April 19, 1903: The Kishinev Pogrom & the Changes It Wrought

April 19, 1903: The Kishinev Pogrom occurs, in what was then Kishniev, the capital of the Bessarabia Governate of the Russian Empire, now Chișinău, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova.

The most popular newspaper in Kishinev was Bessarabetz (The Bassarabian), published in the Russian language by Pavel Krushevan. Krushevan was a proud anti-Semite, regularly publishing articles with headlines like "Death to the Jews!" and "Crusade against the Hated Race!"

When a Ukrainian boy, Mikhail Rybachenko, was found murdered in the town of Dubăsari, about 25 miles  north of Kishinev, and a girl who committed suicide by poisoning herself was declared dead in a Jewish hospital, Bessarabetz insinuated that both children had been murdered by the Jewish community for the purpose of using their blood in the preparation of matzo for the upcoming holiday of Passover. This lie was already known, as "the blood libel," the title indicating that most of the world knew it was a lie. Another newspaper, Свет (meaning, "Light") made similar insinuations.

In his paper, Krushevan called for a pogrom, which is defined as "a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews." He called for it on April 19, because it was a confluence of the Christian holiday of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover. Starting that day, and over the following two days, 49 Jews were killed, another 92 were badly injured, an indeterminate number of Jewish women were raped, and over 1,500 homes were damaged.

It backfired. It was instrumental in convincing tens of thousands of Russian Jews to leave for Western Europe, North America, or what was then Palestine in the Ottoman Empire. It became a rallying point for early Zionists, inspiring early self-defense leagues, leading to the Haganah and its successor, the Israeli Defense Forces.

American media mogul William Randolph Hearst "adopt[ed] Kishinev as little less than a crusade," according to Stanford University historian Steven Zipperstein. As part of this publicity, Hearst sent the Irish nationalist journalist Michael Davitt to Kishinev as "special commissioner to investigate the massacres of the Jews," becoming one of the first foreign journalists to report on the pogrom. Due to their involvement in the pogrom, two men were sentenced to 5 and 7 years' imprisonment, respectively, and a further 22 were sentenced to 1 or 2 years.

In 1907, Pavel Krushevan was elected to Russia's parliament, the State Duma. He died in 1909. He did not live to see the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, or the establishment of a Jewish state of Israel in 1948.

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April 19, 1903 was a Sunday. There was only one major professional sport at the time, baseball. And only 2 games were played that day, both in the National League, as Sunday baseball was still illegal in many States:

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. Honus Wagner went 1-for-4.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals led the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 after 5 innings at Robison Field in St. Louis, when the game was called due to rain.