the Maccabean Hussars and the Crimean War

19th Century Polish nationalist and poet Adam Mickiewicz had a dream. Well, he had lots of dreams, poets are like that. But Mickiewicz had a dream of an independent Poland, and lots of other dreams sprang from that.

For example, he had a fascination with the Jewish people, and he believed that the liberation of Poland could only occur with the help of the Jewish people, which itself could only be gained by allowing them to practice their traditions freely. Very forward-thinking of him, wouldn't you say?

Mickiewicz had been exiled from Poland and had joined with other liberal revolutionaries across Europe - for example, he participated in the Italian Revolutions of 1830-31, where doubtlessly he must have fought alongside Jewish revolutionaries. However, throughout this time he never stopped dreaming of an independent Poland.

So, at the outbreak of the Crimean War Mickiewicz apparently got it in his head to show the world, or at least Poland, the valor and bravery of the Jewish people. He got together some friends, who are rather interesting characters themselves. One was Armand Levy, a French Catholic with Jewish ancestry, a socialist, anti-clericalist, and revolutionary (he had fought alongside Mickiewicz in Italy)[1]. Another was Alphonse Rothschild, yes that Rothschild, remember this was their heyday, who was also interested in opening a new bank in the Ottoman Empire, and you better believe there were antisemitic conspiracy theories around that.

Another more important figure was Michal Czajkowski, another Polish emigre with Cossack heritage who had moved to Turkey following the failed 1830 Uprising and converted to Islam, adopting the name Mehmet Sadyk Pasha. Czajkowski also had plans for raising his own division of Cossacks and fighting the Russians. Czajkowski wasn't an ardent Polish nationalist like Mickiewicz and instead wanted to peel off a Cossack homeland from the Ukraine.

The Ottoman Cossack Legion was already formed by the time Mickiewicz and company arrived. Cazjkowski was in command of some 1,400 men, largely Ukrainian and Russian dissident Cossacks, deserters from the Russian army, Bulgarians, freed prisoners-of-war, and so on. The officers were Polish veterans, many of them natives of Ukraine and close friends of Czajkowski, veterans of the 1830 Uprising.

Czajkowski also had quite a few Jewish volunteers, which Mickiewicz intended to form into their own regiment and send into battle against the Russians[2]:

There were 200 Jewish soldiers in the Burgas camp when Mickiewicz and his party arrived there. Quite a motley crowd, they included veterans from the Hungarian Polish Legion…Georgian Jewish captives from the Russian army, and the Sephardic, De Castro. Among the more outstanding figures were Herman Szapir, the apothecary, who was decorated for valor; Dr Kulisz, the intermediary with Czajkowski; Alphons Jacobson, a veteran of [the Italian Rebellion of] 1831; Sergeant, later Lieutenant Jacob Ziegelbaum of Warsaw; Michael Horenstein…Sub-Officer Flegun Abramko-Panicaz; Simon of Berditchev...“the capturer of the the French guns in Rome”; and Fernstein...

...

The Jewish soldiers had already seen action under Sedyk Pasha...A number of them, including Horenstein, were decorated for bravery.

Sometimes history is stranger than fiction, wouldn't you say?

Rothschild negotiated finances with the Sultan and worked with Mickiewicz to select officers, Levy provided religious articles like holy books, Jewish dress, and so on. Czajkowski was tapped to command the regiment. The intention was to recruit Turkish Jews and Jewish prisoners-of-war to bring their number up to 1,000 cavalry. The name for this regiment was going to be, and I swear you cannot make this stuff up, the Maccabean Hussars.

Czajkowski is an interesting figure in all of this. He was religiously tolerant, being a Muslim convert himself, and for allowing his soldiers to recognize their respective holy days[3] he was fairly popular. However, he seemed to possess a traditional aristocratic prejudice towards Jews[4] and he was primarily concerned with his own personal advancement.

Czajkowski seems to have flip-flopped between support for the project and disdain, again perhaps because of his prejudice towards Jews. However, after counselling from his wife, Ludwika Sniadecka[5], he started to really come around to the idea. Czajkowski also had dreams, but they were mostly fevered and grandiose ones, and by all accounts Ludwika, a fascinating woman in her own right, was his chief political adviser, responsible for steering his grandiose plans into something workable.

The plan did fail, of course. The Maccabean Hussars were never formed. One inescapable factor was the death of Mickiewicz in Istanbul from cholera in 1855. Grieving, Levy left the project, putting Bednarczyk, the Colonel in charge of instructing the recruits, to carry on the negotiations. In his memoirs, Czajkowski blames the project's failure on Bednarczyk "boring" the Ottoman officials, and certainly the petition to form the Maccabean Hussars was caught up in a mess of red tape, as a conservative bureaucracy stalled at the idea of arming so many Jews.

