In this week’s episode of Breaking History, Gordon unpacks the roots of the Pale of Settlement in order to provide a better appreciation for the subtle dynamics shaping both the rise of political zionism and the roots of the neo-con obsession with destroying Russia. We also discuss the purge of republican masonry and the rise of theosophist-connect occult movements behind the rise of radical Islam, fascism, zionism, and even the Indian National Congress.
I'm afraid the tentacles of occult control (influencing events from behind the scenes in the world "theater") go far deeper than 1 nation or group of "nations" vs another.
The whole system of power and money, and its derivative the nation state system that causes perpetual war, creates vengeful philosophies like Zionism, Islam, and while Christianity is overtly about peace and forgiveness, the subconscious programming of the Bible makes most followers equally vengeful, spiteful and filled with greed.
If you really want to get to the truth, you have to figure it out.
No book or published work is going to take you there unless you have your faculties of reasoning intact
Great interview Matt, but there are a few bits that seem "off" that may skew the story--deeply (if I may politely say it)..
It seems it's bein' assumed that all forms of Kabbalah mean literal occult practice an' (ta put it mildly) "bad stuff" and it's implied the Catherine started the Pale of Settlement solely b/c "joos" were gettin' all mystical an' causing trouble that way... Simplification: incorrect.
There are more kinds of Kabbalah than there are coffee flavors at a Starbucks--not jokin' at that--an' only one--the Theosophical Kabbalah--is "skeery." The rest are not... (SEE BELOW, I'll cover it!)
But first, imho, there were likely quite a few reasons Catherine had fer creatin' the Pale of Settlement (not good but diff. from the later far more brutal pogroms--ill git ta that soon) and THAT had much to do visibility (of chews at the time) AND with French influence of her idol, known anti-semite Voltaire (I too love his works--but he hates us "chews"... genuinely) --- whom she admired greatly.
I'll say the world "pogrom" didn't come inta use at all until 'bout 1821 (post Cate the Great) an' really not until the late 1800's:
"The event which triggered the actual pogroms was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March [1 March, Old Style], 1881, for which some blamed "agents of foreign influence," implying that Jews committed it. One of the conspirators was of Jewish origins, and the importance of her role in the assassination was greatly exaggerated during the pogroms that followed. Another conspirator was baselessly rumored to be Jewish." From all I gather the press helped with anti-chewish scenty-mint. End result: pogroms. THESE were horrible--far worse than lousy Pale of Settlement. NOW imagine that after all those years in Pale of Settlement (not great, chews as 2nd class citizens or worse)...you have 35 years of living in absolute hell with soldiers demandin' your goods at gunpoint, trashin' (burnin') your barns, rapin' yer daughters. Er, that might git some folks kinda testy--an' yes, the Russian Revolution was personal! (hold that thought!)
Back ta Cate the Great. Catherine was frustrated with the "backwater" old world of Russia, not bein' "cosmopolitan" enuf--all the schlumpy jewish pesants in traditional dress swinging chickens an' speakin' mostly in Yiddish not Russian (yes they KNEW Russian but it was not their day-to-day speak) was an affront to progress---why would these folks not "adapt"--they were embassin'! Catherine had a nutbar as a husband as ya know and was BORED as heck, so "cleanin' up" her country an' "modernising it" -- makin' it sophistocated! European! -- meant sweepin' aside the aesthetically displeasing old world elements that made her land look--un-cosmopolitain!
It's not fer nuthin' that the fictional Potemkin village was made by her boyfriend to please her!
Christian peasants didn't fare a lot better in her opinion but they looked a bit less "primitive" an' there were too many of 'em to hide an' they didn't all wear black an' swing chickens over their heads (we call that a shecket). Great Catherine was a snob, tho' I don't judge her for her admiration for the lure of all things European (she learned French, re-decorated, etc). Even the most educated & erudite of us chews back then (havin' rabbis in our own his'try an' havin' seen photos from the 1800's of their "fashion statment!"--oy, I joke--I kin vouch for this:) joos looked "funny" (facially different too....) an' dressed funny (odd garb) an' seemed embarrassing I'm sure with hanging tallises an' davenin' (rockin' but not like Joe Cocker!)), as they were (for the most part then) doggedly outliers--they would NOT assimilate. They wouldn't even look like Russians.
