Why Jews Settled in Lithuania In The First Place and When

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          ,

                        Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death in 1341. the Grand Dukes Gediminas and then Vytautas (Witold) had sent out an invitation to the Jewish merchants and craftspeople in 1323-1324 to come and live there for its economic opportunities. Why?  What was going on there? He is considered the founder of Lithuania's capital Vilnius (see: Iron Wolf legend). During his reign, he brought under his rule lands from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The Gediminids dynasty he founded and which is named after him came to rule over Poland, Hungary and Bohemia. 
                              

 Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania the Great,Lithuanian Vytautus Didysis, Polish Witold Wielki, (born 1350, Lithuania—died Oct. 27, 1430, Trakai, Lith.)

                                    Jews of 13th Century
  

The Middle Ages, as Dark as they were, lightened up in the 14th century for Jews.  The Great Lithuanian Princedom, also called Magnus Ducatus Lithuaniae was settled by Jews in the 14th Century.  It was because of the invitations to live there by the Grand Dukes.  Jews had had it in Germany, having lived there since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and Jews were taken as slaves and dispersed. Jewish merchants had been in Rome before 70CE.   

Emperor Constantine in 321 CE issued regulations which shows us that Jews had a community with rabbis and elders at Cologne, Germany and that they had already settled on the Rhineland at the time.  Jewish soldiers were in Roman garrisons as well.  The Carolingian royal house of the 8th -9th century adopted a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews in its German dominions with the object of developing trade. By 9th century, Jews lived in Augsburg and Metz;  by the 10th, they lived in Worms, Mainz, Magdeburg and Ratisbon.  On the Rhineland was Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne, etc. where intellectual life developed by the 11th century.   

Jews in pointed hats receive confirmation of their privileges from Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII in the Codex Trevirensis, circa 1340 Bildagentur-online / Universal Images Group via Getty Images     

Then in 1348, Germany was hit with the Black Death and Jews were blamed.  200 Jewish communities were wiped out by angry mobs.  By the 14th century, Jews were kept perpetually impoverished by the imperial authorities' cancellation of the debts  due to them. In fact, the Black Death was present in the Holy Roman Empire between 1348 and 1351. The Holy Roman Empire, composed of today's Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, was, geographically, the largest country in Europe at the time, and the pandemic lasted several years due to the size of the Empire. .   

– At the time, Lithuania had no cities in the western sense of the word, no Magdeburg Rights or closed guilds. In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded into Galicia–Volhynia (see Galicia–Volhynia Wars) and the Principality of Kiev (see Battle on the Irpin River and Battle of Blue Waters), territories already inhabited by Jews. After the death of Casimir III (1370), the condition of the Polish Jews changed for the worse. The influence of the Roman Catholic clergy at the Polish court grew; Louis of Anjou was indifferent to the welfare of his subjects, and his eagerness to convert the Jews to Christianity, together with the increased Jewish immigration from Germany, caused the Polish Jews to become apprehensive for their future.

In 1387, The Christian-Catholic religion was introduced all over Lithuania.  The Christian-Roman decisions about Jews reached Lithuania in a much slower manner.  

Vytautas and Kęstutis imprisoned by Jogaila. Painting by Wojciech Gerson

Jogaila:   In 1387, he converted Lithuania to Catholicism. His own reign in Poland started in 1399, upon the death of Queen Jadwiga, lasted a further thirty-five years, and laid the foundation for the centuries-long Polish–Lithuanian union.

One year later, in 1388, Lithuania granted the Jews a preferred civil status and incomparable bills of rights in many different spheres, such as protecting their bodies and property;  freedom to maintain their religious rituals;  significant alleviation in the field of commerce, and money lending---this being permitted in relation to Christians.  there was even a particular regulation to protect Jews against blood libels!  This after a history of anti-Semitism?

Most of the privileges from the time of Vytautas were left intact, even after this event, and for a long period they were of some importance in preserving the legal, civil and economic status of the Jews.  He was also known as Vytautas the Great    from the late 14th century onwards, was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was also the Prince of Grodno (1370–1382), Prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites.  

  

Treatment of Jews was a topic of discussion when Christianity was first introduced to a world of pagan polytheistic religions.  The Roman Emperor, Constantine (27 February 272 – 22 May 337)), had a lot to say about it.  Actually, he preferred to keep his Roman gods and was a polytheist, but he mother, Helena, was quick to convert to Christianity and even journeyed to Jerusalem looking for souveniers.  

  "The Middle Ages, for the Jew at least, begins with the advent to power of Constantine, the Great Roman emperor from 306 to 337 CE.  He was the 1st emperor to convert to Christianity from the years 306 to 337.  He was also the 1st Roman emperor to issue laws which radically limited the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire, a privilege conferred upon them by Caracalla in the year of 212. 

