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Bible Encyclopedias
Treves
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or City of Rhenish Prussia, formerly an electorate comprising upper and lower bishoprics with Treves and Coblenz as capitals (see Jew. Encyc. 4:133). In all probability Jews lived in the city in the early centuries of the common era, for Treves was the central point connecting Gaul and Rome. There is no specific mention of them, however, before 1066, when Archbishop Eberhard (1047-66) menaced them with expulsion unless they should accept baptism before Easter; but this threat was ineffective, for he was murdered on Feb. 12, 1066, by a priest named Christian, who had been instigated, it was alleged, by the Jews. Thirty years later (June, 1096) the pillaging bands of Emikos advanced upon Treves. Several Jews committed suicide, while the remainder sought refuge in the palace of Archbishop Egilbert, who endeavored to persuade them to accept baptism, although those who were converted obtained the permission of Emperor Henry IV. in the following year to return to Judaism (see Grätz, "Gesch." 6:102 et seq.; Salfeld, "Martyrologium," pp. 3, 19 [Hebrew part], and pp. 98, 140 et seq. [German part], where a list of the names of the martyrs is given). The other communities of Treves, including those at Berncastel, Cochem, and Wittlich, were almost totally destroyed by the Crusaders. During the archbishopric of Bruno of Treves early in the twelfth century (1102-1124), one of the residents of the city was a Jew named Joshua, who later embraced Christianity, and who enjoyed a reputation as a physician, mathematician, astronomer, and student of Hebrew literature. Abrion, the Jew of Treves, who was unusually well versed in German, seems to have been a contemporary of Joshua (Goethe, "Reineke Fuchs," ).
First Expulsion, 1262.
In 1262 the Jews were expelled from Treves by Archbishop Heinrich of Vinstingen, who invited Lombards to take their places, although the latter proved to be even more usurious than the Jews. The elector Baldwin of Treves employed Jewish financial agents, among them Muskin (1323-36); Jacob Daniel (until 1341), a banker who had a Hebrew chancellery and who, like his chief manager, bore the title of "Judæorum dominus"; and Michael, Jacob's son-in-law, who was in the electoral service until 1349. The Jews of Treves suffered much during the ARMLEDER PERSECUTIONS in 1336, when their houses were pillaged (Salfeld, c. p. 239, note 1); but three years later they were permitted to remain in Treves in consideration of an annual tax of 100 pounds heller, half this sum being paid in May and half on St. Martin's Day. At Coblenz on March 17, 1345, two Jews of Treves farmed the archiepiscopal "Rheinzoll" of 15 tournois for three years at 655 livres gros tournois annually.
At the time of the Black Death the Jews of Treves were persecuted, like those of the entire Moselle valley (Salfeld, c. pp. 69, 78, 80, 84 [Hebrew part]; pp. 246 et seq., 268, 276, 286 [German part]). On Oct. 9, 1354, Archbishop Boemund II. engaged the Jew Symon as his physician in ordinary, and Emperor Charles V., in a document dated Metz, Dec. 13, 1356, granted the elector the right of admitting Jews. On Sept. 30, 1362, an agreement was made between Archbishop Cuno of Falkenstein and the city of Treves by which the latter pledged itself to protect the Jews of the archbishopric like any other citizens, although the number of families permitted to reside there was limited to fifty; and they were ordered to pay an annual tax of 100 livres noir tournois in two instalments, at St. John's Day and at Christmas, while in case twenty-five families or fewer lived there, they were to pay 50 livres. On Aug. 24, 1405, King Ruprecht waived his claim to the Opferpfennig which had not been collected from the Jews of Treves for several years, although he ordered them for the future to pay it annually (Stern, "König Ruprecht von der Pfalz," p. 31, Kiel, 1898).
The Jewry.
The Jews of Treves anciently lived in a district ("Vicus Judæorum," mentioned in a document of Sept. 21, 1284) represented by the modern Judenplatz; the main street of residence was the Judenmauergasse (Jüdemergasse) near the Jewish cemetery. ThisJewish quarter is mentioned in documents of 1330, 1346, and 1350; the synagogue ("scola") in one of 1235; the cemetery, of 1240; the Spylhus," or dancing-hall, which was used for marriages (see Güdemann, "Gesch." 3:138 et seq.), of 1315; the hospital, of Oct. 12, 1422; and a "Judenporte" in Simeonsgasse, of 1460. At the head of the Treves community, whose members appear as owners of real estate as early as 1229 and Feb. 19, 1235, was a BISHOP OF THE JEWS ("episcopus," "magistratus Judæorum" [1307]), who was required to loan the archbishop 10 marks yearly without interest, receiving in return a cow, an aam of wine, two bushels of wheat, and a discarded cloak. Each Christmas and Easter the Jews gave six pounds of pepper to the archbishop and two to the chamberlain, besides furnishing silk and girdles for new garments for the former. For their cemetery they had to pay six denarii to the cathedral on St. Stephen's Day (Dec. 26 or Aug. 3).
Second Expulsion, 1418.
