RUM

JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH CENTER ON JEWISH HISTORY

AND CULTURE IN POLAND

THE JEWS II'{ POLAI.ID

]CH

VOLUME I

EDITED BY ANDRZEJ K. PALUCH

CRACOV/ 1992

I

Gershon David Hundert

Was There aî East EuropeanAnalogue to Court Jews?

'Wttat distinguished the Hofjuden of the seventeênth and early eighteenth

centuries from thcir predecessors and their successors? What can be said aboutthe role of the Wertheimers and Oppenheimers and Lehmanns that cannot besaid about the sons of Netira in the Abassid court of tenth-century Baghdad,or Hasdai ibn shaprut in the Spanish umayyad caliphate, or those famousJews who were so influential with the Ottoman Porte in the sixteenth century?And what were the crucial differences between the Court Jews and the peoplewho appeared somewhat later, like the Rothschilds or Bleichroeder? There isno unanimity in the literature as to the answers to these questions and theyneed not be addressed here as yet. Although it may not be the precisedefinition of the crucial distinguishing characteristics of Court Jews, andalthough there are differences of emphasis among historians who have studiedthe Hofiuden,t the following list includes the important characteristics ofthe phenomenon:

Court Jews concretized or represented the cusp between the early modern andmodern periods in Jewish history, betraying characteristics of both epochs, andappearing mainly in the years between 1650 and 1750.

There is a correlation between the appearance of the Hofiuden and theconsolidation of power by absolutist rulers.

The Court Jews not only had various dealings with royal, princely, and imperialcourts, but often were actually employed to carry out ceitain du.ties.

They enjoyed a special status in law which distinguished them from their Jewishbrethren.

' On Court Jews, in addition to the treatments cited below, see, for example: F. C a r s t e n,"The court Jews: A Prelude to Emancipation", Leo Baeck yearbook 3 (1958); H. schn ee, DieHoffìnanz und der moderne staat, 3 vols., Berlin 1952-55; A. sh ohet, Im hillufeì tequfotJerusalem, 1960; S. Stern, The Court Jew, Philadelphia 1950.

They were not only wealthy but were able to mobilize large amounts of capital orquantities of goods quickly in the service of their patrons.

Each stood at the head of a substantial network of Jews: contractors andsubcontractors; merchants and brokers; pedlars and messengers.

They constituted an interrelated elite among European Jewry.Finally, the historical significance of the Court Jews has to do with the degree to

which they were representative of or even contributed to that process commonly knownby the term 'Jewish emancipation'.

Was there an analogous phenomenon in eastern Europe, specifically thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? A number of historians have indeed usedthe term 'Court Jew' to apply to certain Polish Jews, and among them there arecertain differences.2 I shall present four main trends represented by Ignacyschiper, B. D. weinryb, Benzion Dinur and Jonathan Israel, and show whyI think all but one of these uses of the term 'court Jew' to apply to eastEuropean Jews must be rejected.3

The first historian to address this question was Ignacy Schiper in Dziejehandlu àydowskiego na ziemiach polskich (The History of Jewish Commerce inPolish Lands), published in 1937 by the Association of Jewish Merchants inWarsaw. He asserted plainly that Jews who in Poland-Lithuania had the statusof serwitory królewskie (servants of the crown) corresponded to the GermanCourt Jews. a Our first task, then, is to test Schiper's assertion.

Jan Olbracht (1492-1501) was the fïrst Polish monarch to bestow theprivileged but non-noble status of serwítor or the crown, and, Iike hissuccessors, he granted it mainly to Christian artisans. s The terms of the