So Cate, putting them "aside"--like puttin' the poor folks in public housing "complexes" on the FRINGES of the city (in NewYawk but likely elsewhere too)--created an' out of sight out of mind phenomenon--Thus visitin' diplomats would not have to observe the shockin'ly backward "old country" habits (an' habitudes) if the chews were put "to the side."
An' you bet Catherine was all about this stuff--an' showed off too--any diplomats visitin' NYC (my hometown) aren't given a tour of the projects or Brownsville or the worst parts of the Bronx. Nope. They see the Upper East Side, they stroll down 5th Avenue. Same same.
Also, the more assimilated chews in Russia an' lands nearby (Lithuania, Poland, etc) came later but even they still stuck to their "culcha' " to "greater degree" than the likes of Catherine (or Napoleon later for that matter) would have wanted. Look at Orthodox women today--the wigs (shaidels) an' the thick stockings. Different. Always the chews stood out like sore thumbs. (The reforms of Maimonides were a great start but this new mentality an' angle on practice was slow in coming--mid 19th C is more like it). So. There's. That.
The Pale wasn't nearly as bad as pogroms. If Catherine really thought chews were a threat she would have gone straight to pogroms or exile but she didn't.
But like I mentioned, pogroms were BRUTAL. The Russian Revolution, you fellas are correct, was about MORE than social change. I will say that chews always feel they need to "fix things" (it's called Tikkun Olan) -- it's real. It didn't mean "fix the world" but it meant "fix yer plight an' that of yer neighbors. " So I'm sure some well-intended fools were SURE this was a good thing to do--egads again. But I won't glamorize how chews were treated under any of the Tzars from Catherine onward.
So yes, it was about havin' a bone to pick with Russia but NOT due just to the Pale of Settlement which was small taters ('n beets) compared to the horrific pogroms where chews were murdered, their homes burned, not unlike modern day Israel (yeah, their fight is biblical an' ya know Russians began the thing--I'll save that thought fer an'nuther time--but in Israel too it's kinda like that with Hamas an' the PLO--NOT I should say with all Arabs, they distinguish).
Okay, back on track here, MOST chews who left Russia (an' nearby lands under Russia's thumb) startin' in the 1870's--when allowed ta do so (ya know pogroms restricted movement ANYWHERE), did so never lookin' back--many did head for Israel (not without reasons--they knew nuttin' about who/what was behind zionism--they wanted a place to live in peace an' it was not Russia, Poland or Lithuania--that's fer sure). And indeed many that stayed (not my fam, they got outta town) were all out for revenge (however justified their "feelins" an' however awful the consequences) an' the globalist weenies just manipulated that genuine hate that all of them had felt INTO A MOVEMENT. And of COURSE the Brits were involved--not just Marx, all've 'em.
So like I said, pogroms were FAR FAR worse than the 100+ years of The Pale. My great grandma left the "Tzar's purges" an' refused to tell her kids ANYTHING about the horrors they left (I think she got raped by Cossacks given the reaction when asked--it was like anger and shock...). Her mother, father, an' the "sibs" all became "Americans" -- learned fluent English fast an' blessed the USA daily (includin' in their prayers--my great gran'pa was a rabbi but ended up a grocer upon arrival here--long story). My gran'ma--the sweetest gal ya'd wanna meet--coaxed a leetle info from her own gran--some fonder mem'ries for sure (familial, not related to the pogroms) but most of the kids were SO glad to be in the USA--what they left was so bad they couldn't even talk about it (we know Holocaust survivors who behaved similarly--eyes well up, they cannot go on...) anywhoo..
The hate for the Tzar had no bounds. ALL the chews owned was taken away--it was velly velly bad. BUT my understandin' is that it was very much like the Purim story where the king is told an apocryphal tale about a jewish plot to kill him so he signs off (Haman's decree) to kill all the chews not knowin' he was tricked. In truth, my understandin' was that Alexander II didn't even hate joos but once told there was a jewish plot to kill him--wull THEN the worst of it started! An' then he WAS murdered--an' it wasn't even joos at fault but no matter, the bias was there, the script already distributed.
"The event which triggered the pogroms was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March [1 March, Old Style], 1881, for which some blamed "agents of foreign influence," implying that Jews committed it.[9][10] One of the conspirators was of Jewish origins, and the importance of her role in the assassination was greatly exaggerated during the pogroms that followed. Another conspirator was baselessly rumored to be Jewish."
