The Geniune Jew

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DER WAHRE JUDE Organ für die Gesammtinteressen des Judenthums

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Lviv, February 12th 1904

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The Genuine Jew is published every Friday

Lemberg, den 12. Februar 1904.

Our religious education

“One could almost laugh about it, if it wasn’t so sad”... We can justifiably use this general idiom in regards to the religious education at our public schools when accusing our advanced Jewish people that our religious education is substantially neglected. Our children grow up without a Jewish consciousness concerning religion and faith, they do not know anything about the Jewry, about Jewish celebrations, or about Jewish music. The educated Jewry then points to the religious education in the schools, that a religious educator is employed in every school who is paid by the Jewish community, that a representative of the Jewish community sits in the local education authority, that according to the law the religious education is crucial in education. A student might be perfectly educated, but if he doesn’t know about religion he will not pass the exam - because of all of that they know that the religious education is esteemed and highly renowned and everything is to be done in order to educate the children religiously.

All of those responses are correct. We have religious educators in every school - but nobody asks what kind of educators they are? We have representatives in the local education authorities, but nobody asks how concerned they are with our religious inquiries? - The Jewish communities pay the teacher, but nobody asks how they care about the religious education? - The religious education is a significant subject for every Jewish pupil, but nobody asks if it really happened that a Jewish student failed an exam because he didn’t know anything about religion?

The answer is: religious education in schools is a serious subject, but is not taught seriously. We don’t want to use a harsher expression, otherwise we would have to say: it is treated like a joke.

The religious educator is for the most part not really pious. The children realise that he thinks little of religion and what he teaches. Therefore, the religious education doesn’t leave a big impression, they don’t take it seriously and take religion solely as a story, which they don’t have to know anything about, like other historical chronicles. There isn’t really an alternative; for the most part they are in school ignoring the Sabbath to learn writing, calculating and similar - how should they think about the Sabbath as honourable? And if the religious educator is a serious man, as those educators really are, then he has a serious challenge with children of non-pious parents. For example, if he learns in school that eating Chametz is not allowed during Passover - and that child goes home and eats Chametz , then goes back to school and explains that the teacher lied about Chametz not being forbidden to eat .The same happens with the Sabbath observance and other big customs of the Jewish religion.

But if a teacher who wants to take a stance against that and wants to convince the children that the religion he teaches is the true Jewry - then a fight against him rises. He gets reported to the Local Education Administration, an investigation against him gets instigated and he is

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being assaulted until he shuts up and is quiet.

However, a Jewish representative sits in the Local Education Administration, who should take on the teacher, because doesn’t he sit there for exactly that reason? You will of course ask, but that is indeed a bad thing. The Jewish school inspector wants to demonstrate that he is a modern man, not a fanatic and only cares about the religion teacher if pious parents complain that the lessons are bad. But he will remain quiet if someone complains that the teacher is too pious (usually a lawyer or a doctor or similar who has little knowledge of religion and is hardly pious), nobody should think only he is a “fanatic” under no circumstances…

Not that anyone now thinks we are telling fairy tales, that we are suspected of lies. We want to bring facts which have been created in a big jewish community here in Galicia.

A Jewish religious educator who came to the knowledge that Jewish students are sitting in school on Sabbath, asked the director he shall free the children from writing on Sabbath, as the law does allow that. The director sent this inquiry to the LEA, which sent it to the board of the religious community, if writing on Sabbath is indeed prohibited. This inquiry has had an answer from the religious board for a few months now. They do not have the audacity to say they should be writing; to say no on the other shames him, in case someone might say the board are fanatics!... We think that it is a bigger shame to be silent about this for so long.

A second case happened in the same city: A Jewish teacher talked about the Law of Moses, the children reported this at home, some pious Jewish people told the school inspector and he initiated an investigation and interrogated the children as witnesses. The Jewish doctor who is the representative in the LEA, who should have been most angered about the Jewish teacher, helped her and wanted to twist the children's answers with various questions in order to make several pull back their statements. He didn't achieve this, but this case shows how far the interests of the Jewish representatives in the LEA go for the Jewish religion.

Are those two tales proof enough, or should we describe more stories? - We don’t think that as necessary: every Jewish reader knows stories like this of their own experience. There are very little or even no Jewish religious educators who are not complained about and there are few schools where stories like this don’t circulate.