2 Maurycy Horn has published a series of articles analyzing the various ties of Jews to thePolish crown: "Król Jan III a bydzi polscy", Biuletyn 2ydowskiego Instytutu Hßtorycznego¡n2U4128 (l'983), pp. 3-24; "Zydzi i mieszc,z.a ie na sluåbie królów polskich i wielkich ksi4i4tlitewskich w latach 1386-1506, part l" BzrH ßs-136 (19g5), pp. 3-19; ..powstanie i rozwójserwitoratu za Jagielloníw", BZIH 135-136 (1985), pp. 133-136; "Jewish Courtiers and Factorsin the Courts of Polish Kings", Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress ol Jewish Studies,Division B, vol. l, Jerusalem 1986, pp. 175-l7B;"Zydzi i mieszczanie...?'part 2, BZIH l3z-l3g(1986), pp. 3-17; "Zy.dzi i mieszczanie w sluåbie celnej Zygmunta starego i Zygmunø Augusta",BZIH l4l (1987), pp.3-21;"Zydn i mieszczanie na slu2bie królów polskich i wielkich isia2atlitewskich w latach 1506-1572-, BZIH 147-148 (l9gg), pp.3-20;..Medycy nadworni wladcówpolskoJitewskich w latach 1506-1572 (ze szczególnym uwzglçdnieniem lekarzy i chirurgówzydowskich)", BZIH 149 (1989), pp. 3-23; r'Dostawcy dworów królewskich w Polsce i na Litwieza ostatnich Jagiellonów 1506-1572 (ze szczs,gólnym uwzglçdnieniem dostawców åydowskich)",part l, BZIH 150 (1989), pp. 3-16; "Dostawcy dworów...", part 2, BZIH l5l (1939), pp. 3-24;"lJdzial Zydów w .kontaktach dyplomatycznych i handlowych Polski i Litwy z zigranic4w XV-XVIIw;" BZIH 155-156 (lgg0), pp. 3-16.

3 I. Schiper, Dzieje handlu 2ydowskiego na ziemiach polskich, Warsaw 1937; B. D.Weintyb, The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewìsh Community inPolandfrom lII0 to IS00,Philadelphia I973; B. Dinur, Be-mdnehha-dorot,Jerusalem 1972 1.lsrael, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilisn, Oxford 1985.

a I. Schiper, Dzieje handlu, p. 59.s M. H orn, "Zydzi i mieszczanie..." part l, p. 5.

appointlguilds a

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rH 137-t38. Augusta",:ich ksie4tri wladcówchirurgów

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appointment freed the recipients from obligations and limitations imposed byguilds and placed these artisans exclusively under royal jurisdiction. InWarsaw, for example, during the years between 1657 and 1666, at least 63

artisans were serwitory.G Such artisans were generally suppliers of goods and

services to the royal court. Among merchants, the most frequent recipients ofthe title serwitor or sometimesfaktor of the crown were Jews and, more rarely,

Scots. The loftier and more prestigious status of sekretarz królewski (crown

secretary) was seldom bestowed on Jews, yet it was frequently granted toChristian burghers. In Cracow during the seventeenth century, about one-f,rfth

of all those who held municipal office became crown secretaries. 7 By contrast,

in all of Poland during the seventeenth century there is reference to only fourJews who received that privilege. t

The texts of the privileges making Jews serwitory or faktory of the crowngenerally included provisions stating that the recipient was subject only to thejurisdiction of the king, was exempt from the payment of customs and certain

taxes, could reside where he pleased, and often had the right to distill liquor orbrew beer freely. The privilege sometimes also served as a kind of passport

guaranteeing royal protecton during travel abroad. Holding such a title,however, did not necessat'ily imply any direct relationshp to the royal court,though of course there was such a relationship at times.

Sigismund I appears to have been the first Polish king to award theprivilege to a Jew, while Sigismund Augustus elevated 13 to that rank duringhis reign in the years 1548 to 1572.e Altogether I have found references to29 Jews who became serwitory during the century between 1548 and 1648.'o

Were There Court Jews in Eastern Europe? 69

6 G. H u b e r t, "The Role of the Jews in Commerce in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania",

Journsl of European Economic Hßtory 16 (1987), p. 252'? J. Bienia rzówna, Mieszczuóstwo Krakowskie XVIIV' Cracow 1969, pp. 70-72.s Nahman lzaakovmcz in 1657; Hayyim Vital Feliks in 1676; Jencz Moskowicz in 1677; and

l-eyb Zusnnanowicz at the end of the same decade. M. B a I a b an, Hßtoria 2ydów.w Krakowie na

Kazimierzu, vol. I, Cracow 1931, p.256; J. Morgensztern, "Regesty z metryki koronnej do

historii Zydów w Polsce 1669-1696", BZIH 69 (1969), no. 50, p.79; M. Bersohn,Dyplomataryusz dotyczqcy Zydów w døwnej Polsce nø áródlach archiwalnych osnuty (1388-1782),'Warsaw 1910, no. 296, p. 166f.; Archiwum Paóstwowe w Krakowie, Akty Sanguszków 65/1.

