Jewish history of Regensburg
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, reaches back over 1,000 years. The Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
of Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
are part of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n Jewry; Regensburg was the capital of the Upper Palatinate
Upper Palatinate
The Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
and formerly a free city
Free city
Free city may refer to:* City-state, region controlled exclusively by a sovereign city* Free city a self-governed city during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial eras* Free City , album by the St...
of the German empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. The great age of the Jewish community in this city is indicated by the tradition that a Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
colony existed there before the common era; it is undoubtedly the oldest Jewish settlement in Bavaria of which any records exist.
Early history
The earliest historical reference to Jews in Ratisbon (Regensburg) is in a document of 981, where it is stated that the monastery of St. Emmeram bought a piece of property from the Jew Samuel (Aronius, "Regesten," No. 135). The Jewish quarter, "Judæorum habitacula," is mentioned as early as the beginning of the eleventh century (1006–28), and is the oldest German ghetto to which there is any reference in historical sources (Aronius, l.c. No. 150). The Jews were granted their first privileges there in a charter of 1182. Therein Emperor Frederick I. confirmed the rights they had received by the favor of his predecessors, and assigned to them, as to their coreligionists throughout the empire, the status of chamber servants (see Kammer knechtschaft). But their political position became complicated later by the circumstance that the emperor transferred them to the dukes of Lower Bavaria without releasing them from their obligations as chamber servants. To these overlords the Jews of Ratisbon were pawned in 1322 for the yearly sum of 200 pounds of Ratisbon pfennigs; but they were also subject to taxation by the municipal council of the city, though they received some compensation in the fact that thereby they secured the protection of the city council against the excessive demands of the emperor and the dukes.History of the Community
During the first Crusade (1096) the community suffered like many others in Germany. Later anold chronicle says with reference to the persecutions that took place in Franconia and Swabia in 1298 (See Rindfleisch): "The citizens of Ratisbon desired to honor their city by forbidding the persecution of the Jews or the slaying of them without legal sentence." The wave of fanaticism which swept over Germany in 1349 was checked at Ratisbon, in a similar spirit, by the declaration of the magistrates and the citizens that they would protect and defend their Jews. The municipal council again shielded them by punishing only the guilty when, in 1384, a riot occurred because some Jews had been convicted of giving false returns of their property to the tax-assessor. The protestations of the magistrates, however, could not protect their wards against the exactions of the emperor Wenzel when (1385–90) he replenished his purse by contributions levied upon the German Jews. In the following years they were again heavily taxed by both emperor and dukes, and in 1410 the magistrates, tired of ineffectual protest, took part in the game of spoliation by making an agreement with the duke that the Jews should pay 200 florins a year to him and 60 pounds a year to the city, extraordinary taxes to be divided between the two.. This marks the turning-point in the history of the Jews of Ratisbon, who were henceforth abandoned to their fate; religious intolerance and social prejudice threatened their very existence.Persecutions
After the Jews had been expelled from the various Bavarian territories Duke Ludwig the Wealthy, Palsgrave of the Rhine, demanded in 1452 that the Jews should be driven from Ratisbon as well. Though the city council did not at first accede to this demand, it ordered the Jews henceforth to wear the badge. A chronic persecution now began, aided especially by the clergy; and a number of sensational accusations of ritual murder were brought against the community and its rabbi, presaging its approaching destruction despite the repeated and energetic intervention of the emperor. In 1486 the duke placed their taxation entirely in the hands of the city council, "that the expulsion might be effected the sooner." The preacher of the cathedral, Dr. Balthazar Hubmaier, incited the people from the pulpit, and the more prudent counselors who still dared to take the part of the Jews were mockingly called "Jew kings." The ghetto was threatened with boycott, although imperial influence shielded it until the interregnum following the death of Emperor Maximilian in 1519. Then 500 Jews had to leave the city, after they themselves had demolished the interior of their venerable synagogue, on the site of which a chapel was built in honor of the Virgin. According to a chronicle the exiles settled, under the protection of the Duke of Bavaria, on the opposite bank of the Danube, in Stadt-am-Hof, and in villages in the vicinity; from these they were expelled in the course of the same century.Cemetery and Synagogue
The first cemetery of the community of Ratisbon was situated on a hillock, still called the "Judenau." In 1210 the congregation bought from the monastery of St Emmeram a plot of ground, outside the present Peterthor, for a new cemetery, which was destroyed in the course of excavations made in the city in 1877. It served as a burial-ground for all the Jews of Upper and Lower Bavaria, and, in consequence of the catastrophe of Feb. 21, 1519, mentioned above, more than 4,000 of its gravestones are said to have been either demolished or used in the building of churches. The synagogue that was destroyed was an edifice in Old Romanesque style, erected between 1210 and 1227 on the site of the former Jewish hospital, in the center of the ghetto, where the present Neue Pfarre stands. The ghetto was separated from the city itself by walls and closed by gates.Notable Jews from Regensburg
- Pethahiah ben Jacob ha-Laban (born at Prague, flourished between 1175 and 1190), traveler
- Abraham ben Moses of Regensburg (flourished about 1200), tosafist
- Wolfkan of Ratisbon (2nd half of the 15th century), Jewish convert to Christianity and traducer of the Jews
- Isaac AlexanderIsaac AlexanderIsaac Alexander was a German author. He lived in South Germany in the second half of the 18th century, and wrote on philosophical subjects from a rationalistic point of view...
