The Grantville Gazette Volumn VI by Eric Flint
Christian law, based on the papal bull of 1555, required that all Jews living under Christian rule live in the Jewish quarters of their towns and required that the gates to the Jewish quarter be closed on Sunday, lest the Jews spoil the Christian Sabbath. The gated Jewish quarter provided some protection from mob violence directed against Jews, particularly around Easter when attacks against Jews were common enough to be described as traditional.
The term ghetto itself was relatively new in the 1630's, dating only to 1516, when the principality of Venice restricted Jewish residence to an area formerly occupied by a foundry, or ghetto, in Venetian Italian. Many German towns had Jewish districts organized along a single long street; in most such towns, the district was known as the Judengasse—Jewish lane. The most famous Judengasse was that of Frankfurt am Main.
Despite papal and imperial decrees that all Jews be confined to the Jewish quarters of towns, there were Jews living outside these quarters. Such Jews were known as Shutzjuden, or protected Jews, and they lived outside the Jewish quarters only because they paid Shutzgeld, protection money, to the local noble. In effect, this Shutzgeld was a bribe to the noble in his role as magistrate to have him overlook the decrees he was legally charged to enforce. By the seventeenth century, status as a protected Jew was generally governed by a contract that could be inherited. In some areas, Shutzgeld was a major source of income to the local nobility.
Jewish commerce with non-Jews was strictly limited. Jews were forbidden to sell new goods, join guilds, bear arms or hold public office. Aside from money lending, the only other businesses generally permitted were trading in used goods such as scrap and rags.
In the seventeenth century, the restrictions on Jewish occupations began to soften. Jews had to be careful about this, carefully constructing legal fictions in order to bend the rules. For example, where a Jew could not legally buy and then resell some product, he might legally act as a broker, taking delivery of the product from the seller, delivering it to the buyer and taking care of the cash transfer for a fee. Restrictions on Jewish commerce were generally more likely to be enforced in areas with significant Jewish populations; they were weak where Jews were few and far between.
The word "gentile" itself is worthy of note. In the Jewish world, the term used would invariably have been goy, or goyim in the plural. In Hebrew, this word means exactly the same thing as the Latin gens, a race, a people or a nation. As used in Judische Deutsch, the word goy became a synonym for gentile; it only had negative connotations because, until recent times, it was a safe assumption that if a person was a Gentile, he was likely to be anti-Jewish and therefore dangerous. Jews did trust some Gentiles, but such trust was rare, conditional, and risky. All Jews were generally familiar with stories about Gentiles who had proven themselves to be trustworthy through many years and then had betrayed that trust.
One story, in particular, illustrates the risks of such trust. Over the centuries, there have been many churchmen who extended considerable protection to the Jews, only to withdraw it. Martin Luther is the most famous example; early in his career, he urged that Jews be treated with great respect, but once he concluded that such tolerance would not convince large numbers of Jews to convert to Christianity, he wrote On the Jews and their Lies (1543), one of the most anti-Semitic works ever written. Luther went so far as to say "We are at fault in not slaying them." As a result of this change, the Jewish communities of many of the new Lutheran lands faced persecution so severe that essentially all of the Jews were driven out.
Of course, the term "anti-Semite" would be entirely unfamiliar to any resident of the seventeenth century. It is a nineteenth-century term, coined by Wilhelm Marr when he wanted a respectable and scientific sounding term for the older Judenhass—literally, "Jew hatred."
In general, when Jews and Christians interacted, there was a very strong asymmetry. Christians were urged by their tradition to do everything they could to convert Jews, while Jews were urged by their tradition not to talk about Judaism to non-Jews. For the past thousand years, the experience of the Jewish community with such dialogue had been extremely negative. The Catholic Church had organized many disputations in which Jewish and Christian scholars were pitted against each other, but the outcome of these disputations was generally preordained and frequently fatal for the Jewish participant. As a result, genuine interfaith dialogue was extremely rare and when it occurred, it was almost always conducted in private.
In the context of 1632, for example, it is quite likely that Rebecca Abrabanel would have been quite reluctant to say much about the depth of her own allegiance to Judaism to Michael Stearns for several years after she married him. He might not even notice small observances she maintains while living with him, and when he does, he may completely misunderstand their significance.
Jewish Dress
In general, in every age, Jews have dressed more or less like their neighbors. Examination of medieval illuminated manuscripts makes this quite clear, as does examination of the works of several seventeenth-century artists. There are, however, some distinctively Jewish elements to clothing.
The first of these is the response to the commandment to wear "tassels on the corners of your garments" (Numbers 15:37). This has led to the universal Jewish custom of men wearing a tallus or prayer shawl during morning prayers. In the Sephardic dialect, this was pronounced tallit. Medieval persecution and pietism combined to lead Jews of the medieval Ashkenazic community to convert this to an undergarment that could be worn all day without being obvious. The big tallus gadol was still worn during morning prayers. Only the four tzitzis, or tassels of the little tallus katan undergarment hung out into public view. To any Jew or to any Gentile who came in regular contact with Jews, these fringes served as a badge that the wearer was Jewish. German Jews frequently referred to the talus katan undergarment as a tzitzis, after the fringes it carried.