, 1552-Feliks of Cracow; 1556-David of Cracow, Solomon of Cracow; 1562-Benedykt ofPoznan, Borukh of Poznaó; 1566-Józef Nosek of Poznaú; l57l-Markus Majer Reinbach ofPoznan,Israel Bern of Poznaú, Helian of Poznaú, Jacob of Poznaí, Abraham of Poznaú, David ofPoznan, Doktor Lipman of Poznaú. M. Horn, "Powstanie...", 136; M. Bersohn,Dyplomataryusz.,., nos. 65, 89, 103, l4l.

to 1576-Lazaf Abrahamowicz of Tykocin; 1578-Solomon Kalahora of Cracow, Moses

Kalahora of Cracow; lj8l?-Mendel lzakowicz of BrzeSó Litewski; 1588-Saul lVahl of Brzeóó

Litewski; l6l6-samuel Ku6nierz of Cracow; l6l8-19-Jan Zaj4czkowski, Jakob Bielski, Jelen

Hirsh Doktorowicz of Lublin; 1634-Isaac Nachmanowicz of Lvov, Isaac Abrahamowicz ofLvov; 1638-Aron Markowicz; 1639-solomon rJVlochowicz of Cracow, Samuel de Lima ofGdaósk; 1646-Lewek Wochowicz of Cracow, Markus Nekel. In addition to the references

above, see: M. Bersohn, Dyplomataryusz..., nos. 150, 165,218,251; M. Balaban, Hßtoria

2ydów w Krakowie,I, pp. 166, 293;M. Balab an, Die Judenstqdt von Lublin, Berlin 1919, p. 26;

70

Although the cohort included physicians and artisans, the majority of themwere wealthy male merchants generally living in the major crown cities ofPoznan, Cracow, Lvov and Lublin. An excêption was a certain Portuguese Jewof Hamburg, samuel de Lima. Together with two of his broihers, heestablished an export firm in Gdaúsk in 1638, remaining there until 1654. Inanticipation of remarks to be made later, it should be noted here only that thede Limas established a network of Polish Jewish suppliers of the saltpeter theywere engaged in exporting, and that they were accused of using Samuel deLima's privileged exemption from tolls to benefit Polish Jews and thuscompete unfairly with other merchants in Gdaúsk. "

In contrast to the 29 Jews who received the title of serwitor during thecentury before 1648, I have found more than twice that number, 65, foi thesubsequent half-century during the reigns of Jan Kazimierz (27), Michalwiénowiecki (20), and Jan Sobieski (18). ', Again, almosr all of tùe ieciþientswere wealthy merchants in the larger crown cities, and only a few are knownactually to have had commercial ties to the.court.

Perhaps it will help to clarify matters if I provide one brief illustration ofa Jewish serwítor who did have ties to the royal court of Jan Kazimierz in themiddle of the seventeenth century. I refer to the Cracow merchant, SolomonWlochowicz. His family, according to Balaban, came to Cracow from Italy.His status as serwitor was first bestowed no later than 1645. He was involved ininternational trade, in the administration of the royal salt mines at Wieliczka,

Gerson David Hundert

M. Balaban,2ydzi lwowscy na przelomie xvlgo i xvllgo wieku,Lvov 1906, App., no. 9l;J'-Morgensztern, "Regesty z metryki koronnej do historii Zydow w polsce, i58g-1632',,BZIH 51 (1964), no.44, p.67; idem, "h.egesty... io¡¡-rooo-, nitn 58 (1966), no. 6, p. 109;Archiwum Paústwowe w Krakowie, Acta palatinalia Iudaica Cracoviensia,yana 12, pp. gil-gu;Jerusalem, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, PL320; ,lkta grodzkte i ziemskiez czasów rzeczypospolitei polskiej z archiwum tak zwanego bernardyúskiego wi Lwowie, vol. X,p.235; M. Horn, "udzial ...," p. ll; s. Dubnow, Hisrory of the Jews, vol.3, S. Brunswick,N.J. 1973, p. 785.