Meanwhile, Bednarczyk's appointment had alienated the Turkish Jews, who saw him as a Polish adventurer (which he was). He embezzled money from the project and to make matters worse it appears that Bednarcyk had fabricated his service record. Ludwika stepped up to save the project, slipping Bednarcyk a bribe to get him to resign in favor of the decorated Lieutenant Horenstein. After fighting off a bout of malaria, Horenstein was an able recruiter[6], even putting together a regimental band composed of Russian and Polish Jews, however the war ultimately came to an end, and everyone just sort of gave up and went home. The only thing that seems to have come of all this is that the Ottomans actually did approve conscription for Turkish Jews, proving that perhaps they would have approved the formation of the Maccabean Hussars after all...

Still, it wasn't all bad for the Jewish volunteers. They had been folded into the Ottoman Cossack Legions, where Czajkowski says "they proved capable riders and good soldiers"[7]. The Ottoman Cossack Legions relieved the Russian siege of Silistra, then captured and occupied Bucharest for a time. They fought bandits in the region and guarded the Prut frontier, however the war ended before Czajkowski could achieve his dream of invading Russia itself. He would later express regret that the Maccabean Hussars were never formed, and after the death of his second wife, he would remarry, move to Russia and convert to Orthodox Christianity, and commit suicide upon discovering his third wife's affair. I have no idea what happened to Levy or the rest.

Whew! That was the REAL LIFE story of a the Maccabean Hussars, so to speak, and it really does have everything. A weird premise, colorful characters, very personal conflict, and so on, but really looking at all of this, there are several PODs that suggest that the Maccabean Hussars were close to, well, actually being approved. Maybe if Mickiewicz hadn't died of cholera, maybe if Bednarczyk hadn't been put in charge, maybe if Czajkowski had been a little bit more enthusiastic, maybe if Horenstein hadn't gotten malaria!

What if the Maccabean Hussars had actually seen service and won glory at Silistra and Bucharest and the Prut? What does that mean for Jews in the Ottoman Empire, for Polish independence, for the Paris Commune which Levy later participated in? What about Alphonse Rothschild and his plan for an Ottoman bank, killed by the British who didn't want the Ottomans to be financially independent?

Honestly, this is a fascinating point in history, supremely weird and rich with detail, and it's something I just HAD to share with you all. Thanks for reading!

[1] While researching this topic I found some biographies of Levy, but they were in French, which alas I do not speak. Levy also appears to have left most of his notes with Mickiewicz's son, at which point they somehow found their way into a Polish archive in which they languished until they were burnt by the Nazis. Armand Levy's personal journal is believed to be in a private collection somewhere.

If anyone would like to help me research this fascinating individual I would be very appreciative.

[2] Duker, 1954

[3] Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews, Sunday for Christians.

[4] Though my Jewish source doesn't consider him antisemitic in the reactionary sense, so take that as you will.

[5] His second wife, to be specific. In fact his conversion to Islam, in addition to being his way of ingratiating himself to the rulers of the country he fled to following the failed 1830 Uprising, was also a way for him to annul his marriage to his first wife so that he could marry Ludwika, who I ironically believe to be a Catholic...

[6] One new recruit from this time is, I shit you not, an Irish convert to Islam named Mahomed Effedni Milasyn.

[7] Czajkowski, 1854
 
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There's got to be ways we can use these guys- did the Ottomans traditionally have special units for ethnic minorities at all? A standing unit of Maccabean Hussars could be a lot more influential than a temporary one.
 
There's got to be ways we can use these guys- did the Ottomans traditionally have special units for ethnic minorities at all? A standing unit of Maccabean Hussars could be a lot more influential than a temporary one.

The problem as I understand it is that the Cossack Legion was liquidated as part of the Ottoman effort to downsize their military during peacetime. It's possible that if they had won some notable victories they would have been kept around as auxiliaries, but I'm not sure. It seems like they were given honors and comfortable retirements, at least.

I will also note that even after the project failed, Armand Levy still wanted the Jewish veterans of the Ottoman Cossack Legions to serve as officers in an eventual Jewish Legion, but its not certain in what capacity they would be fighting - perhaps he foresaw a later uprising in Poland such as the January Uprising of 1863? As I said, most of his notes have been lost, so we can't be sure.
 
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