Court Jew

Court Jew (from German: Hofjude(n), Hoffaktor) is a term for historical Jewish bankers or businessmen who lent money and handled the finances of some of the Christian European noble houses. A corresponding historical term is Jewish Bailiff. See also shtadlan.

Examples of what would be later called court Jews emerged during the Renaissance when local rulers used services of Jewish bankers for short-term loans. They lent money to nobles and in the process gained social influence.

Noble patrons of court Jews employed them as financiers, suppliers, diplomats and trade delegates. Court Jews could use their family connections, and connections between each other, to provision their sponsors with, among others things, food, arms, ammunition and precious metals.

In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges - sometimes even titles - and could live outside the Jewish ghettoes. Some nobles wanted to keep their bankers in their own courts. And because they were under noble protection, they were exempted from rabbinical jurisdiction.

Some court Jews, unlike the majority of the other Jews, amassed large personal fortunes and gained political and social influence. Sometimes they were also prominent people in the local Jewish community and could use their influence to protect and influence their brethren. Sometimes they were the only Jews who could interact with the local high society and present petitions of the Jews to the ruler.

However, the court Jew had social connections and influence in the Christian world mainly through his noble patron. Due to the precarious social position of Jews, some nobles could just ignore their debts. If the sponsoring noble died, his Jewish financier could face exile or execution. Many debts were also canceled during pogroms when the Jewish creditor could disappear.

Positions and duties

Court Jews, called also court factors, and court or chamber agents, played a part at the courts of the Austrian emperors and the German princes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and at the beginning of the nineteenth. Not always on account of their learning or their force of character did these Jews rise to positions close to the rulers: they were mostly wealthy businessmen, distinguished above their co-religionists by their commercial instincts and their adaptability. Court rulers looked upon them in a personal and, as a rule, selfish light; as being, on the one hand, their favorites, and, on the other, their whipping-boys. Court Jews frequently suffered through the denunciation of their envious rivals and co-religionists, and were often the objects of hatred of the people and the courtiers. They were of service to their fellow-Jews only during the periods, often short, of their influence with the rulers; and as they themselves, being hated parvenus, often came to a tragic end, their co-religionists were in consequence of their fall all the more harassed.

The court Jews, as the agents of the rulers, and in times of war as the purveyors and the treasurers of the state, enjoyed special privileges. They were under the jurisdiction of the court marshal, and were not compelled to wear the Jews' badge. They were permitted to stay wherever the emperor held his court, and to live anywhere in the German empire, even in places where no other Jews were allowed. Wherever they settled they could buy houses, slaughter meat according to the Jewish ritual, and maintain a rabbi. They could sell their goods wholesale and retail, and could not be taxed or assessed higher than the Christians.

Like all businessmen, Court Jews functioned at the mercy of the prevailing economy and changes in the regional/global economic conditions over which they had little or no control. Nevertheless, they were usually be assigned blame. Particularly odious, were their functions as shop keeping tradesmen and petty-lenders to the Christian working and agricultural classes on the continent. Their Sovereigns also sometimes assigned them the role of local tax collection from the above named classes of the ruler’s subjects. These roles built up a long (and some would say still) standing enmity between the Jewish (educated middle and upper) professional class; and the Christian lower middle, working, lower and agricultural classes. The resentments had far-reaching consequences in the history of European Jews.

These Christian classes were encouraged by their rulers and their church to blame Court Jews for the economic hardships that would periodically befall the local economy. The high taxes demanded by the ruler to pay off his war debts after the all too frequent wars, were blamed upon the Court Jews who had helped financed the war in the first place. Even though they had no choice in the matter. Moreover, they had no responsibility whatsoever for starting or fighting the war in the first place.

When the ruler’s bad economic decisions or profligate personal household spending resulted in a decline in national income or a rise in interest rates, with the resultant failure in small share Christian businesses and farms, the Court Jews domestically and abroad were easy to be blamed by the sovereign and his lesser nobles. It was an easy step to allow the people to periodically vent their anger against the great majority of Jews who were poor shopkeepers and tenant farmers (just like the Christians) as being responsible for economic hardships.