" H. Kellenbenz, Sephardim an der unteren Etbe, Ihre wirtschaftliche und politischeBedeutung vom Ende des 16. bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden 1958, p;. 7g-g7,147-150:' J. Morgensztern, "Regesty... 1633-1660", nos. 6, g2, l0g, ll0. compare,G. Hundert, "An Advantage to Peculiarity? The Case of the Polish Commonwealth',, AJSReview 6 (1981), pp. 30-31.

'2 J- Morgensztern, "Regesty ...", BZIH 5g (1966), nos. r0, r1,14,30;67 (196g), nos.6,10, ll, 12, 13, 15; 69 (1969), nos. 36-53; M. Bersohn, DyplomataryuEz..., nos.250, 253,25g,264,269,292,382,385; M. schorr, 2ydziw przemyÍludokonca xvIIIwieku,Lvov 1903, no. g0,pp' 157-158; Akta grodzkie i ziemskie z czasów rzeczypospolitej potskiej z archiwum tak zwanegob.ernardyúskiego we Lwowie, Lvov 1868- 1931, vol. X, nos. 3921, 450g, 4525, 4590, pp. 273,2j7; M.Balab an, Historja 2ydów w Krakowie, vol. II, pp.43,90, 95, ll7,121,122, ß6: ß7,145, 147,172;M. B a I a b a n, "Joseph Jonas Theomim-Fränkel, Rabbiner in Krakau (1742-1745) und seine7æit", Monatsschriftfür Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 61, Jan.-Feb. l9l7,pp.5l-71;Y' Halpern, Pinqas va'ad arba araÇot, Jerusalem 1945, no. 23, p. XXXIV; M. Horn,"Jan III ...", pp. 12-17; Lustracja województwa ruskiego 1661-1665, ed. K. Arlamowski et al.,vol. l, Wroclaw 1974, pp. 19-20.

and sup'forties oto distillthe Jewir

and as aand prolfairly ladependeon the s,

hint inconsumlthe seve

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to the r,howeve:Stanislaand sor

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of them;ities ofrese Jewrers, he

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politische>p. 78-87,Compare,Irh,,, AJS

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rp. 5l-71;. Horn,ski et al.,

and supplied certain goods to the royal court. During the thirties and early

forties of the seventeenth century he also administered the granting of licenses

to distill liquor in the Jewish town of Kazimierz. He was frequently an elder ofthe Jewish community. His son, Joseph, held similar positions both as serwitor

and as an elder of the community. Although both father and son were wealthyand propertied members of the Jewish community, and even at times dispensed

fairly large loans, usually on pledges, the commercial operations of bothdepended on credits obtained from non-Jewish sources, and neither operated

on the scale of the great non-Jewish merchants of Poland. Further, there is no

hint in the sources that they were in any way unusual in their patterns ofconsumption or participation in Jewish communal life in the middle decades ofthe seventeenth century. As early as the fourteenth century, it might be added,

we find Jews administering the royal salt mines and supplying the court ofKazimierz Wielki with various goods. In short, the \ù/lochowicz's cannot be

grouped with their central European contemporaries.The two Saxon kings of Poland in the eighteenth century, Augustus II,

1697-1733, and Augustus III, 1734-1763, bestowed the title of serwitor on

a total of 35 Jews.l3 Especially during the second half of the eighteenth

century, we find increasingly that some of the serwitory were indeed suppliers

to the royal court, particularly of precious stones and jewelry. They were not,however, playing a crucial role in the flrscal administration of the state.