By the seventeenth century, the Ashkenazic tradition was that all men, starting in cheder or elementary school, wore tzitzis, but only married men wore the tallus gadol. The story in the Sephardic world is less clear; Jews in the Ottoman Empire were wearing the talit katan, but it is difficult to identify evidence that the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam wore this undergarment. Certainly, "secret Jews" living in Spain or Portugal would be risking their lives to wear such a garment.
In 1434, imperial law required German Jews to wear a Jew badge, in keeping with the papal bull of 1425. The requirement that Jews wear the Jew badge was rigorously enforced, although some exceptions were made by noble decree, usually for court Jews or physicians and sometimes for their families. In rare cases, the badge laws were abolished for an entire community; for example, in 1541 Charles V annulled them in the county of Öttingen. Generally, though, badge laws remained in effect until the Emperor Joseph II abolished them in 1781.
The most common form for the Jew badge was a yellow ring two to three inches in diameter worn on the left breast of the outer garment. Some illustrations show a ring that looks like it might have been a brass hoop, perhaps pinned onto the garment, but the instructions that have survived for making the badge describe a yellow cloth ring that was to be sewn on.
By the late seventeenth century, when ruffed collars were in vogue, a yellow collar, or a collar with a yellow edge, became a common form for the badge, but the legal requirement of a yellow ring remained in force to the end of the century in much of the Holy Roman Empire. In many cases, women wore the same badge, but Jewish women's headdresses were also distinctive and served the same purpose in many communities.
During prayer, all Jewish men have traditionally covered their heads with a hat, although this is generally agreed to be a matter of tradition and not law. In the Sephardic community, some Jews only wore hats during prayer, but the Ashkenazic tradition was to wear head coverings at all times. By the seventeenth century, as several portraits by Rembrandt make clear, many of the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam were wearing an essentially modern yarmulke at all times, and wearing it
During the middle ages, Ashkenazic Jews developed the custom of wearing peaked felt hats that came to be known as "Jews' hats." For two centuries prior to 1425, German Jews were required to wear such hats, and they remained in occasional use even after the enactment of the badge laws. There is no evidence, however, that these hats were worn in the seventeenth century, and one apparent reason for the introduction of the Jew badge was the decline in popularity of the distinctive Jew's hat.
Broadly speaking, Jewish law forbids shaving, although the use of scissors to cut the hair very closely is permitted. More detailed analysis of Jewish law shows that shaving of parts of the head and face are permitted, but not the sideburns, chin or upper lip. Generally, prior to modern times, few Jews would have shaved except secret Jews, who would have followed the shaving customs of their Christian neighbors. In the Ashkenazic world of the seventeenth century, many men would have trimmed their facial hair closely with scissors, while others, particularly rabbis, would grow full beards. The tradition of growing long peyos—sidelocks—as a sign of piety was distinctly Ashkenazic, with medieval origins. Sidelocks could be pushed behind the ear or allowed to hang free. Documentation of the age of these traditions is found in illuminated manuscripts.
The modesty code of Jewish law has generally been interpreted as requiring Jewish women to cover their arms and legs, and also requiring that married women cover their hair. This was not materially different from the conventions of the Christian world of the seventeenth century, but it is noteworthy that Jewish women of seventeenth-century Germany frequently wore a headdress that took a two-horned or two-paddled form, possibly supported by a pair of combs set into a single bun at the rear, or possibly covering a "double bun" hairdo similar to that worn by Princess Leia of Star Wars fame. The veil worn over the buns and hair combs was frequently marked by two blue stripes, and the badge laws of some regions recognized such a veil as a variant Jew badge.
Remember that the folk costumes of European women frequently involved elaborate headdresses that clearly identified their regional or ethnic origins; the distinctive Jewish women's headdress fit into this more general pattern. In sixteenth-century Italy, Jewish women began to wear wigs as head coverings, but this fashion spread slowly, and it was only centuries later that most Ashkenazic women began to wear wigs in order to technically cover their hair while following bareheaded fashions of the era.
Finally, note that the modesty code of Jewish law was generally interpreted as forbidding men and women from touching in public. As an example, for a Jewish man to shake hands with a Jewish woman would have been considered quite improper in the seventeenth century. To use modern terminology, initiating such contact would have been seen as sexual harassment. There was also a tradition that a Jewish man should not give something directly into the hands of a Jewish woman other than his wife; instead, men would set things down where the woman could pick it up. This tradition avoided the risk of touching and it avoided coming close to the marriage ritual, since one way to create a legally binding marriage involved the groom giving an item of even nominal value into the bride's hand. Similarly, for a man and a woman other than his wife to enter a room and close the door behind them could create the impression of sexual impropriety, so this too was prohibited.
Jewish Travel
Jewish law forbids work and travel on Shabbos, the Sabbath or Saturday; Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; the two-day holy days of Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, Shavuos, Pentecost; and the first and last two days of each of the eight-day festivals of Succos and Pesach, Passover). The dates of the festivals are fixed in the Jewish lunar calendar, and Shabbos and all of the festivals run from sunset the night before to nightfall of the final day. Authors interested in writing historical fiction that involves Jewish characters should use a perpetual calendar to locate the dates of the festivals for the year in question. The resources section at the end of this essay lists several good perpetual calendars available on the Web.