However, we can say that the education in school according to the required methods, doesn’t get to the children. They stay unfamiliar with religion, its people and their faith.

(The End)

The Truth

Letter from Hungary

The Hungarian Jews, their lives, their political and economical situation, are not really known to our Jewish readers. The Hungarian Jew is a different “type”, he differs from the Polish and the German ones. They live miles apart and don’t come in contact with each other. I’m not looking to describe Hungarian Jewish people in detail, their situation, their conditions and their states. I will do that in another letter. I just want to share important information which will interest every Jew.

In Hungary live - beside Magyars - several other tribes, like Germans, Romanians, Slowakians, Croatians, Ruthenians and others. Together they would be the majority in the whole populace and the Magyars do know that if all those tribes get together, Hungary would not be a Magyarianian state, nor a Slavish one. Therefore they strive to strengthen the Magyarian populace, suppress the other nationalities, refuse them their national pride and don’t let them develop their national interests. The Jewish people in Hungary are always loyal to the government, supporting it in every situation and above all, the government has always got massive support during elections in the cities, where many Jewish people live among Romanians and Slavic people. Without Jewish people, Slavic people would have been elected into the government. Where few Hungarians live, Jewish people help Hungarians to a successful election.

Furthermore, the Jewish people in Hungary can influence the government in certain ways and if they want something, they have the power to do so. Still, there have been some cases where the government issued laws, which harmed Jewish people there. The last minister president Kálmán Széll allowed Christians to open shops and banks in frontier districts where a lot of Jewish people live among Ruthenians and Slavs in order to support the populace there. That harmed the Jewish people there. As soon as they opposed it, the government had to stop. Jewish people seem to have a bit more influence in Hungary compared to other countries.

This influence also proved useful in the case of the Sunday rest. Many pious Jewish people, especially in Galicia, suffer under the law of Sunday Rest. They close their shop on Sabbath and also have to do so on Sunday. Closing their stores two days a week is difficult, especially for the little merchant. The Hungarian Jewish people managed to achieve some relief.

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A few months ago, the government issued a decree for every tobacco shop to be open for business on Sabbath. The licence is to be revoked of those who keep it closed on Sabbath. This decree has been a serious “punishment”. Several tobacconists, who didn’t want their licence to be revoked, and have therefore violated Sabbath. However, many pious Jewish people insisted and have not lost their livelihood over this. The Jewish people have raised tumult: they have handed over petitions to the finance minister. Last week he gave confirmation to the chancellery of Orthodox Jews in Budapest that he meets half of their demands. That means: he issued another decree that those who ran their shops before the previous decree may close their shops on Sabbath. And those who have had their licences revoked, will get it back. Still, tobacconists who get their licence now have to vow to keep their shop open on Sabbath. In other words, pious Jewish people cannot open tobacco shops anymore…

The minister has already written to the chancellery that he cannot back down anymore and they cannot ask for more. However, the pious Jewish people of Hungary must not remain silent and have to use all means at their disposal to abolish the rest of this punishment. If the government doesn’t want to give in, they have to turn to the parliament. And if that doesn’t help as well they have to submit to our Lord, King … and they will hopefully achieve everything.

Jewish people have made Romanians and Slavs their enemies because they have always supported the government! In those places where a lot of Slavs live there is a great hostility between them and the Jewish people there which leads to fights and brawls. I do not want to judge whether the Jewish people gain advantages for themselves by being devoted to the Magyars and therefore make enemies with the other peoples. Maybe it would have been better for the Jewish people to stay neutral and not form alliances with any other nationality. I want to write about that another time. The Jewish people are already suffering because they support the government and should therefore not make them suffer more. However, if the government forgets their duty, the Jewish people need to remind them as long as they are listened to.

The War

Between Japan and Russia

After lengthy negotiation going back and forth, the war between Japan and Russia has ultimately broken out. Both have hesitated a long time, waiting for the other one to start the one so as to not bear the responsibility of inaugurating it. Finally, Japan lost its patience and called back their ambassador from St Petersburg immediately leading to war. The first few days, news from Japanese victories at sea have been received. If Japan beats Russia at sea, the war will continue on the mainland. It is not clear yet how exactly both armies will crash against each other. First of all, no one knows how fast both want to reach the capital of Korea, Seoul. It’s therefore possible that the first war on land will be happening in Korea. If Japan gets to occupy Korea before the Russian military manages to get there, both enemies will already meet at the border of Manchuria. The Japanese military plans to invade Manchuria in order to split the Russian military into two parts and weaken their forces. Japan moves particularly cautiously to invade Manchuria in secret. They want to destroy Russian connections to their country, to demolish their railroads and cut their supply stream of food and war materials in order to facilitate the Japanese victory in the end.

