This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

See also History of the Jews in Poland Chronology

Early Period: 966-1385

Early Jewish Slave-Traders

The first actual mention of Jews in the Polish chronicles occurs under date of the eleventh century. It appears that Jews were then living in Gniezno, at that time the religious capital of the Polish kingdom. Some of them were wealthy, owning Christian slaves; they even engaged in the slave-trade, according to the custom of the times. The pious Queen Judith, wife of the Polish King Ladislaus Herman (d. 1085), spent large sums of money in purchasing the freedom of Christian slaves owned by Jews.

The first extensive Jewish emigration from Western Europe to Poland occurred at the time of the First Crusade (1098). Under Boleslaw III Krzywousty (1102-1139), the Jews, encouraged by the tolerant régime of this wise ruler, settled throughout Polish and Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev. Boleslaw on his part recognized the utility of the Jews it the development of the commercial interests of his country. The Jewish traveler Pethahiah ben Jacob ha-Laban visited Poland toward the end of the twelfth century. At that time their position in the numerous principalities had been securely established. The Prince of Cracow, Mieczyslaw III (1173-1202), in his endeavor to establish law and order in his domains, prohibited all violence against the Jews, particularly attacks upon them by unruly students. Boys guilty of such attacks, or their parents, were made to pay fines as heavy as those imposed for sacrilegious acts. Early in the thirteenth century Jews owned land in Polish Silesia.

The commercial relations between the Jewish settlements in Poland and those in Western Europe were not without effect in intellectual and religious matters. The Polish Jews, devoting their energies to commercial pursuits, were obliged, according to the testimony of Eliezer of Bohemia, to obtain their rabbis from France, Germany, and other West European countries, while the young Polish Jews went abroad for the study of rabbinical and other literature. Among the rabbinical scholars of the twelfth century mention is made of Mordecai of Poland (Dubnow).

The Tatar Invasion

From the various sources it is evident that at this time the Jews enjoyed undisturbed peace and prosperity in the many principalities into which the country was then divided. In the interests of commerce the reigning princes extended protection and special privileges to the Jewish settlers. With the descent of the Tatars on Polish territory (1241) the Jews in common with the other inhabitants suffered severely. Cracow was pillaged and burned, other towns were devastated, and hundreds of Jews were carried into captivity. As the tide of invasion receded the Jews returned to their old homes and occupations. They formed the middle class in a country where the general population consisted of landlords and peasants, and they were instrumental in promoting the commercial interests of the land. Money-lending and the farming of the different government revenues, such as those from the salt-mines, the customs, etc., were their most important pursuits. The native population had not yet become permeated with the religious intolerance of western Europe, and lived at peace with the Jews.

This patriarchal order of things was gradually altered by the Roman Church on the one hand, and by the neighboring German states on the other. The emissaries of the Roman pontiffs came to Poland in pursuance of a fixed policy; and in their endeavors to strengthen the influence of the Catholic Church they spread teachings imbued with hatred toward the followers of Judaism. At the same time Boleslaw V Wstydliwy (1228-1279), encouraged the influx of German colonists. He granted to them the Magdeburg Rights, and by establishing them in the towns introduced there an element which brought with it deep-seated prejudices against the Jews. There were, however, among the reigning princes determined protectors of the Jewish inhabitants, who considered the presence of the latter most desirable in so far as the economic development of the country was concerned. Prominent among such rulers was Boleslaw Pobozny of Kalisz, King of Great Poland. With the consent of the class representatives and higher officials he issued in 1264 a charter which clearly defined the position of his Jewish subjects. This charter, which subsequently formed the basis of Polish legislation concerning the Jews, does not differ greatly from that granted by Witold (1388) to the Jews of Lithuania (for text of the latter charter see Jew. Encyc. viii. 120, s.v. Lithuania).

In a critical review of L. Gumploviez's work on Polish-Jewish legislation, Levanda comes to the conclusion that Boleslaw's charter was meant to define unequivocally the exact position that the Jews were to occupy in the body politic throughout Poland's history. The terms of the charter, marked by patriarchal simplicity, show clearly that the Jews were regarded as an association of money-lenders to whom a concession was made to trade and to lend money on interest, with the guaranty of religious freedom and of the inviolability of person and property. They were to circulate their capital and thus supply the needs of the Christian population, and were to be allowed to enjoy profits made through their business operations. No mention occurs in the charter of other business pursuits, handicrafts, or industries, from which it may be inferred that the Jews were to engage in no other occupation than money-lending. The term "privilegium" applied to the charter shows that the latter was not a part of the general laws, but an exception to their provisions. It opened a wide gap between the Christian and the Jewish population that was never closed. It placed the latter in a position of isolation, owing to which they were compelled to develop an internal organization of their own. This, however, served them in good stead with regard to the defense of their commercial interests and in the mastery of new forms of commercial activity.

The charter dealt in detail with all sides of Jewish life, particularly the relations of the Jews to their Christian neighbors. The guiding principle in all its provisions was justice, while national, racial, and religious motives were entirely excluded. In order to safeguard their persons and property, the Jews were in some instances granted even greater privileges than the Christians, who thus came to recognize that the Jews were to be regarded as a people with a civilization of their own and entitled to the protection of the laws.

Hostility of the Church

But while the temporal authorities endeavored to regulate the relations of the Jews to the country at large in accordance with its economic needs, the clergy, inspired not by patriotism, but by the attempts of the Roman Church to establish its universal supremacy, used its influence toward separating the Jews from the body politic, aiming to exclude them, as people dangerous to the Church, from Christian society, and to place them in the position of a despised sect. In 1266 an ecumenical council was held at Wroclaw under the chairmanship of the papal nuncio Guido. The council introduced into the ecclesiastical statutes of Poland a number of paragraphs directed against the Jews. In paragraph 12 it is stated that since Poland has but lately joined the fold of the Christian Church it may be apprehended that its Christian inhabitants will the more easily yield to the prejudices and evil habits of their Jewish neighbors, the establishment of the Christian faith in the hearts of the believers in these lands having been of such a recent date. We therefore emphatically decree that Jews living in the bishopric of Gniezno shall not dwell together with Christians, but shall live separately in some portion of their respective towns or villages. The quarter in which the Jews reside shall be divided from the section inhabited by the Christians by a fence, wall, or ditch.

The Badge Instituted

The Jews were ordered to dispose as quickly as possible of real estate owned by them in the Christian quarters; they were not to appear on the streets during Church processions; they were allowed to have only a single synagogue in any one town; and they were required to wear a special cap to distinguish them from the Christians. The latter were forbidden, under penalty of excommunication, to invite Jews to feasts or other entertainments, and were forbidden also to buy meat or other provisions from Jews, for fear of being poisoned. The council furthermore confirmed the regulations under which Jews were not allowed to keep Christian servants, to lease taxes or customs duties, or to hold any public office. At the Council of Ofen held in 1279 the wearing of a red badge was prescribed for the Jews, and the foregoing provisions were reaffirmed.

Though the Catholic clergy continued in this way to sow the seed of religious hatred-which in time bore a plentiful harvest-the temporal rulers were not inclined to accept the edicts of the Church, and the Jews of Poland were for a long time left in the enjoyment of their rights. Ladislaus Lokietek, who ascended the Polish throne in 1319, endeavored to establish a uniform legal code throughout the land. By the general laws he assured to the Jews safety and freedom and placed them on an equality with the Christians. They dressed like the Christians, wearing garments similar to those of the nobility, and, like the latter, wore also gold chains and carried swords. Ladislaus likewise framed laws for the lending of money to Christians. In 1334 Boleslaw issued a charter of still greater significance. It was much amplified by Casimir III the Great (1303-1370), who was especially friendly to the Jews, and whose reign is justly regarded as an era of great prosperity for the Polish Jewry. His charter was more favorable to the Jews than was Boleslaw's, in so far as it safeguarded some of their civil rights in addition to their commercial privileges. This farseeing ruler sought to employ the town and rural populations as checks upon the growing power of the aristocracy. He regarded the Jews not simply as an association of money-lenders, but as a part of the nation, into which they were to be incorporated for the formation of a homogeneous body politic. For his attempts to uplift the masses, including the Jews, Casimir was surnamed by his contemporaries "King of the serfs and Jews." His charter for the Jews provided among other things that any lawsuit in which Jews were concerned might at their request be brought before the King; that they might not be summoned before the ecclesiastical tribunals; that elders or voivods had no right to exact special taxes or contributions from them; that the murder of a Jew was to be punishable by death, whereas in Boleslaw's charter the penalty had consisted merely of a fine and confiscation of property. Apart from these amplifications of Boleslaw's charter, Casimir granted to the Jews the right of unrestricted residence and movement; and they were not obliged to pay taxes other than those paid by the Christians. They were permitted to lend money on farms and other real property, and to rent or acquire lands and estates (L. Gumplovicz, "Prawodawstwo," etc., p. 23).

