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
Prague
Rivka 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 Synagogue in Kazimierz
• 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/