Then and Now: Drawing on recruiting Haredim a century ago

History repeats itself? Last Saturday turned 110 years since the war between Russia and Japan - which began in February 1904 and marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution and the decline of the Czar.

Two paintings recently arrived for home sales ' Kedem ', provide a special glimpse and surprising angle less known of the war: the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews and the casualties among them.

About 30,000 Jews from the Russian Empire took part in the Russia – Japan war. Russia's defeat in the war, as well as many casualties among its troops, leaving a scar of right among the Jews of the empire followed every single day of the war, the development of Jewish newspapers of the period.

Two rare illustrations were printed in Vilnius during the war. The illustrations, made by an artist named Laskov and auctioned at the end of next month in sales ' Kedem' .

The first caption in Russian: "A reserve soldier who goes into battle." The illustration depicts the moment of departure of the Orthodox Jewish soldier from his family due to an order - attracting received. Recruiter is behind the soldier and his order. The entire family parts with the soldier.

Wife with her face covered in tears, the father of the soldier, one of the girls hugging him and the other handing him the tefillin.

The picture shows the family home, and so we learn the design of the Jewish household in those days : the walls are portraits of famous Jewish figures such as Moshe Montefiore and Malbim . Against one wall is a bookcase, the covers were painted with Hebrew letters. Stander stood beside him, and a pair of candlesticks with candles. Corner table there is a prayer shawl on hanging on the wall there is a menorah.
The second figure, called "young widow" , describes the moment when the family is told on the death of the soldier.

Figure seems a military man holding a letter. His other hand rests on the shoulder of the soldier's mother who buries her faces in her hands. The soldier's wife and daughters cry. Family apartment design almost identical to the design of the apartment in the preceding figure, with some small differences : Now alongside other portraits on the wall portrait soldier and a map of the Far East.

Arrangement which lay open on conventional standards, a term now closed . Above illustration inscription in Russian: " young widow " . The caption: "A friend brought a letter from the hospital heralding that the soldier died."

The illustrations evoke great interest among collectors particularly given public outcry in recent days over the issue of raising haredim and comparison was public discourse around extermination " of the past , such as the war between Russia and Japan - before 110 years exactly .

Ron Warren, Director of Sales at the auction house ' Kedem ' , explains that " not for nothing that the Jewish soldier figures, clad in old and kind of streimel , since it turns out that many of the recruits were Jews , no less - and no more , Gur Hasidim ."
This is in reference to the fact that the book by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin , Chassidic Tales : "Last year the righteous life of Ger ... War Russia and Japan , and taken thousands of yeshiva students into the army of his followers , who were of military age , and sent to the battlefields in the Far East .

" The tzaddik would bless them before leaving far ... and great was his anxiety for the fate of the military . Those days his followers were on the front he didn’t go to bed , and was lying on the floor with robe only offered under him, and the robe was soaking wet by his tears he shed on the sorrows of Israel .

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!