Prague and Cracow. Prague, Cracow Both towns first mentioned by a Jewish merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jakub...
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Transcript of Prague and Cracow. Prague, Cracow Both towns first mentioned by a Jewish merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jakub...
Prague and Cracow
Prague, Cracow• Both towns first mentioned by a
Jewish merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jakub in the 10th c. (965)
• On important trade routes
Prague– First Jewish settlement around the
Maltese Sq. (synagogue burned in 1142)
– First Jewish cemetery around Míšeňská St.
– Settlement around the present day Spanish synagogue since 11th/12th c. (smaller part)
Czech (Bohemian) Lands
Cheb Bible (Eger)
• Knaan (Czech) words in Hebrew caracters > local Jews spoke Knaan (based on Czech) and currently had Czech based names
• http://bodleian.thejewishmuseum.org/?page_id=149
Prague
– Larger Jewish settlement around the Alteneueshul since 12th/13th c.
– Ghetto since 1215, separated with walls and gates
– Old-New synagogue (Alteneueshul) – the oldest surviving and functioning synagogue on the North of the Alps – 13th c.
Prague
• Otakar II of Bohemia – 1253 – servi camerae regiae– The Jews were subjects to the Emperor in the Holy
Roman Empire (Frederic II, 1236) – successor of Titus who was said to have acquired the Jews as his private property
Prague
• Charles IV – Prague became the capital of
the Holy Roman Empire in the mid 14th c.
– Nuremberg – pogrom and destruction of the Jewish houses to make place to the church of Our Lady
• 1389 – large pogrom reported by Avigdor Kara
• Hussites– Jan Hus was interested in
Hebrew and in Rashi
• Bohemian Brethern – Czech reformation –
sympathised with Jews, took care of Jewish cemeteries, etc.
• Around 1600 – Maharal, David Gans
• 1729– the Prague Jewish
community with its 12796 inhabitants was the second largest one in Europe after Istanbul
PragueRivka Tiktiner
– The first yiddish writer (mameloshn)– Menekhet Rivka (Rivka´s Nurse)
• Ethical treatise for women• Published shortly after 1600 in Prague and in Cracow• First book by a Jewish woman• Ideal of a religious woman• a vivid picture of the domestic life of middle-class Ashkenazi
Jewish women in the Renaissance• The book is addressed to “young, unexperienced women”
– Preached to women, daughter of a rabbi – exceptional education– Simkhes toyre lid – From polish town Tykocin near Bilalystok– Died in 1550, buried at the Prague old Jewish cemetery
Cracow• 1050 – existing community
– Active in monetary trade, running royal mint
• 1096 Jews from Prague fled here a pogrom related to the 1st Crusade– Polish bishops refused to
participate on crusades
• Most of Jews came here from Saxony and other German lands – Ashkenazi/Yiddish
Poland
• Statute of Kalisz, 1264– General charter of
Jewish liberties– Self-government
• Later attempts of segregation – generaly not accepted due to the profits which the Jews´ economic activity yielded to the princes
Casimir III the Great (1303-1370)• Begining of the coalescence
of Poland as a sovereign kingdom
• Welcomed Jews from the Western Europe– 100 years war– Black death (bulbonic plague)– famine
• Amplified and expanded Statute of Kalisz – (forbids kidnapping of
children, dessecration of Jewish cemeteries...)
• Kazimierz – Jewish quarter
established in 1335 after the expulsion of Jews from the town – right behind the town walls
– oldest surviving synagogue dates from the 15th c.
• 1367 – 1st pogrom in Poznan (Black Death)
Poland
• 1454 anti-Jewish riots in Silesia inspired by John Capistrano– Papal envoy, franciscan
friar– Aim to instigate a rebellion
against the Hussites + a campaign against the JewsJj
• Statute of Nieszawa– Abolished the ancient
priviledges of the Jews
• 1496 – policy of tolerance – Alexander the Jagiellonian– Stimulated Jewish
immigration
• Mid- 16th c.– Jewish life moved to the
eastern parts of Poland and Jews settled the countryside
• Mid-17th c.– 500 000 Jews in the
Commonwealth (5% of population)
Old
Syn
agog
ue in
Kaz
imie
rz • Crafts and local trade – better conditions in private towns
• finance• Tenancies – small lease
holders of mills, breweries and inns
• Scribes• Tax collectors• salt industry – important
mines in Wieliczka (in Germany in Halle)
• traditionally worked in wine making (e.g. Rashi in France) and newly in vodka making
• musicians, tailors etc.
Poland
• Small group of rich merchants, financiers, tenants of big noble domains
• Large middle group: small merchants, usurers, craftsmen, kahal employees
• Large group of poor people: apprentices, carriers, servants, beggars
• Mediators between towns and country protected by the magnates who needed them
Va´ad
• 1518 – foundation of the Four Jewish Lands (Va´ad Arba Arazot) each of which was to elect its elders, tax assessors and tax collectors– Sigismund Augustus
Deluge
• 1648 – Chmielnicki – strong decline of the Jewish population in the Commonwealth (until 1717)– Never a return to the situation before 1648
• Mid- 18th c. – Church discrimitation– Jews can not work for nobles or the state Withdrawal to the shtetlekhs, life in great poverty