Anti-Jewish Motifs in the poetry of blessed Władysław of Gielniów (c. 1440-1505) (original) (raw)
A d s t r a c t . Witkowski Rafał, Jew s in m ed iera l Polami: ctilfure. rc/igion a n dlan gn agc as rejiec te d in sources, Studia 11istoricn Slavo-Gcrmanica, vol. XVIII, 2008-2010, Poznań 2011. pp. 87-139. Wydaw nictwo Poznańskie. ISDN 978-83-7177-772-1. ISSN 0301-6420. The articlc dcals willi llic bisiory o f llic Jcwisli pcoplc in tlic medicvul kingdom ofPoland. T he nutlior presents llic most important aspecls o f t lici i lilc and culturc as well as crucial facts in tlicir history from tlie early mcdicval period to (lic formation o f pcrnianeiit Jcwisli scltlcmcnts and city cjuartcrs in tlie 15th ccntury. Rafał Witkowski, dr, wicedyrektor Instytutu Historii Uniwersytetu im. Adama M ickiewicza The hislory of llic Jews in the medieval kingdom of Roland has been llie subjcct of numerous studies.1 Mowever, no modern, extensive monograph was produced * I would likc to tliank Dr. lidward l.ult. Washington. USA, for his kind assistancc in preparing tlie finał vcrsion o f lliis paper. 1 Cf. M.W. Goldstein. Zur wirtschaftlichen G cschichte d er polnisehen Judea im M itlclaltcr, "Zcitschrifl fiir Gcschichte der Juden in Deulschland" 4 (1908), pp. 168-172: S. Kutrzeba, Stanowisko prawne Żydów u-Polsce w .XI'stuleciu, "Przewodnik Naukowy i Literacki" 29 (1901). pp. 1007--1018, 1147-1156; M. Gumplowicz. Początki re/ig ii żydow skiej u-Po/sec. Warszawa 1903; R. Gródecki. Dzieje Żydów w Polsce do końca .VII' wieku, in: R. Gródecki. Polska piastow ska. Pism a pośm iertne. red. J. Wyrozumski. Warszawa 1969, pp. 595-702; A. Gieysztor, Początki osadnictw a żydow skiego na ziemiach polskich, in: Z dziejów Żydów w Polsce, red. W. Tyloch, Warszawa 1983. pp. 5-7; A. Gieysztor, The heginnings o fJ e w ish Sefflement in the Polis/i Lands, in: The Jew s iti Polarni, ed. Cli. Abramsky, M. Jachimczyk, A. Polonsky. Oxford 1986, pp. 15-21; II. Sam sonowicz, TheJewrsh Population in P olandduring the M iddle Ages. "Dialectics and Humanism. The Polisli Philosophical Quartcrly" 16/1 (1989). pp. 35-42; J. W yrozumski. Ż ydzi w Polsce średniow iecznej, in: Żydzi w daw nej R ze czypospolitej. red. A. Link-Lcnczowski. T. Polański, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1991. pp. 129-135; J. Wyrozumski, D zieje Żydów Polski średniow iecznej w historiografii, "Studia Judaica" 1998, nr I, pp. 3-17; 11. Zarcmska, O rganizacja w czesnośredniow iecznych gm in żydow skich ir E uropie Srodk/iwcj: Ostrzyhom i Kraków, in: Ludzie. Kościół. Wierzenia. Studia z dziejów kultury i społeczeń stw a Europy Środkowej (średniowiecze -w czesna epoka nowożytna). Warszawa 2001, pp. 303-312; II. Zarcmska, Aspekty porów naw cze w badaniach nad historią Żydów w średniow iecznej Polsce, "Rocznik M azo wiecki" 13 (2001). pp. 177-191; II. Zarcmska. Żydzi w średniow iecznej Europie Środkow ej -w C ze chach. Polsce i na Węgrzech. Poznań 2005: cf. also ILI). Wcinryb. The Bcginning o f East-Europcan Jcwry in Legend an d Historiography, in: Studies a n d E ssays in Honor o f Abraham A. Neuman, ed. M. Rcn-Ilorin. B.D. Weinryb. S. Zcitlin, Lciden 1962, pp. 445-502: B.D. Wcinryb, The Jew s o f Poland. A S o cia l a n d Economic H istory o f the Jew ish C om nm nity o f Poland from 1100 to 1800, Pliiladelphia 1976; J. Litmnn. The econom ic role o f Jew s in m ed iera l Poland, Landlutm-Ncw York-London 1984; H. Iłaumann. H istoria Żydów w Europie Ś rodkow ej i Wschodniej. Warszawa 2000 f first published as G eschichte d er O stjuden, MUnchcn 1990): f. Abrahams. Życie codzienn e Ż ydów w średniow ieczu, przcl. B. Gadomska, Warszawa 1996 (first published as Jew ish Life in the M iddle Ages. London-New York 1896): cf. also S. Dubliny, H istory o f the Jew s in R nssia a n d Polam i from the E arliest Times to the Present D ays, Vol.
Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 2021
This article reexamines the evidence of Jewish presence in Poland from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries in connection with problems of origins, periodization, and localization of Jewish settlement in Poland. It deals inter alia with questions regarding the balance be-tween Jewish and Christian evidence, as well as with reports of Jewish presence from neighboring areas of Eastern Europe such as Kievan Rus’.
6. Jews and the Black Death in Fourteenth- Century Prussia: A Search for Traces
Fear and Loathing in the North, 2015
There is plenty of reason to doubt this assessment by Kurt Forstreuter, who was a historian and archivist in Königsberg (Kaliningrad) until 1943, and who was actively involved in stealing Jewish archives in the German-occupied territories in the East. 2 But despite the political bias in his research regarding Jews and the contested rhetoric of "bulwarks", 3 he highlights the one true problem: Why did Jews not settle in medieval Prussia and Livonia in the same way as they did in the surrounding areas, in Poland and Lithuania? By the beginning of the sixteenth century, Jews had settled and were paying taxes in numerous places surrounding the Teutonic Order's territory-in Grodno, Vilnius and Troki, as well as in Łomża, Bydgoszcz and Płock. 4 But in the case of Prussia and Livonia, we lack information about similar settlements and communities. It is not only in the antisemitic and völkisch German scholarship before and after the Second World War that one finds the presumption that this absence is the result of an active anti-Jewish policy on the part of the Teutonic Order. For example, nineteenth-century Jewish authors also believed medieval Prussia to be a place hostile to Jews. 5 However, a closer look at the sources allows for a different interpretation. No anti-Jewish regulations were issued on behalf of the large Prussian towns before the middle of the fifteenth century, in connection with the Thirteen Years War, at which point they were issued by the Polish king at the request of the towns. The one possible anti-Jewish regulation issued by the Teutonic Order has not been preserved in a contemporary diplomatic form, but is only known from a contradictory tradition of chronicles composed about 150 years later-this phenomenon needs to be discussed in detail in another context. 6 However, given the lack of evidence