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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Austria.
v. 22). The enforcement of a decree of expulsion against the Jews of Lower Austria in 1652 could only be averted by the payment of a contribution of 35,000 florins. Ferdinand's son and successor, Leopold I. (1657-
treacherous calumny and had to leave the country. Before him B. Lowe ben Bezalel (d. 1609) occupied a very prominent position in Prague. The massacres by the Cossacks in Poland (1648-56) also brought many learned fugitives to Austria, like
1705), had originally been destined for the priesthood, and only the death of his elder brother Ferdinand placed him on the throne. Of deeply religious character and a blind admirer of the Jesuits, he was only too eager to listen to the ever-renewed complaints of the citizens of Vienna. At the beginning of his reign he confirmed the privileges of the Jews (1658) and repeated his assurance of their protection, when the municipal council of Vienna ordered an appraisement of the houses and other property of the Jews, though they were not subject to municipal taxation (June 21, 1661). He also successfully checked the mob when, in 1665, the body of a murdered woman most found in the ghetto, and a rumor was spread that the Jews had committed the crime. His attitude soon changed, however. In 1660 he had married Margaret Theresa, a Spanish princess, and her influence was strongly brought to bear against the toleration of the Jews, for to this fact she ascribed the misfortune of the death of her first-born. To this was added the influence of the patriotic but fanatic bishop of "Wiener Neustadt, Count Kollonitsch; and at length the emperor yielded to the demands of the citizens of Vienna, and ordered the expulsion of the Jews from the city and from the provinces of Lower and Upper Austria (Feb. 27, 1670). All Jews Expulsion were required to leave the capital by from July 25, 1670, and those living in the Vienna. country were expelled in the following spring. The synagogue of Vienna was converted into a church (Aug. 18, 1670), which, in honor of the emperor, was named after his patron saint, Leopold. The persecution of the Jews soon bore fruit. The city could not, as it had promised, pay the taxes of the Jews in addition to those which they had paid before and many citizens complained that the commerce of the city had suffered through the emigration of such a large number of consumers. Leopold then adopted a milder policy. He not only allowed the exiles to settle in his other provinces, notably in Moravia and Bohemia, but further permitted (1673) Jews to visit the fairs in the province of Lower Austria, whence they had been expelled. Moreover, when in 1680 the ghetto of Prague was destroyed by incendiaries, he refused to listen to the entreaties of the municipality of Prague, who wanted to use the opportunity to expel the Jews altogether. Negotiations with the representatives of the Vienna exiles at Wischau, Moravia, for their resettlement in the capital did not lead to the desired result nevertheless, not long after the expulsion Jews again appeared in Vienna. Culture Though the Jews of Austria were not very prominent in rabbinical literature and other spiritual activities, the two congregations of Vienna and Prague, and, later on, that of Nikolsburg, contained quite a number of important Talmudists.
Ephraim Cohen, Shabbethai Cohen, Samuel Kaidanower, and others. Menahem Mendel Krtocnmal was rabbi of Nikolsburg, where he died in 1661, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Gerson Ashkenazi, who was the last officiating rabbi of Vienna, before the expulsion. Prague was the first town in Germany in which a printing-press was established
them had come from Germany, like YomTob Lipmann Helper, rabbi in Nikolsburg, Vienna, and Prague, who in 1630 became the object of a
Many
of
Jewish physicians were always to be found Vienna, successful rivals of their Christian colleagues. In the sixteenth century occurs the name of Leo Lucerna, called " Maor Katon " in the seventeenth century, those of Leo (Low) Winkler, who graduated in Padua in 1629, and of his two sons, Jacob and Isaac, who were graduated there in 1669. Acquaintance with German seems to have been rare, for the documents signed by the Jews are signed in (1513).
in
the knowledge of spoken German general, for the Jesuit priests, who preached the mission sermons for the Jews were instructed to preach in German. Some Jews could write in German, as is seen from a letter addressed to Wagenseil by Enoch Frankel, one of the exiles, who settled in Filrth. This letter is also interesting from the broad-mindedness of the author, who protests against the accusation that the Jews hate Christians, as he can not see any reason why theprofessors of different religions should not be tolerant toward one another (Kaufmann, "Die Letzte Vertreibung der Juden aus Wien," p. 197).
Hebrew.
Still,
was evidently very
From the Expulsion of 1670 to the Toleration Edict of Joseph II. (1782): As has been stated above, the needs of commercial life made the expulsion from Vienna a dead letter. The Jews went to the city on business, and the only difference was-, that they were not permitted to reside there. Even this prohibition was soon disregarded in exceptional The war with the Turks, who in 1683 instances. nearly captured Vienna, required large means and among those who furnished the army with provisions and the treasury with money was Samuel Oppenheimer, a Jew from Heidelberg, who was given the right of residence and even that of acquiring property in Vienna. His right of residence dated from about 1685. Through him other members of his family were permitted to dwell in the city, either as members of his household, or as his employees. Prominent among them was Samson "Wertheimer Others followed, such as Simon Mi(1658-1724). chael of Presburg, who had deserved well of theimperial treasury by furnishing gold and silver for the mint; so that in a comparatively short time the city had again a Jewish congregation, only with the difference that it possessed no corporate rights as. The short reign of Leopold's son and sucsuch. cessor, Joseph I. (1705-11), brought Court Jews, no change in their condition. Under Charles VI. (1711-40), a brother of
Leopold, the traditional policy was also maintained. About 1725 there came from London to Vienna as a. court Jew Diego d'Agtjilar, who farmed the tobacco monopoly, and who, according to the testi-
