"My Visit to Tolstoy": Five Discourses

An American rabbi sets out in the summer of 1894 on a diplomatic mission: to propose to the Russian czar a plan for relocating persecuted Jews to fertile lands. After the Russian government blocks his passport on religious grounds, he turns the refusal into a test of the treaty guaranteeing U.S. citizens the right to enter Russia, sparking a press outcry and a congressional bill. With the backing of President Cleveland and Secretary Gresham, he eventually gains admission, entering St. Petersburg under the eyes of a nation eager to see whether law can triumph over prejudice.

In St. Petersburg he is introduced to many of the empire’s leading figures, but none impress him as profoundly as Count Leo Tolstoy. Invited to the author’s modest Yasnaya Polyana estate, the rabbi experiences a conversation that feels like a full university course in moral philosophy, delivered with a simplicity and fire that captivates him for years to come. The encounter leaves him longing to return, not for political aims, but to hear once more the living wisdom of a man whose pen had already reshaped literature.