army was near, the portraits surfaced again.1878 Nevertheless, despite all these pro-Soviet efforts, Szapszał and his wife were apparently under suspicion and were not allowed to obtain Soviet citizenship and passports until 1947. It was expected that in 1945 Szapszał was to emigrate to Poland. Professor Kowalski awaited his arrival in Kraków while Ananiasz Zajączkowski mentioned the possibility of his taking up an academic position at the Oriental Institute in Warsaw.1879 Nevertheless, this did not happen and Szapszał remained in Soviet Lithuania. It seems that Szapszał indeed wanted to emigrate to Poland, but was not allowed to do so by Soviet authorities. According to Mariusz Pawelec, although he received a Polish evacuation card in February 1945, communist authorities in Vilnius did not agree to let him go. It is only when he renounced his Polish citizenship and took a Soviet one that he received a position of a senior assistant (Russ. “starshii nauchnyi sotrudnik”) in the Institute of History and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian SSR in June 1947.1880 Ananiasz Zajączkowski had been sending money to Szapszał to facilitate his emigration to Poland, but this did not help either.1881 In that same year, Szapszał was officially recognised by the Soviet authorities as the director of the Karaite Historico-Ethnographic Museum located at Kestučio Street 17 in Vilnius (i.e. in his own flat). According to some data, his director’s salary in 1940 and 1947 was 750 rubles.1882 In 1947 he organized there an exhibition that was supposed to demonstrate friendship of peoples in the Soviet Union.1883 Nevertheless,

1877 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 25, fol. 8. “Krasnoarmeiskaia pravda”, the newspaper of the Third Belorussian battlefront, even dedicated an article to Szapszał’s heroism (“Nezamechennye, skromnye geroi,” Krasnoarmeiskaia pravda, October 1944). Unfortunately, this newspaper was not located by me de visu (I got a reference from Firkowicz, Karaimika v Litve, 5; cf. also MS LMAB F. 143, no. 9a, fol. 6v). 1878 One cannot help admiring Szapszał’s acumen and ability to use even the most inappropriate circumstances for his own benefit. At present these two portraits of Soviet leaders by Barri Egiz are kept in the National Lithuanian Museum in Vilnius. 1879 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 384, fol. 168; no. 703, fols. 78, 82. 1880 Mariusz Pawelec, “Kontrowersje wokół postaci Seraji Szapszała,” Awazymyz 4 (37) (2012): 26-27. 1881 See A. Zajączkowski’s letters to Szapszał in AK, 150-157. 1882 Nekrich, Otreshis’ ot strakha, 32, 34. This certainly was not an impressive salary for those times. Yet, this information was received from Szapszał himself. As a result, one cannot be entirely sure that it reflected the real situation. 1883 “Vystavka ‘Druzhba narodov’,” Sovetskaia Litva 13 (1047) (15.01.1947): 3. Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 391

in 1948 one local Lithuanian author, P. Beržinis, published in the newspaper “Soviet Lithuania” a most poisonous report about Szapszał’s activity as the director of the Karaite museum in Vilnius.1884 This article apparently brought Szapszał many problems. Although his staunch friend, archaeologist Georgii Fedorov, hastened to come to his side and wrote a positive survey of Szapszał’s museum,1885 in 1951 the Karaite Historico-Ethnographic Museum in Vilnius was permanently closed.1886 Its holdings were transferred partly to the Ethnographic Museum of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian SSR (now National Museum of Lithuania), partly to the Trakai Historical Museum. In 1950, because of a general reduction at the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian SSR, Szapszał was dismissed even from the position of a senior assistant. All this forced him to send a letter to the head of the country, generalissimo Iosif Stalin, where Szapszał complained about his terrible situation.1887 Szapszał was also thinking about sending (or actually sent it?) a letter to Stalin even earlier, in 1948. MS LMAB contain a draft of a letter to Stalin, where Szapszał suggests that the generalissimo give the lands of Alminskaia and Kachinskaia valleys in Crimea to Karaite collective farmers, who, as “honest and trustworthy toilers promise to do all possible for turning Crimean agriculture into the state of flourishing.”1888 In 1948 this letter was multiplied by the Moscow Karaites on a typewriter and distributed among the members of the community. Nevertheless, both Crimean and Moscow Karaites were highly unwilling to take part in this agricultural project and strongly suggested Szapszał not to promote this idea any further.1889 In 1946-1947, Szapszał had been asked twice by the representatives of the department for religious affairs at the Council of Ministers of the Lithuania SSR to take up again the office of the ḥakham. Szapszał cautiously answered: “If his [Szapszał writes here about himself in the third person] coming back… would serve the interest of the Soviet Union, he, certainly, would not be in the position to deny the offer… At that moment, however, there shall rise in all its magnitude the second question: whence might be taken the means to cover expenses necessary for filling out this duty which had been so highly paid in Russia and Poland?”. He suggested that he be offered a salary of 5,000 roubles for fulfilling the duties of the ḥakham and an

1884 P. Berzhinis, “O delakh muzeinykh,” Sovetskaia Litva 157 (1497) (4.07.1948). 1885 Georgii Fedorov, “Karaimskii istoriko-etnograficheskii muzei,” Sovetskaia Etnografiia 1 (1948): 228-229. 1886 Firkowicz, Karaimika v Litve, 3. 1887 It is unclear whether this letter had been ever sent; only its draft survived (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 136, fols. 3-5). 1888 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 136, fol. 1. 1889 B.S. Eljaszewicz (El’iashevich) to S. Szapszał, Russian, Moscow, 5.08.1948 (ibid., no. 239, fols. 10v-11r). 392 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

academic assistant. However, nothing followed from these projects and the office of the ḥakham (ḥakhan) of East European Karaites was not resurrected.1890 Not being the community head officially, he appears to have continued fulfilling his duties clandestinely. All of the letters sent to him in 1945 testify that the East European Karaites continued perceiving him as the head of the community even after he had renounced the position of the ḥakham (ḥakhan). Furthermore, Szapszał continued receiving money from the community members to perform some religious ceremonies (although it remains unclear whether he performed these ceremonies by himself or asked Szemaja Firkowicz to do this). Thus, in 1949 he received 2,000 roubles from Esther Babadzhan (Tallinn) for reading zekher to the memory of S.I. Babadzhan and for community needs.1891 In the post-war years, as well as during the war, Szapszał many times showed his strong character. One archival document dated 23.11.1947 represents a draft of his letter to Dr. Herbert Gotthard, a former Nazi scholar and official accused of collaboration with the Germans and the murder of the YIVO professor Noah Prilucki. Szapszał mentioned in this draft that he testified to the Soviet authorities that Gotthard in fact often helped assistants of YIVO by bringing them bread, milk and other products.1892 In the 1940s and 1950s Szapszał met, and made friends with, a few notable and influential Soviet scholars, such as Orientalists Nikolai Baskakov and Kenesbai Musaev, archaeologist Georgii Fedorov, dissident Alexander Nekrich and many others. Szapszał, with his patriarchal outlook and demeanour, long and picturesque life- story and knowledge of many Oriental languages usually made a strong impression on his visitors. His philosophical Oriental proverbs, parables and legends, narrated to scholarly visitors by cups of coffee, which was skilfully prepared by Szapszał himself, were mentioned by many visitors to his house even after Szapszał’s death.1893 Having received information about Szapszał’s misfortunes during the Soviet period the aforementioned scholars started lobbying Szapszał’s case to the Soviet authorities. Already in 1950, during the sitting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian SSR, professor V.A. Gordlevskii suggested starting working on the dictionary of the Karaim language. Soon this task was given to Szapszał who managed to collect as many as 5,000 words by 1957. Szapszał’s card index of 20,000 words became integral part of the Karaite-Russian-Polish dictionary published in

1890 Seraja Szapszał, “Kratkii obzor nyneshnego sostoianiia religioznykh del u karaimov (1946- 1947)” (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 894, fols. 3-4). 1891 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 178, fols. 1, 3, 6. 1892 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 149, fol. 74v. Gotthard sent four practically identical letters in Russian to Szapszał from the camp for interned persons in Hamburg (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 290). Apparently it took Szapszał some time before he ventured to defend Gotthard. 1893 E.g. Nekrich, Otreshis’ ot strakha, 32-34; Nikolai Baskakov, “Professor S.M. Szapszał – vydaiushchiisia uchenyi, mudryi pastyr’ i horoshii chelovek,” Vilnius 8 (1992): 161-169. Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 393

1974.1894 It took Szapszał and his academic supporters several years to be recognized for his scholarly merit in the eyes of the Soviet academic authorities. On 8.01.1955, the Examination Board of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR conferred upon him a degree of Doctor Habilitus of Philology (Russ. “doctor philologicheskikh nauk”).1895 One should mention that in spite of all his excellent knowledge of many Oriental and European languages, Szapszał still lacked regular academic training. Five years of study in St. Petersburg at the end of the nineteenth century could hardly warrant the awarding of a Doctor Habilitus degree. As observed in 4.2.3, contrary to Szapszał’s own claims, it seems very unlikely that he had ever received any doctoral degree in interwar Poland. Vladimir Ormeli, Szapszał’s relative, who had seen him at the end of the 1950s, described the Karaite patriarch in the following way:

Very stately, imposing and tall old man with a broad and thick beard and an egg of an ostrich, hanging on a shoulder in a special fastening consisting of small leather straps… To us, children, grandpa [dedushka] Seraja had been always bringing small boxes with sugar candies, rahat-luqum, and halvah… When grandpa was at home, the egg was hanging on some easily visible place. When, however, he was leaving the place for longer time, he had been always taking it with him.1896

According to Szapszał’s own assertions this egg was one of the ostrich eggs that were originally hanging in the Çufut Kale kenesa in Crimea. In fact, this was not a real egg, but its model made of wood.1897 In the early 1950s, Szapszał had many problems with neighbours who had been constantly spreading rumours about his supposed wealth and collaboration with the Nazis.1898 Consequently, he soon moved to a new flat on the Blindžių Street 11, apartment 3. This place was destined to be his last abode. Having secured his academic position in 1955 Szapszał dedicated the rest of his life to academic work and compiling of materials for the Karaim dictionary (published after his death in 1974). He wrote in a letter in 1958: “[I am a] 85-year-old man who does not have either relatives or close friends around him; during the long winter evenings, lonely, forsaken, I do not sink into despair. I read, write, work, dream and thus I live and fill my life with

1894 N.A. Baskakov, “Predislovie,” in KRPS, 7, 9. On relations between Gordlevskii and Szapszał, see Il’ia Zaitsev, “‘Chto mne delat’ i kak byt’ (pis’ma Seraia Markovicha Szapszała akademiku V.A. Gordlevskomu),” Vestnik Evrazii 4 (38) (2008): 147-169. 1895 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 29, fol. 44. 1896 Vladimir Ormeli, “Vstrechi s dedushkoi,” KV 3 (55) (2000). 1897 At present this egg is kept in the Szapszał collection of the Lithuanian National museum in Vilnius (Lithuania). A similar model of an ostrich egg, also apparently from the Çufut Kale kenesa, is kept in the Central Museum of Taurida in Simferopol (for more information about this unusual religious tradition, see Kizilov, Krymskaia Iudeia, 155-156). 1898 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 29; fol. 43. 394 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

this.”1899 In other letters of this period, however, Szapszał sounded more cheerful and mentioned the help of members of the community who often visited him, took care of his household, prepared food, repaired his clothes and cheered him up.1900 In the period from 1945 until 1961, being free from the duties of the ḥakham, Szapszał composed a number of academic essays which were dedicated to such varied topics as the history of the Khazars and their language,1901 Crimean Goths,1902 Huns,1903 history and ethnography of the Karaites,1904 and even collecting of match- boxes.1905 In this highly curious essay Szapszał suggests that the Lithuanian Council of Ministers use match-boxes as means of public propaganda during the forthcoming elections to the local Supreme Soviet. It follows from the essay that Szapszał himself possessed a large collection of the match-boxes that was apparently lost after his death. The history of the East European Karaites however remained his most important topic. His archival collection contains a number of drafts of his papers which he later joined into the voluminous monograph “The History of the Turks-Karaites in Crimea, Lithuania, and Poland.” This hitherto unpublished work1906 represents perhaps a culmination of his a-historical doctrine leading the reader to absolutely erroneous understanding of the history of East European Karaites. It is full of non-existent or heavily corrupted references to sources and contains a few documents which were fabricated by Szapszał himself (e.g. the so-called “Khazar verses” or the story about Eljasz Karaimowicz and Timofei Chmielnicki). He also used there the toponymy and terminology which were invented by him from the 1920s to the 1950s.1907 It presents the Karaites as descendants of the Turkic Khazars and considers the Karaite religion

1899 Draft of the letter of S. Szapszał to an unknown Karaite, Vilnius, 3.06.1958, Russian (MS LMAB, F. 143: 149, fol. 67r). 1900 Ibid., no. 149, fol. 45r. 1901 S. Szapszał, “Khazary i ikh yazyk,” 1951 (ibid., no. 828); idem, “Byl li yazyk khazarov turetskim? (k voprosu o khazarskom proiskhozhdenii karaimov),” 1950s (ibid., no. 849). 1902 Idem, “Krymskie goty (kratkii istoricheskii ocherk),” 1950s (ibid., 887). This essay was not finished and the argumentation of the author is not entirely clear. Was Szapszał also thinking about including Crimean Goths in the list of the Karaites’ ethnic ancestors? 1903 Idem, “O yazyke gunnov” (ibid., no. 848). 1904 Idem, “Nauchnyi obzor predmetov material’noi kul’tury, khraniashchikhsia v karaimskom otdele Istoriko-Etnograficheskogo muzeia AN Litovskoi SSR,” 1953 (ibid., no. 859); idem, “Karaimy Kryma,” 1942 (ibid., no. 822); idem, “Karaimy v Litve,” 1949 (ibid., no. 825). 1905 Idem., “O kollektsionirovanii spichechnykh korobok,” 10.12.1946 (ibid., no. 838). 1906 Although it was published as Karaimskaia Entsiklopedia, vol. 1 (Moscow 1995), one can hardly consider it a proper academic publication since it was heavily edited and the fact that it was penned by Szapszał can be deduced only from the introduction. 1907 Cf. historically correct toponyms “Çufut Kale” and “the valley of Jehosaphath” with Szapszał’s pseudohistorical “Cuft/Çuft Kale” and “Balta Tiymez”. Both toponyms were invented by Szapszał in the interwar period. Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 395

to be a mixture of Mosaic, Christian, Muslim and pagan doctrines.1908 Needless to say that all these have nothing to do with real Karaite history and tradition. From 1945 to 1961, Soviet academic publishing houses and periodicals did not accept any of Szapszał’s numerous unpublished essays because of their evident amateur and tendentious character. As a result, during this period of his life Szapszał published only several small articles, none of them being really academically important or significant. In 1955, he managed to trick the Soviet academicians and published his, perhaps, most famous forgery – a “seventeenth-century document” narrating the story how the Karaite community refused to house Timofei Chmielnicki (Khmel’nyts’kyi) in the territory of the Çufut Kale fortress.1909 On the basis of his own diary and other historical evidence this appears to be one of Szapszał’s forgeries.1910 Szapszał published this fake in 1955, echoing the solemn and pompous 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine and Russia, celebrated in the Soviet Union in 1954. A person instrumental in this reunification of Ukranian lands with Russia in 1654 was none other than Bohdan Chmielnicki, whose son was presented by Szapszał as the main focus of this counterfeit tale. Unfortunately, this absolutely impossible story about Timofei Chmielnicki was “swallowed” by many Soviet and post-Soviet historians and was even included into the most popular Soviet biography of his father, Cossack hetman Zinovii Bohdan Chmielnicki.1911 In addition to the article on Timofei Chmielnicki, in the 1950s and 1960s Szapszał published two more short articles in Russian and one in Lithuanian.1912 The life of the last ḥakham (ḥakhan) of the East European Karaites finished on 18.11.1961 when he was 88.1913 He was interred in the Karaite cemetery of Vilnius where many other important members of the community had been buried. His large tomb contains an epitaph in Russian: “He dedicated his life and knowledge to the science and to the people.”1914 The Karaite community in Eastern Europe with deep sorrow received the news about the death of their last ḥakham (ḥakhan). According to the diary of Józef Sulimowicz, on a commemoration day kyrk (i.e. 40 days after one’s death), the Polish

1908 Seraja Szapszał, “Istoriia tiurkov-karaimov v Krymu, Litve i Polshe,” (195-) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 833, 461 fols.). 1909 Idem, “O prebyvanii Bogdana Khmel’nitskogo i ego syna Timofeia v Krymu,” Voprosy Istorii 8 (1955): 144-146. 1910 Mikhail Kizilov, “Il’iash Karaimovich i Timofei Khmel’nitskii: krovnaia mest’, kotoroi ne bylo,” Karadeniz Araştırmaları 6: 22 (2009): 43-74. 1911 V. Zamlinskii, Bogdan Khmel’nitskii (Moscow, 1989), 90-91, 123-125. 1912 S.M. Szapszał, “K voprosu o tarkhannykh yarlykakh,” in Akademiku Vladimiru Aleksandrovichu Gordlevskomu k ego semidesiatipiatiletiiu: Sbornik statei (Moscow, 1953), 302-316; idem, “Trakų karaimai,” Pergalės vėliava (11.12.1957): 3; idem, “Valentin Alekseevich Zhukovskii,” in Ocherki po istorii russkogo vostokovedeniia, vol. 5 (Moscow, 1960), 131-133. 1913 The longevity was apparently typical of Szapszał’s family: his father, Mordekhai Moiseevich Szapszał, died at the age of 83 or 84 years. 1914 Russ. “Posviatil svoiu zhizn’ i znaniia nauke i narodu.” 396 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Karaites gathered in Pruszków. Rafael Abkowicz composed a special kyna pesatba (“kyna with translation”, i.e. funeral elegy in Hebrew with Karaim translation) which was recited by Aleksander Dubiński.1915 Szapszał’s fame started growing after his death. Posthumously he became a hero of a few popular and belletristic books and stories.1916 His contemporaries, friends and relatives continued writing memoirs about his lengthy and adventurous life, often enshrouding Szapszał in clouds of even more unbelievable legends.1917 Scholars are still discussing the importance of his contribution to the field of Oriental Studies and veracity of many of his discoveries.1918 An objective and comprehensive biography of this controversial historical figure, briefly attempted by the author of this study, is yet to be written.

6.2.2 Szemaja Firkowicz’s Biography from 1939 to 1982

During the Second World War Firkowicz remained as the ḥazzan of the Troki community and its representative in dealings with the local German administration. According to his own words, he worked in the town’s “komissarischer Verwaltung” and had a “Bestaetigung” from the German administration concerning his duties.1919 He remained to be ḥazzan also after the establishment of the Soviet regime in Lithuania in 1944. After the end of the war, Firkowicz translated into Karaim the “International” and the hymn of the Soviet Union; both were important to demonstrate the Karaites’ fidelity to the new regime.1920 A newspaper article, composed evidently after 1945,

1915 Józef Sulimowicz, “Z dziennika Józefa Sulimowicza,” Awazymyz 1 (34) (2012): 16-17. 1916 Yelin, “Ein Tog un a nacht,” 94-117; A.L. Gorbova, Vysokie ravniny (Moscow, 1979), 261-164; G.V. Fedorov, Dnevnaia poverkhnost’ (Moscow, 1966). In 1972 the Polish writer, Janusz Dybowski, published a novel “Wojenny pan” (Military master) (Mariusz Pawelec, “Obecność tematyki karaimskiej w kulturze i nauce polskiej,” in Karaimi, 97). Although the action takes place in the sixteenth century, there is no doubt that the name of the head of the Karaite community, chacham Sepszył, was inspired by that of Seraja Szapszał. 1917 Nekrich, Otreshis’ ot strakha, 32-34; Nikolai Baskakov, Mikhail Tynfowicz, “S.M. Szapszał (k 100-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia),” Sovetskaia Tiurkologiia 3 (1973): 119-121; Baskakov, “Professor S.M. Szapszał,” 161-169; Ormeli, “Vstrechi s dedushkoi;” L.A. Yefetova-Gabai, “Priezd S.M. Szapszała v Krym,” KV 7 (40) (1998). A catalogue of his museum collection was recently published as Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim collection (in English); Serajos Šapšalo karaimikos rinkinys (in Lithuanian). 1918 Kizilov, “New Materials;” idem, “Il’iash Karaimovich;” Shapira, “A Jewish Pan-Turkist.” 1919 The information about his work in the Verwaltung is somewhat ambiguous. Firkowicz mentioned the following: “Здешняя немецкая власть назначила меня “komissarischer Verwaltung”, выдав мне 11 мая с.г. соответствующее “bestaetigung”. Контракт с Остландом до сего времени я еще не подписал” (Sz. Firkowicz to S. Szapszał (Russian) (MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1002, fols. 2r-v)). By the term “Ostland” he apparently meant the department of Reichskomissariat Ostland in Wilno. 1920 See “Basz jiri Sowiet Birliginiń” (Hymn of the Soviet Union) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1459, fol. 2; cf. Kizilov, “Karaites in North-Eastern Europe.” Most Important Karaite Religious Authorities of the Postwar Period 397

dubbed him “professor Szymon Firkowicz”.1921 This, certainly, cannot be true since the ḥazzan has never received any academic title. During the Soviet period he normally called himself Semen Adolfovich Firkovich/Firkowicz. Thus, he changed his name from original Hebrew Szemaja to Polish Szymon and later to Russian Semen; especially curious is the fact that instead of his real Hebrew patronymic (Abramovich) he preferred – not too “politically correct” at that time – the German Adolfovich.1922 After the war, Firkowicz began collecting Karaite manuscripts of varied origin, time, language and provenance, with especial emphasis, however, on those in Karaim. Collected by him manuscripts were later joined into his personal collection in the manuscript department of the library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius (F. 305). In 1957 Firkowicz travelled to Crimea where he visited the valley of Jehosaphath near Çufut Kale and read zekher (funeral prayer similar to the Rabbanite Yizkor) on the graves of the most famous Karaite figures.1923 1975 Firkowicz was visited by the Ukrainian author, Stepan Pushyk, who suggested that he translate into Karaim “Zapovit” (Ukr. “testament”), the most known poem by Taras Shevchenko.1924 After the death of the ḥazzan in 1982, his office remained unoccupied until the beginning of the 1990s. Firkowicz certainly became the most famous twentieth-century Karaite poet and litterateur. His literary legacy consists of around 200 entries, 55 of them are translations from foreign languages.1925 In 1971 a large collection of Firkowicz’s poetry, plays and translations (altogether 165 different items) was published by the Karaite samizdat.1926 In 1989 (already after Firkowicz’s death) a considerable part of

1921 “Karaimi, ogórki, historja” (a newspaper cutting with this Polish article, without a date and place of publication, was found by me in the Yurchenko MSS). 1922 His patronymic (Адольфович – although his father’s real name was Abraham and not Adolf) had certainly sounded rather quaint after the end of WWII. It seems, however, that he got it together with his first Soviet passport which he received ca. 1939. This is why he apparently could not (or did not want) to change it afterwards. 1923 It is of interest that Firkowicz did not use Szapszał’s toponym “Balta Tiymez” and called the place “the valley of Jehosaphath” (Sz. Firkowicz to S. Szapszał (Russian) in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 264, fol. 141). 1924 Pushyk, “Karaїms’kyi poet Zakhar’ia Samuїlovych Abrahamowicz,” 123. Firkowicz’s and Z. Abrahamowicz’s translations of this poem were published in “Zapovit” Tarasa Shevchenko movami svitu (Kiev, 1989), 63-64. 1925 Aleksander Dubiński, “Szymona Firkowicza twórczość literacka w języku karaimskim,” CPK, 201. 1926 S.A. Firkowicz, Yazyshlar (Trokh, 1971; typescript; MS VU F. 185, no. 14.). Contains also Firkowicz’s translations from Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian (A. Pushkin, A. Mickewicz, S. Nadson, M. Lermontov, N. Nekrasov, I. Krylov, I. Maironis, and others). According to Aleksander Dubiński, this volume was compiled and published by Michał Firkowicz (Mykolas Firkovičius) (Dubiński, “Szymona Firkowicza,” 201). 398 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

his poetry was published in the volume Karay Yirlary.1927 Apart from these collections, he published his works in many Karaite and non-Karaite periodicals.1928 As the community ḥazzan, Firkowicz was also responsible for composing kynot (TrKar. syjyt jyrłary), i.e. funeral elegies. Michał Firkowicz (Mykolas Firkovičius) collected the ḥazzan’s kynot, but never published them.1929 His longest poem, “Memories about walks in Trakai,” written in elegant Russian, remains hitherto unpublished. The poem contains a most detailed poetic description of Troki and practically each member of its Karaite community soon after the end of the First World War.1930 His Russo-Karaim dictionary also remains unpublished.1931 Apparently there must be many more unpublished oeuvres of this talented Karaite litterateur.1932 A memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the house on the Karaite Street in Troki where the poet and ḥazzan spent most of his life. His grave is situated in the modern part of the Troki Karaite cemetery. Its inscription is in Karaim in Cyrillic characters. Firkowicz is called there йырчымыз (“our poet”) and карай-динь йесиси (“the master of Karaite faith”).

6.3 Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars

When speaking about the development of post-war Oriental Studies in Poland, it is simply impossible to omit the pleiad of distinguished Karaite scholars who became the glory of the Polish Oriental Studies after the Second World War. The prominence of the Polish Karaites in this field may be partly explained by the fact that while having a native command of the Turkic Karaim and Slavic vernaculars (Polish, Russian and Ukrainian), they received traditional religious education in pre-war Karaite religious schools-midraszim which provided them with necessary background in Hebrew. Furthermore, they could study other foreign languages (Lithuanian, German, French, Latin) in Polish primary and secondary schools. Thus, before the war, an average

1927 Karay Yirlary, ed. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1989), 64-148. The book was published in Cyrillic characters. 1928 For a complete bibliography, see BK, 716 (index). 1929 Dubiński, “Szymona Firkowicza twórczość,”, 201. 1930 S.A. Firkowicz, Vospominaniia s progulok po Trakai (unpublished). 1931 Aleksander Dubiński, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo S.A. Firkowicza,” RO 45: 1 (1985), 126. 1932 E.g. the play Bytovaia kartinka iz karaimskoi zhizni (Everyday scene from the Karaite life) found by me in the Yurchenko MSS (TrKar. in Cyrillic characters, typescript, 1 fol.). Although the title is in Russian, the play is written in a mixture of Troki Karaim with numerous Russian and Hebrew loanwords; this was the language spoken by the Troki Karaites before the interwar Turkicization of the community traditions. Manuscript versions of Firkowicz’s published and unpublished literary works can also be found in Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU, Kraków, Spuścizna K III-4. Tadeusz Kowalski. No. 122/1, 122/2. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 399

Karaite student could possess the command of at least two Oriental (Karaim and Hebrew) and several Slavic and west European languages. With this foreknowledge of several languages, at the university Karaite students could easily acquire command of a few other Turkic and Semitic languages – which most of them successfully did. That is enough to open any post-war Polish periodical in the field of Oriental Studies in order to understand the significance of the impact of the Karaite Orientalists in this field in post-war Poland. In almost every issue, one can find articles by Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, Józef Sulimowicz, Aleksander Dubiński, Ananiasz and Włodzimierz Zajączkowski and other Karaite specialists.1933 In this present work, when speaking of the aforementioned scholars, while we acknowledge their contribution to the general field of Oriental Studies, we focus our attention only on their biographies and publications related to the field of Karaite studies. Although the Polish Orientalists of Karaite origin contributed a great deal to the general field of Arabistic and Turkology, their impartiality may be questioned when their studies delve into the history of their own people. To our best knowledge, none of these scholars ever falsified documents related to Karaite studies. Nevertheless, as we present below, they often resorted to conscious manipulation of historical truth in order to present the East European Karaites as a Turkic people having nothing in common with Jewish civilization. Most Karaitica publications penned by Polish Karaite Orientalists after the war seldom remained objective and unbiased. As a result, they have, to some extent, contributed to a misunderstanding in the second half of the twentieth century of Karaite history, ethnography and linguistics. On the other hand, many of these studies provide much important information and data on the history of the Karaim language and Karaite community in Eastern Europe. One of the indisputable contributions of the Karaite Orientalists is their participation in the editing of KRPS – the only professional dictionary of the Karaim language until today. Below one can find analysis of the biographies of most important postwar Polish Karaite Orientalists and their contribution to the field of Karaite studies.

1933 Seraja Szapszał’s life and scholarly activity is analyzed in 6.2.1. One may also add to this list the name of Iosif Grigulevich/Grigulewicz (b. Wilno, 1913-1988), a Soviet secret agent who took part in Trotsky’s assassination and personally knew Ernesto Che Guevara. Although he spent most of his life outside Poland and Lithuania, he originally belonged to the Wilno Karaite family. He subsequently became important Soviet scholar, the author of more than 30 monographs focusing largely on the history of Catholicism, South America, a biography of Che Guevera and many other issues (as many as three (!) biographies of Grigulevich were published in the last few years: Yurii Paporov, Akademik nelegal’nykh nauk (St. Petersburg, 2004); Nil Nikandrov, Grigulevich. Razvedchik, ‘kotoromu vezlo’ (Moscow, 2005); V.M. Chikov, Superagent Stalina. Trinadtsat’ zhiznei razvedchika (Moscow, 2006)). 400 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

6.3.1 Ananjasz/Ananiasz Zajączkowski (1903–1970)

Ananiasz1934, son of Achiezer Zajączkowski1935 and Emilja Bezekowicz (b. Troki, 12.11.1903 – d. Rome, 6.04.1970, interred in Warsaw Karaite cemetery), was one of the most famous twentieth-century European Orientalists, and, perhaps, the most important Karaite scholar of the period. It seems also that in the post-war years and after the conflict with the last Polish ḥazzan, Rafał Abkowicz, it was Zajączkowski who greatly influenced the process of forming a new, absolutely secular self-identity of the Karaites in Socialist Poland. There are a few important sources on Zajączkowski’s biography. Of great importance are proceedings of the conference dedicated to his 90th anniversary which took place in Vilnius in 1993. A few articles were dedicated to the importance of Zajączkowski’s contribution to the field of Oriental Studies in Poland.1936 During this conference many relatives, friends, and colleagues of the professor shared their academic and personal memories about Zajączkowski. Alina Mrozowska wrote about professor Zajączkowski as her academic supervisor.1937 Famous Turcologist, N.A. Baskakov, described his personal contacts with professor Zajączkowski which started in 1954 and continued until the sudden death of the latter.1938 Zofia Dubińska’s memoirs described his eccentric character, frequent escapades and not too friendly jokes on the one hand, and sheer sense of humour and good and kind nature, on the other.1939 Interesting data about Zajączkowski can also be found in the diary of Józef Sulimowicz.1940 Zjączkowski’s correspondence with Seraja Szapszał from 1928 to 1948 is also a highly important source regarding his biography. Zajączkowski’s letters demonstrate that he possessed an immaculate command of the most

1934 In his pre-war publications Zajączkowski normally called himself Ananjasz, while after 1945 – Ananiasz. 1935 In Russian he normally called himself Ананий Александрович Зайончковский. 1936 Aleksander Dubiński, “Prace prof. A. Zajączkowskiego w zakresie języka i literatury karaimskiej,” in KTOL, 35-43; idem, “Prace karaimoznawcze prof. Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” CPK, 107-112; idem, “Prace karaimoznawcze prof. Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” PO 3 (79) (1971): 282-285; Tadeusz Majda, “Prace orientalistyczne w dorobku naukowym profesora Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” in KTOL, 47-54; Edward Tryjarski, “Znaczenie studiów Kipzcackich Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego dla nauki międzynarodowej,” in ibid., 54-63. 1937 Alina Barbara Mrozowska, “Wspomnienia o profesorze Ananiaszu Zajączkowskim,” in ibid., 88-95. 1938 Nikolai Baskakov, “Akademik A. Zajączkowski v druzheskikh vospominaniyakh,” in ibid., 81- 88. 1939 Zofia Dubińska, “Garść wspomnień o Mistrzu,” in KTOL, 96-101. 1940 Józef Sulimowicz, “Z dziennika Józefa Sulimowicza,” Awazymyz 1 (34) (2012): 16-17. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 401

refined nineteenth-century Russian.1941 It is evident from the correspondence that Zajączkowski maintained active contacts with Toviah Levi-Babovich, the ḥazzan in Sevastopol and later in Cairo. A part of correspondence between Tadeusz Kowalski and Zajączkowski (five letters sent by Kowalski) was recently published by Edward Tryjarski;1942 Zajączkowski’s letters to Kowalski had been published as a separate volume.1943 His correspondence with Szapszał and A. Mardkowicz is soon to be published by members of the Polish Karaite community.1944 From some memoires (e.g. those by Zofia Dubińska) or from the documents related to his conflict with the ḥazzan Rafał Abkowicz in 1947, one may notice that the professor was not a particularly tactful and easy-going figure. These negative features are especially noticeable in a pamphlet entitled “Spiritual Leader of the Karaites or a Destroyer of Their Historical-Cultural Legacy?” that was published by Szymon Szyszman in Polish in 1966. In this pamphlet Szyszman (a prominent Karaite himself) characterizes Zajączkowski as a “highly egocentric, petty, cruel, vindictive” person. According to Szyszman, who knew the professor personally in the 1930s, Zajączkowski was unfair with regard to Pinachas (Felix) Malecki, Tadeusz Kowalski, and Seraja Szapszał. Furthermore, Szyszman accuses Zajączkowski of the conscious destruction of Karaite communal life after the war; in his opinion, to achieve this end the professor used his high academic status.1945 It is rather hard to agree with such a negative portrayal of Zajączkowski since other sources disprove some of Szyszman’s accusations. On the other hand, Szyszman himself was a member of the Karaite community and could get the first-hand information about Zajączkowski. It is difficult not to believe that at least some of his claims (e.g. regarding the conflict with the ḥazzanim Malecki and Abkowicz) reflected historical truth. Thus, one must state that there apparently exist two polar approaches to understanding Zajączkowski’s personal and academic qualities, each of which has its own objective values and at the same time subjective biases.

***

Ananiasz Zajączkowski was born in Troki in 1903 as the ninth child in the family. In his youth the future scholar acquired native command of Polish, Russian, and Karaim. Because of the fact that his family was observing Karaite religious traditions,

1941 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 703 (92 fols.). This correspondence was first analyzed in Romualdas Firkovičius, “Ananiaszo Zajączkowskio laiškai Serajai Šapšalui,” in KTOL, 63-70; see it published in AK, 65-163. 1942 Edward Tryjarski, “Restoration of Oriental Studies in Poland after the World War II as Reflected in Five Letters by Tadeusz Kowalski,” Studia Turcologica Cracoviensia 5 (1998): 267-277. 1943 UO. 1944 UO, 5. 1945 Szyszman, Przywódca duchowy Karaimów, 3-16. 402 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Ananiasz was accustomed to read and understand the Hebrew language since his early childhood. Later, in the years of university studies, he learned several other Oriental and European languages. His father, Achiezer Zajączkowski (Troki, 28.12.1855 – Wilno, 28.01.1930; from 1904 to 1915 the director of the Wilno prison; from 1922 to 1929 the chairman and gabbai of the Troki Karaite community), was an important and influential figure in the Karaite community of Troki.1946 During the First World War Zajączkowski’s family evacuated to Crimea. In 1920, as a leader of a Karaite youth group, young Ananiasz organised a travelling theatre which was touring along the Southern coast of Crimea. Ananiasz “was rushing about the scene – he was Eugene Onegin, then Othello, then Czacki, then the king of the paupers – he played every role.”1947 Ananiasz also continued acting in a small Karaite theatre in Wilno in the 1920s. In 1921 Zajączkowski graduated from the lyceum in Simferopol (now the First gymnasium). After this the family was divided: Ananiasz with his parents returned to Poland, whereas three of his sisters remained in the Soviet Union. In 1925, being interested in starting his academic career, he somewhat naively asked professor Tadeusz Kowalski whether he could send him a textbook so that Zajączkowski could “at least learn Arabic, or eventually Turkish”.1948 In 1925, Ananiasz, at Kowalski’s suggestion, started reading Orientalist studies at the in Kraków.1949 His academic career was that of a child-prodigy: already in the fourth year of studying Zajączkowski received permission to defend a doctoral dissertation. From 1929, together with his wife Nadzieja Jutkiewicz (1901-1983; married to Ananiasz Zajączkowski on 27.12.1927), Ananiasz moved to Warsaw. At the end of the 1920s Zajączkowski spent a considerable period of time in Berlin where he often socialised with Crimean Karaites of Kovshanly family.1950 There he attended academic courses at the local university and purchased a collection of rare Karaite books from a Rabbanite book-dealer.1951 From 1929 Zajączkowski became the main editor of “Myśl Karaimska.” According to Zajączkowski-Łopatto, in 1929 Szapszał elevated Zajączkowski to the position of the ḥazzan; it was supposed that he would fulfil his duties in the small communities where there were no houses of prayer.1952 It is unclear how Zajączkowski was supposed to combine the duties of the ḥazzan together with his academic

1946 See his necrology: “Błogosławionej pamięci Achiezer Zajączkowski 1855-1930,” MK 2:3-4 (1931): 50-56 and “kyna” (Heb. “memorial song”) by Josief Łobanos in MK 2:3-4 (1931): 57-58. 1947 Dubińska, “Garść wspomnień,” 96. 1948 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 24.06.1925 (UO, 21-22). 1949 Marja-Emilja Zajączkowska-Łopatto, “A. Zajączkowski w Wilnie,” KV 3 (55) (2000); eadem, “A. Zajączkowski w Wilnie,” in KTOL, 73. Both biographical articles were written by Zajączkowski’s daughter who lived in Florence (Italy). 1950 MS LMAB F. 143, no. 703, fols. 13-17. 1951 Ibid., fol. 17. 1952 Zajączkowski-Łopatto, “Listy Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” AK, 10-11. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 403

responsibilities. It seems that Zajączkowski never actually fulfilled ḥazzan’s duties. In 1935 he was again mentioned as a candidate to “spiritual office”.1953 In the same year he was appointed associate professor at the ; he became a full professor in 1946. In 1942 (and apparently during the whole period of the German occupation) Zajączkowski had been working in some sort of statistical institute organized by the occupant administration.1954 He was a key figure in securing non- Jewish status for the small Karaite community of Warsaw; in 1943 he had been preparing a new prayer-book in the Karaim language.1955 During the war he lost his library and Karaite collections.1956 According to the memoirs of his daughter, Maria- Emilia Zajączkowski-Łopatto, she, together with her mother, Nadzieja Zajączkowska, and brother, Aleksander, spent two months in the infamous prisoner-of-war camp Stalag I-B Hohenstein.1957 In her other article she stated that they were in Dulag 121 in Pruszków.1958 In 1947, despite his conflict with the traditional religious leader – ḥazzan Rafał Abkowicz – Zajączkowski, a secular person, was elected head of the Karaite community in Poland. Some scholars consider that this conflict also contributed to the dispersion and laicisation of the Polish Karaites in the post-war period.1959 His last letter to Seraja Szapszał dates back to 1948; in it Zajączkowski informed Szapszał that he was unable to print the latter’s article on the Khazar language and that “Myśl Karaimska” was supposed to be transformed into “Przegląd Orientalistyczny”.1960 Since then the relations between these two apparently broke up. It is difficult to state anything precisely, but it is very likely that Szapszał could take offence and sever his relations with Zajączkowski after 1948. He was a member of a few leading Polish and international academic societies, a specialist in Turkic, Iranian, Arabic, Khazar, and Karaite studies. The complete bibliography of his publications comprises several hundreds monographs, leaflets, articles and communiqués. Professor Peter Golden, world’s most famous specialist in the field of Khazar and Turkic Studies, met with Zajączkowski in 1968, i.e. only three years before the professor’s death: “I remember Zajączkowski with affection. We met during several days that I spent in Warsaw in 1968. He was not well then and suffered from some back ailment that had his back almost completely doubled over. He was a very gracious host and we had several hours of conversation. We spoke alternately

1953 AAN MWRiOP no. 1464, fol. 30. 1954 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 20.09.1944 (UO, 202). 1955 UO, 192. 1956 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 20.09.1944 (UO, 202). In his letter from 14.10.1944 he mentions that his materials got burnt (ibid., 218). 1957 Maria-Emilia Zajączkowski-Łopatto, “Zimowe kalendarium,” Awazymyz 1 (34) (2012): 24-25. 1958 Zajączkowski-Łopatto, “Listy Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego,” 13. 1959 Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 34-35. 1960 A. Zajączkowski to S. Szapszał, Warsaw, 23.04.1938 (AK, 161-163). 404 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

in Russian and Turkish”.1961 One of his colleagues-Orientalists, Irina Melikova, shared painful remembrances regarding the sudden death of professor Zajączkowski. Melikova was expecting his arrival to the congress in Oriental Studies in Naples when she got sorrowful information that the professor died of heart attack on the train from Rome.1962 Despite the lengthy distance, the professor’s remains were transported to Warsaw and interred in the local Karaite cemetery.

