From the pinkas (ledger) of the committee of the land, one can learn of the disasters which occurred, from time to time, onto the Jews of Brisk. Those were mainly fires which destroyed many of the wooden houses in town. Later, for example, in the year 1623, a reduction on head-tax was granted.
In 1637, damages occurred during disturbances by the students of the Jesuit college, Schiller Gelaif, in Brisk. Such incidents often repeated themselves. Contrary to other places, money paid to the students was ineffective in avoiding riots.
Apparently, the Jews of Brisk were not satisfied with bribery and tried to retaliate against the rioters with violence. On the 10th March 1644, the rector of the Jesuit college and his deputy presented a complaint against the Jews, accusing them of hitting students that year and in the previous one. Several months later, the students attacked the Jews again but this time the town citizens participated too. The Mayor, who had committed himself to use the municipal guard in order to protect the Jews, did not keep his promise. Complaints of the use of violence, were presented by the Pravoslav Clergy as well as by the Jews.
The most severe event was the slaughter of Jews in the years 1648-1649. According to Jewish sources, about 2000 souls were killed in Brisk. Among them, there were --probably-- Jews from near-by neighborhoods. Others fled to Great-Poland and to Danzig. The monk Kunaka described the sight of the town after the destruction: Houses, shops and Synagogues were demolished, Jews were killed and only few of them ran away. What had not been completely destroyed or robbed by the Cossacks and their allies, was done by the Polish soldiers in search of Jewish property and town citizens. But in a short time, Jews started restoration. They were granted with tax-refunds and other concessions.
On 23rd June 1655, King Jan Kazimir, granted the Jews of Brisk, a letter of refuge which included, also, the protection of livelihoods, and mainly the tenants against their competitors.
The acts of restoration were disturbed [distributed?] in the year 1660. The armies of the Land of Moscow invaded the province, conquered Brisk and attacked the town and its Jews. As a result of the destruction, letters of rights, agreements and other Jewish documents were lost.
In 1661, King Jan Kazimir exempted, temporarily, the Jews from various obligations to the forces, like: Hosting soldiers, providing them with bread, money and the like. The king threatened heavy penalties on commanders who violated his decree in this matter. Additionally Jan Kazimir exempted the Jews from various taxes during four years and from payment of debts to the debtors during three years. Due the repeated attacks, the number of Jews diminished and by the year of 1672 there were only 133 Jews in Brisk. Even if we assume that many of them shirked from the census and those babies and Rabbis were not counted, the number of Brisk Jews is less then in the past. This situation continued also in the years to come and by the year of 1676 still only 525 Jews were counted. Much less than their number before the events of 1647 and 1648.
[229]
As mentioned earlier, the charter of rights and the documents that were given to the Jews were lost in the difficult years. In order to establish their rights, the Jews obtained their copies and brought these for approval of king Michael Vishniyebiyetzki in 1669 and king Jan Sovyeski in 1676. The latter authorized building a new synagogue and to repair the old one. The certificates were approved by king August the 2nd in 1702 and in 1720 a decree has been added that forbade, amongst others, to delay Jews that transported merchandises. Also in this decree Gentiles were forbidden to sign for debts of synagogues and Jewish stores.
[Illegible.]
In spite of the protection bestowed to them by the king, the scheming against Jews of Brisk continued during the 17th century. In addition to the students, noble Gentiles also ran wild. On May 16, 1665, a noble Gentile, riding on his horse, entered into the synagogue and killed the usher with his sword. In this case the murderer was sentenced to death and his relatives had to pay indemnity to the victim relatives, but similar disorderliness that took place later, in the 18th century, ended with easy penalties, as Poland was already a republic of the nobles . There were cases of blood-libels like the one in the township of Woein [Wein, Vienna?] in the year of 1663 and the murder of the convert in 1676, some of whose Jewish relatives were sentenced to death.
Like other Jewish communities in Poland-Lithuania, Brisk also began to decline economically after the events of 1647 and 1648 and after the nobility takeover of the state. Jews privately and the communities themselves were compelled to borrow a lot of money in order to pay the rebuilding expenses and in order to pay the taxes which got higher, or in order to pay a bribe required now and then. The lenders were mainly churches and monasteries and the loans' guarantor was the Jewish community. At 1682, Brisk community leaders complained to the Wiyabuda that the Jews are taking loans with flippancy and impose the responsibility on all of the city's Jewish population, as a results, those in charge of the synagogue have to sell public assets in order to cover the private debts. As mentioned, in 1720 the Brisk Jewish leaders obtained a decree from the king August 2nd that forbids Gentile creditors to impose such arbitrary confiscation on Jews.
In spite of the troubles and the difficulties, the Brisk Jewish population grew during the 18th century. The 1766 census counted 3,175 people in Brisk, compared with approximately 600 in 1676. But the debts grew, too. Mainly those of the congregation, which reached by the year of 1766 227,720 guldens, most of them to the churches, monasteries and some other religious institutions. Most of the congregation's property was mortgaged and their annual income of 31,000 guldens, was not enough to cover the payment of debts.
After the events of 1647 and 1648 and by the end of the 18th century, several well known rabbis served in Brisk: Rabbi Yaakov Ben Ephraim Zalman Schor (1655), Rabbi Moshe Ben Yehuda Liva, the author of the book Jelkat Mehokek, Rabbi Aaron Shmuel Kroydnover, author of the books Birkat Hazevach and Birkat Shmuel, Rabbi Mordechai Ziskind Rotenberg, author of She'elot and Tshuvot book (1695), his son Rabbi Moshe Rotenberg (until 1710), Rabbi Aryeh Jehuda Leib (1713), the grandson of Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, the author of the book She'agat Arie, Rabbi Nachman Sirkin (1718), Rabbi Israel Issar Ben Moshe (until 1760). From 1760 and by the end of the 18th century served in Brisk Rabbi Abraham Katzenellenbogen and his son Rabbi Yossef, descendants of Rabbi Shaul Wohl.
|
Table of Contents
(?)