From 19th century central and eastern European industrialization and into the European wars and economic depressions of the 20th century the working classes and lower middle classes, small share entrepreneurs, and small scale farmers would draw upon these historical stereotypes. These Christian classes would rally against “International Jewish Money-Capitalism” and because of these beliefs support anti-Jewish policies. The most lasting and negative impact of this falsely alleged indirect economic rule, was the ingraining in the popular view of their being a “hidden” hand of Jewish influence in domestic economic events caused by an even more “hidden” hand of international Jewish economic power.

At the Austrian court

The Austrian emperors kept a considerable number of court Jews. Among those of Emperor Ferdinand II are mentioned the following: Solomon and Ber Mayer, who furnished for the wedding of the emperor and Eleonora of Mantua the cloth for four squadrons of cavalry; Joseph Pincherle of Görz; Moses and Joseph Marburger (Morpurgo) of Gradisca; Ventura Pariente of Trieste; the physician Elijah Chalfon of Vienna; Samuel zum Drachen, Samuel zum Straussen, and Samuel zum Weissen Drachen of Frankfort-on-the-Main; and Mordecai Meisel, of Prague. A specially favored court Jew was Jacob Bassevi, the first Jew to be ennobled, with the title "von Treuenberg".

Important as court Jews were also Samuel Oppenheimer, who went from Heidelberg to Vienna, and Samson Wertheimer (Wertheimher) from Worms. Oppenheimer, who was appointed chief court factor, together with his two sons Emanuel and Wolf, and Wertheimer, who was at first associated with him, devoted their time and talents to the service of Austria and the House of Habsburg: during the Rhenish, French, Turkish, and Spanish wars they loaned millions of florins for provisions, munitions, etc. Wertheimer, who, by title at least, was also chief court factor to the electors of Mayence, the Palatinate, and Treves, received from the emperor a chain of honor with his miniature.

Samson Wertheimer was succeeded as court factor by his son Wolf. Contemporaneous with him was Leffmann Behrends, or Liepmann Cohen, of Hanover, court factor and agent of the elector Ernest Augustus and of the duke Rudolf August of Brunswick. He also had relationships with several other rulers and high dignitaries. Behrends' two sons, Mordecai Gumpel and Isaac, received the same titles as he, chief court factors and agents. Isaac Cohen's father-in-law, Behrend Lehman, called also Bärmann Halberstadt, was a court factor of Saxony, with the title of "Resident"; and his son Lehman Behrend was called to Dresden as court factor by King Augustus the Strong. Moses Bonaventura of Prague was also court Jew of Saxony in 1679.

Intrigues of court Jews

The Models were court Jews of the margraves of Ansbach about the middle of the seventeenth century. Especially influential was Marx Model, who had the largest business in the whole principality and extensively supplied the court and the army. He fell into disgrace through the intrigues of the court Jew Elkan Fränkel, member of a family that had been driven from Vienna. Fränkel, a circumspect, energetic, and proud man, possessed the confidence of the margrave to such a degree that his advice was sought in the most important affairs of the state. Denounced by a certain Isaiah Fränkel, however, who desired to be baptized, an accusation was brought against Elkan Fränkel; and the latter was pilloried, scourged, and sent to the Würzburg for life imprisonment November 2, 1712. He died there 1720. David Rost, Gabriel Fränkel, and, in 1730, Isaac Nathan(Ischerlein) were court Jews together with Elkan Fränkel; Ischerlein, through the intrigues of the Fränkels, suffered the same fate as Elkan Fränkel. Nevertheless, Nathan's son-in-law, Dessauer, became court Jew. Other court Jews of the princes of Ansbach were Michael Simon and Löw Israel (1743), Meyer Berlin, and Amson Solomon Seligmann (1763).

