The Jews in a Polish Private Town: The Case of Opatów in the Eighteenth Century

by Gershon David Hundert

Overview

Winner of the Montreal Jewish Public Library's J. I. Segal Prize

Originally 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 Opatów, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421436272
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2019
Series:	Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	262
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gershon D. Hundert is the Leanor Segal Professor of Jewish Studies at McGill University. He specializes in Jewish history and early modern Polish history.

Table of Contents

Figure, 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

Editorial Reviews

The 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 Review

From the Publisher

The 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 Review