Stanislaw August Poniatowski also bestowed the title on a number of jewelers

and some Jews from German-speaking territories. The totals are:

between 1548 and 1648, 29 Jewish serwitory;between 1648 and 1696, 65 Jewish serwitory;between 1696 and 1763, 35 Jewish serwitory; andbetween 1763 and 1795, 4l Jewish serwitory.taThis clearly contradicts the recent assertion that "the number of Jews who

received individual privileges greatly diàinished in the period of economic

decline in the second half of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth

centuries". t5 Majer Balaban was also incorrect in asserting that Jan Sobieski

was the most generous of Polish monarchs in the distribution of the title toJews. t6

These serwitory were not analogous to Court Jews. Even if we suspend, forthe purpose of argument, the essential fact that the Polish monarchs in thisperiod, far from consolidating their power and authority into an absolutist

regime, were in fact losing influence, the analogy fails on other counts.

Were There Court Jews in Easlern Europe? 71

13 P. K o n, "Einer fun di ershte Yidishe doktoirim in Vilne", Yivo Bleter I (1931), pp. 55-61;

M. Ho rn, Regesty dokumentów i ekscerpty z metryki koronnei do historii Zydów w Polsce

1697-1795, vol. I, Warsaw 1984, pp. 13-17.11 M. H orn, Regesty, vol. II, part l, pp.49-55, 57 (no' 83), 78 (no. 128), patl 2, pp. 13-15.rs J. Goldberg, Jewish Privileges in the Polish Commonweslth, Jerusalem 1985, p.9.

'6 M. Balaba n, Historiø Zydów w Krakowie, II, p. 120.

Althoughvery farEuropeanplay suchthe wealthiest merchants_ of the period were not serwitory, and that someof the wealthiest Jews of Poland wìre neither merchants nor financiers. whenPolish monarchs and,for the Polish treasury needed credits they did indeedturn to the wearthiest merchant bankers in the country, but these were notJews. Wilhelm Orsetti, a Cracow mezlotys in 1654.I? Wadyslaw IV owedone million zlotys.'8 No polish Jewissuch large amounts of capital. Evenseldom able to hord it in their families for more than a generation or two,áccording.to the complaint of a contemporary preacher. ..why in these landsof Poland does wearth not remain with peopr..ìr rt i, tound, it is found with

extended some loans to the polish court; and, most famously, the election ofAugustus II, Elector of Saxony, tosignificant measure by Behrend L

tin, saltpeter and gunpowder from polchants were spokes in a German Jewish wheel.

the ans who speak of polish C_ourt Jews, by farkno ä,i,i,:i:"",'îlål i:il iîl,lå;'".1î,'.i

Gerson David Hundert

t7 J. Il'lorgensztern, ,.Regesty... 1633-1660,,, no. 109.t8 H. Lowmiaríski, ed. Historia polskí, vol. i, part 2, Warsaw 195g, p. 46g.'e The eighteenth-century preacher, shemarya ben lvfoshe, qrroiing his father, in Taqnatade-moshe, Olexiniec 176g, par. 39.

2o H. Schnee, Hoffinanz II, pp. l6g_222,-J.-I.srae l, European Je.wry,p. 136. CompareL. F u k s, "simon de pool - faktor ti¿la ¡ana sobieskiego * Holunåiiri, BnIH 2r (rg57), pp. 3-r2;and see now T. zieliúska, "Kariera i paJer"ry;";;kö porentata ...,,, KwartarnikHistoryczny 98 (1991), pp. 33_49.2¡ M. G r u n w a ld, Samuel Oppenheimer itel aus der Finanzgeschichteösþrueichs (Historische KommissiLi der Isra nde in Wien, euellen undForschungen zur Geschichte der Juden in De 'n;, Ur"nnu 1913, p. 2g3.

