The Fall of the Pale of Settlement (1905-1915) 

*Notes/Corrections/etc.* Thanks to everyone who's participated in this year's viewer survey. If you haven't done so yet, I encourage you to do so as it helps inform my creative and business decisions regarding the channel: forms.gle/Q5o3F6awJ2RAdfpq5 *Correction:* the Polish flag is not depicted upside-down; that is the flag of Austrian Galicia. *Omission:* I didn't talk about the _other_ side of my family. My great-grandfather Nahum Schenker and his family also fled their homes in Priluky near Poltava during the Black Hundreds pogroms and resettled in Odessa, where they made chocolate, before relocating to Cleveland in 1911. His future wife's family, the Chernick Wassermans, settled variously in Cleveland, Montreal, and Winnipeg, but I don't know as much about them. I'm saving that side for when we get to Prohibition.

2:35 "Is there a proper blessing... for the Tsar? Rabbi: A blessing for the Tsar? Of course! May God bless and keep the Tsar... far away from us!"

"Never mourned, but always remembered." That's exactly how I feel. My family is (on both sides) from the Pale, and it really hits home to think this way.

In my hometown in rural Holland, the prewar Jewish population was 32. 30 were murdered during the war and the 2 that survived hid on my grandfathers farms. After the war, they moved to what was then the British Palestine mandate. All the Jewish heritage in my town was erased and the only thing remaining is an old Jewish cemetery (now protected by monument status). The cemetery always made me sad, a community with so much history reduced to just a small monumental graveyard. I really enjoy learning about Jewish history on this channel and it makes me wish my town still had a Jewish community.

This was when my father’s family left the Russian Empire for East London. And then a large part of the extended family moved from there to this new town everyone was talking about; Hollywood.

In 1916 My grandparents came from a shtetl in the Polish/Russian border region. They knew each other from home, came separately and married in Chicago. My grandmother was the most beautiful girl in the shtetl and my grandfather loved her from afar, but won her heart in the new country and gave her a good life. My grandfather had 12 brothers, he and five of them escaped to the States, Palestine and Argentina. So I and my many cousins are here today and in Israel. But 7 of the brothers did not leave, and their wives and children, 40 people in all died at Auschwitz. Thank you for your sharing your research, the story of your family and this part of Jewish history.

This is all so cool! I actually wrote my bachelor's thesis on the 1905 Revolution, the Kishinev Pogrom, and the resulting reactions from Zionist Jews, Anti-Zionist Jews, and the antisemitic Black Hundreds. This is so cool to see stuff that I researched and worked many hours on being taught to a wider audience. Thank you so much for this!

16:42 fun fact: this Vladimir Nabokov is the father of the guy who wrote Lolita

22:32 - This Yosif character seems pretty interesting, I wonder if he'll show up in later videos

My great grandfather was in also from the Pale of Settlement on the coast on the Black sea, and from what I could gather from family stories his family made the move to the US (roughly around 1905) to both avoid pogroms and avoid the possibility of conscription as a child. His family landed in New York and then bounced around the north east for a bit between New Jersey and Boston before he spotted an ad as a young adult for tract of land for homesteading in what is now Alberta, Canada as a part of the Dominion Lands act, inadvertently escaping victimization from one empire into participating in the theft of indigenous land on behalf of another empire.

Almost all my great grandparents came to Argentina in the early 20th century, from Russia. Every time I watch one of your videos about the Pale I cant help feel an enormous need to cry because Russia/Ukraine was and it still is so present in my family. And fun fact: the schule I went here is called Marc Chagall in his honor 🥲

That story of your family was absolutely amazing. I didn't realize that the family you were chronicling here in Russian history was your own. My own family left Europe before WWI (out of Danzig to Hamburg to the US) - and settled in Chicago. Many of their first friends were from the Jewish Community that formed there, alongside the Polish and German. Thank you for spreading the awareness of Jewish History the way you do Sam. It's compelling, artistic, unique and engaging. Whatever you choose to do with it, I hope it reaches an an even wider audience. You deserve it and so does the work. Wishing you every happiness.

"You are going to New York, America? I am going to Chicago, America. We'll be neighbors!"

