When Jews Moved Into the Rhineland of Germany Like the Famous Kalonymos Line

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

                                   Cologne, Germany

The Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany, the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea.  Here we see Worms, Germany

It's figured that before 321 CE, Jews entered on the Rhineland.  It's thought that during this Roman period, Jews were used as soldiers in the Roman garrisons.  Barbarians were known to be invaders of the land then. .  

 During the 8th and 9th centuries,  the Carolingian royal house (The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD)  had a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged he settlement of Jews in its dominions with the object of developing trade.

"The section of the Rhine between Basel and Mainz is more of a meeting place than a border line. Jewish communities on both banks of the river have always been close, as demonstrated by their unique history and rich heritage.  My uncle, who married my father's sister Anne, was born on 15 October 1916 in Westerburg, was recorded on the day of birth from the residents' registration office of Boppard. He attended elementary school at  home. From 1 April 1932 to 1 April 1935, he completed an apprenticeship at the butcher of butchers Ludwig marigold stone, Kirchgasse 1, run butchers. '  I found many Osters in Koblenz, Germany in the burial listings.  That could be his town.    I have found many Jews that came to the USA from Germany before the 2nd WW.  They were shown as "Hebrew" on the immigration lists.  One was Lili E.who arrived 20 Aug 1937 at age 30 from port Cherbourge, France on Berengasia Ship from Germany to NY.

  To get to Koblenz, we went right thru Boppard, which is only about 9 kilometers from where we were staying in Koblenz. Boppard is a beautiful little village right on the Rhine.  So it appears that not only my uncle by marriage came from the Rhineland, but also my paternal aunt, his wife.  Their children, my 1st cousins, certainly have the Rhineland in their DNA.  

                             Kalonimus Wolf Wissotzky (1824-1904) of Russia

During the Middle Ages, Jews arrived in Mainz, then an important trading city between Europe and Asia. Distinguished members of the Mainz community included the prominent rabbi Gershom Meor Hagolah and the Kalonymos family, originally from Lucca in Italy, whose great scholarship includes some of Europe’s oldest rabbinical texts. Kalonymmos ben Kalonymos (Maesatro Calo) 1286-and after who lived in French centers and in Rome; (a translator from Arabic into Hebrew and Latin)  1328) Among the population that inhabited Lucca in the medieval era, there was also a significant presence of Jews. The first mention of their presence in the city is from a document from the year 859. The Jewish community was led by the Kalonymos family (which later became a major component of proto-Ashkenazic Jewry).Through genealogy, I have discovered our family connection to this Kalonymos family.  

 Through the development of Jews living in Germany of the Middle Ages, their language of Hebrew turned into Yiddish, a form of Hebrew mixed with German, Old French and Old Italian  and Slavic languages.  These Jews are referred to as the line of Ashkenazi Jewry.  

                Medieval city center of Worms, a rather shocking name to our Western ears.  Worms' name is of Celtic origin: Borbetomagus meant "settlement in a watery area". This was eventually transformed into the Latin name Vormatia, in use since the 6th century, which was preserved in the Medieval Hebrew form Vermayza (ורמייזא) and the contemporary Polish form Wormacja.

Worms:  This was a famous center of Jewish scholarship in the Medieval Period, Rashi (1040-1105), a famous Rabbi, studied here from 1055 to 1065.  It was closely associated with the communities of Speyer and Mainz.   Worms, Speyer and Mainz were called the SHUM. By 1933, the beginning of Nazi hatred toward Jews, there were 1,200 Jews in Worms. They were all exterminated.  The Jewish community of Worms, founded soon after that of Mainz, has preserved an extraordinary medieval cemetery and a reconstructed synagogue where the famous Talmudist Rashi of Troyes studied.Jews arrived here around the 10th century as it was a well established community by the 1000s.  Emperor Henry IV was given  financial assistance by the Jews, so in return he rewarded them with substantial privileges in 1074 and again in 1090, granting them what they hadn't achieved as yet:  freedom of commerce, security of property, and imperial protection. 

The community was then annihilated during the 1st Crusade.  The Jews re-established it shortly afterward and again it was destroyed in the Black Death outbreaks of 1349, but that took place at least 249 years later.  Worms held an expulsion in 1616 of the Jews, and we see that only 26 years later Jews were living there but with restrictions.  Seventy-three years later, King Louis XIV's soldiers, in1689,  held a massacre of Jews.  Jews could not trust their lives by living in Worms.  

Speyer: Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities. Speyer Cathedral, a number of other churches, and the Altpörtel ("old gate") dominate the Speyer landscape. In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings.  The city is famous for the 1529 Protestation at Speyer. One of the ShUM-cities which formed the cultural center of Jewish life in Europe during the Middle Ages, Speyer and its Jewish courtyard was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.

Mainz; Actually, Jews lived here during Roman period but only dates from the 10th century when it was a principal community of Northern Europe and the main center for the diffusion of rabbinic learning.  Jews were expelled in 1012 but returned as fast as they could.  Jews obtained protection from the  arch-bishop on the advent of the crusaders in 1096, but hundreds were murdered anyway.  In 1209, the emperor conceded to the archbishop his rights over the Jews.  A series of massacres happened at the time of the Black Death in 1349.  Expulsion edicts were issued in 1438, then again in 1462 and 1470.  

Starting in the 11th century, Jews gradually settled in cities near the Rhine. Community presence is documented in Speyer around 1080 (ritual bath, medieval synagogue, museum) and around 1150 in Strasbourg (ritual bath, museums) and Frankfurt (cemetery, synagogue, museum), as well as in Basel, Freiburg, and many other cities. Despite periods of bloody persecution, in particular linked to the Crusades (1095, 1146) and the Armleder revolt (1338), the Rhineland Jews left numerous testimonies of their endurance and their creativity: material traces (synagogues, cemeteries, ritual baths) and immaterial traces (books, rabbinical treatises, the Western Yiddish language, etc)."

Resource:

https://www.seat61.com/places-of-interest/rails-down-the-rhine.htm

https://www.emeraldcruises.com/blogs/top-6-cities-on-the-rhine-river

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms,_Germany

https://jewisheritage.org/the-european-route-of-judaism-on-the-rhineland