In 1614, one thousand three hundred eighty Jews – the entire Jewish community of Frankfurt, including its rav, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, author of the Shlah (Shnei Luchos HaBris) – were expelled from the city after being pillaged by a mob. After thirteen hours of plunder and destruction, the devastated Jewish victims were told by the Town Council to leave for good as it could not afford them protection. A year and a half later, however, on the Twentieth of Adar, the Jews of Frankfurt were invited to return to the city with great honor, and have celebrated “Purim Vincenz” or “Purim Fettmilch” on this date for several centuries thereafter.
Purim Vinz
Another Purim, less than a week later?
Emperor Matthias, son of Maximillian II and grandson of Emperor Charles V through his mother Maria, was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Frankfurt in 1612. At the time of his coronation, Vincent Fettmilch, a Calvinist and rabid anti-Semite, became a ringleader and head of Frankfurt’s bakers’ guild. (A guild was a medieval association composed of merchants or artisans, with the goals of maintaining strict standards for its members and of protecting their interests. It constituted a local governing body.) In the early seventeenth century, tensions rose between the members of the guilds and the Lutherans who dominated Frankfurt’s city council, leading to substantial unrest.[1]
The guilds demanded more control regarding fiscal policies and requested that the Jewish community’s rights be restricted. They also requested a reduction in grain prices, and that the high rates charged by the Jewish money lenders be slashed by 50 percent.[2]
In late 1613, the city council, working towards a compromise, reached an agreement with Vincent Fettmilch and his supporters, granting the guilds increased power and rights. It was soon revealed, however, that the city was in terrible debt and the city council had misappropriated taxes that had been collected from the Jews. Fettmilch declared the city council deposed and seized the city gates, and the Fettmilch Rebellion, named for its leader, ensued.
Part of the populace, mainly craftsmen, revolted against the city council. Merchants and lawyers also supported Fettmilch, who hoped that the expulsion of the Jews would free of them of their debts to Jewish moneylenders. The Emperor, who had originally remained neutral in this dispute, demanded a reinstatement of the city council. He threatened anyone who opposed him with an imperial interdiction, which would strip the offender of all rights.
Once the rebellious craftsmen learned of the imperial interdiction, they took to the streets in protest. The mob directed its anger against the weakest party in the dispute, the Jews. On August 22, 1614, after several hours of fighting at the barricades, the mob stormed the gates of the Judengasse, which were defended by local Jews.
In anticipation of the angry mob, the Jews hid the women, aged, and children in the Jewish cemetery, situated at the farthest end of the street. The male Jews then took up arms and fought bravely. Several persons were wounded, and two Jews and one Christian were killed. The Jews were overpowered, and they ran to the cemetery to protect their families. Fettmilch and his men plundered Jewish dwellings and burned everything that they could not carry away. The damage caused by this riot was estimated at 176,919 florins. The synagogue, including the Torah scrolls, was destroyed, and the cemetery was desecrated.[3]
The emperor had to ask the authorities in neighboring Mainz and Darmstadt to restore order.
Many Jews, grateful that their lives were saved, ultimately found refuge in the surrounding communities, particularly in Hanau, Höchst, and Offenbach.[4]
The Emperor Strikes Back
Vincent Fettmilch is Punished
On September 28, 1614, the Emperor issued an indictment against Fettmilch and his followers. About two months later on November 27, Fettmilch was arrested. He and thirty-eight others were accused of disobedience and rebellion against the Emperor, and charged for their persecution of Jews.
On February 28, 1616, Fettmilch and his cohorts were executed on Frankfurt’s Rossmarkt (Horse Market) square. As was customarily done to the Emperor’s enemies in those times, their heads were prominently displayed on iron pikes.
The story of Vincent Fettmilch’s crimes and of his punishment were inscribed in German and Latin on a column erected on the site of his house.
The Jews were not brought back until February 1616, when their street was placed under the protection of the Emperor and the Empire, as announced in a notice affixed to each of the three gates.
