§1.2 - Royal Privileges

Summary

As in other medieval Jewish communities, communal self-government in the Crown of Aragon was subject to royal consent. For the Jews, however, the qehilah drew its power from Jewish sovereignty in antiquity and from its members’ readiness to accept its jurisdiction. Although the rabbinic leaders of Catalan and Aragonese Jewry considered the qehilah to be the rightful and only heir of ancient Jewish sovereignty, they were nevertheless conscious of the political reality which enabled the Jews to live within the framework of their communities in accordance with Jewish law and lore. With sound political insight and understanding, Adret recognized that in various fields the qehilah acted with ‘government permission’ as dictated by the conditions and necessities of the time, and not so much by the laws of the Torah. Its jurisdiction then came from ‘the power of the kingdom'. This ‘government permission’ was included among the privileges that the king granted to the communities in return for a handsome payment. These privileges were necessary to regulate the life and position of a group that was not integrated in feudal Christian society.

In the confederal Crown of Aragon there was no central inter-communal organization vested with sufficient authority to represent all the Jews of the realm before the monarch. Regional or local inter-communal organizations which developed during this period did not significantly restrict the independence of the individual community. Consequently, most privileges were addressed to the community, which was the basic framework of Jewish self-government.

THE REIGN OF JAIME I

Jaime I pursued his predecessors’ policy of encouraging Jewish settlement in the realm and of protecting Jewish communities throughout his territories, which were then in the process of expansion. During his reign the Reconquista was renewed with additional vigour. To Aragon-Catalonia and the royal domains in Roussillon and Languedoc were added vast territories in Valencia in the south and in the Balearic islands in the east. In addition to the existing Jewish population in these conquered territories, the king thought it expedient to encourage Jews, both his subjects and foreigners, to settle there. The Jewish policy of Jaime I, who ruled for sixty-three years (1213-76), determined the Jews’ status for a long time to come.