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CHAPTER II: THE JEWISH COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA
1. THE IMMIGRATION FROM WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES
While the Jewish
colonies on the shores of the Black Sea
and on the territory of modern South Russia were due to immigration
from the lands of the Greco-Byzantine and Mohammedan
East, the Jewish settlements in Poland were founded
by new-comers from Western Europe, from the lands of
German culture and" the Latin faith." 1 This division was a
natural product of the historic development that made SIavonian
Russia gravitate towards the East, and Slavonian
Poland turn towards the West. Even prior to her joining
the ecclesiastic organization of the West, Poland had attained
to prominence as a commercial colony of Germany. The
Slav lands on the banks of the Varta and Vistula, being nearest
to Western Europe, were bound to attract the Jews, at a very
early period, in their capacity as international traders. There
is reason to believe that, as far back as the ninth century, Jews
living in the German provinces of Charlemagne's Empire carried
on commerce with the neighboring Slav countries, and
vi~ited Poland with their merchandise. These ephemeral visits
frequently led to their permanent settlement in those strange
lands.
lit need scarcely be pointed out that, in speaking of the Jewish
immigration into Poland, we have in mind the predominating element,
which came from the West. It is quite possible that there
was an admixture of settlers from the Khazar kingdom, from the
Crimea, and from the Orient in general, who were afterwards
merged with the western element.
40 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Information concerniDg the Jews of pre-Christian Poland
has come down to us in the shape of hazy legends. One of
'these legends narrates that, after the death of Prince Popiel,
about the middle of the ninth century, the Poles assembled in
Krushvitza, their ancient capital, to choose a successor to the
dead sovereign. After prolonged disputes concerning the
person to be elected, it was finally agreed that the first man
found entering the town the following morning should be
chosen as the ruler. It so happened that on the following
morning the first to enter the town was the Jew Abraham
Prokhovnik: He was seized and proclaimed prince, but he
declined the honor, urging that it be accorded to a wise Pole
by the name of Piast, who thus became the progenitor of the
Piast dynasty.
Another legend has it that at the end of the ninth century
a Jewish delegation from Germany waited upon the Polish
Prince Leshek, to plead for the admission of Jews into Poland.
Leshek subjected the delegates to a protracted cross-examination
concerning the principles of the Jewish religion and J ewish
morality, and finally complied with their request. Thereupon
large numbers of German .:rewsbegan to arrive in Poland,
and, in 905, they obtained special written privileges, which,
according to the same legend, were subsequently lost. These
obscure tales, though lacking all foundation in fact, and
undoubtedly invented in much later times, contain a grain
of historic truth, in that they indicate the existence of Jewish
settlements in pagan Poland, and point to their German origin.
The propagation of Latin Christianity in Poland (beginning
with 966), which placed the country under the control not only
1The word signifies" the powder merchant "-five hundred years
before the invention of powder!
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 41
of the emperors of Germany but also of its bishops as the
representatives of the Roman See, was bound to stimulate the
intercourse between the two countries and result i~ an increased
influx of Jewish merchants and settlers. However,
this slow commercial colonization would scarcely have assumed
any considerable dimensions, had not exceptional circumstances
forced a large number of Jews to seek refuge in Poland.
A compulsory immigration of this kind began after the first
Crusade, in 1096. It started in near-by Slavonian Bohemia,
where the Crusaders attacked the Jews of Prague, and converted
them forcibly to Christianity. The Bohemian Jews
made up their minds to flee to neighboring Poland, which
had not yet been reached by the devastating Christian hosts.
The Bohemian Prince Vratislav robbed the immigrants on the
way, but even this could not prevent many of them from leaving
the country in which both people and Government were hostile
to them (1098).
Beginning with this period there was a steady flow of Jews
from the Rhine and Danube provinces into Poland, increasing
in volume as a result of the Crusades (1146-1147 and 1196)
and the severe Jewish persecutions in Germany. The accentuation
of Jewish suffering in Germany during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, when the royal power was incapable of
shielding its Kammerknechte against the fury of the fanatical
mob or the degrading canons of the Church, drove vast numbers
of Jews into Poland. Here the refugees sought shelter in
the provinces nearest to the Austro-German border, Cracow,
Posen, Kalish, and Silesia.
The first signs of discord between Christians and Jews are
to be noticed in the second half of the twelfth century, when
Poland fell asunder into several feudal Principalities, or
42 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
" Appanages." 1 The Prince of Great Poland, Mechislav III.,
the Old, in his desire to enforce law and order, found it necessary
to issue, in 1173, strict injunctions forbidding all kinds of
violence against the Jews and in particular the attacks upon
them by Christian "scholars," the pupils of the ecclesiastic
and monastic colleges. Those fou~d guilty of such attacks were
to be heavily fined. On the whole, the rulers were willing to
take the Jews under their protection. Under Mechislav the
Old, Casimir the Just, and Leshek the White, who reignell
at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth
century, the Jews farmed and administered the mint of Great
and of Little Poland. On the coins struck by these J eW8,many
of which have come down to us, the names of the ruling princes
are marked in Hebrew characters.· At the very beginning of
the thirteenth century (1203-1207) we hear of Jews owning
lands and estates in Polish Silesia.