Purim is Declared
Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nörlingen Hahn, dayan of Frankfurt and author of Yosef Ometz, describes the events:[5]
“We declared a fast for the 27th of Elul, since on this day we were expelled from our community by the rebels. They deliberated whether to kill us or to drive us out, and they decided to spare our lives but to expel us from the city. The rebels robbed us of all our possessions and destroyed anything that remained. In our street, they put to the torch countless holy books they had found in our homes and in the shul; they did not even respect the sanctity of our sifrei Torah, because of our sins…
“The unfortunate refugees found shelter in the neighboring towns, where they received a friendly welcome. Finding strength in their faith in Hashem’s compassion and in the knowledge of their innocence, they looked forward to better times. Before long, they were permitted to enter their hometown on a temporary basis, particularly at the time of the fair in August 1615…
“On 20 Adar, the Jews who had fled were led back into Frankfurt by Imperial soldiers. The king called upon the Jews of Frankfurt to return to their homes with full honors, accompanied by a military band and with a reception by the local authorities“
“And on February 28, 1616, the civil rights of the returnees were reinstated in a solemn ceremony.
We declared the 20th of Adar as a day of feasting to be called Purim Vincenz [named after Vincent Fettmilch] in Yisrael, consistent with the establishment of the Purim festival after the days of battles and wonders [in the days of Mordechai and Esther]. Indeed, miracles did happen to us on this day, for the commissioners of the Dukes of Mainz and Darmstadt — may Hashem exalt their glory — escorted us into our streets with full honors, accompanied by a large battalion of soldiers in battle dress, bearing flags and banners. They were led by a marching band with drums and trombones…
“The entire population, seeing the honor accorded us by the commissioners, stared with open-mouthed amazement; no one made a derogatory remark against us. On the contrary — they helped us remove the rubble that had accumulated near the gate of our street. This was necessary in order to clear a path for the two chariots, one of which bore the imperial standard — the one with the large eagle, and the other one carried my father-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Breitingen, the gabbai of the Jewish community, who suffered from gout and was unable to walk. May Hashem grant us that we live to see the fulfillment of the prophecy, ‘The glory of this latter House shall be greater than the former one’ (Chaggai 2:9).”
A stone imperial eagle was added above the gates to the Judengasse, with an inscription stating “Protected by the Roman Imperial Majesty and the Holy Empire.”[6]Although promised compensation for their losses, the Jews never received it.
The story of the expulsion of Frankfurt’s Jews and their dramatic return to the city was recorded in a special Hebrew/Yiddish poem entitled “Megillas Vinz,” or “Megillah of Vincenz,” written by Rabbi Elchanan ben Avraham Ha’len.[7] Purim Vinz was celebrated from that year on. The community adhered to an established takanah that Tachanun is not recited on the 20th of Adar and an avel does not lead the tefillos. They also proclaimed a special fast and penitence to be conducted on the 27th of Elul, with special selichos commemorating the event.[8]
The Chasam Sofer, who was born in Frankfurt in 1762, celebrated the Purim Vinz every year, even when he lived in Pressburg. Nevertheless, he was stringent on himself and made a siyum on a sefer each year, lest his celebration with a seudah be in vain.[9]
Communal Regrowth
By 1618 there were 370 Jewish families living in 195 houses in Frankfurt. With the Jewish community’s return to Frankfurt, a new epoch began. Although the Jews were still barred from acquiring real estate and were not permitted to sell goods, they were able to continue loaning money. The rate of interest, which formerly had reached as high as 24 percent, was now reduced to 8 percent. As unredeemed pledges were sold, traffic in second-hand goods rose. The Jews were also forbidden to deal in spices, provisions, weapons, cloth, and (from 1634 on) grain. But in spite of these interdictions, their commerce gradually increased.
During the Thirty Years’ War, the Jews fared no worse than their neighbors. In 1694 there were 415 Jewish families in Frankfurt. Of these, 109 persons were engaged as moneylenders and dealers in second-hand goods; 106 dealt in dry goods, clothes, and trimmings; twenty-four in spices and provisions; nine retailed wine and beer; three were innkeepers; and two had restaurants. Besides these there were the communal officials.[10]
For almost three hundred years the community grew. By 1933 there were more than 25,000 Jews in Frankfurt which number was reduced to 10,000 only seven years later as a result of emigration. Eventually it became Judenrein due to deportations to concentration camps.
Purim Vinz … In Belgium!
The minhag of Purim Vinz continued to offer chizuk to Frankfurt’s Jews through the centuries — and later, even to Jews in other locales.
