19th century
Exclusion from the bar
1889·Empire russe
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
admission of Jews as lawyers is subject to authorization from the Minister of Justice, who grants none for sixteen years
Admission to the bar was subject, for Jews of the Russian Empire, to the personal authorization of the Minister of Justice. The provision pronounced no prohibition: it instituted a formality. The Minister granted no authorization for some fifteen years, with the result that an entire generation of jurists trained in Russian universities remained blocked at the rank of trainee, pleading under a colleague's name or leaving the profession. This is the most effective form of the exclusions of those years: it does not appear in the legal codes, it leaves no text to be repealed, and it can only be measured in the register of admissions. The *numerus clausus* of the universities, imposed at the same period, closed off access from the other end.
- Period :
- 19th century
- Type :
- Persecution
- Region :
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Country :
- Empire russe
Simon Doubnov, *Histoire des Juifs de Russie et de Pologne* ; Benjamin Nathans, *Beyond the Pale* ; *Encyclopaedia Judaica*, article « Russia ».