Such was the rise and growth of the Jewish colonies in
Poland. As time went on, the commercial intercourse between
these colonies and the West led to a spiritual relationship between
them and the centers of Jewish culture in Europe. A
[' The most important of these were: Great Poland, in the northwest,
with the leading cities of Posen and Kalish; Little Poland, in
the southwest, with Cracow and Lublin; and Red Russia, in the
south, on which see p. 63, n. 2. In 1319 Great Poland and Little
Poland were united by Vladislav Lokietek (see p. 60), who assumed
the royal title. His son Casimir the Great annexed Red Russia.
Thenceforward Great Poland, Little Poland, and Red Russia formed
part of the Polish Kingdom, with Cracow as capital, though they
were administered as separate Provinces. On the Principality of
Mazovia, see p. 86. n. 1.]
• Some coins bear the inscription 'PC'r,£l .,,~ NProO, •• Meshko
(= Mechislav) Kr61 Polski," "Meshko, king of Poland," or M::l':1
Mj't'O. "Benediction [on] Meshko." Other coins give the names
of the Jewish minters, such as Abraham, son of Isaac Nacid,
Joseph Kal~h, etc.
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 43
contemporary Bohemian scholar of the Tosafist school, Rabbi
Eliezer, informs us that the Jews of Poland, Russia, and Hungary,
having no scholars of their own, invited their spiritual
leaders from other countries, probably from Germany. These
foreign scholars occupied the posts of rabbis, cantors, and
school teachers among them, and were remunerated for their
services. At the same time studious Polish Jews were in the
habit of going abroad to perfect themselves in the sciences, as
was also the case with the Jewish settlers in Russia. From the
German mother country the Polish Jews received not only
their language, a German dialect.• which subsequently developed
into the Polish-Jewish jargon, or Yiddish, but also their
religious culture and their communal organization. All this,
however, was in an embryonic stage, and only gradually unfolded
in the following period.
2. THE CHARTER OF PRINCE BOLESLAV AND THE CANONS OF THE CHURCH
The importance of
Jewish immigration for the economic
development of Poland was first realized by the feudal
Polish princes of the thirteenth century. Prompted by the
desire of cultivating indJ].strial activities in their dominions,
these princes gladly welcomed settlers from Germany, without
making a distinction between Jews and Christians. Nor
did the native Slav population suffer inconvenience from
this immigration, which, on the contrary, brought the first
elements of a higher civilization into the country. In a land
which had not yet emerged from the priniitive stage of agricultural
economy, and possessed only two fixed classes, owners
of the soil and tillers of the soil, the Jews naturally represented
the" third estate," acting as the pioneers of trade and
44 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
finance. They put their capital in circulation, by launching
industrial undertakings, by leasing estates, and farming
various articles of revenue (salt mines, customs duties), and
by engaging in money-lending. The native population, which
medieval culture, with its religious intolerance and class prejudice,
had not yet had time to "train" properly, lived at
peace with the Jews.
The influence of the Church, on the one hand, and that of
adjacent Christian Germany, on the other, slowly undermined
this patriarchal order of things. The popes dispatched their
legates to Poland to see to it that the well-known canonical
statutes, which were permeated with implacable hatred against
the adherents of Judaism, did not remain a dead letter, but
were carried out in practice. During the same period the
Polish princes, in particular Boleslav the Shy (1247-1279),
endeavored to draw German emigrants into Poland, by bestowing
upon them considerable privileges and the right of
self-government, the so-called" Magdeburg Law," or ius teutonicum:
The Germ~ns, while settling in the Polish cities as
merchants and tradesmen: and thus becoming the competitors
of the Jews, imported from their native land into the new
environment the spirit of economic class strife and denominational
antagonism. The best of the Polish rulers were forced
[' Dall Magaeburger Recht, a collection of laws based on the
famous 8achsen8piegeZ, which was composedearly in the thirteenth
century in Saxony. Owing to the fame of the court of aldermen
(8chOppemtuhZ) at Ma,gdeburg,the M(Lg(1eburgLaw was adopted
in many parts of Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and particularly of
Poland. Qne of its main provisions was the administrative and
judicial independence of the municipalities.]
["They were organized in mercantUe gujlds and trade-unions
and formed the estate of burghers, called in Polish
mieszeZaniepronounced
mlleshchanlle-and in Latin oppidani, ••town-dwel·
lers," thus standing midway between the nobility, or Bhl4"hta
(see p. 58, n. 1), and the serfs, or "hZops.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 45
to combat the effects of this foreign importation, and found it
nece888ryto encourage the economic activity of the Jews for
the benefit of the country and to shield them against the insults
of their Christian neighbors.
Boleslav of Kalish, surnamed the Pious, who ruled over the
territory of Great Poland, was a prince of this kind. In 1264,
with the consent of the highest dignitaries of the state, he promulgated
a statute defining the rights of the Jews within his
dominions. This charter of privileges, closely resembling in
its contents the statutes of Frederick of Austria and Ottocar of
Bohemia, became the corner-stone of Polish-Jewish legislation.
Boleslav's charter consists of thirty-seven paragraphs, and
begins with these words:
The deeds of man, when unconfirmed by the voice of witnesses
or by written documents, are bound to pass away swiftly and disappear
from memory. Because of this, we, Boleslav, Prince of
Great Poland, make it known to our contemporaries as well as to
our descendants, to whom this writing shall come down, that the
Jews, who have established themselves over the length and breadth
of our country, have received from us the following statutes and
privileges.
