When Jews Were Burglars and Slave Traders

[yankeedoodle]

When Jews Were Burglars and Slave Traders
A Study on the Jewish world in the 18th century reveals a bygone violent world

A pay-walled Haaretz article https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2022-02-22/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/when-all-the-burglars-were-jews-a-study-on-the-1700s-reveals-a-bygone-violent-world/0000017f-f1ef-d8a1-a5ff-f1ef76350000 that has been posted by The Ugly Truth here:  http://theuglytruth.xyz/the-ugly-truth-when-jews-were-burglars-and-slave-traders/

On the night of June 11, 1771, nine burglars armed with knives and guns broke into the farm of the Widow Hutchins in the village of Chelsea near London. At the Old Bailey court, she would testify that she heard the dog barking and called for her maidservants to see what was wrong.

...In a short space of time I heard a noise; I ran to see what was the matter; I found my maid Mary Hodgkin, with her cap off and some men using her extremely ill. ... I believe the doctor, that they call Levi Weil, was one of them... the other's name is Highham Lazarus; my fright was exceedingly great. ... One of them said cut her throat; another said, you 'Bish, if you don't hold your tongue I will cut your throat.' They took her purse and watch, killed one of the servants, and then fled...

What did this robbery, described in a new study by Prof. Shmuel Feiner of Bar-Ilan University, have to do with Jewish history? All the burglars were Jews – and they were part of 'a growing wave of Jewish crime,' Feiner says.

The following day they sold the stolen goods to another Jew, who like many Jews of that time, made his living buying and selling pilfered goods.

The government offered a reward for information leading to the capture of the robbers, and the Jewish communities, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi, also offered rewards. They hoped to capture the criminals who brought such shame upon the community, and in the end another Jew turned them in.

At the trial it emerged that the leaders of the gang were the brothers Asher and Levi Weil. They and two others were condemned to death by hanging. The four men prayed at the foot of the gallows.

How does this story help us understand the history of the Jewish world in the 18th century?

'Nowadays people are no longer writing history that lauds and praises but rather history that's critical and full. Jews were human beings and didn't just stay home and study,' Feiner says, explaining how Jewish criminals seeped into his research of the 18th century. The second volume of this effort was recently published, 'A New Age, Eighteenth Century European Jewry, 1750-1800.'

A different kind of individualism

Feiner describes the 18th century as the first century of the modern age for the Jews, a time full of innovations, struggles and changing values as the world transformed. This period can be seen as the crucible of the modern Jewish world, Feiner says.

The list includes the Hasidic movement versus the Haskalah – the Jewish Enlightenment – and Shabtai Zvi's mysticism versus the rabbinic hegemony, emancipation, integration and secularization. The stories of the Jewish criminals can teach about the complexity of Jewish society at the start of the modern era, the depth of the social and cultural gaps and 'the contrasts between a refined lifestyle and a rough and violent underworld,' Feiner says.

According to the newspapers of the period, the robbery of the Chelsea widow gave credence to the image of Jews as hardcore criminals. 'For years this was an excuse for popular harassment,' Feiner says. 'Go to Chelsea!' became a common taunt against Jews – or even a signal to attack.

The leaders of the Jewish community tried to disassociate themselves from members who broke the law. 'They saw them as a blot that didn't represent them all, but the Jewish leaders' disassociation from their burglar brethren didn't ease the hostility,' Feiner says.

According to Feiner, this case also tests the limits of Jewish solidarity with the community's problem members. It also shows how far 'Jewish individualism' had gone, even by means of daring crime.

The Jewish burglars from London didn't operate in a vacuum. In 1763, a gang of Jewish robbers attacked a flour mill in a village in Poland, killed seven people and set the place on fire. In the Netherlands, a Jewish family – Jacob Moises and his wife, son and daughters – was described as a leading gang. In Belgium, Dina Jacob belonged to a crime family, and in testimony in 1797 she pointed the finger at dozens of members of 'the Jewish gang' that broke into isolated farms and homes.

In Germany, too, Jews made negative headlines. In 1758, a book based on court documents explored the whole phenomenon: Jewish thieves and murderers, as well as the robber gangs.

The list includes about 300 Jewish criminals who operated in mid-18th-century Germany. Most of them were family men, some of them as old as 70, and each with his own specialty. Thus we learn of the thief Moshe, the housebreaker Mendel, the watch thief Yona, the mail robber Shmuel and the grocery store robber Yozl. There's also Shimon, who was suspected of holding stolen money.

'Possibly I will sell my Negro slave girl'

How did these Jews end up in the world of crime? 'Because of the laws and restrictions that limited their residence permits and possibilities to earn a living, Jews from the lower classes lived a vagrant life as beggars and criminals,' Feiner says. 'It's impossible to write a biography of the 18th century without them.'

A basically antisemitic explanation was provided by their contemporaries. Feiner explains it thus: 'Their belief that the whole world belongs, by virtue of divine choice, to the seed of Abraham justifies stealing from the gentiles, so it's no wonder that only Christians are the victims of their crimes.'

Sex crimes can also be found in Feiner's study, including among the Torah elite. In 1770, a Torah scholar had sexual relations with his landlady – and later married her daughter. 'The concern about the licentiousness here was great,' Feiner says and quotes one rabbi's deliberations on this issue.

'And especially that he persisted in sin for three straight years ... and certainly the times he came to her cannot be numbered,' the rabbi wrote, adding that the 'diligent scholar' who 'failed with a married woman' had to reveal to the woman's husband that his wife had 'whored.' But he wasn't required to admit that he slept with her.

As Feiner puts it, 'There's no need to say that it was unthinkable to reveal to the young woman, whom he had just married, that her husband had been her mother's lover for a long time.'

Another chapter in the book documents the Jews who emigrated to America from Europe to seek wealth and happiness. Some of them quickly forgot their earlier life as a persecuted minority, like Meir Ben Yosef, who immigrated from Germany. Feiner quotes a letter in Yiddish that Ben Yosef sent from Pennsylvania to a friend in 1762. He shares his daily concerns:

'Possibly I will resell my Negro slave girl at a profit. ... I don't want to sell her for less than 110 pounds ... so if a boat comes with Negroes ... please let me know because I can't manage without a maidservant.' He complained that 'the slave I have now ... is drunk all day, as much as she can get hold of. And second, she's nasty, so my wife can't tell her anything. She's afraid of her.'

Feiner, 67, heads the Historical Society of Israel. His previous books explored the Haskalah and the roots of secularization. 'The distinction that exists in Israel between Jewish history and world history is entirely artificial,' he says. 'There is integration between them, it's a combined history, the Jews are a part of history. They're soldiers, merchants, criminals.'

[abduLMaria]

Jews are still burglars and slave traders.

But now the slaves live in Suburbia and the chain that ties them down is a big mortgage - paid to the Usurers that print the money.

That's a little simplistic but perhaps the point is obvious.