A Legacy of Integration: Polish Jews’ Relations with Their Neighbors in the Lublin Castle Court Records, 1586–1614

Abstract

This dissertation examines the relations between Jews in the Polish city of Lublin and their neighbors at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century through the lens of the records of the Lublin castle court. The castle court had jurisdiction over cases for local noble defendants and over the land surrounding the castle, called Podzamcze. The Lublin Jewish community lived in Podzamcze, outside of the royal city of Lublin itself, which meant they also visited the castle court in matters involving real estate. Using Moses Doctorowicz, the wealthy leader of the Lublin Jewish community from 1586 to 1614, as an illustrative example, this dissertation argues that Lublin Jews—particularly wealthy ones—were integrated into the society of early modern Poland. The first chapter, on the Lublin Jewish community, argues that part of Jewish integration was how their government (the kahal) and court system functioned as part of the administrative apparatus of the Polish state. The second chapter considers the relations between Lublin Jews and burghers in Lublin and Podzamcze, who negotiated shared urban space through formal agreements and turned to the Lublin starosta, a royal official representing the Polish King in Lublin who presided over the Lublin castle, and the castle court under his auspices when disputes arose. The third chapter examines Jews’ relations with nobles, which were marked with cooperation and, due to the nature of the castle court as a court for noble defendants, instances of violence. The picture of Jewish–noble violence is incomplete given the lack of surviving records from Lublin kahal courts or from the court of the Lublin podwojewoda, the competent court for Jews sued by Gentiles. Jews turning to the Lublin castle court to seek recourse for violence at the hands of nobles showed not only their confidence in the institution to resolve disputes, but also their trust in the nobles who ran the court, including the starosta and the judge. The final chapter, on Jews’ relations with the Lublin starosta and his court, demonstrates that the close relationship between Lublin Jews and the starosta, which led to their receiving the general Jewish privilege in 1523, continued through the turn of the century. This closeness was reflected in terms of communal trust in the ability of the Lublin starosta to advocate for their rights and in one-to-one business transactions with the starosta and employees of the castle court, some of whom lived alongside Jews in Podzamcze itself. Continuing a line of inquiry into Jews in early modern Polish royal cities through the lens of archival sources that was pioneered in the late nineteenth century and rose to prominence in interwar Poland, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of contemporary scholarship about Jewish integration in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and demonstrates the utility of castle court records in understanding Jewish history in cities for which Jewish communal sources have not survived.