News of the first Japanese victories impressed the whole world, therefore leading to hope it would be easier for Japan to make peace. Japan will be content with their first victories and would be inclined to make peace sooner. Russia was also scared of the war before it broke out and will certainly give in. Different sources talk about peace enforcement. Some say the Pope will be the “mediator”, others talk about our Emperor Franz Josef being an arbitrator, but for now nothing of that is true. No one so far has come forward to mediate and nobody wants to. - Every government declared themselves as “neutral”, meaning they are not supporting any party and just want to watch. Except for England, they support Japan in secret. There is a rumour that England won’t let Russian ships pass through the Mediterranean Sea to East Asia, through the Dardanelles or through the Suez-Canal.

Russia is trying to receive loans, but after the first losses, there are doubts they will get money.

No one can say for sure how long the war will last, but it seems like it will end soon. A long war, which will not be cheap for Russia, will cause revolutions inside the country. Rumour has it there are preparations for a revolution in Russian Poland already. Therefore, Russia needs to end the war soon to keep its own country in check. The idiom: “The camel wanted horns, but cut off the ears as well” became true for Russia now. Russia wanted

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to invade foreign countries, but is now busy with its own land.

The whole world is now curious how this war will end - if Russia or Japan will emerge as victor. Never before has everyone been so invested in a war, which is happening in a faraway country. Neither the war between China and Japan ten years ago nor the war between Spain and America five years ago was in everyone’s mind like that because the end result was not important for the whole world. However, now, it is of great importance. If Russia loses, its power will be forever broken, the dissatisfaction inside the country will grow. Either Russia has to issue a constitution and stop the tyrannical reign or revolutions will reign through the whole country and bring it to ruins. If Japan loses, the chances to advance into a Worldwar in all of Europe and Asia is tremendous. Nobody will support Russia as every country is in conflict with them. Even their ally, France, is not happy with Russia’s occupation of Manchuria. Japan has England and America on their side, as Japan is waging war for them as well. They want the same thing Japan does: for Russia to leave Manchuria. But if England and America support Japan, France will certainly not watch from afar. Then, Germany and Italy also need to intervene, therefore developing the war into a world war, for which no one can know how that will end.

An important question now is the significance the Russian-Japanese war has in Austria-Hungary. On the outside, Austria-Hungary and Russia are at peace, but the differences between those two countries have not ceased to exist. Austria-Hungary has always been in conflict with Russia about Russia settling in Turkey and bothering Austria there. Austria can breathe a sigh of relief and act more freely in the Balkans, now that Russia is occupied in Asia. The time has come for Austria to declare Bosnia and Herzegovina as its own. Until now, those two countries belonged to Turkey while Austria had merely occupied it.

There is another reason why Austria is interested in the Russian-Japanese War. As is known, Bulgaria intends to wage war with Turkey for a while now as Macedonia belongs to Bulgaria. Additionally, Montenegro is also constantly looking to involve Turkey in a conflict. Bulgaria and Montenegro hope to drive Turkey completely out of Europe. And if they lose the war, they may take no damage from it like Greece has taken no damage after losing the war with Turkey. The European powers did not let something bad happen to Greece. Even though Turkey has won the war, they had to give up the island Crete. Therefore, Bulgaria and Montenegro hope for the Christian powers to interfere in case they lose the war and take Macedonia away from Turkey. Serbia has not wanted to interfere with disputes on the Balkans as long as King Aleksandar has ruled. However, since the revolution against King Aleksandar and the war of the new king, King Peter, dissatisfaction has risen in the country. The king has not punished the murder of King Aleksandar but started a war with Turkey to quench the discontent in the country.

Until now, every Balkan country was afraid to declare war on Turkey, because Austria-Hungary and Russia warned them not to start as they don’t want the situation in Turkey to change. But now, as Russia is occupied in Asia, the question is whether the Balkan countries prepare for war. News came via telegram that Austria-Hungary needs to convene their reservists and prepare in case a war breaks out in Turkey. - The Russo-Japanese war can therefore have set off another war which is of great interest to Austria-Hungary as well as the whole world. - Besides, the whole world is greatly interested in the war in Russia and expect daily news from the warside.