(2nd half of the 18th century) - Berthold of Regensburg
Scholars
The "ḥakme Regensburg" of the 12th century were regarded far and wide as authorities, and a number of tosafists flourished in this ancient community. Especially noteworthy were Rabbi Ephraim ben Isaac (d. about 1175), one of the most prominent teachers of the Law and a liturgical poet, and Rabbi Baruch ben IsaacBaruch ben Isaac
Baruch ben Isaac was a Tosafist and codifier who was born at Worms, but lived at Regensburg; he is sometimes called after the one and sometimes after the other city....
, author of the "Sefer ha-Terumah" and of tosafot
Tosafot
The Tosafot or Tosafos are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes...
to the treatise Zebaḥim; but the best known of all was Rabbi Judah ben Samuel he-Ḥasid
Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg
Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg , also called HeHasid or 'the Pious' in Hebrew, was the initiator of the Chassidei Ashkenaz, a movement of Jewish mysticism in Germany....
(d. 1217), the author of the "Sefer Ḥasidim" and of various halakic and liturgical works. The Talmudic school of Ratisbon became famous in the 15th century; a chronicle of 1478 says, "This academy has furnished 'doctores et patres' for all parts of Germany." Rabbi Israel Bruna
Israel Bruna
Israel Bruna was a German rabbi and Posek . He is also known as Mahari Bruna, the Hebrew acronym for "Our Teacher, the Rabbi, Israel Bruna". Rabbi Bruna is best known as one of the primary Ashkenazi authorities quoted by Moses Isserles in the Shulkhan Arukh.-Biography:Rabbi Bruna was born in Brno...
(15th cent.) narrowly escaped falling a victim to an accusation of ritual murder. The chronicler Anselmus de Parengar gives an interesting description of the magnificent apartments of the grand master Samuel Belassar. Shortly before the dispersion of the community Rabbi Jacob Margolioth, the father of the convert and anti-Jewish writer Antonius Margarita, was living at Ratisbon; he is referred to in the "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum
Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum
The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum was a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared 1515-1519 in Hagenau, Germany...
" as the "Primus Judæorum Ratisbonensis". Finally, the learned Litte (Liwe) of Ratisbon may be mentioned, the authoress of the "Samuelbuch", which paraphrased the history of King David in the meter of the "Nibelungenlied
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....
".
1660 - 1900
In 1669 Jews were again permitted to reside in Ratisbon; but it was not until April 2, 1841, that the community was able to dedicate its new synagogue. Rabbi Isaac AlexanderIsaac Alexander
Isaac Alexander was a German author. He lived in South Germany in the second half of the 18th century, and wrote on philosophical subjects from a rationalistic point of view...
(b. Ratisbon Aug. 22, 1722) was probably the first rabbi to write in German. His successor appears to have been Rabbi Weil
Weil
Weil is the name of the following German towns:*Weil, Bavaria*Weil am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg*Weil der Stadt, Baden-Württemberg*Weil im Schönbuch, Baden-WürttembergWeil may also refer to:...
, who was succeeded by Sonnentheil and the teacher Dr. Schlenker. From 1860 to 1882 the rabbinate was occupied by Dr. Löwenmeyer of Sulzburg
Sulzburg
Sulzburg is a town in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the western slope of the Black Forest, 20 km southwest of Freiburg.Sulzburg's lovely, barrel-vaulted synagogue has been completely restored....
, who was followed in Jan., 1882, by Dr. Seligmann Meyer, the editor of the "Deutsche Israelitische Zeitung". The present (1905) total population of Ratisbon is 45,426, of whom about 600 are Jews.
Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography
- For earlier works on Ratisbon see C. G. Weber, Literatur der Deutschen Staatengesch. i. 709-720, Leipsic, 1800;
- a list of more recent works is given in SternStern (magazine)Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
, Quellenkunde zur Gesch. der Deutschen Juden, i. 49-50. See also: C. Th. Gemeiner, Chronik der Stadt und des Hochstifts Regensburg (Ratisbon, 1800–24); - Christopher Ostrofrancus, Tractatus de Ratisbona Metropoli Bojoariœ et Subita Ihidem Judœorum, Augsburg, 1519;
- Oefele, Rerum Boicarum Scriptores, 1763;
- RiedRiedRied is a geographical name for:*Places in Germany**Ried, Bavaria in Landkreis Aichach-Friedberg in Bavaria**District of the city Schrobenhausen, Bavaria**Part of Ebersburg in the District of Fulda in Hessen...