***

It is somewhat difficult to leave a one-dimensional evaluation of Zajączkowski’s publications from the field of the Karaite Studies. On the one hand, it is impossible to deny the importance of his contribution to the field of Karaim linguistics. On the other, his historical publications misinterpreted sources and contributed to Szapszał’s Turkic propaganda both before and after the war. Young Zajączkowski made his debut with two small articles in the first issue of “Myśl Karaimska.” One of them was dedicated to the ceremony of commemoration of the victims of the plague of 1710. The future scholar described how on the 9th of Tammuz 1923/4, after a special liturgy in the synagogue-kenesa, the whole Karaite community of Troki went to the local cemetery where a special kyna by Solomon ben Aharon was sung.1963 The other debut contribution was devoted to the return from Soviet Russia of the part of the Karaite archive with royal decrees given to the Karaites by the Polish kings.1964 From the mid-1920s young Ananiasz became a permanent contributor to “Myśl Karaimska.” He published his articles and reviews in every issue of the periodical; moreover, from 1929 Zajączkowski became one of its main editors. These articles were dedicated to such varied topics as the biography of Abraham Firkovich;1965 Karaim literature and folklore;1966 non-conventional Karaite practices such as forecasting

1961 E-mail correspondence, Peter Golden to Mikhail Kizilov (24.03.2003). 1962 Irina Melikova, “Vospominaniia tiurkologa o A. Zajączkowskom,” in KTOL, 76-81; cf. Edward Tryjarski, “Bolesna strata turkologii polskiej,” PO 3 (75) (1970): 281-284. 1963 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Promień miłości,” MK 1 (1924): 20, ft. 3. 1964 Idem, “Promień miłości,” MK 1 (1924): 20-21; A-ski [Ananiasz Zajączkowski], “Przywileje nadane Karaimom przez Królów polskich,” MK 1 (1924): 22. For more information about the fate of these lost charters, see 2.4.3b. 1965 Idem, “Życie i działalność b.p. A.Firkowicza,” MK 1:2 (1925): 11-19; A.Z. [Ananiasz Zajączkowski], “Obchód 50-lecia zgonu Abrahama Firkowicza,” MK 1:2 (1925): 36-37. 1966 Idem, “Pieśni” Kobieckiego,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 13-24; iden, “Literatura Karaimska (szkic bibliograficzny),” MK 1:3 (1926): 7-16; idem, “Przekłady Trenów Jeremiasza w narzeczu trocko- karaimskim,” RO 8 (1931-1932): 181-192. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 405

of the future according to the body tremblings;1967 a Karaim translation of the travel diary to Palestine in 1785;1968 a travel diary of Gustav Peringer;1969 a panegyric in honour of Szapszał’s tenth anniversary in the ḥakham’s office;1970 the public life of the community et al. Especially interesting is an indignant reply of young Zajączkowski to Meir Bałaban’s famous “Karaites in Poland” where the young Karaite scholar reproached this classical Jewish historian for his non-objective and tendentious approach towards Karaite history.1971 Zajączkowski did not limit his Karaitica studies only to “Myśl Karaimska” and published articles in other Karaite and non- Karaite periodicals and as separate brochures.1972 His most impressive publications were focused on the Karaim language and its grammar.1973 Many studies analyzed the history of the Khazars whom the scholar considered to be ancestors of the East European Karaites.1974 The final book summing up Zajączkowski’s activity in the field of Karaite Studies was a separate monograph published by the scholar in English.1975 Having summarized Zajączkowski’s contribution to the study of East European Karaism, I would like to critically evaluate his works. Unfortunately, the scholar’s Turkic identity focused his interests only on the Karaites’ Turkic cultural heritage and forced him to ignore their rich and varied Hebrew legacy. This is why while

1967 Idem, “Wróżby z drgania części ciała,” MK 2:1 (1929): 23-31; idem, “Z dziejów literatury wróżbiarskiej,” MK 11 (1936): 24-39; idem, “Teksty i studia folklorystyczne. I. Wykładanie snów; II. Lecznictwo ludowe,” MK 12 (1937-38): 41-59. See also Piotr Muchowski, “Notes on Two Karaite Texts Edited by Ananiasz Zajączkowski,” Folia Orientalia 49 (2012): 327-337. 1968 Idem, “Opis podróży do Ziemi Świętej,” MK 2: 3-4 (1931): 26-42. 1969 Idem, “Najstarsza wiadomość o języku tureckim Karaimów w Polsce (z XVII w.),” MK 12 (1938): 90-99. 1970 Idem, “W X-tą rocznicę ingresu J.E.Hachana H.Seraji Szapszała,” MK 12 (1938): 3-5. 1971 Young Zajączkowski noticed and severely criticized a few mistakes committed by Bałaban in his Karaici w Polsce (Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Na marginesie studjum Bałabana ‘Karaici w Polsce’,” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 35-69). In my opinion, Bałaban made these mistakes not out of his hostility towards the Karaites, but because of his slightly casual manner of writing – the feature typical for many scholars-encyclopaedists (for more information on Zajączkowski-Bałaban’s polemics, see Mikhail Kizilov, “Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe of Troki (1595-1666) – A Karaite Physician in Legend and History,” Leipziger Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur 1 (2003): 87-88). 1972 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Elementy tureckie na ziemiach polskich (Zamość, 1935); idem, “Karaimi na Wołyniu (pochodzenie i dzieje),” Rocznik Wołyński 3 (1933): 149-191; idem, “Turecko-karaimskie piosenki ludowe z Krymu,” RO 24 (1939): 38-65; idem, “Przekłady Trenów Jeremiasza w narzeczu trocko-karaimskim,” RO 8 (1931-32): 181-192; ibid., RO 10 (1934): 158-178. 1973 One of them was published in the Troki dialect of Karaim in the periodical of the northern Lithuanian Karaites: A. Zajončkovski, “Karaj tili”, Onarmach 2 (1938): 3-5; A. Zajončkovski, “Karaj tili”, Onarmach 3 (1939): 2-3. Especially impressive are the scholarly monographs composed by the 30-year- old (!) Zajączkowski: Sufiksy imienne i czasownikowe w języku zachodniokaraimskim (Kraków, 1932) and Krótki wykład gramatyki języka zachodnio-karaimskiego (narzecze Łucko-halickie) (Łuck 1931). 1974 Idem, Ze studiów nad zagadnieniem Chazarskim (Kraków, 1947); idem, “O kulturze chazarskiej i jej spadkobiercach,” MK s.n. 1 (1945-46): 5-34. 1975 Idem, Karaims in Poland. History. Language. Foklore. Science (Paris/Warsaw, 1961). 406 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

analysing the Karaite history in Eastern Europe the scholar deliberately ignored the significance of Hebrew Karaite traditions, placing in the forefront only their supposed Turkic-Muslim-Khazar practices.1976 If some of Zajączkowski’s mistakes may be understood as unforced errors, others were committed by him with the deliberate intention of distorting historical truth and reality. This seems to be the only way one may interpret his unwillingness to provide the full Hebrew name of Mordecai ben Nisan;1977 his attempts to explain Karaite pilgrimages to ereṣ Yisra

1976 E.g. the Karaim manuscripts dedicated to the forecasting the future and other non- conventional religious practices of the East European Karaites, which were analysed by Zajączkowski, are undoubtedly interesting. However, among thousands of Karaite targumim and piyuṭim, copies of the TaNaKh, and Hebrew prayer-books preserved in European archives there are but a few Karaim manuscripts dedicated to practices of this kind. 1977 Zajączkowski called the exegete by the Slavicized surname “Nisanowicz;” this form has hardly been ever used by any Karaite source before Zajączkowski (idem, Karaims in Poland, 79). 1978 Idem, “Opis podróży.” 1979 E.g. “Sulajman ibn Ruhajm” for Salmon ben Yeruḥam, “Anan ibn Daud” for Anan ben David (idem, “Pomniki średniowecznego piśmiennictwa karaimskiego,” RO 24:2 (1961): 168). 1980 Idem, “Terminologia muzułmańska a tradycje nomadów w słownictwie karaimskim,” MK s.n. 2 (1947): 24-39. 1981 Idem, Karaims in Poland, 26. 1982 This was first noticed in Henryk Jankowski, “Nowy 5762 rok u Karaimów na Krymie,” PO 1-2 (2002): 106-107. 1983 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “‘Pola Karaimowskie’ pod Łuckiem,” MK 10 (1934): 88-95; idem, “Karaimi na Wołyniu (pochodzenie i dzieje),” Rocznik Wołyński 3 (1933): 170. 1984 AGAD ASK oddz. XLVI. S. 20, fol. 31 (58-59). Karagińskie indeed can be a corruption of Karaimskie; this problem needs further examination. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 407

contained prayers in Karaim also represents a deliberate corruption of historical facts. As a Turkologist Zajączkowski could not help noticing that the only non-Hebrew piyuṭim of this siddur were written in Byzantine Greek with some phrases in Turkish, but not in Karaim.1985 In 1946, Zajączkowski composed a short study “The Sketch of Karaite Religion” which was first published only recently, in 2004.1986 It was written for Karaite students of Polish schools who wanted to get an idea about the basics of Karaite religious tradition. Veronika Klimova, who analysed this work, noticed: “One gets the impression that Zajączkowski deliberately omitted all references to Judaism.”1987 Indeed, one cannot find in this book Hebrew terminology at all (even when Zajączkowski speaks about the Karaite religion, calendar and holidays) while Purim is not even mentioned as a Karaite holiday at all.1988 Especially weak was Zajączkowski’s argumentation concerning his doubtful theory about a Khazar origin of the East European Karaites. While analyzing this problem the scholar based his argumentation mostly on such “sources” as works by the pseudo-scholar, Marrist and Japhetist Alexander Baschmakoff, Seraja Szapszał,

1985 Shapira, “The Turkic Languages and Literatures”, 691-692; idem, “Tendencies and Agenda in Karaite and Karaite-related Studies in Eastern Europe in the 20th Century,” Pinkas 1 (2006): 217- 218; idem, “The Karaim Translation of the Book of Nehemia Copied in the 17th Century’s Crimea,” Karaite Archives 1 (2013): 155. The Byzantine (Ottoman/Turkish) Karaites called their Greek ethnolect “Karaitica” or “Yavanitika” (oral information of the members of the Istanbul Karaite community, May 2013). To our knowledge, there was no study of this language published so far. 1986 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Zarys religii karaimskiej. Dla uczniów szkół średnich (N.p. [Wrocław], 2004). 1987 Veronika Klimova, “Polish Catechism by A. Zajączkowski in the Light of Russian Catechisms from the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” Jewish History Quarterly 4 (2012): 491. 1988 V. Klimova, though, mentioned that the modern Karaite editors of the book deliberately “Turkicized” the original version of Zajączkowski’s study by deleting all the Hebrew terminology that had originally been used by the scholar (ibid., 490, ft. 2). 408 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

“Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia” and many other, unimpressive publications.1989 To sum up, despite the undoubtedly important contribution of Zajączkowski to the general development of Oriental Studies in Europe,1990 his Karaitica publications should be always analysed cum grano salis.

6.3.2 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski (1914–1982)

Włodzimierz Zajączkowski (Wilno, 21.07.1914 – Warsaw, 3.09.1982, son of Józef Zajączkowski and Nadzieja Szpakowska) followed the steps of his famous relative, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, and also became an Orientalist. In 1933 he graduated from a gymnasium in Wilno and started studies at the Kraków University under the guidance of Professor Tadeusz Kowalski. During the Second World War he taught history in a school in Wilno. In 1942 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski was supposed to travel together with the Tatar nationalist, Kırımmal-Szynkiewicz to Crimea in order to clarify whether Crimea is ready to accept the Lithuanian Tatar and Karaite emigrants.1991 In 1944 he was arrested in Wilno by NKVD. He was released thanks to Tadeusz Kowalski’s intervention and moved to Warsaw in 1946.1992

1989 Zajączkowski, “Karaimi na Wołyniu,” 150-151; Zajączkowski, Karaims in Poland, 19. In order to find out why Zajączkowski could support (and moreover, considered it to be ultimate truth) such a doubtful hypothesis as the Khazar origin of the East European Karaites, I asked the opinion of professor Peter Golden, world’s most famous specialist in the field of Khazar Studies, who had spoken to Zajączkowski in 1968. Peter Golden informed me: “We left the subject and agreed to disagree. Did he really believe it? That is hard to tell. I think he rationalized some aspects of it to himself, i.e. he had to convince himself. Perhaps he was conflicted […] One has to remember that the war was not that far away then. The Karaites had survived and I don’t think that they would have willingly shed that protective skin, especially in 1968” (P. Golden to M. Kizilov, 24.03.2003). In his other letter Peter Golden wrote: “The older Karaites themselves often had a very ambivalent attitude [towards the problem of the Karaites’ ethnic origins]. Ananiasz Zajączkowski, whom I met in 1968 and spent several days with him, was an example of that. He knew perfectly well what the real origins of the East European Karaites were, but at the same time felt the need to put on a public face that underscored their “Khazar heritage” etc. Litsemerie li, khanzhestvo li? – vopros shchekotlivyi [Was it hypocrisy or sanctimony? – a sensitive question]. This was the survival mask that they wore to escape Tsarist restrictions and – even more importantly – to escape the Nazis. It certainly did not give them the moral high ground. On the other hand, as I recall, Zajączkowski was very interested in Israel (and not in a negative way – of course, this he could never say publicly). It is a tragedy in a way and a commentary on the distortions in people’s lives that anti-Semitism has produced” (P. Golden to M. Kizilov, May, 2007). I may add that the analysis of his publications shows that Zajączkowski was really convinced of his individual and the Karaites’ Khazar origin already before the war. 1990 For general review, see Anna Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy Karaimi,” in Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus, (Warsaw, 2012), 122-128. 1991 A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 3.10.1942 (UO, 178). 1992 Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus, 235, nr. 45. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 409

Famous Polish Turcologist and Armenologist, Edward Tryjarski, left highly interesting memoirs about their joint trip together with the professor Włodzimierz Zajączkowski to Israel. Their trip to Israel took place in 1981, i.e. only a year before Zajączkowski’s death. Tryjarski positively characterized Zajączkowski as a good- natured person, who, however, had been constantly complaining about the deplorable state of Polish Oriental Studies and negative influence of Warsaw upon his Kraków alma mater.1993 Tryjarski mentioned that Zajączkowski was highly moved – and even cried – during their visit to the Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem. The other Karaite site visited by the two scholars was Ramlah, the head quarter of the chief Karaite Rabbinate in Israel. Again, Tryjarski mentioned strong excitement and agitation of the Karaite scholar while visiting his remote Israeli brethren.1994 Zajączkowski’s publications in the field of Karaite Studies focused mostly on technical linguistic matters1995 and biographies of famous Karaite figures;1996 quite interesting is his small note on the petition of the Łuck Karaites of 1807.1997 The scholar placed a special emphasis on the impact of foreign (Slavic, Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, Chuvash et al.) influences on the Turkic languages of the Karaites.1998 One cannot help noticing together with Dan Shapira: “It is astonishing that while addressing such subject as Slavic, Lithuanian, Mongolian, Arabic, Persian and Polish loan words and influences on the Karaim language and literature, not single piece of research was devoted to the impact of Hebrew or Aramaic on Karaim.”1999 Perhaps in order to fill in this gap Zajączkowski published in 1965 a small part of Hebrew-Karaim

1993 For more information about Zajączkowski, see Edward Tryjarski, “O profesorze Włodzimierzu Zajączkowskim i wspólnej z nim podróży do Jerozolimy,” PO 3-4 (2001): 260-265; Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 136-140. 1994 Tryjarski, “O profesorze,” 265. Similar details about Zajączkowski’s visit were narrated to me by the Israeli professor Wolf Moskovich, who together with B. Tukan guided Zajączkowski and Tryjarski in Israel in 1981 (February, 2002, Moscow; August, 2005, Crimea). 1995 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Przekłady Mickiewicza na język karaimski,” Sprawozdania Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności 49 (1948): 391-392; idem, “Legendy i podania karaimskie,” Sprawozdania Polskiej Akademii Umiejetnosci 50 (1949): 491-492; idem, “Zapożyczenia litewskie w języku Karaimów trockich,” Sprawozdania Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności 49 (1948): 360-62. 1996 Idem, “Izaak z Trok (1533-1594), polemista karaimski,” PSB 10: 193-194; idem, “Karaimowicz Wadowski, Iliasz,” PSB 12, 14-15; idem, “Bibliografia prac J.E. H. Seraji Szapszała, Hachana Karaimów w Polsce (1896-1937),” MK 12 (1938): 6-9; idem, “Malinowski Józef (w. XVI/XVII), teolog karaimski,” PSB 19: 345-346; idem, “Mordechaj ben Nisan (XVII/XVIII), karaimski historyk i filolog,” PSB 21: 764; idem, “Łucki Józef Salomon, przydomek Jaszar (1770-1855), pisarz karaimski,” PSB 18: 512-513. 1997 Idem, “Z dziejów gminy karaimskiej w Łucku,” MK 12 (1938): 109-110. 1998 Idem, “Die mongolischen Elemente in der karaimischen Sprache,” Folia Orientalia 2 (1960): 296-302; idem, “Die arabischen und neupersischen Lehnwörter im Karaimischen,” Folia Orientalia 3 (1962): 177-212; idem, “Karaimisch-tschuwaschische Parallelen,” in Reşid Rahmeti Arat için (Ankara, 1966), 429-432. 1999 Shapira, “Tendencies and Agenda,” 217-218. 410 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

manuscript dictionary.2000 An article on the Karaite folklore was published in Turkish after his death.2001

6.3.3 Józef (Mieczek) Sulimowicz (1913-1973)

A Galician Karaite, Józef Sulimowicz/Szulimowicz (b. Halicz, 25.12.1913 – d. Warsaw, 5.03.1973), also became an Orientalist scholar. According to the memoires of his daughter, Anna-Akbike Sulimowicz, since the early childhood he was called Mieczek (which was often transformed into Mietek or Mieczysław by his colleagues). His father, Leon Sulimowicz (1884-1941?), who worked on railroad, was highly active in the field of Karaite culture and learning.2002 In the 1933 Sulimowicz became a disciple of Ananiasz Zajączkowski. In 1936, he made a research trip to Turkey and Dobrudzha (Dobruca) where he got acquainted with Crimean Tatar scholars and nationalists, Abdullah Zihni Soysal and Dżafer Sejdamet (Cafer Seydahmet). In the 1930s he published several short notes in “Myśl Karaimska” which focused mostly on the recent events in the life of the Halicz community.2003 In 1939 he changed the transliteration of his surname from “Szulimowicz” to “Sulimowicz”.2004 In 1939 he was almost ready to submit his master’s thesis on the Karaite targum of the Bible into Crimean Tatar. After the receipt of his master’s degree, he was expected to begin work in the Karaite museum in Troki. The beginning of the Second World War broke off all his academic plans. Sulimowicz happened to be in his native Halicz at the beginning of the war and was recruited to the Soviet Army in 1941. He took part in the Stalingrad battle as a Soviet soldier, later joining the First Polish Army (I Armia Wojska Polskiego), where he stayed also after the end of the war. In the post-war years he received the rank of a colonel and worked as the director of the Central Military Library in Poland. He managed to resume his academic work only in 1968 and completed his master’s thesis on the lexicology of Crimean Bible translation on the example of Meqqabeṣ niddeḥey Yisra

2000 Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, “Ein Bruchstück des hebräisch-karaimischen Wörterbuches,” Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher 36 (1965): 429-433. 2001 Idem, “Karaylar ve Onların Folkloru,” Türk Kültürü Araştırmaları Dergisi 1-2 (17-21): 313-361. 2002 Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy Karaimi,” 128. 2003 J. Szulimowicz [Sulimowicz], “Emel Medżmuasy, Nr 99,” MK 11 (1935-1936): 107; idem, “Tatarzy krymscy w Haliczu,” MK 12 (1939): 148; J. S. [Józef Sulimowicz], “Karaimski teatr amatorski,” MK 12 (1939): 148; idem, “Aleksander Mardkowicz członkiem honorowym gminy karaimskiej,” MK 12 (1939): 148. 2004 AK, 172; cf. MS LMAB F. 143, no. 1064/1, fol. 71; no. 1064/2, fols. 143, 144. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 411

in Qale (Çufut Kale) in 1734.2005 Józef Sulimowicz is also known as the person due to whose efforts a new Statute of the KZR in Poland was completed.2006 His collection of Oriental (especially Karaite) manuscripts and rarities is said to be one of the most impressive Karaite collections in Eastern Europe.2007 His diary, fragments of which had been published posthumously, is significant for containing much valuable data on the state of the community after the war and on the biographies of many pivotal twentieth-century Karaite figures.2008

6.3.4 Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923-1990)

Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (b. Załukiew, 20.02.1923 – d. Kraków, 13.12.1990) was born in the village of Załukiew in the vicinity of Halicz, into a traditional Karaite family of petty farmers. His parents were Zachariasz Abrahamowicz (d. 1934) and Debora Mordkowicz (d. Troki, 1990). In 1935 he graduated from the general school in Halicz; in 1935 he began studying in the secondary school in Stanisławów. At the outbreak of the Second World War, when Eastern Galicia was annexed by the Soviet Union, he continued studying in the same school which was reorganized in accordance with the Soviet curriculum. And the end of the war he was taken to Germany for forced labour; his brother Michał had been recruited to the Soviet army in 1944 and died on the battlefront in the same year. After the end of the war he found himself in Lower Silesia; from there he moved to Warsaw where he worked and studied at the same time. From there he soon moved to Kraków. In 1951 he received his master’s degree in Turcology at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Jagiellonian University and in 1968 – doctoral degree. His wife, Marianna Zajączkowska-Abrahamowicz (1925-1990), was a well-known translator into English; it was she who translated some of her husband’s works into this language.2009 From 1977 to 1988 Abrahamowicz had been working

2005 His master’s thesis was later published as Józef Sulimowicz, “Materiał leksykalny krymskokaraimskiego zabytku językowego (druk z 1734 r.),” RO 35:1 (1972): 37-76; ibid., RO 36 (1973): 47-104; he also published an article on the Halicz Karaites (Józef Sulimowicz, “Mistar i halicko- karaimskie surałar,” Roczniki Biblioteczne 12: 1-4 (1968): 37-49). 2006 Pilecki, “Z życia”, 46. 2007 Biographical sketch of J. Sulimowicz was written largely on the basis of Anna Sulimowicz, “Mieczek i Siunek,” Awazymyz 1 (38) (2013): 4-13; see also Aleksander Dubiński, “Józef Sulimowicz (1913-1973),” PO 4 (88) (1973): 364-365; idem, “Karaimskie rukopisi iz kollektsii Yu. Sulimovicha v Varshave,” in Tiurkskoe yazykoznanie: Materialy III Vsesoiuznoi tiurkologicheskoi konferentsii, ed. G.A. Abdurakhmanova, A.P. Hodzhieva et al. (Tashkent, 1985), 20-24. For more information on his biography, see Sulimowicz, “Znaczenie Halickich Karaimów,” 42-43; eadem, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 128-129. 2008 Sulimowicz, “Z dziennika,” 1 6 -1 7. 2009 Hanna Pilecka, “Portret damy,” Awazymyz 1 (30) (2011): 4-7. 412 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

at the Institute of History in the Polish Academy of Sciences.2010 Unfortunately, the large private archive of of Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, which is kept in the archive of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków, remains still uncatalogued and therefore practically unavailable to researchers.2011 In spite of the fact that Abrahamowicz published a very substantial amount of studies in the general field of Oriental Studies, only two articles of his were dedicated to Karaite history. One of them was published a short while before Abrahamowicz’s death in English in the periodical BEK which was edited by Szymon Szyszman in Paris (this also attests to the fact that Abrahamowicz sustained contacts with Szyszman in the 1980s). This article presents to the readers two Karaim translations of the poems of the famous Polish poet, Jan Kochanowski. These translations were done by the sixteenth-century Karaite theologian, Zeraḥ ben Natan of Troki, and by Solomon ben Aharon of Troki (ca. 1670-1745).2012 This article testifies that Abrahamowicz was well- versed not only in his native Karaim, but also in Hebrew. It is of interest that in this article of his Abrahamowicz somewhat unexpectedly refers to the Subbotniks and calls them “the group of the Karaites in the Kuban region who speak only Russian.”2013 The second article, published posthumously in Polish, was dedicated to the history of Abrahamowicz’s native Karaite community, i.e. that of Halicz. Especially interesting are his personal impressions and oral data received from his relative, ḥazzan Izaak Abrahamowicz, and other members of the community. Unfortunately, a very important passage, dedicated to the post-war contacts of the Halicz Karaites with the Rabbanite Jews was omitted by the publisher of the article, Stefan Gąsiorowski, at the request of Abrahamowicz’s relatives.2014 Of special interest is that at some point in the 1970s or 1980s Zygmunt Abrahamowicz’s reading of the texts in Hebrew was recorded (or he recorded it

2010 This biographical sketch was written on the basis of the following publications: Aleksander Dubiński, “Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923-1990),” Folia Orientalia 30 (1994): 227-229; Maria Ivanics, “Zygmunt Abrahamowicz,” AOH 46:2-3 (1992-1993): 369-372; Edward Tryjarski, “Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (1923-1990),” in Wśród jarłyków i fermanów. Materiały z sesji naukowej poświęconej pamięci Dra Zygmunta Abrahamowicza 20 kwietnia 2004, ed. Ewa Siemieniec-Gołaś (Kraków, 2004), 21-24; for more information regarding his biography, see ibid.; Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 140-143. A complete list of Abrahamowicz’s publications was compiled by Anna Sulimowicz in her “Bibliography of the Works of Zygmunt Abrahamowicz,” Folia Orientalia 30 (1994): 230-236. 2011 AN PAN, Spuścizna K III – 146, Zygmunt Abrahamowicz. 2012 Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, “Two Religious Poems by the Polish 16th century Poet Jan Kochanowski in Karaite,” transl. by Marianna Zajączkowska-Abrahamowicz, BEK 2 (1989): 65-82 (nota bene, the Karaim language is called here “Karaite”); cf. Rafał Leszczyński, “Wiersze Jana Kochanowskiego w przekładach na język karaimski,” in Poeta z Czarnolasu, ed. Paulina Buchwald-Pelcowa and Jana Pacławska (Radom, 1984), 51-60. 2013 Abrahamowicz, “Two Religious Poems,” 78. 2014 Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 3-16. In our opinion, however, the scholar himself clearly wanted to see it published. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 413

by himself?). At present this and other recordings of the East European Karaites are available in the Tape Archives of the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (the Language Traditions Project).2015 Abrahamowicz also translated into Karaim “Zapovit” (“Testament”) – the most important poem of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861).2016

6.3.5 Aleksander Dubiński (1924–2002)

Aleksander Dubiński (b. Troki,2017 22.05.1924 – d. Warsaw, 23.09.2002) was the son of Józef Dubiński and Zofja Łobanos. Born into a traditional Karaite family in Troki in 1924, Aleksander Dubiński is known both to academic audience and the Karaite community as the author of numerous publications related to the general field of Oriental Studies, with some of them focusing on Karaite Studies.2018 In Troki he lived in a house in the so-called Łobanosowszczyzna (i.e. “area belonging to the Łobanos family”) which was located close to the kenesa. Among his closest relatives one should especially mention his uncle, ḥazzan and famous poet and translator, Józef Łobanos. Aleksander (a.k.a. Olek or Lusiek) studied in the Troki midrasz where he soon became one of the best pupils. His teachers were Zarach Firkowicz, Ananiasz Kobecki and ḥazzan Szymon Firkowicz. In 1934 he, as a representative of the local Karaite community, together with many other Troki Karaites, was examined by the anthropological expedition of the Italian scholar, Corrado Gini.2019 In 1938, he entered the Adam Mickiewicz gymnasium in Wilno where he studied in the same class as Szymon Pilecki and Michał (Mykolas) Firkowicz. In 1941 the gymnasium was closed; hence, from 1941 to 1943, he attended a pedagogical school in Troki where Lithuanian was the main language of instruction. During the war, in 1943, Dubiński took active part in a few plays of the Karaite youth theatre in Troki. In May, 1944 he, together with some other young Karaites, was sent by the Nazis to dig ditches and anti-tank moats against the approaching Red Army at the outskirts of Wilno. Soon after, when Wilno was liberated from the Nazis, Dubiński entered the Polish army of general Zygmunt

2015 Tapani Harviainen, “Three Hebrew Primers, the Pronunciation of Hebrew among the Karaims in the Crimea, and Shewa,” in Built on Solid Rock: Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen (Oslo, 1997), 109, ft. 30. 2016 Published in Taras Shevchenko, “Zapovit” movami narodiv svitu (Kyiv, 1989), 63. 2017 According to A. Tokarczyk, he was born in Wilno, but got officially registered in Troki (Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 135). 2018 For detailed bibliography, see A. Wojtyńska, “Publikacje A. Dubińskiego w latach 1953-1993,” CPK, 23-36. 2019 This event produced such an impression on young Dubiński that while visiting Berlin in the 1940s, he made there a photocopy of the periodical “Genus” with Gini’s report (Szymon Pilecki, “Dr Aleksander Dubiński we wspomnieniach rówieśnika,” PO 1-2 (2003): 114). 414 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Berling. Due to this fact he could later stay in Poland, and, moreover, get a permission for his mother to emigrate to Poland (the father had already been dead). He entered the Oriental Studies at the Warsaw University in 1948. In 1953, he married Anna Nowicka (a Karaitess from Łuck) in Opole; their religious wedding was consummated by the ḥazzan Rafał Abkowicz.2020 In 1953 and 1965, respectively, he received his master’s and doctoral degrees under the supervision of Professor Ananiasz Zajączkowski; his theses were related to the field of Turkic linguistics. According to the remembrances of Professor Szymon Pilecki, his knowledge of religion allowed Dubiński to organize prayers and liturgy in his house in Warsaw in the 1970s and 1980s (the Karaites of Warsaw did not have either a permanent house of prayer, or the ḥazzan). In the 1970s he was elevated by Szymon Firkowicz to the status of ribbi (a status of ribbi in the East European Karaite communities was conferred upon religiously educated persons who were allowed to carry out prayers during the absence of ḥazzanim).2021 In addition to his academic duties, he was also appointed secretary of KZR in Poland. In 1989 Dubiński retired from the Warsaw University. In 1984–1985, Dubiński met with the Polish journalist, Andrzej Tokarczyk. The scholar informed Tokarczyk that the Polish Karaites were “inherently descendants of the Muslim East.” While describing the Karaite religious tradition to the journalist, Dubiński used only Christian and Muslim terminology.2022 In 1991, Aleksander Dubiński socialised with the Karaite visitors from America. One of them, Mourad el-Qodsi, with a hint of surprise wrote: “[Dubiński] insists that the Karaites of Poland do not consider themselves as part of the “Jewish population”. However, Dubiński himself knows Hebrew well, and when he was in Israel in 1990 he proved to be well informed in the Karaite religion, history, and culture. He has a relatively rich library of Karaite prayer books, commentary and other related subjects, some of these are manuscripts.”2023 Thus, according to Mourad el-Qodsi in 1990 Dubiński made a trip to Israel where he visited his Karaite brethren. The scholar died in Warsaw on 23.09.2002.2024 A complete bibliography of Dubiński’s publications consists of more than 150 titles, including a number of articles related to the field of Karaite Studies. Most interesting for our topic is, perhaps, one of his latest publications, which is more of a memoir than an academic

2020 Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 134-135. 2021 Adam Dubiński, “Aleksander Dubiński,” Awazymyz 2 (27) (2010): 3-6. 2022 Tokarczyk, Karaimizm, 79-80. 2023 El-Kodsi, Communities, 13-14. 2024 My sketch of Dubiński’s biography was written largely on the basis of S. Kałużyński, “Aleksander Dubiński septuagenarius,” CPK, 13-20; Tadeusz Majda, “Aleksander Dubiński – Biography,” in ibid., 21-22; idem, “Dr Aleksander Dubiński (1924-2002),” PO 1-2 (2003): 111-112; Szymon Pilecki, “Dr Aleksander Dubiński we wspomnieniach rówieśnika,” PO 1-2 (2003): 112-117; Éva Ágnes Csató, “Tïnčlïx džanïna! To the Memory of Aleksander Dubiński (1924-2002),” Turkic Languages 6:2 (2002): 153-156; Adam Dubiński, “Aleksander Dubiński;” Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 130-134. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 415

article. In this article Aleksander Dubiński, himself at the time a pupil in the midrasz in Troki, left a vivid portrait of the life of the interwar Troki community and provided many references to his own private experiences.2025 He was one of the editors of KRPS.2026 Dubiński’s other Karaite publications cover a rather narrow biographic, linguistic or historiographic sketches and do not seem to delve too deeply into the most controversial topics of the Karaite history in Eastern Europe.2027 As well as his teacher, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, he preferred studying not too typical for the East European Karaites topics such as magic beliefs2028 and certainly downplayed the Hebrew dimension of the Karaite ethnographic, language and religious traditions.

6.3.6 Zofia Dubińska (1915-2008)

Zofia Dubińska (b. Troki, 15.01.1915 – d. Konstancin, 6.02.2008) was the third daughter of Jozeusz Jehoszuwa “Krawiec” Dubiński (1879-1946) and Kamila Dubińska. During the First World War she was evacuated together with her family to Russia; the family returned to Poland only in 1923 and settled down in Wilno. Having graduated from the secondary school in 1934, she started working in a bank. At the same time she had been helping Seraja Szapszał as a secretary; from 1938 onwards, she served as secretary of TMHiLK. After the end of the war she moved to Warsaw. There she studied

2025 Dubiński, “Z życia Karaimów trockich,” 30-40. 2026 Despite the doubtless importance of KRPS for the study of the Karaim language and KarCrTat, one cannot help noticing the presence of serious dejudaization censorship in this dictionary: a number of Hebrew borrowings into Karaim were simply ignored, while many of those that had been included, were subsequently attributed as “Arabic” borrowings or local idioms (see Altbauer, “O tendencjach dehebraizacji,” 51-60). According to the ḥazzan Victor (David) Tiriyaki, the dictionary was not allowed by the Soviet regime, for a while, to be published; allegedly, Semita Kushul’ of Eupatoria asked the famous Avar poet, Rasul Gamzatov, who was also the deputy of Supreme Soviet, to help with this matter. Thanks to his help KRPS was finally published (Khadzhi D.[avid] Tiriyaki, “K 140-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia gakhama S.M. Szapszała,” IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 3, ft. 3). 2027 E.g. Aleksander Dubiński, “Lokalizacja języka karaimskiego w świetle jego rozwoju historycznego,” CPK, 113-120; idem, “Phonetische Mermale des Łuck-Halicz dialektes der Karaimischen Sprache,” in ibid., 129-140; idem, “Początki zainteresowań językiem i literaturą karaimską w na­uce europejskiej do końca XIX wieku,” in ibid., 63-72; idem, “Z dziejów badań nad językiem i literaturą karaimską (od końca XIX wieku),” in ibid., 73-84; idem, “Życie społeczne i kulturalne Karaimów na Wileńszczyźnie lat międzywojennych,” in ibid., 249-256; idem, “Przekłady literatury polskiej w piśmiennictwie karaimskim,” in ibid., 211-214; idem, “Publikacje religioznawcze w zakresie karaimoznawstwa polskiego (1918-1980),” in ibid., 273-288; idem, “Szymona Firkowicza twórczość literacka w języku karaimskim,” in ibid., 201-210. For the full bibliography of his Caraimica articles, see BK under “Dubiński, Aleksander.” 2028 Idem, “Die magisch-weissagerlische Terminologie im Karaimischen,” CPK, 159-176; idem, “Terminy wróżbiarskie w karaimskich przekładach Biblii,” in ibid., 177-188. Dubiński himself possessed a large collection of Karaite manuscripts in Hebrew and Karaim. 416 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Oriental philology under the supervision of Ananiasz Zajączkowski and worked as an adjunct in the Oriental Department in the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. According to Tadeusz Majda, she was a “living encyclopaedia of Wilno region and her native Troki.”2029 Zofia Dubińska’s main contribution to the field of Karaite Studies was her participation in the editing of KRPS. Furthermore, she was the author of memoirs about the Karaite families of Szpakowski, Kobecki, Abkowicz, Łopatto and some others.2030

6.3.7 “A Scholar Not Connected to the Karaites:” Szymon Szyszman (1909–1993)

In spite of the fact that Szymon Szyszman2031 (b. Simferopol, 30.06.1909 – d. Paris, 22.02.1993) spent most of his life beyond the borders of Poland and Lithuania, his publications produced a strong impact on the East European Karaites and their understanding of Karaite history.2032 There are many strange circumstances related to Szyszman’s biography. Information about his family, parents and grandparents proved extremely illusive. Until the publication of the book “Karaj jołłary,”2033 I discovered only one photo of Szyszman, which was published in a posthumous leaflet in Israel ca. 1995.2034 Equally enigmatic seem to be his relations with other East European Karaites: although Szyszman was a rigorous proponent of their Turkic origins, he did not get along with most of the twentieth-century Karaite scholars and ideological leaders. On the other hand, he had friendly relations with the Egyptian Karaites who always considered themselves Karaites of Jewish origin. Moreover, soon

2029 G. Jutkiewicz, Sz. Pilecki, “Wspomnienie: Zofia Dubińska, 15.01.1915 – 6.02.2008,” Awazymyz 1 (2008): 14-15; cf. Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 134-135; Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus, 238, nr. 79 2030 Zofia Dubińska, “Zachowane w pamięci,” Awazymyz 1 (2008): 3-8;. 2031 As was with many other East European Karaites, Szyszman’s name is known in the variety of transliterations. He called himself in Russian Семён Борисович Шишман; in Polish: Szymon Szyszman; in Lithuanian: Simonas Šišmanas; in Latin: Simon Şişman; in French: Simon Szyszman or Chicheman; one of his early articles was signed in accordance with the Turkish spelling: Sımon Şışman (see his “Gustaf Peringers Mission bei den Karäern.” ZDMG 102 (n.f. 27) (1952): 215-228). His Hebrew name was apparently Shimon b. Berakhah. 2032 The quote used in the title of this subchapter – “A scholar not connected to the Karaites” – comes from Z. Abrahamowicz (Abrahamowicz, “Dzieje,” 5). 2033 Mariola Abkowicz and Anna Sulimowicz, Karaj jołłary – karaimskie drogi. Karaimi w dawnej fotografii (Wrocław, 2010), 125-127. 2034 [Szymon Szyszman], Une doctrine mal... connue. Le Karaїsme. Be-zikkaron Szymon Szyszman (Simféropol 30.06.1909 – Paris 22.02.1993) (Ramleh, n.d. [after 1995]). This photo is accompanied by a Hebrew caption: Ha-raḥman yasim helqo >im shev>a kitot shel ṣaddiqim (“The allmerciful [God] shall give him his part together with seven types of righteous”). This phrase seems to be at the same time a quotation from Rabbinic literature and an allusion to Szyszman’s theory about the origin of Karaism from the movement of ancient ṣaddiqim (Heb. “righteous ones”). Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 417

after his death the Israeli Karaite community (composed primarily of the Karaites who had emigrated from Egypt) published a small memorial leaflet with one of Szyszman’s articles. Apparently, they were very much pleased by his hypothesis about ancient Jewish roots of Karaism.2035 This fact notwithstanding, the Karaite community of Israel, being apparently vexed by his vehement ant-Israelite and anti-Rabbanite statements, at some point asked Szyszman “not to represent himself as if he spoke in their name.”2036 A chemist by education and an amateur historian, Szyszman is somewhat surprisingly considered by many to be one of the most authoritative scholars in the field of Karaite studies. Indeed, it seems that it was his influence that made many serious scholars studying Khazar and Karaite history (e.g., I.A. Baranov and Jan Tyszkiewicz) change their views in favour of Szyszman’s pseudo-scholarly hypotheses. Furthermore, although his academic activity should be considered at best amateur and unprofessional, at the moment Szyszman is certainly the most well-known Karaite author whose publications were translated into many European languages, Arabic2037 and Turkish. Szymon (vel Semion/Semen2038) Szyszman was born in Simferopol in Crimea in 1909. As has been mentioned, very little is known about his relatives and his family since he himself never published anything about them. All the information about Szyszman’s family was gathered from scarce information provided by his biographers and from archival documents. Archival document from 1825 mentions Joseph ben Isaac Gabbai ha-Gevir Shishman, a resident of Eupatoria. Although in 1825 he had certain legal complications, it is evident from this document that Joseph Shishman was a wealthy and respected individual who possessed the title of gabbai and gevir in the Eupatoria Karaite community.2039 He was apparently Szymon Szyszman’s great grandfather. His grandfather was Jacob ben Joseph ha-Gabbai Szyszman (1836–1900), a wealthy individual famous for funding the publication of the Wilno siddur (4 vols., 1891–1892), which became a standard Karaite prayer-book