NOW to the Kabbalah--the variations...an' how imho you cannot characterize '"it" like it's a uniform thing...
First, Kabbalah in ANY form is not practiced let alone "known" by most modern-day chews--Reform, Humanist, Conservative, an' even Orthodox. It's today more of certain subsets of ULTRA Orthodox--like the speck on the mountain top--practicin' it.
Without "Madonna" adopting some twisted "globalized" messed up version of this--even most chews wouldn't know it from...Adam.
Those of us who heard of it, rarely, know it's a variation on the "old men argue stuff" (talmud) trope--it's "old men argue esoteric stuff but they do NOT practice magic or magik" (the kabbalah most of us know of is not black magic or even magical!).
Nope, they practice "Theological Kabbalah"... (and it differs from the indeed creepy black-ish "TheoSOPHICAL Kabbalah"--so pls. dont' mix the two to paint all Kabbalists as dark mystics...)
"The Meditative tradition of Ecstatic Kabbalah (exemplified by Abraham Abulafia and Isaac of Acre) strives to achieve a mystical union with God, or nullification of the meditator in God's Active intellect. Abraham Abulafia's "Prophetic Kabbalah" was the supreme example of this, though marginal in Kabbalistic development, and his alternative to the program of theosophical Kabbalah. Abulafian meditation built upon the philosophy of Maimonides, whose following remained the rationalist threat to theosophical Kabbalists."
Most modern day jews that DO know Kabbalah (Roseanna Barr & Zev Zelenko's brother whose name escapes me for ex) are practicin' the Maimonides non-theosophical version. Madonna & team are satanic an' give Kabbalah a bad name.
So, THEN, yes, there is the magic-evokin' kabbalah but even there you'll find TWO-not-one-factions of this thing--even more abstruse an' obscure--not even most Ultra Orthodox rabbis go there or ever did!
FIRST there's the "white magic" angle where only interpretation of dreams is allowed--like Joseph in the bible--and believing in the wonders of the Tree of Life, a good force, and the "spark" of the divine in all of us. It stops there. Technically it's not "kosher" but some do it, separate from goin' to services, separate from prayers, talmud study, etc.. We are talkin' bout a TINY group.
Then, finally, yes there's the really obscure alchemy-type (Theosophical Kabblan) where "all sorts of monkey bizness" goes on an' indeed it's OCCULT an' can be NOT GOOD.
Jus' know that practicin' kabbalah was NOT the norm, even among the tiny group of "elite" scholars that studied it. Mark that: some STUDIED it but did not PRACTICE IT. You can major in occult studies an' not be an occultist--an'nuther thing ta note.
The "black kabbalah" guys -- the ones that INVERTED the Tree of Life an' did all the "magik" were totally BANNED by Orthodox law--to wit:
"Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices." (...) That divination is mentioned (in talmud) is taken as an indication that it was widely practiced in the folk religion of ancient Israel, and a limited number of forms of divination were generally accepted within all of Israelite society, the most common being oneiromancy (interpretation of dreams for prophetic meanings)."
So again, the ONLY form of magic that was popular in folk religion that was "overlooked" an' allowed was divination--tea leaves an' such too. In Mrs Maisel Midge's mom sees a fortune teller to figger out her daughter's marriage prospects--this IS like the only remnant that's a hold out to old divination from ONE form of Kabbalah--but there's no spell castin' or mumbo jumbo.
Soooo... all this to say that:
a) yer right chews that stayed in Russia fought hard for revolution as this was payback time--for the pogroms tho, NOT for the Pale
b) Pale was not caused by actual occult "evil" practices re Kabbalah. As ya see, Kabbalah is mostly benign an' only one (Theosophical) faction is truly BAD (an' banned in Orthodox Talmud). So Cate would not put aside the entire jewish population in the pale b/c they were all mystics practicin' "evil occult" stuff--there may be MANY reasons but imho this wasn't one of them. Cosmo Cate more likely found 'em an eyesore--Potamkin world had no place for funny old country folks swingin' chickens with men in funny sidecurls (pais) an' ladies in shaidels (wigs) which must've been EVEN worse than today's Orthodox wigs which are really (really) awful.