Prosperity Under Casimir III

Most of the documents of the fourteenth century treat of the Jews of Little Poland and especially of those of Cracow. Notwithstanding its paucity the material is ample to show the gradual growth of the Jews in numbers and in wealth. Thus in 1304 mention is made of the cession by Philip Pollack to Genez Magdassen of one-half of the former's property on the Jewish street in Cracow; in 1313 the Jew Michael and his son Nathan purchased an estate in the Jewish quarter from the widow of the burgher Günther; in 1335 the Jew Kozlina acquired from the burgher Herman four houses near the Jewish cemetery; in 1339 the widow of the Jew Rubin sold her house to the burgher Johann Romanich; and in 1347 there occurs a reference to a Jewish quarter in the suburb of Cracow ("vicus Judæorum"), with a synagogue and a cemetery on the banks of the Rudava. The cemetery had existed from the beginning of the century. Prominent among the Jews of Cracow in the latter half of this century was the leaseholder Levko, who was under the direct jurisdiction of the King. Levko leased the salt monopoly, and had exclusive jurisdiction over the numerous laborers in the salt-mines. He was regarded as the money-king of his time; and his sons, who inherited his wealth, frequently lent large sums to Queen Jadwiga and also to Wladislaus II.

Nevertheless, while for the greater part of Casimir III the Great|Casimir’s]] reign the Jews of Poland, as has been seen, enjoyed tranquility, toward its close they were subjected to persecution on account of the Black Death. Massacres occurred at Kalisz, Cracow, Glogow, and other Polish cities along the German frontier, and it is estimated that 10,000 Jews were killed. Compared with the pitiless destruction of their coreligionists in Western Europe, however, the Polish Jews did not fare badly; and the Jewish masses of Germany fled to the more hospitable lands of Poland, where the interests of the laity still remained more powerful than those of the Church.

But under Casimir’s successor, Louis I of Hungary (1370-1384), the complaint became general that justice had disappeared from the land. An attempt was made to deprive the Jews of the protection of the laws. Guided mainly by religious motives, Louis persecuted them, and threatened to expel those who refused to accept Christianity. His short reign did not suffice, however, to undo the beneficent work of his predecessor; and it was not until the long reign of the Lithuanian grand duke Wladislaus II (1386-1434), that the influence of the Church in civil and national affairs increased, and the civic condition of the Jews gradually became less favorable. Nevertheless, at the beginning of [[Vladislaus II Jagiełło|Vladislaus'] reign the Jews still enjoyed the full protection of the laws. Hube cites a series of old documents from Poznan, from which it appears that in monetary transactions the Jews of Great and Little Poland were protected by the courts to such an extent that in cases of non-payment they might take possession of the real estate of their Christian debtors. Thus in 1388 a verdict was rendered in favor of the Jew Sabdai, whereby his debtor was placed under arrest and was made to pay the principal together with nine years' interest upon it. In 1398 another debtor pledged himself to transfer to his Jewish creditors half of a village with all its revenues, excluding the manor and the land belonging to it. In 1390 the Jew Daniel was placed in possession of the estate of Kopashevo for a debt of 40 marks; and in the same year a debt of 20 marks due to the above-mentioned Sabdai from the owner of a certain estate was given preference over all other obligations of the latter, and Sabdai was put in possession of the estate.

The Jagiellon Era: 1385-1572

Extensive Persecutions in the Fourteenth Century

As a result of the marriage of Wladislaus II to Jadwiga, daughter of Louis I of Hungary, Lithuania was temporarily united to the kingdom of Poland. Under his rule the first extensive persecutions of the Jews in Poland were inaugurated. It was said that the Jews of Poznan had induced a poor Christian woman to steal from the Dominican order three hosts, which they desecrated, and that when the hosts began to bleed, the Jews had thrown them into a ditch, where upon various miracles occurred. When informed of this supposed desecration, the Bishop of Poznan ordered the Jews to answer the charges. The woman accused of stealing the hosts, the rabbi of Poznan, and thirteen elders of the Jewish community fell victims to the superstitious rage of the people. After long-continued torture on the rack they were all burned slowly at the stake. In addition, a permanent fine was imposed on the Jews of Poznan, which they were required to pay annually to the Dominican church. This fine was rigorously collected until the eighteenth century. The persecution of the Jews was due not only to religious motives, but also to economic reasons, for they had gained control of certain branches of commerce, and the burghers, jealous of their success, desired to rid themselves in one way or another of their objectionable competitors.

The same motives were responsible for the riot of Cracow, instigated by the fanatical priest Budek in 1407. The first outbreak was suppressed by the city magistrates; but it was renewed a few hours later. A vast amount of property was destroyed; many Jews were killed; and their children were baptized. In order to save their lives a number of Jews accepted Christianity. The reform movement of the Hussites intensified religious fanaticism; and the resulting reactionary measures spread to Poland. The influential Polish archbishop Nicholas Tronba, after his return from the Council of Kalisz (1420), over which he had presided, induced the Polish clergy to confirm all the anti-Jewish legislation adopted at the councils of Wroclaw and Ofen, and which thitherto had been but rarely carried into effect. In addition to their previous disabilities, the Jews were now compelled to pay a tax for the benefit of the churches in the precincts in which they were residing, but "in which only Christians should reside."

In 1423 King Wladislaus II issued an edict forbidding the Jews to lend money on notes. In his reign, as in the reign of his successor, Vladislaus III, the ancient privileges of the Jews were almost forgotten. The Jews vainly appealed to Wladislaus II for the confirmation of their old charters. The clergy successfully opposed the renewal of these privileges on the ground that they were contrary to the canonical regulations. In the achievement of this purpose the rumor was even spread that the charter claimed to have been granted to the Jews by Casimir III the Great was a forgery, inasmuch as a Catholic ruler would never have granted full civil rights to "unbelievers."

Charter of Casimir IV

The machinations of the clergy were checked somewhat by Casimir IV the Jagiellonian (1447-1492). He readily renewed the charter granted to the Jews by Casimir the Great, the original of which had been destroyed in the fire that devastated Poznan in 1447. To a Jewish deputation from the communities of Poznan, Kalisz, Sieradz, Lenczyca, Brest, and Wladislavov which applied to him for the renewal of the charter, he said in his new grant: We desire that the Jews, whom we protect especially for the sake of our own interests and those of the royal treasury, shall feel contented during our prosperous reign. In confirming all previous rights and privileges of the Jews-the freedom of residence and trade, judicial and communal autonomy, the inviolability of person and property, and protection against arbitrary accusation and attacks-the charter of Casimir IV was a determined protest against the canonical laws, which had been but recently renewed for Poland by the Council of Kalisz, and for the entire Catholic world by the Diet of Basel. The charter, moreover, permitted more intimate relations between Jews and Christians, and freed the former from the jurisdiction of the clerical courts. Strong opposition was created by the King's liberal attitude toward the Jews, and was voiced by the leaders of the clerical party. Cardinal Zbignyev Olesnicki, Archbishop of Cracow, placed himself at the head of the opposition and took the King sternly to task for his favors to the Jews, which he claimed were to the injury and insult of the holy faith. Do not think, he wrote to the King in 1454, that you are to decree whatever you please in matters of the Christian religion. No man is so great or so powerful that he may not be opposed in the cause of religion. Hence I beg and implore your majesty to repeal the privileges and rights in question. Joining forces with the papal nuncio Capistrano, Olesnicki inaugurated a vigorous campaign against the Jews and the Hussites. The repeated appeals of the clergy, and the defeat of the Polish troops by the Teutonic Knights-which the clergy openly ascribed to the wrath of God at Casimir's neglect of the interests of the Church, and his friendly attitude toward the Jews-finally induced the King to accede to the demands which had been made. In 1454 the statute of Nieszawa was issued, which included the abolition of the ancient privileges of the Jews as contrary to divine right and the law of the land. The triumph of the clerical forces was soon felt by the Jewish inhabitants. The populace was encouraged to attack them in many Polish cities; the Jews of Cracow were again the greatest sufferers. In the spring of 1464 the Jewish quarters of the city were devastated by a mob composed of monks, students, peasants, and the minor nobles, who were then organizing a new crusade against the Turks. More than thirty Jews were killed, and many houses were destroyed. Similar disorders occurred in Poznan and elsewhere, notwithstanding the fact that Casimir had fined the Cracow magistrates for having failed to take stringent measures for the suppression of the previous riots.

Importance of the Polish Jewry

The policy of the government toward the Jews of Poland was not more tolerant under Casimir's sons and successors, John I Olbracht (1492-1501) and Alexander the Jagiellonian (1501-1506). John I Olbracht frequently found himself obliged to inquire into local disputes between Jewish and Christian merchants. Thus in 1493 he adjusted the conflicting claims of the Jewish merchants and the burghers of Lwow concerning the right to trade freely within the city. On the whole, however, he was not friendly to the Jews. The same may be said of Alexander the Jagiellonian, who had expelled the Jews from Lithuania in 1495. To some extent he was undoubtedly influenced in this measure by the expulsionof the Jews from Spain (1492), which was responsible also for the increased persecution of the Jews in Austria, Bohemia, and Germany, and thus stimulated the Jewish emigration to Poland. For various reasons Alexander permitted the return of the Jews in 1503, and during the period immediately preceding the Reformation the number of Jewish exiles grew rapidly on account of the anti-Jewish agitation in Germany. Indeed, Poland became the recognized haven of refuge for exiles from western Europe; and the resulting accession to the ranks of the Polish Jewry made it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people. This, as has been suggested by Dubnow, was rendered possible by the following conditions:

The Jewish population of Poland was at that time greater than that of any other European country; the Jews enjoyed an extensive communal autonomy based on special privileges; they were not confined in their economic life to purely subordinate occupations, as was true of their western coreligionists; they were not engaged solely in petty trade and money-lending, but carried on also an important export trade, leased government revenues and large estates, and followed the handicrafts and, to a certain extent, agriculture; in the matter of residence they were not restricted to ghettos, like their German brethren. All these conditions contributed toward the evolution in Poland of an independent Jewish civilization. Thanks to its social and judicial autonomy, Polish Jewish life was enabled to develop freely along the lines of national and religious tradition. The rabbi became not only the spiritual guide, but also a member of the communal administration Kahal, a civil judge, and the authoritative expounder of the Law. Rabbinism was not a dead letter here, but a guiding religio-judicial system; for the rabbis adjudged civil as well as certain criminal cases on the basis of Talmudic legislation.

