Trudy Gold
The Phenomenon of the Court Jew
Trudy Gold - The Phenomenon of the Court Jew
- Right, now everybody, we should start looking at a subject. And, of course, continuing with the Habsburgs, we are now looking at the Court Jews. So Judi, if you don’t mind, we can start with the first slide, which I believe, yes. Now, in a way, I’m going to go forward to go backwards, because what is very important about understanding the court Jews, and, of course, last session we had, I said that to understand the position of the Jew in European society, in order to understand what’s going on today, you really have to take on board what the role of the Jew was in European society. And it’s fascinating, because if you think of 1492, the conquest of the Americas, the opening up of trade, the introduction of the sextant meant that for the first time voyages, but also voyages across the Cape of Good Hope to India, to China, this is really the beginnings of mercantilism. And you have a fascinating dilemma, because, in the main, you have the absolutist state. But from now on, economics is going to be incredibly important in the state. And I’m going to quote now from Jonathan Israel, who I think has written probably the best book on this subject.
He says this, “The significance of the court Jew and their successes for the future of the Jews of Vienna and for the history of the empire was to prove considerable, the symbiotic relationship that developed in the 16th and 17th century between wealthy court Jews and the Habsburg state left a profound mark on the political orientation of Austrian Jewry.” And that’s something that we’re going to be dealing with throughout this term. It was in the interest, economically, of the absolute state to grant individual Jews certain privileges and to treat them as a separate group, it discouraged their full emancipation or assimilation into the Catholic population that was openly hostile to them. So what’s going to happen, because of the interests of the state, practically every ruler in Germany and certainly the Habsburgs with their far flung empire, the person who’s going to be running the finances for them in the main is going to be a Jew and a certain kind of Jew. Because what we’ll be looking at is a series of extraordinarily interlinked families. Now why were the Jews so important in this? You’ve got to remember, they had the contacts. The absolutist state was, by nature, bureaucratic and inefficient. But the needs of the economic necessity, plus of course the fighting of wars, you needed people who were flexible, who were mobile, with brilliant connections.
And I’m now going to quote from Robert Wistrich, “The Age of Mercantilism in the late 16th to the mid-18th century ushered in a new approach to socioeconomic conditions, mercantilism, the deliberate pursuit of the economic interests of the state, irrespective of the claim of existing law, privilege, tradition, and religion. By the second half of the 17th century, with the growth of the absolutist state with its mercantile policy, the court Jew becomes a requisite found in all the principalities of the Holy Roman Empire and also in adjoining states such as Poland and Denmark, and of course in the German lands. They played an enormous part in the development of credit. Their contacts made it easier to secure them than the Christian bankers. The networking, of course, included marriages, marriage connections, and in order to secure positions for their descendants. And most of these Hofjuden were philanthropists within the Jewish community.” And I’m going to finish on Jonathan Israel’s quote, “The systematic intervention of the state in the economic sphere to buttress the state represents a secularisation and a moralization, could be called Europe’s first Jewish emancipation, a release from the restrictions of the past.
This emancipation of the 17th century ushered the Jews into the Western world as a cohesive group and not unrelated individuals.” You see, this is absolutely critical to understand. It’s important to remember that the Jews who are going to be emancipated, if we’re going to call it that, are the Hofjuden. They are allowed to live at court. They wear the same kind of clothes as their Gentile neighbours. They are there because they are useful to the state. And what happens is the state allows them to bring with them other Jews who will, as it were, really buttress up their own position. So this is really the beginnings of the settlement of the Jews, both in Vienna and in Germany. Now, I already mentioned to you the horror that we finished Vienna on when it was actually called, If you remember, the City of Blood. Jews did begin to creep back in. And it’s important also to remember that why on earth would they creep back in? They creep back in for economic opportunity. And I’m going to go back next Tuesday to talk about probably the two most important ones, Wertheimer and Oppenheimer. But I’m jumping forward now to the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria. You know, it’s very interesting, because when Patrick talked about her yesterday, he talked about her as a relatively enlightened monarch. He talked about her with a certain amount of affection.
The problem from the Jewish point of view is she hated Jews as much as she hated Protestants, actually far more than she hated Protestants. And yet, most of her serious advisors were Jews. She so disliked them though that they would have to talk to her behind a screen. But there was one person of Jewish birth, a man called Joseph von Sonnenfels who states, can we see his face please? Judi, the next picture. His dates are 1732 to 1817. And he is actually very, very important. He was, in fact, the grandson of Perlin Lipman, who was the chief rabbi of Brandenburg. Many of these court Jews come from religious families. Now, when I say religious families, it’s a silly thing to say, because a Jew was a Jew was a Jew. I can’t know exactly what went on in everyone’s heart and soul. but outwardly you would be a Jew. And many of these characters do come from rabbinic families. And it’s something that I’ve talked about with you before. I think it’s this marriage, if you’d like, of the wealthy with the religious, with the rabbi, which is going to produce something quite extraordinary. Because whether you like it or not, whatever you think of a Talmudic education, it’s probably, in terms of methodology, the greatest that we, possibly, that we have. So basically Joseph von Sonnenfels, you notice the von, he is the grandson of the chief rabbi of Brandenburg.