That's my long take--but hopefully it sheds a bit more light on this fascinatin' topic--lookin' forward to more (an' hopin folks'll stop blamin' "da joos" for everything wrong in the world includin' hangnails)
I'm afraid the tentacles of occult control (influencing events from behind the scenes in the world "theater") go far deeper than 1 nation or group of "nations" vs another.
The whole system of power and money, and its derivative the nation state system that causes perpetual war, creates vengeful philosophies like Zionism, Islam, and while Christianity is overtly about peace and forgiveness, the subconscious programming of the Bible makes most followers equally vengeful, spiteful and filled with greed.
If you really want to get to the truth, you have to figure it out.
No book or published work is going to take you there unless you have your faculties of reasoning intact
.
https://danielnagase.substack.com/p/power-vs-money
Great interview Matt, but there are a few bits that seem "off" that may skew the story--deeply (if I may politely say it)..
It seems it's bein' assumed that all forms of Kabbalah mean literal occult practice an' (ta put it mildly) "bad stuff" and it's implied the Catherine started the Pale of Settlement solely b/c "joos" were gettin' all mystical an' causing trouble that way... Simplification: incorrect.
There are more kinds of Kabbalah than there are coffee flavors at a Starbucks--not jokin' at that--an' only one--the Theosophical Kabbalah--is "skeery." The rest are not... (SEE BELOW, I'll cover it!)
But first, imho, there were likely quite a few reasons Catherine had fer creatin' the Pale of Settlement (not good but diff. from the later far more brutal pogroms--ill git ta that soon) and THAT had much to do visibility (of chews at the time) AND with French influence of her idol, known anti-semite Voltaire (I too love his works--but he hates us "chews"... genuinely) --- whom she admired greatly.
I'll say the world "pogrom" didn't come inta use at all until 'bout 1821 (post Cate the Great) an' really not until the late 1800's:
cont'd
"The event which triggered the actual pogroms was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March [1 March, Old Style], 1881, for which some blamed "agents of foreign influence," implying that Jews committed it. One of the conspirators was of Jewish origins, and the importance of her role in the assassination was greatly exaggerated during the pogroms that followed. Another conspirator was baselessly rumored to be Jewish." From all I gather the press helped with anti-chewish scenty-mint. End result: pogroms. THESE were horrible--far worse than lousy Pale of Settlement. NOW imagine that after all those years in Pale of Settlement (not great, chews as 2nd class citizens or worse)...you have 35 years of living in absolute hell with soldiers demandin' your goods at gunpoint, trashin' (burnin') your barns, rapin' yer daughters. Er, that might git some folks kinda testy--an' yes, the Russian Revolution was personal! (hold that thought!)
Back ta Cate the Great. Catherine was frustrated with the "backwater" old world of Russia, not bein' "cosmopolitan" enuf--all the schlumpy jewish pesants in traditional dress swinging chickens an' speakin' mostly in Yiddish not Russian (yes they KNEW Russian but it was not their day-to-day speak) was an affront to progress---why would these folks not "adapt"--they were embassin'! Catherine had a nutbar as a husband as ya know and was BORED as heck, so "cleanin' up" her country an' "modernising it" -- makin' it sophistocated! European! -- meant sweepin' aside the aesthetically displeasing old world elements that made her land look--un-cosmopolitain!
It's not fer nuthin' that the fictional Potemkin village was made by her boyfriend to please her!
Christian peasants didn't fare a lot better in her opinion but they looked a bit less "primitive" an' there were too many of 'em to hide an' they didn't all wear black an' swing chickens over their heads (we call that a shecket). Great Catherine was a snob, tho' I don't judge her for her admiration for the lure of all things European (she learned French, re-decorated, etc). Even the most educated & erudite of us chews back then (havin' rabbis in our own his'try an' havin' seen photos from the 1800's of their "fashion statment!"--oy, I joke--I kin vouch for this:) joos looked "funny" (facially different too....) an' dressed funny (odd garb) an' seemed embarrassing I'm sure with hanging tallises an' davenin' (rockin' but not like Joe Cocker!)), as they were (for the most part then) doggedly outliers--they would NOT assimilate. They wouldn't even look like Russians.
So Cate, putting them "aside"--like puttin' the poor folks in public housing "complexes" on the FRINGES of the city (in NewYawk but likely elsewhere too)--created an' out of sight out of mind phenomenon--Thus visitin' diplomats would not have to observe the shockin'ly backward "old country" habits (an' habitudes) if the chews were put "to the side."
