Rabbi B.C. Carillon. Sermon, Delivered during a Public Service, Held at the Reformed Synagogue of Spanish Town. For the Purpose of Supplicating the Divine Assistance in Favor of the Russo-Polish Jews, Against the Tyranny of Emperor Nicholas.

The reign of Nicholas I (1825–55) forms a somber chapter in the history of Russian Jewry. This czar, notorious in Russian history for his cruelty, sought to solve the "Jewish Problem" by suppression and coercion. One of the programs instituted by Czar Nicholas was the division of the Jews of his country into two groups: "Useful" and "non-useful." Among the "useful" ranked the wealthy merchants, craftsmen, and agriculturalists. All other Jews, the small tradesmen and the poorer classes, constituted the "non-useful" and were actively threatened with military conscription. This project encountered the opposition of Russian statesmen and aroused the intervention of Jews throughout the West on behalf of their co-religionists (JVL).<< Impressively, this even included the miniscule community of Jews in the West Indies, so many thousands of miles away. >> The Rev. Benjamin Cohen Carillon (1807-61) was elected minister of the congregation at Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1845. His reformist innovations soon aroused opposition among more traditionally-minded Portuguese Jews of the island. Indeed by the end of 1847 Carillon’s position in Montego Bay had been taken over by the Rev. A.P. Mendes.