2035 [Szyszman], Une doctrine mal... connue. A few other memorial articles were devoted to Szyszman’s memory (Thomas Willi, “Simon Szyszman (30. Juni 1909-22. Februar 1993) zum Gedenken,” Judaica 49 (1993): 193-199; Baracat Siahou and Pierre Geoltrain, “In memoriam. Simon Szyszman: un combat pour la mémoire,” BEK 3 (1993): 5-7; Aleksander Dubiński, “Szymon Szyszman (30.6.1909-22.2.1993),” Rocznik Muzułmański 4:3 (1995): 94-96; Leonid Lavrin, “In memoriam Semenu Shishmanu,” in Karaj kiuńlari, 177-179). 2036 A private communication from Rabbi Hayyim Levi of Ashdod to Daniel J. Lasker (Daniel J. Lasker, From Judah Hadassi to Elijah Bashyatchi: Studies in Late Medieval Karaite Philosophy (Leiden/Boston, 2008), 121, ft. 115)) 2037 According to Thomas Willi, Szyszman’s article “Note sur la structure sociale des Karaïtes dans les pays arabes” was translated into Arabic by Hassan Zaza and published in Beirut in the periodical al-Mahriq 52 (1958): 747-752 (non vidi; see Willi, “Simon Szyszman,” 199, ft. 16). 2038 A. Zajączkowski called him Sioma (cf. Rus. Сёма) and even interpreted his name as Heb. simḥa (A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 20.09.1944 (UO, 202). 2039 A letter from the Gözlöv community to Qale (Çufut Kale), Hebrew, 1825 (NLR Evr II A 1825). 418 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

for later generation of the Karaites in Europe, Israel and America. According to the title page of the siddur, Szyszman supported its publication together with his sons which makes is plausible that Szymon Szyszman’s father, Boris Szyszman, also could take part in this enterprise.2040 Pinachas Malecki, the ḥazzan of the Troki and Wilno communities, composed an elegant verse in Hebrew dedicated to Jacob Szyszman. First letters of this verse composed the name of “Jacob Shishman;” it was placed at the beginning of the first volume of the siddur.2041 According to Victor Escoignard, Szyszman’s grandfather later became his melamed (teacher of religion). From him Szyszman learned the maxima “love the past and believe in the future.”2042 Jacob Szyszman and his colleague, Isaac Duruncza (Duruncha), founded in Wilno in 1865 the large tobacco factory “Szyszman and Duruncza;” in 1872, they founded a shop in Warsaw in Krakowskie Przedmieście.2043 According to Reuven Fahn, Szyszman and Duruncza had friendly relations with the Wilno Rabbanites who worked in their factory; furthermore, they also nourished sympathy for Zionism and even took part in the welcome ceremony of Theodor Herzl during his visit to Wilno.2044 Very little is known about Szyszman’s parents. His father was Boris Szyszman (1877–1952), his mother – Irina/Irena Szyszman (1882–25.07.1978; née Kojczu, daughter of Ephraim Kojczu, a.k.a. Lipa Jefimowna).2045 Szyszman’s brother and sister (Tamara Szpakowska née Szyszman (24.04.1913–12.01.2010); Michał Szyszman (15.12.1910– 4.03.2002)) lived and died in Warsaw. About 1909 the Szyszmans moved from Crimea to Wilno and than to Warsaw where they stayed until 1912. Their house in Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw became a meeting point for the local Karaites who often gathered there for all sorts of cultural and family events.2046 In 1912 the Szyszmans again moved back to Wilno. Because of the evacuation of the inhabitants of Wilno during the First World War, Szyszman’s family travelled again to Simferopol, and it was only in 1922 that they managed to return to Wilno. In 1928 Szymon Szyszman graduated from a local secondary school. In 1933, he received master’s degree in chemistry from

2040 Siddur ha-tefillot ke-minhag ha-Qara>im, ed. Pinachas Malecki, 4 vols (Wilno: Jacob ben Joseph Szyszman and sons, 1891-1892). The fact that Jacob Szyszman was Szymon’s grandfather is mentioned in Lavrin, “In memoriam,” 177 and Anna Szpakowska, “Życie w trosce o ludzi,” Awazymyz 1 (26) (2010): 17-18. 2041 Siddur ha-tefillot, ed. Pinachas Malecki, vol. 1 (Wilno, 1891), 2. 2042 Victor Escoignard, “Prologue,” in [Szyszman], Une doctrine mal... connue, upaginated p. 1. There is the grave of Jacob b. Joseph (Yakov Iosifovich) Szyszman (b. Eupatoria, 1836 – d. Wilno, 1900) in the Karaite cemetery in the valley of Jehosaphath near Çufut Kale in Crimea. If this Jacob b. Joseph is identical with Szymon Szyszman’s grandfather, then he could not possibly be his teacher of religion. 2043 Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz,” 158. 2044 Reuven Fahn, “Aus dem Leben der Karaiten,” Ost und West 1 (1912): 67. The grave of Jacob b. Joseph Szyszman in the valley of Jehosaphath had typically Rabbanite ornamentation of stars of David. 2045 This is according to Szpakowska, “Życie w trosce,” 17-18. 2046 Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz,” 158. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 419

the Faculty of Mathematic and Exact Sciences of Stefan Bathory University in Wilno. While being a student he began his first research in the field of Karaite studies. In his own words, in 1932, he had studied Karaite materials in the State Archive in Wilno.2047 According to L. Lavrin he worked as an assistant of Professor Słowieński in Wilno and then (from 1936 to 1939) as an assistant of Professor Akhmatov in Warsaw. In Warsaw he worked in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the Warsaw University and in the Institute of Maria Skłodowska-Curie.2048 In the 1930s, Szyszman worked for a while in the editorial board of “Myśl Karaimska” and was a member and secretary of TMHiLK.2049 However, in February of 1939, i.e. a short time before the beginning of the Second World War, for unknown reasons, he requested cancellation of his membership.2050 His participation in the activity of TMHiLK testifies that he personally knew Szapszał, Włodzimierz and Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Abraham Szyszman and many other important Karaite activists and scholars. According to some data, from 1940 to 1941 he worked in the Kowno (Kaunas) University.2051 In 1942, he for the last time visited Crimea which was at that time occupied by the Nazis. The details of this trip remain unclear, but the very fact of his ability to travel through the occupied lands testifies that he had permission from German authorities to do this. Some documents suggest that this was an official trip which Szyszman undertook as either an assistant director (Germ. Leiter) of the chemical factory “Chemijos Išdirbiniai;” or that he was the director of the factory “Dajiva.”2052 Some evident hold that in that same year, he returned from Crimea to Wilno through Bulgaria and Rumania. In his main book, “Le Karaїsme”, Szyszman published photos of Eupatoria Karaite monuments which had been taken there in July of 1942 by the Nazi scholar, Kurt Scharlau (1906–1964); from 1941 onwards, the latter was an assistant of the infamous Institute of Racial Hygiene of Waffen-SS.2053 It seems that Szyszman personally knew Scharlau from whom he received these photos.2054 In 1944, he left Wilno before it was liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet army. He never visited either Poland or Lithuania or any other part of the Soviet Union after this. Nothing is known about the circumstances that forced him to leave his native country for good. In 1947–1948 he worked as a laboratory assistant at the American University in Beirut. There he also was an assistant in the economics section of the

2047 Simon Szyszman, Les Karaїtes d’Europe (Uppsala, 1989), 44, ft. 104. 2048 Lavrin, “In memoriam,” 177. 2049 “Powstanie i pierwszy okres działalności Towarzystwa Miłośników Historji i Literatury Karaimskiej,” MK 10 (1934): 98; AK, 117-118, 124. 2050 See Szyszman’s official request to cancel his membership in MS LMAB F. 143, no. 968a, fol. 12. 2051 P. Rkl., “Simono Šišmano laidotuvės Paryžuje,” Švyturys 10 (1993): 12-13. 2052 Lavrin, “In memoriam,” 177; cf. A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 25.10.1943 (UO, 194); M. Unger, “Fun vanen nemt zih dos Idishe vort ‘yarmelke’?”, Der Tog (26.08.1954), 18. 2053 Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 244. 2054 Cf. Detlev Scharlau to S. Szyszman, 1991 (MS VU F. 243, no. 98). 420 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Polish Institute.2055 In 1947 he visited Syria. In 1949 he moved to Italy and than settled as a Polish refugee in Paris where he stayed until the end of his days. In July 1949 he had already been living in Paris.2056 There he did some historical research in École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonna and Collège de France. This was his private venture which he did without any official scholarly affiliation or position; at the same time he had to work in order to earn living.2057 Thus, he never received any official academic degree apart from that which he had earned in Wilno in 1933. In the 1950s, he became very close to the family of Semen Duvan, the former mayor of Eupatoria; he is mentioned as one of his close friends in Duvan’s testament of 1950.2058 In the 1950s-1980s Szyszman travelled around the world and visited the Karaite historical centres and communities of Damascus, Cairo, and Istanbul. In October 1953 he visited Cairo.2059 From September to November 1955 Szyszman visited the capital of Turkey during the so-called “Istanbul pogrom.” His Paris friends (especially S. Duvan) worried a lot about him, but later they received a parcel from Szyszman and stopped worrying.2060 He subsequently visited Istanbul in 1973. In Paris he changed his address several times. In the 1950s, Szyszman lived in Paris at 61 Rue Brancion; in the 1990 at 33 Rue des Deux Ponts. Some people who personally knew Szyszman mentioned that one of the rooms of his apartment was full of numerous Karaite manuscripts collected by Szyszman during his travels.2061 In 1983 Szyszman started editing “Bulletin d’Études Karaïtes” (three issues appeared in 1983, 1989, and 1993,2062 published by Peeters in Louvain) – undoubtedly, one of the most interesting periodicals dedicated to Karaite studies. Contributors to BEK published their articles in French, German, English, and Italian. Unfortunately, Szyszman’s editorial policy led to the acceptance for publication in this periodical a number of studies that lacked objectivity and academic merit; moreover, approximately 20-30% of each issue contained Szyszman’s own quite tendentious articles and reviews. Nevertheless, some of the articles published in BEK have indubitable scholarly value.

2055 Jan Draus, “Polskie ośrodki naukowe na Bliskim i Środkowym Wschodzie w latach 1941-1950,” Rozprawy z dziejów Oświaty 29 (1986): 150. 2056 S. Szyszman to Hj. Lindroth, Paris, 5.07.1949, French (MS VU F. 243, no. 1). 2057 Adam Heymowski, “Préface,” in Szyszman, Les Karaїtes, 13. 2058 S.E. Duvan, Ya liubliu Yevpatoriiu, comp. M.V. Kutaisova, V.A. Kutaisov (Simferopol, 2013), 132- 134. 2059 Simon Szyszman, “Une visite au Caire,” Vetus Testamentum 4 (1954): 201-205. 2060 VU F. 243, no. 8; cf. idem, “Communauté karaïte d’Istamboul,” Vetus Testamentum 6 (1956): 309-315; idem, “Istanbul Karayları,” Istanbul Enstitüsü Dergisi 3 (1957): 97-102; idem, “Les Karaïtes d’Istanboul,” ibid., 103-108. 2061 If this information is true, the destiny of this collection remains unknown. In his publications Szyszman himself never mentioned the fact that he ever possessed any number of manuscripts; to my knowledge, all of his belongings (including his diary in Russian) that remained after his death were sent to Poland to his brother and sister. 2062 The last issue appeared already after Szyszman’s death. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 421

From 1990 he was accommodated under the constant care of Rothschild Foundation located on Rue de Picpus.2063 He died in Paris in 1993 at the age of 84, and was buried in Bagneux cemetery.2064 The Psalms were read during his burial.2065 According to Victor Escoignard, a few months prior to his death he completely changed his negative opinion about the state of Israel: “He many times with deep regret repeated that he had been mistaken.”2066 Lithuanian journalists reported that during his last days he had been working together with Ž. Mikšys on a Lithuanian translation of his study.2067 Some of his working materials, as well as unpublished and private correspondence, were transferred to Vilnius, where they formed a separate archival collection housed in the manuscript department of the Vilnius University. He apparently started transferring his personal archive to Vilnius some time before his death.2068 Most of the documents kept in the Szyszman collection are rather of biographical than of scholarly value. Especially important is his personal correspondence which contains letters of such interesting Karaite and non-Karaite figures as the Tatar nationalist Cafer Seydamet, Russian émigré journalist V.K. Abdank-Kossovskii, historians George Vernadsky and Jan Tyszkiewicz, Hebraist Leon Nemoy, Karaite activists Yurii Polkanov, Rahamiel Qanaї, Semita Kushul’, archaeologist Igor Baranov, translator Leonard Fox, and many others.2069 In the 2000s his private diary, which he kept in Russian, was kept in a Warsaw Karaite family.2070 It seems that throughout his life Szyszman sustained virtually no contacts with other East European Karaite scholars and religious leaders, such as Zajączkowski, Szapszał, Levi-Babovich, Dubiński, et al. Moreover, he very seldom, and rather reluctantly, refers to their publications in his works. Szapszał’s archival collection in Vilnius (F. 143) does not contain a single letter from Szyszman, in spite of the fact that all other representatives of Karaite scholarly circles considered it their duty to be in correspondence with the former ḥakham (ḥakhan) even after his renunciation of the office. His reasons for not having contacts with other Karaite scholars (see the quotation from Abrahamowicz above) may be explained, perhaps, only by Szyszman’s personal idiosyncrasies and a wish to be completely independent in his

2063 Willi, “Simon Szyszman,” 197. 2064 Dubiński, “Szymon Szyszman,” 94-96. 2065 V.S. Glagolev, Religiia karaimov (Moscow, 1994), 128 (the author apparently received this information from M.S. Sarach). 2066 Escoignard, “Prologue.” 2067 P. Rkl., “Simono Šišmano,” 12-13. 2068 Ibid.; VU F. 243, Simonas Šišmanas. 2069 VU F. 243, nos. 2, 8, 30, 36, 56, 78, 86, 89, 93, 117, 125. 2070 Unfortunately, there is very little chance that this diary will ever be published. Its current whereabouts remain unknown. The late Mr. Bogusław Firkowicz recorded some of his conversations with Michał Szyszman, Szymon’s brother (as referred to in Dubiński, “Karaimi i ich cmentarz,” 161, ft. 71). These records may be a valuable source of information on Szyszman’s biography. 422 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

conclusions. Many enigmatic details in Szyszman’s life and activities undoubtedly could be clarified by information contained in his private diary.

***

Szyszman’s scholarly legacy consists of two separate books and several dozen articles in a host of languages, often printed also as separate offprints. His concept of Karaite history represents a paradoxical mixture of militant Khazar ideology reminiscent of Szapszał’s works and traditional pre-Szapszał Judeo-Karaite values. To give an example, although he considered the Karaites to be descendants of the Khazars, he praised Firkowicz who in fact attempted to prove that the Karaites were descendants of ancient Judaens and Israelites. Szyszman’s extravagant theories (conversion of Berber tribes to Karaism, arrival of the Karaites in Poland-Lithuania before the thirteenth century, Sadocite origin of early Karaism and many other) were not recognized not only by non-Karaite scholars, but even by many Karaite authors either. One may ask a question whether Szyszman possessed enough skills and knowledge to become a professional historian. As has been mentioned above, he was a chemist by education who did not have a degree (or proper training) either in history or theology. As to his linguistic abilities, he was certainly able to read and speak Slavic (Russian and Polish), West European languages (French, German, English, and Latin) and apparently Lithuanian.2071 The fact that he never used original Karaite sources in his studies (seldom in English and German translations) leads one to the conclusion that he was apparently unable to work in Hebrew,2072 Arabic, or Judeo-Arabic. The same caveat applies to the sources in Turkic languages (Karaim, Crimean Tatar and Ottoman Turkish). Furthermore, for unknown reasons he apparently did not, would not or could not cross the border of the countries of the Eastern bloc. This is why he could not travel to the Soviet Union to make research in the local Karaite archives and collections. His research activity was, thus, limited to Western Europe, Turkey and

2071 In one article he examines the origin of the Lithuanian word žirgas (horse) (Simon Szyszman, “Aus dem Nachlaß mongolisch-litauischer Beziehungen,” in Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte und deren Nachleben, ed. Ruth Stiehl, Hans Erich Stier (Berlin, 1970), 248-250). He has added annotations in Lithuanian to his archival documents (e.g. MS VU F. 243, no. 78). 2072 To my knowledge, he only once quoted a few phrases in Hebrew (idem, “Une visite au Caire,” 201-205). Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 423

Arab countries (it is unclear whether or not he had ever visited Israel2073). Again, Szyszman’s biographer should raise a question: how and why Szyszman attempted to write a biography of Abraham Firkowicz without ever consulting his private archive in St. Petersburg? How could he think he was able to defend Firkowicz’s epigraphic “discoveries” without appropriate knowledge of Hebrew palaeography and without visiting the Karaite cemetery in the valley of Jehosapath in Crimea which contained tombstone inscriptions published by Firkowicz? How could he feel himself able to write about Firkowicz without ever reading a single of Firkowicz’s publications which were composed in Hebrew and Crimean Tatar – the languages that he apparently was unable to read?2074 His first publication was a series of small notes (chronicle of events in Wilno, Troki and Łuck) published in “Myśl Karaimska” in 1929 under the penname “S. Sz-n” which seems to stand for “Szymon Szyszman”.2075 Especially important was his note on the visit of Seraja Szapszał to Łuck from 16 to 21.05.1929.2076 His next article was somewhat surprisingly published… only 20 years later, in 1949, in a Polish periodical as a result of his temporarily stay in Beirut.2077 He continued his scholarly activity in the 1950s. Being much impressed by the discovery of the , Szyszman decided to dedicate several articles to these documents, discussing their supposed

2073 He described the devastation of the Karaite cemetery in Jerusalem as if he personally saw it and also provided some photos of the site (Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 132-135, 203-204, plates 23-24). On the other hand, he could receive the photos and information from other visitors to Israel or members of the local Karaite community. Nota bene, plate 24, which demonstrates “the desecrated graves” of the Karaite cemetery in Jerusalem, in fact… represents a photo of certain unidentified earth works and scattered building blocks. It is possible that these earth works indeed took place in the territory of the cemetery, but the fact remains the same – the photo does not contain “desecrated graves”. 2074 I.a. this is testified by the fact that from a few scores of articles, pamphlets, poems and books composed by Firkovich in these two languages Szyszman referred to one work only – Sefer avne zikkaron (Wilno, 1872). That he provides the subtitle of the book in Russian (not in Hebrew!) – especially when combined with the fact that he never cited Firkovich or provided exact references with such details as page numbers and suchlike – is another argument in favour of the hypothesis that Szyszman never read the original of this work. 2075 S. Sz-n [Szymon Szyszman], “Życie karaimskie w Polsce” [contains: Wilno-Troki: Archiwum przy karaimskim Zarządzie Duchownym; Wycieczki i wizyty; Orach Toju; Mianowanie; Łuck: Z pobytu Pana Prezydenta w Łucku; Wizytacja Arcypasterska], MK 2:2 (1929): 41-42. 2076 Idem, “Wizytacja Arcypasterska,” MK 2:2 (1929): 41-42. 2077 Idem, “‘Caraitica’ syryjskie,” in Teka bejrucka / Cahiers de Beyrouth, zesz. A: Rozprawy i miscellanea (Beirut, 1949), 181-83, 197. 424 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

early Karaite origin.2078 It was under the influence of this discovery that he developed a highly extravagant theory about the origin of Karaite movement from certain Bne’ Ṣadoq (ṣadiqqim or Sadokites/Zadokites), followers of the righteous High Priest Zadok whose names is mentioned in the Bible (II Sam. 8: 17, I Kings 1: 26, 35). According to Szyszman these mysterious Sadokites, who were absolutely different from Sadducees, should be identified with the Essenes and Therapheutes who, in turn, were inhabitants of Qumran. In his view, early Karaites, headed by Anan ben David, were but descendants of these ancient Sadokites.2079 Needless to say, this theory has not been accepted by any serious student of Karaism or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Of scholarly value, is his publication of several documents related to the trip of Gustav Peringer to Lithuania in 1690,2080 although there, perhaps, for the first time in his biography he resorted to the direct manipulation of historical truth. On p. 219 of this article, in order to show that the Karaites were valorous warriors, he quotes Peringers’s letters: “dieses Volk [ist] von geringer Zahl, deshalb, weil sie in der Kindheit schon in den Krieg ziehen.” This citation, however, does make sense only if it is quoted in full: “Dieses Volk ist von geringer Zahl, deshalb weil sie in der Kindheit schon in den Krieg ziehen, damit sie so der Verfolgung der anderen Juden

2078 Idem, “Rękopisy Morza Martwego,” Kultura 9/71 (1953): 114-122; idem, “Nowe odkrycia” (Paris, 1954; offprint from “Kultura”); idem, “À propos du Karaïsme et des textes de la Mer Morte,” Vetus Testamentum 2 (1952): 343-348. See also his later publications about the connections between the early Karaites and Qumranites: idem, “La Communauté de la Nouvelle Alliance et le Karaïsme,” in Actes du 16e Congrés international de Sociologie (19-26.9.1954) (Beaune, 1954), 189-202 (non vidi); idem, “À propos du recent livre de M. H.E. Del Medico,” Revue de Qumran 1 (1958): 135-138; idem, “Ascèse et pauvreté dans la doctrine karaïte,” Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 11: 4 (1959): 373-380; idem, “Esdras-Maїtre des sadocites,” in Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Orientalists (Wiesbaden, 1971), 152-154; idem, “La redécouverte du karaïsme à la lumière de nouveaux documents,” Revue de l’Association des Médecins Israélites de France 281 (1979): 1106-1113; no. 283 (1980): 1250-1263; idem, “Une source auxiliaire importante pour les études qumrâniennes: les collections Firkowicz,” in Qumrân: sa piété, sa théologie et son milieu, ed. M. Delcor et al. (Paris, 1978), 61-73; idem, “Das Karäertum in seinen Beziehungen zum Essänertum in der Sicht einiger Autoren des 17. Und 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Bibel und Qumran: Beiträge zur Erforschung der Beziehungen zwischen Bibel- und Qumranwissenschaft: Hans Bardtke zum 22.9.1966, ed. Siegfried Wagner (Berlin, 1968), 226- 231. 2079 This theory is mentioned in many of his publications. The most clear-cut formulation of this extravagant theory is to be found in a short type-written leaflet composed by Szyszman apparently in the 1960s ([Szymon Szyszman], Kratkii ocherk karaimskoi istorii (na pravakh rukopisi), N.p., n.d., 2-7). To my knowledge, this leaflet is not available in any public library, although it seems to be the only Szyszman’s work composed by him in Russian; I got a copy of this leaflet from the late Bogusław Firkowicz in Warsaw. Some of Szyszman’s articles appeared in Russian after his death (idem, “Karaizm kak uchenie i ego rasprostranenie v mire,” Qasevet 1 (1994): 32-35; idem, “Karaimy v Krymskom khanstve,” Qasevet 1 (1994): 47-48). 2080 Idem, “Gustaf Peringers Mission bei den Karäern,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Geselschaft 102: 2 (1952): 215-228. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 425

entgehen.”2081 It is evident from the full citation that this source does not provide any information on the non-existent involvement of the Karaites in warfare. Furthermore, from reading this article, one may get the wrong impression that Szyszman was the first to “discover” Peringers diary. In fact, the first serious publication on this source was made in 1938 by Ananiasz Zajączkowski.2082 Szyszman, who certainly knew about the existence of this article, did not even mention it, apparently because of his personal animosity with regard to Zajączkowski. Although he himself never composed a single forgery, he often resorted to manipulation of information received from historical sources. To give another example, in his article of 1975 he published a lithograph by Carl Huhn depicting four Karaite characters in the vicinity of the Çufut Kale kenesa. While publishing the lithograph Szyszman left on it three figures (Abraham Firkowicz and his relatives), but erased the fourth one.2083 Szyszman “censored out” this fourth character because he thought that this had been Firkowicz’s Rabbanite secretary, Ephraim Deinard, whom Szyszman passionately disliked. Szyszman’s decision was based on a funny misunderstanding: in fact this character should be identified with the Karaite ḥazzan Solomon Beim and not with Deinard who at the time when Huhn made his lithograph was but a young boy. Thus, wishing to erase the presence of Firkowicz’s Rabbanite secretary, Szyszman in fact censored out the only portrait of Solomon Beim. Such a biased and prejudiced approach is certainly inacceptable for any sort of professional historical study. In opposition to all previous Karaite scholarship according to which the Karaites arrived in Lithuania during Vitold’s times, Szyszman developed a theory about the insignificance of the role of Vitold for the Karaite resettlement in Poland and Lithuania. In his view, the earliest Karaite settlers of Halicz, Lwów, and Troki were direct descendants of the Khazars and Kumans who had appeared there much earlier than the period of Vitold’s reign, presumably in the eleventh – thirteenth centuries. Furthermore, the Karaites who migrated to Lithuania at the end of the fourteenth century represented only the last (not the first!) wave of Karaite settlers. In his opinion, anthropological and linguistic differences between the Karaites of Łuck and those of Troki argue against the simultaneous settlement of these two communities. He considered that Vitold was only “le promoteur” of the Karaites’ settlement in Lithuania; moreover, Vitold’s role in the resettlement of the Karaites was enormously overestimated by later historians mesmerized by his name and glory. According to Szyszman, the Karaite settlers in Galicia-Volhynia and Lithuania, who came to

2081 Ibid., 226. 2082 Ananiasz Zajączkowski, “Najstarsza wiadomość o języku tureckim Karaimów w Polsce (z XVII. w.),” MK 12 (1937-38): 90-99. 2083 Idem, “Les passionants manuscrits d’Abraham Firkowicz,” Archeologia. Tresor des ages 78 (1975) (see the last page of the jacket of the periodical). 426 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

Lithuania as early as in the thirteenth-fourteenth century, were direct descendants of the Khazars and Kumans who had come there from the Khazar kingdom and Desht-i Kypchak.2084 Again, this theory is not based on any historical sources and it does not seem very likely that the Karaites arrived in Poland and Lithuania earlier than the fourteenth century (certainly not in the eleventh or twelfth).2085 Equally non-academic seems to be Szyszman’s theory about the adoption of Karaism as a religion by north-African Berber tribes.2086 Szyszman is right in drawing our attention to the works by Johannis Leo de Medici (Ioannis Leo Africanus) and Louis Massignon as a source of information about the alleged Karaite presence in North Africa.2087 Neverthelles, p. 159 of Massignon’s book (as referred to by Szyszman) possesses no information about the Karaites at all. At the same time pp. 157-158 of this study state that these Moroccan Israelites were in fact “pseudo-Karaїtes” who arrived in the area in the seventh century A.D. (i.e. earlier than the beginning of the Karaite movement)! Furthermore, there is no evidence in the sources that any number of the Berbers ever converted to Karaism. Szyszman states that the Karaite poet Moses D’rai (sic) lived in the ninth century and was most likely from the alleged Karaite centre in D’ra valley. This is also a mistake. Although it is possible that the parents of Moses ben Abraham Dar‘ī (sic) indeed for a while lived in Dara/Draa region in Morocco, they moved there from Spain; Moses Dar‘ī himself was born in Alexandria and spent all of his life in Egypt in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Thus, his life-story cannot be possibly used as evidence of the existence of the large Karaite community in Morocco.2088 Szyszman extensively wrote about Abraham Firkowicz and tried to prove that the latter had never been engaged in falsifying written and epigraphic sources.2089 During the last years of his life Szyszman had been preparing a lengthy monograph dedicated to the life and activities of Abraham Firkowicz. The monograph was

2084 Idem, Les Karaїtes d’Europe (Uppsala, 1989), 38-43; idem, “Zamek najeziorny w Trokach i jego obrońcy,” Pamiętnik Wileński (1972): 384-392; idem, “Die Karäer in Ost-Mitteleuropa,” Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 6:1 (1957): 27-36. 2085 For details, see Kizilov, Karaites of Galicia, 30-40. 2086 Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 61-63; idem, “Le Karaïsme parmi les Berbères du Maghreb,” in Intertestamental Essays in Honour of Józef Tadeusz Milik (Kraków, 1992), 343-347. 2087 Louis Massignon, Le Maroc dans les premières années du XVIe siècle (Alger, 1906). 2088 Leon J. Weinberger, Jewish Poet in Muslim Egypt: Moses Dar‘ī’s Hebrew Collection (Leiden, 2000), 1-50 (English part). 2089 Szyszman, “Les passionants manuscrits;” idem, “Centenaire de la mort de Firkowicz,” Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 28 (1975): 196-216; idem, “Les inscriptions funéraires découvertes par Abraham Firkowicz,” Journal Asiatique (1975): 231-164; idem, “A. Firkowicz, faussaire de génie ou collectionneur hors pair?” Bulletin de la Société Ernest-Renan n.s. 23 (1974): 18-2; ibid., Revue de l’histoire des religions 187 (1975): 132-135; idem, “Systèmes chronologiques inconnus: les ères découvertes par Firkowicz,” in De la Tôrah au Messie: études d’exégèse et d’herméneutique bibliques offertes à Henri Cazelles (Paris, 1981), 575-585. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 427

supposed to be a final and decisive blow to all opponents of Firkowicz starting from the time of Abraham Harkavy.2090 As has been mentioned above, Szyszman composed his publications without ever reading Firkowicz’s publications, without consulting Firkowicz’s archival collections in St. Petersburg or conducting epigraphic research on Crimean Karaite cemeteries. This is apparently why Szyszman arrived at such erroneous conclusions: both nineteenth-century and modern research unequivocally proved the fact that Firkowicz certainly did falsify both written and epigraphic sources.2091 A number of Szyszman’s publications were dedicated to Khazar history. According to him, the Khazars converted to Karaism in the eighth century in Crimea;2092 in one article he claimed that the conversion took place in Crimean town of Khersonesos.2093 All these statements are fundamentally wrong. According to authoritative specialists in the field, the Khazars converted to Rabbinic Judaism. Furthermore, this event took place much later, at the end of the eighth – early ninth century; the alleged conversion took place not in the remote Crimea, but in capital cities of Khazar Kaganate outside Crimea.2094 His publications were also dedicated to such varied topics as the history of the Byzantine Karaites,2095 anniversary of the Troki Karaite consistory,2096 Pushkin’s finger- ring,2097 Ben Asher’s family of Karaite masoretes,2098 the family of Solomon Krym,2099

2090 For the draft and working materials for the monograph, see MS VU F. 243, no. 59. 2091 For detailed bibliography and most recent analysis of the problem, see Dan Shapira, Avraham Firkowicz in Istanbul (1830-1832): Paving the Way for Turkic Nationalism (Ankara, 2003). 2092 Simon Szyszman, “Le roi Bulan et le problème de la conversion des Khazars,” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 33: 1 (1957): 68-76; idem, “Le mythe d’un royaume juif khazar,” Le Monde 10310 (24.03.1978): 20 (polemics with Koestler’s “Thirteenth Tribe”); idem, “Les Khazars: problèmes et controverses,” Revue de l’histoire des religions 152 (1957): 174-221; idem, “La question des Khazars: essai de mise au point,” JQR, n.s. 73 (1982-83): 189-202; idem, “Le roi Bulan et le problème de la conversion des Khazars,” in X. Milletlerarasi Bizans Tetkikleri Kongresi tebligleri/Actes du X. Congrès International d’Études Byzantines (Istanbul, 15-21.IX.1955) (Istanbul, 1957), 249-252; idem, “Le roi Bulan et le problème de la conversion des Khazars,” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovaniensis 33 (1957): 68-76; idem, “Decouverte de la Khazarie,” Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 25: 3 (1970). 2093 Idem, “Où la conversion du roi Khazar Bulan a-t-elle eu lieu?” in Hommages à André Dupont- Sommer (Paris, 1971), 523-538. 2094 Peter Golden, “Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism,” in The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives (Leiden/Boston, 2007), 123-162; Kizilov, Krymskaia Iudeiia, 69. 2095 Szymon Szyszman, “Les Karaïtes de Byzance,” BEK 3 (1993): 55-75. 2096 Idem, “Stuliecie karaimskiego zarządu duchownego w Trokach,” Teki Historyczne 8 (1956- 1957): 70-73; reprinted as idem, “Stuliecie karaimskiego zarządu duchownego w Trokach,” RM 4:3 (1995): 90-93. 2097 Idem, “Le ‘talisman’ de Pouchkine,” BEK 1 (1983): 77-84. 2098 Idem, “La famille des massorètes karaïtes Ben Asher et le Codex Alepensis,” Revue biblique 73 (1966): 531-551. 2099 [Szymon Szyszman?], “La famille Krym,” BEK 3 (1993): 89-98. 428 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European sources on the Karaites,2100 and the biography of the Karaite military hero, lieutenant Mark Tapsashar.2101 In these smaller publications Szyszman was much less tendentious and apologetic than in his other oeuvres; therefore, these studies which indeed provide us with some new valuable data and sources deserve perhaps more attention than others. A small leaflet, entitled “The Spiritual Leader of the Karaites or a Destroyer of Their Historico- Cultural Legacy?” is useful for those who would like to get a critical perspective on the biography of the professor Ananiasz Zajączkowski.2102 A few less objective articles focused on the history of Egyptian2103 and Istanbul Karaites;2104 quite disputable seems to be his theory that Ben Ezra synagogue of Cairo, where the famous genizah containing thousands of Hebrew documents was discovered, had originally belonged to the Karaites and not to the local Rabbanite community.2105 Quite doubtful are also his hypotheses not directly related to Karaite history.2106 His major oeuvre was undoubtedly the French monograph, Le Karaїsme: ses doctrines et son histoire (Lausanne, 1980). Although, in our opinion, this book has virtually no academic merit as written by the amateur author who did not know necessary languages and skills of a professional historian and theologian, it was

2100 Idem, “Lettres de Jan Wandorph (XVIIe siècle),” BEK 1 (1983): 87-88; idem, “Correspondance entre Metternich et Sir Travers Twiss,” BEK 1 (1983): 85-87. 2101 Idem, “Un exploit du lieutenant Marc Tapsašar lors du siège de Port-Arthur,” BEK 3 (1993): 76-80; cf. miscellaneous materials for the article on which he started working ca. 1950 (MS VU F. 243, no. 2). 2102 Idem, Przywódca duchowy Karaimów. This pamphlet was finished in Paris, in July, 1965. Zajączkowski, in turn, also personally knew Szyszman and in 1944 even had a dream in which he for some reason saw Szyszman (A. Zajączkowski to T. Kowalski, 20.09.1944 (UO, 202)). 2103 Simon Szyszman, “Note sur la structure sociale;” idem, “La communauté karaïte égyptienne: une fin tragique,” BEK 3 (1993): 81-88; idem, “Les Karaïtes égyptiens et leur trésor,” Le monde copte 6 (1979): 37-43. 2104 Idem, “Communauté karaïte d’Istamboul ;” idem, “Istanbul Karayları;” idem, “Les Karaïtes d’Istanboul.” 2105 Idem, “Sur la Geniza du Caire,” Vetus Testamentum 3 (1953): 411-413; idem, [review of two books by Paul Kahle], Vetus Testamentum 17:2 (1967): 248-251; idem, “Une visite au Caire,” Vetus Testamentum 4:2 (1954): 201-205. 2106 Idem, “Le nom de ‘Ozair (Coran IX, 30) et ses interprétations,” Comptes rendus du GLECS 11 (1967): 147-153; idem, “Les troupes hongroises au service d’Andronic Comnène,” in Akten des XI. Internationalen Byzantinisten-Kongresses 1958 (Munich, 1960), 599-603. Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 429

translated into four languages and reviewed in serious academic periodicals.2107 It was published with a Latin subtitle on p. 6 as a volumen primum of the series Bibliotheca Karaitica: studia de doctrina, historia, lingua et ethnographia karaeorum complectens. Apparently, Szyszman intended to publish it as the first volume in the series. Nevertheless, the second volumen has never been published – and the idea of the series was apparently altogether abandoned. Quite odd seems to be the author’s conscious preference to write the name of the movement, the Karaites (“les karaїtes”) from the small and not from the capital letter.2108 Another odd feature is a complete absence of Hebrew terms used to designate Karaite religious and administrative authorities such as ḥakham, ḥazzan, gabbai, mitpallel, shammash and others; the term kenesa is not used by him either.2109 Although Szyszman attempted to write a scholarly study, sometimes his vehement diatribes against the Rabbanites or Karaites who, for some reason, did not evoke his sympathy, are rather reminiscent of journalists’ articles published in yellow press.2110 The structure of the book looks quite chaotic and disorganized: although it claims to be a review of the whole complexity of Karaism as a religious phenomenon, the book comprises only 247 pages. 74 pages (pp. 1-10, 183-247), i.e. circa one fourth of the book, are dedicated to technical

2107 Idem, Karaizmas: doktrinos ir istorija, transl. Petras Račius (Vilnius, 2000); idem, Das Karäertum: Lehre und Geschichte, transl. Peter Weiss (Vienna, 1983; this translation differs from the French original and has some sections added by the author); idem, Karaimizm: historia i doktryna, trans. Irena Jaroszyńska, Anna Abkowicz (Wrocław, 2005; the Polish translation was published without original indices and photos); idem, Karaism. Its Doctrines and History, transl. Leonard Fox (unpublished; typescript; in January 2014 could be downloaded from ). I have also seen a typescript Russian translation done by L.I. Kaia in the 1970s in the private collection of Oleg Belyi (Sevastopol). It is important to notice that many of Szyszman’s publications were translated by L.I. Kaia in the 1970s and distributed among the Karaites of the USSR as handwritten or typewritten academic samizdat. 2108 Apparently Szyszman did so to emphasize that “les karaїtes” is not an ethnic, but a religious term which should be written from a small letter in accordance with the French orthography. Nevertheless, later Szyszman abandoned this idea and returned to writing the term from the capital letter (“les Karaїtes”). 2109 E.g. A. Naїman (sic for ḥazzan S. Neiman) is called prêtre (priest) while S. Pampulov (sic for ḥakham S. Panpulov) is called simply chef religieux (Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 111, ft. 19). Instead of the term kenesa he normally used the word sanctuaire (shrine). 2110 E.g. ibid., 53, 109-110, 128, 129-135, 154 and passim. In one of his articles he stated that Yakov Grigor’evich (sic for Georgievich) Blagodarnyi’s “main scholarly qualification consisted of his magnificent beard which always allowed him to point out how much is he similar to Karl Marx” (idem, “Zum Niedergang des Karäertums und seiner Zentren: Eine karäische Stimme zum Untergang unersetzlicher geistigen und materiellen karäischen Erbes,” Judaica 49 (1993): 203). Also, reknown Russian and Soviet historian, E.V. Tarle, is, inexplicably, presented as “Stalinist professor of unhappy memory [de triste mémoire]” (ibid., 146, ft. 24). In his other book Szyszman dedicated the whole passage to his complicated relations with Georges S. Colin and Georges Vajda which ends up with the description of how the latter “went away with ironic smile on his lips” (idem, Les Karaїtes, 87, postscriptum to ft. 26). 430 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

matters such as title pages, abbreviations, indices, bibliography, table of contents and suchlike. In the indices, the reader suddenly finds commentaries of two-to- three pages and dedicated to such simplistic terms as, say, “Falachas” or “Sadok” or “Samaritains”. Many publications referred to in the footnotes are not in the bibliography; misprints and factual mistakes are too numerous to be listed. Although the book is written in a rather easy popular manner, some footnotes last 2-3 pages which make its reading rather difficult. Szyszman at length discusses his more than doubtful hypotheses about the Khazar origin of the East European Karaites or about “Sadocite-Essene” background of Karaism (pp. 34-48, 66-77). On the other hand, it suffices him seven pages to characterize the main principles of Karaism (26-33) and only five (!) to survey the development of the Karaite religious tradition and literature from the eighth through the nineteenth century (pp. 49-54). These two sections, which theoretically should be the central part of the book entitled “Karaism: its doctrines and history”, do not have a single (!) reference to Karaite sources either in Hebrew or in Judeo-Arabic. Thus, it appears that the lack of proper language training had limited the author from a full acquaintance with the rich medieval and early modern Karaite literary legacy.2111 There is no word in the book about the Karaites’ religious calendar, structure of the community or ceremonies such as betrothal, wedding, dietary and impurity laws, funerals, fasts, mourning, etc. Szyszman’s attitude towards many important Karaite authors and leaders sometimes appears to have been determined by his personal preferences and not by historical facts. Thus, for example, the famous fifteenth-century Karaite exegete, Eliyahu Bashiachi (Bashyaṣi), is inexplicably referred to as “a person of superficial

