Page 107 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Recruitment

While I was working for the smugglers, I was also studying with
my cousin Yankel, who was a shochet. I was contemplating becoming a
shochet myself, learning the laws of shechita, going with him to the
slaughterhouse, where I assisted him with the knife, stamping the
meat, and so forth. I would have been the greatest ornament to my
mother if I had become a rabbi or shochet, but reading those modern
books and nearing the recruiting age made me lose interest in such
things. I thought only of how to get out of military service.
To be a soldier for three years, torn away from home and society,
cast away thousands of miles in an isolated corner of great Russia,
meant degeneration. The Jewish soldier was always sent deep into
Russia where he was surrounded by the most ignorant and primitive
peasant boys. He in time became boorish himself, and after service,
when he returned home, he could hardly marry a girl of the better
families. So I was very dejected. A discharged soldier seldom married
a girl of under twenty years of age, the regular age to marry in that
country. As in other lands, there were some girls who on account of
some physical defect, being unattractive, or having false pride, were
left unmarried until their thirties; they were looked upon as the fifth
wheel to a wagon.
In October 1903 I was called to the Russian army. I was then
twenty-one years old. It was the greatest event in my life, and also in
the life of my whole family. As I was the first male born to my
parents, I was exempt from army service. My parents counted on
that, and they figured to marry me before the recruiting period was
over. But, in a twist of fortune, it happened that when I was born, my
parents did not register my birth until two weeks later. A little thing
like a couple of weeks in that country was of little significance,
especially with our Jewish brethren. It was six months before my
recruiting date when my father got busy and went for those papers
proving the legitimacy of my exemption. He was advised by the
government clerk that my claim was illegal. At that period, my father
had no job and no money; we had barely enough to subsist. He had
to do the best he could, bringing the case to court, rushing it through
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