Now his son converts to Catholicism. Why? Because he wants the world. He studies philosophy at the University of Vienna. He also studies law. He becomes a lawyer. He actually becomes the professor of political science at the university. And it’s important to remember that his son becomes such an important political and economic figure. His son becomes a political scientist. And it was he who really advised Maria Theresa on tax, on liberal tax reforms, on government expenditure to promote public welfare. He was very much a child of the enlightenment, and he wanted the state to use economic policy to actually make things better for individuals. He was very much a mercantilist. He encouraged the promotion of exports and the curtailing of imports. He believed that the best way to shore up the state is the state should actually have enough to produce for itself that it doesn’t need to import. And in fact, it should import import goods. He was the most important political scientist of his age. He also had a great passion for the arts. And this grandson of a rabbi was a very close friend of Mozart. And those of you who love music, Beethoven dedicated his “Piano Sonata Number 15, Opus 28 to Sonnenfels.
And he did come across anti-Judaism, or can we yet call it anti-Semitism? He was sometimes slighted for his Jewish background, but he was obviously a man of great charm and ability and he was in love with the European enlightenment and made a huge impact on the economic life of the state and also on the cultural life of the state. He was instrumental in persuading Maria Theresa to invest in the arts. So I think he’s a very, very important figure. But he disappears from Jewish history. His brother, Franz Anton Sonnenfels, he entered the service. He also enters government service and under her son Joseph II. There’s going to be a lot about him. He became a secretary in the imperial household, and he was knighted. So the family, the grandsons of rabbis have a very, very important part in the state. Now let’s talk about another important court Jew at the time of Maria Theresa, and that is a man called Diego d'Aguilar. Now he does not convert. I brought Sonnenfels into the picture, because I wanted you to get a picture of how high Jews could aspire to. But for him, that was the price, the price was conversion to Catholicism. So let’s have a look at Diego d'Aguilar, if I can, Baron d'Aguilar. That’s actually his son. We have no pictures of him. We only have a picture of his son. He was born in Lisbon. The family originally came from Aguilar de Campos, which is a fortress town just outside Castile. He was a converso financier. So the father was in the business of money, but the point was he had converted to Christianity. He actually held the Portuguese tobacco monopoly. Many of these conversos were really arbiters of Spanish and Portuguese trade. And they were always at the mercy of the Inquisition.
And what, of course, this family did, like many of the other prominent families, they established branches of their banking houses in both London and Amsterdam. And as we’ve already discussed on this course, Amsterdam, of course, was looking for far more favour towards Jews, because these Jewish bankers can be very, very useful. And in London, they have been encouraged to settle there. And after the war of the Spanish succession in 1722, d'Aguilar followed Charles VI to London where he established his firm in the city, Carrera and Lima. And it was one of the firms that imported gold from Portugal. He worked with other Jewish merchants such as Francis Salvador, and Moses Mendes da Costa. Now we’ve already talked about these characters. These are the merchants of London. And in 1722 he married Sarah, the daughter of Isaac Da Fonseca, another important financier, and the firm prospered. And in 1736, he travels to Vienna because he wants to increase the trade. He’s already a very important financier, and he’s called in by the state to actually organise this tobacco monopoly. And he becomes the banker to Maria Theresa, but she would only ever talk to him behind a screen.
Anyway, he raised a 10 million florin loan for the state treasury and he advanced Maria Theresa 300,000 florins to enable her to rebuild the Schonbrunn Palace, which, of course, Patrick showed you a picture of yesterday. So it’s interesting, this is Jewish finance. Now, when he came to Vienna, he’s got a special position in the state. He actually reverts to Judaism. He takes the name Moses and championed other Jews when they were threatened. He works with a man called Eskeles who I’m going to come onto later, another important Jewish financier to try and prevent the expulsion of the Jews from Prague. And in another story that I’ll be coming back to, in 1744, he helped the Mantua community. In 1752, he organised relief for the Belgrade Jews after there was a terrible fire. He collects funds for the Holy land. He formed the Sephardi congregation of Vienna. And in fact, they still hold a service on Yom Kippur in his memory. And it’s interesting, when the Spanish government asked for his extradition, because remember outwardly he’d been a Christian, they wanted to put him on trial as a Judaizer. No country was prepared to extradite, because he was so useful. In fact, he goes back to London, and he’s buried in the Mile End Cemetery, the old Sephardi cemetery in Mile End. But it’s interesting to note what happened to his family.
His eldest son, Ephraim, was very active in Jewish communal life. And another son actually severed his connection with Judaism and entered the Army and a whole family of English military. His grandfather was General Sir George Charles, fought in the wars in China, and General Sir Charles Lawrence. Now, Ephraim’s family, the oldest son, he married Sarah Mendes da Costa, who was the daughter of one of the richest Jews in England, and the dowry was 150,000 pounds. But they had two daughters, Georgina married Vice Admiral, the Honourable Keith Stewart, a son of the sixth Earl of Galloway. And following his death, she married Lieutenant Colonel Richard Fitzgerald, who was killed at Waterloo. Now why am I telling you these stories? Because these are individuals who rise very high in the service of the state. They do very, very well for themselves. But even though, for a while, they are benefactors of the community, the lure of the outside world becomes too strong. And I think this is one of the most interesting aspects of the court Jews, how did they maintain their Jewishness in the state? And this is where I think it comes full circle to today, because we still have this problem. Because of anti-Judaism, which today I would say is anti-Semitism, if we don’t have pride in our history and our heritage or a deep religiosity, the animosity of the outside world makes many people feel very uncomfortable. And I think that’s why so many people actually leave the Jewish fold behind, because they don’t want to be part of something that’s seen as unattractive. Whereas the reality of the Jewish experience, if only we would spend more time, I’m preaching to the wrong crowd here, I know that, because I know all of you do care.