In 1418 Archbishop Otto von Ziegenheim banished the Jews from the entire electorate of Treves; and almost seventy years elapsed before the Jew Ytzinger was admitted (1486) as a veterinary surgeon into Vallendar, south of Coblenz, where other Jews were afterward allowed to settle (July 19 and Oct. 7, 1499) for a period of five years, on payment of an annual tax of 35 gulden. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Jews were again permitted to live in the archbishopric of Treves, and in a document dated at Cochem, Feb. 1, 1555, Archbishop Johann of Isenburg granted them the privilege, renewed in 1679, of appointing a rabbi, although they were obliged to submit to additional taxation. On July 1, 1561, however, Archbishop Johann von der Leyen notified the Jews that they must leave the archbishopric within five months, though twenty-three families were permitted to remain for another period of five years from Dec. 1, 1561; while Jacob III. and Johann VII. of Schoeneberg ordered the Jews to leave Treves in 1580 and the following years, their complete expulsion occurring on Oct. 28, 1589. After a few years, however, the electors of Treves granted special commercial privileges to some Hebrew merchants, headed by the silk manufacturer Magino, and as early as 1593-94 Jews were again residing in the episcopal city, although, according to the statute-books, they were compelled to wear the yellow BADGE on their garments. On Jan. 15, 1618, Archbishop and Elector Lothar von Metternich promulgated a special ordinance for the Jews, which was reissued on Feb. 14, 1624; and in 1663 the electoral court chancery enacted that those Jews of Treves who were under the archbishop's protection should be permitted to use wells and pastures and to gather firewood anywhere.
The 15th of Elul, 5435 (= 1675), marked the beginning of a persecution of the Jews in Treves which lasted until Purim of the same year; and by order of the physician Tewle, who was the head of the Jewish congregation, and who began the Treves memorbook in 1664, this day was appointed a general fast for the community in memory of this event. At Treves, as elsewhere, the Jews suffered at times from the pranks of Catholic students, as in 1666, 1687, 1707, and 1723. In 1681 Archbishop Johann Hugo issued a new Jewish ordinance, and in 1696 the Jews were forbidden to acquire real estate. A law relating to the Jews, promulgated by Elector Franz Ludwig in 1723, remained in force until the end of the electorate, although the archbishopric was secularized in 1803.
Under the French.
The city of Treves was taken by the French on Aug. 10, 1794; by a law enacted on the 29th of Fructidor, year 5 (= Sept. 15, 1797), the LEIBZOLL was abolished (see Hansen, "Treviris, oder Trierisches Archiv für Vaterlandskunde," 2:37, No. 217, Treves, 1841); and the French invasion brought also civic equality to the Jews. Treves then became a consistorial diocese, like Bonn and Krefeld. On Sept. 9 and 10, 1859, the new synagogue of Treves was dedicated. At present (1905) the community numbers 900, and maintains several benevolent societies, as well as a Society for Jewish History and Literature. A separate Orthodox congregation also exists.
Rabbis and Scholars.
Among the rabbis and scientists of Treves the following may be mentioned: David Tewle b. Isaac Wallich, communal leader and physician (exiled from Fulda; died Oct. 5, 1691; see Kaufmann, "Vertreibung der Juden aus Wien," pp. 225 [note 3], 226 [note 1]; Löwenstein, "Gesch. der Juden in der Kurpfalz," p. 6, note 2; also mentioned in Gershon Ashkenazi's Responsa, Nos. 13, 21, 84, 89, and in the preface); R. Joseph Israel b. Abraham Worms (died in Bingen Sept. 9, 1684); his son R. Isaac Aaron Worms (died in Metz July 25, 1722; see Löwenstein, c. p. 99 and note 1; Gershon Ashkenazi's Responsa, No. 18; Cahen, "Le Rabbinat de Metz," in "R. E. J." 1886, pp. 48 et seq.); Moses Meïr Grotwohl (died 1691; see Löwenstein, c. p. 86, note 2; Jair Ḥayyim Bacharach's Responsa, p. 234b; Jacob Reischer's Responsa, 1:110; Freudenthal, "Aus der Heimat Mendelssohns," p. 287); Moses Lewow (see Friedberg, "Luḥot Zikkaron," 2d ed., 1904, p. 78; Lewinstein, "Dor Dor we-Dorshaw," p. 95, No. 628); R. Moses b. R. Heshel (died 1st of Ab, 1788); R. Moses Shaḥ (or Moses Trier b. R. Eliezer = R. Moses Levy, died Nisan, 1840; see Löwenstein in "Blätter für Jüdische Gesch. und Literatur," 3:98); Joseph Kahn; Dr. I. Holländer (died Dec. 8, 1880); Dr. M. S. Zuckermandel (at present "Stiftsrabbiner" in Breslau); and the present chief rabbi, Dr. Bassfreund.
- Ehrmann, in Israelit, 1881, Nos. 34 et seq.;
- G. Liebe, in Westdeutsche Zeitschrift für Gesch. und Kunst, 12:321 et seq.;
- A. Schoop, ib., supplementary vol. 1:144 et seq.;
- Schömann, in Jahresbericht der Gesellschaft für Nützliche Forschung zu Trier, 1854, p. 40; 1859-60, p. 2 (Hebrew epitaphs of 1346);
- Lewin, Das Trierer Memorbuch, in Rahmer's Jüd. Lit.-Blatt, 1881, Nos. 40-41, p. 159;
- Aronius, Regesten, Nos. 2, 160, 176, 180, 189, 222, 352, 475, 499, 581, et passim;
- Joseph ha-Kohen, 'Emeḳ ha-Baka, ed. Wiener, pp. 17, 158, note 62, p. 162, note 80 (on the murder of R. Simeon of Treves);
- Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter, 1886, 1, 2, 1446 et seq., 1472 et seq.;
- comp. also Lewinsky in Brann's Monatsschrift, 1904, p. 457;
- Hecht, ib. 1858, pp. 179 et seq.; 1861, pp. 358 et. seq.;
- Güdemann, Gesch. 1:224;
- Kohut, Gesch. der Deutschen Juden, pp. 186, 188, et passim;
- Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeindebundes, 1903, p. 85.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Treves'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/t/treves.html. 1901.
