When the governor-general received royal assent to accept Glebov’s donation, he informed the custodian of the compound that Glebovsky Court was to be the sole place at which Jews were permitted to stay temporarily in Moscow, excluding any other establishment, and with the condition that they did not bring their wives and children with them or set up synagogues for collective worship on the premises. Jews were allowed to stay for a period of two months, had no right to establish any trading establishments, and were subject to strict supervision.
According to official statistics, the number of Jews temporarily residing at Glebovsky Court between 1838 and 1847 was 3,049 people. These were mostly made up of natives of the towns and cities of Belarus and the western Lithuanian provinces.
Staying at the Court involved observing strict conditions for Jews. Jews were obliged to purchase everything they required for the packaging of goods exclusively here, at higher prices than charged at other guesthouses in Zaryadye. Payment for boarding here was at exorbitant rates.
With the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander II (1855-1881), an era of liberal reform began in Russia, having an impact, among others, on the Jews. The restrictions that had been in effect under Nicholas I were abolished. On 31st March 1856, the Committee on Jewish Affairs, then based in Saint Petersburg, decided to abolish Glebovsky Court, a resolution that was approved by the sovereign on 5th June 1856. The three decades old Moscow ghetto thus disappeared, and Jews were henceforth allowed to stay temporarily in any district of Moscow. As a result, the number of Jews found in Moscow by 1871 reached around 8,000, growing to approximately 35,000 by 1891.
Living in Yershovsky Pereulok at that period, close by Glebovsky Court, was the famous Russian writer Ivan Belousov (1863-1930), author of Bygone Moscow. In his words: “As I recall, the Zaryadye of the early 1870s was half occupied by Jews... Some of the lanes there were literally Jewish bazaars, no different from those you find in provincial towns in the south, in the Pale of Settlement. Jewish female hawkers offered their pastries and other wares both on the pavements and in the middle of the carriageway. The side streets were lined with kosher butchers, sausage stalls and bakeries, where vast quantities of matzo — dry cakes of unleavened bread — were baked for the Jewish Passover. The Jewish bakeries of Zaryadye even produced matzo for export to other cities, as well as for the local population. The butchers’ shops had their own slaughterers, due to the Jewish law’s prescription that poultry or livestock should only be slaughtered by people specialising in this activity ... There were many Jewish artisans in Zaryadye too, most of them being tailors, hatters and furriers. Zaryadye presented a curious picture during one of the autumn Jewish holidays, when the law dictated they go down to the river and read the prescribed prayers on its banks. With prayer books in hand, dressed in long frock-coats reaching almost to their heels, in velvet peaked caps — the very same style they wear to this day — with twisted side-locks protruding, the Jews marched down the middle of the road: it was forbidden to walk near the houses, due to the unclean force swarming at their walls. On this day, the embankment of the River Moskva opposite the Prolomniye Gates was entirely lined with black praying figures. The Jews observed their holidays very strictly, engaging in no trade or work on such dates; otherwise noisy, bustling Zaryadye fell silent on Friday evenings — the side streets were deserted.”
Mass evictions of Jews from Moscow, including Zaryadye, began early in 1891, on the appointment of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to the post of Moscow Military Governor-General. In total, around 25 thousand people had been evicted from the city by 1893. Persecution also affected the main centre of gravity of Jews in Zaryadye — the Moscow Choral Synagogue on Spasoglinishchevsky Pereulok. This was closed for almost 15 years, only resuming its activities in 1906, after Nicholas II issued a manifesto on the freedom of religion.
In 1937, Moscow Chief Rabbi Shmarya Leib Yankelevich Medalia was arrested on the threshold of the Moscow Choral Synagogue and then shot, as was his son Rabbi Moshe Medalia. And yet, despite the repressions enacted against believers of all religions, the Choral Synagogue remained open throughout the Soviet era. In 1948, the first ambassador of the State of Israel, future Prime Minister Golda Meir, arrived in Moscow. On the first day of the Jewish New Year, she was greeted at the Moscow Choral Synagogue by thousands of Moscow Jews. This gathering was subsequently depicted on the Israeli 10 shekel note, in circulation until 1999.
As for the fate of Glebovsky Court, it was demolished, like almost the entirety of the built environment of Zaryadye, in the 1940s. Its site now forms part of the park.