Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the Montreal Jewish Public Library's J. I. Segal PrizeOriginally published in 1991. In the eighteenth century, more than half of the world's Jewish population lived in Polish private villages and towns owned by magnate-aristocrats. Furthermore, roughly half of Poland's entire urban population was Jewish. Thus, the study of Jews in private Polish towns is central to both Jewish history and to the history of Poland-Lithuania. The Jews in a Polish Private Town seeks to investigate the social, economic, and political history of Jews in Opatow, a private Polish town, in the context of an increasing power and influence of private towns at the expense of the Polish crown and gentry in the eighteenth century. Hundert recovers an important community from historical obscurity by providing a balanced perspective on the Jewish experience in the Polish Commonwealth and by describing the special dimensions of Jewish life in a private town.
Trade ReviewThe book's great and lasting value lies . . . in the consistently high standard of research which has gone into it. This will insure that Hundert's study will become a
sine qua non for all those interested in studying . . . the history of the Jews in Poland and the role of Jews in Polish history.
—
Polish ReviewTable of ContentsFigure, Maps, Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1. Numbers
Chapter 2. The Town and the Jewish Community before 1700
Chapter 3. Jews and Other Poles
Chapter 4. Jews in the Economy
Chapter 5. Jewish Society
Chapter 6. The Jewish Community
Chapter 7. Authority in the Jewish Community
Chapter 8. Power and the Jewish Community
Afterword
Appendix 1. The Privilege of the Jewish Community of Opatow
Appendix 2. Measures, Weights, and Money
Notes
Works Cited
Acknowledgments
Index
