1 - Jews and Christians in Early Modern Poland–Lithuania

Summary

When the gentiles had greatly oppressed the exiled Jews, and the Divine Presence saw that there was no limit and no end to the oppression and that the handful of Jews might, God forbid, go under, the Presence came before the Lord of the Universe to lay the grievance before Him, and said to Him as follows: ‘How long is this going to last? When You sent the dove out of the ark at the time of the flood, You gave it an olive branch so that it might have a support for its feet on the water, and yet it was unable to bear the water of the flood and returned to the ark; whereas my children You have sent out of the ark into a flood, and have provided nothing for a support where they may rest their feet in their exile.’ Thereupon God took a piece of Erets Yisrael, which he had hidden away in the heavens at the time when the Temple was destroyed, and sent it down upon the earth and said: ‘Be My resting place for My children in their exile.’ That is why it is called Poland (Polin), from the Hebrew poh lin, which means: ‘Here shalt thou lodge’ in the exile.

Sholem Asch, Kidush hashem, 1919

What does this cunning race of serpents do here?

It greedily garners illegal profits

And oppresses the poor with unjust usury.

A worm does not destroy an oak in one fell swoop,

But eats it away slowly so that nothing is left but dust;

So too does rust consume unyielding iron,

The moth devour the cloth and the leech the human body.

Just so does the wandering Jew with his lawless arts

Bury his claws deep in the body of society,

Eats up and digests our riches

And takes possession of all the wealth of our country.

Sebastian Fabian Klonowic, Roxolania, 1584

THE EMERGENCE OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF POLAND–LITHUANIA

THE EMERGENCE of the Jewish community of Poland–Lithuania as the largest in the world was the result of the establishment of a new geography of the Jewish world which started at the end of the thirteenth century.