The Jews of Poland found themselves obliged to make increased efforts to strengthen their social and economic position, and to win the favor of the King and of the nobility. The conflicts of the different parties, of the merchants, the clergy, the lesser and the higher nobility, enabled the Jews to hold their own. The opposition of the Christian merchants and of the clergy was counterbalanced by the support of the Szlachta, who derived certain economic benefits from the activities of the Jews. By the constitution of 1504, sanctioned by Alexander the Jagiellonian, the Szlachta Diets were given a voice in all important national matters. On some occasions the Jewish merchants, when pressed by the lesser nobles, were afforded protection by the King, since they were an important source of royal revenue.

Favorable Reign of Sigismund I

The most prosperous period in the life of the Polish Jews began with the reign of Sigismund I (1506-1548). In 1507 that King informed the authorities of Lwow] that until further notice its Jewish citizens, in view of losses sustained by them, were to be left undisturbed in the possession of all their ancient privileges ("Russko-Yevreiski Arkhiv," iii.79). His generous treatment of his physician, Jacob Isaac, whom he made a member of the nobility in 1507, testifies to his liberal views. In the same year Sigismund leased the customs revenues of Lubuchev to the Jew Chaczko, exempting him from all taxes. Similar exemptions from general or special taxes were granted by the King to a number of other Jews. In 1510 he reduced the taxes imposed upon the Jewish community of Lwow]] to 200 florins, in consideration of their impoverished condition, and appointed as tax-collectors the Jews Solomon and Baruch. In the following year he was called upon to adjudicate in a case which illustrates the strained relations between the Jews and Christians of that city. The Jew Abraham was accused of sacrilege and placed under arrest. The King ordered his release on May 1 with the stipulation that he should either appear before the King's court on May 2 of the following year or pay a penalty of 3,000 marks. His bondsmen were the Jews Abraham Franczek of Cracow, Isaac Jacob Franczek of Opoczno, Slioma Swyathly, Oser, David and Michael Tabyc, and the Lwow Jews Israel, Judah, two named Solomon, and Samuel. In the same year Sigismund exempted the Jews of Lwow from the payment of all crown taxes for six years. In 1512 he leased to the Lwow Jew Judah, son of Solomon, the customs revenues of Yaroslav for a term of four years. On June 2 of the same year he appointed Abraham of Bohemia prefect of the Jews of Great and Little Poland; and on Aug. 6 following he appointed the Kazimierz Jew Franczek as tax-collector for all the provinces of Little Poland, excepting Cracow and Kazimierz. In 1515 he adjudged an important suit between the aldermen and the Jews of Lwow concerning the rights of the latter to carry on trade in that city. The aldermen had complained that the Jews had gained complete control of the trade, thus rendering it impossible for the Christian merchants to do business. Both parties submitted to the King copies of their ancient charters of privileges, and Sigismund decreed that the Jews, like the other merchants of Lwow, were entitled to trade in various products throughout the country, but that they might sell cloth in the cities and towns during fairs only. The purchase of cattle by them was permitted only to the extent of 2,000 head annually, and then on the payment of a special duty.

Certain Jews Admitted to Denizenship

In 1517 Sigismund confirmed the ancient privileges of the Jews of Poznan. In 1518 he ordered the customs-collector of Poznan not to exact from the Jews larger duties on their wares than those collected from the King's other subjects. In the same year he confirmed the election for life of the rabbis Moses and Mendel as judges over the Jews of Great Poland. They were given the authority to decide suits both individually and jointly; and the Jews of Great Poland were required to recognize their authority, and to pay a fine into the royal treasury in case of failure to accept their decisions. In October of the same year the King admitted to Polish denizenship the Bohemian Jews Jacob and Lazar, granting them the right of unrestricted residence and movement throughout the kingdom. In 1519 Sigismund released the Jews of Great Poland, for a period of three years, from the payment of any crown taxes directly to the royal tax-collectors. He decreed that instead five Jewish collectors should be chosen, and a commission of eleven persons be appointed for the apportionment of the total tax of 200 florins among the several Jewish taxpayers, due regard being had to the wealth of each, and special reductions being provided in the case of the poor. In the event of the death or impoverishment of any of the taxpayers the collectors were empowered to increase the taxes of the well-to-do, in order that the poorer taxpayers might not be excessively burdened and that the total amount of the tax might remain undiminished. This decree was the result of complaints made by the Jews of Great Poland against the abuses and oppressions of the royal tax-collectors. The members of the commission appointed for this purpose were: Isaac of Meseritz (Mezhirechye), Samson of Skwirzyna, Mendel of Gnesen, Beniash of Obornik, Moses of Vlazlav, Kalman of Pakosch, David of Brest-Kuyavsk, Slioma of Lenchich, Abraham of Plock (formerly of Sochaczew), Uziel of Kalisz, and Solomon of Plonsk. The tax-collectors appointed were: Samuel and Beniash of Poznan; Mossel, the customs collector of Inovlozlav; Moses, the customs collector of Brzesc Kujawski; and Jacob, a physician of Sochaczew.

Two Congregations in Cracow

In the same year a quarrel arose between the Bohemian and the Polish Jews in the community of Cracow over the question whether there should be one rabbi for the entire community or a separate rabbi for each faction. The case was brought before the King, who decided (May 25, 1519) that, in accordance with established custom, the community should have two rabbis. Rabbi Peretz, who had already held that position for two years, and Rabbi Asher (son-in-law of Rachael), both of them experts in the Law, were proposed by the respective parties with the consent of the entire community. The King reserved the right, in case Peretz declined to continue in the rabbinate, to appoint his successor. Each rabbi was forbidden to interfere in the affairs of the other, under a penalty of 100 marks in silver payable into the royal treasury; and each member of the community was at liberty to choose which congregation he would join. The entire community was ordered, under a penalty for disobedience, to pay to the rabbis the various fees and other sources of income assigned to them by, ancient custom. This arrangement failed to adjust the difficulties, as is seen from a subsequent decision of the King (Nov. 5, 1519). A party of recently arrived Bohemian Jews, headed by Rabbi Peretz, wished to crowd out from the synagogue belonging to the Polish congregation the native part of the community, headed by Rabbi Asher. This ancient synagogue had been built by the Polish Jews and kept in repair by them until the arrival of the Bohemians. The King's second decision was more favorable to the native portion of the community, which was left in permanent possession of the synagogue. The followers of Rabbi Peretz were not permitted to enter the edifice without the consent of Rabbi Asher and his followers; and a penalty of 1,000 marks was imposed for infraction of this regulation. The Bohemians were, moreover, precluded on pain of a similar fine from inducing members of the native community to join their synagogue; while Rabbi Asher and his followers still retained the right to admit any person at their discretion.

The commercial activity of the Jewish merchants arrayed against them their Christian rivals of the larger cities. The magistrates of Poznan and Lwow, in their opposition to the Jews, even went so far as to propose a coalition against them (1521). The struggle was not always above board. In some towns the populace was incited against the Jews, and several riots occurred. Sigismund took measures to prevent the repetition of such disorders; and in the case of Cracow he warned the magistrates that he would hold them responsible for any recurrence.

Jewish Favorites of Sigismund

Sigismund’s protection of his Jewish favorites is demonstrated by his letter of respite, Aug. 26, 1525, to the Poznan Jew Beniash, surnamed "Dlugi" ("the Tall"), an insolvent debtor, granting him an extension of time (until Feb. 21, 1527) wherein to pay his liabilities. This letter was intended to enable Beniash to adjust his business affairs, which had become involved owing in part to the large amount of debts due to him from various persons, especially Christians. A subsequent letter extended the royal protection to him for a further term of three years, prohibited forcible collection of money from him, and ordered that he be assisted in the collection of his debts. Any infringement of the provisions of the letter was to be regarded as lese-majesty. Further, Beniash was made subject to the jurisdiction of the King and of the voivod of Cracow. An especial mark of favor was shown also to the Jew Lazar of Brandenburg in a royal order dated Nov. 14, 1525, and exempting him for life from payment of the taxes imposed upon the other Jews of Cracow. In return for this privilege he was to pay only the sum of three florins annually. These favors were an acknowledgment of services rendered at Venice in the interests of the royal treasury and to Jodoc Ludwig, the King's ambassador there.

