To the honorable traveler journeying through the lands of the Caucasus for the public good, on behalf of His Majesty the Russian government and as an emissary of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in France—His Honor Rabbi Joseph Judah ben Jacob Halevi Charney, may his light shine forever:
We, the holy community of Salmas (Salmas), in Persian Kurdistan on the border of Ottoman lands, have come to you, our dear and honored friend, to make known to your honor the great suffering endured by our brethren in our community, and how the Persian gentiles torment us without end or respite. Namely, a child born among us, after reaching seven years of age, must be sent into exile to other countries outside our own because of our great distress. Many people have also been forced to leave their homes and flee for their lives, while their wives remain as living widows, their eyes filled with tears day and night for the husbands of their youth. We have neither land nor any source of livelihood. From women they collect a tax of ten toman (thirty Russian rubles) a year. Another grave evil is that at any time the Persians kill Jewish people traveling on the roads and rob them of their property. Alas, we have no ability to protest, no one who will hear our words, and no one to whom we can turn for help except our Father in Heaven.
Another grave evil: when a man crosses the Aras River and goes beyond it, they take from him a tax of two toman (six Russian rubles) for setting foot on that land. There is also a city called Khoy. When a Jew arrives there, they seize him by his beard and take one toman from him, saying, “Thus shall it be done to the man who bears the name Israel.”
When our people return home from their work, the Persians come to them and produce forged documents, bearing Persian signatures as witnesses, claiming that the Jews owe them sums of money. They demand payment, and if the Jews cry out that they owe no such debt and that the documents are forged, the Persians destroy their homes, plunder all their property, and beat them severely. Everywhere and at all times the gentiles rise against us and take our possessions, leaving us destitute and forcing us continually to abandon our homes and wander to other countries in order to earn a living. After several years, when we return home, the fruits of our labor are again lost at the hands of these Persians as before. While we are abroad, our wives, suffering greatly from hunger, are forced to borrow money from gentiles until their husbands return home. Sometimes, when the husbands are delayed and do not send money home quickly enough, the creditors bring accusations against our wives, take them to their houses of worship, and forcibly compel them to abandon the religion of Moses and embrace the religion of Muhammad. If they refuse, neither their lives nor the lives of their children are safe.
When someone from our community converts away from Judaism, and, God forbid, a Jew dies, the Persians say that the deceased was related to the convert and give the inheritance to the convert, even when he was not his relative. Furthermore, if a Persian kills a Jew, the law requires the murderer to give the orphans one hundred and fifty measures of wheat to sustain them (as blood money), and with this the murderer is cleared of his crime and sin. This is the judgment they impose for the murder of a Jew. Years later, when the orphans have grown up, the gentile murderer comes to them and demands several hundred toman for the 150 measures of wheat he supposedly gave them, arguing that had he sown that quantity of wheat it would have produced many thousands of measures each year. Thus, he claims, they owe him the principal, interest, and interest upon interest for all the intervening years. The murderer uses connections with the government to collect the entire sum from the orphans by force. Can such a thing be heard of anywhere in the whole world?
If a Persian boy lingers for even an hour in the Jewish quarter, all the Persians gather around the Jewish houses and falsely accuse the Jews of having stolen the child. They torment them and plunder their homes. Once, because of such a matter, a Jew was hanged on a tree for three days, may God have mercy. And there are many other false accusations brought against us every day. There is no one to tell them, “What are you doing?” and no one to stand up for us and protect us from those who seek our harm. Many people from our community have been forced to leave their wives and young children and go into exile in other countries, leaving their wives in the hands of our enemies to do with them as they please. Many times we have pleaded with the government to grant us permission to leave our country with our wives and children for other lands, but our efforts have failed.
Therefore we have come to you and ask your honor, for the sake of His great Name, to advocate on our behalf and present our request to our holy brethren, the leaders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, so that in their great goodness and kindness they may seek a way to help us and save us, our wives, our children, and our little ones together. This kindness would be a true kindness toward poor, needy, miserable people such as ourselves; may the Holy One, blessed be He, count it as kindness, charity, and a great commandment, through which our salvation may come. “Whoever preserves one life of Israel is as though he preserved a whole world.” For the kindness you will show us by presenting our request before the leaders of Israel, the heads of the holy people, we, the entire community, shall always pray for the welfare of our friend and for the welfare of the holy Alliance Israélite Universelle, may it prosper. With these words we have signed, we men of Salmas now living in exile here in the city of Tiflis, on Monday, 22 Iyar 5629 (1869).
Daniel son of Mashiah; Ezra son of Jacob; Jacob son of Isaac; Mordechai son of Gabriel; Nissim son of Michael; Siman Tov son of Jonah the Kohen; Joshua son of Elazar the Kohen; Isaac son of Rahamim the Kohen; Ezekiel son of Sheikh Mashiah; Ezekiel son of Nissim son of Nisan; Rahamim son of Eli; Judah son of Mordechai; Jeremiah son of Jeremiah; Shem Tov son of Jacob; Jonah son of Rabbi Nissim; Jacob son of Abraham; Rahamim son of Moses; Isaac son of Tzadi; Isaac son of Raphael Mizrahi; Mordechai son of Elijah; Baruch son of Baba; Elijah son of Sheikh Mashiah; Zeira Abraham son of Rabbi Aharon Halevi; the servant of God, Yedidiah son of Rabbi Jonah, judge of the holy community of Salmas.
The seal bears the following words: “The humble Yedidiah son of Rabbi Jonah, judge of the holy community of Salmas, residing here in the city of Tiflis.”
To the holy community of Salmas, abundant peace! I sent your letter to the distinguished Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris from the city of Kutais on Friday, 15 Av of this year. Please forgive me in your great goodness that until now I could not fulfill the sacred duty incumbent upon me, because my travels among the mountains of Georgia delayed me in places where there were no post offices. Your letter was also delayed until I reached Kutais, and immediately I sent it to its destination. I will send the postal receipts to Rabbi Yedidiah in a separate letter as evidence, shortly. I pray that God will have mercy upon you, comfort you in your sorrow, and that in our days Judah and Israel will be saved and an end come to all your troubles in this bitter and prolonged exile. Your faithful servant, Joseph Judah son of Jacob Halevi Charney, the traveler.
I too, a young emissary from the holy city of Jerusalem, from the holy community of the Westerners, hereby sign as testimony and evidence to the truth of the aforementioned letter, which the members of the holy community of Salmas wrote and signed in my presence. I passed through Tiflis on my way to the Caucasus on my mission. Written and signed on Monday, 22 Iyar 5629. Gershon Hazan, son of Rabbi Chaim David Hazan, the young descendant of the Rishon LeZion.
[August 18, 1869 — Ha-Maggid newspaper]