But if we spent more time as a community, various communities, making sure that our children and our grandchildren knew far more about their own background. I mean, Wendy said something to me very interesting when we were talking before we went on air, she said that even when the family went to Swaziland, they had kosher food imported. Can you imagine how difficult that must have been? And Rabbi Schlomo Levine came to conduct services for them. So important to remember that it’s the keeping of the tradition, the keeping of the history, because otherwise the lure of the outside world, look, I’m just putting ideas into your head. Many of you have thought of all these things before, but I think that’s what makes these periods just as relevant today. Now let’s turn to the next court Jew. Now, this is Daniel Itzig. His dates are 1723 to 1779, and he is in Berlin. So if I’m talking about Vienna, why am I talking about Berlin? Because we’re going to look at a series of interlinked families. And the pater familias, in this case, is Daniel Itzig. He was actually the court Jew to Frederick the Great. Now those of you who know your history will know that in 1752, Frederick issued a Charter of Toleration. Because he’s creating the strong economic state, he actually invites Jews into Berlin to build up the state for him. And they are allowed to have special concessions.
They are there as of right. And because he sees himself as a man of the enlightenment, they are allowed to bring their retinue in, and he’s going to become the wealthiest man in Prussia. He worked in partnership with another court Jew. He was a man called Veitel Ephraim. And not only were they both bankers, they were mint masters. And this is another feature of the Hofjude, if you go from state to state in the German empire, and remember at this stage there are 360 separate little states, and in Vienna and all the courts around Vienna, what you’re going to see is a Jew running the finances of the state, but working always for the emperor, for the prince. So Veitel Ephraim was himself a fascinating man. He’d actually come from Altona. He moved to Berlin. His mother came from Vienna, and he becomes the court jeweller to Frederick II, Frederick the Great. As a crown prince, he was already in debt to both Ephraim and to Itzig. And, in fact, the two of them who become partners, they lease all the mints in Saxony and in Prussia. And during the Seven Years War, they raised the money for Frederick. It was his idea. What they did was they debased the currency. I was talking to Bernie Meyers about it last night, ‘cause I thought you’d have far more knowledge of this kind of thing than me. And he said, "Actually, this is a totally treasonable offence. It’s one of the worst things you can do.” But these two characters do it on the will of the sovereign who needs money to pay for his wars, so much so that the coin is called an Ephraimite. Can you just imagine the negative image that gave towards the Jews? Anyway, both of these characters received full privileges in Prussia.
And together with his son-in-law, David Friedlander, and can we see David Friedlander’s face please? David Friedlander’ is very, very important. They were appointed to lead a commission to improve Jewish civil and social standing. This of course is the charter of Frederick II. And he funded members of the Haskalah. And who comes into the picture, but of course, Moses Mendelssohn. Now these characters become what I would call figures of the Enlightenment. They try and marry Judaism with the Enlightenment, and Friedlander, along with Itzig’s son, begin to plan a Jewish Free School. And it’s going to become one of the most important centres of the Jewish Enlightenment. And next to it is going to be a printing press. And at the same time, the father funds a yeshiva. Now the family are absolutely fascinating, because David Itzig has 13 children. He marries a woman called Miriam Wulff. Those of you who love Jewish history and lineage, one of her ancestors was Rabbi Moses Isserles of Cracow. And many of his children are going to be very important in the role of the Jew, both in Vienna and in Berlin. For example, one of his daughters, Bella, she marries a man called Levin Jacob Salomon. Their son, Jakob Salomon converts, this is his grandson, Itzig’s grandson, converts to Christianity and takes the name Bartholdy. For a long time, he was the Prussian consul in Italy.
Their daughter, Lea, Itzig’s granddaughter, Lea, marries Abraham Mendelssohn, one of the sons of Moses Mendelssohn, the great figure of the Jewish Enlightenment, and was the father of Fanny and, of course, of Felix Mendelssohn. And, ironically, it was Bella, the grandmother, who gave Felix his copy of of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.” And the rest is history. Another one of Itzig’s daughters marries David Friedlander. And Friedlander’s son, Joseph, together with Mendelssohn founds the Mendelssohn Friedlander Bank, which lasts right up until the Nazis come to power. In fact, that branch of the Mendelssohn family remains Jewish. It’s the only one of the family that remains Jewish. One of the ironies of Moses Mendelssohn, who believed you could walk the world. He’s known, of course, as as the Jewish Socrates. And we’ve spent a lot of time on him. Those of you who don’t know much about him, read “The Pity of It All” by Amos Elon. But what I’m giving you now is the tension. These are wealthy Jews who are getting the benefits of the state and what is going to happen to their children. Now, another son, Itzig, he becomes the father of Friedrich Itzig, who is the architect of many of Berlin’s great buildings, including the Stock Exchange. So can we go on please, if you don’t mind, Judi. There you see Baron von Eskeles. Now, who was Baron von Eskeles? He was born posthumously. He was the son of a rabbi and the grandson of a rabbi. At 17, he goes to Amsterdam, he managed a commercial house. This is all through interconnections.
