Pinkas, Kahal, and the Mediene: the Records of Dutch Ashkenazi

Pinkas, Kahal, and the Mediene Studies in Jewish History and Culture (Formerly Studies in European Judaism) Editor-in-Chief Giuseppe Veltri Editorial Board Bruno Chiesa (University of Turin) Rachel Elior (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Gad Freudenthal (CNRS, Villejuif ) Anthony Grafton (Princeton University) Alessandro Guetta (INALCO, Paris) Eleazar Gutwirth (Tel Aviv University) Catherine Hezser (SOAS, London) Moshe Idel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Hanna Liss (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg) Paul Mendes-Flohr (University of Chicago/ Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Mauro Perani (University of Ravenna) Myriam Silvera (University “La Sapienza”, Rome) Caterina Rigo (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) David Ruderman (University of Pennsylvania) Peter Schäfer (Princeton University) Stefan Schreiner (University of Tübingen) Adam Shear (University of Pittsburgh) Israel Yuval (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Jonathan Webber (University of Birmingham) VOLUME 19 Pinkas, Kahal, and the Mediene The Records of Dutch Ashkenazi Communities in the Eighteenth Century as Historical Sources by Stefan Litt LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Litt, Stefan, 1969– Pinkas, kahal, and the mediene : the records of Dutch Ashkenazi communities in the eighteenth century as historical sources / by Stefan Litt. p. cm. — (Studies in Jewish history and culture ; v. 19) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-04-16773-5 (alk. paper) 1. Ashkenazim—Netherlands—Hague—History—18th century—Sources. 2. Ashkenazim—Netherlands—Leeuwarden—History—18th century—Sources. 3. Ashkenazim—Netherlands—Middelburg—History—18th century—Sources. 4. Ashkenazim—Netherlands—Oisterwijk—History—18th century—Sources. 5. Ashkenazim—Netherlands—Politics and government—18th century—Sources. 6. Hague (Netherlands)—Ethnic relations—History—Sources. 7. Leeuwarden (Netherlands)—Ethnic relations—History—Sources. 8. Middelburg (Netherlands)— Ethnic relations—History—Sources. 9. Oisterwijk (Netherlands)—Ethnic relations— History—Sources. I. Title. II. Series. DS135.N5H355 2008 949.2’004924—dc22 2008014856 ISSN 1568-5004 ISBN 978 90 04 16773 5 © Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................ 1 State of Research .................................................................... 4 What is a Pinkas? .................................................................... 7 Sources .................................................................................... 11 Historical Background of the Netherlands from the Seventeenth to the Late Eighteenth Century .................... 20 The Jewish Population in the Dutch Republic until the Eighteenth Century ............................................................ 23 Jewish Autonomy in Ashkenaz and in the Netherlands ........ 29 Chapter One Governing a Jewish Community ...................... 33 Parnassim and Their Functions ............................................. 34 Election Procedures ................................................................ 40 Terms of Office ....................................................................... 52 Families and Individuals in Community Leadership ............. 54 The Authority of the Leadership and Its Acknowledgement ............................................................... 63 Chapter Two Keeping a Pinkas ............................................... 92 Standard Contents of the Pinkassim ..................................... 93 Local Idiosyncrasies ................................................................ 96 Chapter Three Officials of the Jewish Community ................ 114 Rabbis and Poskim ................................................................. 114 Cantors, Ritual Slaughterers, Teachers, and Beadles ............ 134 Chapter Four Members, Origins, and Patterns of Migration ................................................................................ 144 Chapter Five Revenue and Finance ........................................ 157 Chapter Six Hevras and Charities ............................................ 165 Chapter Seven Intercommunal Frameworks ........................... 176 vi contents Contacts between Communities ............................................. 176 Regional Organisations ........................................................... 182 Chapter Eight Conclusions ...................................................... 187 Abbreviations .............................................................................. 191 Bibliography ................................................................................ 193 Appendix One The Governors of the Jewish Communities ........................................................................... 197 Appendix Two Selected Records from the Pinkassim .............. 208 Index ........................................................................................... 229 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is not the result of solitary research in an ivory tower. Besides the weeks and months of work that have gone into it on my part, there have also been many fruitful meetings, countless questions and answers, hints and all kinds of assistance. As part of the bi-national Yiddish in the Netherlands research project, recently set up in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, this book owes much to the ideas of the research group that met regularly during the years 2001–2004. During these years Marion Aptroot, Shlomo Berger, Evi Butzer, Renate Fuks-Mansfeld, Henk Meijerink, Hilde Pach, Stefan Rohrbacher, Emile Schrijver, Bart Wallet, Falk Wiesemann and Irene Zwiep were constant companions and guides, always willing to be of assistance. Generous grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek made it possible to create this research group and to hold frequent inspirational meetings in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. I would also like to thank to all the archivists and librarians in the many archives and libraries that generously provided material for this research, including Gemeentearchief ’s Gravenhage (The Hague), Tresoar (Provincial Archives of Friesland) Leeuwarden, Zeeuws Archief Middelburg, Bibliotheka Rosenthaliana Amsterdam, Universitätsbibio- thek Düsseldorf and the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem. I am especially grateful to Joel Cahen who was particularly helpful in accessing some of the source material used in this study. Edward Fram read the complete manuscript and helped significantly to improve its quality with his great knowledge and understanding of Jewish history in early modern period. This book would not have become readable without the tremendous help of Sam Herman. His ability to understand my intentions, and his rich experience in literature on Dutch Jewry made it easy to work with him during the editing process. My thanks also to the editor of this series, Giuseppe Veltri, for his invaluable assistance and indeed for the opportunity to publish this work. Not least, my wife Ruthi and our two daughters Netta and Maya have been full of support and love throughout the inevitable ups and viii acknowledgements downs of the past few years. Without them and without their willing- ness to follow me to Düsseldorf, this book would never have come into being. Stefan Litt September 2007 INTRODUCTION What is a Jewish community? What is it for? How does it form? How does it work? Who starts it? Why? Who sets the rules? Who imposes them? What makes one community thrive and another decline? The historical evidence is often scarce and the detail sporadic, but one source that provides signifi cant clues to the workings of a community is its pinkas. In a nutshell, in the early modern Ashkenazi world, this is a community’s administrative record: its statutes and legal rulings, often accompanied by a host of other information. This study examines the pinkassim of four provincial Ashkenazi communities in the Dutch Republic of the eighteenth century. A handful of scholarly works have been published about the larger of these peripheral communities, mostly based on material from administrative archives that generally refl ect the perspective of non-Jews. In 1991 Jozeph Michman commented on the lack of research into the history of Dutch Ashkenazi Jews before the early nineteenth century: The entire fi eld of Jewish traditions and customs, of halakhic and moral- istic literature, for whose understanding a thorough grounding in Hebrew and Yiddish is essential, remains neglected. All the focal points of Jewish existence during the pre-emancipation period, and even during a large part of the nineteenth century,

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