The Galilee Subbotniks

 Dubrovin farm in Yesud Hama'ala (photo: Yehudit Garinkol)

The Galilee converts are the families of Russians who converted to Judaism from 18th century on. Among them there were peasants and landowners, commoners and nobles such as Alexander Volnitzin and Prince Valentine Potocki. According to one opinion, the converted Abraham Ben-Avraham Kurakin's father is mentioned in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy as Anatoly Kuragin or Prince Kurakin.
 

The first reports on the Subbotnik movement, the converted Russians, appear in an official document from 1770, about 400 Subbotniks in the province of Saratov. In 1823 the Russian Interior Ministry counted about 20 thousand Subbotniks in various areas of the empire, and at its peak, in 1912, the movement numbered about 100 thousand members.

Excluding the period from 1912 to 1905, the Subbotnik movement was illegal. In 1825 the "Holy Synod" of Russia enacted a law dealing with "ways of stopping the spread of Jewish sect called Subbotniks". All "heresy distributors" being rejected for military service, were exiled to Siberia, where they founded "Subbotnik villages" while maintaining their uniqueness. Children under the age of seven were taken from them and given to "governmental education houses". Jews who lived in areas where Subbotniks were reported to live were expelled from their villages as well and were not allowed back.

Dr. Yuval Dror, a descendant of Kurakin family, who deals with the study of the Subbotnik movement, writes about the destiny of converted Evdokimov family: "The family father was arrested and was jailed for two years and the rest of the movement members were harassed as well. More than a thousand families were dispossessed from their homes, deported and exiled to the Caucasus ... At their new residence they suffered as well... there were attempts to reconvert their many children to Christianity by force. They were forced to carry stones to the village Pravoslav church and were chased at the rural community meetings".

Despite persecutions the Subbotnik movement expanded and during the 19th its leaders got into close contacts with the rabbinical Judaism. In the beginning of the 20th century, emissaries of the Zionist movement appeared in its villages. Some of the Subbotniks sold their possessions, immigrated to Eretz-Israel and joined the pioneers of the Third Aliyah. The Subbotnik movement also sent delegates to the all-Russia Zionist Congress in 1917.

Since they were farmers and outstanding peasants, when they moved to Eretz-Israel they contributed a great deal to the development of agriculture in the Galilee. Yoav Dubrovin imported from Russia plows and modern agricultural equipment, introduced at his farm elaborated crop rotation and applied new methods of cattle raising.

The enormous power and body structure of Dubrovin family members triggered the Galileans to call them by the nickname "Moskobians" or "Goliathians". "Fever is not a disease", the old Dubrovin used to encourage his family in times they had fallen ill. During the Malaria period the family horses were galloping without guidance, right to the doctor in Yesud HaMa'ala. "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away", Dubrovin said after the Shiv'a following the death of his 22 years old son Abraham. In the fall of 1918 the second son, aged 37, was depeated. "Do not cry for the dead, one should not doubt the actions of God. During all those years passed, I have never heard from you a thought to leave the country", he encouraged his sons after the death of his son in law. When he was about 100 years old, sick and lying on his bed, he got the last blow, from which he never got up: "My Hero", the old man lamented his youngest son Ephraim, "How did you fall, Froyke, how the mighty have fallen!"

Over the years the Galilee Subbotniks were thoroughly assimilated between the Israelis and nowadays one can get to know their origin only by their surnames. Amog the Israelis who could credit themselves for a "Subbotnik" origin one can mention Ephraim Avidan - Yoav Dubrovin's grandson - who served as commander of Northern Region in Border Police; Abraham Avigdorov - Abraham Kurakin's great grandson - who earned the medal of valor in the War of Independence, Menachem Kurakin - Abraham's grandson – who was among the twenty-three missing commandos at Operation Boatswain.