An' you bet Catherine was all about this stuff--an' showed off too--any diplomats visitin' NYC (my hometown) aren't given a tour of the projects or Brownsville or the worst parts of the Bronx. Nope. They see the Upper East Side, they stroll down 5th Avenue. Same same.
Also, the more assimilated chews in Russia an' lands nearby (Lithuania, Poland, etc) came later but even they still stuck to their "culcha' " to "greater degree" than the likes of Catherine (or Napoleon later for that matter) would have wanted. Look at Orthodox women today--the wigs (shaidels) an' the thick stockings. Different. Always the chews stood out like sore thumbs. (The reforms of Maimonides were a great start but this new mentality an' angle on practice was slow in coming--mid 19th C is more like it). So. There's. That.
The Pale wasn't nearly as bad as pogroms. If Catherine really thought chews were a threat she would have gone straight to pogroms or exile but she didn't.
cont'd again!
But like I mentioned, pogroms were BRUTAL. The Russian Revolution, you fellas are correct, was about MORE than social change. I will say that chews always feel they need to "fix things" (it's called Tikkun Olan) -- it's real. It didn't mean "fix the world" but it meant "fix yer plight an' that of yer neighbors. " So I'm sure some well-intended fools were SURE this was a good thing to do--egads again. But I won't glamorize how chews were treated under any of the Tzars from Catherine onward.
So yes, it was about havin' a bone to pick with Russia but NOT due just to the Pale of Settlement which was small taters ('n beets) compared to the horrific pogroms where chews were murdered, their homes burned, not unlike modern day Israel (yeah, their fight is biblical an' ya know Russians began the thing--I'll save that thought fer an'nuther time--but in Israel too it's kinda like that with Hamas an' the PLO--NOT I should say with all Arabs, they distinguish).
Okay, back on track here, MOST chews who left Russia (an' nearby lands under Russia's thumb) startin' in the 1870's--when allowed ta do so (ya know pogroms restricted movement ANYWHERE), did so never lookin' back--many did head for Israel (not without reasons--they knew nuttin' about who/what was behind zionism--they wanted a place to live in peace an' it was not Russia, Poland or Lithuania--that's fer sure). And indeed many that stayed (not my fam, they got outta town) were all out for revenge (however justified their "feelins" an' however awful the consequences) an' the globalist weenies just manipulated that genuine hate that all of them had felt INTO A MOVEMENT. And of COURSE the Brits were involved--not just Marx, all've 'em.
So like I said, pogroms were FAR FAR worse than the 100+ years of The Pale. My great grandma left the "Tzar's purges" an' refused to tell her kids ANYTHING about the horrors they left (I think she got raped by Cossacks given the reaction when asked--it was like anger and shock...). Her mother, father, an' the "sibs" all became "Americans" -- learned fluent English fast an' blessed the USA daily (includin' in their prayers--my great gran'pa was a rabbi but ended up a grocer upon arrival here--long story). My gran'ma--the sweetest gal ya'd wanna meet--coaxed a leetle info from her own gran--some fonder mem'ries for sure (familial, not related to the pogroms) but most of the kids were SO glad to be in the USA--what they left was so bad they couldn't even talk about it (we know Holocaust survivors who behaved similarly--eyes well up, they cannot go on...) anywhoo..
The hate for the Tzar had no bounds. ALL the chews owned was taken away--it was velly velly bad. BUT my understandin' is that it was very much like the Purim story where the king is told an apocryphal tale about a jewish plot to kill him so he signs off (Haman's decree) to kill all the chews not knowin' he was tricked. In truth, my understandin' was that Alexander II didn't even hate joos but once told there was a jewish plot to kill him--wull THEN the worst of it started! An' then he WAS murdered--an' it wasn't even joos at fault but no matter, the bias was there, the script already distributed.
"The event which triggered the pogroms was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March [1 March, Old Style], 1881, for which some blamed "agents of foreign influence," implying that Jews committed it.[9][10] One of the conspirators was of Jewish origins, and the importance of her role in the assassination was greatly exaggerated during the pogroms that followed. Another conspirator was baselessly rumored to be Jewish."