, Codex Chronologico-Diplomaticus Episcopatus Ratisbonensis, Ratisbon, 1816; - JannerJannerJanner is a British regional nickname associated with people from Plymouth or people who live in areas near the sea, both as a noun and as an adjective for the local accent and colloquialisms...
, Gesch. der Bischöfe von Regensburg; - Gumpelzhaimer, Regensburger Geschichte, Sagen und Merkwürdigkeiten, ib.1830-40;
- Hugo Graf von Walderdorff, Regensburg in Seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, 4th ed., ib. 1896;
- Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königsreiches Bayern, ii. 675 et seq.;
- WienerWienerWiener is German for Viennese, but may also refer to:* A German sausage named after Vienna * A sausage used in hot dogsWiener is the surname of:* Alexander S...
, Regesten zur Gesch. der Judeu in Deutschland Während des Mittelalters, 1862; - Aronius, Regesten;
- Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschland Während des Mittelalters, 1866, pp. 67–83;
- TrainTrainA train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
, Die Wichtigsten Tatsachen aus der Gesch. der Juden in Regensburg, in Allg. Zeit. für die Hist. Theologie, 1837, vii. 39-138; - L. Geiger, Zur Gesch. der Juden in Regensburg, in Geiger's Jüd. Zeit. 1867, pp. 16 et seq.;
- M. Stern, Aus der Aelteren Gesch. der Juden in Regensburg, in Geiger's Zeit. für Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, i. 383 et seq.;
- H. Bresslau, Zur Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, in Moritz SteinschneiderMoritz SteinschneiderMoritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...
, Hebr. Bibl. 1870, x. 107 et seq.; - Monatsschrift, 1867, pp. 161 et seq., 389 et seq.;
- 1868, pp. 345 et seq.;
- LehmannLehmannLehmann is a common Germanic surname derived from the German word Lehen, meaning fiefdom. Some Jewish Lehmann families state that the origin of their name is from the German words for "Lion Man"...
, Der Israelit, 1877, No. 48, p. 1150; - GrätzGrätzGraetz or Grätz is a German surname and place name and can refer to:People:* Heinrich Graetz , Jewish historian* Leo Graetz , German physicist and son of Heinrich Graetz* Gidon Graetz, Swiss-Israeli sculptor...
, Gesch.; - Ost und West, Monatsschrift für Modernes Judentum, 1901, pp. 831–833;
- Aretin, Gesch. der Juden in Bayern, 1803;
- KohutKohutKohut is a surname, and may refer to:* Alexander Kohut, rabbinic scholar* Heinz Kohut, Austrian-born Jewish-American psychoanalyst* Józef Kohut, Polish ice hockey player* Oleksandra Kohut, Ukrainian female sport wrestler- See also :* Kogut...
, Gesch. der Deutschen Juden
Further reading
- Karl Bauer: Regensburg. 4. Aufl., Regensburg 1988. ISBN 3921114004, insb. S. 126-129
- Barbara Beuys: Heimat und Hölle - Jüdisches Leben in Europa durch zwei Jahrtausende. Reinbek 1996. ISBN 3498005901
- Arno Herzig: Jüdische Geschichte in Deutschland. München 1997. ISBN 3406476376
- Regensburg (Bearbeiter: Barbara Eberhardt, Cornelia Berger-Dittscheid). In: Mehr als Steine... Synagogen-Gedenkband Bayern. Band I. Hrsg. von Wolfgang KrausWolfgang KrausWolfgang Kraus is a former German football player.The son of the former Frankfurt footballer Willi 'Scheppe' Kraus appeared in 326 Bundesliga matches for Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich and scored 47 goals...
, Berndt Hamm und Meier SchwarzMeier SchwarzMeier Schwarz is an Israeli former plant physiologist.Schwarz is the child of Jewish parents. His father, Ludwig Schwarz, merchant, born in Egenhausen/Ansbach, was a German army officer in the First World War, and was highly decorated. Ludwig Schwarz was board member of the Orthodox Jewish Adas...
. Erarbeitet von Barbara Eberhardt und Angela Hager unter Mitarbeit von Cornelia Berger-Dittscheid, Hans Christof Haas und Frank Purrmann. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2007. ISBN 978-3-89870-411-3. S. 261-285 - Sylvia Seifert: Einblicke in das Leben jüdischer Frauen in Regensburg; Teil 1 und 2. In: Regensburger Frauenspuren. Eine historische Entdeckungsreise. Hrsg. von Ute Kätzel, Karin Schrott. Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 1995. ISBN 3-7917-1483-X. S. 86-106 und S. 151-161