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The Rise of Polish-Lithuanian Jewry
Excavations in Great Poland and near Wloclawek have unearthed coins with Hebrew inscriptions issued under the princes Mieczyslaw III (1173�1209), Casimir II the Just (1177�94), Boleslav the Curly (1201), and Leszek the White (1205). Minting money was an important social and economic function, and as some of the inscriptions indicate, these finds are evidence of a circle of rich and enterprising Jewish merchants in the principalities of great Poland and Mazovia in the 12th century, some of them in close contact with the princely courts, some priding themselves on their descent from old Jewish families or on their own role in Jewish leadership. Rulers were quick to realize what they could gain from such immigrants: in 1262 Prince Boleslav the Shy forbade a monastery in Lesser Poland to take Jews under its sovereignty. The Mongolian invasions beginning in 1241 devastated Poland. Subsequently, the princes of Poland eagerly sought immigrants from the west, mainly from Germany, and gave them energetic assistance to settle in the villages and towns. Various organized groups settled in the cities that were granted the privilege of living according to German Magdeburg Law. They brought with them German culture and its tradition of the guilds against competition and against new initiative in individual commercial enterprise and the activities of craftsmen. They also brought with them virulent Anti-Semitism. As early as 1267 the Polish Church Council of Breslau outlined its anti-Jewish policy; its main aim was to isolate the Jews as far as possible from the Christians, not only from the communion of friendship and table but also to separate them in quarters surrounded by a wall or a ditch: "for as up to now the land of Poland is newly grafted on to the Christian body, it is to be feared that the Christian people will more easily be misled by the superstitions and evil habits of the Jews that live among them." Life was falling apart for the Jews in Germany and France. The Crusades, Blood Libels, periodic expulsions, frequent riots, massacres following the Black Death in 1348, and subsequent expulsions in the 15th century induced a lot of Jews to head for Poland-Lithuania. As Moses b. Israel Isserles put it in the 16th century, "It is preferable to live on dry bread and in peace in Poland" than to remain in better conditions in lands more dangerous for Jews. The influx of Jews from Western Europe affected Poland-Lithuanian Jewry. Meeting Jews who didn't speak one another's language, the Jews created a new common language. It was a combination of Middle German, Hebrew, Polish, and German-Hebrew. It was called Yiddish, and it became the Ashkenazic national Jewish language. Besides creating a new language, the results of the German Jewish immigrations were evident almost immediately. The Jewish population spread to most major cities and towns. By the end of the 15th century more than 60 Jewish communities were known of in united Poland-Lithuania. They were dispersed from Breslau and Gdansk in the west to Kiev and Kamenets Podolski in the east. By the end of the 15th century, there were between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews in Poland-Lithuania. Life was not easy. The Church continued to pressure the nobles to punish and limit Jewish influence. The nobles recognized the economic advantage of having an influential Jewish population. This tension remained even when active persecutions weren't taking place. In the statute of Lesser Poland of 1347, it stated that "the aim of the perfidious Jews is not so much to take their faith away from the Christians as to take away their wealth and property." In 1407 the Cracow populace was diverted by the spectacle of a Jewish moneylender being led through the streets adorned with a crown set with forged coins to be horribly tortured and burned in public. The citizens of Cracow claimed as early as 1369 that the Jews were "dominating" the town and complained of their cruelty and perfidy. In 1454 all Jewish charters were repealed, but the repeal was short-lived. At almost the same time, Jews were occupied to a growing degree in almost every branch of trade. Jews from both the grand duchy of Lithuania and Poland traded in cloth, dyes, horses, and cattle. At the end of the 15th century they engaged in trade with Venice, Kaffa, and Constantinople. Lvov Jews played a central role in this trade, which in the late 15th and early 16th centuries developed into a large-scale land-transit trade between the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe. Through their participation in this trade and their contacts with their fellow Jews in the Ottoman Empire, many Jewish communities became vital links in a trade chain that was important to both the various Christian kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. Lithuanian Jews participated to the full and on a considerable scale in all these activities, basing themselves both on their above-mentioned recognized role in Lithuanian civic society and on their particular opportunities for trade with the grand principality of Moscow and their evident specialization in dyes and dyeing. Obviously, in all these activities, all links with Jewish communities in Central and Western Europe were beneficial. Jews also served as major moneylenders, some of them on a large scale. They made loans not only to private citizens but also to magnates, kings, and cities, on several occasions beyond the borders of Poland. To an increasing extent many of the Jewish moneylenders became involved in trade. They were considered by their lords as specialists in economic administration. In 1425 King Ladislaus