Cologne

COLOGNE (Ger. Köln), city in Germany. Founded in 50 C.E. as the Roman Colonia Agrippinensis, seat of the provincial and military administration, it is likely to have attracted a Jewish population at an early date. A Jewish cemetery, assumed to have existed from Roman times, is attested there from the 11^th century. It was in use to the end of the 17^th century and came to light in the 1930s. Two edicts of Constantine (Cod. Theod. 16:8, 3–4) of 321 and 331 respectively imposed the onerous Curia duties on the Jews of Cologne and exempted the officials of their community from the obligations incumbent on the lower class of citizens. No further information on Jews in Cologne is available until the 11^th century.

In 1012 (or 1040) a synagogue was erected which, though destroyed, was three times rebuilt on the same site, until, after the expulsion of 1424, it was turned into a chapel, though it served various purposes in the course of time. Allied bombing during World War II laid bare the foundations of the ancient building where unique examples of a genizah cellar under the bimah and a cistern (in the forecourt?) have been discovered. During the 12^th century rabbinical opinion was divided over the religious propriety of its stained glass windows depicting lions and serpents. A chronicler of the first half of the 12^th century describes the Cologne community at the end of the 11^th century as "a distinguished city… from where life, livelihood, and settled law issued for all our brethren scattered far and wide" (Solomon b. Samson in Sefer Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Ẓarefat, ed. by A.M. Habermann (1945), 43). The central importance of the Cologne fair and the community there for Jewry throughout the Rhine valley is further attested by the description of the *synods held in the city: "all the communities came to Cologne to the fairs three times a year and deliberated

Medieval Jewish quarter in Cologne. Zvi Asaria, Die Juden in Koeln, 1959.

at its synagogue" (ibid., 47). The First Crusade of 1096 brought death and destruction to Cologne Jewry. Though the archbishop tried to protect the Jews of the diocese, many were massacred; the Jewish quarter and synagogue were sacked and burned down. The number of those killed indicates a community of approximately 1,000. The martyrs included Moses Kohen Ẓedek, rabbi and cantor, originating from France and respected for his scholarship and piety, as well as other scholars. One of the martyrs had come from Italy, another was a proselyte. A few saved their lives by accepting baptism, but were subsequently permitted by imperial decree to return to Judaism. However, a group of converts remained, who, themselves or their descendants, attained positions of importance in the Church and civil administration.

The community was afterward reconstructed. When a new city wall was built in 1106, the Jews were assigned their own gate (Porta Judaeorum) for the defense of the city. In the Cologne land register (Schreinsbuch), from 1135, the extent to which Jews owned property there is revealed: from 30 houses at the beginning of the period, to 48 in 1170, 50 in 1235, 60 in 1300, 70 in 1325, and 73 in 1349. Many also lived in leased or rented houses. The land register also yields information on the provenance of the Jews of Cologne, mentioning over 20 places in the Rhineland and beyond (such as Frankfurt, Wuerzburg, Arnhem in Holland, and even England). The Second Crusade of 1146–7 left Cologne Jewry more or less unharmed, due mainly to Archbishop Arnold, who put the fortress of Wolkenburg at their disposal as a refuge. The imperial Jewish tax as well as the jurisdiction over Jews for serious criminal offenses were in the hands of the archbishops. From 1252 onward they issued periodical letters of protection or privileges to the Jewish community, by which the Jews were assured of protection of life and limb, freedom of commerce and worship, freedom from forcible conversion, and the right to untaxed burial for any Jew in the Jewish cemetery. The rabbinical courts had exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving Jews. For these "privileges" they had to pay heavily in the form of taxes or lump sums. The 1266 privilege, granted by Archbishop Engelbert II, was engraved on stone and can still be seen in the wall of the cathedral. During the 14^th century power in the city passed from the archbishop to the patrician city fathers who had defeated him in the battle of Worringen (1288); subsequently the latter were asked to endorse the archepiscopal privileges granted to the Jews, and in 1321 the city itself issued them a letter of protection valid for ten years. It is an indication of the growing insecurity of Jewish life in Cologne that this sort of charter had to be frequently reissued. The cost of the letter of protection to the Jewish community was the considerable sum of 1,600 marks in 1321, rising to 1,800 in 1331. From 1341 acquisition of property by Jews required the consent of the city council, which also intervened in internal disputes.

Disaster overtook Cologne Jewry during the Black *Death. The plague had reached the city in the summer of 1349; the mob stormed the Jewish quarter on St. Bartholomew's Night (Aug. 23–24), letters of protection notwithstanding. Part of the community had assembled in the synagogue; they themselves set fire to it and perished in its flames. The rest were murdered. Among the martyrs were the last three "Jews' bishops" of Cologne (see below) and a number of distinguished rabbis. The archbishop, the municipality, and the count of Juelich now laid claim to the derelict Jewish property. When the "protectors" had at last settled their quarrel, the property was sold and the proceeds used for church and city buildings.

In 1372 Jews were readmitted to Cologne, once more under a privilege from the archbishop renewed in 1384 and every ten years until 1414. The city council also granted a privilege similar to earlier ones, stipulating that no claims could be raised arising out of property owned prior to 1349. Interest rates were limited to 36 1/2% per annum. A new spirit of discrimination was shown in the special dress regulations introduced for Jews and the prohibition on employing Christian nurses, contained in documents of 1384. The golden penny (goldene Pfennig) poll tax, imposed on German Jewry in 1342, is recorded as being collected in Cologne in 1391. The post-1372 community was small, never comprising more than 31 taxpaying households and 200 persons. All the more burdensome was the enormous tax which this small group had to pay, though it must have included some fairly rich people. However, the days of the community were numbered. The city refused, after prolonged pleadings before the archbishop, emperor, and pope, to renew the residential privilege which expired in October 1424. This brought the history of medieval Jewry in Cologne to a close.