As Christianity grew in power in the Roman Empire, it influenced the emperors to limit further the civil and political rights of the Jews.  Most of the imperial laws that deal with the Jews since the days of Constantine are found in the Latin Codex Theodosianius of 438 CE and in the Latin and Greek code of Emperor Justinian of 534CE.  Both of these monumental works are therefore very important, for they enable us to trace the history of the progressive deterioration of Jewish rights.

The real significance of Roman law for the Jew and his history 

is that it exerted a profound influence on subsequent Christian 

and even Muslim legislation. The second-class status of 

citizenship of the Jew, as crystallized in the Justinian code, 

was thus entrenched in the medieval world, and under the 

influence of the Church the disabilities imposed upon him 

received religious sanction and relegated him even to lower 

levels.

In our first selection - laws of Constantine the Great - Judaism 

is denied the opportunity of remaining a missionary religion 

because of the prohibition to make proselytes.

The laws of Constantius (337-361), the second selection, 

forbid intermarriage between Jewish men and Christian 

women. A generation later, in 388, all marriages between 

Jews and Christians were forbidden. Constantius also did 

away with the right of Jews to possess slaves. This prohibition 

to trade in and to keep slaves at a time when slave labor was 

common was not merely an attempt to arrest conversion to 

Judaism; it was also a blow at the economic life of the Jew. It 

put him at a disadvantage with his Christian competitor to 

whom this economic privilege was assured.

The third selection, a law of Theodosius II (408-410), prohibits 

Jews from holding any advantageous office of honor in the 

Roman state. They were compelled, however, to assume 

those public offices which entailed huge financial losses and 

almost certain ruin, and they were not even granted the hope 

of an ultimate exemption. This Novella (New Law) III of 

Theodosius II also makes a direct attack on the Jewish 

religion by reenacting a law which forbade the building of new 

Jewish synagogues. This prohibition was known a generation 

before this. It was reenacted now, probably to pacify the 

aroused Christian mob in the Eastern Empire which desired to 

crush the religious spirit of the Jews who were massing at 

Jerusalem and confidently looking forward to the coming of a 

Messianic redeemer in 440. This disability, later taken over by 

some Muslim states, was reenunciated by the Church which 

sought to arrest the progress of Judaism, its old rival.

A Latin law of Justinian (527-565), the final selection, does not allow a Jew to bear witness in court against an orthodox Christian. Thus as early as the sixth century the Jews were already laboring under social, economic, civil, political, and religious disabilities." 

Jews were being expelled in many countries.  It happened in England by 1290 and they weren't allowed to enter again until 1655.  Jews in France were then expelled by 1306.  In 1355, 12,000 Jews were massacred by the mob in Toledo, Spain.  Starting in 1349, Jews were being expelled from Hungary and this went on until 1360.   Back in France  by 1420, the Jewish community in Toulouse was annihilated. Austrian Jews were then expelled in 1421.   

In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV issued a papal bull, or decree, authorizing the Catholic Monarchs to name inquisitors in order to enforce religious uniformity and to expel Jews from Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella sought to use the Inquisition to increase their absolute power over the centralized regime.

Then in 1492-Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and the Roman-Christian rules about Jews had been dragged along after its introduction of Christianity.  Jews were forced to leave Spain if they wanted to remain Jewish. 180,000 Jews were expelled.  50,000 remained but had to convert to Christianity to do so.   Only Christians were allowed to inhabit Spain.  So the Jews went over to Portugal, where the same treatment greeted them after a few years.  

By 1495, the Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon, 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Jagiellon. He was elected grand duke of Lithuania on the death of his father (1492) and king of Poland on the death of his brother John I Albert (1501)

He expelled all Jews in 1495, as soon as he took power--who numbered more than 6,000 people---from Lithuania and confiscated their property!  This must have given him political power as he was elected King of Poland 8 years later by the joint rule of 2 countries ruling Poland then.  

Surprisingly, with this power on the throne, he allowed Lithuanian Jews to return to their homes and gave them back part of their property.                                      

By 1566 and lasting until 1572, the Jewish badge was introduced and Jews were also disqualified from giving evidence in court. Muslim caliphs, medieval bishops, and, eventually, Nazi leaders used an identifying badge to mark Jews.  Here's one from Nazi days.  

I traced my Goldfus/Goldfoot family back to 1730 in Telsiai (Telz), Lithuania.  Why hadn't they left ages ago?  There were no better countries that would take in Jews.  That's why.  When South Africa and the USA opened up, many Jews immigrated to both places.                  

Resource:

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/jewish/jews-romanlaw.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Lithuania

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-clothing-in-the-middle-ages/

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