Prior to the German onslaught in 1940, many thousands of Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany had escaped over the border from France to Belgium. When the Germans attacked, the Jewish community was very much restricted in its observance of Jewish life, including prohibitions on shechitah and publishing Jewish newspapers and other Jewish items. Even a Jewish calendar could not be printed, forcing the Jews to use calendars that had been published before the German attack. In the Jewish year of 5741 (1940-1941), however, a calendar for the first half of the Jewish year appeared in Brussels.
The rabbi who published this calendar was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kirschbaum, a native of Krakow who served as a rabbi in Galicia and was appointed dayan in Frankfurt in 1927. In 1936, the Germans removed Rabbi Yaakov Hoffman from his post as rav of Frankfurt. Rabbi Kirschbaum became the rav of Frankfurt, and eventually of the neighboring cities whose rabbis had left their posts.
Rabbi Kirschbaum reached Belgium several weeks before World War II broke , and he served as the as rabbi of the Ahavas Shalom shul in Brussels.
Rabbi Shmuel Hubner, a rabbi from Vienna who had escaped to Brussels, brought a copy of Rabbi Kirschbaum’s one-page calendar with him to New York. As far as Rabbi Hubner was aware, Rabbi Kirschbaum published this calendar without receiving permission from the Germans, hoping that the they would not notice or catch him in the act. On the one-page calendar are printed the weekly times for hadlakas neiros and Motzaei Shabbos. The address of the mikveh in the city is also listed. Rabbi Kirschbaum had explained to Rabbi Hubner that he included that item in the calendar to notify the public that the mikveh was indeed still open.
Interestingly, on this one-page calendar, next to the date on the 20th of Adar is printed “Purim of Frankfurt Vincenz”!
Why would a Brussels Jewish calendar contain the date of the Purim of Frankfurt Vincenz? Even if we assume that Rabbi Kirschbaum continued to celebrate the Fettmilch Purim in Belgium, and that there were perhaps some other Jews from Frankfurt who celebrated this historical Purim, why would he include the Purim that was specific to Frankfurt in a calendar intended for all of Belgian Jewry?
Perhaps Rabbi Kirschbaum did so to remind the Jews of Brussels that just like the Jews of Frankfurt were expelled and suffered terrible hardship, but soon returned to Frankfurt and celebrated, there would come a time soon when the Jews who were suffering under the Nazis would celebrate their salvation, too.[11]
Frankfurt’s Famous Personalities
Frankfurt became associated with leading Torah scholars, and its yeshivos attracted large numbers of students. Rabbi Sheftel Horowitz, the son of the Shelah and author of the kabbalistic work, Shefa Tal, served as a rabbi in Frankfurt.[12]
Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Kaidanover, author of Bircas HaZevach on Kodshim, came to Frankfurt after serving as rabbi in several towns, including Nikolsburg and Furst. He had escaped Vilna during the 1648 Chmielnicki massacres, but his two young daughters were murdered and his huge library and manuscripts destroyed.[13]
Rabbi Naphtali Katz, author of Smichas Chachamim and a descendant of the Maharal, was a kabbalist who as a youth had been enslaved by the Tartars. After fleeing from captivity, he officiated as rav in Posen before being called to Frankfurt. A fire that broke out in his house in 1711 spread and consumed the entire Jewish quarter. Accused of not containing the fire, Rabbi Katz was thrown into jail. He was eventually released but left the city.[14]
Rabbi Avraham Broda founded a yeshivah in Frankfurt, which he headed in 1713. Many of his works appeared posthumously, most famously Eshel Avraham, on Pesachim.[15]
Rabbi The Pnei Yehoshua, Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, whose mother-in-law, wife, and child were killed in a gunpowder explosion in Lemberg, became chief rabbi of Frankfurt in 1740 after having served as rabbi of Metz for seven years.[16]
Horowitz, author of Hafla’ah and brother of Reb Shmuel Shmelka of Nikolsburg, became rav of Frankfurt after its rabbinical court had vowed not to hire any rabbi who had written a responsum validating a particular divorce. Although the Baal Hafla’ah had written such a responsum, a bottle of ink accidentally spilled over it. As a result, he never published it, and therefore was qualified for the position.[17]
Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch, (1808-1888) author of commentaries on the Torah, siddur, and Tehillim, as well as the Nineteen Letters and Chorev on taamei hamitzvos, served as spiritual leader of the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft in Frankfurt from 1851 until his death in 1888.[18]
Moshe Meir ben Anschel Rothschild and his five sons, founders and leaders of banks throughout Europe and regarded as the wealthiest people in the world at that time, were all born in Frankfurt.