The first Russian defeat.

Russia has already been harshly defeated in three battles on the ocean in the first few days of war. The first losses have shown that the Russian marines are not able to oppose the Japanese one on the water making one think the war is as good as won to the benefit of Japan. Over half of the Russian ships which are in East Asia have already been destroyed or at least have been incapacitated. Part of the other half are in the port of Vladivostok which is frozen over leading to the ships being stuck in there. The other part is stationed in Port Arthur, this part alone is not strong enough to combat Japan. Therefore, those ships will have to stay in the port and wait until Japan arrives to destroy the battle ships left.

The Japanese military showed their understanding of warfare, they proved courage and initiative. As eyewitnesses report, Japanese bullets and cannons always fired their shot and landed it as well, while the Russian projectiles didn’t even hit their target once. - The start of the Russo-Japanese war seems similar to the start of the Spanish-American war some time ago. Back then, the first battle also happened on the ocean, the American admiral Dewey destroyed the entire Spanish marine in front of the Philippines in one night and steered the war into the direction of the American victory. The Russo-Japanese war seems to go along these lines as well. Because of these first victories Japan managed to prevent the Russian marines from reaching Korea and marching into Manchuria from there. The first battles on land will probably occur in Korea or at the border to Manchuria and as it seems, Japan will win. They are better prepared and show more courage. The Russians on the other hand have lost some of their courage after the first losses and lost courage don’t fare well on the battlefield. When the troops fall, they will fall.

The whole world looks at the first victories of Japan with awe. It is known that the Japanese military training is highly advanced and they have proven great strength. However, rumour has it that there are English officers on the ships who are dressed like the Japanese as to not be recognised and they are commanding the Japanese ships. If this is true, the admiration of the Japanese might is unwarranted as the English marine is the best in the world.

More news followed the first Japanese victories.

The first message was fetched from a Russian gazette in St Petersburg, which reported on a telegram sent by admiral Alekseyev - the Russian govenor in Asia - to the tsar:

“I have to inform about Japanese torpedo ships (ships that are tasked with destroying the enemy’s fleet) that were ambushing Russian war ships which were leaving the harbour of Port Arthur. During this attack three ironclads have been destroyed: “Retvizan”, “Tsesarevich”, and “Pallada”.

That is how the first message from the war side is written. One could imagine that if the Russian admiral delivered this telegram, the Russian loss must have been more severe as he has let on, as later sources described. The Japanese attacked worked so well: the Russian battle ships shot back, but did not hit their targets and did not damage the Japanese. To caluclate the losses, it is important to understand what it means when an armed battle ship gets destroyed. Generally, an armed battle ship is to be understood as an entire army corps. A battle ship is worth 20 million. As Russia lost three battle ships during the first attack, it amounts to three corps and 60 million. Furthermore, the loss of a ship is even greater, as building a ship like this takes years and years and the damage cannot be restored.

All of Russia was shocked by the news of the first loss. The tsar’s ball has been cancelled because of it. The Russian stock plunged, the Russian enemies had a party, their allies grieved alongside them - but soon a new message about the second Russian loss, which was even worse than the first one, was received.

The governer Alekseyev sent the following telegram to the tsar:

“On Monday, the Japanese troops, consiting of 15 battle ships, started to bomb the harbour of Port Arthur. We shot back from the fortress. After one hour, the Japanese stopped firing arms and left the harbour. Two officers and 54 soldiers are wounded, 10 soldiers have been killed. The Russian battle ships “Poltava”, “Diana”, “Askold”, and “Novik” have been

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damaged. The fortress has not been badly damaged.”

This is how the governor delivered the news, and everyone can therefore be certain that the Russian loss has been much worse. Again, four battleships were damaged, the fortress suffered. The second defeat was even worse than the first one.

The third Japanese victory is also being reported on. At sea, next to the bay of Chemulp'o, Russian and Japanese battleships went into battle. Japan demolished the battleships, “Korietz” and “Varyag”. Most of the crew were able to save themselves, but in turn they were captured by Japan. The Japanese battleships have only been slightly damaged. According to the latest news, Japan managed to stop the Manchurian train and destroy it. This is another big win as the Russian military deliveries are interrupted.

Generally, the Russian defeats are confirmed to be greater and showed that there is not one capable admiral on the Russian fronts. Russia is on the best path to be completely defeated at sea.