By an edict of June 14, 1530, the King exempted the Jew Simon and his family of the new town of Cerezin from subjection to any religious bans, and announced that any rabbi or doctor of the kingdom issuing an excommunication against them would be liable to a fine of 100 marks. On July 30, 1532, the King appointed Moses Fishel chief rabbi of the Polish synagogue of Cracow in succession to Rabbi Asher; and Fishel, with all his property in Kazimierz, was exempted for life from all taxes and duties, both ordinary and extraordinary. On Aug. 8, 1541, Sigismund issued an edict whereby the Jews of Great Poland were given the right to elect a chief rabbi, "a doctor of Judaism," subject to confirmation by the King. The government officials were forbidden to install in this office any person not previously elected thereto by the voluntary act of the Jews themselves.

Converts to Judaism

But while Sigismund himself was prompted by feelings of justice, his courtiers endeavored to turn to their personal advantage the conflicting interests of the different classes. Sigismund’s second wife, Queen Bona, sold government positions for money; and her favorite, the voivod of Cracow, Peter Kmita, accepted bribes from both sides, promising to further the interests of each at the Diets and with the King. In 1530 the Jewish question was the subject of heated discussions at the Diets. There were some delegates who insisted on the just treatment of the Jews. On the other hand, some went so far as to demand the expulsion of the Jews from the country, while still others wished to curtail their commercial rights. The Diet of Piotrkow (1538) elaborated a series of repressive measures against the Jews, who were prohibited from engaging in the collection of taxes and from leasing estates or government revenues, it being against God's law that these people should hold honored positions among the Christians The commercial pursuits of the Jews in the cities were placed under the control of the hostile magistrates, while in the villages Jews were forbidden to trade at all. The Diet revived also the medieval ecclesiastical law compelling the Jews to wear a distinctive badge. In 1539 a Catholic woman of Cracow, Katherine Zalyeshovska, was burned at the stake for avowed leanings toward Judaism, the populace being incited against the Jews by various pamphlets circulated among the people. This and similar cases of conversion to the Jewish faith were probably the result of the secret societies which were established among the Szlachta in 1530, and which owed their origin to the religious reforms among the intelligent members of Polish society on the advent of Lutheranism in the German districts of Poland (see Dubnow in "Voskhod," May, 1895).

The influx of foreign Jews, particularly from Bohemia, was probably responsible for a decree of Oct. 17, 1542, by which ordinance they were forbidden to settle within the kingdom, and freedom of movement was accorded only to such Bohemian Jews as had already settled on crown or Szlachta lands. An exception was allowed, however, in favor of the cities of Cracow, Poznan, and Lwow. This decree, issued at the request of the Jews themselves, was promulgated before the death of Sigismund I the Old, and was not signed by Sigismund II Augustus, as certain sources state. Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572) followed in the main the tolerant policy of his father. He confirmed the ancient privileges of the Polish Jews, and considerably widened and strengthened the autonomy of their communities. By a decree of Aug. 13, 1551, the Jews of Great Poland were again granted permission to elect a chief rabbi, who was to act as judge in all matters concerning their religious life. Jews refusing to acknowledge his authority were to be subject to a fine or to excommunication; and those refusing to yield to the latter might be executed after a report of the circumstances had been made to the authorities. The property of the recalcitrants was to be confiscated and turned into the crown treasury. The chief rabbi was exempted from the authority of the voivod and other officials, while the latter were obliged to assist him in enforcing the law among the Jews. In agreements concluded (June 30 and Sept. 15, 1553) between the Jews of Cracow and the Christian merchants of Kazimierz and Stradom the signatures of the following prominent Jews occur: Rabbi Moses; Jonas Abramovich; Israel Czarnij; Simon, son-in-law of Moses; Samuel, son of Feit; Moses Echlier; Rabbi Esaias; Lazar, son-in-law of the widow Bona; and Rabbi Alexander. In 1556 the King issued a decree defining the judicial rights of the Jews of Lublin. In a similar document issued in the same year the conflicting claims of the Jewish and Christian merchants of Poznan were adjusted.

Under Sigismund II

The favorable attitude of the King and of the enlightened nobility could not prevent the growing animosity against the Jews in certain parts of the kingdom. The Reformation movement stimulated an anti-Jewish crusade by the Catholic clergy, who preached vehemently against all heretics-Lutherans, Calvinists, and Jews. In 1550 the papal nuncio Alois Lipomano, who had been prominent as a persecutor of the Neo-Christians in Portugal, was delegated to Cracow to strengthen the Catholic spirit among the Polish nobility. He warned the King of the evils resulting from his tolerant attitude toward the various non-believers in the country. Seeing that the Polish nobles, among whom the Reformation had already taken strong root, paid but scant courtesy to his preachings, he initiated a movement against the Tatars and the Jewish inhabitants of Lithuania, whom he attempted to convert to Catholicism (1555). Returning from Wilno to Cracow in 1556 he inaugurated there a crusade against the Jews. In the interests of this crusade a rumor was spread among the populace to the effect that a Christian woman of Sochaczew, Dorotea Lazencka, had sold to the local Jews a host which she had received at communion and which they had pierced until blood began to flow from the punctures. By order of the Bishop of Kholm three Jews of Sochaczew and their "accomplice," Dorotea Lazencka, were put in chains, and later sentenced to death. When the King, who was at that time in Wilno, learned of the matter, he sent to the burgo-master of Sochaczew orders to stop the proceedings until a thorough investigation could be made.

Host-Desecration Charges

The bishop, however, presented a forged royal order for the execution; and the supposed blasphemers were burned at the stake a few days before the King's deputy arrived (1557). Sigismund II Augustus was highly incensed at this sanguinary deed, the prime mover in which was the nuncio Lipomano. "I am horrified at the thought of this shameful crime," he said, "and besides I do not wish to be regarded as a fool who believes that blood may flow from a pierced host." The Protestant nobles, who could not conscientiously bring themselves to believe in the absurd medieval fable, took the part of the Jews; and numerous satires were written against the nuncio and the bishop. Sigismund pointed out that papal bulls had repeatedly asserted that all such accusations were without any foundation whatsoever; and he decreed that henceforth any Jew accused of having committed a murder for ritual purposes, or of having stolen a host, should be brought before his own court during the sessions of the Diet.

Notwithstanding this decree and the ridicule of the reformers, clerical influences forced the enactment of anti-Jewish laws at the Diets of 1562 and 1565. At this time the Jews found a defender in Solomon ben Nathan Ashkenazi, who before his departure for Turkey was the King's physician. Simon Günzburg, a wealthy court Jew and a celebrated architect, also defended the cause of his coreligionists. In 1566 the Jew Benedict Levith was awarded for a term of four years the monopoly of importing Hebrew books and of selling them throughout the country. At the request of the Jews the King permitted (1567) Rabbi Isaac May to build a yeshibah in the suburb of Lublin. ln 1571 the elders of the Jewish community of Poznan were given the right to expel from the city lawless or immoral members of the community, and even to sentence them to death. The local voivod was at the same time forbidden to oppose the execution of such sentences. The autonomy thus granted by Sigismund II Augustus to the Jews in the matter of communal administration laid the foundation for the power of the Kahal, which, as has been pointed out by Dubnow, subsequently brought to the Polish Jewry both great advantage and considerable harm.

The officers of the Kahal frequently made agreements with the magistrates on the strength of which the Jews were given the right, in return for certain taxes, to trade freely and to own real estate within the city limits. There were, however, some cities like Sieradz and Wielun in which Jews were not allowed even to reside. In 1659 Lithuania was united to Poland; for the effect of this union on Jewish life in Poland see Jew. Encyc. viii. 126, s.v. Lithuania.

The death of Sigismund Augustus (1572) and the termination therewith of the Jagellon dynasty necessitated the election of his successor by the elective body of the Szlachta. The neighboring states were deeply interested in the matter, each hoping to insure the choice of its own candidate. The pope was eager to assure the election of a Catholic, lest the influences of the Reformation should become predominant in Poland. Catherine de Medici was laboring energetically for the election of her son Henry of Anjou. But in spite of all the intrigues at the various courts, the deciding factor in the election was the above-mentioned Solomon Ashkenazi, then in charge of the foreign affairs of Turkey. Henry of Anjou was elected, which fact was of deep concern to the liberal Poles and the Jews. Fortunately this participator in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre secretly fled to France after a reign of a few months, in order to succeed his deceased brother Charles IX on the French throne.

The Polish Commonwealth: 1572-1795

Under Stephen Bathory

Stephen Bathory (1576-1586) was now elected King of Poland; and he proved both a tolerant ruler and a friend of the Jews. On Feb. 10, 1577, he sent orders to the magistrate of Poznan directing him to prevent class conflicts, and to maintain order in the city. His orders were, however, of no avail. Three months after his manifesto a riot occurred in Poznan, for details of which see Jew. Encyc. ii. 596a, s.v. Bathori, Stephen. Political and economic events in the course of the sixteenth century forced the Jews to establish a more compact communal organization, and this separated them from the rest of the urban population; indeed, although with but few exceptions they did not live in separate ghettos, they were nevertheless sufficiently isolated from their Christian neighbors to be regarded as strangers. They resided in the towns and cities, but had little to do with municipal administration, their own affairs being managed by the rabbis, the elders, and the dayyanim or religious judges. In the reign of Stephen Bathory they were attacked by the Polish poet Sebastian Klenowicz (1545-1602) in his works "Worek Judaszow" ("The Bags of the Judas") and "Victoria Deorum." These conditions contributed to the strengthening of the Kahal organizations. Conflicts and disputes, however, became of frequent occurrence, and led to the convocation of periodical rabbinical congresses, which were the nucleus of the central institution known in Poland, from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, as the Council of Four Lands. The meetings were usually held during the fairs of Lublin; and the sphere of the activity of the council gradually widened until it came to include not only judicial but administrative and legislative functions also. At times the regulations of the Polish government were strengthened by the official sanction of the council. A notable instance of this occurred in 1587, when the council approved with great solemnity the well-known edict forbidding the Jews to engage in the farming of government revenues and of other sources of income, since "people eager for gain and enrichment by means of extensive leases might bring great danger to the many."

