Landesrabbiner - From The 17th Century

From The 17th Century

At the time of Löw ben Bezaleel the congregations of Moravia were evidently very small. They were composed of refugees who through the influence of Capistrano had been expelled from the large cities like Brünn and Olmütz (1454) and had settled where any well-disposed lord would receive them under his protection. As they formed communities too small to engage a well-qualified rabbi, they elected to act as their judge one having his seat in one of the largest congregations of the province. Similar conditions prevailed elsewhere. The Jews living in the principality of Bamberg obtained in 1619 permission to elect a "Paumeister oder obristen Rabbi", and they may have had such an official earlier (Eckstein, "Gesch. der Juden im Ehemaligen Fürstbistum Bamberg", pp. 62, 157, Bamberg, 1898). The communities of the principality of Oettingen, also formed from refugees of larger cities like Nördlingen, had a Landesrabbiner from early times (Müller, "Aus Fünf Jahrhunderten", p. 171, Augsburg, 1900). The Jews living under the protection of the elector and the Archbishop of Mayence had in 1718 Issachar Berush Eskeles as their Landesrabbiner (Bamberger, "Historische Berichte über die Juden . . . Aschaffenburg", p. 18, Strasbourg, 1900). The title was occasionally conferred as a sign of distinction; thus Samson Wertheimer received in 1717 from Emperor Charles VI. the title of Landesrabbiner of Hungary ("pro archi sive superiori Judæorum Rabbino"). His son-in-law, the above-named Eskeles, who (although he resided in Vienna, being connected with his father-in-law's banking business there) had succeeded his father, Gabriel Eskeles, as Landesrabbiner of Moravia, was appointed (1725) at Wertheimer's death his successor as Landesrabbiner of Hungary (Kaufmann, "Samson Wertheimer", p. 104, Vienna, 1888; Wurzbach, "Biographisches Lexikon", s.v. "Eskeles").