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

• http://commonwealth.pl/