2111 Perhaps, the only Karaite source that Szyszman really was acquainted with was a part of al- Qirqisani’s book in Nemoy’s translation (Leon Nemoy, “Al-Qirqisani’s Account of the Jewish Sects and Christianity,” Hebrew Union College Annual 7 (1930): 317-397). His knowledge of other Karaite works was apparently based on the studies by Abraham Harkavy and Zvi Ankori (Szyszman refered only to Harkavy’s and Ankori’s translations and never used original editions of works by Karaite exegetes). Perhaps, a few other select examples (out of many) may illustrate his evident lack of knowledge of East European Karaite history and Karaism in general. In his books he mentioned the name of A. Naїman, Karaite collector of books who, after the death of Samuel Panpulov, temporary fulfilled the duties of the Odessa and Taurida ḥakham (Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 119, ft. 19; idem, Les Karaїtes, 84, ft. 248 (here the name is corrupted to A. Maїman)). However, such a figure never existed. He certainly meant here Samuel Moiseevich Neiman (from Heb. neeman – faithful; 1844-1916) who after the death of ḥakham Panpulov indeed fulfilled his duties. Szyszman stated that memoires of Samuel Pigit were partially published in Russian in 1911 (ibid., 84, ft. 248); this means that he was not aware of the fact that the full version of Pigit’s memoirs was printed in Hebrew as early as 1894 (Shemuel ben Shemariyah Pigit, Iggeret Niddeḥey Shemu

thought, who did not understand the spirit of his own religion.”2112 Another reknown Karaite savant and pedagogue, Eliyahu (Il’ia Il’ich) Kazaz (1832-1912), is characterized by him as “a pseudo-rationalist, lacking profound faith, detached from [Karaite] traditions, without any sense of reality.”2113 He bitterly criticizes Toviyah Levi- Babovich and his activity in Egypt without even providing his name (pp. 128-129); the fact of the execution of “un jeune homme karaїte” by the Egyptian government is mentioned, but the name of the executed person – Moshe Marzouk – is not (p. 129). Seraja Szapszał, Levi-Babovich, and Ananiasz Zajączkowski are mentioned in the bibliography, but not mentioned at all in indices – even though there Szyszman at great length discusses biographies of practically all the Karaites mentioned in his book. Other important Karaite authors who wrote about the history of the East European Karaism before 1980 (e.g. W. Zajączkowski, J. Sulimowicz, A. Dubiński, A. Mardkowicz, and Sz. Firkowicz2114) are not mentioned there at all – either negatively or positively. On the other hand, this book and other studies of Szyszman contain futile attempts to exonerate Firkowicz and his forgeries. And yet even Firkowicz is characterized by him as a person “without either academic education, or any idea as to the way one should proceed with archaeological research or with the study of manuscripts… His naïve interpretations made him, and his discoveries, the butt of ridicule in the eyes of the scholars.”2115 As has been mentioned above, the analysis of the whole corpus of Karaite exegetical literature consists of five pages only.2116 Equally brief and superficial is also his survey of Karaite history in the world, while main author’s controversial ideas (e.g. mass conversion of the Berbers to Karaism, the Karaites’ military service in the Polish- Lithuanian army, and their Khazar origin) are not based on any historical evidence. Although the author himself was a great champion of Turkic values and identity of the East European Karaites, he did not cite a single source or secondary article in any of their Turkic languages, be it Karaim, Crimean Tatar or Ottoman Turkish. From all the wealth of the twentieth-century Karaite periodicals he cites publications which

2112 Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 53. 2113 Ibid., 109. This stands in utter contrast to what other Karaite and non-Karaite authors say about this Karaite sage and pedagogue. 2114 Although he bitterly critized Szemaja/Szymon Firkowicz’s brochure “Karaimi w Polsce,” Szyszman did not mention Firkowicz’s name and calls him “half-literate author” (autor semi-lettré) who published his brochure while “seeking personal fame” (Szyszman, Les Karaїtes, 84, ft. 247). There is no doubt that the ḥazzan, translator, community leader and prolific poet Szemaja Firkowicz, with his excellent knowledge of religious tradition, Hebrew and Turkic languages, did not deserve such a pejorative characterization. 2115 Idem, Le Karaїsme, 159, ft. 48. Having read these statements, Semita Kushul’, a Karaite activist from Eupatoria, wrote to Szyszman: “Вы даже перещеголяли врага №1 Фирковича – Деинарда, который о Фирковиче, как о человеке всё же отзывался хорошо” (S. Kushul’ to S. Szyszman, 4.08.1992, Russian; VU F. 243, no. 86). 2116 Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 49-54. 432 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

appeared only in one of them – “Myśl Karaimska” (apparently, being able to navigate only through West European libraries he simply could not find there rare Karaite periodicals in the Russian and Karaim languages that are available only in East European libraries). The book has an evident anti-Rabbanite and anti-Israeli bias, with groundless attempts to discredit importance of scholarly contribution of such important students of Karaism as Abraham Harkavy, Hermann Strack, Zvi Ankori, Salo Baron, Samuel Poznański, Leon Nemoy, Georges Vajda, Alexander Gertsen (Herzen) and others. Most of the abusive accusations hurled at these highly esteemed scholars are not corroborated by any evidence and any source.2117 Szyszman does not even attempt to mask his hostility towards the state of Israel, Zionism, and Rabbanite Judaism in general.2118 In general, his tendency to exaggerate the decline of the Karaite communities in Eastern Europe and the Near East and explain the destruction of their historical and architectural monuments by conscious and systematic actions of some evil anti-Karaite forces (usually identified with Rabbanite Judaism) is incorrect and has virtually no relationship to the real state of things. To sum up, this amateur book lacks either objective examination of sources or proper use of secondary literature; it mostly contains the author’s extravagant

2117 For example, he accused Avraham Harkavy and Ephraim Deinard of the intentional destruction of a number of manuscripts discovered by Firkowicz (ibid., 164, ft. 61; 20). Neither Harkavy nor Deinard have never been guilty of anything such as this. In his other monograph, he stated that un professeur de l’Université de Simféropol (here Szyszman refers to Dr. A.G. Gertsen/Herzen), who was in charge of restoration of the Karaite kenesalar in Çufut Kale, ordered that old roof tiles be removed; as a result of this action rain entered the kenesalar’s interior, the celing and the floor began decaying and the walls almost collapsed (idem, Les Karaїtes, 85-86). In his other article, Szyszman mentioned that these roof tiles had been removed intentionally by Gertsen, with the aim of destroying kenesalar out of sheer hatred (Germ. Hass); here Szyszman also stated that a public toilet was erected next to the kenesalar’s wall (idem, “Zum Niedergang des Karäertums,” 202). Nothing can be further from truth, as that same Dr. Gertsen – as a lecturer of the Simferopol State University – could not possibly have been in charge of the restoration of the kenesalar. This could have been done only by the administration of the Bakhchisaray Historical Reserve. In the course of the aforementioned restauration (which indeed took place in the late 1980s) the old leaking roof tiles were partly replaced with new ones; nevertheless, the walls, ceiling and floor of the both monuments remained intact and can be seen even today. There has never been a public toilet anywhere close to the kenesalar. Szyszman also states that the Karaite cemetery of Halicz was destroyed after WWII and “all the tombstones disappeared” (ibid., 203; idem, Les Karaїtes, 85). Nevertheless, this cemetery, on the contrary, remains one of the few Karaite cemeteries which survived WWII practically intact (Yurchenko et al., Karaїms’ke kladovyshche). There are many similar groundless accusations in both of Szyszman’s books and in many articles. 2118 Szyszman, Le Karaїsme, 129-135. Having criticized Israel’s attitude towards Israeli Karaites, Szyszman nevertheless observes that the natural increase of the local Karaite population is higher than the average in the country (ibid., 135, ft. 60). This certainly stands in utter contrast to what he says about the ultimate persecution of the Karaites in the country. It is noted here that, according to Victor Escoignard, Szyszman completely changed his negative opinion about the state of Israel a few months prior to his death (Escoignard, “Prologue”). Poland’s Most Famous Orientalists: Post-War Karaite Scholars 433

pseudo-scholarly theories and subjective tendencies supported more by his personal preferences than by historical facts. Perhaps the only positive feature of this book is the fact that Szyszman’s active publishing activity turned the interest of both scholarly and non-academic audience to the Karaites and Karaism. Of some use are also a few rare historiographic items that were used by Szyszman2119 and biographical data about a few important Karaite personalities (e.g. Jacob Kefeli and Yeremiah Kodzhak) whom he happened to be personally acquainted with; of interest also is Szyszman’s critique of theories about the alleged Karaite origin of Soviet politician, A.A. Yoffe (1883-1927) and historian, E.V. Tarle (1875-1955). His other monograph, Les Karaїtes d’Europe (Uppsala, 1989), was even smaller (only 94 pp.) and contained the same tendentious approaches, groundless accusations, vehement diatribes, extravagant unproven theories and biases as the first one. Perhaps the only addition was the section on modern Karaism that briefly (perhaps too briefly) characterized the current state of the East European Karaite community.2120 The book was criticized – even by a number of Karaite contemporaries – for its incoherent structure and lengthy accusations against “anonymous persons”.2121 In one of his last articles, Szyszman asks his readers: “Les Karaїtes sont-il destinés à être méconnus?”2122 Perhaps, he himself was one of the main persons responsible for the fact that this question indeed should be asked in Eastern Europe nowadays. Although Szyszman indeed drew our attention to a few previously little known sources on the history of Karaism, his extravagant theories, inattention to scholarly standards and emotional delivery brought even more confusion to the field of Karaite studies, leaving hitherto understudied questions in this field unaddressed. His publications could be drawn upon as a commentary on the state of Karaite historical thought and identity in the twentieth century, however, the utmost caution is advised if one is expecting from Szyszman a truly historical, ethnographic or theological study in Karaism. ***

To sum up, the development of European Oriental studies in the twentieth century is unimaginable without the names of prominent Polish scholars of Karaite origin such as A. Zajączkowski, A. Dubiński and Z. Abrahamowicz. Several other lesser known Karaite scholars also contributed to the field of Oriental studies. Polish Orientalists of Karaite origin continue the scholarly traditions of their people in Poland today (see 6.5).

2119 E.g. his references to the works by Ioannes Leo Africanus, Richard Pococke, and L. Massignon. 2120 Idem, Les Karaїtes, 69-86. 2121 CPK, 269-272. 2122 Simon Szyszman, “ Les Karaїtes sont-il destinés à être méconnus?” BEK 2 (1989): 91-96. 434 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

6.4 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community After the Disintegration of the Soviet Union

The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s was the time of the “velvet” revolutions in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It was only then that the East European Karaites, as well as other ethnic minorities of the region, finally received a chance to revive ethnic and religious traditions suppressed by Soviet ideology. This is the reason why in the 1990s, with the final disintegration of the communist system in Europe, a rebirth of Karaite religious and cultural life began in the lands of the former Soviet Union. A number of periodicals and books were published; four functioning kenesalar were opened (in Troki, Wilno/Vilnius, and two in Eupatoria); there was also a renewed interest in the study of the Karaim language. According to Polish sociologists by the end of the 1980s, because of their small numbers, the Polish Karaite community developed into a group of genetic relatives grouped on the basis of consanguinity and common traditions.2123 The first manifestation of the revival of Karaite traditions in Poland was the “Karaite day” (25.04.1987) organized in the series of interfaith sessions “Encounters of Religions in Pieniężno”.2124 Materials of the session were published as a separate brochure; this publication was often used in Poland afterwards as an authoritative source of information on the local Karaite community. Publication of an independent Karaite periodical was another doubtless indicator of the beginning of the renaissance of the local Karaite community. The periodical was entitled “Awazymyz” (Kar. “Our voice”); the title was undoubtedly an allusion to the titles of two Karaite periodicals of the interwar period: “Karaj Awazy” (“Voice of a Karaite”) and “Sahyszymyz” (“Our thought”). As well as its precursor, “Coś”, the first issue of “Awazymyz” was produced on the typewriter; it was published exactly ten years after “Coś”, in 1989, bearing the subtitle “for internal use.”2125 The second issue appeared ten years later, in 1999 – produced by computer.2126 About the same time, in the second half of the 1980s, changes began in the life of the Lithuanian Karaite community. On 15.05.1988, during the first common gathering of the Lithuanian Karaites, they established the “Group for the support of Karaite culture” which was later renamed the “Society of the Culture of the Karaites of Lithuania”. The next year, local Karaites organized an international gathering of

2123 Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 61. 2124 For the report about this event, see Sławomir Więcek, “Dzień karaimski w Pieniężnie,” PO 145 (1988): 70-71; Zdzisław Grad, “Dzień karaimski w Pieniężnie,” in Karaimi, 3-8. 2125 Awazymyz. Informator kulturalny (do użytku wewnętrznego) (Warszawa, 1989), 16pp. 2126 Awazymyz. Pismo historyczno-społeczne-kulturalne (Wrocław-Gdańsk-Warszawa; 1989–); editorial board: A. Sulimowicz, M Firkowicz, M. Abkowicz, A. Pilecki and H. Pilecki. Now also available online at . The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community After the Disintegration of the Soviet Union 435

the Karaites in Trakai. The event run under the official Karaim name – Utrulašmach (meeting, encounter), gathering ca. 500 Karaite participants from various parts of the Soviet Union and Poland. 2127 In 1991, some time before the August putsch and the break-up of the Soviet Union, a group of American-Israeli Karaites (Mourad El-Qodsi/Kodsi, Ben Massoudah, and Ovadia Gamil)2128 visited most of Crimean, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian Karaite communities. The travellers were driven by the desire to find out the truth about the state of the local communities, which had been, for so many years, cut off from other Karaites by the Iron Curtain. In spite of the lack of knowledge of the local vernacular (either Russian or Polish), the authors made many valuable and insightful observations. What struck the visitors most of all, perhaps, was the loss of original Karaite traditions and the forging of a new ethnic identity:

It is safe to state here that Karaites of Russia and Eastern Europe, though dropping the word “Jews”, did not dissassociate themselves from the Karaite faith as we know it… However, the totalitarian regimes that allowed no religious activities and the passage of time had their detrimental effects on all religions. Karaites in that part of the world found themselves in lack of religious leaders, or even persons who had any knowledge of the principles of the faith. Karaites tried to keep their communities alive so they cleaved to what they could remember: the Karaite calendar, the holy days, what they still remember of their customs and traditions, and even those were effected by changes being mixed with all that they developed. Thus they created a new tradition that is not obscure to them, that they could identify with, that could strengthen their , and finally keep the authorities off their backs. That tradition though part of it is still clings to Karaism, yet there is no doubt that it has very little to do with the original Karaite faith which is a form of Judaism… They abandoned the word “Jews” but they kept the word Karaite to camouflage their retention of Judaism.2129

In 1991, Mourad El-Qodsi counted 154 Karaites in Poland (50 in Warsaw, 50 in Gdańsk, 54 in Wrocław and its vicinity). The general impression of the American Karaite visitor

2127 The data outlined in this passage are based on Kobeckaitė, Kratkii ocherk, 30-32. For a complete list of such events, see Andrzej Rykała, “Przemiany sytuacji społeczno-politycznej polskich Karaimów na tle zmian ich przynależności państwowej,” in Problematyka geopolityczna ziem polskich (Warsaw, 2008), 258-259. 2128 All three members of the group are of Egyptian extraction living nowadays in America and Israel. I had the honour of meeting two members of the group, Ben Massoudah and Ovadia Gamil, in Sep. 2002 at the conference on the history of the Karaite community of Halicz. Following a long illness, Mourad El-Kodsi died in December 2007, shortly after the publication of the second edition of his book on the Egyptian Karaite community (Mourad El-Kodsi, The Karaite Jews of Egypt, 1882-1986 (Rochester, NY, 2007); a word of thanks goes to Leonard Fox for this information). 2129 El-Kodsi, Communities, 28-29. Here and below I have preserved the author’s original syntax and orthography. 436 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

and his colleagues was that the “Karaites in Poland are well educated. Some hold high positions in the government, others are professors, doctors or engineers… Karaites in Warsaw have no synagogue. They have [a] burial place next to the Ashkenazi burial place.”2130 He also counted 280 Karaites in Lithuania (150 in Wilno, 50 in Poniewiez, 80 in Troki). Here, the Karaite delegation also found the same situation as in other East European Karaite communities: on the one hand, the younger generation having lost almost entirely its Karaite tradition; on the other, some of them were very eager to “find the truth about my roots” (as one young Karaitess shouted at them). Many elders still preserved bits of original Karaite tradition. One of them said: “I still remember Yom Kippur… but I have no recollection of Yom Sukkot… We still remember the word Haggadah, but there is no Haggadah to be read, but we still eat the bitter herbs as part of the meal.”2131 At that time, there was only one Karaite family in Łuck; therefore, El-Qodsi did not go there. In July 1991, in the last days of the existence of the Soviet Union, Mourad El-Qodsi and his colleagues visited Halicz to find only a handful of Karaites living there:

In Halisz [sic] we met one Karaite man. All the other Karaites we met there were women. Galina Eshvovich [sic for Janina Eszwowicz] a responsible member there, told us that the Karaite community had a very beautiful synagogue… They have a burial place of their own which is still in good condition […] When Galina [Janina] opened the gate, the three Haliszians knelt down, kissed the earth then stood up. Then they put a handkerchief on a tomb and kissed the handkerchief.2132 The burial place is of two parts, one for all the deceased, the other one for the victims of the Bubonic plague…2133 When we were done with our visit, Ovadia recited in Hebrew [a] memorial for all the deceased. The minute we finished, Swetlana, a 65 year old lady, took his hands and kissed them saying “Hazzan… Hazzan”.2134

After the demise of the Soviet Union and the establishment of independent Ukraine in August-December 1991, the remaining Halicz Karaites changed their nationality again – and now became Ukrainian citizens. Even in the 1990s, the remaining members of the local community managed to preserve some elements of the genuine Karaite tradition, language, and ethnic culture. Despite the absence of a ḥazzan and a house of prayer, all the members of the community could speak Karaim. Some of them gathered on Saturdays and other religious holidays, read literature

2130 El-Kodsi, Communities, 14. 2131 Ibid., 15-17, 24, 26. 2132 A similar rite of kissing the tomb through a handkerchief is still practised by the Polish Karaites in Warsaw. 2133 I.e. the so-called epidemic cemetery. However, there was no plague in Halicz, only cholera (Yurchenko, Yurchenko, “Epidemichne kladovyshche,” 180-183). 2134 El-Kodsi, Communities, 14, 23. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community After the Disintegration of the Soviet Union 437

in Karaim, observed fasts, and, having no ḥazzan, listened to prayers from a tape- recorder.2135 As has been mentioned, in the general anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian atmosphere of interwar Poland, the Halicz community seemed to completely ignore the existence of the once-popular theory concerning the Karaites’ arrival in Galicia in the times of the Prince Daniel of Galicia. After the war, however, when Daniel began to be presented by official Soviet historiography as a heroic Galician prince, a champion of the local Slavic population in the struggle against Tatar and Mongol aggressors, this theory reappeared as the main historical concept of the Halicz Karaite community. Since, according to this theory, the Karaites were settled in Halicz in 1246, in 1996 the remaining local Karaites celebrated the 750th anniversary of the establishment of the community.2136 This festivity almost overlapped with the official celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the establishment of the town of Halicz, which was held in 1998.2137 In the 1990s Crimean Karaites were fostering the idea of restoring one of the Eupatoria Karaite synagogues. Unfortunately, the Torah closets of the Eupatoria kenesalar were destroyed during the Soviet era. This is why a plan arose to transport the aron ha-qodesh which remained from the Halicz synagogue to the Eupatoria kenesa in Crimea. This seemed even more symbolic, since, according to local tradition, the Galician Karaites themselves originated from Crimea. In 1994, the Torah closet was delivered from Halicz to Crimea, where it was subsequently repaired. In 1999 it was installed in Eupatoria’s smaller kenesa. Since then it has been used as a religious object again.2138 In addition to the Torah closet, the Halicz community also donated to the Eupatoria Karaites many valuable printed books and manuscripts, including seventeen Torah scrolls.2139 One of these scrolls is on display today at a Karaite exhibition in Eupatoria;2140 others are used for liturgical purposes. In 1992, when Lithuania already became an independent republic, the Karaite religious community received the official status of a legal entity. In 1989, the Foundation of Lithuanian Culture returned to the Karaites the Wilno kenesa that

2135 Janina Eszwowicz, private communication (Halicz, June, 2003). 2136 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 4. On the speculative character of “Daniel” theory and the date of 1246, see Kizilov, The Karaites of Galicia, 31-38. 2137 For the reports by the Karaite authors, see B.S. Taymaz and O.V. Petrov-Dubinskii, “Drevnii Galich i Karaimy,” KV 9 (42) (1998); A.Yu. Polkanova, “‘Ostalas’ vetv’, kotoroi Kniaz’ Danila v Galitsii priiut i zemliu dal,’” KV 9 (42) (1998). 2138 Tiriyaki, “Sokhranenie,” 76-83; cf. Janina Eszwowicz, “Gekhal i vse imushchestvo Galichskoi kenasy sokhranila malochislennaia karaimskaia obshchina,” KV 4 (47) (1999). 2139 Especially important were the manuscripts and rare printed books donated by Ms. Ada Zarachowicz. 2140 This exhibition is located in the building of the former midrash at Karaite Street 63, next to the entrance to the Eupatoria Karaite kenesalar. 438 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

had been confiscated by the Soviets in 1949. After a period of necessary renovation, the kenesa was reopened and began functioning again in 1993.2141 Halina/Galina Kobeckaitė (Kobecka), head of the department of National Minorities from 1992 to 1994 – and, subsequently, the Lithuanian Ambassador to Turkey, Estonia, Azerbaijan and – was the leading figure in organization of the Karaite communal life in independent Lithuania. The wife of the ḥazzan Mykolas (Mikhail) Firkowicz, she has published two popular brochures on the history of the Karaites in Lithuanian and Russian.2142 These brochures, as well as her other publications, deny all the links of Karaism with Jewish civilization and vigorously support theories about half-Islamic Turkic origins of the East European Karaites.2143 She also published a short Lithuanian-Karaite-Russian conversation book.2144 One more Karaite became an influential administrative and political figure in Lithuania: Romuald Marko Kozyrovičius (Kozyrowicz) was elected minister of material resources of independent Lithuania (1990-1991), and, later, the Lithuanian Ambassador to Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan and some countries of the former Soviet Union.2145 The most important role in the life of the Karaite community in post-Soviet Lithuania was played by Michał/Mikhail Firkowicz (a.k.a. Mykolas Firkovičius, b. Troki, 17.11.1924 – d. Wilno, 12.10.2000). Born in Troki, he was a nephew of Szemaja/ Szymon Firkowicz2146 and educated as an engineer. After the election to the office of the ułłu ḥazzan (1992), he began an active campaign aimed at the revival of the knowledge of the Karaim language and religious tradition. Among the numerous religious books and textbooks edited by Firkovičius special notice must be made of the textbook of

2141 Kobeckaitė, Kratkii ocherk, 30-32. 2142 Halina Kobeckaitė (Galina Kobetskaite/Kobecka), Lietuvos karaimai: Totorių ir karaimų įsikūrimo Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje 600 metų jubiliejaus leidinys (Vilnius, 1997); eadem, Kratkii ocherk, 30-32. 2143 This tendency was noticed by a German journalist (Claudia Becker, “Das Karäische Wunder,” Die Zeit 22 (26.05.1995). See also by the same author: Halina Kobeckaitė, “Dėl karaimų kalbos žodžių lietuviškos formos,” Vakarinės naujienos (31.01.1989); eadem, “Karaimų atgimimo viltis,” Gimtasis kraštas (30.06.1988); eadem, “Kultūrų sąveika,” Kultūros barai 7/8 (1990): 17-19; eadem, “Lietuvos karaimų spauda,” in Žurnalisto žinynas. 2-oji knyga, ed. V. Užtupas (Vilnius, 1996), 40-52; eadem, “Lietuvos karaimų spauda,” Mokslas ir gyvenimas 7 (1994): 24-25; eadem, “Lietuvos orientas: jo šaknys ir tyrimai,” in KTOL, 15-28; eadem, “Tautinės dvasios liepsna,” Vakarinės naujienos (20.01.1989); eadem, “Duch legendarnych przodków: Karaimska poezja na Litwie,” Znad Wilii (14.02.1995); eadem, “Faktory sokhraneniia etnicheskogo identiteta litovskimi karaimami,” in OLDK 263-272; eadem, “Karaims in Lithuania,” in Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim Collection, 7-13. 2144 Eadem, Litovsko-karaimsko-russkii razgovornik (Vilnius, 2011). 2145 Romuald/Romualdas Marko Kozyrovicius (Kozyrowicz), b. Troki, 28.12.1943, in 1962 graduated from Vilnius technical college of railroad transport. 2146 Taking into consideration that the next Troki ḥazzan, Józef/Iosif Firkowicz, son of Szymon, was also from the same family, one may say that the Firkowiczs fulfilled the duties of the Troki ḥazzanim for more than a century, starting from Isaac Boaz-Bogusław ben Nisan Firkowicz. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community After the Disintegration of the Soviet Union 439

the Karaim language,2147 a collection of Karaite poetry,2148 a few prayer books in Latin characters,2149 a new Karaite calendar reaching the year 2051,2150 a Karaim translation of the book of proverbs of the king Solomon,2151 and several newspaper articles.2152 The ḥazzan also began teaching the Karaim language and religion to young Karaites in Troki. In addition to his language and religious teaching activities, Firkovičius helped in reconstruction of the Wilno and Troki kenesa with his architectural and engineer’s skills. Despite high appreciation of Mykolas Firkowicz/Firkovičius as a community leader, one cannot help noticing that his activity was aimed at the revival of only the Turkic part of Karaite culture and identity whereas the Hebrew cultural legacy had been entirely ignored. In one prayer book published and edited by Firkovičius one can even find… the Christian prayer Pater Noster (“Our Father”, The Lord’s Prayer).2153 He was the second Karaite religious leader (after Szemaja Firkowicz) in Eastern Europe to include this prayer – central to Christianity – in the Karaite litirgy. This was done apparently in order to demonstrate the alleged affinity of Karaism to Christianity (the tendency to present Karaite faith as a mixture of Mosaic, Christian, Islamic and pagan

2147 Mykolas Firkovičius, Mień karajče ürianiam/Aš mokausi karaimiškai (Vilnius, 1996). The author decided to transcribe Karaim words with Latin characters with additional diacritical signs, while the explanations of grammar rules were in Russian. Firkovičius mentioned that he did this because the language of KRPS was Russian (ibid., 36). 2148 Karay Yirlary, ed. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1989). 2149 David’ Bijniń Machtav Čozmachlary – Psalmės, ed. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1994); Karaj dińliliarniń jalbarmach jergialiari. Vol. 1: Ochumach üčiuń kieniesada, comp. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1998); Vol. 2: Ochumach üčiuń kieniesada adiet’ vahdalarynda, comp. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1999); Karaj koltchalary/Karaimų maldos, ed. Mykolas Firkovičius (Vilnius, 1993) (the last book is the enlarged edition of Firkowicz, Kołtchałar). 2150 Karaj Kalendary 2001–2051/Karaimų kalendorius 2001-2051, comp. Mykolas Firkovičius, Karina Firkavičiūtė, and Vladimiras Maškevičius (Vilnius, 2001). This new calendar is based on Yufuda Kokizov’s calendar published in St. Petersburg in 1912; unlike Kokizov‘s calendar, which is using Hebrew terms, this calendar contains only Turkic Karaim religious terminology invented by Szapszał in the 1930s. 2151 Šelomonun Mašallary/Süleyman’in Meselleri/Patarlių knyga (Proverbia), ed. Mykolas Firkovičius (Ankara, 2000). Contains the Karaim targum (Troki dialect) of Proverbs by Shelumiel ben Shemuel of Sałaty (Lithuania), facsimile of the manuscript, Turkic transliteration in Lithuanian diacritics, and modern Turkish transliteration. Hebrew introduction to the manuscript by the author of the targum and some other Hebrew words and phrases were omitted by the editor. 2152 Mykolas Firkovičius, “Firkovičius Simonas, karaimų religinės ir tautinės dvasios puoselėtojas,” Galvė (20.11.1992); idem, “Kraštotyrininkų ieškojimai sėkmingi,” Spartuolis (10.06.1969); idem, “Karaims in Lithuania,” Baltic News 5 (1994): 34-35. 2153 Karaj koltchalary/Karaimu maldos, 8; Pater Noster in Karaim was for the first time published in Firkowicz, Kołtchałar, 7. 440 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

tradition was a part of Szapszał’s ideological agenda in the interwar period).2154 The death of the ḥazzan (2000) was officially announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. President Landsbergis of Lithuania was present at the funeral ceremony in the Troki Karaite cemetery.2155 A textbook of the Troki Karaim dialect, prepared by Turkish scholar Kocaoğlu in collaboration with Firkovičius, was published posthumously.2156 A significant role in the preservation and revitalization of the Turkic Karaite culture in Lithuania is filled by the daughter of Mykolas Firkovičius, Karina Firkavičiūtė, a doctor of Musicology and a lecturer.2157 In 1997 there were only 257 Karaites living in Lithuania.2158

2154 During our visit to the Karaite kenesa in Troki during the conference on New Religions in Vilnius (April, 2003) Michał Zajączkowski, a guide to the kenesa and an author of several publications on Karaite history, wishing to provide listeners with a sample of a Karaite prayer, started to recite the Christian Pater Noster (“Our Father”, The Lord’s Prayer) in Karaim, and then in Polish and Russian. Polish participants of the conference could not keep their astonishment when hearing a Christian prayer in a place which they considered to be belonging to Judaism. Cf. impressions of the Russian journalist (Dmitrii Matveev, “Yazyk polovtsev i vera samarian,” Nezavisimaia gazeta (1.10.2003)). For more information about Karaite amateur historian Michał Zajączkowski (b. Troki, 1922), an author of several publications regarding the Karaite soldiers of Russian, Soviet and Polish armies, see Aleksander Kobecki, “Michał Zajączkowski – mój Dziadek,” Awazymyz 1 (2007): 14-15. 2155 For more information regarding his biography, see Edward Tryjarski, “Michał Firkowicz (17.11.1924-12.10.2000),” PO 1-2 (2001): 138-139. A memorial speech in Karaim dedicated to the late ḥazzan was recited by Szymon/Semion Juchniewicz during his funerals (Szymon Juchniewicz, “Mowa wygłoszona po karaimsku w czasie pogrzebu hazzana Michała Firkowicza,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 3); see also Aleksander Jutkiewicz, “Jubileusz 80–lecia Michała Firkowicza w dn. 17.11.2004 r.,” Awazymyz 1 (10) (2005): 10-11; Timur Kocaoğlu, “Karay (Karaim) Syntax in the Works of the Late Hazzan Mykolas Firkovičius (1924–2000),” in OLDK, 189-194. 2156 Timur Kocaoğlu in collaboration with Mykolas Firkovičius, Karay: the Trakai Dialect (Munich, 2006). 2157 See Karina Firkavičiūtė, “Apie Lietuvos karaimų liturgines giesmes,” Gama 7/8 (1994): 31-33; eadem, “Panazijizmo koncepcija ir Lietuvos karaimų liturginis giedojimas,” Lietuvos muzikologija 1 (2000): 55-60; eadem, “Būkime ir toliau kartu,” Šiaurės Atėnai (15.05.1991); eadem, “Remaining music: Lithuanian Karaimes,” Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 2 (2001): 247-257; eadem, “The Musical Heritage of Lithuania’s Karaims,” in KJ, 855-871; Į Trakus paukščiu plasnosiu: Lietuvos karaimų poezija, ed. Karina Firkavičiūtė (Vilnius, 1997) (a collection of poetry in Karaim with Lithuanian translations); “Rozmowa z Kariną Firkavicziute, laureatką Nagrody im. Sawiczów, muzykologiem, prezeską Stowarzyszenia Kultury Karaimów na Litwie,” Kurier Wileński (20.01.1999). 2158 Suzanne Purchier-Plasseraud, “Les karaїmes en Lituanie,” Diasporiques 24 (2002): 35. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century 441

A B

Illustration 10: A) photo of the Tablets of Law of the Troki kenesa with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew taken in the 1930s; b) modern photo taken by M. Kizilov in 2002: the Hebrew letters have been painted over.

6.5 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century

Die Sprache verloren, die Religion aufgegeben – was bringt diese Menschen des 21. Jahrhun- derts dazu, sich dennoch auf Vorfahren zu beziehen, von deren Kultur, Sprache, Religion sie sich abgewandt haben?

Karl-Markus Gauß, 20092159

The first decade of the twenty-first century brought about a number of changes to the state of the West Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish Karaite communities. I shall start from the analysis of the Volhynian and Galician Karaite communities which, unfortunately, virtually ceased to exist by 2014. In 2001 there were only six Karaites living in Łuck; some of them emigrated to Lithuania, some to Israel so that today only one Karaite, Samuil Iosifovich Eszwowicz, is living in Łuck (2013).2160 This means that the existence of the Volhynian community came to an end. Only the Karaims’ka

2159 “The language is lost, the religion is abandoned – what makes these people of the twenty- first century still refer to their ancestors from whose culture, language, and religion they have turned away?” (Karl-Markus Gauß, Die fröhlicher Untergeher von Roana (Vienna, 2009), 131). 2160 Private communication of Volodymyr Shabarovs’kyi (18.07.2013); cf. Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 159-160. 442 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

vulytsia (Karaite Street) with a few houses formerly possessed by their Karaite owners reminds about the existence of once most learned Karaite community which produced such outstanding scholars as Simcha Isaak Łucki, Joseph Solomon “YaShar” Łucki, Mordekhay Sułtański, and Abraham Firkowicz. Although a few cultural events happened in Halicz (Halych) in the 2000s, the local community also ceased to exist. In 2000, at the very end of its existence, the Halicz community was officially registered as a regional Karaite community.2161 The conference, “The Halicz Karaites: History and Culture,” which took place in Halicz from 7 to 9 September 2002, was perhaps the last important event in the history of the vanishing community. The conference was attended by about a hundred participants. Among them were specialists in the field of Karaite studies and representatives of the Karaite communities of Halicz, Crimea, Poland, Lithuania, Israel, and the USA. The conference overlapped with the festivity of the Karaite New Year (Rosh ha-Shanah) which was celebrated together by both the Karaite and non-Karaite participants in the conference.2162 However, nothing could stop the inevitable disappearance of the community. In May 2002, during my first visit to Halicz, there were still seven members of the community. In spite of the fact that Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish were their main Umgangssprachen, all of them could speak Karaim fluently and were willing to share their memories with visitors to Halicz. In 2002, eight Karaites of Galician origin lived in Lithuania, Moscow, Poland, Simferopol, and Israel.2163 In 2003 Janina (Ruhama) L’vovna Eszwowicz (15.09.1930–24.10.2003) died in Halicz. She was the official head of the community and perhaps the last custodian of local Karaite traditions. A friendly and hospitable person, the late Ms. Eszwowicz was always happy to share her knowledge and experiences with the numerous academic and Karaite visitors to her house on Karaite Street in Halicz. She accorded great assistance to Ivan and Natalya Yurchenko in their efforts to collect objects of Karaite history and culture for the Halicz Karaite museum.2164 Two last Karaites of Halicz, Ada Zarakhovna Zarachowicz

2161 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka karaїms’ka hromada,” 9. 2162 Proceedings of the conference have been published as Karaїmy Halycha (together with an Appendix). For a detailed report on the conference and a review of its proceedings, see Kizilov, “Vor dem Vergessen bewahren;” Viacheslav Lebedev, “750 let spustia v Galiche ostalos’ sem’ karaimov,” Literaturnyi Krym 35-36 (2002): 12; Mariola Abkowicz, “No i znowu byłam w Haliczu,” Awazymyz 1 (7) (2003)). The conference was repeated in 2012; unfortunately, this time professional scholars working in the field of Karaite studies were not invited (see Karaїmi ta їkh rol’ u konteksti svitovoї spi’noty. Materiali Mizhnarodnoї naukovoї konferentsiї. Halych, 17 veresnia 2012 roku, red. O. Berehovs’kyi, S. Pobuts’kyi, YA. Potashnik (Halych, 2012)). 2163 Eszwowicz, “Halyts’ka,” 7. For a complete list, see Karaїmy Halycha (Appendix), 208. 2164 Ms. Eszwowicz asked her numerous relatives and friends living in various Karaite communities of the world to send objects from their family collections to Halicz. Today her private archive constitutes a part of the Yurchenko MSS. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century 443

and Amaliia Zarakhovna Zarachowicz, daughters of Zarach Zarachowicz, died in 2013.2165 Thus, the history of the community has come to an end, and we may, with sorrow, state that one more ethnic group and one more interesting language have disappeared from the historical scene. Only 4 Karaites are living today in Latvia. According to the census of 2001 there were 273 Karaites in Lithuania (146 in Vilnius/Wilno, 68 in Trakai/Troki, 25 in Poniewież/Panevėžys and in some other towns).2166 Less significant communities, such as Upite, Krakinów, Nowe Miasto, Wiłkomierz, Poswol and Kowno ceased to exist a long time before. The Karaites left their mark in the history of Nowe Miasto (Lith. Naujamiestis): it was decided in 2008 that the the town’s coat-of-arms would bear the depiction of the allegedly Karaite senek tamğa (bicorn sign).2167 In 1995, a memorial sign was placed in Poniewież on the site where the local kenesa had been located (it was destroyed in 1970).2168 On 11.01.2000 the eldest member of the Poniewież community, Sofja/Rachel Grigulewicz (Samulewicz), celebrated her 100th birthday. In 2001, Mrs. Grigulewicz was still living in the Poniewież home in which she was born more than a century before.2169 She died in 2003.2170 The presence of the Karaite community in the town of Birża (Biržai) is reflected in the name of the Karaite Street (Lith. Karaimų gatvė). In January, 2001, Iosif/Józef Firkowicz (Firkovičius; 1925-2009), the son of the ḥazzan Szemaja Firkowicz, was elected to the position of the Troki ułłu ḥazzan. He fulfilled his duities until his death in 2009. Between 2002 and 2006 the Lithuanian Karaites were visited by the German journalist Karl-Markus Gauß. In Vilnius he met with the family of Dr. Markas Lavrinovičius (Mark Mikhailovich Ławrynowicz/ Lavrinovich; 1938-2011), specialist in electrotechnology and amateur lexicographer of the Karaim language.2171 Lavrinovičius stressed the fact that the Karaites were not Jews and referred to anthropological studies of Nazi times as a proof of this theory

2165 Zachariasz Eszwowicz (b. Halicz 1927), who moved to Troki, still remembers the GVKar and uses it for liturgical purposes (A. Szpakowska, “Zachariasz Eszwowicz,” Awazymyz 1 (2007)). 2166 Lucjan Adamczuk, Halina Kobeckaitė, and Szymon Pilecki, Karaimi na Litwie i w Polsce (Warsaw, 2003), 34. 2167 Irena Jaroszyńska, “Karaimska symbolika w herbie Nowego Miasta,” Awazymyz 2 (2008). Unfortunately, those who decided to include this symbol into the coat-of-arms did not read academic literature to the effect that this tamğa has nothing to do with real Karaite history. 2168 Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios, 48. 2169 Irena Jaroszyńska, “Z Poniewieża,” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 12. While visiting the Karaite cemetery near Nowe Miasto (Naujamiestis) in March, 2002, I happened to be a guest of a place introduced to me as a “Karaite farm” – an old house inhabited at least from the beginning of the century by a family of the Karaite keepers of the cemetery. 2170 Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios, 81-83. 2171 Markas Lavrinovič, Russko-karaimskii slovar’ (Trakai, 2007); see also idem, Avaldan kieliasigia (Trakai, 2011). 444 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

