Introduction
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Introduction Although Jews are typically viewed as urban dwellers, there existed a considerable rural Jewish population from the very beginning of their settlement in Eastern Europe until the end of the 19th century. The presence of a large Jewish population in villages, as distinct from their residence in cities and small towns (“shtetls”), was, in fact, one of the most distinctive features of east European Jewry from the 12th century to the Second World War. The first Jews, who arrived on Polish soil in the late 12th – early 13th centuries, were, surprisingly, farmers living in at least three Silesian villages: Mały Tyniec,3 Sokolniki4 (both near Wrocław), and Bytom5 near Katowice. The first two villages are said to have “belonged to the Jews”, whatever that exactly means, while the Jewish inhabitants of Bytom actually tilled castle lands.6 The very existence of Jewish farmers is recorded in the early Middle Ages, but mostly in south-eastern France rather than in Germany.7 Since the very notion of “village” had not yet stabilized in the 12th century, it is possible that the Jewish “owners” of Silesian villages were simply the first settlers of several farmsteads, a situation not unique to Silesia, as shown in the following example. Podiva, a Jewish founder of a village Slivnice in Moravia in 11th century is also mentioned in Cosmas’s “Bohemian Chronicle”.8 It is possible also that at least in Sokolniki the owners of the village were falconers, since the name of this village is translated into Latin as ‘falconarii’ (falconers) in several documents. Rural Jews gradually disappeared after the Mongol invasion, when a new wave of Jewish settlers came to Poland from Germany, and these farmers are mentioned for the last time in 1301 in a village of Grzegorzów near Strzelin in Lower Silesia.9 3 Codex diplomaticus nec non epistolaris Silesiae, vol. 1, Annos 971-1204 comprehendens, ed. Karoł Maleczyński, Wrocław, 1956, No. 68, p. 158. 4 Ibid. No. 103, p. 249; No. 107, pp. 275-277; Codex diplomaticus nec non epistolaris Silesiae, vol. 2, Annos 1205-1220 comprehendens, ed. Karoł Maleczyński, Wrocław, 1959, No. 130, p. 35; No. 193, p. 185. 5 Codex diplomaticus nec non epistolaris Silesiae, vol. 3, Annos 1221-1227 comprehendens, ed. Karoł Maleczyński, Wrocław, 1964, No. 337, p. 164. 6 See Walerjański, Dariusz, „Żydzi rolnicy – nieznany epizod z dziejów Żydów śląskich w średniowieczu”, Żydzi na wsi polskiej, Sesja naukowa Szreniawa, 26-27 czerwca 2006, ed. W. Mielew- czyk and U. Siekacz, Szreniawa, 2006, pp. 12-16. 7 Toch, Michael, „Ikarim Yehudim BiYmei HaBeinaim? Khaklaut UVa’alut Yehudit ‚al Karka’ot Be- Eiropa BaMeot HaShminit HaShteim-’Esre”, Zion 75, 2010, pp. 291-311; Toch, Michael, The Economic History of European Jews. Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Leiden, 2013, p. 83. 8 Cosmae pragensis chronica boemorum, ed. Bertold Bretholz (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, new series vol. 2), Berlin, 1923, 2.21 (in English: Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs, transl. Lisa Wolverton, Washington DC, 2009). 9 Regesten zur schlesischen Geschichte vol. 4, 1301-1315, ed. Colmar Grünhagen and Konrad Wutke (Codex diplomaticus Silesiae, vol. XVI), Breslau, 1892, No. 2666, p. 16. 