Crossing Barriers – Growing Barriers. Jews in Late Medieval Warsaw

Abstract

The article deals with the question of the existence of the Jewish community and the barriers between Jews and non-Jews in the Old Warsaw from the 1420s to the 1520s. The contact points and areas of the two communities, as well as the tools used to communicate between them, are distinguished. Firstly, Jewish property in the space of Old Warsaw, as well as neighbouring and economic contacts, are noticed. Then, the presence of Jews both from Warsaw and other towns and regions in court sessions is analysed. Local and Lithuanian or Volhynian Jews appeared in the Old Warsaw town hall. However, the most important place for official meetings of Warsaw Jews with the Christian community was the court for nobles. It is visible that the first half of the fifteenth century was a unique period with a far-reaching agreement between the Christian inhabitants of Warsaw and its surroundings and the members of the local Jewish community. Within the linguistic area, the communication tools were Polish and German, while Latin, possibly familiar to some Jews, was not a significant communication barrier. Hebrew had its position in the bureaucratic system as well. The protection of the local duke secured a relatively harmonious economic cooperation, which was fostered by the then economic situation of Mazovia. The mid-fifteenth century brought a violent turn, which was influenced by the changes in the political and economic situation, as well as the religious atmosphere. Warsaw burghers started to perceive the Jews as competition, as ‘others’, and began to approach them with growing hostility.