(this somewhat discouraged the German visitor).2172 In 2010 the Lithuanian Karaites, somewhat unexpectedly, decided to restore the institute of having not only ḥazzanim, but also the ḥakhan (sic for the hakham).2173 There was no ḥakhan (hakham) in Eastern Europe since the death of Seraja Szapszał in 1961 (or perhaps even since his decision to stop fulfilling the duties of the ḥakhan in 1939/1944). What made the local Karaites decide to resurrect this office? According to some data, this was the reaction to the activity of Gershom Kiprisçi who called himself “the hakham of the Russian Karaites abroad according to Damascus-Kedarite tradition” and organized the “Central Spiritual Board for the Russian Qaraim Abroad”.2174 Several Karaite organizations in Poland and Lithuania considered this organ to be illegal and self-proclaimed.2175 Lavrinovičius was elected ḥakhan in 20092176 and fulfilled his duties until 2011. To my knowledge, the office of the Troki ḥakhan and ułłu ḥazzan remains unoccupied since then. In 2003 the young Troki Karaites founded a dancing group Sanduhacz (Kar. “little nightingale”) whose aim was to revive Karaite folk music and dances. In 2006 the group changed its name to Dostłar (Kar. “friends”) and successfully took part in several folk festivals in Poland, Turkey and other countries.2177 In 2008 the Lithuanian Karaites organized a special annual summer school for learning the Troki dialect of the Karaim language. Since then a number of the Karaites from various part of Eastern Europe arrived in Troki in order to improve their knowledge of this language.2178 Several dictionaries of the Karaim language were published in order to facilitate the study of the language.2179 One community elder, Szymon Juchniewicz, not only speaks

2172 Gauß, Die fröhlicher Untergeher, 131. 2173 Tinfavičius, Nuo Juodosios, 151-155. 2174 See websites and . 2175 “Oświadczenie Karaimów Polskich,” Awazymyz 2 (2008); “Oświadczenie Karaimów Litewskich,” Awazymyz 2 (2008); Anna Sulimowicz, Adam Dubiński, and Mariola Abkowicz, “Komentarz,” Awazymyz 2 (2008). 2176 Michał Zajączkowski, “Hachannyn syjlamach/Oda na ingres hachana,” Awazymyz 2 (27) (2010): 14-15. 2177 Barbara Posel, “Dostłar w Turcji,” Awazymyz 1 (2008); Mariola Abkowicz, “Kalejdoskop kultur czyli Dostłar we Wrocławiu,” Awazymyz 2 (2008); eadem, “Z dziennika zespołu ‘Dostłar’,” Awazymyz 3 (2006). 2178 Tatiana Maszkiewicz, “Niech radość w tym domu zagości!” Awazymyz 3 (2008); Inne Ławrynowicz, “Historia trockiej karaimskiej szkoły,” Awazymyz 3 (2008); Mariola Abkowicz, “Letnie zanurzenie,” Awazymyz 2 (2008); Irena Jaroszyńska, “Szkoła języka karaimskiego w Trokach,” Awazymyz 2 (2006); Barbara Posel, “Wywiad z Evą Agnes Csato Johanson,” Awazymyz 2 (2006). One cannot help noticing that the Turkicized Karaim taught at this summer schools varies greatly from the Karaim spoken in interwar Poland and Lithuania (the latter was full of Hebrew and Slavic loanwords). 2179 Szymon Juchniewicz, Podręczny słownik polsko-karaimski ([Warszawa], 2008); G. Józefowicz, Słownik polsko-karaimski w dialekcie trockim (Troki–Wilno–Warszawa–Wrocław–Gdańsk–Nashville, 2008); Lavrinovič, Russko-karaimskij slovar’; Halina Kobeckaitė, Rozmówki polsko-karaimsko- litewskie (Wrocław, 2011); eadem, Litovsko-karaimsko-russkii razgovornik (Vilnius, 2011). The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century 445

the Troki dialect of the Karaim language, but even writes essays and plays in the language.2180 On the whole, however, only a few elderly members of the community are able to communicate in Karaim. According to surveys in 2001-2002, there were 69 Karaites in Lithuania who could speak Karaim, and only 17 in Poland.2181 The data of Éva Ágnes Csató, based on her field research in Eastern Europe, are much less favourable. According to this scholar, there are not more than ten to fiteen persons who are still using the northern dialect of Karaim in Troki (Lithuania). Moreover, only three of them speak Karaim regularly.2182 The Polish communities (especially those of Warsaw and Wrocław), which were rather passive in the 1990s, on the contrary, began active cultural activity in the 2000s. The details of the life of these communities are discussed below. Professor Szymon Pilecki,2183 the head of the Karaite Religious Union in Poland, informed me in 1999 about approximate number of 150 Karaites living in Poland. He further complained that this estimation was rather imprecise because of a number of mixed marriages (private communication of 17.10.1999). According to the census of 2002, however, only… 45 Polish citizens registered themselves as Karaites.2184 At the beginning of the 2000s this small community began active cultural and publishing activity. Its first achievement was continuation of publishing periodical “Awazymyz”. Although the first issue of the periodical was printed in 1989, it was only in the 2000s that it started to be properly and regularly published and edited. Among its editors are representatives of the Karaite families continuing the traditions of their famous ancestors: Anna Sulimowicz (Warsaw), a daughter of the Orientalist Józef Sulimowicz, Adam Dubiński, a son of professor Aleksander Dubiński, Hanna Pilecka, a daughter of Zygmunt Abrahamowicz (also an Orientalist), Mariola Abkowicz, the daughter of the only ḥazzan in Socialist Poland, Rafał Abkowicz, and, finally, Adam Pilecki, the grandson of Owadjusz Pilecki, the editor of the Karaite periodicals “Karaimskoe Slovo” and “Sahyszymyz”. “Awazymyz” published memoires, articles and a chronicle of events written by representatives of various East European Karaite communities. Its main language is Polish although some materials are published in Karaim (usually with Polish translation); special issues are published in Russian. In spite of the fact

2180 Szymon Juchniewicz, “Abajły ochuwczułar wachtłychny ‘Awazymyz’”/Drodzy czytelnicy ‘Awazymyz,’” Awazymyz 3 (2008); idem, “Boszatłych kiuniu Warszawada 2008 jiłda/Dzień odpuszczenia grzechów w Warszawie w 2008 roku,” ibid.; idem, “Tirlik jołda, tirlik Trochta,” Caraimica 5 (2008): 18-24 (a play in Karaim). 2181 Adamczuk, Kobeckaitė, Pilecki, Karaimi, 65. 2182 Éva Ágnes Csató, “Should Karaim be “Purer” Than Other European Languages?” in Languages and Cultures of Turkic Peoples (Kraków, 1998), 84. 2183 Pilecki is the author of highly interesting memoirs about the interwar and war period in the history of the Troki Karaite community (Szymon Pilecki, “Z Kresów Wschodnich ku Politechnice Wrocławskiej,” Awazymyz 1 (2006); idem, Chłopiec z Leśnik). 2184 Adamczuk, Kobeckaitė, Pilecki, Karaimi, 34. 446 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

that the periodical is aimed mostly at the preservation of the Karaite-Turkic traditions and values, it does not have the militant pseudoscholarly character of most Karaite publications printed in Crimea by Yurii Polkanov and his associates.2185 The international conference “Karaj kiuńlari”, which took place in Warsaw from 19 to 21 September 2003, gathered a number of the Karaites from various communities of the world.2186 About the same time the Polish Karaite community founded the publishing house Bitik (Kar. “book”), which continued publishing periodical “Awazymyz” and books on history and religion of the Karaites. Most of the publications of the publishing house adhere to the “soft” version of Szapszał’s Turkic doctrine. To give an example, the Karaites are usually cautiously referred to in these publications as descendants of the Khazars and Kypchaks, but there are no references to the allegedly Karaite “cult of the sacred oaks” and pagan practices popularized by Mikhail Sarach and Yurii Polkanov. A few other examples can demonstrate certain dejudaization tendencies in the editorial policy of the editors of “Awazymyz” and “Bitik” publishing house. A recent issue of “Awazymyz” (2013) republished the Purim-song in the Karaim language originally included by A. Mardkowicz in his Zemerłer.2187 This, on the one hand, seems to be some sort of return to the old traditions, namely, to the celebration of Purim. On the other hand, some Karaim lines of the song are completely mistranslated. Thus, for example the lines Hammese dahy jiłyna bołhajbiz Cijonda!/Hali bar koł Israel machtawłar sarnajdyr (lit. “Let us next year be in Zion for ever!/Today the whole Israel praises the glory [of the Lord]!”) is translated into Polish as follows:

Obyśmy za rok z wygnania byli powróceni! Let us next year return from the exile! Dziś cały Naród śpiewa na chwałę Pana! Today the whole people praises the glory of the Lord!2188

Thus, one may clearly see that the Polish translation omits the word “Zion”, while the Hebrew koł Israel (“the whole Israel”) is mistranslated as “the whole people”. Another article in the same issue of “Awazymyz” uses the term Purim; nevertheless, the main name of the holiday, according to its author, is its Turkic equivalent – Kynysz.2189 In 2007, “Bitik” published a “Karaite almanach” with the Polish translation of the

2185 The periodical is available online at . 2186 Karaj kiuńlari: Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego we współczesnej Europie/Наследие Караимов в современной Европе/Heritage of Karaims in Present Europe, ed. Mariola Abkowicz, Henryk Jankowski, in co-operation with Irena Jaroszyńska (Wrocław, 2004). 2187 Zemerłer (Łuck 1930), 14. 2188 On the left one can see the Polish translation published in “Awazymyz”; on the right is my translation of the Polish translation (see “Kićli bijim, kiplihim/Mocny Boże, siło moja,” Awazymyz 1 (38) (2013): 3). 2189 Mariusz Pawelec, “Niech Kynysz będzie pomyślny!” Awazymyz 1 (38) (2013): 16-17. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twenty First Century 447

Karaim article by Rafael Abkowicz. Although the original Karaim text of Abkowicz’s article contains Hebrew terminology (e.g. terms Purym, Sukkot, Szewuot etc.), the translator consciously avoided using these terms and provided only their Polish or Turkic equivalents.2190 The Polish Karaites organized a special website in the Polish language dedicated to the history and culture of the East European (first of all, Polish-Lithuanian) Karaites.2191 The site features a number of different articles, chronicle of events, issues of “Awazymyz” and database of partly digitized rare Karaite publications indexing 16 Polish, Russian and Karaim periodicals and 25 books.2192 A few Karaites continue traditions of Polish Karaite Orientalists today.2193 Józef Sulimowicz’s daughter, Anna (Akbike) Sulimowicz, a Turkologist and assistant of the Oriental department at the Warsaw University, is one of the active authors and co-editors of the Karaite periodical “Awazymyz”. Her publications focus mostly on the historiography of Karaite Studies in Poland and on personalities of Karaite scholars and enlighteners.2194 Adam Sulimowicz, a son of Józef Sulimowicz, is a Turkologist. Maria Emilia Zajączkowska- Łopatto, the daughter of Ananiasz Zajączkowski, is the author of a few articles on the history of the local Karaites and active participant in the cultural life of the East European Karaites.2195 Adam Dubiński, a son of Aleksander Dubiński, earned a degree in Arabic studies from the Warsaw University.2196 The most important of Polish Orientalists of Karaite origin is perhaps Michał Németh, grandson of Nazim Rudkowski, an assistant professor in the Institute of Linguistics at the Jagiellonian

2190 Rafael Abkowicz, “Ne anłatadłar biźnin moedłerimiz da eźge ajryksy kinłerimiz,” Łuwachłar der jiłha, 8-9; idem, “Co oznaczają nasze święta i inne specjalne dni,” transl. and ed. Anna Sulimowicz and Mariola Abkowicz, AK, 11-13. 2191 2192 “E-jazyszłar: karaimska baza literaczko-bibliograficzna” . 2193 For more information, see Sulimowicz, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 135-136. 2194 Anna Akbike Sulimowicz, “Prace prof. Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego o historii i kulturze Karaimów,” in KTOL, 43-46; eadem, “A. Mardkowicz – działacz społeczny, pisarz i wydawca;” eadem, “Karaimskie czasopisma,” Awazymyz 2 (3) (1999): 13-14; eadem, “Karaimi w Polsce i na Litwie (do 1945 r.),” in Karaimi, 20-29; eadem, “Karaimi znad Złotego Rogu,” Awazymyz 1 (1989): 8-10; eadem, “O Karaimach w Stambule raz jeszcze,” Awazymyz 1 (2006) (a report on a trip to the Karaite community of Istanbul); eadem, “Życie społeczności karaimskiej w Polsce,” RM 3:2 (1994): 47-50; eadem, “Bibliography of the Works of Zygmunt Abrahamowicz,” Folia Orientalia 30 (1994): 230-236, eadem, “Polscy turkolodzy,” 119-144. 2195 Maria Emilia Zajączkowska-Łopatto, “Konstanty Zajączkowski, syn Jakuba,” Awazymyz 3 (2008); eadem, “O Sabinie Abrahamowicz,” Awazymyz 3 (2008); eadem, “Działalność zawodowa i społeczna Karaimów trockich w Warszawie w XX wieku,” in KTOL, 299-310; eadem, “A. Zajączkowski w Wilnie,” KV 3 (55) (2000); eadem, “A. Zajączkowski w Wilnie,” 72-76. 2196 Karaimi, ed. B. Machul-Telus, 251; Adam Dubiński, “Przypadek,” Awazymyz 1 (2008); Adam Dubiński, Mariola Abkowicz, “Kampania medialna ‘Jestem Polką/Jestem Polakiem’,” Awazymyz 1 (2008); Adam Dubiński, “Bratnie dusze,” Awazymyz 2 (2008). 448 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014)

University. His studies are dedicated mostly to Hungarian linguistics and sources in the Karaim language and its grammar.2197

***

Thus, although the West Ukrainian (Halicz and Łuck) part of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community ceased to exist in the 2000s, other communities living in Poland and Lithuania still exist, being engaged in active cultural and publishing activity. Their number is extremely small: ca. 270 people in Lithuania and ca. 40 in Poland. Religious traditions are practically lost; community members consider themselves to be a people of Turkic origin although only a few of them possess command of the Karaim language. The rich and varied Judeo-Karaite legacy and identity, which was so valid before the arrival of Szapszał in 1928, is either ignored or altogether avoided.

2197 His two main contributions in the field of Karaites Studies are: Michał Németh, Zwięzła gramatyka języka zachodniokaraimskiego z ćwiczeniami (Poznań, 2011); idem, Unknown Lutsk Karaim Letters in Hebrew Script (19th-20th Centuries). A Critical Edition (Kraków, 2011). 7 Conclusion

7.1 Paradoxes of the Ethnic History of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites in the Twentieth and Twenty First Century

At the beginning of the twentieth century practically all Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities (Troki, Wilno, Łuck, Poniewież, Nowe Miasto, Birża and a few smaller settlements) were located in the Russian Empire. The only exception represented the relatively small (ca. 150 souls) community of Halicz that was situated in Austrian Galicia. On the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there were ca. 1,550 Karaites living in the Russian areas of Poland-Lithuania and in Austria. Economically, the time from 1900 and until the beginning of the First World War was the period of comparative stability and prosperity for the community. Ideologically, the situation was much more complicated. As was demonstrated in Chapter 2 of this study, the time from the end of the nineteenth century until 1914 can be generally characterized as the period of the struggle between the traditional “Israelite” (Judeo-Karaite) and new “Khazar” (Turko-Karaite) identities within the Karaite society. In this struggle, the position of the followers of the “Israelite” party, who consisted mostly of the traditional Karaite circles, seemed to be stronger than those of their opponents – young Karaite modernists. Although most community members still preserved their traditional religious views and Judeo-Karaite identity, among the young Karaite activists (e.g. A. Szyszman, S. Szapszał, R. Firkowicz) there already appeared those who considered themselves to be Karaites of Turkic and not of Semitic extraction. Furthermore, it was in 1911 that the first dejudaization reform was accepted: as a result of this reform the traditional term synagogue (Heb. beit ha-knesset) was replaced with Turko-Karaim word kenesa/kenasa. Since then, East European Karaites began calling their houses of prayer only by this term, in order to avoid any association with Rabbanite synagogues. Nevertheless, religiously, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites still adhered to the traditional Scripture-based variety of Judaism also known as Karaism. Hebrew remained to be the name language of the Karaite liturgy while the religious calendar was practically the same as that of the Rabbanite Jews (with some minor variations). The Polish-Karaite communities experienced many problems and difficulties during the First World War. A number of the local Karaites left the region or were forced into remote evacuation; many were recruited into the Russian and Austrian armies. Those who remained in the areas of military activity became impoverished, many died of epidemics. It was perhaps only in the early 1920s that the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites completely returned to their lands of exile to begin a new stage in their history. As a result of the First World War and events that followed afterwards, the Halicz Karaites joined their Polish counterparts, while several northern communities (Poniewież, Nowe Miasto, Birża, Poswol) became part of the First Republic of

© 2015 Mikhail Kizilov This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 450 Conclusion

Lithuania (Lith. Lietuvos Respublika, Pol. Litwa Kowieńska). The community was reduced to nearly half of its prevous numbers, according to some extimates, leaving not more than 700-800 Karaites living in Poland and Lithuania in the interwar period. As has been demonstrated in Chapters 3 and 4, the period between the two world wars can be characterized as the time of strengthening and the firm establishment in Karaite society of the so-called “Khazar theory of the origin of the East European Karaites.” This theory, according to which the East European Karaites were descendants of medieval Turkic Khazars, was first formulated by the Russian Orientalists V.V. Grigor’iev and V.D. Smirnov. In 1896, it was further developed by the ambitious Crimean Karaite activist, young Seraja Szapszał (1873–1961).2198 After 1927, when he became the Troki ḥakham (head of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community), Szapszał began actively disseminating in the local community his concept concerning the Khazar origin of the Karaites as the main official doctrine. The pseudo-historicism and unscholarly nature of the “Khazar” theory of the Eastern European Karaites’ origins are apparent to any scholar familiar with the history of the Khazars. Not a single written corroborative source contains any information on the alleged ethnic contacts between the descendants of the Judaized Khazars and the medieval Karaites.2199 Later Karaite authors who lived after the disintegration of the Khazar kingdom ca. 965–968 never wrote about the Khazars as the Karaites’ ancestors. Furthermore, these authors referred to the Khazars by the Hebrew term mamzerim, meaning “bastards” or “strangers” within the Jewish fold. All this testifies to the fact that the historical Karaites never considered themselves the descendants of the Khazars – and that the idea of the Karaites’ alleged Khazar origin first appeared only during Szapszał’s time.2200 Szapszał’s “Khazar” dejudaizing efforts gained strength in interwar Poland, peaking during World War II and the Holocaust. In the course of his dejudaization campaign the community underwent the process of sweeping Turkicization of its culture and identity: 1) the Turkic Karaim language became the main language of liturgy and literature while the role of Hebrew was diminished; 2) the Karaim language itself was re-Turkicized and “purified” from its Slavic and (especially) Hebrew loanwords; 3) Hebrew names of community members were often replaced with their Slavic and Turkic equivalents (Mosze started to be called Musa, Solomon – Suleiman, Abraham – Ibrahim, Szemaja – Szymon, Szałom – Selim, etc.); 4) traditional Hebrew religious calendar was replaced with a new Turkic one; the months and

2198 Szapszał, Chufut-Kale i karaimy. 2199 Zvi Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium: The Formative Years, 970–1100 (New York, 1959), 64–79. 2200 As an introduction to Khazar history, see Peter Golden, Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars, 2 vols. (Budapest, 1980). For the critique of Szapszał’s historical concept, see Kowalski, “Turecka monografja;” Shapira, “A Jewish Pan-Turkist;” Kizilov, “New Materials;” Kizilov, Mikhaylova, “The Khazar Kaganate;” idem, “Khazary i Khazarskii kaganat.” Paradoxes of the Ethnic History of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites 451

religious holidays began to be called by Turkic terms, largely invented by Szapszał; 5) Karaite religion – which is a variety of Judaism – began to be presented as some sort of syncretic belief with elements of Mosaism, Christianiy, Islam and even shamanism; 6) a special pseudo-historical “coat of arms” was invented to replace traditional Karaite (and Rabbanite) symbols such as the Star of David, Tablets of the Law, and seven-branched candelabra (menorot); in the course of this “symbolical” reform Stars of David were often removed from the houses of prayer and tombstones erected before the 1920s; 7) Karaite history and identity began to be presented as that of Turkic people similar to the Tatars or Turks. The other aftermath of the interwar dejudaization of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community was the renaissance of the Turkic Karaim language. It was in this period that Karaim stopped being just an Umgangssprache or the language of targumim. It became a literary language, a language of secular poetry, fiction and press. The Karaite authors of the 1930s (Szemaja Firkowicz, Aleksander Mardkowicz, Józef Łobanos, Sergiusz Rudkowski and some others) published a number of separate brochures and articles in Karaim; furthermore, several Karaite periodicals existed and functioned in the interwar period. Szapszał disseminated to communities his doctrine and ideas largely through publications, public lectures and with assistance of the ḥazzanim of Troki, Halicz, Poniewież, Łuck, and Wilno. All of them (Szemaja Firkowicz, Józef Łobanos, Marek (Mordecai) Leonowicz, and Rafał Abkowicz) happened to be young persons who enthusiastically accepted Szapszał’s reforms and the new Turko-Karaite identity. Szapszał’s directives were normally given to the ḥazzanim, who then disseminated them among the members of their communities. Thus, although in many communities (especially in Halicz) Szapszał’s reforms were accepted very superficially, by the beginning of the Second World War the identity of the Karaite community of Poland and Lithuania was considerably transformed, that is to say, Turkicized and dejudaized. This fact played a pivotal role in the salvation of the community from the Nazi danger in occupied Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. During the war, Szapszał’s dejudaization propaganda successfully managed to present the Karaites – understood as part and parcel of Jewish civilization until the 1920s – as a Turkic people, descendants of the Khazars with half-Muslim, half-pagan syncretic faith. In spite of the fact that not all Nazi officials and “scholars” were happy about that, as early as January of 1939 the Karaites received the official status of a non-Jewish religious community and in 1943 were recognized as racially non-Semitic, Turko-Tatar people. These crucial decisions that saved the Karaites from the Holocaust were largely the result of several petitions that were lobbied by the Karaite leaders in Berlin, Wilno, Paris and some other localities. In these petitions the Karaites used Szapszał’s and his associates’ pseudoscholarly publications as a “proof” of their non- Semitic origin. Somewhat surprisingly, the trick worked out and the Nazis with some hesitation believed the Karaites’ argumentation. 452 Conclusion

In general the position of the Karaites in the Nazi-occupied areas during the Second World War was similar to that of other non-Aryan nations. During the Holocaust the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania often continued working on their previous places of work or served in the German civil administration. Only one testimony of a Holocaust survivor, Yakov Eilbert, tells us about the participation of the Łuck Karaites in anti- Jewish actions of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen. Although the preliminary decision to spare the Karaites had been taken already in 1939, the Karaites were not fully estranged from the Holocaust events. As has been demonstrated in Chapter 5, between 1941 and 1943 at least 500 Karaites were murdered by the Nazis either as Jews or simply as Soviet citizens irrespective of their ethnicity. It seems that the period of the Second World War was the turning point in the history of the forming of the Karaite identity in Eastern Europe. During this time, in order to save their life, the Karaites had to denounce their Hebrew faith, language, and traditional values in front of the Nazi authorities so often that they finally started to believe in the false statements they had to give to the Germans. The fear of being enlisted among the persecuted Jewish citizens of the occupied territories and constant need to hide from the Nazis their real faith and cultural values produced irrecoverable impact on the Polish-Lithuanian (and Eastern European in general) Karaite community. The local Karaites did not venture to return to their traditional pre-Szapszał historical and ideological concepts even after the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 (or Szapszał’s death in 1961). After the war, the number of the Karaites in Eastern Europe considerably decreased. Some Karaites left Crimea and Poland with the retreating German armies in 1944, some died or were killed during the war. As the consequence of the annexation of many Nazi-occupied territories by the Soviet Union (Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia etc.), most Karaites again became citizens of the same country, this time of the Soviet Union. Many of them, however, as former Polish citizens, decided to leave the areas annexed by the Soviet Union and move to Poland. From 1945 to 1947 Karaite emigrants from Volhynia-Galicia and those of them who managed to leave Lithuania joined scattered groups of the Karaites who lived in central Poland before 1939. Soon they organized several new communities in Wrocław, Warsaw, and Silesia (Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot). Thus, the Karaite population of the former Polish lands was then divided between Poland itself, and the Lithuanian (Troki, Wilno, Poniewież) and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics (Łuck, Halicz). In 1959 there were 423 Karaites living in Lithuania, ca. 400-500 in Socialist Republic of Poland, several families in Halicz and only a few individuals in Łuck. As has been examined in Chapter 6, the post-war period (until the “velvet” revolutions of the end of the 1980s), was the time of the stagnation in the Karaite religious and cultural life: the Soviet system welcomed neither nationalistic feelings of small ethnic groups, nor any sort of manifestation of religious sentiments. It seems that in this period Szapszał’s Turkic doctrine became an unbreakable dogma whose veracity was not supposed to be doubted. And yet, having recognized all Szapszał’s Paradoxes of the Ethnic History of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites 453

reforms, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites never accepted his statement about the fact that the Karaite religious tradition also included pagan practices such as veneration of sacred trees (it was accepted only by the Russian/Crimean and Paris Karaites). The Lithuanian Karaites that had been living in Troki/Trakai and Wilno/Vilnius could attend services in the Troki kenesa; all other kenesalar were closed. Furthermore, during this period three Polish-Lithuanian kenesalar (in Halicz, Łuck and Poniewież) were destroyed; the same fate awaited the Karaite cemeteries of Kukizów and Łuck. The knowledge of Karaim and Hebrew rapidly deteriorated as well as that of the Karaite religious traditions. The rite of circumcision and many other traditions (e.g. ritual slaughter, laws of impurity, Shabbat, fasts etc.) simply stopped to be practiced. Although virtually nothing happened in the religious or national life of the community, it was in the postwar period that many local Karaites (Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, Józef Sulimowicz, Aleksander Dubiński, Ananiasz and Włodzimierz Zajączkowski and other) became important scholars-Orientalists. A period of cultural renaissance of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites began at the end of the 1980s, the time of the Soviet perestroika and glasnost’. In this period the local Karaites began publishing national periodicals “Coś” and “Awazymyz;” about the same time the first international symposia which gathered a number of the Karaites from various regions took place in Poland and Lithuania. In 1993 the Wilno kenesa again opened its gates for believers. The most important role in the life of the Karaite community in post-Soviet Lithuania was played by Michał/Mikhail Firkowicz (a.k.a. Mykolas Firkovičius, 1924–2000). Being elected ułłu ḥazzan (1992), he published several prayerbooks and calendars and attempted to revive the knowledge of the Karaim language and religious tradition. In 2010 the Lithuanian Karaites, somewhat unexpectedly, decided to restore the institute of having not only ḥazzanim, but also the ḥakhan (sic for the ḥakham). Markas Lavrinovičius (Mark Ławrynowicz/ Lavrinovich) was elected ḥakhan in 2009 and fulfilled his duties until his death in 2011. To my knowledge, the office of the Troki ḥakhan and ułłu ḥazzan remains unoccupied since then. Unfortunately, it does not seem that there shall appear a new leader to lead religious life of the Lithuanian Karaite community (257 individuals at the time of writing). The Polish Karaites, now numbering only ca. 45 individuals, never attempted to revive the religious or language traditions. On the other hand, starting from the 2000s they were actively engaged in publishing activity and popularization of the Karaite culture through Internet, conferences and exhibitions. About the same time the Polish Karaite community founded the publishing house Bitik (Kar. “Book”), which continued publishing periodical “Awazymyz” and books on history and religion of the Karaites. Many Polish and Lithuanian Karaites are known as competent – even outstanding – specialists in their field, such as science, medicine, technology and arts. The percentage of those with higher education among the local Karaites is very high: according to the statistical surveys of 2001–2002 54 percent in Poland and 45,7 454 Conclusion

in Lithuania.2201 The Volhynian and Galician Karaite communities unfortunately virtually ceased to exist by 2014. In 2001 there were only six Karaites living in Łuck; some of them emigrated to Lithuania, some to Israel so that today only one Karaite, Samuil Iosifovich Eszwowicz, is living in Łuck (2013).2202 Although a few cultural events happened in Halicz (Halych) in the 2000s, the local community also ceased to exist because of the physical disappearance of its members. An observer cannot help noticing that the Karaite ethnic revival in Poland and Lithuania at the end of the 1990s/first decades of the twenty first century had exclusively Turkic – one may say Szapszałist – bias. No attempt was made to resurrect the community’s knowledge of Hebrew in which the local Karaite authors were so prolific until the interwar period. Religious renaissance consisted only of carrying out kenesa services in Karaim (certainly not in Hebrew) while such traditional Karaite rites as circumcision, ritual slaughter, laws of impurity, fasts, etc. were not restored. Their word designating God is the Turkic Tieńri,2203 although before Szapszał’s times it was usually used in concert with the Hebrew Adonaj or Elohim. Modern Lithuanian Karaites even modified Szapszał’s religious calendar – which had been highly Turkicized. The last edition of the Karaite religious calendar (embracing the period from 2001 to 2051) in Vilnius did not contain a single (!) Hebrew term2204 although, even during Szapszał’s times the local ḥazzanim usually used Hebrew names of the months and holidays alongside Szapszał’s Turkic terminology. Dejudaization also transformed the Karaites personal names. Today it is almost impossible to find in Eastern Europe a Karaite bearing a traditional Biblical name such as Abraham, Isaac or Mordecai. It is also interesting to note that in modern Lithuania, unfortunately, Szapszał’s and his followers’ pseudo-scholarly Turkic theory is considered the primary, and official version of the history of the Karaites. This case shows that, unfortunately, romantic mythologization often takes precedence over scientifically verified academic theories. Here, the victory of the Khazar theory can be explained by three factors. First, it was in Lithuania that the Karaites were especially active in promoting their cause before and after World War II. Second, it was Lithuania that housed the largest

2201 Adamczuk, Kobeckaite, Pilecki, Karaimi, 39. To compare, in 21 European countries only 34 percent of people, on average, had completed tertiary education (Emily Coleman, “EU lags Russia, Korea on higher education: report” ). 2202 Private communication of Volodymyr Shabarovs’kyi (18.07.2013); cf. Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 159-160. 2203 See the recently published in Lithuania Karaite prayer-books: David’ Bijniń Machtav Čozmachlary; Karaj dińliliarniń jalbarmach jergialiari (vols. 1-2); Karaj koltchalary. 2204 This is how the Karaite calendar is observed in Lithuania (Karaj Kalendary 2001–2051/Karaimų kalendorius 2001–2051, ed. Mykolas Firkovičius, Karina Firkavičiūtė and Vladimiras Maškevičius (Vilnius, 2001)). Discussing the Future of the Community 455

Karaite communities (those of Wilno and Troki) in the interwar Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And lastly, it is in independent Lithuania today that the Karaites have a strong “Khazar-oriented” Karaite political lobby that influences public opinion and academia – and often silences those who think otherwise. In other Eastern European countries that once contained sizable Karaite communities – e.g. Russia, Ukraine, and Poland – the situation is slightly different. In these three countries one will encounter both the scholarly “Jewish” theory of the Karaites’ origin and the pseudo-scholarly “Turko-Khazar” one in roughly equal proportions. Whatever one may think of their unwillingness to return to the Hebrew part of the Karaite tradition, the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites managed to preserve one fundamental value: the notion of belonging to Karaism, a specific ethnic and religious entity, – the achievement, whose importance should not be underestimated, though nowadays their perception of this term is quite different from that of their forefathers.

7.2 Discussing the Future of the Community

7.2.1 Demographic Situation

What kind of future might the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community expect? Because of their small numbers the local Karaites are certainly standing on the brink of extinction. Due to the lack of exact statistical data, it is very difficult to arrive at a precise population number of the Karaite community in the world today. However, one may hazard an estimate of not more than 24,000 – 30,000 souls. The largest communities are in Israel (where they have a legal status, synagogues, and courts of justice distinct from their Rabbanite neighbours)2205 and in the United States (the largest centres being in San Francisco, , and Chicago). These communities, however, have distinctive Jewish (Judeo-Karaite) identity and actively practice a Karaite variety of Judaism. Practically all East European Karaites, however, feel and consider themselves to be a Turkic people with a much closer affinity to the Tatars and other Turkic peoples.2206 The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites maintain virtually no relations with those Judeo-oriented Karaites and certainly do not intermarry with them. Therefore, the presence of the sizable Karaite community in Israel or the United States cannot help

2205 Nehemia Meyers, “Israel’s 30,000 Karaites follow Bible, not Talmud,” Jewish Bulletin (10.12.1999), 1a, 49a; the number of 30,000 Israeli Karaites is said to be overestimated. For a detailed bibliography regarding the Karaites in modern Israel, see BK, 115-126. 2206 At present, some Crimean Karaites eagerly name Crimean and Kazan Tatars as their genetic and blood brethren (e.g. Karai (krymskie karaimy) (Simferopol, 2000), 4-5, 9-10). I personally, however, know a few Karaite individuals of Eastern European origins, who consider themselves to be Jewish, not Turkic Karaites. 456 Conclusion

impacting the demographic challenges of Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. Available statistical data suggests an approximate number of 2,000 Karaites (or persons who consider themselves to be Karaites) living in Eastern Europe today: ca. 600-700 in Crimea, ca. 500 in the rest of Russia, ca. 400 in Ukraine,2207 257 in Lithuania,2208 and 45 in Poland.2209 Several dozens descendants of the East European (mostly Crimean) Karaites also live in France and Turkey, some individuals are scattered throughout other European countries. Most of these Karaites believe that they are of Turkic origin.2210 Between 200 to 300 Karaite emigrants of East European origin live in Israel. Most of them arrived there from Crimea, Russia and Ukraine; several families arrived from Halicz and Łuck (Eszwowicz and Moszkowicz families), at least two from Lithuania.2211 The number of Karaite residents of Poland and Lithuania hardly exceeds 300 individuals. This certainly substantiates reasonable fears of a vanishing future for local Karaites as an ethnic entity. Personal conversations with representatives of the elder generation in Poland, Lithuania and Galicia from 1999 to 2009 provided a pessimistic outlook as to their future in the first decades of the twenty-first century. Such dark forecasts, unfortunately, are not without grounds: the communities of Łuck and Halicz had just disappeared at time of this writing. Thus, the whole region of Galicia-Volhynia lost one its most interesting ethnic groups to inhabit this area since the late Middle Ages.

2207 Preliminary results of the most recent (December, 2001) official Ukrainian census counted 671 Karaites in Crimea and 163 Karaites in other parts of Ukraine, i.e. 834 Karaites in the whole Ukraine (Valentin Shcherbakov, “Osobennosti karaimskogo renessansa,” Krymskaia gazeta (11.06.2003)). Yet, the official version of this census contains the number of 1196 Karaites living in Ukraine (for exact statistics, see Shabarovs’kyi, Karaїmy, 174). This figure, however, seems to be somewhat exaggerated. For example, the figure of 106 Karaites living in Ivano-Frankivs’ka oblast’ is a misprint for… six Karaites living there (private communication of Ivan Yurchenko who took pains to verify the official data). At the time of writing (July 2014), when Crimea again became a part of Russia, one should speak about approximate number of 1,100-1,2000 Karaites living in Russia (including Crimea) and ca. 400 living in Ukraine. 2208 . 2209 Recent data reporting that there are as many as 346 Karaites in Poland (Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna. Narodowy spis powszechny ludności i mieszkań 2011 (Warsaw, 2013), 264) is certainly wrong. It does not correspond to the most precise data of 2001 (45 Karaites) collected by a group of specialists in tight collaboration with the Karaite community (Adamczuk, Kobeckaitė, Pilecki, Karaimi, 34). Even the most optimistic reports including children from mixed families estimate the number of Karaites in Poland, at most, at 150 souls. 2210 There is no unanimity of opinion concerning their ethnic origin among the Karaites of Turkey and France: those of them who descend from the Russian and Polish Karaite emigrants consider themselves Turks whereas other local Karaite residents (largely of “indigenous” Byzantine-Turkish stock and Egyptian emigrants) possess Judeo-Karaite identity. 2211 A. Kefeli to M. Kizilov, e-mail correspondence, 22.07.2014. Discussing the Future of the Community 457

The younger generation, however, often sounded more optimistic, inevitably turning turns the observer’s attention to the revival of Karaite religious practice and the Karaim language in Lithuania. Karina Firkavičiūtė, a doctor of musicology, revealed this hopefulness in an interview: “The present aboriginality2212 of the Karaims differs from what it used to be, before… However, the Karaim language and religion are alive, the house of prayer is open, and the national identity is still strong”.2213 The general opinion of the Karaite youth was that “they [i.e. scholars, journalists and public] say that we are dead since the beginning of the twentieth century; however, we are still alive and do not have any wish to disappear.”2214 There is a current tendency in Crimea and Ukraine to accept proselytes of non- Karaite (usually, Slavic) origin into the community, although their numbers are very low, perhaps not more than a dozen or so. Furthermore, a number of Crimean, Russian and Ukrainian Karaites are only half- or quarter-Karaites ethnically, many of them having surnames of their Slavic relatives – such as, but not limited to, Polkanovs’ family, Lebedevs, Kropotovs, etc. Such an approach to community growth is not accepted in Poland and Lithuania, where a member of the community is supposed to have both ethnically-Karaite parents – and have an original Karaite surname. In addition, the local Karaites still follow the proscription accepted by TOKDP in 1911, forbidding mixed marriages with non-Karaites. Therefore, the acceptance of proselytes or mixed marriages can hardly save the demographic situation within the Polish-Lithuanian community – first of all, because the local Karaites themselves are unwilling to change the traditional regulations.2215

2212 One may ask whether the term “indigenous” and “aboriginal” can be applied towards the population which appeared in a given territory in the late medieval period. 2213 As recorded by Alijūnas Gabrielius in “The People from the Peninsula,” Lithuania in the World 4 (1997): 15. 2214 One can compare the impressions which I received in the course of my contacts with Crimean, Polish and Lithuanian Karaites with the data retrieved by Koszewska, Koszewski, Karaimi Polscy, 59- 61. 2215 Some other small Jewish communities, which were somewhat less strict and conservative with regard to their matrimonial laws have managed to survive until today. Thus, for example, the Samaritans, who, like the Karaites, were rigorous non-Talmudic traditionalists, in the 1920s nevertheless allowed mixed marriages with the Rabbanite Jews – and recently with the non-Jews. As a consequence, the demographic situation in the community considerably improved: from 150 souls in 1901 the Samaritan community grew to 654 members in 2004 (Yu.A. Snopov, “Samaritiane: istoriia i sovremennaia etnosotsial’naia situatsiia,” Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 3 (2004): 73, 81-83). This means that in the course of about a hundred years the community became four times larger – an example which might have been followed by the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites as well, if not for the conservative nature of their matrimonial laws and the losses they suffered during the Second World War. 458 Conclusion

7.2.2 The Possibility of Return to Judeo-Karaite Cultural Heritage and Ethnic Identity

Is there any way to return the East European Karaites to their original Judeo-Karaite identity – or restore at least some of its elements, be they religious, ethnic or cultural? In 1991, after his visit to Eastern Europe, when thinking about the revival and preservation of the Hebrew part of the Karaite cultural identity and heritage, the American Karaite Mourad el-Qodsi mentioned that there would be the same loss of original Karaite tradition in the region “unless the Karaite Jews of the United States of America, and of Israel exert tremendous efforts, and spend a lot of money to convert the remaining [East European] Karaites to their original faith.”2216 So far, however, such a programme of support for the Hebrew identity of the East European Karaites was not organized either by American or Israeli Karaites. Furthermore, in Eastern Europe the mechanism of dejudaization of the Karaite community that Szapszał launched is still being developed by his successors. Today many Russian Karaite authors (e.g. E.I. Lebedeva, Yu.A. Polkanov, V. Ormeli, M.M. Kazas, V. Kropotov and others) claim among their ancestors not only the Khazars and Kypchak-Polovtsy, but also the Goths, Huns, Sarmato-Alans, Tauro-Scythians, Mongols-Keraites, and various Altai peoples.2217 Furthermore, some radical Karaite activists from Crimea even abandoned the term караимы (Karaites) and began referring to themselves караи or тюрки-караи (“Karai” or “Turks-Karais”).2218 Although there was no organized programme of repatriation of Crimean Karaites to Israel, many of them did emigrate there both in the 1990s and beginning of the twenty first century. At the time of this publication, there are ca. 200-300 Karaites of East European origin living in Israel.2219 One of them, Aleksei/Avraham Kefeli (b. Simferopol, 1972), is the present ḥazzan of the Ashdod Karaite community. In order to promote the return of Crimean Karaites to an authentic – Judaic – type of Karaism, he had composed in 2002 a brochure, in Russian, entitled “The Karaites: An Explanatory Leaflet on the History of Crimean Karaites and the Basics of the Karaite Confession.” This publication admonished all East European Karaites to reject theories of their Turkic origins and to return to their genuine religious, cultural and ethnic Karaite roots:

2216 El-Kodsi, Communities, 29. 2217 E.I. Lebedeva Ocherki po istorii krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov (Simferopol, 2000); Y.A. Polkanov, Karai – Krymskie karaimy-tiurki/Karais – the Crimean Karaites-Turks (Simferopol, 1997); Legendy i predaniia karaev (krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov), ed. by Y.A. Polkanov (Simferopol, 1995); Karai (Krymskie karaimy): Istoriia, kultura, sviatyni (Simferopol, 2000). See especially the six-volume series Karaimskaia Narodnaia Entsiklopediia published on the money of M.S. Sarach, the converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity Karaite maecenas from Paris. 2218 See the previous reference. 2219 A. Kefeli to M. Kizilov, e-mail correspondence, 22.07.2014. Discussing the Future of the Community 459

Return to your roots, to our religion! Do not look for [true] Karaism in the theories of the Turkic origin of the Karaites, which were merely tactics of survival during fascism! And even in the years of the fascist occupation of Crimea, there were [liturgical] services conducted in Biblical Hebrew!2220

It seems that some Crimean Karaites did respond to this appeal. At present, one can see a certain moderate, Hebrew-oriented revival of Karaite traditions in Crimea, especially evident in Eupatoria and Theodosia communities. The local Karaites represent moderate opposition to Yurii Polkanov and other radical Turko-oriented Karaite leaders (largely from Simferopol). Many of them learn Hebrew and the Karaite ethnolect of Crimean Tatar (usually referred to by the misnomer “karaimskii yazyk”2221) in order to read sources in the original languages of the community. Some local Karaites underwent circumcision (the first occurrence of this rite in the community since 1945!) and received new, Biblical names; there was a tendency to make pilgrimages to Israel and establish contacts with those Crimean Karaites who emigrated there. The Eupatoria and Theodosia Karaite kenesalar2222 were open to believers. Religious Karaites of Eupatoria and Theodosia decisively returned to the pre-Szapszał Karaite calendar and used only Hebrew names of the months and holidays.2223 A significant role in the popularization of pre-Szapszał Karaite traditions in the community was played by the Eupatoria ḥazzan Viktor (David) Zakhar’ievich Tiriiaki. The Polish-Lithuanian Karaites seemed to remain estranged both from the pro-Turkic radicalisation of Crimean Karaites and from this relatively moderate return to Judaic values. On the one hand, they did not accept Szapszał’s, Sarach’s and Polkanov’s idea about the Karaites’ veneration of the “sacred oaks;” they also continued calling themselves караимы/Karaimi and not караи or тюрки-караи. On the other, they certainly remained faithful to the Szapszałian type of Karaism and consider themselves people of Turkic origin, descendants of valorous Khazar nomads. Only a few Lithuanian Karaites emigrated to Israel2224 and, to the best of my

2220 Avraam Kefeli, Karaimy. Raz’’iasnitel’naia broshura po istorii karaimov Kryma i osnovam karaimskoi religii (Ashdod, 2002). 2221 In fact, the Karaim (Kypchak) language of the Karaites of Galicia, Volhynia and Lithuania is certainly different from the Karaite ethnolect of Crimean Tatar language once spoken by the Karaites in Crimea, Odessa and other Ukrainian and Russian parts of the Russian Empire. 2222 There are two functioning kenesalar in Eupatoria and a house of prayer in Theodosia, which is open in a room in the local semi-private Karaite museum (visited by M. Kizilov in 2011-2012). 2223 David Tiriiaki, Viacheslav El’iashevich, Kalendar’ karaimskikh prazdnikov, postov i otlichitel’nykh subbot na 5774-5778 gg. ot sotvoreniia mira (2013-2018 gg. n.e.) (Eupatoria, 2013); the Turko-oriented Crimean Karaites still use Szapszał’s calendar (e.g. A.A. Babadzhan, “Prazdniki i pamiatnye daty krymskikh karaimov-karaev,” KV 5 (48) (1999); idem, “Ulug Ata Sanavy – shchet Velikogo Ottsa,” KV 3 (55) (2000)). 2224 A. Kefeli to M. Kizilov, e-mail correspondence, 22.07.2014. 460 Conclusion

knowledge, none from Poland. At this time of writing, there is no sign of any revival of the Judeo-Karaite identity, nor of restoration of Judaic values among the Polish- Lithuanian Karaites. Thus, today Poland and Lithuania remain a fortress of Szapszałian Karaism denying all links with Judaism and Jewish civilization and living under the sign of the shield and the pitchfork (senek and kalkan) – the ethnic emblem invented for them by the demiurge of their twentieth-century Karaite Turkic identity, Seraja Szapszał. The Star of David, the symbol of their lost faith and identity, which once crowned the gates of the Troki beit ha-knesset, has shifted away – to the Near East, with those of the East European Karaites, who preferred to emigrate to ereṣ Yisra

Illustration 11: Çufut Kale: modern version of Szapszał’s “coat of arms” used by the Karaites in Eastern Europe as the symbol of the community. Photo by M. Kizilov.