Yeshibot were established, under the direction of the rabbis, in the more prominent communities. Such schools were officially known as gymnasiums, and their rabbi-principals as rectors. Important yeshibot existed in Cracow, Poznan, and other cities. Jewish printing establishments came into existence in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. In 1530 a Hebrew Pentateuch was printed in Cracow; and at the end of the century the Jewish printing-houses of that city and Lublin issued a large number of Jewish books, mainly of a religious character. The growth of Talmudic scholarship in Poland was coincident with the greater prosperity of the Polish Jews; and because of their communal autonomy educational development was wholly one-sided and along Talmudic lines. Exceptions are recorded, however, where Jewish youth sought secular instruction in the European universities. The learned rabbis became not merely expounders of the Law, but also spiritual advisers, teachers, judges, and legislators; and their authority compelled the communal leaders to make themselves familiar with the abstruse questions of Talmudic law. The Polish Jewry found its views of life shaped by the spirit of the Talmudic and rabbinical literature, whose influence was felt in the house, in the school, and in the synagogue.

Pioneers of Talmudic Learning

In the first half of the sixteenth century the seeds of Talmudic learning had been transplanted to Poland from Bohemia, particularly from the school of Jacob Pollak, the creator of Pilpul. Shalom Shachna (c. 1500-1558), a pupil of Pollak, is counted among the pioneers of Talmudic learning in Poland. He lived and died in Lublin, where he was the head of the yeshibah which produced the rabbinical celebrities of the following century. Shachna's sonIsrael became rabbi of Lublin on the death of his father, and Shachna's pupil Moses Isserles (ReMA; 1520-1572) achieved an international reputation among the Jews. His contemporary and correspondent Solomon Luria (1510-1573) of Lublin also enjoyed a wide reputation among his coreligionists; and the authority of both was recognized by the Jews throughout Europe. Among the famous pupils of Isserles should be mentioned David Gans and Mordecai Jaffe, the latter of whom studied also under Luria. Another distinguished rabbinical scholar of that period was Eliezer b. Elijah Ashkenazi (1512-1585) of Cracow. His "Ma'ase ha-Shem" (Venice, 1583) is permeated with the spirit of the moral philosophy of the Sephardic school, but is extremely mystical. At the end of the work he attempts to forecast the coming of the Messiah in 1595, basing his calculations on the Book of Daniel. Such Messianic dreams found a receptive soil in the unsettled religious conditions of the time. The new sect of Socinians or Unitarians, which denied the Trinity and which, therefore, stood near to Judaism, had among its leaders Simon Budny, the translator of the Bible into Polish, and the priest Martin Czechowic. Heated religious disputations were common, and Jewish scholars participated in them.

Sigismund III

The Catholic reaction which with the aid of the Jesuits and the Council of Trent spread throughout Europe finally reached Poland. The Jesuits found a powerful protector in Bathory’s]] successor, Sigismund III Vasa (1587-1632). Under his rule the "golden freedom" of the Polish knighthood gradually vanished; government by the "liberum veto" undermined the authority of the Diet; and the approach of anarchy was thus hastened. However, the dying spirit of the republic was still strong enough to check somewhat the destructive power of Jesuitism, which under an absolute monarchy would have led to drastic anti-Jewish measures similar to those that had been taken in Spain. Thus while the Catholic clergy was the mainstay of the anti-Jewish forces, the King remained at least in semblance the defender of the Jews (see Jew. Encyc. viii. 127b, s.v. Lithuania). False accusations of ritual murder against the Jews recurred with growing frequency, and assumed an "ominous inquisitional character." The papal bulls and the ancient charters of privilege proved generally of little avail as protection. In 1598 the crown judges of Lublin condemned three Jews to death for the supposed murder of a Christian child whose body had been found in a swamp near the village of Voznika. The accused were tortured on the rack and then quartered amid impressive ceremonies at Lublin. The body of the murdered child was placed in one of the monasteries in Lublin and became an object of worship for the populace. A polemical movement against the Jews also was initiated by the clergy. The priest Moeczki published in Cracow (1598) a bitter denunciation of the Jews under the title "Okrucienstwa Zydowskie" ("Jewish Atrocities"); and similar works were published by Gubiczki (1602), by Wyeczlaw Grabowski ("O Zydach w Koronie," 1611), and by the Polish physician Sleshkowski, who accused the Jewish physicians of systematically attempting to poison their Catholic patients. The plague then raging in Poland was attributed by him to divine wrath at the protection afforded to the Jews of the country (1623). Most bitter of all in his tirades against the Jews was the Polish writer Sebastian Miczinski, author of "Zwierciadlo Korony Polskie" (3d ed. 1618). A pupil of the Jesuits, he collected in this book every charge that was ever invented against the Jews by fanatical superstition and popular malice. He incited the Polish people, and especially the delegates to the Diet, to treat the Jews as they had been treated in Spain and elsewhere.

Blood Accusations

Wladislaus IV Vasa (1632-1648), though personally a tolerant ruler, could not check the bitter factional hatreds of his subjects. In 1642 he permitted the Jews of Cracow to engage freely in export trade, but withdrew this permission two months later in compliance with the demands of the Christian merchants. Many of the Jews, thus restricted and oppressed in the cities, moved to the villages and became leaseholders of estates belonging to the Szlachta, and engaged also in the liquor trade. The powerful nobles as well as the high church dignitaries leased their lands to them, and the synod of Warsaw (1643) severely criticized some of the bishops for thus placing the Jews over the Christian peasants. The synod of Poznan indignantly commented on the "audacity of the Jews" in trading in the market-places on Christian holy days. In 1636 the Jews of Lublin had been acquitted by the crown tribunal of the charge of having murdered a Christian child for ritual purposes. The local clergy, annoyed at the acquittal, invented another charge, supported by "evidence." The Carmelite monk Paul declared that Jews had lured him into a house, had bled him with the aid of a German barber named Schmidt (a Lutheran), and had collected his blood in a dish, whispering meanwhile some prayer. The tribunal accepted this accusation, and, after a trial accompanied by torture on the rack, sentenced one Jew, named Mark, to death. The Carmelites hastened to make this case public in order to strengthen the prejudice of the populace. The Jew Mark is mentioned also on the fly-leaf of an old prayer-book preserved in the synagogue of Pinchov. The inscription speaks of "the martyrs on this earth in the city of Lublin, in the year (5)396 = 1636." The martyr Mark is called here "the learned Rabbi Mordecai, son of the sainted Rabbi Meïr." The pamphlet by the Carmelite monks referring to this case is entitled "Processus Causæ Inter Instigatorem Judicii Tribunalis Regni et Perfidium Marcum Judæum Agitatæ." This case is reported also in the book of the priest Stefan Zuchowski, published in 1713. Nine months after the revolting judicial murder of Lublin a more horrible execution took place in Cracow (1637). The details of this case are not known; but, from entries in the Pinchov prayer-book and the pinḳes of the burial society of Cracow, it appears that seven Jews were executed; namely, Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac, Jacob b. David, Samuel b. Samuel, Elijah b. Judah, Benjamin b. Shalom, Jacob b. Issachar, and Moses b. Phinehas. Zhukhowski makes no mention of this case. A similar case occurred in Lenchich in 1639 (see Jew. Encyc. viii. 128, s.v. Lithuania).

Study of the Talmud

The hostility of their Christian neighbors reacted on the inner life of the Polish Jews; and the scholar Delmedigo, who visited Poland and Lithuania in 1620, was struck by their indifferent and at times hostile attitude toward secular learning. But, while the intellectual field of the Jews was narrowed equally with their social life, there was displayed in both an unceasing activity inspired by Talmudic precepts. The Talmud served them as an encyclopedia of all knowledge and for questions of everyday life, including abstract law, legal decisions, both civil and criminal, religious legislation, theology, etc. It was diligently studied; but the methods of study depended on the social position of the student. The rabbis of higher rank, those who took an active part in the Kahal administrations and who participated in the Council of Four Lands, paid most attention to the practical application of the Talmudic law. Chief among them was Mordecai Jaffe (see Jew. Encyc. vii. 58), who at the end of the sixteenth century frequently presided at the meetings of the council. His successor as rabbinical elder and president of the council was Joshua ben Alexander ha-Kohen Falk, rabbi of Lublin, and later director of the yeshibah at Lwow. Together with these should be mentioned: Meïr ben Gedaliah Lublin (d. 1616), authority in rabbinical matters; Samuel Edels (d. 1631); and Joel Sirkes (d. 1641). The Cabala had become entrenched under the protection of Rabbinism; and such scholars as Mordecai Jaffe and Joel Sirkes devoted themselves to its study. The mystic speculations of the cabalists prepared the ground for Shabbethaianism, and the Jewish masses were rendered even more receptive by the great disasters that over-took the Jews of Poland about the middle of the seventeenth century. Had the rabbis of that time evinced a more active interest in worldly affairs, and had they taken warning from the ominous popular unrest, they might in a measure have averted the calamity of the Cossacks' uprising. It should be stated, however, that the great catastrophe was due not to the Jews themselves, but to the decay of the entire system of which the Jews were but an inactive part (see Jew. Encyc. iv. 283b, s.v. Cossacks' Uprising).

