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The paper shows the opportunities for the Jews to get the secondary-level and professional education
connected with their legislation and cultural situation of the Russian Empire in the second half of the
19th-the beginning of the 20th centuries.
The purpose is to reveal and describe the real historical situation emerged around the Jews teaching
in the Jewish Pale and in Siberia. As a source of evidence the archival materials of are used as well
as the data taken from The First Census of Russian Empire Population. The results presented in the
paper were obtained relying on the following common research methods: description, comparison and
analysis. The system approach due to which a Jewish community in Tomsk is considered to be a selfregulated
system of interrelated and mutually specified elements has become a methodological
framework of the paper. The civilization approach is also used. The Jews of Tomsk were under
Russian civilization sphere of influence with its socio-economic, political and cultural features. Tomsk
Jewish community was considered through the prism of preserved socio-cultural and spiritual
elements of Hebrew civilization, which accounted for using the main principles of the civilization
approach. While using it, however, it should be kept in mind that some elements of Hebrew civilization
were modified; they included some Russian civilization traits. Moreover, the example of Tomsk Jewish
community vital activity demonstrated that this influence was especially traced in accordance with
involving a greater number of Jews into the social life than inside the pale of settlement.
The results obtained show two tendencies. On the one hand, the great majority of the Jews, speaking
Russian, demonstrates incorporation into Siberian culture. On the other hand, the high percentage of
people points on keeping ethnic mentality and contiguity with the Jewish community. It should be
noted that the system of education for the Jews in the second half of the 19th - the beginning of the
20th centuries had undergone serious transformations. Changes in the legislation connected with
education fitted smoothly in the framework of the liberalization of domestic policy in the 60-70-ies of
the 19th. They influenced positively on the civil status of the Jews in the pale of settlement as well as
in Siberia. Due to education the Jewish people obtained the access to the professions that had been
earlier forbidden for them. As to Siberia, they got the opportunity to live there legally. It led to the
irreversible changes in the Jewish community, which began to appreciate secular education as a
guarantee for survival and prosperity. Eagerness of the Jewish youth to get secular education reached
such strength that in the 80-ies of the 19th century the government implemented measures for limiting
educational opportunities for the Jews, introducing the percentage. However, these means, by
contrast, strengthened the desire of the Jewish youth to study. As a result, in the beginning of the 20th
century the bilingualism typical for the pale of settlement in the 20th century became a thing of the
past. In Siberia these processes ran faster because of the isolation from the religious centers.