7.3 What Can One Learn from the Karaite Case?

What can one learn from the Karaite case? First, the Karaites represent a unique example of a relatively swift and drastic U-turn in the ethnic identity of a seemingly What Can One Learn from the Karaite Case? 461

conservative and isolated ethno-religious group. The Karaite case is a highly interesting and unusual example of the complete change of an ethnic identity within about 150 years. The Karaites, who in the 1790s considered themselves conservative non-Talmudic scripturalist Jews, by the 1940s transformed into an ethnic group with a distinctive Turkic identity and a religion that they defined as the “Karaite faith” – as different from Judaism as it was from Christianity and Islam. In this regard, the Karaite case seems to be unique. World history knows several other examples of “endogenous dejudaization,” that is, conscious loss of Jewish identity: mountain Jews-Tats and Krymchaki Jews who also almost completely lost their Jewish identity after World War II.2225 However, the Karaite case is the only example in which the loss of Jewish identity was so carefully thought out and supported by the wealth of scholarly literature composed by the members of the community. Second, the Karaite case serves as a warning to the students of ethnic identities: one should always carefully weigh statements and publications of representatives of ethnic groups and communities about their identity, religion, and historical past. Sometimes they provide scholars with genuine data, and sometimes – as in the Karaite case – they deliberately deceive. As has been demonstrated in this study, the Karaite community leaders and scholars (S. Szapszał, S. Firkowicz, A. Mardkowicz, A. Zajączkowski, S. Szyszman and some other) created, in the interwar and postwar periods, a substantial corpus of pseudo-scholarly literature aimed at proving the Turkic origin and identity of the East European Karaites. Furthermore, Szapszał’s a-historical ideas and doctrine is still being supported, and even further developed, by many Crimean, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian Karaite authors. Third, somewhat paradoxically, the Karaite case demonstrates that the preservation of original traditions in an unchanged form does not always guarantee the physical survival of an ethnic community. Although the catastrophic demographic situation in the community had been discussed in the Karaite press starting from the beginning of the twentieth century, the Karaite religious authorities in Poland and Lithuanian continued to forbid mixed marriages, consistent with their religious laws. As a consequence, the wish to retain the traditional marriage laws led the local community to almost complete extinction and disappearance, whereas other small communities (e.g. the Samaritans), who were a bit less strict and conservative with regard to acceptance of proselytes, have managed to survive until the present day.

2225 Valerii Dymshitz, “Bor’ba za sushchestvitel’noe,” Narod Knigi v mire knig. Evreiskoe knizhnoe obozrenie 50 (2004): 6–13. In January 2007 Oleg Belyi (Sevastopol) gave me a copy of a letter of the Tat leaders to the highest members of the Communist Party. In this letter they complained about the attempts of several Soviet scholars to prove their Jewish origin (September 1984). I am also grateful to Dr. Mark Kupovetskii (Moscow) for providing me with detailed information in January 2008 regarding the Tats’ de-Judaization. More details on the fate of the Krymchaks during World War II and their de-Judaization may be found in the correspondence of Lev Kaia (esp. L.I. Kaia to A.N. Torpusman, 1970s–1980s, Archive of the Vaad of Russia, Moscow). 462 Conclusion

And finally, the Karaite case supports Benedict Anderson’s idea that national identity is a somewhat artificial phenomenon that can be constructed, reconstructed, and deconstructed depending on the current political and ideological agenda. The identity of the East European Karaites, which shifted from Judeo-Karaite to Turko- Karaite – and now shows some signs of reclaiming its Judaic component – is a convincing example of the veracity of Anderson’s theory.

***

So concludes this portrait of the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I wish the local community success in all of its academic, social, cultural and ethnographic endeavours, in whichever direction they lead: be it to a return to the Judeo-Karaite fold or to nourish a Turkic identity. Regardless, the community should be free to make its choice without undue influence on the part of academia, mass (or social) media, politics or economics. The most important task is the physical survival of the community in the age of globalisation with its inherent steamrolling over many micro-languages, cultures and identities. It is to be hoped that the community will overcome demographic problems and preserve its unique ethnographic culture for generations to come. Glossary aron ha-qodesh – Torah closet, the place for keeping Torah scrolls in a synagogue Ashkenazim – German, West-, Central-, or East-European Jews bnei Yisraal peh), a later Rabbinic commentary and legal code based on the Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh); was not accepted by the Karaites piyyuṭ – poem qehilah – Jewish community, congregation; the same as qahal qinah (Kar. kyna) – lamentation, funeral elegy Rabbanite – adherent of Rabbinic (Talmudic) Judaism Rosh ha-Shanah – Jewish New Year (also called by the Karaites in Hebrew Yom teruah) 464 Glossary

ribbi (rarely erbi) – Karaite form for “rabbi;” usually applied to a teacher. Cf. Yiddish reb and rebbe shammash – synagogue beadle/custodian sheḥiṭah – ritual slaughtering of animals shofeṭ (lit. “judge”) – negotiator or lobbyist, administrative head of the Karaite community in Poland and Lithuania responsible for representing the community to non-Karaite authorities (cf. Pol. wójt and Heb. shtadlan) shoḥeṭ – ritual slaughterer; cf. sheḥitah siddur – prayer book Subbotniki (Subbotniks/Sabbatarians) – Russian converts to Judaism; those who called themselves russkie karaimy (Russian Karaites) adhered to a non-Talmudic (Karaite) variety of Judaism tamğa (-lar) – tribal signs of Turkic clans TaNaKh – the Hebrew Bible, Christian Old Testament targum – translation of the Bible into vernacular languages (e.g. in Karaim) Torah – Pentateuch or Pentateuchal scroll województwo – administrative district in Poland (a.k.a. voivodship or palatinate) Bibliography

In this study I have analysed the most valuable documents pertaining to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, which are kept in archival collections in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, France, Great Britain, Germany, and USA. Especially important were the hitherto little-studied Karaite collections in Vilnius (Seraja Szapszał and Szemaja Firkowicz’s personal archives, and manuscript collections of the Vilnius University), Warsaw (Archive for Modern Records) and Kraków (Karaite materials by the Polish Orientalists, Tadeusz Kowalski and Jan Grzegorzewski). Of major importance, too, was the collection of Karaite manuscripts assembled in Halicz by Ivan Yurchenko (the Yurchenko MSS), which is still in the process of being catalogued and digitized. Due to the fact that this collection has not yet been properly catalogued, I have provided a short bibliographic description of those Yurchenko MSS used in my study. Documents from other, already well- established, archival collections, which may be easily found in their respective catalogues, are normally indicated by their call numbers only. I encountered serious challenges with compilation of the bibliography of printed sources and secondary literature. I originally decided to divide my printed sources into two large categories: “printed primary sources” (publications of Karaite authors), and “other printed primary sources” (sources of non-Karaite origin). Soon, however, I found myself facing a very difficult question: should I treat publications of twentieth- century Karaite Orientalists (e.g. Anna Sulimowicz, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, Zygmunt Abrahamowicz and some others) as sources or secondary literature? After long consideration, the following decision was made: most of the publications by Karaite scholars, their academic character notwithstanding, still provide us with many first- hand details, such as their authors’ opinions and views, personal reminiscences, memoirs et al. Moreover, biographies of twentieth-century Polish-Lithuanian Karaite scholars (and their publications) also represent a part of the history of the Polish- Lithuanian Karaite community in the twentieth century. Therefore, all publications by Karaite authors are viewed as primary sources for this study. Another difficult question was connected with publications by journalists and amateur historians (e.g. Bohdan Janusz and Józef Smoliński) which were published before 1945. Should they be considered secondary academic literature or sources on the state of the community in that period? Again, after lengthy consideration, I came to the following conclusion: stricto sensu the scholarly value of such publications is quite insignificant. Nevertheless, personal observations by such journalists and men of letters undoubtedly represent a very important source for the history of the Karaites in the region. Therefore, such publications are listed in the bibliography under “Other printed primary sources.” The works of the Orientalists T. Kowalski and J. Grzegorzewski, which also contain elements of travel descriptions of their visits to the Polish Karaite communities, because of their doubtless academic value, on the contrary, would be categorized as the “secondary literature.” Highly complicated was 466 Bibliography

also the case of Reuven Fahn, who is known as an amateur historian, ethnographer and epigraphist, on the one hand, and as a littérateur and journalist, on the other. His scholarly studies are listed as secondary literature (section 2 of the bibliography), whereas his journal reports and collection of Karaite legends are listed as “other printed primary sources.” Those items that were not personally verified are noted as non vidi. One can also find the list of unpublished theses, online resources and documentaries used in this study.

Sources

Manuscript and typescript

Berlin, Bundesarchiv [BArch] R 1509/1152.

Belgrade, Historical Archives Istorijski arhiv Beograda, fond Uprava grada Beograda (Historical Archives of Belgrade, Belgrade Police Prefecture documents). SP III-8/13, k. 144/15.

Halych (Halicz), uncatalogued miscellaneous manuscripts collected by Ivan Yurchenko [the Yurchenko MSS]2226 Janina Eszwowicz’s personal documents: Copybooks with Karaim prayers (in Hebrew characters) written in the 1970s by Moses Szulimowicz (?), the last ḥazzan of the Halicz community. Hets’, Petro. Monolog luts’koho karaїma (S. Eszwowiczu) [a typescript of a poem; composed in Łuck, 13 June 1973; Ukr.]. Ickowicz, Samuel. Zacharia. 5 fols. [poems in Karaim dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Zachariasz Izaak Abrahamowicz (1878-1903); typescript].

Zarach Zarachowicz’s personal documents: Regierung des Generalgouvernements (Sippenstelle) an Herrn Zoruch Zoruchowicz, Sekretär. Krakau, 10.6.1942 [German]. Regierung des Generalgouvernements (Sippenstelle) an Herrn Zoruch Zoruchowicz, Sekretär. Krakau, 8.12.1943 [German]. A letter of S. Szapszał to Z. Zarachowicz. Wilno/Vilnius, 8 Oct. 1948 [Russian]. The marriage contract between Mordecai-Shalom b. Yeshua Mordkowicz and Esther bat Joseph. Halicz, 6.08.1942 [Hebrew]. Yugov, Alexei. Svetonostsy. Epopeia. Moscow: Sovetskii pisatel’, 1946 [donated by Boris Kokenai to Z. Zarachowicz with dedicatory inscription by B. Kokenay and marginal handwritten notes in Russian left by a relative of Z. Zarachowicz (?)].

2226 Kept in the repository of the Museum of Karaite History and Culture in Halicz (in the process of being catalogued and digitized; when a document in question is available in digitized form, I provide its location in accordance with the system used by Ivan Yurchenko). Bibliography 467

Other: A certificate (udostoverenie/zaświadczenie) given to Zofja Eszwowicz, her husband, Samuel Eszwowicz, and their son, Gabriel Eszwowicz, by the Ministry of Recovered Territories. Warsaw, 17.02.1948 [Polish/Russian]. Abrahamowicz, Mordecai. A letter to his parents in Halicz. Jerusalem, 21.10.193[5] [Polish]. An article by anonymous Karaite author (Aleksander Mardkowicz?), 1920s-1930s, 7 fols. [Polish]. Calendar for 1944/1945 [Halicz; Hebrew]. Calendar for the year 5705 (1944/1945) [Halicz; Hebrew]. Eszwowicz, Ignacy. A letter to Helena Eszwowicz. Opole, n.d. (1960s) [Polish]. [Firkowicz, Szemaja/Szymon]. Bytovaia kartinka iz karaimskoi zhizni (Everyday scene from the Karaite life). TrKar in Cyrillic script. Typescript, 1 fol. Firkowicz, Szemaja. A letter to Z. Zarachowicz (19.11.1923) [Russian with Polish, Hebrew, and Karaim words] [Doc. 25]. Invitation to an evening of Karaite culture organized by “Koło Młodych Karaimów w Haliczu.” Halicz, 17 Apr. 1938 [Polish; sent to Leon Eszwowicz. The programme for the evening included a lecture on the role of theatre by Z. Nowachowicz and a recitation of Karaim poetry (verses by Z. Abrahamowicz, Sz. Kobecki, and A. Mardkowicz)]. “Karaimi, ogórki, historja.” A press-cutting with an article published after WWII in the Polish newspaper Express [Polish]. Luaḥ roshei ḥodashim/Karaimskii kalendar’ na 5710 god ot sotvoreniia mira (1949-1950) [Halicz; Hebrew with Russian subtitle]. Mardkowicz, Rozalia. A letter to Zarach Zarachowicz. Łuck, 4 Sep. 1944 [Polish]. Pilecki, Owadjusz. A letter to Z. Zarachowicz (31.10.1923, Polish) [disc 6. Folder “Ow. Pilecki to Z.Z.” Doc. 19, file 5742]. Sharfsten, Zvi, and Soferman, Rafael. Sfatenu. Sefer limud ha-safah ha->ivrit >al fi ha-shiṭah ha-ṭiv>it. Pt. 1. Przemyśl: S. Freund, 1910 [contains handwritten notes by Z. Zarachowicz in Karaim, Hebrew, Polish and Ukrainian in Hebrew script; was used as a textbook of the Hebrew language in the Halicz Karaite midrasz]. Szulimowicz, Isaac ben Yeshua. Translations of Hebrew prayers into Karaim. November, 1940 [fols. 1-10 at the beginning of Seder tefillot ha-Qara

Heidelberg, Zentralarchiv zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland Zentralkomitee der Befreiten Juden in der Britischen Zone. Bestand B. 1/28. Gemeindeabteilung Lübeck no. 695: Korrespondenzen von Norbert Wollheim über die des ehemaligen Mitarbeiters im Arbeitsstab Rosenberg, Dr. Herbert Gotthard, an Polen, 1945-1947.

Jerusalem, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East Karaite collection: Call no. 77. Simcha-Isaac ben Moses Łucki. Eilon Moreh (1729) [copied by Zarach Zarachowicz in Halicz in 1931; Hebrew].

Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Daf ed 205071 and 205073. 468 Bibliography

Kraków, Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU (Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences) [AN PAN] Spuścizna K III-6. Jan Grzegorzewski.2227 No. 16. Karaimi. Wyciągi z Archiwum Lwowskiego, notatki z zakresu historji i kultury, wykaz imienny Karaimów w Haliczu. 1914. No. 17. Karaimi: Pieśni, wiersze, psalmy. Teksty, tłumaczenia, słownictwo.

Spuścizna K III-4. Tadeusz Kowalski. No. 122: 1/2. Materjały karaimskie. Notatki, wypisy z literatury, wiersze, utwory sceniczne (głównie Sz. Firkowicza). 1921-1927. No. 156. Correspondence with members of the Karaite community.

Spuścizna K III-146. Zygmunt Abrahamowicz.2228

London, British Library Kodzhak, Yeremiia. “Remains of Khazar Words in the Language of Their Descendants Karaїmes of Crimea” (1948) [typescript of the article in the British Library General Reference Collection, shelf-mark 12907.S.15, 5 pp.; English].

Leipzig, Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig Call no. 1942 B 484. Firkowicz, Szymon. Die Karaimen in Polen. Dienstliche Übersetzung von Dr Harald Cosack. Berlin-Dahlem: Publikationstelle, 1941. [11 pages of typewritten text with subheading “Nur für den Dienstgebrauch;” German].

Moscow, Archive of the Vaad of Russia Lev Isaakovich Kaia collection (uncatalogued): Kaia, L.I. Letters to A.N. Torpusman (1970s-1980s) [Russian]. Kaia, L.I. A letter to M.S. Tinfowicz. Simferopol, 08.06.1969 [Russian]. Kaia, L.I. Balovni sud’by. Ocherki po istorii karaimov v Rossii. Simferopol, 1988 [typescript; Russian]. Tinfowicz, M.S. A letter to L.I. Kaia. Trakai, 13.06.1969 [Russian].

Moscow, State Archive of Russian Federation [GARF] Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii. F. 7021, op. 93, no. 3692.

New York, YIVO Institute RG40 [German translations of studies by R. Mahler, R. Fahn, T.S. Levi-Babovich, A. Zajączkowski, A. Kahan, and S. Szapszał. Translations were done ca. 1941-1943 at the request of Nazi authorities in Wilno ghetto by the group of Jewish scholars headed by Z. Kalmanovich].

Odessa, State Archive of Odessa region Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Odesskoi oblasti. F. П-92, op. 1, no. 3.

Paris, Mémorial de la Shoah – Archives du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine. No. CCXVI-8.

2227 For some reason Jan Grzegorzewski’s archival materials did not have any pagination. I was therefore forced to refer to call numbers only, without providing exact page or folio numbers. 2228 Uncalatalogued at the time of writing. Bibliography 469

Sevastopol, Mr. Oleg Belyi’s private collection Typescript Russian translation of S. Szyszman, Le Karaïsme: ses doctrines et son histoire. Lausanne: L’Age d’homme, 1980. Done by L.I. Kaia in the 1970s.

Sheffield, the University of Sheffield Library The Hartlib Papers 1/33. Fols. 63A-63B [A letter from Cyprian Kinner to Samuel Hartlib (Aug. 1648) containing a copy of Johann Stephan Rittangel’s report on the Karaites of Troki (in German)].

Simferopol, State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea [GAARK] F. 241. Collection of Taurida and Odessa Karaite spiritual consistory [TOKDP]: Opis’ 1. Call nos. 172, 223, 533, 572, 769, 1083, 1135, 1163, 1180, 1230, 1307, 1328, 1864. Opis’ 2. Call nos. 3, 10, 23, 33, 49. R-3864. Opis’ 1. Call no. 482.

St. Petersburg, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin National Library of Russia [NLR] F. 946. Abraham Firkowicz’s manuscript collection: Opis’ 1. Abraham Firkowicz’s personal archive. Call no. 898 Evr. I Doc. II. Call nos. 1 (3), 26, 37-39. Evr. II A. Abraham Firkowicz’s Second collection. Call nos. no. 8, 163/5, 1631, 1825.

Vienna, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv Staatskanzlei, Provinzen: Galizien 1, Konv. D., 1787.

Vilnius (Wilno), Lietuvos mokslų akademijos biblioteka (Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences) [MS LMAB] F. 143. Seraja Szapszał’s personal archive. Call nos. 9a, 25, 29, 53, 85r, 116, 117, 125, 136, 143, 149, 161, 164, 171, 172a, 176, 178, 204, 211, 212, 218, 224a, 239, 242, 247, 264, 290, 375, 377, 384, 392, 393, 394, 424, 425, 425a, 428, 444, 459, 460, 465, 466, 468, 490, 501, 511, 536, 541, 611, 633, 652, 703, 723, 724, 822, 825, 828, 833, 833a, 835, 836, 838, 845, 846, 848, 849, 859, 881, 887, 891, 894, 899, 905, 912, 917, 918, 928, 929a, 930, 931, 932, 933, 934, 935, 936, 937, 938, 939, 940, 941, 942, 943, 943a, 968a, 977, 1002, 1016, 1023, 1044, 1053, 1056, 1062, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063, 1064/1, 1064/2, 1068, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1084, 1085, 1087, 1139, 1178, 1179, 1231, 1237, 1260, 1334, 1452, 1453, 1459, 1500, 1505, 1519, 1527, 1529, 1531, 1537, 1538, 1573, 1587, 1981. F. 301. Documents of the Lithuanian Karaite community. Call nos. 10, 27, 70, 99, 238, 246, 295, 302, 326, 332, 403, 419, 494. F. 305. Szemaja (Szymon/Semen Adolfovich) Firkowicz’s personal archive. Call nos. 20, 51, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 134, 139, 220, 511.

Vilnius (Wilno), Manuscript Department of the Library of the Vilnius University [MS VU] F. 185. Szemaja (Szymon/Semen Adolfovich) Firkowicz’s personal collection. Call nos. 14, 22. F. 243. Szymon (Semen Borisovich) Szyszman’s collections. Call nos. 1, 2, 8, 30, 36, 55, 59, 78, 86, 89, 93, 98, 117, 125.

Warsaw, Archiwum Akt Nowych (Archive for Modern Records) [AAN] Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego (Ministry for Religious Confessions and Public Education) [MWRiOP]. Call nos. 1461, 1462, 1463, 1464, 1465, 1466, 1467.

Warsaw, Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (Main Archive for Old Records) [AGAD] Lustracje dz. XVIII. No. 56. Lustracja Ziemi Halickiej. 470 Bibliography

Lustracje dz. XVIII. No. 62. Lustracja Starostwa Halickiego. Archiwum Skarbu Koronnego [ASK] oddz. XLVI. S. 18. Archiwum Skarbu Koronnego [ASK] oddz. XLVI. S. 20.

Warsaw, private collection Dubiński, Aleksander. “Karaimskaia nauchnaia i obshchestvennaia publitsistika (kratkii obzor).” [typescript of an unpublished article; Russian].

Washington, National Archives Office of the Chief Deputy for the Serbian Economy (Genaralbevohlmächtigter für die Wirtschaft in Serbien). T 75, roll 17, frames 191-240; roll 53, frame 1378.

Museum collections

Halych (Halicz), Muzei karaїms’koї istoriї ta kul’tury [MKIK] Parchment from a mezuzah containing two small fragments from the Torah (Deut. 6: 4-9 and 11: 13-21). Halicz, from the house of Janina Eszwowicz. Before the Second World War. The kapporet (a drapery for a Torah scroll) of Hanna ha-Rabbanit, wife of Levi, with gold embroidery. Halicz, nineteenth century.

Riga, Museum “Jews in Latvia” Call no. III/106. [H. Bernsdorff’s miscellaneous correspondence concerning the Karaites in Latvia and abroad. 1940s-1960s; German, Russian].

Vilnius (Wilno), National Museum of Lithuania Collection of S.M. Szapszał. Call no. 178. R-13.164 [“Starinnye stikhi na tiurksko-karaimskom yazyke, v kotorykh upominaetsia imia khazar” (The ancient verses in the Turkic Karaim language where the name of the Khazars is mentioned). A handwritten version of two “Khazar” verses-baits in the Crimean Turkish language; S. Szapszał’s hand, pencil].

Printed primary sources (publications of Karaite authors)

Aaron ben Elijah. Eṣ hayyim. Gözleve/Eupatoria, 1847. ______. “The Karaite Holidays.” In Nemoy, Leon. Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature (Yale Judaica Series 7). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952, 172-189. Abkovich, Kseniia. “Vstrecha.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 18-21. Abkowicz (Juchniewicz), Zofia. “Ogórki Trockie.” Awazymyz 1 (4) (2000): 11-13. Abkowicz, Mariola. “Kalejdoskop kultur czyli Dostłar we Wrocławiu” [Kaleidoscope of cultures or “Dostłar” in Wrocław]. Awazymyz 2 (2008). ______. “Karaimi we Wrocławiu” [Karaites in Wrocław]. AK, 107-110. ______. “Karaimskie życie społeczne w Polsce po 1945 roku.” In Karaimi. Edited by Beata Machul- Telus. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo sejmowe, 2012, 190-199. ______. “Letnie zanurzenie” [Immersion into the summer]. Awazymyz 2 (2008). ______. “No i znowu byłam w Haliczu.” Awazymyz 1 (7) (2003). ______. “Z dziennika zespołu ‘Dostłar’” [From the diary of the ensemble “Dostłar”]. Awazymyz 3 (2006). Abkowicz, Mariola and Anna Sulimowicz. Karaj jołłary – karaimskie drogi. Karaimi w dawnej fotografii. Wrocław: Bitik, 2010. Bibliography 471

Abkowicz, Rafael [Abkowicz, Rafał]. “Co oznaczają nasze święta i inne specjalne dni” [What is the meaning of our holidays and special days]. Translated by Anna Sulimowicz. AK, 11-13. ______. “Karaj łuchotłary jiłha 5691 jaratyłmysyndan dunjanyn. (1930-31)” [Karaite calendar for the year 5691 from the creation of the world (1930-31)]. KA 1 (1931): 31-32. ______. “Ne anłatadłar biźnin moedłerimiz da eźge ajryksy kinłerimiz” [What our holidays and other special days mean]. In Łuwachłar dert jiłha (5693-5696). Edited by Aleksander Mardkowicz. Łuck, 1932, 8-9. Abrahamowicz, Zygmunt. “Two Religious Poems by the Polish 16th century Poet Jan Kochanowski in Karaite.” Translated by Marianna Zajączkowska-Abrahamowicz. BEK 2 (1989): 65-82. ______. “Dzieje Karaimów w Haliczu.” PO 1-2 (2001): 3-16. Abrahamowicz, Zacharjasz. “Ya – karaїm.” Translated by Stepan Pushyk. Dnistrova Hvylia 11 (124). 12.03.1998. [Abrahamowicz, Zacharjasz]. “Zecharja Abrahamowicznin tiziwleri” [Works by Zecharja Abrahamowicz]. KA 2 (1931): 24-29. Achad Haam. “Zecharja Jicchak Abrahamowicz.” KA 2 (1931): 21-23. Al’ianaki, Savelii. O tom, chto pomniu… Kiev: n.p., 2009. al-Maghribi, Samuel ben Moses. “The Karaite Holidays.” In Nemoy, Leon. Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature. Yale Judaica Series, 7. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952, 196-229. A-ski [Zajączkowski, Ananiasz]. “Przywileje nadane Karaimom przez Królów polskich.” MK 1 (1924): 22. Babadzhan, Aleksandr. “Prazdniki i pamiatnye daty krymskikh karaimov-karaev.” KV 5 (48) (1999). ______. “Ulug Ata Sanavy – Schet Velikogo Ottsa.” KV 3 (55) (2000). ______. “Fond S.M. Shapshala.” IKDU 7 (16) (2013): 4-6. ______. “O dubakh i posviashchennykh” [On the oaks and initiated (into the “cult of sacred oaks”)]. Caraimica 2 (2007): 34-36. ______. “O dębach i o wtajemniczonych.” Translated from Russian. Awazymyz 1 (2006). Bebesh, B.S. “Karaimy i deportatsiia,” KV 22 (1996). Beim, Solomon. Chufut-Kale i karaimy [Çufut Kale and the Karaites]. St. Petersburg, 1861. ______. Pamiat’ o Chufut-Kale [Memories about Çufut Kale]. Odessa, 1862. “Błogosławieństwo Jego Świętobliwości Papieża Piusa XI.” MK 11 (1936): 109-110. “Błogosławionej pamięci Achiezer Zajączkowski 1855-1930.” MK 2:3-4 (1931): 50-56. Czaprocki, Daniel [Čaprocki, Daniel]. “Kaldychlary ašchan zamannyn” [Remnants of the past]. Onarmach 1 (1934): 21-23. ______. “Konachlychba karyndašlarda” [Visit to our brethren]. Onarmach 2 (1938): 17-21. ______. “Sormachlary biugiungiu kiunniun” [Problems of the present day]. Onarmach 3 (1939): 3-5. ______. “Tirligindian Karaj-Džymatnyn Lietuvada” [From the life of the Lithuanian Karaite community]. Onarmach 3 (1939): 36-40. Caraimii: un scurt istoric. Chisinau: Ediţia Comunităţii Caraime, 1932. David’ Bijniń Machtav Čozmachlary – Psalmės. Edited by Mykolas Firkovičius. Vilnius: Danielius, 1994. “Dobrovol’noe pozhertvovanie.” KS 7-8 (1914): 23-24. “Dobrovol’noe pozhertvovanie.” KS 9-10 (1914): 24. Dubińska, Anna. “Garść danych o Karaimach z Łucka.” Awazymyz 2 (3) (1999): 9–10. Dubińska, Zofia. “Zachowane w pamięci” [Preserved in memory]. Awazymyz 1 (2009): 3-8. ______. “Garść wspomnień o Mistrzu.” In KTOL, 96-101. Dubiński, Adam. “Bratnie dusze” [Brotherly souls]. Awazymyz 2 (2008). ______. “Przypadek” [An incident]. Awazymyz 1 (2008). ______. “Aleksander Dubiński.” Awazymyz 2 (27) (2010): 3-6. 472 Bibliography

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2229 See also the penname “Zefir.” Bibliography 475

______. Podręczny słownik polsko-karaimski. [Warsaw], 2008. Jutkiewicz G., and Szymon Pilecki. “Wspomnienie: Zofia Dubińska, 15.01.1915 – 6.02.2008” [A memoir: Zofia Dubińska, 15.01.1915 – 6.02.2008]. Awazymyz 1 (2008): 14-15. Jutkiewicz, Aleksander. “Jubileusz 80–lecia Michała Firkowicza w dn. 17.11.2004 r.” Awazymyz 1 (10) (2005): 10-11. Jutkiewicz, E. “Nierozważny krok (Nowela) II.” DK 2 (1932): 16-17. ______. “Nierozważny krok (Nowela).” PK 1 (1930): 7-8. ______. “Powrót do domu.” PK 1 (1930): 9-10. “K karaimskomu obshchestvu.” KS 1 (1913): 1. “K karaimskomu obshchestvu.” KS 5 (1913): 3-4. “K voprosu o karaimsko-evreiskikh brakakh.” KZh 1 (1911): 109. “K vyboram gakhama.” KS 2 (1913): 16-20. “K vyboram gakhama.” KS 9-10 (1914): 15-16. “K vyboram Gakhama.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 45. “K vyboram tavricheskogo gakhama,” KS 2 (1913): 1-2. K., E. [Kobiecki, Emanuel?]. “Z Wileńskiego Stowarzyszenia Karaimów.” MK 1 (1924): 24-25. ______. “Kienesa Karaimska w Wilnie.” MK 1 (1924): 23. Kachanov-Prik, N.V. “My ne evrei! No my i ne tiurki! Kto zhe my?” Caraimica 6 (2013): 34-42. “Kairdan.” Onarmach 1 (1934): 17-20. Karai (Krymskie karaimy): Istoriya, kultura, sviatyni [Karais (Crimean Karaites): History, culture, shrines]. Simferopol, 2000. Karaimai kariuomenėje – Karajlar javanlychta – Karaims on Military Service. Edited by Michailas Zajončkovskis. Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus, 2000. Karaimi. Edited by Beata Machul-Telus. Warsaw, 2012. Karaimskaia Narodnaia Entsiklopediia. Edited by M.S. Sarach (until 2000) and M.M. Kazas. 6 Vols. Paris and Moscow, 1995–2007. Karaimskii kalendar’ na piat’ let ot 5682 po 5686 god. Edited by O.I. Pilecki. Wilno, 1921. “Karaimy g. Galicha.” KS 9-10 (1914): 24. Karaj dińliliarniń jalbarmach jergialiari. Vol. 1: Ochumach üčiuń kieniesada. Compiled by Mykolas Firkovičius. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 1998. Karaj dińliliarniń jalbarmach jergialiari. Vol. 2: Ochumach üčiuń kieniesada adiet’ vahdalarynda. Compiled Mykolas Firkovičius. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 1999. Karaj Kalendary 2001–2051/Karaimų kalendorius 2001-2051. Compiled and edited by Mykolas Firkovičius, Karina Firkavičiūtė, and Vladimiras Maškevičius. Vilnius: UAB “Topforma,” 2001. Karaj koltchalary/Karaimų maldos. Edited by Mykolas Firkovičius. Vilnius, 1993. Karaj kiuńlari: Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego we współczesnej Europie/Наследие Караимов в современной Европе/Heritage of Karaims in Present Europe. Edited by Mariola Abkowicz, and Henryk Jankowski, in co-operation with Irena Jaroszyńska. Wrocław: Bitik, 2004. Karaj łuwachłar jyłha 5699/5700. Compiled by Hazzan Refael Abkowicz. Wilno: TMHiLK, 1939. Karaj sez-bitigi. Słownik karaimski. Karaimisches Wörterbuch. Compiled by Aleksander Mardkowicz. Łuck, 1935. Karaucu [Zarachowicz, Zarach?]. “Unutkan Ribbimiz” [Our forgotten teacher]. KA 3 (1932): 18-22; KA 4 (1932): 15-17. Karay Yirlary. Edited by Mykolas Firkovičius. Vilnius: Litovskii fond kul’tury, 1989. Kazas, Mikhail. “Uchenyi, diplomat, dukhovnyi glava karaimov S.M. Szapszał.” In Karaimy i Moskva. Moscow, 1997, 12-16. ______. “Karaimov zabyvaiut sprosit’.” Krymskoe vremia. 23.10.1996. Kefeli, Valentin Il’ich. “Karai-Bitikligi i propazha natsional’nykh knig i svitkov karaimov” [The Karai- Bitikligi and the loss of Karaite national books and scrolls]. KV 22 (1996). ______. “Razmyshleniia v den’ iubileia.” Karaimskoe nasledie 5 (2012): 55. 476 Bibliography

Kefeli, A.S. “Oshibochno deportirovannye.” KV 4 (1994). Kefeli, Avraam. Karaimy. Raz’’iasnitel’naia broshura po istorii karaimov Kryma i osnovam karaimskoi religii [Karaites. Explanatory leaflet on the history of Crimean Karaites and basics of the Karaite confession]. Ashdod, 2002. Kefeli, Michel. “Karaimi we Francji.” Transl. from French A. Sulimowicz. Awazymyz 3 (2007). “Kenasa.” KS 1 (1913): 13-14. “Kićli bijim, kiplihim/Mocny Boże, siło moja.” Awazymyz 1 (38) (2013): 3. “Kioź sałmach tirliginia igitlarniń.” DK 2 (1932): 13-14. Kiskachi, A.V. “Pamiat’ o tragedii.” Meshchanskaia gazeta. 28.01.1995. Kobeckaitė, Halina (Kobetskaite/Kobecka, Galina). Kratkii ocherk o karaimakh v Litve. Vilnius, 2011. ______. “Dėl karaimų kalbos žodžių lietuviškos formos.” Vakarinės naujienos. 31.01.1989. ______. “Duch legendarnych przodków: Karaimska poezja na Litwie.” Znad Wilii. 14.02.1995. ______. “Karaims in Lithuania.” In Seraya Szapszał’s Karaim Collection. Compiled by Žygintas Būčys, translated by Arvydas Gaižauskas. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2003, 7-13. ______. “Kultūrų sąveika.” Kultūros barai 7/8 (1990): 17-19. ______. “Lietuvos karaimų spauda.” In Žurnalisto žinynas. Vol. 2. Edited by V. Užtupas. Vilnius: Vilius, 1996, 40-52. ______. “Lietuvos karaimų spauda.” Mokslas ir gyvenimas 7 (1994): 24-25. ______. “Lietuvos orientas: jo šaknys ir tyrimai.” In KTOL, 15-28. ______. Lietuvos karaimai: Totorių ir karaimų įsikūrimo Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje 600 metų jubiliejaus leidinys. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 1997. ______. Litovsko-karaimsko-russkii razgovornik. Vilnius, 2011. ______. Rozmówki polsko-karaimsko-litewskie. Wrocław: BITIK, 2011. ______. “Faktory sokhraneniia etnicheskogo identiteta litovskimi karaimami.” [Factors of the preservation of ethnic identity by the Lithuanian Karaites]. In OLDK, 263-272. ______. “Karaimų atgimimo viltis.” Gimtasis kraštas. 30.06.1988. ______. “Tautinės dvasios liepsna.” Vakarinės naujienos. 20.01.1989. Kobecki A. “Michał Zajączkowski – mój Dziadek” [Michał Zajączkowski – my granddad]. Awazymyz 1 (2007). Kobecki, Szymon. “Burunhu czychmach juwdian” [The first going out]. DK 2 (1932): 9-11. ______. “Rast dinimni…” [My true faith…]. DK 2 (1932): 9. ______. “Dostłarha” [To the friends]. DK 2 (1932): 6. Kodzhak, Il’ia Babakaevich. Oko v okne. Harbin: Populiarizator, 1932. ______. “Evreiskii vopros.” Kul’turno-gosudarstvennaia problema evreistva (pertsepta). Harbin: izdanie avtora, 1935. ______. Sotsiosofiia: novaia nauka o gosudarstve. Harbin, 1937. Kodzhak, Yeremiia. Kratkii obzor istorii karaimskoi religii i ee rasprostraneniia sredi razlichnykh narodov. Paris, 1948. Kokenai, Boris. “Bir-nieča bergianliar Karaj sioz-bitiktian.” Onarmach 3 (1939): 25-31. “Konferencja w Haliczu.” MK 2:1 (1929): 48. Kopycińska, Ludmiła, Michał Abkowicz, and Włodzimierz Abkowicz. “Z Dalekiego Wschodu... do Szczecina.” Awazymyz 2 (35) (2012): 4-10. “Kronika karaimska.” PK 1 (1930): 11-14. Kropotov, V. “Na frontakh voevalo 650 karaev.” In Bizym Yol. ‘K’’yrym’ ve ‘K’’yrymk’’arailar’/Nash put’. ‘Krym’ i ‘Krymskie karaimy’. Simferopol: Dolia, 2008, 81. ______. Voiskovye traditsii krymskich karaimov. Simferopol: Dolia, 2004. Krym, Solomon. “Jalbarmahy Hachannyn.” Onarmach 3 (1939): 8-11. L.... “Odin gakham dla vsekh karaimov.” KS 9-10 (1914): 1-3. Bibliography 477

