I have no new books so I am re-reading those in the bottom of the book-case. "We, Frederick, by God's Grace, etc. etc. make known and order to be make known..." This Charter is a very long and detailed bureaucratic document regularizing the situation of the Jews in the Kingdom of Prussia, with a very long foreword emphatizing Frederick's magnamity and his desire to protect existing guilds and trades from Jewish competition. Every economic activity already taken by the natives is forbidden for the Jews; on the other hand, Frederick carefully details the areas open for the Jews: they can trade in money exchange and pledges, buying and selling of houses, trade in imported textiles, silk goods, wool goods, deal in undressed and unfinished pelts (but not in finished furrier wares), and the list goes on for two pages. Jewish activity in those fields is encouraged and protected by the State.
Frederick was an enlightened king trying to moderize its country. I dont find antisemitism in this document (except universal complaints against Jewish commercial practices, which may have something in them) but a strong desire to avoid direct competition and economic conflict with the native population. As a Jew analysing this formal document two hundred seventy years after, I notice fear of the Jews and the desire to push their activities to marginal, risky areas such as finance and foreign trade. Prussian Jews were denied the secure existence of traditional trades like farmers, bakers, butchers, taylors, furriers, watchmakers, etc. all of them protected against competition by powerful guilds, Jews were forced to extremely difficult and risky activities. Like the elder Rothschild in Frankfurt, trying to feed his large family selling old coins to rich collectors.
No comments:
Post a Comment