Cossacks' Uprising

The kingdom of Poland proper, which had hitherto suffered but little either from the Cossacks' uprising or from the invasion of the Russians, now became the scene of terrible disturbances (1655-1658). Charles X of Sweden, at the head of his victorious army, overran Poland; and soon the whole country, including the cities of Cracow and Warsaw, was in his hands. The Jews of Great and Little Poland found themselves between two fires: those of them who were spared by the Swedes were attacked by the Poles, who accused them of aiding the enemy. The Polish general Stefan Czarniecki, in his flight from the Swedes, devastated the whole country through which he passed and treated the Jews without mercy. The Polish partizan detachments treated the non-Polish inhabitants with equal severity. Moreover, the horrors of the war were aggravated by pestilence, and the Jews of the districts of Kalisz, Cracow, Poznan, Piotrkow, and Lublin perished en masse by the sword of the enemy and the plague. Certain Jewish writers of the day were convinced that the home and protection which the Jews had for a long time enjoyed in Poland were lost to them forever.

Some of these apprehensions proved to be unfounded. As soon as the disturbances had ceased, the Jews began to return and to rebuild their destroyed homes; and while it is true that the Jewish population of Poland had decreased and become impoverished, it still was more numerous than that of the Jewish colonies in Western Europe. Poland remained as hitherto the spiritual center of Judaism; and the remarkable vitality of the Jews manifested itself in the fact that they in a comparatively short time managed to recuperate from their terrible trials.

King Jan Kazimierz Vasa (1648-1668) endeavored to compensate the impoverished people for their sufferings and losses, as is evidenced by a decree granting the Jews of Cracow the rights of free trade (1661); and similar privileges, together with temporary exemption from taxes, were granted to many other Jewish communities, which had suffered most from the Russo-Swedish invasion.

In spite of the spiritual poverty of the Jews of Poland, some of them sought instruction at foreign universities. Among the Polish physicians of the time was Jacob, who studied medicine at Padua, and came to Poznan after the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670. He married the daughter of the physician Moses Judah (Mojzese Judko). In 1673 Moses Judah became the physician to the Jewish community at a salary of 40 gold ducats; he was also one of the elders of the Jewish community, and defended its suits at the Diets. He was highly respected by the nobility. His son, who also had studied medicine at Padua, succeeded him in his post, and remained in Poznan until 1736. The grammarian Isaac ben Samuel, ha-Levi lived for some time in Poznan, and died there in 1646. The philosopher Solomon Ashkenazi of Poznan and the mathematician Elijah of Pinczow were prominent at the end of the seventeenth century.

John Casimir's successor, King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1669-1673), also granted some privileges to the Jews. This was partly due to the efforts of Moses Markowitz, the representative of the Jewish communities of Poland. The heroic King John III Sobieski (1674-1696) was in general very favorably inclined toward the Jews; but the Senate and the nobility deprecated such friendliness toward "infidels."

Accession of the Saxon Dynasty

With the accession to the throne of the Saxon dynasty the Jews completely lost the support of the government. While it is true that Augustus II the Strong (1697-1733), and August III Wettin (1733-1763) officially confirmed at their coronations the Jewish charters, such formal declarations were insufficient, owing to the disorders prevailing in the kingdom, to guard the already limited rights of the Jews against the hostile elements. The government was anxious only to collect from the Kahals the taxes, which were constantly being made heavier in spite of the fact that the Jews had not yet recovered from the ruinous events of the Cossacks' uprising and the Swedish invasion. The Szlachta and the other classes of the urban population were extremely hostile to the Jews. In the larger cities, like Poznan and Cracow, quarrels between the Christians and the Jewish inhabitants were of frequent occurrence; and they assumed a very violent aspect. Based originally on economic grounds, they were carried over into the religious arena; and it was evident that the seeds which the Jesuits had planted had finally borne fruit. Ecclesiastical councils displayed great hatred toward the Jews. Attacks on the latter by students, the so-called "Schüler-Gelauf," became every-day occurrences in the large cities, the police regarding such scholastic riots with indifference. Indeed, lawlessness, violence, and disorder reigned supreme at that time in Poland, marking the beginning of the downfall of the kingdom. In order, therefore, to protect themselves against such occurrences, the Jewish communities in many cities made annual contributions to the local Catholic schools.

Prevalence of Superstition

Many miracle-workers made their appearance among the Jews of Poland, prominent among whom was Joel ben Isaac Heilprin, known also as "Ba'al Shem I.," a believer in and practitioner of demonology. These men added to the mental and moral confusion of the Jewish masses. There is no other country, says a writer of the seventeenth century, in which the Jews occupy themselves so much with mystic fantasies, devilism, talismans, and the invocation of spirits, as in Poland. Even famous rabbis of that time devoted themselves to cabalistic practices. Special notoriety as a cabalist was gained by Naphtali ben Isaac ha-Kohen, whose belief in the power of a certain amulet led to the destruction of almost the entire Jewish quarter of Frankfort. The popular superstitions that had so completely enveloped the Polish Jewry were the direct cause of the Messianic movements that had begun to agitate the Jewish world; and although Shabbethai Ẓebi, hailed at first as the Messiah, lost a large number of his followers on his conversion to Mohammedanism, mysticism had become too deeply rooted in the Jewish masses to be destroyed even by this rude awakening. Shabbethaianism was succeeded by Frankism (see Jew. Encyc. v. 475, s.v. Frank, Jacob, and the Frankists). The era of enlightenment which dawned for the Jews of Germany with the coming of Moses Mendelssohn in the second half of the eighteenth century was coincident with that of the decay of the Polish Jewry.

The sufferings of the Polish Jews from external enemies in times of war and from persecutions by their Christian neighbors in times of peace served to cement more strongly their internal life and stimulated a more thorough organization for the common protection. One of the proclamations of the Council of Four Lands, issued in 1676, reads as follows:

We have sinned grievously against the Almighty; the disturbances increase from day to day. It is becoming more and more difficult for us to live. Our people are considered as naught among other nations; and it is wonderful, in view of all our misfortunes, that we still exist. The only thing left for us to do is to form ourselves into a close union, following strictly the commands of the Lord and the precepts of our venerable teachers and guides.

This was followed by a series of paragraphs ordering implicit obedience to the instructions of the Kahals, and forbidding the leasing of government taxes or estates of the Szlachta and the formation of any commercial companies with non-Jews, without the consent of the Kahals, since such enterprises lead to clashes with, and reproaches against the Jews by, the Christian population. It was also forbidden to transfer Jewish goods into strange hands or to appeal to the Polish authorities merely from a desire to injure the interests of society or to create discord or party conflicts in the communities. In this way the power of the Kahals became very pronounced; and they were aided by the government, which found it more convenient to deal with a few centralized bodies than with a multitude of individuals. Each Kahal was responsible to the government for the action of its individual members, and was required also to collect the taxes (see Jew. Encyc. vii. 409, s.v. Kahal). In time, however, the Kahals began to abuse the power entrusted to them, and frequent complaints were heard against their oppressive rule.

Period of Decadence

The decade from the Cossacks' uprising until after the Swedish war (1648-1658) left a deep and lasting impression not only on the social life of the Polish-Lithuanian Jews, but on their spiritual life as well. The mental level of the Jews gradually sank. The Talmudic learning which up to that period had been the common possession of the majority of the people became accessible to a limited number of students only, while the masses remained in ignorance and superstition. The intellectual activity even of the rabbis fell to a low level; for while it is true that there were still many prominent rabbis in Poland who were men of great Talmudic learning and secular knowledge, they did not leave behind them any such great works as did their predecessors-Solomon Luria, Isserles, Mordecai Jaffe, and Meïr of Lublin. In the very few works that were produced there was noticeable an utter lack of originality. Some rabbis busied themselves with insignificant quibbles concerning religious laws; others wrote commentaries on different parts of the Talmud in which hair-splitting arguments were raised and discussed; and at times these arguments dealt with matters which were of no practical moment. Aaron Samuel Kaidanover (1614-1676), who barely escaped with his life from the Cossacks in 1648, wrote "Birkat ha-Zebaḥ," a commentary on the sacrifices and the abolished rituals of the Temple of Jerusalem. Others, like Abraham Abele Gombiner in his "Magen Abraham," produced commentaries on the Shulḥan 'Aruk. Aside from sophistic argumentations these rabbis recognized no branch of knowledge, either secular or theological.