The reason I’m dealing with these families, you’re going to see how it fits into Vienna soon, they’re all going to be interrelated. At 17, as I said, he goes to Amsterdam. He makes a fortune, he loses a fortune. And then in 1774, he goes to Vienna, and he marries Cecille Itzig, who, of course, is the daughter of Daniel Itzig of Berlin. And he’s going to become very important as a banker in Vienna. Now Bernhard goes into partnership with his brother-in-law, Nathan Arnstein, And they establish the house of Arnstein and Eskeles in Vienna. Both Eskeles and Arnstein married daughters of Itzig. So of those 13 children, most of them are going to marry into the rich bankers of Europe. Now, he himself is going to become an advisor to Joseph II, the son of Maria Theresa, who is going to issue an Edict of Toleration towards the Jews, which I’ll be talking about in a couple of sessions. Because what’s happened in Berlin is also going to happen in Vienna and in the Habsburg lands. The Edict of Toleration is going to be a move to emancipate the Jews. I use the wrong word, I beg your pardon, to make the Jews more acceptable to Western society. Now, please don’t forget the extent of the Habsburg empire. By the time we’re talking about the Edict of Toleration, we’re talking about Bohemia, we’re talking about Moravia, we’re talking about Galicia. The home to the majority of, the majority of the Jews of the Empire were in Galicia or in Eastern Hungary.
And they are the Yiddish-speaking traditional Jews. And the Edict of Toleration is going to do things like make them take proper names. Because if you think to a traditional Jewish society, how would you be called? You will be David ben Isaac. You’re going to have to take the name that will be acceptable to modern society. You’re going to have to have a surname. Your documents are going to have to be in German. You’re going to have to modernise. And we’re going to look at what those tensions do. But it’s important to remember, and look at Bernhard von Eskeles. I mean, he looks like what? He looks like a man of the period. He certainly doesn’t look like the grandson or the son of a rabbi, does he? This is the modern world. Now, what is going to be very important about these characters? Can we see their wives please? Because Nathan Arnstein, here you see his wife Cecille, now Cecille, and can you jump on to her sister? There you have Fanny von Arnstein.
So these are two of the daughters of Daniel Itzig married into the most important banking house now in Vienna. And their homes they’re going to have, they are wealthy beyond dreams. They’re going to have palaces all over the place. And what is fascinating about them, that their homes become, as it were, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which really settled the peace of Europe, all the great and the good are going to come to the homes of Cecille and Fanny. So it’s important to go a little bit more on with what these bankers do, they’re actually responsible for the founding of the Austrian National Bank. And he was, Bernhard was the director of it for 23 years. He was raised to the nobility. He becomes a Baron in 1822. He didn’t do much to help with the status of the Jews of the Empire, but like all of these, they were incredibly charitable. Now, of course, what do you think is going to happen to the family? Fanny von Arnstein was evidently a great beauty. And the two sisters married to the two wealthiest bankers in Vienna, their homes were great centres. This is the phenomenon you also find in Berlin, beautiful, rich Jewish women opening their homes to all sorts of interesting people who were much more fun than the stuffy atmosphere of the court. Now this is a description of Fanny von Arnstein. This is from a man, Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, who actually marries one of these wealthy Jewesses, a woman called Rahel Varnhagen, that was his wife.
Now this is how he describes Fanny, “tall and slender, radiant with beauty and grace, of elegant manor and tone, but vivacious and cheery expression, combining a sharp mind with a gay disposition, well-read, and master of foreign languages as well as her own. She was striking and a most strange phenomenon in Vienna. She had attributes which few women in high society possess.” And he notes, “I note with wonder, in a Jewish woman, the refinements of freedom of spirit nurtured by the benefits of the world she lives in.” And this is really a description of her. She had a great enthusiasm for music. She helped Mozart who even lived with them for a few months. She assisted Beethoven financially, but she did face prejudice as a Jew. She doesn’t convert. This is something that Maria Theresa said about Jews, “I know of no worse plague on the state than this.” You see, this is the duality. These people are incredibly useful to her and to her son. He did not have her prejudices, but this is what she said, “I know of no worse plague on the state than this nation on account of its frauds, its usury, and money deals, its way of reducing people to beggary through evil deeds which other honest men disdain. Therefore, it is to be kept out of here and reduced as much as it can.” So this is really the kind of dilemma that these people faced.
Maria Theresa is actually going to be responsible for the expulsion of the Jews from Bohemia and Moravia. It was so terrible. But what is interesting is that Jewish bankers throughout Europe actually exerted pressure to ameliorate this, including a banker in England called Moses Hart, who prevailed on George II to send a note to Maria Theresa, stopping her doing that. They couldn’t, in fact, she was pregnant with one of her children, didn’t receive the notes in time, and that the community in Prague were expelled, but they were allowed back a few years later. But the point is, the court Jews now are working in some way for their people. Now, there was a letter from Cecille. And it was a joint letter to Cecille and to Fanny, from whom? Goethe. Goethe sends a letter of congratulation to them for their tireless work on his behalf. Because you can make the case that these two sisters actually introduced Goethe to a much wider public. And, of course, during the Napoleonic wars, there was appalling horror for so many people. And what these sisters did, they were great charity givers. They organised all sorts of hospitals for Jews, but also for non-Jews. They were great philanthropists for both.
