The opening of the elementary schools and of the two rabbinical institutes in Vilna and Zhitomir did not begin until 1847, and for the first few years they dragged on a miserable existence.
Lilienthal himself disappeared from the scene, without waiting for the consummation of the reform plan.

In 1845 he suddenly abandoned his post at the Ministry of Public Instruction, and left Russia for ever.

A more intimate acquaintance with the intentions of the leading Government circles had made Lilienthal realize that the apprehensions voiced in his presence by the old men of the Vilna community were well-founded, and he thought it his duty to fulfill the pledge given by him publicly.

From the land of serfdom, where, to use Lilienthal's own words, the only way for the Jew to make peace with the Government was "by bowing down before the Greek cross," he went to the land of freedom, the United States of America.

There he occupied important pulpits in New York and Cincinnati where he died in 1882.
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