The causes of the war.

The war between Russia and Japan broke out mainly because of Korea and Manchuria. Meaning, Russia and Japan are not at war because of their own countries, but because of foreign ones. Korea is a small country, amassing 218,650 square kilometres with 10 million inhabitants. Those inhabitants are great fanatics, lazy, half-asleep and live like their ancestors a hundred years ago. The ruler of the country calls himself an “emperor”, but is in reality a man without courage or power; foreign ambassadors do whatever they want. He is controlled by the Russian ambassador as well as the Japanese, the English and the American one, and even by women. A Russian cook and an English governess influence him greatly. He just lets it all happen. Up until 10 years ago, China had the biggest authority in Korea, formally it belonged to China. Because of Korea, the last Chinese-Japanese war, where Japan emerged as victor, broke out as well. Back then, Japan wanted to take all of Korea, but the allied powers of Germany, Russia, and France interfered and forced Japan to acknowledge Korea as an independent state - not part of China, not part of Japan. However, Japan needs Korea because of trade, it needs to settle their merchants there. After the war, Russia started to invade Korea and to cause problems for Japan causing the Russian-Japanese relationship to be strained and irritated.

After the last uprising in China, the Boxer Rebellion, where the “Boxers” rose up against foreigners, every country sent their military there to suppress the rebellion. After the situation calmed down, everyone’s military retreated, except for Russia, which stayed in the Chinese province of Manchuria. Russia occupied this region during the rebellion and refused to retreat. At first, it was looking for different excused, but the other

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governments demanded Russia to vacate the area - after that Russia forced China to enter in an agreement after which Russia is allowed to keep occupying the province Manchuaria as long as it wants to. Manchuria should continue to be a Chinese province only by name. Because of the occupation of Manchuria, Russia became a closer neighbour to Korea, which bothered Japan quite a lot. But also other governments are not satisfied with this situation, mainly England and America, which are interested in Manchuria because of trade. Therefore, they put stones in Russia’s path and disrupted their trading. They wanted to close every Manchurian harbours for foreign trade. Still, China went into agreement with several other governments allowing them to trade however much they want. England and America therefore drove Japan continuously to not let Russia fob them off. And Japan, who could be sure that it had two big powers backing them up, demanded of Russia to relinquish any Korean influence and vacate Manchuria. The negotiations dragged on for months. Russia agreed to give up influence on Korea, but not to leave Manchuria - but Japan demanded both.

Lately, Russia started to prepare for war in Asia. Japan on the other side, also braced themselves for war. After a while, Japan realised that Russia took ages to answer Japan’s demand and hesitated for weeks on end, therefore only playing for time in order to finish preparing for war. Hence, Japan called back their ambassador from St Petersburg, meaning Japan is not ready anymore to negotiate with Russia, meaning Japan will protect their rights with a blade. On Sunday then, the war began.

Japan.

b.

Japan mostly consists of mountains. There are several high mountains and even volcanoes, which means the mountain erupts fire. The climate there is healthy: in the summer there is a warm and moist south wind, in the winter it is cold, harsh north wind. The population grows continuously. Each year it grows by 1/9. Every year, there are 350,000 marriages and 100,000 divorces. Each year over one million children are being born while 800,000 people die. Japan has a lot of big cities, for example the capital, Tokyo with 1,350,000 inhabitants, Osaka - 500,000, Kyoto - 340,000, Nogoya - 250,000, Taiwan - 240,000, Kōbe - 200,000, Yokohama - 200,000 and others. - The bigger part of the Japanese is a united people. They speak the same language, wear the same clothes, practise the same customs and religion. Concerning their looks, they are similar to Mongols. The men’s average height is 158 cm and women’s 145 cm, their skin tone is of a light yellow, their hair is black as well as thick and strong, but their facial hair thin and weak. Some time ago they used to wear plaits like the Chinese, but since they got more civilised they cut them off. The Japanese are known are known for their cleanliness, they are kind, decent, and polite. Their children respect and honour their parents. There are several schools and a university in Japan, where Hebrew is taught as well. Over 800 newspapers and bulletins are published there. The press law is very strict. The Japanese people lead a moderate lifestyle, they mostly eat rice, millet, fish and similar, but not a lot of meat. Their clothes are made of linen, their houses are lowly built and made out of wood, and the roofs are made out of shingles or covered with straw - very rarely bricks are used. As the houses are built very closely next to each other, fires can spread quickly. - Most Japanese live off of farming, livestock breeding, and mining. As of recently, factories were being built which export their merchandise abroad. The arts are rather developed, Japanese paper, porcelain, and paintings are known all over the globe.