And I would say it was actually at the Congress of Vienna, though, this was the zenith of their social success. Can we see some of the slides, if you don’t mind, Judi. There, you see, these are some nice pictures of the Congress of Vienna. As I said, this is the congress that settled the peace of Europe. So who was there? The British were there. The Austrians were there. The Prussians were there. The Russians were there. And there you see, if you like, a very good idealised picture of it. Can we see some more please? Yeah, one of those very important meetings. And let’s see the third, my favourite. There you see one of the balls at the Congress. It was a very, very dizzy time. Now, what can we say? What can we say? The Congress danced, and these individuals were incredibly important in the state. Now, whilst many of these women were faithful to Judaism and also to the ideals of Moses Mendelssohn and Lessing, what happened as far as Fanny was concerned, her only daughter, Henriette, converted. And as Baroness Pereira, she did continue her mother’s work, but she left Judaism behind. It was actually Fanny who imported the idea of Christmas trees into Vienna from Berlin. So I’ve begun to talk to you about these court Jews. And on Tuesday, I’m going to talk about Wertheimer and Oppenheimer. Now I come to another, if you like, the second part of this presentation, which will take more time than I’ve given. So you’re going to have the first part of it now and the second part next week before I talk about Wertheimer.
And I’m going to tell the story of one of the most famous of the court Jews, Jud Suss Oppenheimer. His dates are 1698 to 1738. And he’s going to be incredibly important, not just because of the tragedy of his own life, but what happens to his memory and his story. So let’s try and encapsulate it. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a group of incredibly rarefied individuals who were influencers, I think we would use that modern word. They certainly charitably did a lot of good for their people, but they exacerbated the notion of the association of the Jew with money. I can stand on a corner till I’m purple in the face and say that the majority of Jews were never rich. The problem was because Jews go into what we call visible employment patterns, a disproportionate number of those in those kind of professions were in fact of Jewish birth. And that has led to the double-edged sword, anti-Semitism, anti-Judaism, but also the association of the Jew with money. And it’s best, I think, encapsulated not just in the life of Jud Suss Oppenheimer, but in the films and the books that are going to be made about them. So who was he? He was a court Jew, as I said, in the employ of Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg and Stuttgart. He was the financial advisor to the Duke, and he controlled the finances of the duchy. He had a monopoly on the trade of salt, leather, tobacco, and liquor. So in his own day, he’s one of the richest men in the kingdom.
Now have a look at those professions, salt, leather, tobacco, liquor. Why are these so important? Why are the Jews so good at this? Well, just think about geography. Where does the tobacco come from? Well, the tobacco in the main is coming from the Americas. That is mainly coming through the converso trade. Think about leather. When I mentioned Shavli in Lithuania before, it was one of the centres of the leather business. If you think the further east you go, it’s more and more of a peasant society. Who’s controlling the leather business in Eastern Europe under appalling Czarist control, it’s Jews though. Salt, just think of the trends, Poland salt, the great salt mines in, is it Wieliczka, just outside of Krakow. In the main, Jews ran the alcohol business in Eastern Europe. Practically every innkeeper was Jewish. They controlled the liquor trade. So consequently, coming now into Central Europe, think of the trade, think of the connections. He is responsible for founding a bank in Wurttemberg. This is what the state needs, and he becomes a very important figure. What do we know about him? Because a lot of books have been written about him. He was very good looking. He becomes vain, he becomes arrogant. And he was also a man of many affairs. Evidently he was very attractive to women, and he had all sorts of affairs with all sorts of women of the court.
And that made him many enemies. And the tragedy was that when the Duke died, he is arrested and he’s accused of fraud. He’s accused of embezzlement. He’s accused of lechery with court ladies. He’s accused of bribing all sorts of officials. He is put on trial. He is found guilty. Now, he never was anything but a Jew. And his tragedy was that he did have a Jewish daughter who he tried to keep her hidden from the rest of society. But in the end, she was a very beautiful girl and she was seduced into the court and he never forgave. So, he is executed. The community did try and ransom him. His trial was incredibly publicised, very, very heavily publicised. There was no real evidence. But at the end, there was a kind of heroism, because his jailers did demand that he convert, and he refuses. And he’s taken to the gallows and he’s hoisted very high. And a group of Jews come into the square, and they chant the Shema with him as he’s dying. So that is the story as far as we know. But it’s going to lead to many dramatic and literary works. The most important, of course, was the work of Lion Feuchtwanger, who wrote the famous “Jud Suss” in 1925. Could we go on please, Judi, if you don’t mind? That’s a map. We’ll go back to that next week. Could we go on please? Here you see Jud. This is a portrait of him, Joseph Suss Oppenheimer. We believe he was born in 1698. We certainly know when he was executed. Can we go onto the next picture, please? Here you have Carl Alexander, who you see. Jud Suss was only safe whilst Carl Alexander was alive. The minute Carl Alexander dies unexpectedly, it was anyone’s game, and tragically, it all ended horribly.
Now, when Lion Feuchtwanger wrote his book, Lion Feuchtwanger was a very, very interesting man. Can we see a copy of the book, please? There’s Lion Feuchtwanger. He was a fascinating man. He was born in Munich and he died in America. He was born in 1884. He dies in 1958. And his father moved to Munich in the middle of the 19th century. His father was a religious Jew. His father was a manufacturer. You know, quite often the Jewish story, particularly in the German lands, the father makes the money. The child can then go into the liberal arts. And he was the oldest of a family of nine. Clever, he studied philosophy at Munich and Berlin and literature. He did PhD on, this should give us a clue, on a great work of Heine called “Rabbi von Bacharach.” If you haven’t read extracts of it, you really are missing a treat. He becomes a theatre critic. He has money. He founds a cultural magazine in 1908. He marries a Jewish woman, another merchant’s daughter. And in 1914, he, of course, he’s caught up into the army, but he’s got poor health. And so, consequently, he doesn’t have to serve in the German military. He publishes in 1916 a play based on the story of Jud Suss.