Side by side with the scholastic writings of the rabbis there flourished also a didactic literature. Such were the productions of the preachers ("darshanim") who occupied prominent positions in the synagogues or traveled from town to town. The collections of contemporary sermons contain a conglomeration of haggadic and cabalistic sayings on which in many cases are based entirely erroneous interpretations of the Biblical text. These darshanim cared little for the enlightenment of their hearers, and were intent solely on making a brilliant display of their own erudition in theological matters. Some preachers endeavored to inculcate in their people an appreciation of the practical Cabala. The works of Isaac Luria and his school were at that time very popular in Poland, and their teachings were spread among the people in the form of monstrous stories concerning the future life, the terrible tortures inflicted on sinners, the transmigration of souls, etc.

Reform Measures

Disorder and anarchy reigned supreme in Poland during the second half of the eighteenth century, from the accession to the throne of its last King, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski (1764-1795). This state of affairs was due to the haughty demeanor of the nobility toward the lower classes. The necessity for reform was, it is true, recognized by the King and by many of the Polish people; but Poland was already in the grasp of Russia, and little could be done in this direction. Jewish affairs were sadly neglected, the government seeking merely the extortion of larger taxes; thus the Diet which met at Warsaw in 1764 for the discussion of measures of reform considered the Jews only to the extent of changing the tax system. Up to that time a polltax had been imposed upon the total number of Jews in Poland, the synod and Diet apportioning it among the different Kahals; but under the new system every individual Jew was taxed two gulden, and every Kahals was responsible for payments by its own members. The already oppressive tax burden was increased by this "reform"; and the central autonomous government which the Jews had until then enjoyed was overthrown. At that time the Szlachta likewise were jealously guarding their own interests; and at the election of the King in 1764 they insisted that Jews should not be permitted to manage any crown lands or to lease taxes or other revenues of the kingdom. Again, in 1768 the Diet revived a law from the old constitution of 1538, to the effect that Jews wishing to engage in any commercial enterprise in the cities must obtain a permit from the local magistracies. In many instances the members of these were Christian merchants and burghers, competitors of the Jews.

First Partition

About this time, and as a direct consequence of the disorganization of Poland, the disastrous incursions of the brigand bands known as the Haidamacks took place. The movement originated in Podolia and in that part of the Ukraine which still belonged to Poland. These and other internal disorders combined to hasten the end of Poland as a kingdom. In 1772 the outlying provinces were divided among the three neighboring nations, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Russia secured a considerable part of the territory now known as White Russia; Austria obtained Galicia and a part of Podolia; while Prussia received Pomerania and the lands lying along the lower Vistula. Jews were most numerous in the territories that fell to the lot of Austria and Russia. The permanent council established at the instance of the Russian government (1777-1788) served as the highest administrative tribunal, and occupied itself with the elaboration of a plan that would make practicable the reorganization of Poland on a more rational basis. The progressive elements in Polish society recognized the urgency of popular education as the very first step toward reform. In 1773 the Order of Jesus in Poland was abolished by Pope Clement XIV, who thus freed Polish youth from the demoralizing influences of Jesuitism. The famous Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Commission of National Education), established in 1775, founded numerous new schools and remodeled the old ones. One of the members of the commission, Andrew Zamoiski, elaborated a project for the reorganization of the social life of the Jews (1778). The author demanded that the inviolability of their persons and property should be guaranteed and that religious toleration should be to a certain extent granted them; but he insisted that Jews living in the cities should be separated from the Christians, that those of them having no definite occupation should be banished from the kingdom, and that even those engaged in agriculture should not be allowed to possess land. This shows how deeply hatred of the Jew was rooted in the hearts of the Polish nobility and how difficult it was for even the best of them to consider the Jewish question from an unbiased point of view. In 1786 certain members of the Polish nobility conspired with the Catholic clergy, the governor-general, and others, and sent delegates to St. Petersburg with the object of depriving the Jews of the right to farm taxes and customs duties and to engage in distilling, brewing, etc. It should be mentioned, however, that among the clergy there were many who were friendly to the Jews. At the Quadrennial Diet (1788-1791) the demand for reform grew stronger. Matheus Butrymowicz, a deputy to the Diet, published in 1789 a pamphlet in which he strongly condemned the lack of toleration, and advised that equality of rights and citizenship should be granted to the Jews. Tadeusz Czacki, the author and statesman, was even more liberal; and in his well-known "Rozprawa o Zydach," etc. ("Discourse on the Jews"), he advocated the establishment of separate institutions by the Jews for the management of their religious affairs. In June, 1790, a special commission was appointed by the [Sejm|Diet]] to frame a measure for the reform of the social life of the Jews. At the head of this commission was Ezerski, and Butrymowicz was one of its members. Two projects were submitted: one by Hugo Kollontaj, and the other, as some suppose, by King Stanislaus himself, of which the chief feature was the recognition, in the national system of government, of the civil and political equality of the Jews. This was the only example in modern Europe before the French Revolution of tolerance and broad-mindedness in dealing with the Jewish question. But all these proposed reforms were too late. Through the intrigues and bribery of Catherine II of Russia the Confederation of Targowica was formed, to which belonged the adherents of the old order of things. A Russian army invaded Poland, and soon after a Prussian one followed.

The Second and Third Partitions

A second [Partitions of Poland|partition of Poland]] was made July 17, 1793, Russia taking a large part of White Russia, half of Volhynia, all of Podolia, and the part of the Ukraine which had previously been retained by Poland, and Germany taking Great Poland (Poznan).

A general rising of the Poles took place in 1794. Tadeusz Kosciuszko was made dictator, and succeeded in driving the Russians out of Warsaw. Dissensions, however, arose among the Poles, and the Russians and Prussians again entered Poland. Kosciuszko was decisively defeated at Maciejowice Oct. 10, 1794; Alexander Suvorov entered Warsaw Nov. 8, and Polish resistance came to an end. The Jews took an active part in this last struggle of Poland for independence. A certain Berek Joselewicz formed with the permission of Kosciuszko a regiment of light cavalry consisting entirely of Jews. This regiment accomplished many deeds of valor on the field of battle and distinguished itself especially at the siege of Warsaw, nearly all its members perishing in the defense of Praga, the fortified suburb of the capital.

The third and final partition of Poland took place in 1795. Russia acquired the whole of Lithuania and Courland; Austria, the remainder of Galicia, and Podolia, including Cracow; Prussia, the rest of Poland, including Warsaw, the capital; and there-with Poland ceased to exist as an independent country. The great bulk of the Jewish population was transferred to Russia, and thus became subjects of that empire.

Jews in Poland within Russian Empire

• Pale of Settlement
• History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union

Interwar period 1918-1939

At the time the WWII erupted, Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe. According to 1931 National Census there were 3,130,581 Polish Jews measured by the declaration of the religion. Additionally, 85% of Polish Jews listed Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language. Estimating the population increase and the emigration from Poland between 1931 and 1939, it is accepted that 3,474,000 lived in Poland as of September 1, 1939 (10% of total population). Jews were primarily centered in large and smaller cities: 77% lived in cities and 23% in the villages.

During the school year of 1937-1938 there were 226 elementary schools and 12 high schools as well as 14 vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language. At this same time 130 periodicals were published in Yiddish or Hebrew, among them were 11 scholarly publications and 94 general interest or literary publications. During the course of 1937, there appeared in Poland a total of 443 non-periodical publications (books and brochures in Yiddish and Hebrew in a total print run of 675,000 volumes. There were 15 theatres and theatrical groups performing in Yiddish. Concurrently Polish intelligentsia of Jewish origin took an active part in Polish community live. Very many of the scholars, writers, performers, artists, musicians, theatrical performers, journalists, doctors, lawyers, etc. helped enliven the intellectual movement and the development of scholarship and art in the reborn Polish nation.

Jewish political parties, both the Socialist Bund, as well as groupings of the Zionist right and left wing and religious conservative movements, were represented in Sejm (Polish Parliament) and quite frequently also in the regional councils. Warsaw at the start of WWII had 20 Jewish council member while in Lodz there were 17.

WWII and the Destruction of Polish Jewry

Main article: Holocaust.

During the campaign of Polish September Campaign of 1939, some 120,000 Jewish Polish citizens took part in battles with the Germans as member of the Polish Armed Forces. It is estimated that as many as 32,216 Jewish soldiers and officers died and 61,000 were taken prisoner by the Germans, of which the great number did not survive. The soldiers and non-commissioned officer who were released ultimately found themselves in the ghettos and labor camps and suffered the same fate as other Jewish civilians.

Soviet-Occupied Poland

In partitioned, according to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland 61.2% (according to 1931 census) of Polish Jews found themselves under German occupation while 38.8% were in Soviet-occupied territory. Based on population migration from West to East during and after the Polish September Campaign the percentage of Jews in the Soviet-occupied areas was probably higher than that of 1931 census. Among Polish officers killed by NKVD in 1941 Katyn Massacre there were 500-600 Jews. Between 1939-1941 between 100,000-300,000 of Polish Jews were deported from Soviet-occupied Polish territory into Soviet Union. Some of them, especially Polish Communists (e.g. Jakub Berman) moved voluntarily, however, most of them were forcibly deported to Gulags. Small number of Polish Jews (6,000) was able to leave Soviet Union in 1942 with the Wladyslaw Anders army, among them future Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin. During the Polish II Corps army stay in British Mandate of Palestine, 67% (2,972) of Jewish soldiers deserted, many to join Irgun.