The travel restrictions for the Sabbath allow walking 2000 amos (cubits) beyond the border of the city walls, and they forbid carrying anything, even something as small as a housekey, outside the border of the eruv or walled Jewish district. Many modern commentators arbitrarily define 2000 amos as one kilometer, although 3000 feet would be more accurate. The restrictions on travel and carrying during the festivals are only slightly less restrictive.
The complexities of the general requirements for observing the spring festival of Pesach are such that Jews of the seventeenth century would not begin a long trip until Pesach was over. Where Easter falls after Pesach, it would generally not be safe to begin the trip until after Easter, as a matter of self-protection. Long trips during the winter would be unlikely because of the weather and lack of all-weather roads, but if a Jew set out on such a trip, he would generally attempt to return home at least a week before Pesach in order to have the time to prepare for the festival.
Similar constraints surround the fall holiday season, which for Jews, runs from Rosh Hashana through the Days of Awe to the fast day of Yom Kippur and then through the festival of Succos, which ends with Simchas Torah. Jews on a long trip would generally plan to reach their destination before Rosh Hashana, and they would rarely start a major trip until after Simchas Torah. Long distance travel after these fall holidays would be rare because of the weather.
As a result, except in the case where war or expulsion forced Jews onto the road involuntarily, the Jewish travel season would have been from the end of Pesach or Easter, whichever came later, until Rosh Hashana.
In general, long-distance travelers would hope to reach the safety of the Jewish quarter of a town by Friday of each week, and they would almost certainly avoid travel on Sunday because of the threat of persecution. The gates of many Jewish quarters were locked on Sundays. Thus, a typical traveler would have five days per week available for travel, and there are typically 109 days available for travel between Pesach and Rosh Hashana. Because Shavuos fell in midweek in 1632, long-distance travelers might well elect not to travel that week, and many travelers would not travel during the fast day of Tisha Bav in August, because travel on an empty stomach is uncomfortable.
Thus, a typical Jewish merchant would plan on about a hundred days of travel per summer. If we assume that this is done on foot with a loaded pack at about fifteen miles a day, this gives the traveler a range of fifteen hundred miles per year. As the crow flies, it is about five hundred miles from Frankfurt to Lodz, Poland, but it is dangerous to measure distances that way. On foot along the roads of the seventeenth century, the path could easily have been twice this long. A round trip to Lodz would thus be unlikely in a year, but a one-way trip could easily be planned. Any traveler planning such a trip would be well advised to leave soon after Pesach in order to allow for difficulties along the way, but such a traveler would not worry overly about the loss of a week here or there along the road. A well-to-do traveler on horseback or traveling by carriage could easily double this travel radius, planning on a visit to Poland and return in one summer with time to spare.
The biggest special financial difficulty faced by Jewish travelers was paying the Jew taxes required for entry or temporary residence in various communities along the way. This tax varied; sometimes Jews entering a city paid the same head tax as livestock. Foreign Jews in the county of Öttingen were required to pay an eighteen kreuzen daily poll tax set in 1623. The annual rate was eight thalers in eighteenth-century Berlin, seven gulden in late seventeenth-century Oldersum. In addition to their use as a source of revenue, Jews taxes were used to prevent entry of Jewish refugees into a community and to discourage them from staying if they were passing through, although there were occasions when these taxes were waived on humanitarian grounds.
Jobs in the Jewish
Whatever the source of income for the Jewish community as a whole, the internal economy of the community generally created a number of jobs. There were teachers, or malmuds, in the cheder—elementary school, and rabbis for the yeshivah—secondary school or seminary. Only the more important communities had yeshivos. In general, all Jewish communities dating back to Roman times had an established system of public education. The obligation to provide for schooling is placed squarely on the community in the Talmud, and there is ample evidence of public funding for schools in both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic worlds.
It is worth noting here that the Talmud, which is written in Aramaic, was the central subject of study in the yeshivah, so any yeshivah graduate was literate in both Hebrew and Aramaic. In general, yeshivah graduates are entitled to be addressed as rabbi, although not all of them are entitled to sit as judges on a rabbinical court. Not all yeshivos were organized formally, and some rabbis of the seventeenth century took on individual students for private study leading to ordination.
Because of the need for kosher meat, any Jewish community, even a small one, would have someone who was trained as a shochet, a specialist in kosher slaughter and butchering; the Yiddish word shechter, from the same Hebrew root, is also used, and it eventually became a family name. The training required for a shochet centered around study of the laws of kosher slaughter in the yeshivah, but of course, it also included practical training in the care and use of the specialized tools of kosher slaughter, how to properly salt the blood out of the meat, and other aspects of the butcher's art. The most notable tool of the shochet is the knife used for slaughtering cattle; this has a 2-foot square-ended razor-edged blade that must be perfectly sharp and free of defects before each use.