It’s premiered, but he withdraws it because he’s not yet satisfied. He becomes a very important figure in the literary world. He’s a collaborator of Brecht. That is the cover of the book. He has a lot of success as a playwright. Remember, it’s Weimar now. He becomes an important figure in the cultural life of Weimar. He switches to novels. He writes 21 novels. May I also recommend to you, brilliant trilogy he wrote called “The Oppermanns” He moves to Berlin. He settles in Grunewald, which is a beautiful suburb just outside Berlin. He’s very much a Jew. He’s well aware of what’s going on in Germany. “Jud Suss” is not the story of a Jew who rose too high. The story of Lion Feuchtwanger is a story of a very, very complicated man, beset by all sorts of demons who rises too high. But it’s really a story of how one, it’s worth a read. It’s a story of a man who really triumphs against the odds and then loses everything. He becomes too vain. He comes too high. It really is, if you like to give it the Greek term, it’s, if you’d like, it’s nemesis, it’s catharsis. It’s fascinating. Anyway, it’s really, as I said, it’s a portrayal of a study of tragedy. The human weakness, greed, pride, ambition. It went through five printings, 39,000 copies was sold. By 1931, it’s translated into 17 languages. It becomes an incredibly important book. And Feuchtwanger is a very, very important writer. Luckily, he’s going to escape to America and be spared the horror of Nazism, because you can imagine what Goebbels did to his book. Now, in 1934, the story of Jud Suss was made into a film.
Can we please see the, yeah, “Jud Suss,” it was made into a film in London. It was made by a Jewish director, a man called Lothar Mendes. Now Lothar Mendes, who is the most important theatre director in both Berlin and Vienna. And we’ll be talking about him later on in the course. Of course, the great Max Reinhardt, Lothar Mendes works for Max Reinhardt. And, of course, after Hitler comes to power in Germany, he has to get out. He comes to London where he works for Gaumont Pictures, and he starts directing films. He’d already become a director in Germany, and he starts directing films for the Jewish Michael Balcon. And there was a problem in, you see England, there was censorship. And one of the problems with these kind of films is he wants to alert the world to what is happening in Germany, but you can’t actually make films with political messages. So they took the theme of Jud Suss and the tragedy of Jud Suss, and the end is very, very compelling where they’re all chanting the Shema together as the man is murdered. And yet it really, beneath the story is a cry to freedom. There were other films made like that, “The House of Rothschild” in 1934, but you couldn’t be too overt.
And it’s another subject that, at some stage, I think myself and my colleagues will lecture on, because it’s important that you understand, because just as the net today is so important, in the ‘30s, this was the medium, this was the medium. And, of course, the film itself was praised by Albert Einstein, Stephen Wise, the rabbi in America who was so active in Jewish affairs, it was seen as a paean to the horror of antisemitism and racism. And, of course, who does it star? Well, you all know that face because it’s Conrad Veidt. Conrad Veidt is one of my heroes. He had an incredible career in German silent film. Can we please go on a little, Judi, and then go back? That’s Lothar Mendes. But could we go on and back please? Yes, this is him. This is Conrad Veidt in a film, a silent film in Weimar in 1923. It’s a circus film. Now you see the mouth. That becomes the copy of the Joker in Batman. They take that notion. That’s Conrad Veidt. He is one of the great stars of Weimar Cinema. In Weimar, there was no problem with censorship. Can we come to the next slide, please? It’s horrible, isn’t it, Judi? Can we go on to the next one? Yes, that’s even worse. That’s Veidt in the brilliant film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” which is about madness. Do you mind going back to the pretty Conrad Veidt now? In “Jud Suss,” thank you, I think we better keep that one on the screen. So he was a very important actor in Germany, but in 1933, he had married a Jewish woman called Ilona Prager. And he was a liberal, and he was quite left wing. He had a huge social conscience.
And what happened was he was one of Germany’s most important actors. He wasn’t Jewish, and Goebbels made them all sign a piece of paper saying they had no Jewish blood in them. And he actually wrote Jew. And there was no way he, a lot of people were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to stay behind in Germany or their Jewish husbands to be able to stay behind but not Conrad Veidt. He came out with his wife to London. And, of course, later on he’s going to go to America. He appeared actually in over a hundred films. The film with the Joker image is actually a film called “The Man Who Laughs.” And that terrible image that I didn’t want to leave on the screen, it’s about a man who was cut into a permanent grin. Now don’t forget that in Germany at this stage, censorship didn’t exist. Before Hitler, censorship didn’t exist, so they could touch all kinds of subjects that we can’t touch, that we couldn’t touch in the West. Anyway, when England went to war with Germany, this extraordinary man, he gave most of his money to the British war effort. He also gave money to help children who had been sent to the country, you know, the evacuation. And he managed to smuggle his parents-in-law to Switzerland, because his wife’s parents were left behind in Nazi-occupied Europe. And he managed to get them out to Europe. And he actually said that he hoped “Jud Suss” by condemning antisemitism in the 18th century, it was a way of evading the British censorship.