him "Klicense 1

Sobieskand perroyal fir

the kin¡Sobieskunsual r

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b called

him "King Jan Sobieski's court Jew"." We know of him that in return for thelicense to collect royal tolls in Ruthenia and Volhynia, he paid a large sum toSobieski beginning sometime in the 1680's and continuing until at least 1693,and perhaps until Becal's death in 1696. He therefore did plaj a role in theroyal fiscal administration and did provide significant amounts of capital tothe king. From at least 1685 he lived in Zólkiew, a private town owned bysobieski, and from 1689 was an elder of the Jewish community there. In anunsual step, the other elders permitted him to name his son-in-law to act forhim at meetings of the kahal, presumably because he himself was too busy.23

In trying to determine whether Becal was a Court Jew on the centralEuropean model, the crucial çonsideration would seem to be his having begunhis career as dzieràawiec or lessee of Sobieski's own private estates. His ties tohis patron were thus, intially at least, characteristic of relations betweenmagnate and Jew and not those between king and Jew. once Sobieski wasking, however, Becal's power increased significantly - he had the backing ofa man who was at once a great aristocratic landowner and king of the country.He and his patron, therefore, were able to defy the law prohibiting Jews fromleasing royal tolls and customs, and were able to ignore the frequent andincreasingly vociferous complaints voiced in the local dietines and in the Sejm,and even a trial by the Crown Tribunal at Lublin. 2a If Becal was a Court Jew,he was one of a specifically Polish type, which brings us to a consideration ofanother historian's views.

Benzion Dinur, in describing what he depicted as a new leadership stratumthat appeared in the Polish Jewish community in the period following 1648,called them yehudei he-haqer be-nusaþ Polin ('Polish-style Court Jews').2'He thus, unlike the other historians, tried to be more precise in his use of theterm and made it clear that these Polish'style Court Jews were different fromtheir central European contemporaries. The people Dinur referred to wereJews with close ties to powerful magnates, not to the king. Dinur depicted thisgroup in singularly negative terms, as exploiters of their fellow Jews whoidentiflred their own interests with thobe of their patrons and frequently,therefore, against those of their own community. There are numerousobjections that could be raised to the general picture drawn by Dinur ofJewish society in that period,26 but there is something to his use of theterm 'Polish-style Court Jews'.

Were There Courl Jews in Eastern Europe?

;8.

r Taqnata

Compare

, pp. 3-12;(wartalnik

geschíchte

ellen undp. 283.

73

22 B.D. Wein ryb, The Jews of Polsnd, p. 162. See also, M. Bala.b an, Yidn in poyln,rrly'ilno, 1930, pp. 59-66; M. Horn, "Jan IIL..", pp. 12-13.

23 S. Buber, Qirya nisgavah; hi'ir Zolqvah, Cracow 1908, 19, pp. 116-117.

"n See, for example, Akta sejmikowe województwa krqkowskiego, vol. V (1681-1696)), ed.Adam Przyboó, Wroclaw 1984, pp. 66 (no. 66),ll2f .,118, I19, 123 (no. ll), 124 (nos. 12, l3), l3l,174, 175, 182 (no. 35).

25 B. Dinur, Be-mdneh ha-dorot, pp. l0zt-105.26 See M. J. R o s m a n, The Inrds' Jews: Magnate-Jewish Relstions in the Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth during the 18th Century, Cambridge, MA 1990.

74

The situation of Jews in private holdings in the Polish Commonwealth, thatis, between 50Yo and 65%o of all Jews, was similar in some ways to the situationof Jews in the rising absolutist states of central Europe. In such states there wasa tendency, though not an unlimited or unidirectional one, for the ruler toeliminate distinctions dividing his subjects, and to seek useful allies among thatpopulation regardless of social class or religion. The most visible among theseallies were the Hofjuden The consequence of this was the opportunity for someJews, at least, to take an uncertain step toward integration in the nascentnation-state. In the private holdings of the great Polish and Lithuanianmagnates, we hnd similar tendencies: the gradual elimination of separate courtsystems, tentative steps toward a unified administration, and the utilization ofJewish administrative and fiscal expertise to serve their own interests

- Polish-style Court Jews.The most recent attempt to extend the definition of Court Jews - that of