Sam, I don't know if you hear this very often enough, so I'll say it here. You have become a truly amazing storyteller. 8 haven't been watching your channel from the beginning, the first video I watched is one you've since taken down, the one on Hebrew linguistics (I think the relationship between it and the other Semitic languages, but I can't recall exactly), which, despite your misgivings 8 enjoyed greatly. After that, I proceeded to watch your entire backlog up to that point, and have watched every new video nearly as soon as it comes out. It didn't take you long to hit your stride, but you've never stopped improving. Keep up the good work. Now, I'm going to rewatch this video, because you've reached the point where it's both very enjoyable to do so, and practically necessary to actually absorb everything.

Nice job telling my grandfathers story. The story needs to be better known and you did a fine job telling it . Jay Beilis

I suspect that the Polish flag at 2:19 is seemingly flipped intentionally because, until the reappearance of the independent Polish state in 1918, the placement of the colors wasn't officially established, and the white-red flag could just as well represent Bohemia (Čechy) - the core Czech land.

I died at 19:50 with the "We finally found a non-problematic Ukrainian Nationalist Hero" like why don't they use this guy over Bandera of all people

1905 is when my great grandfather emigrated from Budapest to Jerusalem as a child with some of his family. (His sister who remained behind was murdered in 1944.)

my great granduncle was a Jewish painter from Ukraine, somewhere before 1909. when he was either a kid or a teen he was arrested with his father and other people from his community by the police for a small Zionist meeting and was sent to a Tsarist Gulag. from there he was released and he escaped for Austria and them later to America.

Strangely enough, Chagalls art was one of the things that made me begin to feel drawn to Judaism at 14.

17:48 "Instead, Father Pranaitis demonstrated absolutely no familiarity with the Talmud", gee, where have I seen that before? Also he was eventually defrocked by the Church.

This channel is one of the main reasons I've started to re-explore my Judaism. Thank you, Sam!

I gasped with excitement when you revealed that the art student was Marc Chagall. Seeing a display of his artwork in Paris as a child inspired my lifelong passion for art and opened my eyes to the many ways people can express their connection to Judaism. Amazing video as always!

2:11 Tevye the Dairyman sounds like a newer Nasrudim!

Fantastic story, Sam! My family is not Ukrainian or Ashkenazi but Fiddler on the Roof is a favourite! Thank you!

"Never mourned, but always remembered." That is simple but hits 🎯

The fall of the Tsarist regime at its own hands always brings a big smile on my face, but this time, after hearing the relatively happy ending of the trials of Menahem Beilis, the smile got wider. Much respect to detective Nikolai Krasovsky.

positively surprised to see Finland mentioned in one of your videos, even more positively surprised to see it's something to be proud of! great stuff as always, keep the videos coming!

21:20 "This was far and away the largest migration in Jewish history." inb4 Haredis: WhAt AbOuT tHe ExOdUs

Tsar Nicholas challenge: try not to alienate all your subjects and Jews in particular against you (level: impossible)

Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones introduced Marc Chagall to Jon Anderson of Yes. The guy was a rock star ;-)

Marc Chagall is one of my favorite painters of all time. He has a big Chicago connection. The White Crucifixion is in the Art Institute. It is on par with Guernica in terms of an important painting condemning war and hatred but was less well known until the past decade. Ironically, Pope Francis of all people is the one who made it popular. And of course the America Windows are there as well.

Great work can't wait for 1917

This was a great video. It's crazy how much history can happen in just a couple of decades. My great-great-grandfather's youngest brother immigrated from the Pale to NYC in 1904, becoming the first in their family to leave. The eldest of my great-granduncles followed a few years later, one of whom just a few years after arriving in the U.S. was drafted to serve in WWI where he suffered a non-life threatening injury during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Then in Nov 1923 my great-great grandfather brought his wife and the rest of his children, including my great-grandfather, to New York, listing as their last place of residence a town in the Russian interior that only a few years prior they would have been forbidden by law to inhabit. My great-great-grandfather saw his WWI veteran son get married that December and was dead from lung cancer by March. I've always imagined the force of his desire to get his family to safety was the only thing keeping him going. Hearing about this period in history always gives me such an appreciation for just how much my family endured in a rapidly changing world and for how much they thrived despite all of that hardship.

The last section was a true masterpiece

Wonderful episode as always! Keep up the good work!