Lavrin, Leonid. “In memoriam Semenu Shismanu.” In Karaj kiuńlari: Dziedzictwo narodu karaimskiego we współczesnej Europie. Edited by Mariola Abkowicz, Henryk Jankowski, and Irena Jaroszyńska. Wrocław: Bitik, 2004, 177-179. ______. “Kolonia karaimska w Harbinie.” Awazymyz 1 (5) (2001): 12-13. Lavrinovičius, Markas. Russko-karaimskij slovar’. Trakai 2007. ______. Avaldan kieliasigia (Iz dalekogo proshlogo v budushchee). Trakai, 2011. Lebedev, V. “Karaimy i deportatsiia.” Leninets 25. 22.06.1991. ______. “750 let spustia v Galiche ostalos’ sem’ karaimov.” Literaturnyi Krym 35-36 (2002): 12. Lebedeva, E.I. Ocherki po istorii krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov [Sketches on the history of Crimean Karaims-Turks]. Simferopol, 2000. Legendy i predaniia karaev (krymskikh karaimov-tiurkov) [Legends and traditions of the Karais (Crimean Karaite Turks)]. Edited by Y.A. Polkanov. Simferopol, 1995. Legendy i predaniia krymskikh karaimov. Edited by Victor (David) Tiriiaki. Eupatoria, 2002. [Leonowicz, Abram]. “Pis’mo karaima iz Galitsii,” KZh 8-9 (1912): 74). Levi, T.S. [Levi-Babovich, Toviyah ben Simha]. “Olimpiyskie igry na vysotakh Chufut-Kale.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 1-7. Levi-Babovič, T.S. [Levi-Babovich, Toviyah ben Simha]. “Gyzly joldžy.” Onarmach 3 (1939): 12. ______. “Istorijasy karajlarynyn Litva da Lech Bijlikliarnyn sormachlarda da karuvlarda.” Onarmach 2 (1938): 6-14. ______. “Kaidan čyhad indiav Karaim.” Onarmach 1 (1934): 6-7. Lis [Lis-Lhodzhash], Valentina. “Semeinaia geografiia.” In Liudmila Ulitskaia. Detstvo 45-53: a zavtra budet schast’ie. Moscow: AST, 2013, 439-450. “List Pasterski J.E. Hachana H. Seraja Szapszała.” MK 11 (1936): 5. “List Pasterski J.E. Hachana Karaimów w Polsce.” MK 2:1 (1929): 3-4. Lopatto [Łopatto], Szelumiel. “Awo bigwurot Adonaj Elohim.” [I will come with courage, Lord God]. KA 4 (1932): 4-5. ______. “Iszancz.” [Hope/trust]. KA 4 (1932): 6. ______. “Klaklar.” [Desires]. KA 4 (1932): 4. ______. “Kültküsü gorałnyn.” [The irony of destiny]. KA 4 (1932): 5. ______. “Kusiancz.” [Langor]. KA 4 (1932): 4. ______. “Mi jaale bahar adonaj.” [Who will ascend to the mount of the Lord?]. Onarmach 3 (1939): 14. ______. “Uszattyrmach Dawidnin mizmorłaryna.” [In imitation of David’s psalms]. KA 4 (1932): 6-7. Luḥot le-qviot roshei ḥodashim. Edited by Isaac Boaz Firkowicz and Pinachas Malecki. Wilno, 1912. Ławrynowicz, Inne. “Historia trockiej karaimskiej szkoły.” [The history of the Karaite school in Troki]. Awazymyz 3 (2008). Łobanos, Josief. [Kyna]. MK 2:3-4 (1931): 57-58. Łobanos, Józef. “Kyna.” Sahyszymyz 1 (1927): 4. ______. Bałkuwłu sahynczyna Jozef Piłsudskinin.” [To the blessed memory of Józef Piłsudski]. MK 11 (1936): 6-7. ______. “Bu edi syjły Troch szaharda.” [This was in the worthy town of Troki]. MK 1:2 (1925): 27-28. ______. “Burunhu czozhu.” [The first song]. KA 2 (1931):18. ______. “Eki konšu (įomaχ).” [Two neighbours (a tale)]. MK 1:3 (1926): 21-22. ______. “Inamły dostum.” [My staunch friend]. KA 1:1 (1931): 18. ______. “Iułuv.” [Redemption]. MK 2:2 (1929): 34. Łopatto, Konstanty. “Krótki zarys higjeny Karaimów w Polsce.” [A short outline of the hygiene of Polish Karaites]. MK 11 (1936): 73-79. Łopatto, Romuald. “Jak z wilnianina stałem się wrocławianinem.” Awazymyz 4 (33) (2011): 10-14. Łuwachłar dert jiłha (5693-5696). Edited by Aleksander Mardkowicz. Łuck, 1932. M., A. [Mardkowicz, Aleksander]. “Chto delat’?” [What to do?]. KZh 7 (1911): 82-86. Maikapar, Alexander. “Moj ded Samuil Maikapar.” Muzykal’naia Zhizn’ 11-12 (1994): 26-28. 478 Bibliography

Maikapar, Theodor. Staphylokokken-Allgemeininfektion nach den in den Jahren 1903-1906 in der Leipziger Medizinischen Klinik vorgekommenen Fällen. Inaugural-Dissertation... bei der Universität Leipzig. Leipzig: Edelmann, 1907. Malecki, Jakub (Jaakov). “Bazłyk jerde” [Piece in the land]. KA 9 (1936): 7-12. ______. “Muzhul jovel” [Sad anniversary]. Onarmach 3 (1939): 15-24. Malecki, Pinachas ben Aharon. Berakhot le-sheva shabatot ha-sefira: ke-minhag ha-Qara

2230 Many of the articles listed below were published by Aleksander Mardkowicz also under the penname “Al-Mar” or anonymously. Bibliography 479

______. “Turałmahy” Karajłarnyn” [Karaite rebellion]. KA 12 (1938): 3–4. ______. “Uruw adłary karajłarnyn” [Origin of the Karaite names]. KA 7 (1934): 21-24. ______. “Z dziejów rozwoju gminy karaimskiej w Łucku.” KA 10 (1936): 16-19. ______. “Zeretłerinde Kukizownun” [In the cemetery of Kukizów]. KA 5 (1932): 11-16. ______. Aj jaryhynda. Łuck, 1933. ______. Halic. Łuck, 1932. ______. Aziz Tas. Łuck, 1934. ______. Birtihi kekłernin. Łuck 1931. ______. Elijahunun ucuru (jomak). Łuck, 1932. ______. Janhy jirłar. Łuck, 1932. ______. Karaim, jego życie i zwyczaje w przysłowiach ludowych. Łuck, 1935. ______. Ogniska karaimskie (Łuck, Halicz, Wilno, Troki). Łuck, 1932. ______. Synowie zakonu (kilka słów o Karaimach) [Sons of the Scripture (several words about the Karaites)]. Łuck, 1930. ______. Szełomit (jiry ułłu siwerliknin). Łuck 1938. ______. Tozdurhan birtik (bary icin – dert surada). Łuck, 1939. Maszkiewicz, Tatiana. “Niech radość w tym domu zagości!” [Let there joy be a guest in this house!]. Awazymyz 3 (2008). Meqqabeṣ niddeḥei Yisraad shnat 5600. Edited by Isaac ben Shelomoh. Qale [Çufut Kale], 1805/1806. N., N. [Kazaz/Kazas, Il’ia/Eliyahu]. “Obshchie zametki o karaimakh.” [General notes on the Karaites]. KZh 3-4 (1911): 37-71. Németh, Michał. Zwięzła gramatyka języka zachodniokaraimskiego z ćwiczeniami (Prace Karaimoznawcze 1). Poznań, 2011. ______. Unknown Lutsk Karaim Letters in Hebrew Script (19th-20th Centuries). A Critical Edition (Studia Turcologica Cracoviensia 12). Kraków, 2011. ______. “Karaim Literature as a Source of Information on the Spoken Language.” Karaite Archives 1 (2013): 113-132. ______. “North-Western and Eastern Karaim Features in a Manuscript Found in Łuck.” In Studies on the Turkic World. A Festschrift for Professor St. Stachowski on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Edited by E. Mańczak-Wohlfeld and B. Podolak. Kraków, 2010, 75–94. ______. “Rudkowski, Sergjusz.” Awazymyz 3 (2006): 7-8. “Novoe kladbishche.” KS 1 (1911): 14. Nowachowicz, Zacharjasz. “Witaj, Pasterzu!” MK 1:4-5 (1928): 1-4. ______. “Zagadnienie chwili obecnej.” MK 1:2 (1925): 1-4. “Nowy zarząd gminy.” MK 12 (1938): 145. “O naimenovanii ‘kennasa’.” KZh 1 (1911): 109. Ormeli, Vladimir. “Vstrechi s dedushkoi” [Meetings with grandfather]. KV 3 (55) (2000). “Oświadczenie Karaimów Litewskich” [An announcement by the Lithuanian Karaites]. Awazymyz 2 (2008). “Oświadczenie Karaimów Polskich” [An announcement by the Polish Karaites]. Awazymyz 2 (2008). “Otkaz A.Y. Kryma ot gakhamstva.” KS 11-12 (1914): 25. “Otkaz neofitam.” KZh 1 (1911): 128. “Otkaz S.M. Szapszała.” KZh 3-4 (1911): 116-117. 480 Bibliography

P. [Pilecki, Owadjusz or Mikhail]. “Pamiati A.Y. Dubinskogo” [On the memory of A.Y. Dubinski]. KS 1 (1913): 11-13. “Pamiati B.Ya. Kokenaia.” IKDU 6 (15) (2013): 1. “Pamięci tych, co odeszli.” MK s.n. 1 (1946): 139-141. “Pervyi natsional’nyi karaimskii s’’ezd v Evpatorii” [First National Karaite Assembly in Eupatoria] in KZh 1 (1911): 70-86. Petrov [Petrov-Dubinskii], O.V. “S.M. Shapshal (Edib-Us-Sultan) – uchitel’ valiakhda Mokhammeda- Ali, general-ad’’iutant Mokhammed-Ali-shakha.” [S.M. Szapszał (Edib-Us-Sultan) – the teacher of the heir to the Persian throne”]. In Sviatyni i problemy sokhraneniia etnokul’tury krymskikh karaimov. Materialy nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Simferopol: Dolia, 2008, 162-183. ______. “S.M. Shapshal (Edib-Us-Sultan) – uchitel’ valiakhda Mokhammeda-Ali, general-ad’’iutant Mokhammed-Ali-shakha.” [S.M. Szapszał (Edib-Us-Sultan) – the teacher of the heir to the Persian throne”]. Vostok (Oriens) 5 (2007): 64-78. ______. S.M. Shapshal v Persii. Puteshestvie po ‘shapshalovskim’ mestam 100 let spustia.” KV 6 (87) (2008). Pigit, Shemuel ben Shemariyah. Iggeret niddeḥei Shemu

______. “Rol’ karaimov Galicha v ustanovlenii yuridicheskogo statusa karaimskikh obshchin v 1920-30 gody.” In Karaїmy Halycha: Istoriia ta Kul’tura/The Halych Karaims: History and Culture. L’viv-Halych: Spolom, 2002, 94-100. ______. Chłopiec z Leśnik. Dziennik z lat 1939-1945. Wrocław: Bitik, 2009. Polkanov, A.I. Krymskie karaimy. N.p., n.d. [Simferopol, 1990s]. Polkanov, Y.A. Poslovitsy i pogovorki krymskikh karaimov. Bakhchisarai, 1995. ______. Karai – Krymskie karaimy-tiurki/Karais – the Crimean Karaites-Turks. Simferopol, 1997. Polkanova, A.Yu. “‘Ostalas’ vetv’, kotoroi Kniaz’ Danila v Galitsii priiut i zemliu dal.’” KV 9 (42) (1998). Poriadok molitv dlia karaimov, sostavlennyi vkratse Gakhamom i Glavnym uchitelem karaimov Avraamom Samoilovichem Firkovichem. Translated from Hebrew by Isaac-Boaz (Bogusław) ben Nisan Firkovich. 2 vols. Tsaritsyn: E.N. Fedorov, 1892-1896. Poriadok molitv dlia karaimov, sostavlennyi vkratse Gakhamom i Glavnym uchitelem karaimov Avraamom Samoilovichem Firkovichem. Translated from Hebrew by Isaac-Boaz (Bogusław) ben Nisan Firkovich. Tsaritsyn, 1901. “Poświęcenie kamienia węgielnego pod muzeum karaimskie w Trokach.” MK 12 (1938): 139-14. “Powstanie i pierwszy okres działalności Towarzystwa Miłośników Historji i Literatury Karaimskiej” [The emergence and early period of activity of the Society of the Lovers of Karaite History and Literature]. MK 10(1934): 97-100. Poziemska, Lidia (Sfinks). “Elegia.” [Elegy]. Awazymyz 2 (2006) ______. “Wstań rycerzu.” [Rise, warrior]. Awazymyz 2 (2006). “Protest protiv kandidatury S.M. Szapszała.” KZh 7 (1911): 117-118. R. “Son karaima.” KS 7-8 (1914): 11-16. R., A. [Ananjasz Rojecki]. “Karaici w Polsce (O artykule D-ra M.Bałabana).” MK 1:1 (1924): 3-4. “Ribbi tałmidgia.” DK 2 (1932): 15. “Ribbiłer, kajsyłar hazzanłyk ettiłer Łuckada basłap burunhu jaryhymdan XIX izjilnyn.” KA 5 (1932): 16. Rojecka, Nadzieja. Flora starego cmentarza karaimskiego w Trokach. Wilno: Znicz, 1934. Rojecki, Finees [Pinachas]. “Ugasaiushchaia zhizn’ (Pis’mo iz Poniewieża).” KZh 3-4 (1911): 120-122. R-kii, S. [Sergei Rudkovskii]. “Malen’kii karaimskii roman.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 21-44. Rudkowski, Sergjusz [Rudkovskii, Sergei]. “Aleksander Firkowicz (sahyncłar).” KA 9 (1936): 22. ______. “Dostłar.” Satyr kotarmak tirlikten jizip-ałhan. [Friends. A funny tale taken from life]. Łuck: Expres, 1931. 8 p. ______. “Dostłar II.” Caja kotarmak caja ucurłaricin. [Friends II. A daring tale about daring adventures]. Łuck, 1939. ______. “Istepłer.” [Steppes]. KA 11 (1937): 21. ______. “K vyboram Gakham-bashi.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 7-11. ______. “Kart Łucka” [Old Łuck]. KA 9 (1936): 12-15. ______. “Komisarjatta.” Translated from Polish. KA 2 (1931): 35. ______. “Korutkan dżuwaherłer.” [Preserved diamonds]. KA 2 (1931): 19-20. ______. “Nece sez bizin kutułmahymyznyn.” [A few words about our salvation]. KA 1 (1931): 14-16. ______. “Sormakłar da karuwłar.” [Questions and answers]. KA 12(1938): 5. ______. “Ułhaj, uwłum!” [Grow, my son!]. KA 3(5) (1932): 22-23. ______. “V Yevpatoriiu i obratno.” KS 3-4 (1913): 5-9. ______. “Vsiakomu svoe vremia.” Sabakh 1 (1914): 15-18. ______. Krwawe echo Humania na Wołyniu (Rzeź kotowska). Podanie. Łuck, 1932. ______. Tutuwłanmahy Karajłarnyn Łuckada (sahync)/Osiedlenie Karaimów w Łucku. Podanie. Łuck, 1933. Sarach, Mikhail Semenovich. Anan’s Teaching. Translated from Russan by A. Komen. Paris, 1997. ______. Anan ben David. Ego vera i uchenie VIII veka, shiroko primeniaemye v XX veke. Paris, 1996. 482 Bibliography

“Sbor v polzu pogorel’tsev g. Galich.” KS 7-8 (1914): 20-22. Sbornik starinnykh gramot i uzakonenii Rossiiskoi imperii kasatel’no prav i sostoianiia russko- poddannykh karaimov [Collection of the old charters and statutes of the Russian Empire regarding rights and status of the Russian subjects Karaites]. Edited by Z.A. Firkovich. St. Petersburg 1890. Seder tefillot ha-Qaraedat ha-Yehudim ha-Qaraedat ha-Yehudim ha-Qara

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Unpublished theses

Gottardo, Elisabetta. “Le comunità caraite contemporanea in Lituania e Polonia.” Tesi di laurea. Università degli Studi di Venezia, 1984/1985. Gur-Arieh, Joseph. “The Karaites of Northeastern Europe during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Their Relations with the Karaites in the Ottoman Empire.” M.A. thesis. Tel Aviv University, 1988. Kunz, Norbert. “Die nationalsozialistische “Gotengau”-Konzeption und die Krim im Zweiten Weltkrieg während der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft.” M.A. thesis. Mainz University, 1997.

Internet resources

All the Internet resources were available online at the time of submission of the book in print in 2014; some of them can be unavailable after the publication of the study.

Awazymyz. Computer-published periodical of the Polish Karaites, 1989 –

Brook, Kevin Alan, and Leon Kull, Adam J. Levin. “The Genetic Signatures of East European Karaites” (2013).

The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.

Coleman, Emily. “EU lags Russia, Korea on higher education: report.”

E-jazyszłar: karaimska baza literacko-bibliograficzna (E-jazyszłar: Karaite literary and bibliographic database).

Favero, Giovanni. “Corrado Gini and Italian Statistics under Fascism.” A paper presented to the XIIIth Congress of the International Economic History Association. Buenos Aires, 23 July 2002.

Fishgoit, Mikhail. “Krym. Nachalo voiny.”

Gordon, Nehemiah. “The Death of a Karaite Hacham.”

Gordon, Nehemia. “Karaites in the Holocaust? A Case of mistaken Identity”. Bibliography 511

“Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries.”

Kalika, Liusia. “Odessa. 820 dnei v podzemel’ie.”

Karaimi (Karaites). Site of the Polish Karaite community.

Karaimskaia Dukhovnaia Akademiia “Bahtavi”. Livejournal.

Kiprisçi, Gershom (a.k.a. “Гершом Киприсчи, гахам Русских караимов заграницей (Дамаско- кедарский толк)” [the ḥakham of the Russian Karaites abroad according to Damascus-Kedarite tradition]. Letters to members of the Google group “Караимы.”

Kiprisçi, Gershom. Live journal.

Klimov, Evgenii. “Zametki.”

The letter of O.A. Bredius-Subbotina to Ivan Shmelev. 12.06.1947.

Museum of Karaite History and Culture (Halych/Halicz).

1940. gada oktobrī arestētās personas (Persons arrested in October 1940).

“Spisok ubitykh i zamuchennykh karaimov v gody voiny” (The list of the Karaites murdered and tortured to death during the [Great Patriotic] War).

Stephen Shapshal’s archive.

Stranitsa Iskusstva i Muzyki Aleksandra Maikapara (The site of art and music of Aleksander Maikapar).

Szyszman, Szymon. Karaism. Its Doctrines and History. Translated from French by Leonard Fox.

Yablonovs’ka, N. “Karaїms’ka presa pochatku XX stolittia.” 512 Bibliography

Documentaries

Karaimi – giniący naród. Directed by Włodzimierz Szpakowski. Polish television, Studio “Wir.” 1994. Kultura Karaimów. Directed by Jadwiga Nowakowska. Polish television. 1996. Ostatni Hazzan. Directed by Ewa Straburzyńska. TVP Wrocław. 1986. List of Illustrations

Illustration 1: Karaite intellectual, financial and religious leaders at the first national Karaite Assembly of 1910 (source: periodical Karaimskaia Zhizn’ 1 (1911)). 41 Illustration 2: Karaite community of Halicz before the First World War: a) view of Karaite Street; b) interior of the kenesa (a Karaite prayer house). Source: a postcard (the 1910s). 48 Illustration 3: The sample of Karaite handwriting: poem Kisenc (“Longing”) by Zacharjasz Izaak ben Samuel Abrahamowicz (Karaim in Hebrew characters). Source: Jan Grzegorzewski, “Ein türk-tatarischer Dialekt in Galizien,” 1903. 64 Illustration 4: The exterior of the Halicz kenesa (prayer house) in the 1930s (source: the Yurchenko MSS). 123 Illustration 5: The exterior of the Troki kenesa (prayer house). Photo by M. Kizilov. 160 Illustration 6: Seraja Szapszał, the creator of the Turkic identity of the East European Karaites (source: periodical Myśl Karaimska 12, 1938). 230 Illustration 7: Szapszał’s Turkic “coat of arms” that replaced the Star of David at the gate of the Troki Karaite kenesa. Photo by M. Kizilov. 275 Illustration 8: Szapszał’s Turkic “coat of arms” the way it was presented in Myśl Karaimska 2: 3-4 (1930). 278 Illustration 9: The Karaite religious calendar for the year 5711 (1950/1951) from Halicz prepared by Z. Zarachowicz. One may notice that it uses only the Hebrew names of the months and religious holidays (Yom Teruah, Sukkot, Yom Kippur, etc.). Source: the Yurchenko MSS. 286 Illustration 10: A) photo of the Tablets of Law of the Troki kenesa with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew taken in the 1930s; b) modern photo taken by M. Kizilov in 2002: the Hebrew letters have been painted over. 441 Illustration 11: Çufut Kale: modern version of Szapszał’s “coat of arms” used by the Karaites in Eastern Europe as the symbol of the community. Photo by M. Kizilov. 460 Name Index

Abdank-Kossovskii, Vladimir – 326, 421 al-Shahrastani – 274 Abkowicz (Juchniewicz), Zofia – 163, 165 Anan ben David – 2, 141, 153, 244, 270-271, 274, Abkowicz, Emilja – 169 332, 337, 365, 406, 424 Abkowicz, Izaak-Aleksander – 290 Anders, Władysław – 303, 314, 374 Abkowicz, Kseniia – 78 Anderson, Benedict – 462 Abkowicz, Mariola – 445 Ankori, Zvi → 430, 432 Abkowicz, Rafael (Refael, Rafał) – 72, 87, Appak, André – 187 135-136, 170, 179, 234, 256, 279, 286, 291, Atabinen, Reşit Saffet – 247-249 354, 376-377, 396, 400-401, 403, 414, 445, Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal – 113, 118, 245-249, 447, 451 257-259, 268 Abkowicz, Rafał → Abkowicz, Rafael Augusti, Friedrich – 102 Abrahamowicz, David – 117 Avache, Jacques → Avakh, Yakov Abrahamowicz, Izaak (Isaac) – 13, 37, 60-61, 119, Avakh, Mikhail – 346-347 122-129, 133, 147, 191, 194-195, 200-201, Avakh, Yakov (Avache, Jacques) – 315 253, 281, 291, 378 Abrahamowicz, Marek (Mordecai) – 199, 288 Babadzhan, Ester – 186, 392 Abrahamowicz, Michał – 321 Babovich, Simcha ben Solomon – 36, 145, 241 Abrahamowicz, Mordecai → Abrahamowicz, Bałaban, Majer – 20-21, 45, 67, 80, 124, 161, Marek 356, 358, 405 Abrahamowicz, Zachariah Isaac ben Samuel → Baranov, Igor A. – 329, 417, 421 Abrahamowicz, Zacharjasz Izaak Baron, Salo – 432 Abrahamowicz, Zacharjasz Izaak (Zachariah Baschmakoff, Alexander – 273, 279, 298, 326, Isaac ben Samuel) 40, 62-64, 68, 145, 383 407 Abrahamowicz, Zofja – 200 Bashiachi (Bashyaṣi), Eliyahu – 3, 274, 430 Abrahamowicz, Zygmunt – 37, 57, 59, 122, 318, Bashyaṣi, Eliyahu → Bashiachi, Eliyahu 361, 372, 378, 382, 399, 411-413, 421, 433, Baskakov, Nikolai A. – 392, 400 445, 453, 465 Baumgürtel – 326 Abu-l-Fida – 274 Beim, Abraham – 203 Achkinazi, Revekka – 361 Beim, P. – 185 Ackermann, P.A. von – 298, 324-325, 355 Beim, Solomon ben Abraham – 11, 220, 277, 425 Adler, Bruno – 30, 40, 85, 280 Bel’ferman, Isaac – 364 Africanus, Ioannis Leo – 426 Beletskii, Victor – 328 Aga (Agin), Moisei Semenovich – 186 Ben Massoudah – 435 Agin, Moisei Semenovich → Aga, Moisei Ben Zevi, Yiṣḥaq → Ben Zvi, Isaac Semenovich Ben Zvi, Isaac (Shimshelevich, Isaac; Ben Zvi, Al’ianaki (Moshevich), Sarra Abramovna – 327, Yiṣḥaq; Ben Zevi, Yiṣḥaq) – 235 360 Ben Zvi, Yiṣḥaq → Ben Zvi, Isaac Al’ianaki family – 319, 361 Ben-Ammo – 92 Al’ianaki, Mark Abramovich – 360 Benjamin ben Elijah – 97 Alankasar – 152 Benzing, Johannes – 322-323 Alekseev, V.P. – 30 Berling, Zygmunt – 374, 414 Alexander III – 94, 98 Berlovich, Berta – 203 Alfandari, Mordecai Abraham – 199 Bernhardt, Horacio (Blumental, Goratsii; Altbauer, Mosze – 132 Bernhardt-Maikapar, Horacio) – 202, 307 al-Makrizi – 274, 406 Bernhardt-Maikapar, Horacio → Bernhardt, Al-Mar. → Aleksander Mardkowicz Horacio al-Qirqisani, Yakub – 406, 430 Bernsdorff, Herbert – 306, 340 Name Index 515

Beržinis, P. – 391 Deinard, Ephraim – 171, 425, 432 Bezekowicz, Emilja – 400 Del Blue, Annibale – 207, 213 Bezekowicz, Helena → Pilecka, Helena Dexheimer – 326 Bezekowicz, Jehuda – 84 Döblin, Alfred – 166-167, 174, 175 Blum, M. – 158, 200 Domaniewska-Sobczak, Kazimiera – 30 Blum, Veniamin – 104 Douvan, Serge von → Duvan, Semen Blumental, Goratsii → Bernhardt, Horacio Dover-Emet – 92 Blumental-Maikapar, Inna → Maikapar, Inna Dubiner, Zanvel – 104 Bogdanovich, Pavel Nikolaevich – 326 Dubińska, Anna – 384-385 Bonder, Sara – 365 Dubińska, Kamila – 415 Brandt, Dagmar → Krüger, Mara Dubińska, Mania – 178 Brandt, Karl – 310, 315 Dubińska, Zofia – 400-401, 415-416 Bräutigam, Otto – 332-333 Dubiński, Adam – 445, 447 Briskin, Arkadii – 360 Dubiński, Aleksander – 156, 160, 180, 182, 250, Briskina (Pastak), Anna Abramovna – 360 289, 372, 377, 396, 399, 413-415, 431, 433, Briskina, Valeria – 360 445, 447, 453 Bronzaft, Abram – 199, 229 Dubiński, Jozeusz Jehoszuwa (Krawiec) – 415 Browne, Edward – 221-222 Dubinskii (Dubiński), Ananiia Iefremovich – Bugovskii, Esav – 78 85-86 Dubinskii (Dubiński?), Hayim – 105 Caferoğlu, Ahmet – 248 Dubinskii (Dubiński?), Mikhail – 105 Çelebi, Evliya – 241 Duruncha, Isaac → Duruncza, Isaac Chalecki, Bari – 302 Duruncza (Duruncha), Isaac – 88, 418 Chapchal, Jacques → Shapshal, Jaacob Duszczak, Genowefa → Pilecka (Duszczak), Chapchal, Lydia – 187 Genowefa Chapchal, Serge – 314 Duvan, Semen (von Douvan, Serge) – 297-300, Charczenko (Kharchenko), Zacharja – 83 420 Che Guevara, Ernesto - 399 Duvan, Yakov – 97, 254, 257 Chesterton, Gilbert Keith – 282 Dvorzhetski (Dworzecki), Mark – 353 Child, Florence Pauline → Voltaire-Pererova, Dworzecki, Mark → Dvorzhetski, Mark Florence Pauline Dzhigit, Abram (Alexander) – 188 Chmielnicki (Khmelnyts’kyi), Bohdan – 59, 69, Dzhigit, Alexander → Dzhigit, Abram 245, 395 Chmielnicki (Khmelnyts’kyi), Timofei – 267, Egiz, Barri (Barukh, Barri-bay) – 173, 218, 338, 394-395 390 Clarie, Lucy – 226 Egiz, Vera (Kefeli, Vera; Szapszał, Vera; Cohen of Salonica, Solomon – 101 Shapshal, Vera) – 160, 176, 225-226, 228, Cohen, Anna – 361 241, 339-340 Cohen, Boris – 361 Eilbert, Yakov – 351-352, 354, 363, 367, 452 Cohen, Israel – 113, 150, 158-159, 162, 169-170, El, Abram Azarovich – 105, 189 175, 224 El’iashevich, Boris → Eljaszewicz, Berakhah Colin, Georges S. - 429 El’iashevich, Simcha Saadievich → Eljaszewicz, Czacki, Tadeusz – 21 Simcha Saadievich Czaprocki, Daniel – 179, 181 Eljaszewicz (El’iashevich), Saadiah Semenovich Czekanowski, Jan – 29-30, 207, 210, 333 – 92 Eljaszewicz (El’iashevich), Simcha Saadievich Čaprocki, Daniel → Czaprocki, Daniel – 277 Eljaszewicz, Berakhah (El’iashevich, Boris) – Daniel of Galicia – 41, 56-57, 131, 136, 383, 437 227 Dar’ī, Moses ben Abraham – 102, 145, 426 el-Kodsi, Mourad → el-Qodsi, Mourad 516 Name Index el-Qodsi, Mourad – xiv, 414, 435-436, 458 334, 381, 386, 392, 396-398, 413-414, 431, Emeldesh, E.M. – 223 438, 451, 461, 465 Essen, Werner – 321, 326 Firkowicz, Szymon → Firkowicz, Szemaja Eszwowicz, Jakób – 134 Firkowicz, Zarach (Firkowicz, Zenon; Zefir) – 156, Eszwowicz, Janina (Ruhama) Lvovna – xv, 21, 67, 179, 182, 237, 256, 261, 413 130, 288, 380, 383, 436, 442 Firkowicz, Zenon → Firkowicz, Zarach Eszwowicz, Józef – 117, 123-125, 147, 201 Fischheut, Mikhail → Fishgoit, Mikhail Eszwowicz, Leon (Levi, Lewi) – 61-62, 119, 287 Fischheut, Minna → Fishgoit, Minna Eszwowicz, Levi → Eszwowicz Leon Fishgoit (Fischheut), Mikhail – 360, 363 Eszwowicz, Lewi → Eszwowicz, Leon Fishgoit (Fischheut), Minna – 360, 364 Eszwowicz, Rachel – 44, 54, 61 Forumda, F.S. – 187 Eszwowicz, Samuel – 60-61 Fox, Leonard – 191, 203, 421, 429 Eszwowicz, Samuil Iosifovich – 441, 454 Freilichmann, Benjamin (Zvi Gil, Benjamin) – Ezra ben Nisan ha-Rofe – 86, 161, 173 207, 213 Friedman, Philip – 353, 356-358 Fahn, Reuven – 22-24, 43, 50, 53-54, 56-59, Frostig, Adam – 352, 354-355, 361, 363 66-68, 103-104, 167, 197, 334, 336, 418, Fuki, Alexander – 313 466 Fuki, Semen – 314-315 F-cz, R. (Firkowicz, R.) – 39, 77, 449 Federici, Nora – 206, 212-213 Gabai, Il’ia – 371 Fedorov, Georgii – 391-392 Gamil, Ovadia – 435 Feruz, Gedalia – 105 Gaspıralı (Gasprinskii), Ismail – 246 Firkovich, Semen Adolfovich → Firkowicz, Gasprinskii, Ismail → Gaspıralı, Ismail Szemaja Gauß, Karl-Markus – 441, 443 Firkovičius (Firkowicz), Iosif – 438, 443 Gelelovich, Raisa – 188 Firkovičius, Mykolas (Firkowicz, Michał) – 398, Gelelovich-Duvan, Elizaveta – 186, 320 413, 438-440, 453 Gertsen (Herzen), Alexander - 432 Firkowicz, Abraham ben Samuel – 11, 16, 21, Gessen, Iulii – 80 73, 75, 79, 91, 93, 142, 219, 234, 254, 274, Gini, Corrado – 29, 31, 116, 140, 163, 191, 422-423, 425-427, 431, 442 202-215, 271, 273, 279, 287, 290, 296, 298, Firkowicz, Abram Isaakovich (Firkowicz, 332, 334, 413 Avraham ben Isaac-Nisan) – 71 Glezer, Ida – 363 Firkowicz, Aleksander ben Samuel (Sarshalom Glezer, Nechemiah – 363 ben Samuel?) – 134 Golden, Peter – xvi, 266-267, 403, 408 Firkowicz, Avraham ben Isaac-Nisan → Firkowicz, Goldfus, Abram – 104 Abram Isaakovich Gołub, Aleksander – 195, 318 Firkowicz, Bogusław → Firkowicz, Isaac (Izaak) Gołub, Józef – 308-309, 384 Boaz ben Nisan Gorbova, A.L. – 343 Firkowicz, Isaac (Izaak) Boaz ben Nisan Gordlevskii, V.A. - 392-393 (Firkowicz, Bogusław) – 83-87, 94, 96, 99, Gordon, Nehemiah – 350 104-106 Gordon, Yakov – 335-336 Firkowicz, Józef – 134-135 Gotthard, Herbert – 336, 392 Firkowicz, Marek – 377 Grigor’iev, V.V. – 450 Firkowicz, R. → F-cz, R. Grigulevich, Iosif – 399 Firkowicz, Szemaja (Firkowicz, Szymon; Grigulewicz (Samulewicz), Sofja (Rachel) – 443 Firkovich, Semen Adolfovich) – 13-15, 39, Grigulewicz, Rachel → Grigulewicz (Samulewicz), 87, 113, 121, 127-128, 149-156, 158, 161, Sofja (Rachel) 165, 179, 182, 184, 193, 208, 231, 232, 234, Grigulewicz, Rafał – 189 238-239, 249-250, 253, 256-258, 260, 263, Grzegorzewski, Jan – 15, 26, 48, 54, 56, 64, 66, 272, 279, 281, 286, 291, 319, 323, 326-327, 68, 103, 465 Name Index 517

Gumilev, Nikolai – 219 Kachanov-Prik, N.V. – 32 Gumplowicz, M. – 197, 213 Kahle, Paul E. – 324 Gurevich, Ya.G. – 219 Kaia, Lev Isaakovich – xvi, 16, 216-217, 329, 342, Guthke, Jerzy – 207 429 Kal’fa, Anna Il’inichna – 328 Haller, Lilli – 235 Kal’fa, E.M. – 360 Kal’fa, Semen Aronovich – 188 Handžić, Mehmed – 271 Kalmanowicz (Kalmanovich), Zelig – 335-336, Harkavy, Abraham – 331, 427, 430, 432 340, 343, 356-358 Hecht, Gedo – 112-113, 198, 253, 257, 262 Kantorovich family – 363 Henderson, Ebenezer – 102 Kaplan, Pesaḥ – 184 Henzel, Tadeusz – 207 Kaplanov, Rashid – xvi, 113-114 Hepke, Marian – 236, 272 Kaplanovskii, Isaac Boaz ben Zakhariah Hering, Herman – 299-300 (Kapłanowski, Bogusław) – 82, 98 Hersch, Liebmann – 163, 207-208, 213, 266, Kapłanowski, Bogusław → Kaplanovskii, Isaac 285-286 Boaz ben Zakhariah Herzen, Alexander → Gertsen, Alexander Kapłanowski, Joseph ben Jehoshaphat – 183 Herzl, Theodor – 198, 418 Karaimowicz, Eljasz (Iljasz) – 142, 170, 245, 394 Hets’, Petro – 383 Karaimowicz, Iljasz → Karaimowicz, Eljasz Himpel – 327 Karakasz-Szole, Lidia → Szole, Lidja Hitler, Adolf – 213, 296, 298, 305, 320, 330, 346 Karaman → Kumysh, Mark Moiseevich Hocaş, Samuil Moiseevich → Khodzhash, Samuil Karasek, Alfred – 323, 329 Moiseevich Kazas (Shapshal), Akbike – 218, 225, 233 Kazas, Il’ia Il’ich → Kazaz, Eliyahu Hocaş, Svetlana → Khodzhash, Svetlana Kazas, M.M. – 458, 261 Holtz, Günther – 333 Kazas, Simon – 186, 301 Homer – 171 Kazaz, Eliyahu (Kazas, Il’ia Il’ich) – 62, 82, 257, Huhn, Carl – 425 267, 274, 287, 335, 431 Kefeli, Aleksei → Kefeli, Avraham Ickowicz, Izaak – 124, 200 Kefeli, Alisa – 359 Ickowiczm Samuel – 382 Kefeli, Avraham (Aleksei) – 319, 458 Ickowicz, Szymon – 117 Kefeli, Jacob – 433 Iouchniewicz, Raissa → Juchniewicz, Raissa Kefeli, Michel – 315 Isaac ben Solomon – 267 Kefeli, Saduk Osipovich – 184 Isserles, Moses – 101 Kefeli, Valentin – 359 Ivanović, Anatolij (Pritzker, Anatolij Ivanović) – Kefeli, Vera → Egiz, Vera 365 Kharchenko, Zacharja → Charczenko, Zacharja Khmelnyts’kyi, Bohdan → Chmielnicki, Bohdan Jesus – 7, 141, 153-154, 193, 244, 270-274, 304, Khmelnyts’kyi, Timofei → Chmielnicki, Timofei Khodzhash (Hocaş), Samuil Moiseevich – 359 319, 325, 384, 406 Khodzhash (Hocaş), Svetlana – 359 Jirku, Anton – 331 Kiprisçi, Gershom – 444 Joseph ben Samuel ha-Mashbir – 53, 55, 234 Kırımal (Kırımal-Szynkiewicz), Mustafa Edige – Joseph ben Yeshuah – 97 247, 311, 347-349 Juchniewicz (Iouchniewicz), Raissa – 187, 289 Kırımal-Szynkiewicz, Mustafa Edige → Kırımal, Juchniewicz, Szymon – 444-445 Mustafa Edige Juchniewicz, Zofia → Abkowicz, Zofia Kırımi, Abraham – 102 Jutkiewicz, E. – 157 Kirrinnis, Herbert – 327-328, 340 Jutkiewicz, Nadzieja – 402 Kniagevitch, Nicolas → Kniazhevich, Nikolai Jutkiewicz, N.R. – 184 Kniazhevich, Nikolai (Kniagevitch, Nicolas) – Jutkiewicz, Roman –189 325 518 Name Index