The first clause of the charter prescribes that, when civil and
criminal cases are tried in court, the testimony of a Christian
against a Jew is to be accepted only if confirmed by the deposition
of a Jewish witness. The following clauses (§§2-7)
determine the process of law in litigation between Christians
and Jews, involving primarily pawnbroking; the rules prescribed
there protect equally the interests of the Jewish creditor
and the Christian debtor. Lawsuits between Jew and Jey{
do not fall within the jurisdiction of the general municipal
courts, but are tried either by the prince himself or by his lord
f
46 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
~lieutenant, the voyevoda,'or the special judge appointed by the
latter (§8). The Christian who has murdered or wounded
a Jew answers for his crime before the princely court: in
the former case the culprit incurs " due punishment," and his
property is forfeit to the prince; in the latter case he has
to satisfy the plaintiff, and must in addition pay a fine into the
princely exchequer (§§9-10).
This is followed by a set of paragraphs which guarantee to
the Jew the inviolability of his person and property. They
forbid annoying Jewish merchants on the road, exacting from
them higher customs duties than from Christians, demolishing
Jewish cemeteries, and attacking synagogues or "schools"
(§§12-15). In case of a nocturnal assault upon the home
of a Jew, the Christian neighbors are obliged to come to his
rescue as soon as they hear his cries; those who fail to respond
are subject to a fine (§36).
The rights and functions of the "Jewish judge,''' who is
appointed to try cases between Jew and Jew, sitting" in the
neighborhood of the synagogue or in some other place," are set
forth elaborately (§§16-23). The kidnaping of Jewish children
P The word, spelled in Polish wojewoda, signifies, like the
corresponding
German Herzog, military commander. The voyevoda
was originally the leader of the army in war and the representa·
tive of the king in times of peace. Atter the unification of Poland,
in 1319, the voyevodas became the administrators of the various
Polish provinces (or voyevocl8tvo8) on behalf of the king. Later
on their duties were encroached upon by the starostas (see below,
p. 60, n. 1). With the growth of the infiuence of the nobility,
which resented the authority of the royal officials, their functions
were limited to the calling of the militia in the case ('~ war and
the exercise of jurisdiction over the Jews of their province. They
were members of the Royal Council, and as such wielded considerable
influence. Their Latin title was palatinu8.]
[. J'Ude!& Judaeorum. He was a Christian official, generally of
noble rank. see p. 62.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 47
with the view of baptizing them is severely punished (§27).
The charter further prohibits charging the Jews with the use of
Christian blood for ritual purposes, in view of the fact that
the groundlessness of such charges had been 4emonstrated
by papal bulls. Should nevertheless such charges be raised, they
must be corroborated by six witnesses, three Christians and
three, Jews. If the charges are substantiated, the guilty Jew
loses his life; otherwise the same fate overtakes the Christian
informer (§32). All these legal safeguards were, in the words
of the charter, to remain in force" for all time." •
The Polish lawgiver was evidently anxious to secure for the
Jews such conditions of life as might enable them to benefit the
country by their commercial activity, while enjoying liberty of
conscience and living in harmony with the non-Jewish population.
Boleslav's enactment expresses, not the individual will
of the ruler, but thee collective decision of the highest dignitaries
and the representatives of the estates, who, as is pointed
out in the document, had been previously consulted.
Thus the temporal powers of the state, guided by the economic
needs of the country, endeavored to establish Jewish
life in Poland on more or less rational civic foundations. The
ecclesiastic authorities, however, inspired rather by the cos'"
mopolitan ideals of the Roman Church than by love of their
native land, strained all their energies to detach the Jews from
the general life of the country. They segregated them from
the Christian population because of their alleged injuriousness
to the Catholic faith, and reduced them to the position of a
despised caste. The well-known Church Council of Breslau,
convened in 1266 by the Papal Legate Guido, had the special
mission of introducing in the oldest Polish diocese, t.hat of
Gnesen, the canonical laws, including those applying to the
4.
48 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Jews. The motives by which this legislation was prompted
are frankly stated in the preamble to the section of the Breslau
" constitution" which deals with the Jews:
In view of the fact-runs clause 12-that Poland is a new plantation
on the soil of Christianity (quum OO1/.1/,Cterra PoJonica Bit in
corpore 01/.ristianitatis nova pJantatio), there is reason to fear
that her Christian population will fall an easy prey to the influence
.of the superstitions and evil habits of the Jews living
among them, the more so as the Christian religion took root
in the hearts of the faithful of these countries at a later date
and in a more feeble manner. For this reason we most strictly
enjoin that the Jews residing in the diocese of Gnesen shall
not live side by side with the Christians, but shall live apart,
in houses adjoining each other or connected with one another,
in some s!!ction of the city or village. The section inhabited by
Jews shall be separated from the general dwelling-place of the
Christians by a hedge, wall, or ditch.
The Jews owning houses in the Christian quarter shall be
compelled to sell them within the shortest term possible.
Further injunctions prescribe that the Jews shall lock themselves
up in their houses while church processions are marching
through the streets; that in each city they shall possess no more
than one synagogue; that, " in order to be marked off from the
Christians," they shall wear a peculiarly shaped hat, with a
horn-like shield (cornutum pileum), and that any Jew showing
himself on the street without this headgear shall be subject
to punishment, in accordance with the custom of the country.
The Christians are forbidden, under penalty of excommunication,
to invite Jews to a meal, or to eat and drink with them,
or dance and make merry with them at weddings and other
celebrations. The Christians are barred from buying meat
and other eatables from Jews, since the sellers might treacherously
put poison in them.
