Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/505

457 — THE JEWISH ENX'YCLOPEDIA

467 ("Urkundenb." nianii.

v.

177).

On

Dec. 29,

tlie

council

announced that a certain one of the Jews under its protection,

of C'olmar

also

Ikt;hail,

un<ier torture, accused Jacob, the cantor of the 8ynu},'ogue of Strdsburg, of liavinfr sent him tlie poison which he put in the wells of Colniar: one of his cousins, a woman named Bela, had similarly poisoned the wells of Anunerschweier. Notwithstanding these accusations, the chief magistrates, influenced no doubt as nuicli by self interest as by humanity, continued to protect the Jewish conununity oftheircity. Buta general uprising, instigated by the civic magnates and the neighboring nobles possibly also by the clergy itself broke out at Strasburg in February, 1349. The coiincillor, Peter Swarber, and his two colleagues were deposed, nudcted Afterward the new in heavy tines, and expelled. conununal authorities constituted by this revolutionary movement decreed the extermination of all the !Strasl)urg Jews as well as of all Jewish refugees At this time there residing temiiorarily in the city. •were barely 3, (Mill Jews having settled dwellingplaces in the citv, which contained, at most, l.j,000 or -MMH) inhabitants all told. On St. Valentine's day (February 14), 1849, the Jews in Strasburg' the city were burnt in mu-xKC on the

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the Scene of site of their own eemelery, A small luimber who had abjured their faith, a Holecaust. togelher with some cliildren, were saved, the latter being snatched from the flames. The number of the victims of this horrible holocaust has been greatly exaggerated by tra-

("Chronique de Ku'nigshoven," i)p. 7l-7t)4). Undoubtedly they owed thi'ir fate chielly to their

dition

the chronicler: " Irgelte vas Juden geloedel wurden " (TJK'ir money was the cause of the .lews' death Other Jews were burnt at SehlettstadI together with a supposed Christian accomidice (" Irkundeid)." v. 19.")). At C'olmar and in other towns the Jews were sacrificed without being luard in their own defense; only at Landau, where they were numerous, was an attempt at defense made, and there without success. The imperial authorities did ab.solutely nothing to I)rotect the Mtrri minti'ip itiijierinlis {servants of the imperial ehamberl, as the Jews were then called in (he Holy i{oman Emjiire. In Aiuil, i:!49, Charles IV. of (Jermany laiil claim to the proceeds of all the loans maile by the .lews of Strasburg to the Count On June "), i;5t9, a defensive alliof Wrirlemberg. ance was formed between the munieiiial authorities of Stnisburg. the bishop of Strasburg. and the Abbot of .Iurbach, the Coinit of Wi'irlemberg, anil a number of other Alsatian grandees, to re)iel any attempt to inc|uiie into the massacre. Some months later Charles IV. absolved the people of Spiyer from all responsibilitv for the ina.s.sacre of Februarv (I.,etter of Sept. 12,"l34«, •• Trkundenb." v. 2(IT), These attempts at extermination did not annihilate the Jews of Alsace nor prevent accessions to heir number. The proper names recordid in the authorities cited ])rove that the greater pari of the. lews who dwell in Alsace ilurinir the fnurleenlh century came from the right bank of the liliine. In li!o(! Ihere weri' .lews

Wealth, as isattestcd

bj'

ouch die saehe davon

dii'

I.

I

again at .Miildliausen for Petri (" .MUhlhauser (Jeschhihten." p. 4.")) gives an aicoinit of a Jew in lliat town w ho had been apprehended by the lord of Neuenslein, thru.st into a sack, and carried to FrancheComte in order that nuisoin might be exiorteil from him. In granting new franchises to the town of Ilagonaii. Charles IV. accorded ti) it the riirht to receive

C

or to reject at will ]iroteeled .lews .lsntia lllustrata," v. 247); and in |:'.T4 he evtendcd the same

Alsace

privilege to the city of Kaisersberg (ih. v. 293). Jews were living at Colmar in 138.">. In 1369 Jews were again admit ted to Strasburg C'Urkundeid). " v. 71.')). An ordinance (Judi iiiinluiin;/) concerning them, dated ^Nlay 14, 137.5, refers to the presence of a dozen families ("Urkundenb." v. 880); another, issued in 1383, directs that they be treated and protected as other citizens (" Lrkiindenb. " vi. 89); and a short time afterward, on the reeonunendation of the Count of Attinger, sixteen families were admitted from Ulm. Bretten, BreLsach. We.sel, and Mosheim (" Urkundenb." vi. 9.")). In 1384 the mayor ajjpointed a Jew, .Maitre Gulleben, as physician, with a .salary of three hundred crowns (about S3G0 nominal) per anninii. Although the community was not large, it nuist have been rich, as in 138.5 the Count Palatine Robert alone owed the .Tews of Strasburg the sum of 1.5,40 tl. (S7,700 nominal; see "Urkundenb." vi. 143). Undoubtedly their wealth was a r'onstant source of menace to them; for King Wenceslaus of (iermany (Fell. 6, 1380) ordered the municipality to enforce against the Jews sumptuary laws in matters of dress, and to require them to resume the yellow .shoes and sugar-loaf hats formerly worn by them ("Urkundenb." vi. 162; see B.I)<;k). The same year the mayor lined them 20.000 ti. (§10,t)00). In 1387, delegates from the Rhenish cities assembleil at Speyer (where in 1385 they had considered the Jewish (piestion) and adojited resolutions iinmiial to the Jews. On the demand of he delegates from Strasliurg it was resolved that neither male nor female Christians be allowed to act as iloniestic servants or wet-nurses in Jewish families, under penalty of being branded on th(^ forehead ("Urkundenb." vi. 204). During this year King Weneeslaus placeil under the ban all Jews of Colmar, Schli'ttstatlt.and Ilagenau who refused to pay the taxes he demanileil for their protection, and even included three imjierial cities that had retained for themselves such .Jewish <ontributions (" Urkundenb." vi. 194). In the month of June a Jew of Italian or French origin (Mamelot der Morschele, dor "Walch) chanced to enter thi' cathedral of Strasburg; and though he had done nothing objectionable, lie was beaten by the verger, expelied, and threatened with drowning if he should reenter the city (" Urkundenb." vi.l98). The Jews were a source of considerable revenue to the lily treasury. They numbered al that lime about Iweiilv families, who paid an annual lax of 727 fl. (^36.5. .50 nominal); and the richest one among them, culled in the records "der rvche Sigmuiul," paid 203 II. (.'i;i01..59; see "Urkundenb." vi. 211). In the autumn a new and much graver peri! threatcnid the .lsalian .Jews. weaver of Bi.schheim. named l.auwelin. was accused of having olTered his own child to the Jews of Strasburg for a ritual sactloiditless under torture ritice, and was convicted of he crime; anil as a punishment his eyes were put out ("Urkundenb." vi. 207). By the beginning of the year 138H the entire Jewish community was expelled and their real estate contiscated a condition which was maintained initil the Freiiih Revolution of 1793. In 1392 thesMrg ("Chronique de Kienigshoveii," pp. 97.5986). Colmar was also the scene of acl.s of violence w hich did not eiiil so brutally. Weneeslaus annulled all the claims of the Jews of that city against their Christ ian debtors in 1392 (Mossniann. "Jiiifs de ColIn 1397another story of poisoned wells iiHir." p. 8). was circulated in Upi>er .lsace through a certain .lew of Ribeaiiville, whose confessions implicated fresh vicliins (SchreiluT." Freiliurgi r Urkundenb," ii. 108). The liftcenth century was a period of comparative I

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