Kobecka, Galina → Kobeckaitė, Halina Krym, Solomon – 180, 226, 427 Kobecka, Halina → Kobeckaitė, Halina Krywko, Jan – 163-165 Kobeckaitė (Kobecka), Halina (Galina) – 386, Kuhn, Karl G. – 322, 331 438 Kukizów, Mordecai ben Nisan – 40, 406 Kobecki, Ananiasz – 413 Kul’te, Il’ia – 347 Kobecki, Emanuel – 111, 166, 168, 232 Kul’te, Roza → Kulta, Rose Kobecki, Mikhail Veniaminovich – 387 Kul’te, Tamara – 318, 347 Kobecki, Romiel → Kobecki Romuald Kulta, Rose (Kul’te, Roza?) – 365 Kobecki, Romuald (Romiel) – 82-84, 95, Kumysh (Kumysh-Karaman), Mark (Mordecai) 106-107, 161, 230, 252 Moiseevich – 227, 361 Kobecki, Szymon – 156 Kumysh-Karaman, Mordecai Moiseevich → Kocaoğlu, Timur - 440 Kumysh, Mark Moiseevich Kochanowski, Jan – 412 Kurat, Akdes Nimet – 248-249 Kodjak, Jérémie → Kodzhak, Yeremiia Kushliu, Boris – 321 Kodzhak, Emai (Yeremiia?) – 203 Kushul’, Semita Isaakovna – 15, 305, 355, 415, Kodzhak, Il’ia – 190 421, 431 Kodzhak, Yeremiia (Kodjak, Jérémie) – 297-298, Kuznetsov, Anatolii – 304 433 Kojczu, Ephraim – 418 Landau, Leib – 356 Kojczu, Irena → Szyszman, Irina Landsbergis, Vytautas – 440 Kojczu, Irina → Szyszman, Irina Lashkevich, H.G. – 352, 360 Kojczu, Lipa Jefimowna → Szyszman, Irina Lavrinovich, Mark Mikhailovich → Lavrinovičius, Kokenai, Boris Yakovlevich – 15, 40, 121, 180, Markas 193, 217, 239, 305-306, 342, 355, 383 Lavrinovičius, Markas (Lavrinovich, Mark Kokkei, Abraham ben Jacob – 91 Mikhailovich; Ławrynowicz, Mark Kokkei, Yakov – 158 Mikhailovich) – 443-444, 453 Kokovtsov, Pavel – 172 Lebedeva, Emiliia Isaakovna – 458 Kopeć, Ada C. – 30 Leibbrandt, Georg – 310, 327, 330 Kormanowa, Żanna – 363 Lenin, Vladimir – 225, 338, 387, 390 Kovshanly, Mikhail (Mussa, Moses) (Kowschanly, Leonowicz, Abram – 22 Michael) – 187, 300, 305, 311, 314-315, 318, Leonowicz, Abraham ben Levi – 36, 43, 47, 103 322-323, 328, 336, 344-350, 366-367 Leonowicz, Abraham ben Joseph – 56 Kovshanly, Moses → Kovshanly, Mikhail Leonowicz, Abraham – 117 Kovshanly, Mussa → Kovshanly, Mikhail Leonowicz, Anna-Amelia – 379 Kovshanly, Yulia – 95, 344-345, 402 Leonowicz, Ezua (Yeshuah) – 117, 287, 312, Kowalski, Tadeusz – 15, 26, 35, 56, 60, 87, 89, 378-379 112, 120-121, 135, 141, 144, 151-152, 161, Leonowicz, Helena (Ruhama) – 379 164-165, 184, 192-193, 233, 243, 253, 255, Leonowicz, Jaakow – 71 258, 260, 265, 328, 374, 390, 401-402, Leonowicz, Jacob-Joseph – 102-103 408, 465 Leonowicz, Józef – 43-44 Kowschanly, Michael → Kovshanly, Mikhail Leonowicz, Marek (Mordecai) – 122, 128-129, Kozyrovičius (Kozyrowicz), Romuald Marko – 256, 287, 291, 312, 378, 451 438 Leonowicz, Mordecai → Leonowicz, Marek Kozyrowicz, I.M. – 88 Leonowicz, Ruhama → Leonowicz, Helena Kozyrowicz, Romuald Marko → Kozyrovičius, Leonowicz, Simcha – 43 Romuald Marko Leonowicz, Yeshuah → Leonowicz, Ezua Kropotov, V. – 361, 458 Leonowicz, Zarach – 43 Krüger, Mara (Brandt, Dagmar) – 309-310, 323, Lermontov, Mikhail – 171, 397 330-331 Levi (Levi-Maitop), Il’ia – 187 Krylov, Ivan – 171, 397 Levi, Il’ia → Levi (Levi-Maitop), Il’ia Name Index 519

Levi-Babovich, Toviyah ben Simha – 59, 77, 139, Malamud, Sloima – 354 143, 173, 180, 190, 193, 334-335, 345, 401, Malecki, Felix → Malecki, Pinachas 421, 431 Malecki, Finneas → Malecki, Pinachas Lilienfeld-Lenski – 196-197 Malecki, Jakub – 181 Lipman, Judah Leib ben Eliezer – 89 Malecki, Pinachas (Finneas, Felix) – 82-83, Löffler, Lothar – 299 86-91, 99, 121, 151, 174, 176, 231, 263, 401, Lopato (Łopatto), Liudmila Il’inichna – 190 418 Lopatto, Michele (Łopatto, Michał; Łopatto Maliszewski, Paweł – 175 Mikhail) – 187, 289 Malsky-Tolstow, Frieda – 366 Luk’ianov, Aleksander Ivanovich → Serafim, Mandato, Mario de – 212, 236 bishop Mann, Jacob – 21, 79 Mardkowicz, Aleksander – 13, 15, 55, 57, 71, Ławrecki, Yefet ben Mordecai – 184 74-76, 106, 113, 121-122, 135-146, 148-149, Ławrynowicz, Józef – 165 152, 164, 171, 180, 192, 196, 203, 208, 214, Ławrynowicz, Marek – 290 241, 256, 260, 279, 327, 363, 384, 401, Ławrynowicz, Mark Mikhailovich → 431, 446, 451, 461 Lavrinovičius, Markas Mardkowicz, Marek-Samuel (Mordekhay- Łobanos, Józef – 113, 136, 149, 155, 168-171, 176, Shemuel) – 137 253, 256, 279, 291, 413, 451 Mardkowicz, Mordekhay-Shemuel → Łobanos, Zofja – 413 Mardkowicz, Marek-Samuel Łokszyńska, Anna (Hannah) – 137 Marzouk, Moshe – 431 Łopato, Liudmila Ilyinichna → Lopato, Liudmila Massignon, Louis – 426 Ilyinichna Maszkiewicz, Semen Apollonovich – 85 Łopatto, Abram – 189 Maurach, Reinhart – 322, 324 Łopatto, Il’ia Aronovich (Eliasz) – 189 Melikova, Irina – 404 Łopatto, Iosif – 189 Mende, Gerhard von – 299, 309-310, 321, 324 Łopatto, Konstanty – 207 Mendelson, Ezra – 194 Łopatto, Michał → Lopatto, Michele Merezhkovskii, K.S. – 27 Łopatto, Mikhail → Lopatto, Michele Michri, Avraham – 188 Łopatto, Romuald – 361-362 Michri, Todor – 188 Łopatto, Szełumiel – 178 Mickiewicz, Adam – 171, 243-244, 413 Mickiewicz, Zachariah ben Michael (Zachariasz) Magnino, Carlo – 207, 214 – 85-87 Mahler, Raphael – 334, 336 Mickiewicz, Zachariasz → Mickiewicz, Zachariah Maikapar, Abram – 185 ben Michael Maikapar, Alexander – 185 Middor-El-Dur – 92 Maikapar, Fedor (Theodor) – 185, 307-308 Miłosz, Czesław – 166 Maikapar, Inna (Blumental-Maikapar, Inna) – Mizraḥi, Elijah – 101 307 Mohammed (Muḥammad) – 153-154, 193, 244, Maikapar, Liudmila – 307 270-274, 304, 319, 384, 406 Maikapar, Mikhail Abramovich – 308 Mohammed Ali of the Qajar dynasty – 220-222, Maikapar, Rashel’ Osipovna – 202, 307 225 Maikapar, Samuil Abramovich – 202, 307-308 Montandon, George-Alexis – 325 Maikapar, Samuil Moiseevich – 185 Mordkowicz, Debora – 411 Maikapar, Theodor → Maikapar, Fedor Mordkowicz, Mordecai-Shalom ben Yeshua – Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon, Rambam) – 288, 319, 466 100 Mordkowicz, Samuel – 46, 54, 57-58, 60-61, 117, Majewska, Tamara (Barbara?) – 147, 200 123-125 Maksimadzhi, Veniamin – 187 Mordkowicz, Yeshua-Joseph – 50, 121 Malamud, Duvid-Ghers – 354, 366 520 Name Index

Moreau, Abel – 225, 271 Panoff, M. – 221 Mościcki, Ignacy – 134, 235, 282 Panpulov, Samuel – 94-95, 97, 99, 105, 107, 189, Moses – 81, 113, 271 220, 222, 238, 430 Moses ben Maimon → Maimonides Pastak brothers – 186, 320 Moshevich, Sarra Abramovna → Al’ianaki, Sarra Pastak, Anna Abramovna → Briskina, Anna Abramovna Abramovna Mourant, A.E. – 30 Pastak, S. – 325 Mrozowska, Alina – 400 Pastak, Sofia Abramovna – 360 Pełczyński, Grzegorz – 24 Muhs – 298 Penerdzhi, Nina – 321 Musaev, Kenesbay – 383, 392 Peringer, Gustav – 405, 424-425 Mussolini, Benito – 31, 203-205, 213 Petliura, Semen → Petliura, Symon Müller – 327 Petliura, Symon (Semen) – 132-133 Müller, Hannelore – 301, 324, 332 Petri, Eduard Gottlieb – 28 Petrov-Dubinskii, O.V. – 225 Nahawendi, Benjamin ben Moses – 2 Piątkowski, M. – 154-155, 158, 162, 283 Neiman, Anna Borisovna – 363 Pigit, Samuel ben Shemariah – 218, 430 Neiman (Kruglevich), Il’ia – 239, 383 Pilecka (Bezekowicz), Helena – 80 Neiman, Samuel ben Moses – 137-138, 430 Pilecka (Duszczak), Genowefa – 318 Nekrich, Alexander – 343, 392 Pilecka, Hanna – 445 Németh, Michał – 27, 147, 149, 261, 447 Pilecki, Adam – 445 Nikolai I – 74 Pilecki, Isaj (Jan) – 318 Nicolai II – 222 Pilecki, Jan → Pilecki, Isaj Novogradski, Venijamin – 364-365 Pilecki, Leon – 313, 384 Nowachowicz, Deborah → Nowachowicz, Sabina Pilecki, Owadjusz (Piletskii, Ovadiia Ilych) – 91, Nowachowicz, Józef – 60 93, 167-169, 176, 231, 445 Nowachowicz, Sabina (Deborah) – 122 Pilecki, Szymon – 118, 285, 306-307, 319, 373, Nowachowicz, Sałom → Nowachowicz, Shalom 413-414, 445 Nowachowicz, Shalom (Szałom, Sałom) – 43, Piletskii, Ovadiia Ilych → Pilecki, Owadjusz 59-60, 105, 124 Piłsudski, Józef – 129 Nowachowicz, Szałom → Nowachowicz, Shalom Pius XI – 271 Platonnikov, I.N. – 106 Nowachowicz, Zachariasz (Zachariah) – 60, 118, Podoski, Juljan – 147 120, 122, 133, 192, 207-208, 232, 253, 287, Polkanov, Alexander Ivanovich – 328-329, 348, 317, 333, 361, 380 355 Nowicka, Anna – 414 Polkanov, Yurii Alexandrovich – 261, 274, Nowicki, Abraham – 71 328-329, 421, 446, 457-459 Nowicki, Eugenjusz – 184 Poziemska, Lidia – 155-156, 162, 314, 384 Nowicki, Mark – 387 Poziemski, Alfred Elifas – 155 Nowicki, Michał – 303-304, 314 Poziemski, Jakób – 290 Nowicki, Moisiej – 318, 384 Poznański, Samuel – 23, 70, 432 Nowicki, Mosze – 147 Pritzker, Anatolij Ivanović → Ivanović, Anatolij Nowicki, Osip – 386 Prozorov, Mikhail – 88, 174 Nowicki, Szymon – 318, 378 Pulianos, A.N. – 30-31 Ohlendorf, Otto – 305 Pushkin, Alexander – 171, 397, 427 Okulevich, Lidia → Okulewicz, Lidia Pushyk, Stepan – 132, 383, 397 Okulewicz (Okulevich), Lidia – 339 Puzynina, Martyna – 207 Orkun, Hüseyin Namık – 247 Ormeli, Vladimir – 393, 458 Qanaї, Rahamiel – 421 Name Index 521

Rabinovich, Aminadav – 359 Saraf, Mark – 315, 347 Rabinovich, Klara – 359 Sary, I. – 188 Rabotnikov, Efim – 361 Savuskan, S.Yu. – 188 Raczkiewicz, Władysław – 231-233, 253 Schall, Yaakov – 356 Radloff, Wilhelm (Radlov, Vasilii) – 267 Scharlau, Kurt – 328, 419 Rambam → Maimonides Schipper, Ignacy (Schiper, Ignacy; Szyper, Red’kina, Vera – 360 Yiṣḥaq; Szyper, Ignaz) – 197, 213, 356, 358 Reicher, Michał – 29, 31, 346 Schiper, Ignacy → Schipper, Ignacy Renteln, Theodor Adrian von – 326 Shrayer-Petrov, David – 387 Robaczewska, Zofja – 151 Schreiber, Witołd – 28 Robaczewski, Romuald – 134 Seferova, Mika – 363 Rofé, Arnold (Rofe, Aron) – 187, 297, 341 Serafim, bishop (Luk’ianov, Aleksander Rofe, Aron → Rofé, Arnold Ivanovich) – 298, 325 Rofe, Ovadia – 187 Seydahmet, Cafer – 247, 410 Rojecka, Nadzieja – 161 Shamash, Assan – 314-315 Rojecki, Ananjasz – 187, 192-193, 375 Shamash, Yaakov Berakha → Shamash, Yakov Rojecki, Johonodav – 180, 182, 261 Borisovich Rojecki, Zacharjasz (Zecharja ben Ananiyah) – Shamash, Yakov Borisovich (Yaakov Berakha) – 71, 99 347-348, 352 Rojecki, Zecharja ben Ananiyah → Rojecki, Shapira, Dan – 51, 220-221, 229, 235, 243, 247, Zacharjasz 270, 389, 409 Rojecki, Zevulon – 177 Shapshal, Akbike → Kazas, Akbike Rosenman, Perly - 195 Shapshal, Alyapaq (Elijah?) Moses – 217 Rosenberg, Alfred – 299, 305, 323, 336, Shapshal, Jaacob (Chapchal, Jacques) – 187 339-340, 343, 348-349 Shapshal, Mordecai ben Moses – 217-218 Rudaitis, Izidorius – 366 Shapshal, Vera → Egiz, Vera Rudkovskaia, Emiliia Iosifovna – 76 Scharlau, Kurt – 318,419 Rudkovskii, Sergei → Rudkowski, Sergiusz Shevchenko, Taras – 382, 397, 413 Rudkowski, Nazim – 148, 447 Shimshelevich, Isaac → Ben Zvi, Isaac Rudkowski, Selim – 148, 308, 384 Shishman, Abram Yakovlevich → Szyszman, Rudkowski, Sergiusz (Rudkovskii, Sergei) – 71, Abraham 76-78, 94-95, 140, 146-149, 253, 258, 273, Shishman, Semen Borisovich → Szyszman, 312, 451 Szymon Rudkowski, Zachariasz (Zarach?) – 146 Shishman, Zinaida Iosifovna → Szyszman, Rzewuski, Henryk – 243-244 Zinaida Iosifovna Shmelev, Ivan – 186, 320 S., J. → Sulimowicz (Szulimowicz), Józef Sacerdoti, Angelo – 274 Shrayer-Petrov, David – 387 Sakav, Boris – 359-360 Sinani, Elijah – 199, 365 Samoilovich, A. – 223, 268 Sinani, Georg – 331 Samuelowicz, Ibrahim (Abraham) – 318 Sinani, M. – 216 Samuelowicz, Józef – 117 Sinani, Zara (Sara?) – 146 Samuelowicz, Samuel – 207 Smirnov, V.D. – 450 Samulewicz, Rachel → Grigulewicz, Sofja Smoliński Józef – 70-74, 465 Samulewicz, Sofja → Grigulewicz, Sofja Smólski, Grzegorz – 28, 44, 46-47, 49, 54, Sandomirska (Mardkowicz), Rozalia – 106, 137, 57-58, 60-61, 64-66, 68 363 Solomon ben Aaron of Troki – 162, 274 Sangari, Isaac – 218 Spuler, Berthold (Bertold) – 322-323, 330 Sarach, Mikhail – 227, 261, 274, 314, 446, 458, Spund, Israel - 195 459 Stalin, Iosif – 293, 295, 338, 375, 390-391 522 Name Index

Stankiewicz, Marja – 147, 200-201 Szulimowicz, Moses (Mosze) ben Shalom – 119, Steiniger, Fritz – 321, 323, 333 312, 380-382 Strack, Hermann - 432 Szulimowicz, Mosze → Szulimowicz, Moses ben Sulimowicz (Szulimowicz), Józef – 239, 313, Shalom 377-378, 395, 399-400, 410-411, 431, 445, Szulimowicz, Nowach – 61, 112, 121, 133, 192, 447, 453 378 Sulimowicz, Adam – 447 Szyper, Ignaz → Schiper Ignacy Sulimowicz, Akbike → Sulimowicz, Anna Szyper, Yiṣḥaq → Schiper Ignacy Sulimowicz, Anna (Akbike) – 137, 195, 445, 447, Szyszman, Abraham (Shishman, Abram 465 Yakovlevich) – 16, 59, 92, 121, 140, 171-173, Sulimowicz, Edmund – 195 176, 180, 218-219, 261, 449 Sulimowicz, Leon – 312, 410 Szyszman, Boris – 418 Sultan family – 321 Szyszman, Daniel – 172 Sultan, Semion – 317 Szyszman, Elmira – 172 Sultanskii, J. → Sułtański, J. Szyszman, Irena → Szyszman, Irina Sułtański (Sultanskii), J. – 238 Szyszman (Kojczu), Irina (Irena, Lipa Jefimowna) Sułtański, Mordecai – 11, 257, 274, 442 – 418 Suphi Bey (Suphi Tanrıöver), Hamdullah – Szyszman, Jacob ben Joseph – 89 248-249 Szyszman, Lipa Jefimowna → Szyszman, Irina Suphi Tanrıöver, Hamdullah → Suphi Bey, Szyszman, Michał – 418 Hamdullah Szyszman, Szymon (Shishman, Semen Szanfary, T. – 296, 316, 338 Borisovich) – 13, 15, 166, 176, 192, 225, Szapszał, Seraja (Shapshal, Seraya; Shapshal, 290, 317, 320, 372, 401, 412, 416-433, 461 Sergei Markovich) – 8, 10, 12-16, 25, 36, Szyszman (Szpakowska), Tamara – 418 40, 62, 77, 82-84, 90, 95-96, 98, 100, Szyszman (Shishman), Zinaida Iosifovna – 171, 103, 109, 113-114, 118-119, 121, 126-128, 173 132-133, 135-136, 139-141, 144-146, 149, 151-154, 157-161, 165, 167, 170, 172-173, Świętosławski, W. – 114 175-176, 178-179, 181, 182, 184, 187-193, 196, 198-199, 202-203, 205, 208-209, Talko-Hryncewicz, Julian – 27-28, 80, 82-83 211-212, 214-292, 295-297, 304-305, 313, Talvio, Maila – 81 319, 322-323, 325-328, 332, 335-346, 348, Tamaroff, Józef → Tenenbaum, Mordecai 353-355, 357-358, 362, 364, 367, 372, 375, Tapsashar, Mark – 173, 428 380-381, 384-386, 388-396, 400-407, 415, Tarle, E.V. – 429, 433 419, 421-423, 431, 440, 444, 446, 448-452, Tenenbaum, Mordecai (Tamaroff, Józef) – 364 454, 458-461, 463, 465 Tinfovich, Mikhail Samuilovich → Tynfowicz, Szapszał, Vera → Egiz, Vera Michał Szmul, Ryfka – 354 Tiriiaki, David → Tiriyaki, Victor Szmulewicz family – 354, 366 Tiriiaki, Victor → Tiriyaki, Victor Szmulewicz, Ignacy (Szmul, Icek) – 362 Tiriyaki, David → Tiriyaki, Victor Szole, Lidja (Karakasz-Szole, Lidia) – 276, 302 Tiriyaki (Tiriiaki), Victor (David) – 274, 415, 459 Szpakowska, Nadzieja – 408 Tochtermann, Jerzy – 80 Szpakowska, Tamara → Szyszman, Tamara Tokarczyk, Andrzej – 24, 414 Szpakowski, A.I. – 91 Tomaszewicz, Wincenty – 226 Szpakowski, Aron – 165 Tongur, Veniamin – 360 Szpakowski, S. – 190 Totesh, Il’ia Aaronovich – 28 Szpakowski, Zacharjasz – 134, 232, 352, 375 Trotsky, Lev (Leon) – 399 Szulimowicz, Isaac ben Yeshuah – 288 Tryjarski, Edward – 401-402, 409 Szulimowicz, Józef → Sulimowicz, Józef Turshu, Mark Efremovich (Mordecai ben Szulimowicz, Leon – 61, 117 Ephraim) – 104 Name Index 523

Turshu, Mordecai ben Ephraim → Turshu, Mark Yugov, Alexei – 383, 466 Efremovich Yurchenko, Ivan – 15, 24, 47, 49, 52, 275, 379, Tynfowicz, Awijezer – 168 442, 456, 465 Tynfowicz, Isaak– 168 Yurchenko, Natalia (Natalya) – xv, 24, 442 Tynfowicz, Michał (Tinfovich, Mikhail Samuilovich; Tynfovič, Michael) – 179-181, Zabolotnyi, S.S. – 299 387 Zajączkowska, Nadzieja – 403 Tynfowicz, Nechamja – 177-178 Zajączkowska, Sabina – 382 Tynfovič, Michael → Tynfowicz, Michał Zajączkowska, Sara Shoshana (Zuzanna) – 176 Tyszkiewicz, Jan – 417, 421 Zajączkowska, Zuzanna → Zajączkowska, Sara Shoshana Ulmenstein, Christian Ulrich von – 299 Zajączkowska-Abrahamowicz, Marianna – 411 Unruh, Benjamin – 298 Zajączkowska-Łopatto, Maria-Emilia – 447 Zajączkowski, Achiezer – 88, 149, 158, 400 Ünaydın, Ruşen Eşref – 13, 246, 249 Zajączkowski, Ananiasz (Ananjasz) – xvi, 15, 121, 140, 143, 156, 169, 180, 182, 184, 192-193, Vajda, Georges – 429, 432 232, 248, 249, 259-260, 274, 285, 301-302, Veisaitė, Irena – 365-366 317, 334-335, 337, 340, 344, 363, 372, Vernadsky, George – 421 375-377, 390, 399, 400-408, 410, 414-416, Veselovskii, N.I. – 219 419, 421, 425, 428, 431, 433, 447, 453, Viner (Wiener), F.M. – 106 461, 465 Vitold, Grand Duke of Lithuania – 41, 56-57, 69, Zajączkowski, Aleksander – 403 79, 131, 136, 147, 159, 173, 236, 240, 374, Zajączkowski, Józef – 408 425 Zajączkowski, Michał – 81, 440 Vodovozov, Mikhail Anatolyevich – 364 Zajączkowski, Samuel Yedidiah – 176 Voltaire-Pererova (Child), Florence Pauline – 105 Zajączkowski, Włodzimierz – 156, 347, 372, 399, Vyrubova, Anna – 224 408-410, 419, 431, 453 Zarachowicz, Ada Zarakhovna – 442 Weissenberg, Samuel – 29, 346 Zarachowicz, Amaliia Zarakhovna – 443 Wiener, F.M. → Viner, F.M. Zarachowicz, Zarach – 45-46, 58, 116-117, Wohl, Abraham - 195 119-122, 124, 127-128, 133, 168, 192-193, Wojkowska, Izabella – 207 195, 234, 286-288, 290, 308, 380-381, 443 Zbinden, Hans – 235, 271 Yalpachik, Gelii (Hillel) – 322, 328 Zefir → Firkowicz, Zarach Yalpachik, Hillel → Yalpachik, Gelii Zejmo-Zejmis, Stanisław – 207 Yazydzhi, T.D. – 361 Zeraḥ ben Natan of Troki – 145, 412 Yelin, Meir – 343-344, 353, 357, 366 Zihni Soysal, Abdulla – 410 Yoffe, A.A. – 433 Zvi Gil, Benjamin → Freilichmann, Benjamin Yoffe, Dina – 335-336 Yoorga, Natan – 191, 228 Żarnowski, Izaak – 186 Yudensohn, Ovsei Yudelevich – 104 Żarnowski, Józef – 171 Geographic Index Armianskii Bazar (Armiansk) → Ermeni Bazar 253, 255, 256, 260, 265-267, 271, 273, 277, Auschwitz (Oświęcim) – 318 279-280, 288-289, 293, 294, 295, 297, Austria – 22, 34, 75, 348, 449, 465 300-302, 305-307, 309-310, 313, 315-317, Azerbaijan – 248, 438 319-320, 323-325, 328-329, 331-332, 335-336, 344, 347-348, 351-352, 354-355, Babii Iar – 303-305, 492 358-359, 361-362, 364-365, 367-371, 373, Bahçesaray (Bakhchisarai) – 12, 78, 142, 217, 383-385, 391, 393-394, 397, 402, 408, 410, 218-220, 239 417-419, 422-423, 427, 431, 435, 437, 442, Bakhchisarai → Bahçesaray 446, 450, 452-453, 455, 456-459, 461 Balta Tiymez – 273, 394, 397 Cüft Kale – 246, 394 Beirut – 237, 417, 419, 423 Çufut Kale – 4, 12, 77, 93, 176, 217-220, 238, Belgrade – 364, 365 241, 243, 246, 273, 276-277, 284, 322, Berdiansk – 6 393-395, 397, 411, 417-418, 425, 432 Berlin – 95, 154, 186, 187, 237, 296, 297, Cumań – 4, 58 299-301, 303, 305, 307, 310, 315-318, Czechoslovakia – 188,191, 341 323-325, 332, 338, 340-341, 345, 346-349, 354, 358, 366, 370, 402, 413, 451 Damascus – 237, 242, 420, 444 Bern – 235 Daugavpils → Dvinsk Bessarabia – 188 Derażnia (Derażno) – 5, 148 Białystok – 323 Derażno → Derażnia Birża (Biržai) – 109, 176, 177, 179, 307, 385, 443, Dünaburg → Dvinsk (Daugavpils, Dünaburg) 449 Dvinsk (Daugavpils, Dünaburg) – 104 Biržai → Birża Dzhankoi – 319, 327, 352 Bóbrka – 111, 116 Brest – 137 Egypt – 4, 29, 76, 89, 100-101, 103, 138, 145, Brno – 189 183, 191, 232, 236, 365, 416-417, 426, 428, Brzeżany – 43, 45 431, 435, 256 Bucharest – 188 Ekaterinoslav (Yekaterinoslav) – 6, 137-139, 218 Buczacz – 43 Elisavetgrad – 6, 29 Bulgaria – 188, 191, 236-237, 294, 341, 419 Ełk – 375 Bursztyn – 43 Ereṣ Yisrael – 140, 143, 145, 228, 406, 460 Byzantium – 3, 100 Ermeni Bazar (Armianskii Bazar) – 83, 203 Eski Kırım (Staryi Krym, Solhat) – 4 Cairo – 107, 139, 143, 175, 180, 182, 401, 420, Estonia – 185-186, 191, 311, 438 428 Eupatoria (Gözleve) – 5, 6, 12, 40, 60-61, 84, 92, Caucasus – 30, 84, 170, 197, 226 94, 121, 146, 151, 167, 176, 178, 187, 217, Chicago – 455 224-225, 227, 239, 243, 274, 297, 305-307, China – 183, 189, 191, 237 318-319, 325, 328, 350, 353, 359, 361, Chișinău (Kishinev) – 6, 188 363-364, 370, 415, 417, 419-420, 431, 434, Constantinople → Istanbul 437, 459 Crimea – 4-7, 12, 16, 20-21, 26-27, 29-30, 35-37, 40, 49, 51, 53-54, 57, 59-60, 69, 71, 73, Feodosiia → Theodosia 77-78, 83-84, 89-91, 94-100, 102, 105, Finland – 311 107, 109, 133, 137, 141, 145, 147, 151, 161, France (see also Vichy France) – 4, 154, 186, 163, 164, 168, 170-173, 176, 181, 183-186, 191, 222, 236-237, 294, 301, 314-315, 317, 188-191, 196, 198, 203, 209-210, 216, 325-326, 330, 341, 346, 355-356, 420, 456 217-220, 223, 225-228, 235, 238-247, 249, Geographic Index 525

Gardariki – 331 Kołomyja – 43 Gdańsk – 75, 134, 363, 370, 374- 378, 435, 452 Komarov → Komarów Gdynia – 374, 377, 452 Komarów (Komarov) – 132 Geneva – 207 Korostyshiv → Korostyszow Germany – 154, 186-187, 189, 191, 197, 213, Korostyszow (Korostyshiv) – 143 236-237, 250, 289, 293-294, 296, 298-299, Kotów – 5, 58, 148 303, 305, 310-311, 317-318, 320-321, Kowno (Kaunas) – 34, 82, 109, 130, 261, 325-326, 330, 341, 343-347, 374, 384, 411 326-327, 357, 419, 443 Gorzów – 375 Kraków – 15, 26, 33, 43, 237-238, 282, 308, 328, 333, 343, 375, 390, 402, 408-409, Halicz (Halych) – 4, 6, 10, 12, 15-16, 19-20, 411-412 22-25, 28, 33-39, 41-69, 72, 78, 96-97, Krasnodar – 306, 355, 370 103-105, 107-112, 114-136, 139-140, 142, Kresy – 110, 134, 194, 369 145, 147, 149, 167-168, 175, 176, 178, Kuban – 170, 412 191-192, 194-195, 199-201, 206-210, Kukizów – 5-6, 43, 44, 49, 52, 57, 60, 66, 97, 232-235, 239, 241, 249, 256, 259, 263, 122, 381, 384, 453 275, 278, 281, 284-288, 291, 301, 306, 308, 312-313, 317-318, 320, 321, 333, 344, Latvia – 104, 185, 191, 200, 282, 294, 302, 357, 361, 367-371, 373-374, 378-384, 388, 306-307, 311, 312-313, 373, 443, 452 410-412, 425, 432, 435, 436-437, 442, Leipzig (Lipsk) – 185, 196 448-449, 451-454, 456, 465 Leningrad – 324, 359 Harbin – 6, 105, 183, 189-190, 237, 374 Liepkalnis → Lipovka Holland – 186, 188, 191 Lipsk → Leipzig Lipovka (Liepkalnis) - 176 Iberian Peninsula – 3 Los Angeles – 455 Israel – 4, 21, 67, 84, 91, 110, 140, 207, 228, L’viv → Lwów 235, 254, 287, 288, 319, 331, 350, 351, 357, Lwów (L’viv) – 4, 29, 41, 43, 50, 57, 111, 115-116, 371-372, 409, 414, 416-418, 421, 423, 432, 130, 175-176, 194, 238, 312, 318, 333, 354, 435, 441-442, 446, 454-456, 458-459 356, 363, 367, 370, 425 Istanbul (Constantinople) – 67, 79, 107, 175, 226-229, 232, 235, 237, 245-246, 248-249, Łuck – 4-5, 10, 12, 20, 25, 34-35, 39-40, 51-52, 254, 265, 266-267, 407, 420, 428, 447 55, 58, 69-80, 94-95, 99, 102-103, 107-112, Italy – 23, 186-187, 191, 203-204, 206, 212-213, 114, 118, 128, 133-149, 152, 165, 170- 171, 250, 289, 294, 330, 420 180, 195, 198-202, 206-210, 214, 232-234, 241, 256-257, 259-260, 265, 287, 291, 301, Jerusalem – 2-3, 51, 92-93, 97, 141, 162, 168, 303-304, 306, 308, 312-314, 316, 351-352, 198-199, 227, 229, 233, 241, 263, 288, 354, 361, 363, 367, 370-371, 373-375, 377, 303-304, 365, 409, 413, 423 384-385, 406, 409, 414, 423, 425, 436, 441, 448-449, 451-454, 456 Karaimszczyzna – 80-81, 161 Karasubazar – 5, 176 Malowanka → Kiorkłu-Sała Kaunas → Kowno Manchukuo (Mǎnzhōuguó) – 190 Kharkov – 6, 306, 346, 370 Manchuria – 189-190, 374 Kherson – 85 Mangup – 4, 244 Kiejdany – 109 Mǎnzhōuguó → Manchukuo Kiev – 71, 83, 147, 185, 225, 304, 305, 364, 370, Melitopol – 103, 177, 328 373 Mesopotamia – 2 Kiorkłu-Sała (Malowanka) – 109, 172, 313, 339 Middle East – 3, 32 Kırk Yer (see also Çufut Kale) – 4 Minsk – 85 Kishinev → Chișinău Moldova – 188 526 Geographic Index

Morocco – 32, 426 Pruszków – 396, 403 Moscow – xiv, xvi, 6, 12, 16, 32, 33, 40, 76, 90, Przemyśl – 132, 369 155, 169, 185, 219, 225, 243, 293, 3111, 316, Pskov – 85, 104, 151 349, 359, 391, 442, 461 Rafałówka – 148, 312 Naujamiestis → Nowe Miasto Ramlah – 409 Netherlands – 341 Revel → Tallin New York – 126, 191, 202, 321, 334, 363 Riga – 104, 132, 178, 180, 183, 185-186, 202, Nikolaev – 6, 106 307, 309, 317-318, 320-321, 327, 333, 340 Northern Africa – 3 Romania – 188, 236-237, 249, 311, 341, 354, 363 Novorossiisk – 306, 355, 370 Rome – 204-205, 207, 212, 235, 274, 400, 404 Nowe Miasto (Naujamiestis) – 5, 20, 34, 109, Rostov-na-Donu (Rostov-upon-Don) – 342 176-177, 443, 449 Rostov-upon-Don → Rostov-na-Donu Nowogródek – 82 Sachsenhausen – 318 Odessa – 6, 16, 36, 43, 68, 71, 77, 82, 93, 95-96, San Francisco – 455 98-100, 104, 106-107, 137, 188-189, 217, Serbia – xvi, 237, 364, 465 220, 222, 224, 226, 228, 231, 239, 246, Sevastopol – 6, 77, 176, 218, 344, 401 253, 255, 363, 383, 430, 459 Silesia – 318, 374-376, 411, 452 Olsztyn – 375 Simferopol – 6, 16, 21, 33, 173, 218, 240, 298, Opole – 375, 378, 385, 414 317-319, 324, 328-329, 334, 347, 359-360, Oranienburg – 318 393, 402, 417-418, 432, 442, 458-459 Oświęcim → Auschwitz Słupsk – 375 Oysuñki (Oysun-köy) – 218 Smolensk – 85-86 Sofia – 188, 360 Palestine – 89, 97, 198, 199, 205, 227, 303, 405 Solhat → Eski Kırım Paris – 15, 154,166, 178,180, 181, 186-187, 190, Sopot – 144, 374, 377, 452 226, 227, 288, 297-299, 317, 319-320, Spain – 2-3, 51, 426 325-326, 329, 341, 360, 364, 412, 416,420, St. Petersburg – 6, 16, 21, 28, 76, 106, 155, 169, 421, 428, 451, 453, 458 178, 219, 222-225, 240, 254, 268, 393, Persia – 2, 30, 216-217, 220-223, 226, 231, 233, 423, 427 241, 246, 272 Stalag I-B Hohenstein – 403 Pietrowszczyzna → Pola Karaimskie in Troki Stanisławów (Ivano-Frankivsk) – 43, 45, 49, 115, Plzen – 189 124, 131, 147, 201, 234, 278, 370, 411 Podkowa Leśna - 376 Staryi Krym → Eski Kırım Podolia – 43 Szczecin – 375 Pola Karaimskie in Łuck – 136, 406 Pola Karaimskie in Troki (Pietrowszczyzna, Tallinn (Revel) – 186, 392 Popowszczyzna) – 290, 386 Tarnopol → Ternopol Poltava – 6, 38 Taurida – 16, 36, 37, 68, 77, 93, 95-96, 98-100, Poniewież (Panevėžys) – 5, 10, 12, 20, 25, 106-107, 137, 189, 217, 222, 224, 228, 231, 34, 99, 109, 111, 112, 141, 156, 165, 168, 239, 244, 246, 253, 255, 325, 393, 430 177-183, 185, 190, 206-208, 237, 256, 261, Ternopol (Tarnopol) – 115, 370 306-307, 362, 370, 374, 385-386, 436, Theodosia (Feodosiia) – 6, 12, 175, 176, 226, 443, 449, 451-453 303, 306, 319, 327, 360, 370, 459 Popowszczyzna → Pola Karaimskie in Troki Trakai → Troki Poswol (Pasvalys) – 5, 109, 177, 179-180, 307, Trójmiasto – 375, 377 370, 385, 443, 449 Troki (Trakai) – 4, 6, 9-10, 12, 14, 19-20, 26, Prague – 189 34-37, 39-40, 53-54, 59, 68, 72, 77-79, 92, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – 189 95-99, 104-107, 109-114, 116, 118, 130, Geographic Index 527

135, 142, 144-145, 149-165, 169, 171-173, Warsaw – 6, 12, 15-16, 19, 23, 33-34, 103, 112, 175-176, 178-180, 182, 184, 189, 199, 201, 137, 144, 162-163, 183-184, 198-199, 205, 202, 206-209, 223, 230-232, 234, 235, 238, 252, 290, 301-302, 308, 317-318, 337, 237-240, 247, 251, 252, 256-257, 260, 263, 341, 356, 363, 367, 370, 373-377, 388, 390, 266, 272, 275-277, 279, 281-286, 289-291, 400, 402-404, 408-411, 413-416, 418-419, 306, 314, 319-320, 326, 327, 333, 338, 421, 424, 435-436, 445-447, 452 340, 343-344, 348, 350-351, 362, 369, Wiktorów (Viktorov) - 132 370, 373-375, 377, 381, 384, 385-388, 396, Wilno (Vilnius) – 7, 12, 14-15, 19-20, 33-35, 398, 400-402, 404, 410-413, 415-416, 418, 39-40, 76, 80, 82, 85, 87-93, 107, 109-114, 423, 425, 427, 434, 436, 438-441, 443-445, 118, 126, 128, 130, 136, 142, 155, 157, 449-453, 455, 460 163, 165-178, 189-190, 192, 194, 197-198, Tunis – 321 200-201, 206-207, 209, 217, 224, 226, Turkey – 114, 143, 217, 228, 232, 235, 236, 239, 229, 231-233, 235-236, 238-240, 248, 250, 242, 246-249, 257, 257-260, 347, 351, 410, 253, 256, 272, 275, 278, 282, 284, 286, 420, 422, 438, 444, 456 290-291, 293, 302, 306, 312, 317, 319, 320, 324, 327, 333, 335-336, 338, 340-342, Upity – 109 347-348, 351, 353-354, 356-357, 362-370, USA – 1, 4, 351, 359, 442, 465 372, 374-375, 382, 385-386, 388-391, 393, 395, 397, 399, 400, 402, 408, 413, 415-421, Valley of Jehosaphath – 176, 216, 218, 273, 288, 423, 434, 436-440, 443, 449, 451-455, 465 394, 397, 418, 2044 Włodzimierz Wołyński (Volodymir Volynski) – Varna – 188, 341 146 Vatican – 212, 271 Wrocław – 135, 370, 372, 374-378, 385, 435, Vichy France – 301, 325, 356 445, 452 Vienna – 6, 12, 44, 278, 310, 316, 348-349 Viktorov → Wiktorów Yalta – 235, 344 Vilenskaia guberniia – 80, 87 Yekaterinoslav → Ekaterinoslav Vilnius → Wilno Yugoslavia – 188-189, 191, 364 Volhynia – 4, 25,34, 36, 47, 52, 55, 58, 72, 75-76, 78, 97, 107, 109, 115-116, 121, 129, 134-136, Załukiew – 47, 51, 53, 111, 116-117, 122, 127, 308, 139, 142, 148, 198, 233, 301, 307, 311, 321, 379, 381, 411 354, 361, 363, 36-370, 374-375, 383-384, Zaporozhie – 170 425, 441, 452, 454, 456, 459 Zion – 140, 145, 406, 446 Volodymir Volynski → Włodzimierz Wołyński Zwierzyniec – 88, 174, 342

Wansleiten – 318 Żyrawa – 111, 116