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 49
These prohibitions are followed by the ancient canonical
enactments forbidding the Jews to keep Christian servants,
nursery-maids, and wet-nurses, and barring them from collecting
customs duties and exercising any other public function. A
Jew living unlawfully with a Christian woman is liable to imprisonment
and fine, while the woman is subject to a public
whipping and to banishment from the town for all time.
The Church Council which held its sessions in Buda (Of en),
in Hungary, in 1279, was attended by the highest ecclesiastic
dignitaries of Poland. This Council ratified the clause concerning
the "Jewish sign," supplementing it by the following
details: The Jews of both sexes shall be obliged to
wear a ring of red cloth sewed on to their upper garment,
on the left side of the chest. The Jew appearing on the
street without this sign shall be accounted a vagrant, and no
Christian shall have the right to do business with him. A
similar sign, only of saffron color, is prescribed for" Saracens
and Ishmaelites," i. 6. for Mohammedans. The law barring
Jews from the collection of customs and the discharge of other
public functions is extended by the Synod of Buda to the
"sectarians," to the Christians of the Greek Orthodox persuasion.
In this manner the condition of the Jews of Poland in the
thirteenth century was determined by two factors operating
in different directions: the temporal powers, actuated by
economic considerations, accorded the Jews the elementary
rights of citizenship, wbile the ecclesiastic powers, prompted by
religious intolerance, endeavored to exclude the Jews from
civil life. As longaa patriarchal conditions of life prevailed,
and Catholicism in Poland had not yet assumed complete
control over the country, the policy of the Church was
50 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
powerless to inflict serious damage upon the Jews. They
lived in safety, under the protection of the Polish princes, and,
except for the German immigrants, managed to get along
peaceably with the Christian population. But the clerical
party waslookingout for the future, taking assiduous care that
"the new plantation on the soil of Christianity J> should develop
along the lines of the older plantations, and was scattering
the seedsof religious hatred in the patient expectation of a
plentiful harvest.
3. RISE OF
POLISH JEWRY UNDER CASIMIR THE GREAT
The Jewish
emigration from Western Europe assumed especially
large proportions in the first part of the fourteenth
century. The butcheries perpetrated by the hordes of Rindfleisch
and Armleder, and the massacres accompanying the
Black Death, forced a large number of German Jews to seek
shelter in Poland; which was then undergoing the process of
unification and rejuvenation. In 1319, King Vladislav'
Lokietek 'laid the foundation for the political unity of Poland
by abolishing the former feudal divisions, and his famous son
Casimir the Great (1333-1370) was indefatigable in his endeavors
to raise the level of civil and economic life in his
united realm. Casimir the Great founded new cities and
fortified old ones, promoted commerce and industry, and protected,
with equal solicitude, the interests of all classes, not
excluding those of the peasants. He was styled the" peasant
king," and the popular commendation of his efforts in the
upbuilding of the cities was crystallized in the saying that
[1 In Polish, Wladyslaw. The name is also found in the forms
Wladlslaus and Ladislaus.]
['I. c. " Span·long," so called because of his diminutive stature.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 51
Casimir the Great "found a Poland of wood and left behind
him a Poland of stone."
A ruler of this. type could not but welcome 'the useful industrial
activity of the Jews with the liveliest satisfaction. He was
anxious to bring them in close contact with the Ohristian
population on the common ground of peaceful labor and
mutual helpfulness. He was equally quick to appreciate the
advantages which the none too flourishing royal exchequer
might derive from the experience of Jewish capitalists. Such
must have been the motives which actuated Oasimir when, in
the second year of his reign (1344), he ratified, in Oracow,
the charter which Boleslav of Kalish had granted to the Jews of
Great Poland, and which he now extended in its operation to
all the provinces of the kingdom.
On later occasions (1346-1370) Oasimir amplified the charter
of Boleslav by adding new enactments. In view of the hostility
of the municipalities and the clergy towards the Jews,
the King found it necessary to insist in particular on placing
Jewish legal cases under his own jurisdiction, and taking them
'out of the hands of the mun:icipal and ecclesiastic authorities.
The Jews were granted the following privileges: the right of
free transit through the whole country, of residing in the
cities, towns, and villages, of renting and mortgaging the
estates of the nobility, and lending money at a fixed rate of
interest, the last pursuit being closed to Ohristians by virtue
of canonical restrictions, and therefore left entirely in the
hands of the Jews. The Polish lawgiver was equally solicitous
about enforcing respect for the Jew as a human being and
drawing him nearer to the Ohristian in private life, in violent
contradiction with the tendency of the Ohurch to isolate the
infidels from the" flock of the faithful." "If the Jew," runs
52 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
one of the clauses of Casimir's charter, "enters the house of
a Christian, no one has a right to cause him any injury or
unpleasantness.
Every Jew is allowed to visit the municipal
baths in safety, in the same way as the Christians,' and pay
the same fee as the Christians."
Casimir was equally interested in ordering the inner life of
the Jews. The" Jewish judge," a Christian official appointed
by the king to try Jewish cases, was enjoined to dispense justice
in the synllgogue or some other place, in accordance with
the wishes of the representatives of the Jewish community. The
role of process-server was assigned to the "schoolman," i. e.
the synagogue beadle. This was the germ of the future system
of Kahal autonomy.