II Jagello charged Volchko, who by this time already held the Lvov customs lease, with the colonization of a large tract of land: "As we have great confidence in the wisdom, carefulness, and foresight of our Lvov customs-holder, the Jew Volchko... after the above-mentioned Jew Volchko has turned the above-mentioned wilderness into a human settlement in the village, it shall remain in his hands till his death." King Casimir Jagello entrusted to the Jew Natko both the salt mines of Drogobych and the customs station of Grejdek, stating in 1452 that he granted it to him on account of his "industry and wisdom so that thanks to his ability and industry we shall bring in more income to our treasury." The same phenomenon was found in Lithuania. Major changes in the status of the Jews occurred throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, mostly because of the rise of wealthy landowners, called kinglets. These magnates recognized the advantages of having educated Jews in their districts and granted them Jews many costly rights in the new municipal settlements they were erecting on their expansive estates. Thus the conflict between the Church and the magnates and nobles was ongoing and bitter when it came to the issue of the Jews. Despite Church pressure, King Sigismund I declared in 1534 that the Jews didn't have to carry any distinguishing mark on their clothing despite the Fourth Lateran Council. The foundations of the legal status of the Jews in the grand duchy of Lithuania were laid by Grand Duke Vitold in writs of law granted to the Jews of Brest-Litovsk in 1388 and to the Jews of Grodno in 1389. Though formally based on the rights of the Jews of Lvov in Poland, in letter and spirit these charters reveal an entirely different conception of the place of Jews in society. They made Jewish cemeteries and synagogues tax exempt, an unheard-of privilege. Jews were also permitted "to hold whatever views they please in their homes and to prepare at their homes any kind of drink and to serve drinks brought from elsewhere on the condition that they pay to our treasury a yearly tax. They may trade and buy at the market, in shops and on the streets in full equality with the citizens; they may engage in any kind of craft." In granting the Jews complete freedom to trade and engage in any craft, the grand duke gave them economic equality with the Christian citizens. He also envisaged their having agricultural or partially agricultural occupations: "As to the arable lands as well as grazing lands, those that they have now, as well as those that they will buy later, they may use in full equality with the townspeople, paying like them to our treasury." The Jews were considered merchants, craftsmen, and desirable settlers in the developing city. However, the general trend in Lithuanian towns and townships remained the same as that expressed in the late 16th century charters. In 1495 the Jews were expelled from Lithuania. They were brought back in 1503: all their property was returned and opportunities for economic activity were restored. By the beginning of the 16th century, the gradually merging grand duchy of Lithuania and kingdom of Poland had both worked out the legal concept of the status of the Jews. In Poland, the whole conception was medieval to the core: legally and formally the attitude to the Jews remained unchanged from their first arrival from the west and southwest. In Lithuania, on the other hand, from the start the formal expressions reveal a conception of a Jewish "third estate," equal in economic opportunity to the Christian townspeople. Particular legal enactments in Poland took cognizance of the change in the economic role of the Jews in Polish society. In Lithuania the formal enactments were always suited to their economic role, and to a large extent the dynamics of 16th and 17th century development could be accommodated in the old legal framework. By the end of the 15th century, at both ends of the economic scale Jews in Poland were becoming increasingly what they had been from the beginning in Lithuania: a "third estate" in the cities. The German- Polish citizenry quickly became aware of this. By the end of the 15th century, accusations against the Jews centered around unfair competition in trade and crafts more than around harsh usury. Not only merchants but also Jewish craftsmen are mentioned in Polish cities from 1460 onward. In 1485 tension in Cracow was so high that the Jewish community was compelled to renounce formally its rights to most trades and crafts. Though this was done "voluntarily," Jews continued to pursue their living in every decent way possible. This was one of the reasons for their expulsion from Cracow in 1495. However, the end of Jewish settlement in Cracow was far from the end of Jewish trade there; it continued to flourish and aggravate the Christian townspeople, as was the case with many cities which had exercised their right to be rid of Jews and yet had to see Jewish economic activity flourishing at their fairs and in their streets. Little is known about the Jewish lifestyle in Poland before the 16th century. The following description of a wedding in Western Poland indicates that there were some rituals different from those practiced in Germany: "When they accompany the bride and bridegroom to the chuppah they sing on the way... they give the bridegroom the cup and he throws it down, puts his foot on it and breaks it, but they pour out the wine from the cup before they give it to the bridegroom. They have also the custom of throwing a cock and also a hen over the head of the bride and bridegroom above the canopy after the pronouncing of the wedding blessings." Some Jews in 16th century Lithuania studied science, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy. In Poland a dispute between two great scholars of the 16th century, Solomon Luria and Moses Isserles, showed intellectual tensions at that time. Luria accused yeshivah students of using "the prayer of Aristotle" and accused Isserles of "mixing him with words of the living God... [considering] that the words of this unclean one are precious and perfume to Jewish sages." Isserles replied: "All this is still a poisonous root in existence, the legacy from their parents from those that tended to follow the philosophers and tread in their steps. But I myself have never seen nor heard up till now such a thing, and, but for your evidence, I could not have believed that there was still a trace of these conceptions among us." It appears that there was a proliferation of yeshivot throughout Poland. Great scholars emerged. Jewish children were encouraged to study; the level of knowledge was high. Most amazing, Poland-Lithuania succeeded in establishing a centralized governing body, the Council of the Four Lands. The Council lasted for more than 200 years. Although it showed huge preference to the Jews living in the major cities, the Council encouraged rabbinic autonomy in each town and district. It established protections for each profession in each town. It gained a remarkable authority. This increased as the political power of Poland increased. Polish victories over the Teutonic Order in the west and against Muscovite and Ottoman armies in the east and southeast led to a great expansion of Poland-Lithuania from the second half of the 16th century. Poland -Lithuania became a powerful state. The Polish nobility, which became the dominant element in the state, had tremendous influence on the fate of the Jews in Poland. They created enormous agrarian estates and exploited their peasants mercilessly, turning them into slaves of the estate. They saw the usefulness of Jews as their estate overseers, their financial advisers, and the source for their luxury products. In the old "royal cities," even in central places like Cracow, which expelled the Jews in 1495, and Warsaw, which had expelled all its Jews in 1527, Jews were among the great merchants of clothing, dyes, and the items the nobles desired. Jews prospered in trade even in places where they were forbidden to settle thanks to their international connections and their initiative. On their huge estates the nobles began to establish and encourage the development of new townships, creating a network of "private towns." Because of the nature of their relationship with their own peasant population they were keen to attract settlers from afar, and Jews well suited their plans. The tempo and scale of expansion were great; in the grand duchy of Lithuania alone in the first half of the 17th century between 770 and 900 such townships existed. For their part, the Jews, who were hard pressed by the enmity of the populace in the old royal cities, gladly moved to places where they sometimes became the majority, in some cases even the whole, of the population. Since these were situated near the hinterland of agricultural produce and potential customers, Jewish initiative and innovation found a new outlet. Through charters granted by kings and magnates to communities and settlers in these new towns, the real legal status of the Jews gradually changed very much for the better. By the second half of the 17th century everywhere in Poland Jews had become part of "the third estate" and in some places and in some respects the only one. Jews continued to hold customs stations openly in Lithuania, in defiance of the wishes of the Council of Four Lands in Poland. Many custom station ledgers were written in Hebrew script and contained Hebrew terms. This complex structure of large-scale export and import trade, the active and sometimes adventurous participation in the colonization of the Ukraine and in the shaping of the "private cities," in the fulfilling of what today we would call state economic functions, created for the first time in the history of Ashkenazic Jewry a broad base of population, settlement distribution, and means of livelihood, which provided changed conditions for the cultural and religious life of Jews. Jewish cultural and social life flourished hand in hand with the economic and demographic growth. In the 16th and early 17th centuries Poland-Lithuania became the main center of Ashkenazic culture. Its yeshivot were already famous at the beginning of the 16th century. They created great scholars and great teachers. Records of the . Councils of the Lands and community ordinances show in great detail if not the reality at least the ideal of widespread Torah study supported by the people in general. Fortified and wooden synagogues expressed the needs and the aesthetic sense of Jewish society of that time. In the old "royal cities" magnificent synagogue buildings were erected as early as the 16th century. Hebrew manuscripts were brought from abroad and some of them illuminated in Poland. Jewish printing developed early and many beautiful works were published. Various sources describe carnival-like Purim celebrations, and the fun, irony, and joy of life expressed in now lost folk songs and popular games and dramas. One of the apparent tensions in Poland-Lithuania was created by the disparity of lifestyle and culture between the new wealthy Jewish class and poor Jews. Despite town-imposed taxes and the maintenance of yeshivot, food kitchens, and tzeddakah institutions, the basic stability of Poland-Lithuania emphasized the problems created by a wealthy upper class of Jews. The entire social system was drastically threatened in 1648.
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