2 Introduction Jews of the second wave of migration were overwhelmingly moneylenders, and they also appeared to have existed in the countryside as landowners and land users through the system of real estate mortgages known in Poland as zastawa, when mortgaged land passed to the hands of the creditor in case of default.10 Jewish settlement into rural areas began in earnest in the 16th century Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. The main reason for the ruralization of the Jewish population was the legal entrée into villages afforded to the Jews through a system of “lease-holding” of the “monopolies” or, more accurately, the monopoly rights enjoyed by the Polish nobility and landed gentry on their extensive country estates, where a feudal system vis-à-vis the serfs prevailed. The most widespread form of leasehold was, as in the Polish-Lithuanian economy in general, the leasing of propination rights (production and sale of alcoholic beverages). The leasing of propination rights rapidly expanded and reached its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries, being the easiest way of marketing grain locally in the form of alcohol. The overwhelming majority of these rural leaseholders were Jews, and, in some regions, rural Jews constituted the absolute majority of the Jewish population. Thus, in 1764 according to the census of the Jewish population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 87% of the total Jewish population of Polish Livonia (Inflanty, now in Latvia) were rural dwellers,11 and, according to the same census for Crown Poland, rural Jews constituted 84% of the total population of the Węgrów Jewish community in Poldlasie.12 While awareness of the importance of rural Jewish life has grown lately, little serious research has been done on the subject, and that which exists generally concentrates on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the period before the 10 See Kalik, Judith, “Hafkadah UWiderkaf BePe’ilutam HaKalkalit shel Yehudei Mamlekhet Polin- Lita”, Yazamut Yehudit Be’Et HeḤadashah. Mizraḥ Eiropa VeErets-Israel, ed. R. Aaronsohn and Sh. Stampfer, Jerusalem, 2000, pp. 25-47. 11 Cieśła, Maria, „Żydzi wiejscy w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku”, Kwartalnik Historii Żydów 253, 2015, p. 236. 12 Kleczyński, Józef, and Kluczycki, Franciszek, „liczba głów żydowskich w Koronie z taryf roku 1765”, Archiwum Komisji Historycznej Akademii Umiętności 8, 1898, p. 19; Stampfer, Shaul, „The 1764 Census of Polish Jewry”, Bar-Ilan, Annual of Bar-Ilan University: Studies in Judaica and the Humanities (Studies in the History and Culture of East European Jewry, ed. G. Bacon and M. Rosman) 24/25, 1989, p. 143. Introduction 3 partitions of Poland,13 or in the post-partition Kingdom of Poland (“Congress Poland”)14 and Austrian Galicia.15 As for the Russian territory of the post-partition Commonwealth, only the Jewish agricultural colonies established there in 19th century 13 Burszta, Józef, Wieś i karczma: Rola karczmy w życiu wsi pańszczyźnianej, Warszawa, 1950; Cieśła, Maria, „Żydzi wiejscy w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku”, Kwartalnik Historii Żydów 253, 2015, pp. 231-246; Fjałkowski, Paweł, „Żydzi w mazowieckich wsiach od czasów najdawniejszich do począdków XIX wieku”, Żydzi na wsi polskiej, Sesja naukowa Szreniawa, 26-27 czerwca 2006, ed. W. Mielewczyk and U. Siekacz, Szreniawa, 2006, pp. 17-29; Goldberg, Jacob, „Rol- nictwo wśród Żydów w ziemi wieluńskiej w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku”, Biuletyn ŻIH 26, 1958, pp. 62-89; Goldberg, Jacob, „Żyd a karczma wiejska w XVIII wieku”, Wiek Oświecenia 9, 1993, pp. 205-213; „HaYehudi