It seems that in the fateful year of the Black Death (1348-
1349) the Polish Jews too were in great danger. On the wings
of the plague, which penetrated from Germany to Poland,
came the hideous rumor charging the Jews with having
poisoned the wells. If we are to trust the testimony of an
Italian chronicler, Matteo Villani, some ten thousand Jews
in the Polish cities bordering on· Germany met their fate in
1348 at the hands of Christian mobs, even the King being
powerless to shield the unfortunates against the fury of the
people. A vague account in an old Polish chronicle relates
that in the year 1349 the Jews were exterminated" in nearly
the whole of Poland." It is possible that attacks on the Jews
took place in the border towns, but, judging by the fact that
theJ ewish chroniclers, in describing the ravages of the Black
Death, make no mention of Poland, these attacks cannot have
been extensive. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that,
threatened with massacres in Germany, large numbers of Jews
1A priVilege denied to them by the canons of the Church.
COLONIES IN POLANDAND LITHUANIA 53
fled to the neighboring towns of Poland, and subsequently
settled there.
It may be mentioned in this connection that from about the
same time dates the origin of the Jewish community of Lvov
(Lemberg);' the capital of Red Russia, or Galicia, which had
been added to his dominions by Casimir the Great: In 1356
Casimir, in granting the Magdeburg Law to the city of Lemberg,
bestowed upon the local Jews the right" of being judged
according to their own laws, i. e. autonomy in their communal
affairs, a privilege accorded at the same time to the Ruthenians,
Armenians, and Tatars.
Casimir the Great's attitude towards the Jevs was thus a
part of his general policy with reference to foreign settlers,
whom he believed to be useful for the development of the
country. This, however, did not prevent certain evil-minded
persons, both then and in later ages, from seeing in these acts
of rational statesmanship the manifestation of the King's personal
predilections and attachments. Rumor had it that Casimir
was favorably disposed towards the Jews because of his infatuation
with the beautiful J ewess Estherka. This Jewish
belle, the daughter of a tailor, is supposed to have captured the
heart of the King so completely that in 1356 he abandoned a
former favorite for her sake. Estherka lived in the royal palace
of Lobzovo, near Cracow. She bore the King two daughters,
[1 Lvov, written in Polish Lw6w, is used by the Poles and Russians;
Lemberg is used by the Germans.]
[" Before Casimir the Great Red Russia formed an independent
Principality (see p. 42, n. 1). The identity of Red Russia with
Galicia has been assumed in the text for the sake of convenience.
In reality Red Russia corresponds to present-day Eastern Galicia,
in which the predominating population is Little Russian or Ruthenlan,
while Western Galicia, with Cracow, formed part of Little
Foland. In addition Red Russia included a part of the present
Rnsslan Government of Podolia.]
54 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
who were brought up by their mother in the Jewish religion,
and two sons, who were educated as Christians, and who subsequently
became the progenitors of several noble families.
Estherka was killed during the persecution to which the Jews
were subjected by Casimir's successor, Louis of Hungary. The
whole romantic episode presents a mixture of fact and fiction
in which it is difficult to make out the truth.
Similarly blurred reports have come down to us concerning
the persecutions by the new ruler, Louis of Hungary (1370-
1382). During the reign of this King, when, as the Polish
historians put it, justice had vanished, the law kept silent, and
the people complained bitterly about the despotism of the
judges and officials, an attempt was made to rob the Jews
of the protection of the law. Nursed as he was in the Catholic
traditions of Western Europe, Louis persecuted the Jews
f;rom religious motives, threatening with expulsion those
among them who had refused to embrace the Christian faith.
Fortunately for the Jews his reign in Poland was too ephemeral
and unpopular to undo the work of his famous predecessor, the
last king of the Piast dynasty. Only at a later date, during the
protracted reign of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Yaghello,
who acquired the Polish crown by marrying, in 1386, Louis'
daughter Yadviga, did the Church obtain power over the
affairs of the state, gradually undermining the civil status of
the Jews of Poland.
4. POLISH JEWRY
DURING THE REIGN OF YAGHELLO
With the outgoing
fourteenth century, Poland was drawn
more and more into the whirlpool of European politics. Catholicism
served as the connecting link between this Slav country
and Western Europe. Hence the influence of the West maniCOLONIES
IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 55
fested itself primarily in the enhancement of ecclesiastic
authority, which, being cosmopolitan in characier, endeavored
to obliterate all national and cultural distinctions. The
Polish king Vladislav Yaghello (1386-1434), having been
converted from paganism to Catholicism, and having forced
his Lithuanian subjects to follow his example, adhered to the
new faith with the ardor of a convert, and frequently yielded
to the influence of the clergy. It was during his reign that the
Jews of Poland suffered their first religious persecution in that
country.
The Jews of Posen were charged with having bribed a poor
Christian woman into stealing from the local Dominican
church three hosts, which supposedly were stabbed and
thrown into a pit. From the pierced hosts,· so the superstitious
rumor had it, blood spurted forth, in confirmation
of the Eucharist dogma. Nor was this the only miracle which
popular imagination ascribed to the three bits of holy bread.
The Archbishop of Posen, having learned of the alleged blasphemy,
instituted proceedings against the Jews. The Rabbi
of Posen, thirteen elders of the Jewish community, and the
woman charged with the theft of the holy wafers, became the
victims of popular superstition; after prolonged tortures they
were all tied to pillars, and roasted alive on a slow fire (1399).
Moreover, the Jews of Posen were punished by the imposition
of an" eternal" fine, which they had to pay annually in favor
of the Dominican church. This fine was rigorously exacted
down to the eighteenth century, as long as the legend of the
three hosts lingered in the memory of pious Catholics.
