Deception

Just before Christmas we were traveling south and, sitting in the railway carriage, discussing those modern issues that provide much material for conversation and at the same time require a swift solution.

We spoke of the weakness of Russian characters, of the lack of firmness in certain organs of power, of classicism, and of the Jews. Most of all, we were concerned with strengthening authority and putting the Jews to expense, if it proved impossible to correct them and raise them, at least, to a certain level of our own moral standard. The matter, however, was not turning out cheerfully: none of us saw any means either of setting authority in order or of achieving it so that all those born into Jewry might return to the womb and be born again with entirely different natures…