NOW to the Kabbalah--the variations...an' how imho you cannot characterize '"it" like it's a uniform thing...
First, Kabbalah in ANY form is not practiced let alone "known" by most modern-day chews--Reform, Humanist, Conservative, an' even Orthodox. It's today more of certain subsets of ULTRA Orthodox--like the speck on the mountain top--practicin' it.
Without "Madonna" adopting some twisted "globalized" messed up version of this--even most chews wouldn't know it from...Adam.
Those of us who heard of it, rarely, know it's a variation on the "old men argue stuff" (talmud) trope--it's "old men argue esoteric stuff but they do NOT practice magic or magik" (the kabbalah most of us know of is not black magic or even magical!).
Nope, they practice "Theological Kabbalah"... (and it differs from the indeed creepy black-ish "TheoSOPHICAL Kabbalah"--so pls. dont' mix the two to paint all Kabbalists as dark mystics...)
"The Meditative tradition of Ecstatic Kabbalah (exemplified by Abraham Abulafia and Isaac of Acre) strives to achieve a mystical union with God, or nullification of the meditator in God's Active intellect. Abraham Abulafia's "Prophetic Kabbalah" was the supreme example of this, though marginal in Kabbalistic development, and his alternative to the program of theosophical Kabbalah. Abulafian meditation built upon the philosophy of Maimonides, whose following remained the rationalist threat to theosophical Kabbalists."
Most modern day jews that DO know Kabbalah (Roseanna Barr & Zev Zelenko's brother whose name escapes me for ex) are practicin' the Maimonides non-theosophical version. Madonna & team are satanic an' give Kabbalah a bad name.
So, THEN, yes, there is the magic-evokin' kabbalah but even there you'll find TWO-not-one-factions of this thing--even more abstruse an' obscure--not even most Ultra Orthodox rabbis go there or ever did!
FIRST there's the "white magic" angle where only interpretation of dreams is allowed--like Joseph in the bible--and believing in the wonders of the Tree of Life, a good force, and the "spark" of the divine in all of us. It stops there. Technically it's not "kosher" but some do it, separate from goin' to services, separate from prayers, talmud study, etc.. We are talkin' bout a TINY group.
Then, finally, yes there's the really obscure alchemy-type (Theosophical Kabblan) where "all sorts of monkey bizness" goes on an' indeed it's OCCULT an' can be NOT GOOD.
Jus' know that practicin' kabbalah was NOT the norm, even among the tiny group of "elite" scholars that studied it. Mark that: some STUDIED it but did not PRACTICE IT. You can major in occult studies an' not be an occultist--an'nuther thing ta note.
The "black kabbalah" guys -- the ones that INVERTED the Tree of Life an' did all the "magik" were totally BANNED by Orthodox law--to wit:
"Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices." (...) That divination is mentioned (in talmud) is taken as an indication that it was widely practiced in the folk religion of ancient Israel, and a limited number of forms of divination were generally accepted within all of Israelite society, the most common being oneiromancy (interpretation of dreams for prophetic meanings)."
So again, the ONLY form of magic that was popular in folk religion that was "overlooked" an' allowed was divination--tea leaves an' such too. In Mrs Maisel Midge's mom sees a fortune teller to figger out her daughter's marriage prospects--this IS like the only remnant that's a hold out to old divination from ONE form of Kabbalah--but there's no spell castin' or mumbo jumbo.
Soooo... all this to say that:
a) yer right chews that stayed in Russia fought hard for revolution as this was payback time--for the pogroms tho, NOT for the Pale
b) Pale was not caused by actual occult "evil" practices re Kabbalah. As ya see, Kabbalah is mostly benign an' only one (Theosophical) faction is truly BAD (an' banned in Orthodox Talmud). So Cate would not put aside the entire jewish population in the pale b/c they were all mystics practicin' "evil occult" stuff--there may be MANY reasons but imho this wasn't one of them. Cosmo Cate more likely found 'em an eyesore--Potamkin world had no place for funny old country folks swingin' chickens with men in funny sidecurls (pais) an' ladies in shaidels (wigs) which must've been EVEN worse than today's Orthodox wigs which are really (really) awful.
That's my long take--but hopefully it sheds a bit more light on this fascinatin' topic--lookin' forward to more (an' hopin folks'll stop blamin' "da joos" for everything wrong in the world includin' hangnails)