As in the West, religious motives in such cases merely served
8S a disguise to cover up motives of an economic natureenvy
on the part of the Christian city-dwellers of the pros56
THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
perity of the Jews, who had managed to obtain a foothold in
certain branches of commerce, and eagerness to dispose in one
way or another of inconvenient rivals. Similar motives,
coupled with religious intolerance, were responsible for the
anti-Jewish riots in Cracow in 1407. In that ancient capital
of Poland the Jews had increased in numbers in the beginning
of the fourteenth century, and, by their commercial enterprise,
had attained to prosperity. The Cracow burghers were
jealous of them, and the clergy found it improper that the
doomed sons of the Synagogue should live so tranquilly under
the shelter of the benevolent Church. A silent but stubborn
agitation was carried on against the Jews, their enemies merely
waiting for a convenient opportunity to square accounts with
them:
On one occasion, on the third day of Easter, the priest
Budek, who had gained the reputation of an implacable Jewbaiter,
delivered a sermon in the Church of St. Barbara. As
he was about to leave the pulpit, he suddenly announced to
the worshipers that he had found a notice on the pulpit to this
effect: "The Jews living in Cracow killed a Christian boy
last night, and made sport over his blood; moreover, they threw
stones at a priest who was going to visit a sick man, and was
carrying a crucifix in his hands." No sooner had these words
been uttered than the people rushed into the Jewish street, and
began to loot the houses of "Christ's enemies." The royal
authorities hastened to the rescue of the Jews, and by armed
force put an end to the riots. But several hours later, when
the bells of the town hall began to ring, summoning the
members of the magistracy to a meeting, for the purpose
of punishing the instigators of the disorders, some one in the
crowd shouted that the magistracy was inviting the Chris-
..
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 57
tians to another attack upon the Jews. Thereupon the
rabble came running from all parts of the city and began to
slay and plunder the Jews, setting fire to their houses. Some
Jews sought refuge in the Tower of St. Anne, but the mob set
fire to the tower, and the unfortunate Jews had to surrender.
A number of them, to save their"lives, adopted Christianity,
while the children of the slain were all baptized. Many
Christians, according to the testimony of the Polish historian
Dlugosh: grew rich on the money plundered from the J eW8.
One cannot fail to perceive in all these catastrophes the
influence of neighboring Germany: It was from Germany
that the clerical reaction which followed upon the struggle of
the Church with the reformatory Huss movement penetrated
to Poland. The Synod of Constance,which condemned Huss,
was attended by the Archbishop of Gnesen, Nicholas Tromba,
who appeared at the head of a Polish delegation. On his
return, this leading dignitary of the Polish Church presided
over the proceedings of the Synod of Kalish (1420), which
had also been convenedin connection with the Huss movement.
At the suggestion of this Archbishop, the Council of Kalish
solemnly ratified all the anti-Jewish enactments which had
been passed by the Councils of Breslau and Buda (Ofen)" but
had seldom been carried out in practice. These laws, as will
be remembered, forbade all intercourse between Jew and
Christian, and ordered the Jews to live in separate quarters, to
wear a distinctive mark on the upper garm~nt, and so forth.
At the same time the Jews were required to pay a tax in favor
1 Jan Dlugosz, called in Latin Johannes Longinus [author of
Historia Polonica. He died in 1480].
• The recently published records of the court proceedings in the
Cracow pogrom of 1407 show that its principal instigators were
German artisans and merchants who resided in that city.
• See p. 47 and p. 49.
58 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
of the churches of those diocesan districts "where they now
live, and where by right Christians ought to live," this tax
to correspond to " the losses inflicted by them upon the Christians."
These injunctions were issued as special instructions
to the membersof the clergy in all the dioceses.
The ecclesiastic tendencies gradually forced their way into
secular legislation. The fanatics of the Church exerted their
influence not only on the King but also on the landed nobility,
the Shlakhta,l which at that time began to take a more active
interest in the affairs of the state. At the convention of the
Shlakhta in Varta' (1423) King Vladislav Yaghello sanctioned
a law forbidding the Jews to lend moneyag!,inst written
securities, only loans against pledges being permitted. The
ecclesiastic origin of this enactment is betrayed in the ugly
manner in which the law is justified in the preamble: "Whereas
Jewish cunning is always directed against the Christians
and aims rather at the property of the Christian than at his
creed or person. . ."
5. THE
JEWS OF LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF VITOVT
An entirely
different picture is presented at that time by
Lithuania, which, in spite of its dynastic alliance with Poland,
retained complete autonomy of administration. The patriar-
P Written in Polish Szlachta, probably derived from the old German
8lahta, in modern German Ge8chlecht, meaning tribe, caste.
The Polish Shlakhta was in complete control of the Diet, or ,eim
(pronounced Baym) , from which the other estates, the peasants and
burghers, were excluded almost entirely. In the course of time, the
Shlakhta succeeded also in wresting the power from the king, who
became a. mere figurehead.]
[" In Polish, Warta, a town in the province of Kalish. These
conventions of the nobility assumed, in the fifteenth century, the
character of a national parliament for the whole of Poland.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 59
chal order of things, which was nearing its end in Poland,
was still firmly intrenched in the Duchy of Lithuania, but
recently emerged from the stage of primitive paganism.
Medieval culture had not yet taken hold of the inhabitants of
the wooded banks of the Niemen, and the Jews were able to
settle there without having to face violence and persecution.
