Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/706

656 Belgium

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belgrade

Jews of Flanders. They do not seem at any time to have attained, like their brethren in Spain and France, any importance in the world of learning of the

and

science, but appear to have been successful as physicians, bankers, and handicraftsmen. There is no mention of any scholars of note among them or of persons rising to positions of influence in the state

except one or two financiers. Since, however, every vestige of written record has been swept away, it is impossible to say what their status really was. Yet, despite this almost total ignorance concerning the Belgian ghettos, many traces of their existence in every part of the country are still to be found. This is especially the case with the street nomenclature of nearly every Belgian town, which usually includes a " Jodeustraat " or " Rue des Juifs. Of those in ancient Brabant are the " Joden Trappen " or "Escaliers des Juifs," a group of five small streets situated near the hill De la Cour in Brussels; the " Jodenstraat " in Antwerp and in Louvain, and streets of like name in Cumptich, Tirlemont, Mons, Wasmes, Grosage, Bavai, Maroilles, Sains, Ghent, Looz, Spalbeek, Eupen, etc. In Tirlemont the Castel, formerly " Joden-Castel," was, without doubt, the ancient synagogue. reminiscence of Jonathan, the banker, who was the head of the Brabant Jews at the time of the massacre in Brussels, is the Maison de Jonathas in the middle of Enghien. A vast

A

plain situated outside the walls of that city also bears his name Jardin de Jonathas. Many other localities and buildings with Jewish associations existed, the traces of which have nearly disappeared. Such are the " Jodenpoel," a fishery of the Jews of Brussels; the "Jodenborch" (synagogue) of Louvain, and the Chateau des Juifs in the Jodenstraat at Wommerson, near Tirlemont. Foulon, the historian of Liege, states that the Chinstree of that town i.e., Dog street and a street of similar name in Huy derived their appellation from the former residence of Jews there, the name being evidently one of derision.

—

—

The same fate of oblivion which has befallen their records has also attended the burial-places of the Jews of Belgium. The only memorial of that faroff past has come to light in the shape Scarcity of a white stone with a Hebrew inof Becords. scription found in 1872 in the grounds

of a hospital at Tirlemont. Considering its age, the epitaph is well preserved it reads as follows

nnni3» nnv: jom inn p« npai rno wtrb

656

pforte of Luxemburg, declares that, before the extension of the city on that side, the remains of a Jewish cemetery existed in its vicinity. Neither the archives of the various Belgian states and duchies nor the writings of local antiquaries and historians have yielded much toward any fuller elucidation of the history of the Jews of Belgium. The documents extant referring to them are exceedingly few. One, the safe-conduct edict, to which reference has already been made, is interesting for the names that ''

it

gives: Elie de Maroel

Ms

his cousin and son son; Benoit, Ms sonin-law Le Malstre des Juifs ; Maistre Deie-le-Sire Jacob Baron, Jole Salomon de Doullers Isaak de Peronne Belevigne, Ms son-in-law Maistre Sause Jacob de Miekegnies Michel de Pons ; Amendanc, his uncle Maistre Sause Amendanc Jacob de Foriest Hagins de Peronne Abraham de Nueville Sause de Crespin Maistre Lyon d'Ath Abraham de Foriest; Hastee ; Oursiel (brother of Lyon d'Ath); Floris de Mons (daughter of Maistre Elie). Eliot,



valet

Douce



Abraham-le-MIrre de Binche; Benoit,



Ms































The

list includes a rabbi and five physicians the were merchants and bankers. The other documents comprise deeds and charters of the usual kind obtaining in the Middle Ages, and relate to the sale of property and to bonds for debts. M. Van Even (in " Louvain Monumental ") cites a passage from a charter of the Abbey d'Averbode, dated 1311, wherein Rabbi Moses sells to Jean Van Rode, advocate, a house situated in the "Jews' street, " near the cemetery of St. Peter of Louvain

rest



" Moyse9 Judeus, Judeorum presbyter, cum debita eflestucatione tradit domum et curtem cum suis pertinentiis sitam in vico in quo Judei nunc commorantur juxta atrium S. Petri, Johanni de Eode Causidico."

The only Hebrew document discovered in the royal archives is a memorandum on the margin of a bond contracted Oct. 26, 1344, to which Wilhemote delle Porte de Rosieres Notre-Dame, debtor, and Master Sause, a Jew of Blaton, creditor, subscribe their names. The memorandum terms of the deed

is

summary

a

nbidSn oninn

KTTn 'J

ly

bi

nr

bn -n NQ-nfifn

bo

-isian

dw

of the

yns

nvni

d^hj

'j

mm

'mcaj?

avm

KDTIS^T hkd^ix -nm '» oninn nr by D'cnp'i ism dijijid

yn

m

aea rnesjK> ne>o 'i wsbx n&an rue> ]iy

fj'i

iiniji

lTojn 3"n

The archives of the Cote d'Or of Dijon contain two registers of Hebrew documents relating to transactions carried on by an association of Jews in France, Germany, and Belgium

"

This stone is inscribed and placed at the head of Mistress Rebekah, daughter of R. Moses, who passed away ... in the year 5016 (1255-56). May she rest

Garden of Eden

The word TT1N is evidently a misreading for nntf. The only other trace of a Jewish cemetery is mentioned by the Abbe d'Echterin the

!

"

nach, Jean BerteLwho, in speaking of the "Juden-



and those of Luxemburg,

notably of the castle of Clairvaux, have likewise many documents dealing with money transactions

between Jews and the aristocracy. It does not appear that any formal decree of banishment was issued against the Jews of Belgium and it is very likely that after the massacre of 1370 there were fugitive Jews and their families who