But can we jump on, if you don’t mind, please, Judi? Jump onto his most famous role, yes. Poor old Conrad Veidt. I get really upset by this, because Conrad Veidt, the great figure of liberalism, he spent, I suppose, his most famous role in the West was in the film “Casablanca,” which is everybody’s favourite film, and, of course, “Casablanca.” And you know, because we are Jewish and because we’re optimistic, I’ve got to finish on, if you like, a relatively high note, because “Casablanca,” in a way, it is a film about refugees. And it is a film about the horror of war. And, of course, it was a B movie. It was filmed in six weeks. It was written by the Epstein Brothers. And the reason Ingrid Bergman looked rather vacant in it is she had absolutely no idea who she was going to go off with, whether she was going to go off with Rick, you all know the story of Rick, or the noble Paul von Henreid. He dropped the von when he made it to Hollywood. But poor old Conrad Veidt, he spent much of his time in America playing Nazis. And of course the total anti-Nazi. He is the major Nazi figure and is responsible for some of the greatest lines in “Casablanca.”
There’s a wonderful scene, and if you don’t know it off by heart, you really should. There’s a wonderful scene in “Casablanca” where he goes to speak to the Humphrey Bogart character. He wants to know why Humphrey Bogart came to “Casablanca.” And Humphrey Bogart, the very flip New Yorker, “I came for the waters.” And Conrad Veidt’s character says, “But there are no waters in Casablanca.” And he says, “I was misinformed.” And this is the scene at the end of the film where he discovers that Rick has become noble, and the leader of the resistance is escaping Casablanca, the Paul Henreid figure, and he tries to have the planes stopped. And of course he’s shot by Rick. So there the wonderful Conrad Veidt, who was such a hero, he actually died in LA. I think he stayed with his wife. She was his third wife. I think it was an incredibly happy marriage. He said he’d found his life partner.
So a man who went through so many things, and they used this story of a court Jew to try and show up anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism. And yet, tragically, and it’s something I’m going to talk about next time we meet before we get onto the Wertheimers, it’s going to be totally twisted by Goebbels. And he’s going to make out of it the most notorious anti-Semitic film in Germany. In fact, in many ways, more hateful than “The Eternal Jew,” because it was more popular. And that, of course, is “Jud Suss.” Can we see the last slide? There you see the last slide of “Jud Suss.” That is “Jud Suss” the Nazi version that was seen by 20 million people in Nazi-occupied Europe. So I will stop there. I’d like to thank you all very much. And let’s see, I think we’ve got quite a few questions. And a lot of people, Wendy, are saying wonderful things about your family. I think you should keep them.
Thank you, Trudy. I just want to just say thank you very, very much for the lovely words that you said about my dad. He really is an extraordinary human being. I have to say that myself.
Yes.
Unbelievable role model, was a fantastic father and husband. And I feel very blessed to be born into such a unique family. You know, I’ve got fantastic brother and sister as well. So thank you, you’re absolutely right. And you know, as a little girl, I remember, you know, we used to learn about, in the Scripture about sacrifices. And I used to go and steal the kosher meat, which my father used to schlep all the way from Potchefstroom back to Manzini. I remember it being a big U-Haul. So it was a big deal. So before we go on to questions, I just want to, first of all, say thank you very much for the presentation. And I also just want to remind our participants, I want to just read this, because we managed to get access to this webinar. “And please join us on January the 6th at 2:00 PM.” That’s New York time, 11:00 AM.
That’s in an hour. That’s in an hour, isn’t it?
That’s in an hour, yes. “For a special edition of ADL’s "Fighting Hate from the Home” webinar series as we discuss the shocking events that took place just one year ago. The country watched as an insurrection at our nation’s capital, fueled by violent conspiracy theories threatened our democracy. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Washington DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine will join ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Policy, Eileen Hershenov for an important conversation reflected on the events of last year’s insurrection, the scope of the threats posed by domestic extremism as we begin 2022, and what government officials and civil society can do to disrupt these threats going forward. We’ll share updates,“ et cetera, et cetera. So I’m not going to continue with that, but just to say all our participants have been sent, you’ve been sent an email. You’ve been sent a link where you can register. And if you would like to join, we’ve been given the privilege of having access to this. So Trudy, all right, I’m going to hand over to you. I’m going to say thank you very much for questions, and I’m going to be jumping off.
Okay, thanks darling.
And thanks everyone.
And have a wonderful, wonderful. Again, all the best to your father.
[Wendy] Thank you.
Have a wonderful, wonderful family day. You deserve it.
Thank you so much. Thanks, everybody, for joining.
God bless.
So just thank you to all of you who are sending congratulations. And, obviously, I’m sure we will send them all on to.
[Wendy] Thank you. Thank you very much. And, also, just to say thank you, all of you, for your birthday wishes. I will pass them onto my dad. And of course, always thank you to Judy for her hard work.
Oh yeah, in fact, Adele says, "My great-grandmother came from Shavl. And there’s a film of Natie’s career” that maybe we could show it one day, Wendy. But so many, a hundred, there’s wonderful, wonderful things saying, in fact, they’re mainly all about Natie.
Thank you.
And let me see if we’ve got any questions.
Q&A and Comments:
“Wendy’s father may also knew my husband’s grandfather, William, along with Frenkel family, the Nuroks owned Shavli’s two largest leather factories. This William ended up in court.” Yes, the role of the Jew is so interesting.
And this is from Ivan saying, “My grandfather came from Poswohl The families had their own synagogue in Joburg.” It’s lots of interesting stories. We’ll make sure-
Oh my gosh, we’ve got a whole story there. We have. We’ve got a whole different, yeah, we’ve got a different highway. We can go back, back to-
There’s so many wishes. This must be sent to you, Wendy, so many wonderful wishes from so many people. Then we’ve got a question.