This channel is absolutely incredible. You really do a great thing shedding a light on (often dreadful) history that most people don’t learn but should.

Hey Sam! Great video as usual! Search for Lasar Segall, a Jew from Lithuania who settled in São Paulo in the 1920's, and became Brazilian, being one of the people who introduced modern vanguardist art to the country.

19:47 loved that note down there

The Tsar had it coming. Iykyk

Took me a while to realise that you were talking about your family. Pretty seamless narration man.

Quality content as always man. Thank you for the video

Thanks Sam, these videos are really great!

Sam Aronow, thanks for making these.

absolutely amazing video, excellent series, great job!

Another fantastic video!

CAN I JUST SAY SOMETHING - I stumbled upon this channel today and can't stop watching through your excellent videos. But the thing I really have to shout out is what you did at 24:58. My whole life, I've been told that WWI was sparked by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Okay, sure, but no, that never actually made sense to me because it should take a lot more than ONE assassination for a massive war like that to break out. The explanation you went through in 30 seconds of how the war declarations were triggered through Europe is the first time it's ever made sense to me. Idk if that sounds ridiculous, but I got so excited that it finally "clicked" for me that I needed to pause and write this comment 😅 So thank you for those 30 seconds in particular as well as everything else in this series of videos. And, like so many other commenters here, my ancestors on both sides come from the pale of settlement. Four/five generations later, my whole big Jewish American extended family continues to have complex feelings on all of this. "Never mourned, but always remembered" indeed.

Love your videos, waited until my birthday to watch this one 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thanks for this episode. Its very meaningful for me.

Whow! Information overload. I need to watch this 5 times to get all the information in this one. Thank you

I'm shocked that it finally hit me that Jewish people have 2 names. I remember my mom always asking and what did your mother call you? She and the Jewish person slyly smiling at each other then a lot of Yiddish followed. I just thought everyone had a 2nd name , it just realized my family friends were trying to deal with antisemitism.

24:13 Your family!

Spectacular. This episode definitely ranks among your best. I knew about the Beilis trial in general, but seeing excerpts from the cross examination was fascinating. Keep up the amazing work!!

Great video. Fills in many gaps in my knowledge of my roots. Thanks.

Sam you’ve grown so much. I found your videos in my very last semester as a college student. It’s been a year now and you’re only getting better.

This is very well-made!

I just wanted to thank you as always, this has been my favourite series on RU-vid since I found it 2 years ago. You do an amazing job every episode and it takes a lot of skill to breathe life into history like you do with these videos. Благодаря

Fantastic episode as always 😊

Sam, your videos are awesome. Historical accuracy + personal family reference. Touching yet fantastic

Great video, awesome storytelling for such a large topic

Your work is fantastic. Mabruk

Really Big Love and Hugs from Poland for all these Videos! Well made!

This was the best history video I have ever seen. I was not familiar with this topic. But it was so brilliant!

Hey, thanks for your good works.

I love all your videos, but this one has a special place in my heart with the bios of Chagall and Sholem Aleichem, as well as the time of my family's immigration. Thanks so very much for all your hard work!

Thanks for this, part of history is never heard of it before and it definitely deserves to be heard

I saw a Vladimir Nabokov Sr. on the list of Beilis’ defense team. Is he the father of the novelist Nabokov?

No way! Chagall is my favorite artist of all time! I didn’t even know he was Jewish

Ok I couldn’t help but laugh at how badly Pranaitis got clowned on during that trial, amazing video overall I love your work! I’ve been a Christian most of my life but have a lot of Jewish family, as a lover of history I wanted to learn more about their entire history and this has honestly been more than perfect, thank you.

Always a great day when you upload, hope you make a video on Australasia/Oceania at some point!

Purveyor of woo. Gonna definitely use that.

I just love how you tell a story ..

Good Video. It's always nice to remind oneself how competent and flexible Nicky was.

Was Congress Poland formally a part of the Pale of Settlement? It almost never is included in its maps but it was home to a considerable number of Jews

23:44 I choked up.

