A letter from Israel Bechor Shabtay HaCohen to the newspaper Ha-Magid HaHadash, as it was published in the newspaper. A fascinating letter describing life in Urmia, the situation of the Jews under the authorities and in comparison with the Jews of Urfa, the neighbors and their attitude toward the community, and Jewish tradition in the city. Ha-Magid, Tuesday, November 8, 1892 – page 6.
Urmia
To the honorable editor of “Ha-Magid HaHadash!” With all my heart I shall fulfill your request to inform you of a few matters concerning the condition of my people in Persia, and if you find my words pleasing, I shall add further news concerning the Jews of this country, their ways and character, their education, and their spiritual and moral upbringing.
Throughout this country there is not a single school in which languages are taught, and this is a sign that the light of enlightenment has not yet begun to shine throughout this benighted land. Wretched are all the inhabitants of the country, including the Muslims, who have been granted the freedom to be called citizens, yet are ignorant and without understanding. To them the Jew is impure and defiled, and any Jew who touches them is not cleansed; when a Jew comes to buy something, he must point to it with his finger but may not touch it, and if, God forbid, he touches it, they beat him severely until he pays for everything.
The Jews living here are exiles from the First Temple who did not return with Ezra the Scribe, and our language bears witness to us, for we speak Chaldean and Aramaic. To this day we have no civil rights or legal standing; we remain at the mercy of the governor: whether to live lives of slavery or to suffer a disgraceful death, he judges us according to his will and knows no mercy. The Jew and the Christian walk as brothers, for both are immersed in suffering. The land on which we live and in which we bury our dead is foreign to us, and we have no right to purchase property, fields, or vineyards. There are no craftsmen among us, and we look only to our trade in order to earn a meager living. Terrible is the fate of my brothers who live here among wolves of prey! Things that would not be believed if told in Urfa, our own eyes see here; according to the laws of the country, a man’s hand, head, ear, or tongue may be cut off, and his nose pierced, and yet this savage people will not learn morality and proper conduct…
Our spiritual condition is still worse than our material condition, for all education is strange to us. Indeed, the Talmud is sacred in our eyes like all the books of the Bible, without distinction; we abstain from everything prohibited by the Sages, and with all our hearts we cling to our faith. Our love for all members of our people is also strong, but in general we walk in darkness without any movement or vitality, and cruel despair dwells in our hearts, adding sorrow to our grief and anger and multiplying the wounds of our hearts that bleed, until at times our brothers turn their eyes to the cup…
The condition of women among us is ten times worse than that of men. How fortunate are my sisters in Urfa, whom I saw when I was there; they walk like ladies, upright, dressed in fine ornaments, without fear or dread, and they are also knowledgeable in various studies. But if you cast even one glance at the unfortunate women of Persia, the hair on your flesh will stand on end and terror will seize you.
They are regarded as servants in their husbands’ homes, and like sheep they are led from their fathers’ homes while still nine or ten years old, before they know how to approach or withdraw and before they have properly developed, into the homes of their husbands. Each has a gold nose ring, as in ancient days; one Jewish man has two or three wives, and each wife is set against the other… The girls do not know how to read or write; they learn only by heart the verses of “Hear, O Israel,” “This is the Torah,” and the blessings concerning challah and ritual immersion, and no more. Instead of the blessing after meals, the women kiss the tablecloth once or twice… They eat and drink with their hands, without knife, fork, or table, only from a cloth spread on the ground, and they sleep on the ground without beds or benches… If a poor or unattractive maiden remains in her father’s house until she is fifteen, she has no hope of marrying, for the young men will say that the time of her youth has already passed…
The men and women believe in all the superstitions of other peoples, in demons, amulets, and the like. Every man and woman has more than twenty amulets on the chest, shoulders, head, and arms… And we, the members of the city of Urmia, have established a school to educate the boys according to wisdom and learning, through the efforts of two worthy men: the wealthy Rahamim son of Gedaliah, and the learned young man, the honorable R. Neriahu son of Nissim, known as Yahya Isma’el. At our school they will study French, Persian, and Hebrew. When the hypocritical zealots saw this, they began to quarrel with us, because they do not want the study of other languages, claiming that because of this children die and the government will issue decrees, and so on. Yet our hope gives us strength that the Almighty will be with us to spread a spirit of life among the people of our city, and that only love, brotherhood, and peace will prevail among us, fulfilling the words of the prophet: “And I will set up shepherds over you, and they shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
Israel Bechor Shabtay HaCohen.