It is difficult to determine the exact date of the first Jewish
settlements in Lithuania. So much is certain, however, that by
the end of the fourteenth ce~tury a number of important communities
were in existence, such as those of Brest, Grodno,
Troki, Lutzk, and Vladimir, the last two in Volhynia, which,
prior to the Polish-Lithuanian Union of 1579, formed part of
the Duchy. The first one to legalize the existence of these
communities was the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitovt, who
ruled over Lithuania from 1388 to 1430, partly as an independent
sovereign, partly in the name of his cousin, the Polish
King Yaghello. In 1388 the Jews of Brest and other Lithuanian
communities obtained from Vitovt a charter similar in
content to the statutes of Boleslav of Kalish and Casimir the
Grea.t, a.nd in 1389 even more extensive privileges were bestowed
by him on the Jews of Grodno.
In these enactments the Lithuanian ruler exhibits, like
Casimir, an enlightened solicitude for a peaceful relationship
between Jews and Christians and for the inner welfare of the
Jewish communit~es. Under the laws enacted by Vitovt the
Jews of Lithuania formed a class of free citizens, standing
under the immediate protection of the Grand Duke and
his local administration. They lived in independent communities,
enjoying autonomy in their internal affairs as far
as religion and property are concerned, while in criminal
60 THE JEWS IN~BSIA AND POLAND
affairs they were liable to 'the court of the local starosta 1or
substarosta,
and, in particularly important cases, to the court of
the Grand Duke himself. The law guaranteed to the Jews inviolability
of person and property, liberty of religion, the right
of free transit, the free pursuit of commerce and trade, on
equal terms with the Christians. The Lithuanian Jews carried
on business on the market-places or in shops, they plied all
kinds of trades, and occasionally engaged in agriculture. Men
of wealth lent money on interest, leased from the Grand Duke
the customs duties, the revenues on spirits, and other taxes.
They held estates either in their own right or in the form of
land leases. The taxes which they paid into the exchequer
were adapted to the character of their occupations, and on the
whole were not burdensome. Aside from the Rabbanite Jews
there existed in Lithuania Karaites, who had immigrated from
the Crimea, and had established themselves in the regions of
Troki and Lutzk.
Accordingly the position of the Jews was more favorable in
Lithuania than in Poland. Jewish immigrants, on their way
from Germany to Poland, frequently went as far as Lithuania
and settled there permanently. Lithuania formed the
extreme boundary in the eastward movement of the Jews, Russia
and Muscovy being almost entirely closed to them.
[1 Lithuania was administered by starostas as Poland was by
voyevodas (see p. 46, n. 1). The starostas-ltterally ••elders ••....-
were originally nobles holding an estate of the crown, which was
given to them by the king for special services rendered to him.
In the course of time they became, both in Lithuania and.in Poland
proper, governors of whole regions, taking over many of the
functions of the voy~vodas. The relationship between the two
omears underwent many changes. On the e1fectof this change upon
the jurisdiction of the Jews compare Bloch, Die General-PM",,"
legien der poZniBchen Judenschaft, p. 36.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 61
6. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ROYALTY AND CLERGY UNDER CASIMIR IV. AND HIS
SONS
The conflict of
tendencies in the Polish legislation concerning
the Jews manifested itself with particular violence in the
reign of Casimir IV., the third king of the Yaghello dynasty.
The attitude of Casimir IV. (1447-1492), who was imbued
with the ideas of the humanistic movement then in vogue, was
at first that of a wise ruler, the guardian of the common interests
of his subjects. As Grand Duke of Lithuania he had followed
the liberal Jewish policies of his predecessor Vitovt. He
protected the personal and communal rights of both the Rabbanite
and Karaite Jews-to the latter he granted, in 1441,
the Magdeburg Law-and he frequently availed himself of
the services of enterprising Jewish financiers and tax-farmers
to increase the revenues of the state.
Having accepted the Polish crown, Casimir was resolved to
rule independently and to disregard the designs of the allpowerful
clergy. Shortly after his coronation, in August, 1447,
while the King was on a visit to Posen, the city was devastated
by a terrible fire. During the conflagration the ancient original
of the charter which Casimir the Great had bestowed upon the
Jews was lost. A Jewish delegation from the communities of
Posen, Kalish, and other cities petitioned the King to restore
and ratify the old Jewish privileges, on the basis of copies of
the charter which had been spared. Casimir readily granted
the request of the deputies. "We desire "-he announces in
his new charter-" that the Jews, whom we wish to protect in
our own interest as well as in the interest of the royal exchequer,
should feel comforted in our beneficent reign." Corroborating
as it did all the rights and privileges previously
conferred upon the Jews-liberty of residence and commerce,
62 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
communal and judicial autonomy, inviolability of life and
liberty, protection against groundless charges and attacks--
the charter of Casimir IV. was a direct protest against the
canonical laws only recently reissued for Poland by the Council
of Kalish, and for the whole Catholic world by the great Council
at Basle. In opposition to the main trend of the Council resolutions,
the royal charter permitted the Jews to associate with
Christians, and exempted them from the jurisdiction of the
ecclesiastic law courts (1453).
The King's liberalism aroused the resentment of the Catholic
clergy. The leader of the clerical party was the energetic
Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Zbignyev Oleshnitzki, who
openly headed the forces arrayed in opposition to the King.
He denounced Casimir bitterly for granting protection to the
Jews, (' to the injury and insult of the holy faith."
Do not imagine--Qleshnitzki writes to the King in May, 1454-
that in matters touching the Christian religion you are at liberty
to pass any law you please. No one is great and strong enough
to put down all opposition to himself when the interests of the
faith are at stake. I therefore beg and implore your Royal
Majesty to revoke the aforementioned privileges and liberties.