(To be continued).

News.

Jewish News.

(Lviv). This coming Shabbat in the evening the Chasidim synagogue will be holding the general meeting of the חלואת חן society at 7 PM.

(Frankfurt). The local court judge Dr Sommer has been promoted to higher court judge. Dr Sommer is Jewish and went to grammar school together with the German emperor. As soon as the emperor gets to Frankfurt, he will visit him.

(St Petersburg). 19,229 Jewish people live in St Petersburg. Out of those, 4,847 are tailors, 11,115 work in printing and lithography, 1,655 are stonemasons and metalworkers, 380 doctors, 190 dentists, 258 pharmacists, 208 lawyers, 268 work in military, 2 are policemen, and the rest are freelancers, working as teachers, professors, authors and similar.

(Paris). Soon, the revision of the Dreyfus process will start. The investigation found over 60 forgeries which were used to find Dreyfus guilty. It is certain that Dreyfus will be found completely innocent.

(New York). According to the Austrian-Hungarian consul in the USA, there have been the following immigration from Austria-Hungary to the USA in 1902: 37,499 Polish, 34,412 Slovaks, 32,892 Croatians and Slavic people, 27,113 Magyars, 23,597 Germans, 18,759 Jewish people, 9,819 Ruthenians, 9,577 Czechs, 4,227 Bulgarians, Serbs, and Montenegrians, 4,137 Rumanians, 2,170 Italians, and 1,723 Bosnian people.

(Morocco). In the city of Settat, persecutions against Jewish people broke out. While the Jewish people were doing their evening prayer in the Synagogue, Arabs ambushed their wives and children, looted their houses. After they have killed numerous Jewish people, they took their women and children as captives. Over 300 houses were destroyed. The Arabs demand a lot of money to free the captives.

General news.

(Vienna). This Monday, Emperor Franz Joseph felt something in his lung. He has complained about rheumatism and stayed in bed all day. On Thursday, he already felt better, but your majesty will stay inside for some days and not go outside. - This week the grand duke of Mecklenburg visited our emperor and was received with a big parade.

(Lviv). News has been received from Vienna that the allegiance will take place only in April because the delegation was not able to end their consultation. That’s why the Imperial Council cannot be convened to sign off on the recruit law.

(Stryj). A fire broke out on the night of February 7th. It was extinguished immediately, but a young man who wanted to save himself, jumped over a fence and fell to his death. - A woman heated her house and threw a bottle of petroleum into the fire which started to burn. The petroleum also got on her clothes and she burnt to death.

(Baltimore). In this big American city, a massive fire broke out which has lasted four days already. Half of the city is burning. The damage is estimated at over 300 million dollars.

Feuilleton.

Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg. May his memory be a blessing.

(A historical retelling).

I

This story we are telling here is historically true and happened in the old city of Rothenburg in Germany. In the thirteenth century - according to the Gregorian calendar - the principality of Hohenstauffen ruled in this city. The city was surrounded with high walls and moats and the royal palace is situated on a beautiful hill. At this time the principality ruled over the whole land because one prince was the brother in law of the Roman emperor - the ruler of Germany at that time. The German peoples were dissatisfied with their sovereign and were said to have planned a rebellion. In 1285, the Count of Württemberg started a rebellion in order to dispose of Emperor Rudolf, but Rudolf forcefully suppressed the rebellion with his military.

The Jewish people in Rothenburg were valued at that time and have been protected by the prince against the masses, which used to attack the Jewish people a lot. The clergyman incited violence against the Jewish people. The principality was short on money and borrowed funds from the rich Jewish people leading to the principality protecting the Jewish people and letting no harm happen to them. The principality therefore issued rights and privileges, forbidding anyone to do harm as they were the prince’s subjects.

At that time, there was a Rabbi in Rothenburg, Rabbi Meir of Worms - may his memory be a blessing. An important gaon, who spread the light of the Torah across the whole country. He was also a knowledgeable scholar in various sciences and asked every important question for advice. He led his community with knowledge and in godliness. He was well-known in all of Germany, from all sides he was asked questions to receive the answers and what he said was accepted. He was so popular that he was just called “Meir of Rothenburg”. He also led a yeshiva where students from all around came to study under him.

