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Randar

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Name originally applied to the tenants of a fee-farm, or even of an entire village, in Poland, Lithuania, and Little Russia, as well as in the Slavic portions of Austria. Subsequently the name was applied also to the tenants of mills and taverns on the highways or within the boundaries of the cities. These tenants are still found throughout Poland in districts where there are few railways. Such taverns were and still are leased almost exclusively by Jews, and the Jewish tenant of the tavern has become a permanent personality in Polish literature. Under the name of "Jankiel" he figures as the type of submissiveness and of ever-ready helper in the works of famous Polish prose-writers (as Korzeniowski in "Speculator" and "Kollokacy") and poets (like A. Mickiewicz in "Pan Tadeusz").

The randar is always ready to give good advice, and is noted for his patriotism. He appears in an especially idealized form in the "Pan Tadeusz," where, among various good qualities, there is ascribed to him knowledge of the art of cymbal-playing, by which he delights the court of his master, the "soplicy." In this poem his home is depicted as a storehouse for the arms of the Poles in 1812. In Russia also the Jews occasionally lease the taverns; in the nineteenth century not less than thirty-three regulations referring to such taverns were issued.