recruits per thousand between the ages of twelve and twenty-five; this was more than the seven per thousand asked of the general population. Often that number was further increased. This was part of the Tsar’s effort to destroy the Jewish identity of the very young conscripts; it was never connected with promises of citizenship.
All efforts including bribery to change this decree, failed. Guild merchants, artisans, rabbis, and farmers were excused. Many children of poor Russian Jews tried to emigrate; some maimed themselves. When not enough Jewish youth could be found, lads from twelve to eighteen were taken off the street into military service; sometimes children as young as six were included. These children were placed in“cantonist” schools often in Siberia , hundreds of miles away,in an effort to convert them. The traveler and journalist, Alexander Herzen (1835) reported their plight as they stood half frozen, bullied by older soldiers, thousands of miles from home. A third of the group which he met in a distant Siberian village had not survived the journey and many more died later.”
Each Jewish community was considered as a separate unit and was responsible for its quota of recruits; individuals could purchase a substitute, but only among fellow Jews . The oath forced upon the soldiers demanded faithful service and a break with their past. Forbidden to observe anything Jewish , forced to eat pork, many were forcibly converted and life generally became miserable. This was part of a larger Czarist plan to force conversion to Christianity . Cantonist were also excluded from the rank of officers." This system was existed from 1827 to 1856, to be replaced by another, only slightly better. Between 1874 and 1892, 173,434 Jews served in the Russian army. Despite this terrible treatment, Jews also served with distinction even in the Russo-Japanese War (1904) in the face of simultaneous pogroms in European Russia. No relief from this tragic episode in Jewish life was possible except emigration, mainly to North America , but also to European and other lands. Yet more than half a million Jewish soldiers served the Czar in World War L
THE HALAKHAH AND MANDATORY MILITARY SERVICE
Military service had to be accepted and the rabbinic and communal leadership could only try to place it into the framework of