Elkan Frankel

Elkan Fränkel (* 1654 in Vienna , † 1720 in Wülzburg ) was a German court factor in Fürth and in the Margraviate of Ansbach .

Life

Elkan was the son of the rabbi Enoch Levi, who had married in a good match Ritschel, daughter of the Viennese banker Jakob Koppel , and belonged to Vienna's Jewish elite. After being expelled in 1670 , he moved to Fürth , where many Jews were already living. There were two quarreling parties there, a minority leaning towards the Margrave of Ansbach , the majority towards the Bishop of Bamberg . Fränkel profited from this conflict when he stood up for the Ansbach family in 1703. He introduced himself to the new Margrave Wilhelm Friedrich in order to better control the community in his interest.

In return, Frankel became Barnoss (from the Hebrew word Parnas ) in 1704 , leader of the party for Ansbach, and in 1708 chief barnoss of the entire community. In doing so, he rose to become the margrave's comprehensive financial advisor and court factor. This made him many enemies among Jews and Christians. His younger brother, Rabbi Zwi Hirsch (1662–1739?) From Fürth, was also chief rabbi in the margraviate of Ansbach in 1708. There Elkan ousted the court Jew Marx Model with allegations of embezzlement in 1708 , whose family wanted to return the favor.

In February 1712 Elkan and Zwi Hirsch Fränkel were arrested after a denunciation by a convert Ischay Fränkel : Elkan was accused of being in possession of blasphemous books, of influencing the court politically and of embezzling public funds. Zwi Hirsch is said to have written a book of witches . The commission of inquiry was headed by a personal enemy. Elkan was arrested and placed in solitary confinement. Despite the lack of evidence, the allegations were declared true. The margrave did not protect him, but condemned him to stanchion , life imprisonment , confiscation of property and eviction of the family. Rabbi Zwi Hirsch also remained in custody until 1723 and died around 1739 in Georgensgmünd , where there was a community with a synagogue .

On November 2, 1712, a significant crowd came to the market square to attend the public punishment. After his back was exposed, he was given nine strokes of the rod and then taken to the Wülzburg fortress . There he died in chains in 1720.

literature

• Rotraud Ries: Images and constructions about a cross-border commuter. The trial of the Ansbach court Jew Elkan Fränkel 1712. In: Mark Häberlein / Martin Zürn (ed.): Minorities, Authorities and Society in the Early Modern Era : Integration and Demarcation Processes , Scripta Mercaturae, 2001, pp. 317–338 ISBN 978- 3-89590-114-0
• Isak Nethanel Gath: The sorcerer of Schwabach: The trial against the Ansbach regional rabbi Hirsch Fränkel , Philipp Schmidt, 2011 ISBN 978-3-87707-812-9
• Susanne Talabardon: On a fine line. Life and work of Simon Akiba Baer (d. 1724). In: Michaela Schmölz-Häberlein (ed.): Jewish life in the region: Rule, economy and society in the south of the Old Kingdom , Ergon, Baden-Baden 2018, pp. 321–348 ISBN 978-3-95650-376-4 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)

Web links

• Jewish Encyclopedia

Single receipts

1. ↑ Several years of birth between 1653 and 1657 are mentioned. According to the current contributions by Gath and Talabardon (literature), it was 1654.
2. ↑ Also called Chaddai Chanoch Halevi Fränkel , 1620–90, fled Vienna in 1670, chief rabbi in the Bamberg Monastery 1674–78.
3. ^ Jewish burial sites: LAGIS Hessen. Retrieved March 23, 2020 . 
4. ^ Family tree of Elkan Elhanan FRÄNKEL. Retrieved March 22, 2020 (French). 
5. ↑ Not to be confused with the printer Zwi Hirsch ben Chajim, who was born in Fürth in 1683 and who ran a Hohenlohe printing house in Wilhermsdorf from 1712 to 1739 . before he went back to Fürth. The Hebrew printing works of Wilhermsdorf
6. ↑ Michaela Schmölz-Häberlein: Jewish life in the region: rule, economy and society in the south of the Old Empire . Ergon Verlag, Baden-Baden 2018, p. 344 .