Nevakhovich, Judah Leib. Kol Shav’ath Bath Yehudah (“The Lament of the Daughter of Judah”) An Appeal to the Russian Government for Tolerance of the Jews

MEHLMAN COPY - EXTREMELY RARE. The preeminent Jewish - Russian historian, Saul Ginsburg, states that this pamphlet “has already long become a great rarity and can only be found in significant libraries” (Historical Works, II, p. 44) Judah Leib Nevakhovich (1776-1831) was one of the first maskilim (enlightened Jews) of Russia. Born in Letichev, Volhynia, he eventually settled in Shklov, Mogilev province (today Belarus), then a center of Haskalah. Nevakhovich served as a government translator of Hebrew documents. It was he who translated into Russian the petitions and written testimony of R. Shneur Zalman Boruchovich (the “Alter Rebbe”) during the hasidic master’s second arrest and imprisonment in 1801. Nevakhovich first published his appeal in Russian as Vopl dshcheri iudeiskoi (St. Petersburg, 1803). A year later he published his Hebrew translation, Kol Shav’ath Bath Yehudah in Shklov. In the pamphlet, the author shows how unfounded were the various libels raised against the Jewish People. He also presents a survey of Tsarist Russian history. In his brief tract, Nevakhovich argued against the conversion of the Jews to Christianity. The book is dedicated to Count V.P. Kochubei. The pamphleteer went on to become a celebrated Russian playright. The climax of his career came in 1809 when a drama of his was performed at the Imperial State Theater in St. Petersburg with Tsar Alexander I in the audience. Following the performance, Alexander presented him with a gold snuffbox adorned with jewels, and featuring the Tsar’s own image engraved on the exterior. Around the year 1813 Nevakhovich converted to Lutheranism and married a German woman, Catherine Michelson. He was buried in 1831 in St. Petersburg’s German Lutheran cemetery. So ended the life of one of Russia’s first modern Jews. See David E. Fishman, Russia’s First Modern Jews: The Jews of Shklov (New York: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 94-100, 127-128; EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 1018-1019.