Moses Uri ha-Levi

Moses Uri B. Joseph ha-Levi , also Halewi or Halevi , (born around 1543 in Braunschweig ; died 1621/25, presumably in Amsterdam ) was a rabbi in Emden and Amsterdam. He is considered to be the founder of the first Jewish community in Amsterdam and the first rabbi of a Sephardic community in Northern Europe.

biography

Moses Uri ha-Levi was a son of Joseph ben Ephraim ha-Levi from Braunschweig. He probably had to flee his hometown in 1557 when the Jews were expelled. He settled in the East Frisian Emden . Jews had settled there for several years because the Count of East Friesland had placed them under his special protection; Uri ha-Levi is the first Emden Jew whose name has been passed down. Various variants of his name are known, such as Feibisch Emden in Jewish sources as the Yiddish equivalent of the Hebrew name Uri or in Dutch Philips Joost . The first name Moses is not documented during his lifetime.

Uri ha-Levi lived in Emden for around 40 years. According to his own statements, he officiated from around 1570 to 1601 as a teacher and rabbi for the small Ashkenazi Jewish community there and apparently had a network of contacts in Europe. In 1598 he was arrested as an exposed member of the community with two other Jewish men by the Emden council, but was released on the basis of a petition from the Prague and Bohemian Jewish elders to Emperor Rudolf II . Despite the benevolence of Count Enno III. who profited economically from the trade activities of the Jews, the citizens and clergy demanded their expulsion.

According to a tradition that is also the founding legend of the Amsterdam Jewish community, a group of Marranos under the leadership of Jacob Tirado Emden reached Emden in 1601 . The ship that came from London is said to have been driven off by a storm. They came from families who, as descendants of forced converts, were aloof from Christianity, but had little knowledge of the Jewish religion of their forefathers. A Hebrew inscription made them aware of the house of Moses Uri ha-Levi and went to see him. When they found out that he was indeed a Jew, they asked him to teach them about Judaism. Ha-Levi had suggested that they go to Amsterdam together because they could freely practice their religion there. According to other sources, this initiative is said to have come from Uri's son Aaron, who - unlike his father, who only spoke German - was able to communicate with the Marranos in Spanish . These supposed events were described by the grandson of Moses and Aaron's son, the printer Uri Phoebus ha-Levi , in his book Narração da vinda dos judeos espanhoes a Amsterdam in 1711 . Contrary to this report, there is the assumption that the establishment of contact was different, since Uri ha-Levi's son Joseph is said to have traded with Marranas as early as 1598 and established connections.

Just a few weeks after their arrival in Calvinist Amsterdam, Moses ha-Levi and his son Aaron are said to have been arrested. The reason for the arrest was the suspicion that masses were being held in Latin in their home , which is why it was assumed that they were hated Spanish Catholics in the Netherlands . Both men were released shortly after declaring that they were Jews. According to other information, ha-Levi was arrested one more time because he earned his money as a fence , pawnbroker and circumciser, which he was able to refute.

The first group of Marranos was followed by others from Portugal to Amsterdam; the wealthy Jews who traded across Europe were welcome in the impoverished Netherlands. They rented a house in Amsterdam, where they were apparently instructed by ha-Levi, who, however, did not necessarily have to be aware of the differences between the various rites. It is assumed that Uri ha-Levi was in the possession of the (Sephardic) Amsterdam Machsor and on whose basis he introduced the Marranos to Jewish rites; this manuscript is said to have passed on to his grandson Moses later. The Portuguese congregation Beth Jaacob was founded in 1603 : "Historically remarkable is [...] the fact that he [Moses Uri ha-Levi], as Ashkenazi, built up a Sephardic congregation."

Uri ha-Levi circumcised the Marranos, was a rabbi and a slaughterer to provide the community with kosher meat; his son Aaron acted as Chasan . Both are said to have performed around 2500 circumcisions in total. Despite all these activities, the ha-Levi family were among the poorer in the community and were dependent on donations from the richer Sephardi. The Ashkenazi descendants of ha-Levi retained special rights within the Sephardic community for around 100 years. These special rights could have been the cause of a dispute between the grandson Uri Phoebus ha-Levi and the community, after which he gave the Amsterdam Machsor as a gift to the Sephardic community in 1669 .

In addition to Aaron and Joseph, two other children are registered for Uri ha-Levi, a daughter of unknown name, and Jacob, the progenitor of a Jacobson family in Hamburg.

literature

• M. Hillesum: Uri-Ha-Levi: de eerste Mohel, Chazzan en Predikant der Portugeesche Joden te Amsterdam in Het Jaar 1593 . Van Creveld & Co., Amsterdam 1904 (Dutch). Online resource
• Albert van der Heide / Edward van Voolen (eds.): The Amsterdam Mahzor: history, liturgy, illumination (=  Litterae Textuales ). Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-08971-3 , pp. 14 .
• Wolbert GC Smidt: Uri ben Joseph (Feibisch Emden) Halewi. (PDF) In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland (BLO IV, Aurich 2007, pp. 175 - 177).

See also

• History of the Jews in Amsterdam

Individual evidence

1. ^ Van der Heide, van Voolen: The Amsterdam Mahzor . 1989, p. 14.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Wolbert GC Smidt: Uri ben Joseph (Feibisch Emden) Halewi. (PDF) In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland (BLO IV, Aurich 2007, pp. 175 - 177). Retrieved December 24, 2017 . 
3. ^ ^{A b} Steven Nadler: Spinoza. Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-521-00293-6 , p. 6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
4. ↑ Barend Theodoor Wallet: Links in a chain: Early modern Yiddish historiography in the northern Netherlands (1743-1812) . Phil. Diss. Amsterdam 2012.
5. ^ Richard Gottheil / Sigmund Seeligmann: Amsterdam. In: jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
6. ^ Gotthard Deutsch / Meyer Kayserling: Moses Uri B. Joseph ha-Levi. In: Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Yosef Qaplan: An Alternative Path to Modernity. BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-11742-6 , p. 52 ( limited preview in Google book search).
8. ↑ Yosef Qaplan: An Alternative Path to Modernity. BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-11742-6 , p. 76 ( limited preview in Google book search).
9. ^ Van der Heide, van Voolen: The Amsterdam Mahzor . 1989, p. 15.