The 1863 Polish insurrection had significant echoes in the Jewish society of Eastern Europe. That community, dispersed throughout the diverse areas of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, often found itself in a situation which recurred a number of times in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury Jewish history: between the hammer of the Empire and the anvil of the autochtonic nation aspiring for independence. Resolving the matter of which side to favour was often an urgent, concrete question. On the one hand, the Jews were faithful to a long tradition of loyalty to the Crown, a tradition which grew stronger in the decades preceding the Rebellion even in haskalah circles; on the other hand, the Polish nobility and broad strata in Eastern-European Jewish society had been closely associated for many generations, an association still very strong in the mid-nineteenth century. Jewish memoirs offer many descriptions of the Jews’ situation during the Polish uprisings against the Russian regime in 1831and1863. Those Jews who had drawn closer to Polish culture - the maskilim, along with some of the wealthy elements in traditional society - identified with the Polish objectives. The Polish side, however, demonstrated lack of faith in the Jews and oftentimes accused them of spying for the Russians. Etz Avot, an account of rabbinical families’ descent, relates inter alia that the Jews had participated in the 1831 uprising out of fear: