3 - The Fate of Jewish Communal Property

Summary

LAND AND BUILDINGS

THE FIRST QUESTION to address is what Jewish communal property was: how it should be defined, how it was acquired, and in what ways it was developed. For before building synagogues and houses of study on land either purchased by themselves or granted them by various rulers, before communal institutions arose, and before it was determined what area could be used as a cemetery, the Jews had to establish a community and acquire the ability to create and maintain these institutions. At the origin of all these activities were the privileges or fueros they received from the Crown or the local nobility, either clerical or lay. We shall not find clear evidence regarding every fuero granted in every city, although the fueros are to be regarded as the primary basis of relations between the residents and rulers. Nor do all the privileges clearly specify the land grants for the construction of synagogues and the location of cemeteries; occasionally they speak of quarters in a city or of its citadel.

Evidence regarding the Crown's approach to the land upon which the Jews dwelt in their neighbourhoods can be found in a relatively late document. This was a response to the saddlers of the town of Medina del Campo, issued on 6 November 1495. The saddlers had been evicted from their workshops and homes in the San Francisco quarter and transferred to dwellings in part of the former Jewish quarter. Anyone building a house was required to make an annual payment of half a silver real to the mayordomo of the municipality. Fernán Pérez de Meneses, the judge and receiver of Jewish property in the area of Salamanca and the abadía of Medina del Campo, quarrelled with the saddlers, claiming that the land on which the former Jewish neighbourhood stood was Crown land, so payment was due to the Crown. The saddlers were represented by the town council and its leaders, for it was clear to all that the issue concerned not just those craftsmen but rather the interests of the entire municipality. In its decision the royal council stated the Crown's policy that land formerly occupied by Jewish residences should be transferred to the city and town councils for their benefit. This pragmatic line guided the Crown and the chief government administrators, both central and local, with respect to Jewish property, land, and buildings.