Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/507

459 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

469 increase.

In Colniar. Stlilcttstadt. and Kaiscrsbersr

tStitisbur!;. with inliabitant a very bad grace, tolerated the presence of the family of the chief coniniissjiry of the army, Cerf-Heer,

there

was not a Jewish



Hagcnau been api)ointed l)y Louis XV. Jews, Hosheim 26«, Buchsweilef 2ilT. Kibeauville 285, Landau 145. Weis-senburg 165. and

w

lio liad

liad



vii")

"

(il)erMai 1!H!. But cerlain small cities of I'pper Alsace bad Jewish ])opulalions that outnumbiTcd the At Darmeiiach there were 'MU Jews, at Cliiislian. lleireMJieim 4(li), Niederhairenthal 'i'><'>. Wintzenheini 3x1. ZillislK'im mar .Miilliausen 38'J. Biselihcim. a suburl) of the cily of Sirasburi;. 473 (" Deiiombrenienf (Tenerul lies Juifs d'Alsjice." Colmar. 1TS5). This rapid increa.s<' in i>opulation naturally added With the to Ihe ilil)iedties of earnins; a livelihood. liberal professions and the larger channels of tra<le closed to them, what could the Jews do? In the cities they were not cimsidered eligible to membership in the gilds of (nides and handicrafts; besides, the greater numbir of them were scattered over the country. Their own legitimate avenues of trade Were cattle-dealing and Ihe selling of second-hand goods. These were insuflicieut for their support and they resorted to the lending of money on notes or mortgages, at an unfixed rate of interest often

amounting to usury. The most hostile authors agree in depicting the Alsiitian Jews of the en<l of the eighteenth century as poorly fed. clnlheil in rags. anil pos.sessing only a limited capital, which they loaned, and on Ihe interest of w hich lliey realized enough lo support themselves. Theanlijiathy of the masses to them never died out, though toward Ihe

seventeenth century the humiliating had been ordered to wear disappeared. A copy of this badge a small yellow disk, which was a ti ached lotlnirclollies is found in Le Cornelius Kedivivus" of King Louis XIIL. cnpnived in 11117. If no longer niassjicred (albeit in 1(557 a mob at Dachstein burned several Jews), they middle of the

badge that

thev

—

—

••

from extortions and exactions. by narrow and tyrannical regulacities where they were received with

sutTered none the They were beset tions,

even

in

les,s

more than ordinary loleralion. Thus a decree of Ihe Archduke Leopold of Austria (.May 22, 1(!13) regu laled everything iiertaining

lo their

Attitude of publicand private life, and proliibited them from acipiiring real eslale. By Leopold of Austria. Iliis decree Ihey could not recover notes of credit against Christians until after they had been recorded by the registrar or They were prohibiled from j)riivost of Ihe locality. liiiurs, and fnim employing Chrislian servants on Kor Ihe privilege of passing holidays or Sundays.
 * >ubli<ly celebrating their religious riles, from shelliring a slniuire Jew for more than forly-eight

from one town ])ay

a

sjieeial

lo

tax

another Ihey were comiielleil lo (.fiiiliiiznll).

When

Alstice

came

under the dominion of France the condition of Ihe Ji'ws was not amellonited. At tirat Louis XIV. or his miiusters inclined toward llieir expulsion (lfi51); later, by virtue of letters patent issued Sept. 25, l<i57, the king look them under his special protecliul thai did not prevent the lord-lieulenant. I'oncet de la Kiviere. from levying upon them, in Ili72. an aildilioii.il lax for roval proleetion (in additiiin to thai which Ihey paid to the lord of the manor direct), which amounted lo KIJ 11. (S,').25l per family. The Ji'Ws soon learned how lo make them selves usefid lo Ihe new goveriunent as agi'iils and as farmers of Ihe revenues of those who held monopolies of Ihe Side of salt. iron, and otiierminerals; above all, it was not long before Ihey were eonsid ered necessary to provide rcinouuls for thf inVMl linn,

Alsace

After the Peace of the (juestion arose how Ixist to relieve Ihe province of its Jewish population. But the War of the Spanish Succession afEflfect forded new opportunities to the Jews of Peace of to render special services, and on Jan. Kyswick. 31, 1713, Pontchartrain notified the l)iovineial and local authorities that the king did not deem it tit lo expel them. Throughout the eighteeulh century the condition of the Jews became more and more precarious. Though, at Ihe close of Ihe preceding century. La Grangi' had been able to say C'Memoires," p. 239), "There were very few of them who were in easy circumstances, and none whom one might call rich," this was now: even more the case. In the Sundgau the haired of Ihe farmei-s, who had been ruined by Jewish usurers, grew apace, anil a series of decrees of the Sovereign Council. Ihe parliament of ALsace, served to remind the Jews of the fact that they lived there only through the royal toleration. Thus, in 172(i, the Council orilereil tiie destruction of the three synagogues of Wintzenheim, Bischheim. and Ilagenthal, which had been built without sovereign aulliorily in 1733 the king forbade the Jews to l)akc their bread on Sundays in 1740 they were forbidden to dwell in the same houses with Christians, even though the Christians consented. All illicit intercourse between a Jew and a Christian woman was iiunishable by Ihi- gallows, or at the least the galleys for life, for the man; Ihe woman being condemned to seclusion and a flogging. From the date of the French coniiuest of Alsace, the organization of the Jewish comnuinities of that Formerly each l)rovince became more centralized. lord of the manor, where the Jews were sullicieutly numerous to warrant it. appointed a chief over Ihe conimuiiiiy a rabbi who was eulrusled with the adminislrationof all the religious funccavalry that garrisoned Alsace.

Hyswick

(16i»7)





—

Status of the Rabbis,

tionsof Iheconununity. and

who acted

also as common judge in all the civil suits between Jews, the hiller having the privilege of ai)pcal from the rabOver these binical tribunal to the .superior courts. ralibis the government of Louis XIV. appointed a sulierior; and on ^lay 21, 1681. nominated Aaron Wormsir chief rabbi of the Jews of I'pper and Lower Alsace, selling his residence at St. Louis de Brisach, and later at Colmar. At Ihe outset this innovation

met with opposition from thosi' most concerned. In 17(<4, Samuel Levy, the successor of Worniser. had much to contend with from reealcitmni mbbis and dilini|uent laymen, and the Sovereign Council authorized him to pronounce excominunicaliou upon

them. Little is known of the internal life of Ihe .le wish conuuunities of Alsace during the ei.ghteeiilh ceuturv: and oidy a very vague idea can be formed of One llirtzel their inlelleclual and moral condition. Levi of Wettolsheim, condemned for armed robln'ry on false evidence and sentenced lo be broken on the wheel at Colmar, Dec. 31, 1754, was exonerated by a decree of the Parliament of Melz. Sept. 24. 175.5. The dark side of the Jewish iiue.slion of that lime is shown in the long and signiliiani suit over forged receipts that engaged public attention in I'pper .lsace during 1778 and 177U. It appears that Ihe peasiuits .strove lo avoid llieir debts by Ihe aid of forged receipts, made wholeside and Forged Receipts, sold to them by a number of daring swindlers, most of w hum were caught ami piiiushed with imprisomneiit, the pillorv, or at I'hc disthe siallevs, or with death on the gallows. appointment of the peasants, who had been iluped