Q: “Given the importance of the court Jew played in economic service of Europe, what did they do for the majority of Jews who lived as peasants?”
A: Careful, Rod. Jews, in the main, were not peasants. They couldn’t work the land. Jews tended to go into what I call the small service industries. Look, the bulk of Jews in the Habsburg Empire would actually have been in Galicia or in Eastern Hungary, where, if you think about the normal society, they would be the little shopkeepers. And a lot of them were dirt poor. They were peddlers. but they didn’t actually work the land, because they didn’t fit in the system. Jews didn’t fit in the system.
Q: “The portrait of Baron d'Aguilar makes him look like a caricature of Jew. What is the significance of the dead animal?”
A: I’ll have to check that with Patrick.
Q: “How did the Rothschild family get their networks up and running?”
A: How much time have you got? There’s a wonderful book on the Rothschilds by Niall Ferguson. And my colleague Sandra Meyers has lectured on them in the past. But I think the Rothschilds in another time, we should have a another session on them, because they are so important. Well, basically, they were also interlinked with many of the other families. When Nathan came to London, the richest man in England had a couple of daughters. I can’t remember his name now. I’m sure somebody online would, oh, Levy Barent Cohen, Levy Barent Cohen. One of his daughters married Moses Montefiore, the other one married Nathan Rothschild. The connections were all there. That’s the point. And Nathan learnt his trade with another one of the court Jew’s banks.
Oh, this is from Fay Sinai. “Kosher food was and still is flown to Namibia. My cousin is president of a fast diminishing Jewish congregation.
Q: Back in the 1700s, did they refer to themselves as court Jews?”
A: Oh no, not at all. We do.
Q: “Trudy, these names are absolutely fascinating. Are you not going to talk about earlier court Jews, Disraeli, Abarbanel?”
A: The problem is I have done this in the past, and once the net is up and running, once our web, web, what do we call it? And once the website is up and running, you can have them all. Yes, of course. I think that Jeremy has talked about Joseph, the biblical Joseph. Yeah, don’t get me on Disraeli. He is by far my favourite character. A court Jew is a title we give to a man who controls the finances of the state. Is Arnstein related to Fanny
Brice’s first husband, Nick? I think not, Arlene. I mean, he was a shyster, wasn’t he? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think he was a member of the Arnstein family. You know, you’ve got to remember where these names might come from. A lot of them come from villages or towns that they came from.
Q: “Would it be possible to make a kind of family tree of these interrelated families?”
A: That would be very interesting, Betty, if we could find someone who was prepared to do it. Somebody wants a project, I think it’s a great idea.
Q: “Did the Jews at the time support Napoleon financially?”
A: Depends which Jews you’re talking about. Some supported Napoleon, some of them supported the other side.
Comments about Mr. Jared Kushner.
“There was tobacco grown and produced in Russia, Ukraine, not just in the Americas.” Thank you, Lucy. Of course, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you. To put things in perspective, the richest merchant ever mentioned was about a man by the name of Joseph Fugger in Augsburg. Yes, of course the Jews never had a monopoly on money. I’m not suggesting that. But what I’m saying is they had high visibility profile. The story today is most Jews are seen as rich, but of course the majority of them are not. But it doesn’t matter. It’s about a stereotype. Yes, the picturesque little trains in Grunewald was where the Jews in Berlin were sent to the concentration camps.
“The people who lived in the beautiful homes near the station, their curtains closed so they could not see what was going on.”
Barbara, I’ve been there. It is one of the most heartbreaking places, because it is so very beautiful. And there is a memorial on one of the platforms. It is terrible. It’s like a leafy, beautiful suburb of Berlin. In London, we’d say it was like Hampstead. It’s one of the best places to live. It’s between Berlin and Wannsee, another beautiful place, recipe for death. “Casablanca,”
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” That’s the trouble with “Casablanca.” It’s full of quotes, isn’t it?
Oh this Jonathan, “I remember your box at Neuzenberg next to our family’s.”
Q: “Were the marriages between the court Jews arranged?”
A: Yes, of course, they were. Oh yes. Most Jewish marriages were arranged. In fact, all Jewish marriages were arranged at this period. Everybody’s marriage. You know, this is the point.
Oh Betty, “Wendy and her dad should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.” Oh that’s so lovely.
Glen is asking, “Your dad must have known Leo Franklin, my late wife’s uncle.” A lot of people saying very, very nice things. Sorry about my hand. What’s going on? “Happy birthday” so much.
“Conrad Veidt played the first year at the Canadian opening of Stratford.” That’s interesting, Marilyn.
Glen Kirshner, “My grandmother came from Shavl.” Yeah, I believe at one time it was ¾ Jewish.
Rose, “To 120, please.” I think, now, oh, there’s one more comment, then I think we better let you have a cup of coffee so that you can listen to the next lecture, which I think will be very important.
“Mozart’s Librettist was a Jew whose father had him converted, so was able to rise in society of the time.” Yeah. Mm, there’s a lot of interesting emails that I think will be very good to pass on to Natie of people who knew the family. So anyway, Judi, thank you as ever for sorting me out. And I think we should stop there, don’t you, Judi?
[Judi] Thank you, Trudy. I’m here, thank you, Trudy.
Yes. Okay, so hopefully you’ll all be online at seven o'clock. So again, happy birthday, Natie. And thank you all very much, bye.