The Great Elector

The Great Elector, Frederick William, also kept a court Jew at Berlin, Israel Aaron (1670), who by his influence tried to prevent the influx of foreign Jews into the Prussian capital. Other court Jews of the elector were Gumpertz (died 1672), Berend Wulff (1675), and Solomon Fränkel (1678). More influential than any of these was Jost Liebmann. Through his marriage with the widow of the above-named Israel Aaron, he succeeded to the latter's position, and was highly esteemed by the elector. He had continual quarrels with the court Jew of the crown prince, Markus Magnus. After his death his influential position fell to his widow, the well-known Liebmannin, who was so well received by Frederick III (from 1701 King Frederick I of Prussia) that she could go unannounced into his cabinet.

There were court Jews at all the petty German courts; e.g., Zacharias Seligmann (1694) in the service of the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, and others in the service of the dukes of Mecklenburg. Others mentioned toward the end of the seventeenth century are: Bendix and Ruben Goldschmidt of Homburg; Michael Hinrichsen of Glückstadt, who soon associated himself with Moses Israel Fürst, and whose son, Reuben Hinrichsen, in 1750 had a fixed salary as court agent. About this time the court agent Wolf lived at the court of Frederick III of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Disputes with the court Jews often led to protracted lawsuits.

The last actual court Jews were Israel Jacobson, court agent of Brunswick, and Wolf Breidenbach, factor to the Elector of Hesse, both of whom occupy honorable positions in the history of the Jews.

Famous court Jews

• Don Isaac Abravanel (1437 - 1508), financier for Portuguese and Spanish courts
• Abraham Zacuto (c.1450 - c.1510)
• Aron Beer of Frankfurt
• Moises Isaac of Bamberg
• Josel of Rosheim; Josel von Rosheim (1476 - 1554)
• Mordecai Meisel(Miška Marek Meisel) (1528 - 1601)
• Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg (a noble) (1580 - 1634)
• Chajim Fürst, (1592 - 1653), court agent in Hamburg, elder of the Jewish community in Hamburg, richest Jew in Hamburg.
• Daniel Itzig (1723 – 1799) was a court Jew of Frederick the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia.
• Moses Israel Fürst, (1617-1692), court agent in Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Schwerin
• Leffmann Behrends(Liepmann Cohen) of Hanover (c.1630 - 1714)
• Samuel Oppenheimer (1635 - 1703), military supplier for the Holy Roman Emperor.
• Samson Wertheimer (1658 - 1724), Austrian financier, chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt.
• Issachar Berend Lehmann; Issachar Berend Lehmann (1661 - 1730)
• Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1698 - 1738), financier for Karl Alexander von Württemberg
• Loew Sinzheim(Löb Sinzheim) (?-1744?), court purveyor of Mainz (? )
• Raphael Kaulla & "Madame Kaulla"
• Joachim Edler von Popper (1720 - 1795), court agent and lessee of the tobacco monopoly from the Habsburgs. 2nd Austrian Jew to be ennobled (1790).
• Israel Edler von Hönigsberg, (1724-1789), court agent and lessee of the tobacco monopoly from the Habsburgs. "Bankaldirektor" for Joseph II. 1st Austrian Jew to be ennobled (1789).
• Israel Jacobson(1768 - 1828), philanthropist and reformer, court agent of Brunswick.
• Wolf Breidenbach (1751 - 1829), factor to the Elector of Hesse, father of Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach.

In fiction, Isaac the Jew in Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" serves this puropse to Prince John and other nobles.

Bibliography

• S. Haenle, Gesch. der Juden im Ehemaligen Fürstenthum Ansbach, Ansbach, 1867;
• Jahrbuch für Gesch. der Jud. 1. 239 et seq.;
• D. Kaufmann, Samson Wertheimer, der Oberhoffactor und Landesrabbiner, Vienna, 1888;
• M. Wiener, Liepmann Cohen und Seine Söhne, in Monatsschrift. xiii 161 et seq.;
• L. Donath, Gesch. der Juden in Mecklenburg, Leipsic, 1874.

See also

• Useful Jew
• Badchen
• Judenhut
• More Judaico
• Schutzjude
• Yellow badge

References

• COURT JEWS - JewishEncyclopedia By Gotthard Deutsch & Meyer Kayserling''