Prove that you are a Catholic sovereign, and remove all occasion
for disgracing your name and for worse offenses that are likely to
follow.
In his letter Oleshnitzki refers to the well-known agitator
and Jew-baiter, the Papal Legate Capistrano, who had come to
Poland from Germany in the fall of 1453. With this" scourge
of the Jews" as his ally Oleshnitzki started a campaign against
Jews and heretics (or Hussites) . On his arrival in Cracow
Capistrano delivered on the market-place incendiary speeches
against the Jews, and demanded of the King persistently to
revoke the " godless" Jewish privileges, threatening him, in
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 63
case of disobedience, with the tortures of hell and terrible misfortunes
for the country.
At first the King refused to yield, but the march of events
favored the anti-Jewish forces. Poland was at war with the
Teutonic Order.' The first defeat sustained by the Polish
troops in this war (September, 1454) gave the clergy an opportunity
of pJ:oclaiming that the Lord was chastising the country
for the King's disregard of Church interests and for his protection
of the Jews. At last the King was forced to listen to the
demands of the united clergy Bndnobility. In November, 1454,
the Statute of Nyeshava • was promulgated, and by one of its
clauses all former Jewish privileges were rescinded as " being
equally opposed to Divine right and earthly laws." The reasons
for the enactment, which were evidently dictated by
Oleshnitzki, were formulated as follows: "For it is not meet
that infidels should enjoy greater advantages than the wor·
ahipers of our Lord Christ, and slaves should have no right
to occupy a better position than sons." The Varia Statutes
of 1423 and the former canonical laws were declared in force
again. Clericalism had scored a triumph.
This anti-Jewish tendency communicated itself to the people
at large. In several towns the Jews were attacked. In 1463
detachments of Polish volunteers who were preparing for a
crusade against the Turks passed through Lemberg and Cracow
on their way to Hungary. The disorderly crowd, consisting
of monks, students, peasants, and impoverished noblemen,
threw itself on the Jews of Cracow on the third day of Easter,
PA semi-ecclesiastic, semi-military organization of German
knights, which originated in Palestine during the Crusades, and
was afterwards transferred to Europe to propagate Christianity
on the eastern confines of Germany. The Order developed into a
powerful state, which became a great menace to Poland.]
(I In Polish Nieszawa, the meeting-place of the Diet ot that year.]
5
64 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
looted their houses, and killed about thirty people. When
Casimir IV. learned what had happened, he imposed a fine
on the magistracy for having failed to forestall the riots. Similar
disorders were taking place about the same time in Lemberg,
Posen, and other cities.
As far as Casimir IV. was concerned, the clerical policy, artificially
foisted upon him, did not alter his personal readiness
to shield the Jews. But under his sons, the Polish King John
Albrecht and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Yaghello,
the anti-Jewish policy gained the upper hand. The former
ratified, at the Piotrkov Diet of 1496, the Nyeshava Statute
with its anti-Jewish restrictions. John Albrecht is also
credited with the establishment of the first ghetto in Poland.
In 1494 a large part of the Polish capital of Cracow was destroyed
by fire, and the mob, taking advantage of the prevailing
panic, plundered the property of the Jews. As a result, the
Jews, who at that time were scattered over various parts of the
city, were ordered by the King to move to Kazimiezh,' a
suburb of Cracow, and to live there apart from the Christians.
Kazimiezh became, in consequence, a wholly Jewish town,
leading throughout the centuries a life of its own, and connected
with the outside world by mere threads of economic
relationship. .
While the throne of Poland was occupied by John Albrecht,
his brother Alexander ruled over Lithuania as grand duke.
At first Alexander's attitude towards the Jews was rather
favorable. In 1492 he complied with the petition of the
Karaites of Troki, and confirmed the charter of Casimir IV.,
bestowing upon them the Magdeburg Law, and even supple-
[' More exactly Kazimierz, the Polish form for Casimir (the
Great), after whom the town was named.]
COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA 65
menting it by a few additional privileges. Various items of
public revenue, especially the customs duties, were as theretofore
let to the Jews. Alexander also paid the Jewish capitalists
part of the moneyadvanced by them to his father. In 1495,
however, the Grand Duke suddenly issued a decree ordering
the expulsion of all the Jews from Lithuania. It is not
knownwhether this cruel action was due to the influence of the
anti-Jewish clerical party, and was stimulated by the news of
the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, or whether it was
prompted by the financial dependenceof the ruler on his Jewish
creditors, or by the general desire to enrich himself at the
expense of the exiles. As a matter of fact Alexander confiscated
the immovableproperty of the expelled Jews in the districts
of Grodno, Brest, Lutzk, and Troki, and a large part
thereof was distributed by him among the local Christian
residents. The banished Jews emigrated partly to the Crimea
(Ka:ffa), but the majority settled, with the permission of King
John Albrecht, in the neighboring Polish cities. However,
whena fewyears later, after the death of his brother, Alexander
accepted, in addition, the crown of Poland (1501), he allowed
the Jews to return to Lithuania and settle in their former
places of residence. On this occasion they received back,
though not in all cases, the houses, estates, synagogues, and
cemeteries previously owned by them (1503).
By the beginning of the fourteenth century Polish Jewry
had becomea big ecomonic and social factor with which the
state was bound to reckon. It was now destined to become
also an independent spiritual entity, having stood for four
hundred years under the tutelage of the Jewish center in
Germany. The further development of this new factor forms
oneof the most prominent features of the next period.
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