As the prince of Rothenburg heard how popular the Rabbi of his city was, he was delighted how prominent his city had become. He held the Rabbi in high regard and consulted with him on various political questions as well as admired the intelligence and reasoning of the Meir of Rothenburg.

Only as the rebellion against Emperor Rudolf broke out did the situation of the Jewish community deteriorate. The rebellion disturbed the order in the country, everyone did whatever they wanted, ignored the law, and stole one another’s money - and everybody put the blame on the Jewish people to consume the funds.

During this time, the Meir of Rothenburg ran circles around his wide, but low chambers, deep in thought. The rabbi has always - as he was an old man already - looked well, went upright, was neither bent nor broken. Therefore, everyone admired him, but immediately saw that he looked anxious and sick. He was dressed in his silken long coat, with a silken belt - both dropped down to his feet - on his head was a sable-hat, and in his hand he held a sceptre with a silver top. It was noticeable that he wanted to go somewhere.

A young student stood next to the table with great respect, but he could not hold himself back as he saw his frightened Rabbi and asked with quiet voice:

“What worries you? I ask of you, my dear Rabbi, tell me why you are so scared and unhappy? I am not used to seeing you distressed like this. Forgive me, dearest Rabbi, that I dare to question you today. But I am aware that you told me all your secrets as your student, so why do you remain silent today? It is not the first time you have been called to the prince, who holds you in high respect and always welcomes you with mercy and grace. Why then are you so distressed?!

“You are right, my dearest!” answered Meir. Those who are confident do not need to be sad. However, I have been plagued by several fears. I think the good times for us Jews in Rothenburg are over and tough, sad days are to come. Our sun is setting and the darkest night is starting.”

The student was perplexed.

Did you perhaps forget the horrible plague which is going around in the Rhinelands, in Bavaria and in the bordering countries?” The Meir asked him. “Did you forget the hardship under which our brothers suffered? Not only three years have gone by since the mob attacked our brothers in Mainz and burnt them. In Munich, as well, a Jewish quarter was locked up and set on fire from all four sides and all Jewish people have been thrown into the fire afterwards - A messenger from the city of Oberwesel arrived yesterday and bore a horrible announcement: the clergymen there defamed the Jewish people there having slaughtered a Christian child in order to sacrifice its blood for an offering. The clergymen set the people against the Jewish people with this false accusation which are scared of being outside now. If this slander is now believed by the mobs, then heaven help us, massive hardship will come over Jewish people. Now, a rebellion broke out in the country, the revolutionists are not far from our lands. Wherever they go, they will unleash all of their wrath upon the Jewish people… This grim situation saddens me and I am very afraid why the prince called for me today”.

“Why my dearest Rabbi, are you afraid and forgot that God - praise the Lord - the guardian of Jerusalem does not sleep?” - the student asked. “You are constantly aware that God is our guard, up to today, he protects us and will also not leave us now!”

“Of course, I know this, my child” - Meir answered “but I am telling you that it scares me. One of my acquaintances of the Christian court told me that some days ago a man arrived who I am fearful of. As people have told me, the scoundrel Kneppe, who has been chasing me like a snake, arrived.”

All colour vanished from the face of the student as he heard the name of Kneppe.

And the Rabbi continued: “For some years already, this evildoer has been following us wherever we go. Every false accusation, every defamation, every evil law, every persecution stems from him. His roots go back to us, but he is our greatest enemy. In his youth, he has studied under me, I raised him; but now he has turned his back and has become evil. He knows the Jewish ways and is aware how to pursue. Additionally, he was very furious as I was not giving him my only daughter for a wife. Three years ago he left my house and his faith and became the leader of the enemies of Israel. Therefore, he certainly arrived at the royal court to destroy me and the whole community with it. That is what I am scared of. I will soon go to the prince and see whether my fear is justified.”

Asher was very shocked hearing the Rabbi’s words and had become curious to see the end of it all.

(To be continued).

Letterbox.

To Rabbi Moore. When you have been the sole Rabbi in a small town before, the decree of March 21st 1890 has been released - you were also the Rabbi in a bigger city. - that men were allowed to graduate by law.

Lessees with a liquor licence of casinos or other clubs are not allowed to sell beverages to their guests.

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