As an American, with a standard issue of world history, I first heard of The Pale of Settlement in a lecture series by Professor Snyder of Tale. Your video has filled out the story. Yet The Pale is a mystery. A national nonentity like an apartheid state that is a large presence in history yet it's found only in foot notes to other's histories. The Pale, The Ukraine and The Wild West share that common article that places them in an outsider state outside of civilization. The uncivilized label applied to the people living in those areas enabled their exploitation by people of the civilized states. This is a story that needs to be common knowledge as It is being repeated today in Russian nationalism, replacement theory America and with missing Native women.

I absolutely love your videos. You must have to do a tremendous amount of work and it is really appreciated. Side note: no one refers to him by his last name it’s always the full “Shalom Aleichem”

08:42 The first Duma was disbanded on 8 July 1906, and the 3 June coup refers to the dissolution of the second Duma on 3 June 1907

Very good and helpful. Signing up on Patreon.

2 minutes from posting earliest iv ever been i think

Chagall’s work is such a vision

Huh, I always assumed Pale died because Russian Empire dissolved, didn't know it actually preceded it by a few years

Now I understand where the idea of the Pale in Disco Elysium comes from! Thanks!

What a great documentary! Makes a lot sense on what happened later in history...

honestly sam i have been watching you for a while now, and you are really one of my favorite creators in this platform, every video is just so interesting and enjoyable to watch. thank you.

It's always a good day when Sam uploads

Getting closer to lived history I'm somewhat familiar with, I look forward to the next chapter

Wow, I sure got that Tevye quote spot on, wasn’t sure if it would be in a video.

My paternal grandfather was part of the emigration from Russia. Now I wonder whether his great, great grandchildren will have to emigrate from the U.S.

Did I hear runescape music in the background of this video?

The best. Mazel tov

Great, great unpack of the last chapter of the Pale of Settlement as a territorial time capsule of Eastern Europe's pinnacle age of Ashkenazi culture. It also speaks deeply to my very own personal history as a birthplace. As for Jews' struggled life there--if there are free thinking, learned Jews--there's emancipation and enlightenment. Much of today's war in Ukraine is an underpinned revisit of this very same, historically long standing theme. But, to be corrected: even though the territorial gates of allowing Jews to move easterly into the Russian interior occurred post 1915, as it bears out by the great wave of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the 1970's, the majority of Jews still resided in the Pale of Settlement even until 1979. And even though one could occasionally hear of few fellow Jews residing in Omsk, Ufa and Tashkent in Eastern Russia and elsewhere in the East, one could argue with utmost verified facts that the greatest prolific numbers were still very much present in Chernowitz, Kishinev, Belz, Lvov, Kiev, Vilnius, Babruysk, Odessa, Brest, Mogilev, Gomel, Kherson, Zghitomir, Vinitza--all major centers of Jewish population in the traditional territorial domain of the Pale of Settlement right up to the late 1970's.

First thought of your picture of Rabinovich, "Dang, he looks a lot like Mark Twain.. Wonder if they ever met?" My great grand-uncle worked for the German-American Line in Baltimore from pre-WWI through the 1930s. My dad's family had one of the Medallions from the wartime visit of the Submarine Freighter Deutschland in their souvenir trove well into the 1950s (and a re-location to California via St. Louis, due to granddad being a Lutheran minister). Somewhere Rabinovich is laughing "You're going to Chicago? We'll be neighbors.."

13:40 authority isn't power. 10/10 moment Also your label of Rasputin was hilarious.

Finally.

Loving the recurring Zelda music!

Sam you are always most thorough in finding and providing deep historical details. And your visuals are superb. 1 item I did not know earlier was that Kiev City was Judenrein from 1820ish until the early 20th century. So all those Jews claimed to be born there in those times must have been born in shtetls in the surrounding rural Kiev region or Oblast. By chance Sam have you ever heard of a shtetl named Bobcerbe (English transliteration) there or elsewhere? Thanks!

Sam, I have watched your videos for the past few years as you traced the history of Judaism and the Jewish people. I am not Jewish, but grew up in New Jersey and had many Jewish neighbors and friends. I am also something of a history nerd and have really enjoyed your videos. I almost started to cry when you recounted how your ancestors made their way to Chicago. Bravo for doing such a good job in telling this great history! Peace!

11:51 Love the Runescape music!

Here’s a video idea for you Sam. Maybe you can talk about ashkenazy Diaspora. Especially in Argentina, Argentina has a large ashkenazy population. One of the largest populations in the Americas.