' Jonathan I. Israel in his important book, European Jewry in the Age ofMercantilisn - must be rejected. Israel asserts that the phenomenon of CourtJews was not limited to central Europe but embraced Jews playing similar rolesin Holland, in Italian territories, and in Poland-Lithuania as well. He alsoincludes in this group New Christian financiers in Spain. The dehnition thatseems to emerge from his chapter is this: Court Jews are those who playeda crucial, even dominant role in certain sectors of the European economyduring the period 1650-1713. What distinguished them was not their ties toparticular states, but the international and Jewish character of their activities.Vertical links made possible the rapid mobilization of capital; and the Sefardiimporters of Amsterdam, Hamburg and southwestern France created condi-tions for "the grip of Ashkenazi Jewry over the jewel, precious metal, tobaccoand spice trades in central and eastern Europe".27 Israel's emphasis on aninternational Jewish commercial network linking Ashkenazim and Sephardim,eastern and western Europe, is quite appropriate. His use of the term CourtJew to apply, even to the one Polish Jew he mentions by name, is not. MosesMarkowicz was a shtadlan and the son of a shtadlan, and is styled in royaldocuments between about 1660 and 1676 as"syndicus generalis universae gentísjudaicae in Regno commorantis".2s His father held a similar position fromabout 1638 to I659.2e Both were merchants who had the title serwitorkrólewski, but there is nothing in the available sources to indicate that either

Gerson David Hundert

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shape o

compansors onlAnd, itstops arin the s

itisanbe cornPolish-sholdingrhave eveighteen

2' J. Israel, European Jewry, p. 178.

'8 See M. Bersohn, DyplomataryuEz..., pp. 140-l4l (no. 250), p. 16l (nos. 281,282,283),p' 209 (no. 368), p. 210 (no. 370), pp. 210-2ll (no. 371); Y. H a I p e r n, Pinqas va'ad arba araÇot,Jerusalem 1945, no. 19, pp. xx-xxi, no.20, pp. xxi-xxii, p. 102 (no. 254), p.103 (no. 257), p. 105,(no. 258), p. 109 (no. 266), p. ll4 (no. 276), p. 147 (no. 346).

2e Y. Halpern, Pinqas..., no. 13, p. x, p.6l (no. 173),p.77 (no.206),p.90 (no.234),p.9l (no.237),p.520;M. Bersohn, Dyplomataryusz..., pp. 140-l4l (no.250), pp. 144-146(no. 253), p. 149 (no. 264), p. 151 (no. 269), p. 153 (no. 271), p. 2t6 (no.378), pp. 217-2t8(no. 382), p. 219 (no. 385). 3o Se

th, thattuationere was'uler to,ng thatrg these)r somenascentruanian:e courtrtion ofnterests

that ofAge off Courtar rolesle alsoon thatplayed

)onomyties to

;tivities.Sefardicondi-

:obaccoionanhardim,r Court, Mosesn royalrc gentis

'n fromserwitor.t either

was involved in extensive or ramified operations in commerce or finance. Andvirtually nothing else is known about them.

Summarizing briefly: I think there were no Court Jews in Poland becausethe examples cited by historians do not meet the criteria established in theshape of the phenomenon in central Europe. Oppenheimer, Lehmann andcompany can be distinguished from their predecessors and from their succes-sors only if we situate them in the conditions peculiar to their time and place.And, it seems to me, the critical conditions were rising absolutism, and thestops and starts in the direction of the breaking down of corporate barriersin the state. Such conditions simply did not exist in Poland-Lithuania, andit is a misnomer to apply the term to Polish Jews. Dinur, though, may wellbe correct in speaking of Jews with ties to the great magnate-aristocrats asPolish-style Court Jews. This, however, is merely a metaphor. The magnates'holdings were not states and, in any case, whatever structural changes mighthave evolved were cut short by the Partitions of Poland at the end of theeighteenth century.30

Were There Court Jews in Eastern Europe?

282,283),ba øraqot,t), p. lo5,

ino.234),,. 144-146. 217-218

30 See M. J. Rosman, The Lords' Jews, pp. 183-184.