Chutzpah (most likely the first of many)

Chutzpah (for those of you who are Judaically challanged) is a Yiddish word meaning gall or obstinancy. I had always thought that the classic deffinition of Chutzpah was a man who murders his parents and then asks the judge for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan. Recently however, I learned a new and better definition. (more than likely I will learn still more in the future, but this will do for now).

Durring the 19th century pretty much all the European powers wanted a piece of the Ottoman Empire. For example, in 1882 Russia declared that it had the right to interfere in Ottoman affairs in order to protect Russian citizens living in the Ottoman Empire.

The question is, what Russian citizens were living in the Ottoman Empire?

Well, in 1881 Tzar Alexander II was assasinated and the Russian government blamed the Jews. Early in 1882 Russia instigated a series of pogroms against Russian Jews known as the Kishinev Prgroms (a pogrom, for those who are unaware, is an orginized riot against Jews meant to terrorize them, usually involving murder and rape, and often sponsered, organized, or instigated by the government). After the Kishinev pogroms, thousands of Jews simply packed up and left Russia. Most went to America, but some (a good 30,000 or so) went to Eretz Yisrael (modern day Israel) in a huge migration known as the first Aliya.

So in short, Russia kills off its Jews who in turn flee to Israel which, at the time, is under Ottoman rule, and the Russians now declare themselves to be the protecttors of these Jews.

CHUTZPAH!!!