German-Occupied Poland

The Polish Jewish community suffered the most in the massacres of the Holocaust. About 3 million Jews (all but about 300,000-500,000 of the Jewish population) died of starvation in ghettos and labor camps or were killed at the Nazi extermination camps of Oswiecim (Auschwitz II), Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibór, Chelmno. Many Jews in what was then eastern Poland also fell victim to Nazi death squads called Einsatzgruppen which massacred Jews, especially in 1941.

Some of these massacres were carried out with help with, or even active participation by, Poles. For example, the Massacre in Jedwabne, in which up to 1,600 Jews were tortured and beaten to death, was performed by the citiziens of Jedwabne, with little or no direct German encouragement or assistance. The full extent of Polish participation in the slaughter of the Polish Jewish community remains a controversial subject, but the Polish Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) identified 22 other towns that had pogroms similar to Jedwabne.[1]

The Germans also established a number of ghettos in which Jews were confined, and eventually killed. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest, with 380,000 people and Lódz, the second largest, holdingabout 160,000. Other Polish cities with large Jewish ghettos included Bialystok, Czestochowa, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Lvóv, and Radom. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by the German Generalgouverneur of Poland Hans Frank on October 16, 1940. At this time, the population of the Ghetto was estimated to be about 380,000 people, about 30% of the population of Warsaw. However, the size of the Ghetto was about 2.4% of the size of Warsaw. Nazis then closed off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world on November 16th that year, building a wall. During the next year and a half, Jews from smaller cities and villages were brought into the Ghetto, while diseases (especially typhoid) and starvation (rations for Jews were officially limited to just 184 kcal per day, as opposed to 1,800 for Poles and 2,400 for Germans in Warsaw) kept the inhabitants at about the same number.

On July 22, 1942, the mass expulsion of the inhabitants started; in the next 52 days (till September 12, 1942) about 300,000 people were taken to the Treblinka extermination camp or murdered on the spot. In 1943, the remaining members of the ghetto attempted to resist, briefly succeeding before being killed in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Poland was the only occupied country during World War II where the Nazis formally imposed the Death penalty for anybody found sheltering Jews. Despite these draconian measures by the Nazi Germans, Poland has the highest amount of Righteous Among The Nations awards at the Yad Vashem Museum.

The Polish Government in Exile was also the first (in November 1942) [2] to reveal the existence of concentration camps and the systematic extermination of the Jews by the Nazis, through its courier Jan Karski. The Polish Government in Exile was also the only government to set up an organisation Zegota specifically aimed at helping the Jews in Poland [3].

Communist rule 1944-1989

Post-War

Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the WWII in Poland in hiding or in the Polish or Russian partisan units. Another 50,000-170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union and 20,000-40,000 from Germany and other countries. At its post-war peak, there were 180,000-240,000 Jews in Poland settled mostly in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, and Wroclaw.

Soon after the end of the Second World War, Jews began to flee Poland. Prompted by renewed anti-Jewish violence, especially the Kielce pogrom of 1946; the refusal of the Communist regime to return pre-war Jewish property; and a desire to leave destroyed by the Holocaust communities and build the new life in the British Mandate of Palestine, 100,000-120,000 Jews left Poland between 1945-1948. Their departure was largely organized by the Zionist activists in Poland such as Adolf Berman and Yitzhak Zuckerman under the umbrella of a semi-clandestine organization Berihah (Flight). Berihah was also responsible for organized emigration of Jews from Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia totaling 250,000 (including Poland) of the Holocaust survivors. A second wave of Jewish emigration (50,000) took place during the liberalization of the Communist regime between (1957-1959).

For those Polish Jews who remained, the rebuilding of the Jewish life in Poland was carried between October of 1944 and 1950 by the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydow Polskich, CKŻP) headed by Bund activist S. Herszenhorn. CKŻP was providing legal, educational, social care, cultural, and propaganda services. A country-wide Jewish Religious Community, led by David Kahane who served as chief rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, was functioning between 1945 and 1948 until it was absorbed by the CKŻP. Eleven independent political Jewish parties, of which eight were legal, existed until their dissolution during 1949-1950.

A large percentage of Polish Jews participated in the establishment of the Communist regime in Poland between 1944-1956 holding, among others, prominent posts in the Politbiuro of the Polish United Worker's Party (e.g. Jakub Berman, Hilary Minc - responsible for establishing Communist-style economy), and the security apparatus Urzad Bezpieczenstwa (UB). After 1956, during the process of de-Stalinisation in Poland under Wladyslaw Gomulka regime, some Urzad Bezpieczenstwa officials including Roman Romkowski (b. Natan Grunsapau-Kikiel), Jacek Różański (b. Jozef Goldberg), Anatol Fejgin were prosecuted for "power abuses" including the torture of the Polish anti-Comunist patriots and sentenced to long prison terms. Józef Światło, (b. Izak Fleichfarb), a Urzad Bezpieczenstwa official, after escaping in 1953 to the West exposed through Radio Free Europe the methods of the UB which led to its dissolution in 1954.

Some Jewish cultural institutions were established including the Yiddish State Theater founded in 1950 and directed by Ida Kaminska [4], the Jewish Historical Institute [5] an academic institution specializing in research of history and culture of the Jews in Poland, and the Yiddish newspaper Folks-shtime (The People's Voice).

From 1967-1989

In 1967, following the Six Day War, Poland broke-off its diplomatic relations with Israel. In March of 1968 student-led demonstrations in Warsaw sparked the state-sponsored "anti-Zionist" campaign resulting in removal of Jews from the Polish United Worker's Party and the public services jobs including teaching positions in schools and universities. Due to the economic, political and police pressure, 25,000 Jews were forced to emigrate during the 1968-1970.

During the late 1970s some Jewish activists were engaged in the anti-Communist opposition groups. Most prominent among them, Adam Michnik was one of the founders of the Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR). By the time of the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989, only 5,000-10,000 Jews have remained.

1989-present

With the fall of the Communism in Poland, Jewish cultural, social, and religious life has been undergoing a revival. Many historical issues, especially related to WWII and the 1944-1989 period, suppressed by the Communist censorship has been reevaluated and publicly discussed (.e.g. Massacre in Jedwabne, Koniuchy Massacre, Auschwitz cross, Polish-Jewish wartime relations [6], [7]).

Jewish religious life has been revived with the help of the Ronald Lauder Foundation, the Polish Jewish community employed two rabbis, operated a small network of Jewish schools and summer camps, and sustained several Jewish periodicals and book series events. In 1993 Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland has been establish with the aim to organize the religious and cultural life of the members of the communities in Poland.

Academic Jewish studies programs were established at Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Krakow became home to Judaica Foundation [8], which has sponsored a wide range of cultural and educational programs on Jewish themes for a predominantly Polish audience.

Government relations between Poland and Israel are steadily improving, resulting in the mutual visits of presidents and the ministers of foreign affairs. Polish government will finance the construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews [9] in Warsaw.

In September 2000, dignitaries from Poland, Israel, the United States, and other countries (including Prince Hassan of Jordan) gathered in the city of Oswiecim (new Auschwitz camp) to commemorate the opening of the refurbished Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue and the Auschwitz Jewish Center. The synagogue, the sole synagogue in Oswiecim to survive World War II and an adjacent Jewish cultural and educational center, provide visitors a place to pray and to learn about the active pre-World War II Jewish community that existed in Oswiecim. The synagogue was the first communal property in the country to be returned to the Jewish community under the 1997 law allowing for restitution of Jewish communal property.

In April 2001, during the 13th March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau to honor victims of the Holocaust, several hundred citizens joined 2,000 marchers from Israel and other countries. Government officials participating in the march included Members of Parliament, the province's governor, and Oswiecim's mayor and city council chairman. Schoolchildren, boy scouts, the Polish-Israeli Friendship Society [10], and the Polish Union of Jewish Students (PUSZ) also participated in the march. In May 2001, several hundred students from around the world marched through the town in The March of Remembrance and Hope.

In April 2002, during the 14th March of the Living [11] from Auschwitz to Birkenau to honor victims of the Holocaust, several hundred citizens joined 1,500 marchers from Israel and other countries.

In 2000, Poland's Jewish population was estimated to have risen to as many as 10,000 or 12,000. With Poland joining the European Union, a number of Israeli Jews are emigrating to Poland, although it is not clear how many intend to remain in Poland or are using Poland as a stepping-stone to the more prosperous nations of Western Europe.

References

• Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, After the Holocaust, East European Monographs, 2003, ISBN 0880335114.
• Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, Lexington Books, 2004, ISBN 0739104845.
• Gershon David Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity, University of California Press, 2004, ISBN 0520238443.
• Ivo Cyprian Pogonowski, Jews in Poland. A Dcumentary History, Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1998, ISBN 0781806046.

External links

• The Association of "Children of the Holocaust" in Poland
• Diapozytyw. Contemporary Jewish Life in Poland
• Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland
• Jewish Historical Institute
• Jewish Community in Poland
• Jews in Poland

Related articles

• Anti-Semitism
• History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
• Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków
• Kazimierz
• Koniuchy Massacre
• List of Polish Jews
• Relations of Pope John Paul II with the Jewish People
• Righteous Among the Nations
• Zegota