Communal Structure

Cologne Jewry, like other ethnic and economic groups, formed a corporation with its own council (of 12?) and leader, referred to as the Judenbischoff (*Episcopus Judaeorum; seven holders of this office are known by name between 1135 and 1417), apart from its religious and judicial organization with rabbis, dayyanim, readers, shohḥatim, beadles, etc. The office of "bishop" and rabbi were not identical, though occasionally united. The Jewish quarter, its synagogue (with a separate building for women), and the cemetery have been mentioned above. Other communal property included a mikveh (in addition to a public bath), a dance and wedding hall (Spielhaus), a bakehouse, a "hospital" for wayfarers, and accommodation for officials. The synagogue court (curia Judaeorum) served for public assemblies, wedding ceremonies, and perhaps for the rabbinical court. A wall separated the Jewish quarter to the south from the adjoining area, while a gate led into it from the east. The mikveh was discovered and partly restored during the 1956–57 excavations. The Jews of Cologne were mainly merchants, and later moneylenders. The Cologne fairs, to which traders from near and far brought both raw materials and finished goods, were one of Europe's most important mercantile events. Jewish visitors came from as far as the Ukraine. Transactions at this fair form the subject of an opinion by *Gershom b. Judah (10^th–11^th century; Ma'aseh ha-Ge'onim, ed. by A. Epstein (1909), 70; Rashi's Pardes, ed. by H.L. Ehrenreich (1924), 73). Powerful financiers who established themselves in the banking business in the 13^th and 14^th centuries were largely a law unto themselves, as shown by their repeated conflicts with the community, but their wealth and ostentation often proved their undoing. Many pursued more modest trades and occupations. Some physicians are mentioned toward the end of the 14^th century. Among a long line of notable Cologne rabbis (rabbanei Kolonya) were *Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi of Bonn ("Ravyah"), and *Asher b. Jehiel ("ha-Rosh") who was active in Cologne before his emigration to Spain in 1303. *Alexander Suslin ha-Kohen of Frankfurt (martyred in Erfurt, 1349) lived for some time in Cologne. To the kabbalistic school belonged *Abraham b. Alexander of Cologne. The Cologne community early established its own liturgical rite, partly based on Palestinian custom. Maimonides' Mishneh Torah was copied in four volumes of vellum in 1295–6 by Nathan b. Simeon of Cologne. This manuscript, now at Budapest, is one of the finest examples of Ashkenazi calligraphy and miniature painting of the period.

From 1424 to the end of the 18^th century Jews were rigorously excluded from residence in Cologne. Even those few admitted for business were not permitted to stay overnight, not excepting Jewish physicians who were frequently called in by the local population from nearby towns such as *Bonn and *Deutz. In the 16^th century Cologne became the center of the *Pfefferkorn-*Reuchlin controversy. The University of Cologne (founded 1388) had a chair of Hebrew from 1484.

Printing

The Pfefferkorn-Reuchlin controversy led to the publication of many books and pamphlets, some containing Hebrew letters printed from woodcuts, such as Pfefferkorn's Judenveindt and Osternbuch (1509). In 1518 a polyglot psalter (in four languages) was edited by Johann Potkin, and printed by Jacob Soter and again in 1539 by Johann *Boeschenstein. In 1553 Soter printed the books of Obadiah and Jonah with a rhymed Latin translation by the apostate Johann Isaac ha-Levi and in 1555 Jacob *Anatoli's Ru'aḥ Ḥen with a Latin translation also by ha-Levi. In 1563, in partnership with P. Horst, he printed the book of Malachi, with translations. The Cologne imprint of a Bible of 1603 by J. Lucius (of Helmstedt) is doubtful, and it may have to be assigned to Hamburg. A Passover Haggadah with German translation and music by the Cologne cantor Judah, father of the composer Jacques *Offenbach, was published in 1838 by Clouth and Company.

Modern Period

The annexation of the Rhineland by revolutionary France in 1794 brought Jewish residents again to Cologne from 1798. A new congregation, formed by 17 households, was established in 1801. Solomon *Oppenheim represented it on the *Assembly of Jewish Notables convoked by Napoleon in 1806, and its rabbi, S.B. Rapaport, on the French *Sanhedrin of 1807. Under the decree of 1808, the Cologne congregation was administered first by the *Krefeld and (from 1817) by the Bonn *Consistory.

Residential permits were required even after the Rhine-land had been incorporated into Prussia in 1815; 33 were granted in 1817, and 134 in 1845, when the community numbered approximately 1,000. Among the lay leaders of this period was David Hess, father of Moses *Hess. It was not until 1861, however, the year of the opening of a new synagogue magnificently endowed by the banker Abraham von Oppenheim, that the Cologne congregation achieved the status of a public corporation under the Prussian community law of 1847. Civic equality was finally obtained in 1856. Cologne Jewry numbered 4,523 in 1880, 9,745 in 1900, and approximately 20,000 (2 1/2% of the total population) in 1933. It had four synagogues and several battei midrash, two elementary schools and a secondary school, apart from religious schools, a hospital, an orphanage, a children's home, a home for apprentices, and many ancillary societies and institutions. Among rabbis who officiated in Cologne before World War II were the scholars Isidor *Scheftelowitz and Adolf *Kober. From 1867 an independent Orthodox congregation (*Adass Jeshurun) was active; a Jewish teacher's training college was closely associated with it. When David *Wolffsohn, a resident of Cologne, succeeded Theodor Herzl as president of the Zionist Organization in 1904, its offices were transferred to Cologne where they remained until 1911. Max *Bodenheimer was another leading Zionist in Cologne.