Ashkenazim and Sephardim

Ashkenazim and Sephardim.

The number of Ashkenazim in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a certain Isaac ha-Levi (Asir ha-Tikwah) founded a yeshibah for them. R. Samuel Schlettstadt had come from Strasburg (c. 1390), but had returned after a short while. Though the Sephardim formed a separate congregation, all the Jews worshiped in one synagogue. In 1434 the plague broke out in the city and ninety Jews perished. A short while after this the Italian Talmudist, Elijah of Ferrara, came to Jerusalem; and in 1437 he was chosen chief rabbi and head of the bet ha-midrash, his decisions having validity in Syria on the one hand and in Egypt on the other. He seems also to have been a physician (for his letters see Jew. Encyc. v. 131, s.v.). He relates that the Jewish women manufactured silk, which the men then sold.

If Isaac zarfati's letter (Jellinek, "kontres Tatnu," p. 14) belongs to this period (end of the fifteenth century; Grätz, "Gesch." viii. 446), it would seem that the report had been spread in Germany that the Jews had bought Mt. Zion, had destroyed the buildings upon it, and had also bought the Holy Sepulcher. For this reason Jews were not allowed on Venetian ships, but had to travel to Jerusalem by the land route (mentioned also by Obadiah of Bertinoro, ed. Neubauer, p. 68). Probably in connection with a similar rumor, the Jews of Calabria were mulcted in a large sum, owing to the vexationscaused by Jerusalem Jews to the Minorite convent on Mount Zion (Jorga, "Notes . . . pour l'Histoire des Croisades," ii. 255, Paris, 1899). The conditions in Jerusalem grew so bad that within six years more than 100 families left the city, among them that of R. Nathan Cohen Sholal. A contributing cause was another famine which in 1441 came upon the city. In addition to this, the Mameluke sultan ka'it Bey (c. 1450) demanded of the Jews 400 ducats a year, besides the 50 ducats which they had to pay to the city authorities for the privilege of making wine. For the collection of this sum, a sort of "vice-nagid" was established in Jerusalem, who together with five others was responsible for the tax. The consequent hardship was so great that the community was forced to sell its books, the holy ornaments, and even the scrolls of the Law (see the letter of the Jerusalem congregation, dated 1456, in "Sammelband," Mekize Nirdamim, 1888, p. 46). The attitude of the Sephardim toward the Ashkenazim in this matter was not calculated to increase the good-will between the communities, the latter feeling that they were being made the scapegoat (see the complaint of Israel Isserlein in "Pesakim," No. 88; Grätz, "Gesch." viii. 294). It was at this time that the well-known "takkanah" was laid down "that if a man die without issue his property (with the exception of real estate) shall go to the community unless he shall have made an arrangement with the leaders during his lifetime." As many old people came to Jerusalem, this brought in a considerable sum of money (Moses Hagiz in his "Sefat Emet" says that in his time it was as much as 2,000 francs a year); but it also led to abuses, as the old people were not properly cared for. The decree therefore created much discussion and opposition, and had to be renewed every ten or twenty years. In 1720 it was enforced by a haskamah from the rabbis in Constantinople (Luncz, l.c. v. 121).

Jerusalem