By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

When the Russian Empire completed its annexation of Poland in 1795, it added more than one million Jews to its population. This led to a government call for ways to limit the ever growing Jewish community and/or find ways to turn those who were seen as primitive into modern, productive members of the country. In his “The Cantonists: Jewish Boys in the Russian Military, 1827-1856” (Touro University Press), Josef Mendelevich explores not only the reasons behind the decisions made by the tzarist government, but those of the Jewish population. 
The Russian government believed that Jewish culture was incompatible with Russian society, at least Jewish culture that had not yet been influenced by the Enlightenment. One question that was raised was whether it was necessary for Jews to convert to Christianity in order for them to become productive members of the empire. (It became clear as time passed that the tzars were never going to give equal rights to those who remained Jewish, unlike some other areas of Europe.) The government focused on Jewish children, thinking that by removing them from community influences, they could turn them into productive citizens. Some believed that the only way for this to happen was to encourage them to convert to Christianity.
The process that led to drafting Jewish boys into the army took place over time: Mendelevich offers a four-and-a-half page outline noting the changes that occurred between 1795-1857. While difficult to summarize, some important decisions should be noted. At first, Jews were allowed to pay a fee in order not to be conscripted. Later, there was a call for mandatory military service, although some finance ministers were not happy with the loss of this income from Jews who preferred not to serve in the army. It should be noted that Jews were not the only ones drafted, although a far larger percentage of the Jewish population was expected to take part. The schools that some of these young children attended were not originally aimed at Jewish children, but were rather to educate Christian children whose fathers had died while serving in the army. Later, these schools were used to remove Jewish children from their families’ influence, which was thought to make it easier to convince them to convert.
While antisemitism was one of the reasons behind the push to educate Jews and force them to serve in the army, some Russian leaders were truly interested in educating young Jews. That meant offering them opportunities to attend schools that would teach them useful trades, rather than having them spend their days studying Jewish texts. Westernized enlightened Russian Jews supported some of these decisions because they felt it would improve the Jewish condition and prove that Jews could be equal citizens. However, that was not the general consensus of the young boys torn from their families.
One of the most interesting sections is called “The Cantonists Speak for Themselves,” which offers real life testimony from those who experienced being taken from their homes and forced into army life. The surprise is how few of the cantonists converted considering the pressure applied to them. These stories also portray another difficulty that occurred when the leaders of the Jewish community picked who would be drafted. These leaders generally preferred to pick young children, rather than married men, since that would leave their wives and children without support. Bribes were taken so rich children could be kept out of the army and replaced with those who didn’t have the funds necessary to escape. Children were sometimes kidnapped, taken suddenly when they were in the fields or walking on the roads without being given a chance to say good-bye to their families. Mendelevich does note that, although the army sought to keep these children from their families, some communication was possible. Plus, if the children were placed in towns near a Jewish community, that community often reached out to help them. However, life was not easy and the author believes a good third of the children died in transit before they even reached the army camps.
Although all conversions were supposed to be voluntary, these children’s superiors could, and did, make life difficult for them in order to get them to convert. Mendelevich notes that there are questions about the conversions that did take place. Were the children bribed to convert? Were some of the conversions faked in order to reduce the pressure and ill treatment they faced? There are records of some who later recanted their conversions, although that could be dangerous because of the punishment given to those who left the Christian faith. The author does believe that more than 60 percent refused to convert no matter what method was used to pressure them. 
Mendelevich ends his work with “Topics Raised in this Book That Merit More Discussion.” Even with the many questions he raises in that section, there is more than enough material to ponder about the life of cantonists and, perhaps even more important, how this affected Jewish communal life. The work’s layout is unusual in that it offers far more original material in the text than most histories that have been reviewed in these pages. That means readers can get first-hand knowledge of the government documents Mendelevich discusses. It also includes lists that, like the time line mentioned above, make it easier for non-historians to absorb the material.
The author opened his book with a comment made by someone who attended one of his lectures on the cantonists. The gist of that comment was that the topic could be summarized in a few simple sentences. “The Cantonists” proves there is far more to say about these children and the Jewish community at the time. Readers interested in Jewish Russian history will appreciate the author’s excellent discussions. Anyone interested in the history of the Jews of Europe will also find a great deal of interesting and provocative material.