VeHaPundak HaKafri”, in J. Goldberg, HaḤevra HaYehudit BeMamlekhet Polin-Lita, Jeru- salem, 1999, pp. 232-240; Goldberg, Jacob, „Władza dominialna Żydów-arendarzy dóbr ziemskich nad chłopami w XVII-XVIII w.”, Przegląd Historyczny 1-2, 1990, pp. 189-198; „Die jüdische Gutspächter in Polen-Litauen und die Bauern im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert“ Kleine Völker in der geschichte Osteuropas; Festschrift für Günther Stökl, ed. M. Alexander, Stuttgart, 1991, pp. 13-21; „Ḥokhrei HaAkhuzot HaYe- hudim Umarutam ‚al HaIkarim“, in J. Goldberg, HaḤevra HaYehudit BeMamlekhet Polin-Lita, Jeru- salem, 1999, pp. 159-170; Kalik, Judith,”Deconstructing Communities: The Administrative Structure of the Rural Jewish Population in the Polish Crown Lands in the 18th Century”, Gal-ed 21, 2007, pp. 53-76; Kalik, Judith, “Jewish Leaseholders (Arendarze) in 18th Century Crown Poland”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 54, 2006, pp. 229-240; Leszczyński, Anatol, „Karczmarze i szynkarze żydowscy ziemi Bielskiej od drugiej połowy XVII w. do 1795 r.“, Biuletyn ŻIH 102, 1977, pp. 77-85; Podraza, Antoni, „Żydzi i wieś w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej“, Żydzi w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, ed. A. Link-Lenczowski, T. Polański, Wrocław-Warszawa-Krakόw, 1991, pp. 237-256; “Jews and the Village in the Polish Common- wealth”, The Jews in Old Poland, ed. J. Basista, A. Link-Lenczowski, A. Polonsky, London, 1993, pp. 299-321; Teller, Adam, “Ḥakhira Klalit VeḤokher Klali BeAḥuzot Beit Radziwiłł Ba Mea Ha-18”, Yaza- mut Yehudit Be’Et HaḤadasha. Mizraḥ Eiropa VeErets Israel, ed. R. Aaronsohn and S. Stampfer, Jeru- salem, 2000, pp. 48-78; Węgrzynek, Hanna, “Zajęcia rolnicze Żydόw w Rzeczypospolitej w XVI-XVIII wieku”, Małżeństwo z rozsądku? Żydzi w społeczeństwie dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, ed. M. Wodziński, A. Michałowska-Mycielska, Wrocław, 2007, pp. 87-104. 14 Bergman, Eleonora, „Żydzi na wsi w Królewstwie Polskim w XIX wieku”, Żydzi na wsi polskiej, Sesja naukowa Szreniawa, 26-27 czerwca 2006, ed. W. Mielewczyk and U. Siekacz, Szreniawa, 2006, pp. 30-36; Dynner, Glenn, Yankel’s Tavern: Jews, Liquor, and Life in the Kingdom of Poland, oxford, 2014; Hensel, Jürgen, „Żydowski arendarz i jego karczma. Uwagi na marginesie usunięcia Żydowskich arendarzy ze wsi w Królewstwie Polskim w latach 20. XIX wieku”, Kultura Żydów polskich XIX – XX wieku, ed. R. Kołodziejczyk and R. Renz, Kielce, 1992, pp. 83-99; Krajniewski, Jarosław, „Żydzi wiejscy kahału będzińskiego na przełomie XVIII i XIX wieku”, Żydzi na wsi polskiej, Sesja naukowa Szrenia- wa, 26-27 czerwca 2006, ed. W. Mielewczyk and U. Siekacz, Szreniawa, 2006, pp. 37-40; Kwieciński, Mirosław, „Udział Żydów w propinacji w zakopiańskich dobrach hrabiego Władysława Zamoyskiego”, Żydzi na wsi polskiej, Sesja naukowa Szreniawa, 26-27 czerwca 2006, ed. W. Mielewczyk and U. Sieka- cz, Szreniawa, 2006, pp. 78-96. 15 Gąsowski, Tomasz, “From Austeria to the Manor: Jewish Landowners in Autonomous Galicia”, Polin 12, 1999, pp. 120-136; Stauter-Halstead, Keely, “Jews as Middleman Minorities in Rural Poland: Understanding the Galician Pogroms of 1898”, Anti-Semitism and its Opponents in Modern Poland, ed. R. Blobaum, Ithaca (NY), 2001, pp. 39-59. 4 Introduction have become the subject of a monograph by Victor Nikitin.16 However, the traditional Jewish rural population of leaseholders in these areas has been largely neglected in the scholarly research.