[1] The World That Was Ashkenaz: The Legacy of German Jewry 843-1945, by Rabbi A. Leib Scheinbaum. Published by The Living Memorial, a project of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, 2010; pp. 56-57.
[2] The economic background leading to the Fettmilch uprising is described in Frankfurt by A. Freiman and F. Kracauer (translated by Bertha Szold Levin), Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia; pp. 73-107. See Phillip Goodman, The Purim Anthology, JPS, 1988, p. 514. JPS is Jewish Publication Society non-denominational. Should be considered kosher.
[3] Infobank Judengasse, “Fettmilch Uprising,” website of Jewish Museum of Frankfurt.
[4] An English translation of the entry “Frankfurter Judengasse” in Wikipedia.
[5] A new edition of the Hebrew Yosef Ometz, which includes dinim and minhagim (especially those of Frankfurt), was recently republished in Jerusalem. See pp. 213 and 242 in the new edition. This English translation of the dayan’s report is reprinted in Glimpses of Jewish Frankfurt by Rabbi Y. Alfasi, CIS publishers, Lakewood, NJ, 1993.
[6] “Purim Fettmilch” by David Phillipson, in The Purim Anthology, edited by Phillip Goodman, JPS, 1988; p. 24.
[7] Turmoil, Trauma, and Triumph: The Fettmilch Uprising in Frankfurt am Main According to Megillas Vintz. New York & Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001 (Judaism and Society/Judentum und Umwelt).[10] Entry “Frankfort on the Main” By Richard Gottheil, A. Freimann, Joseph Jacobs and M. Seligsohn in Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)[13] Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) entry “Kaidanover, Aaron Samuel ben Israel,” by Gotthard Deutsch and S. Mannheimer.[16] See introduction (Hakdamah) to Sefer Pnei Yehoshua; also Sefer Melitzei Esh, 14 Shvat, se’if 145.
[8] Sefer HaMoadim, Parashat Moadei Yisrael Lukat VeNeerach al yad Dr. Yom Tov Levinsky Hotzaat Agudat Oneg Shabbat(Ohel Shem) BeTel Aviv al Yedei Dvir (1963) p.319.
[9] Minhagei Rabboseinu Vehalichoseihem, Rabbeinu HeChasam Sofer, Lukat Ve’Neeracha (Delete a) al yad Akiva Menachem Sofer, Tishrei 5770, p. 202.
[10] Entry “Frankfort on the Main” By Richard Gottheil, A. Freimann, Joseph Jacobs and M. Seligsohn in Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)
[11] Tovia Preschel, “Luach Yehudi Miyemei HaShoah Bevelgiah,” Hadoar, 7 Marcheshvan, 5724. This article was reprinted in Sefer Mei’Achsaniah Shel Torah, (pp. 268-271) published in Brooklyn 5769, by Rabbi Moshe Hubner, grandson of aforementioned Rabbi Shmuel Hubner.
[12] Rabbanei Frankfurt, Mosad Harav Kook,Yerushalayim, 1972; Chapter 9. This book written in German by Rabbi Dr. Marcus Horovitz and was translated into Hebrew by Dr. Yehoshua Amir
[13] Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) entry “Kaidanover, Aaron Samuel ben Israel,” by Gotthard Deutsch and S. Mannheimer.
[14] Chapter 15, Rabbanei Frankfurt; Melitzei Esh, 24 Teves
[15] Rabbanei Frankfurt, p. 82
[16] See introduction (Hakdamah) to Sefer Pnei Yehoshua; also Sefer Melitzei Esh, 14 Shvat, se’if 145.
[17] See chapter 23 of Rabbanei Frankfurt; Melitzei Esh, 4 Tamuz, se’if 261. Shem HaGedolim Hechadash by Aaron Walden.
[18] For a wonderful comprehensive biography see Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: Architect of Torah Judaism for the Modern World by Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Klugman, published by ArtScroll, Brooklyn, NY, 1996.
By Pearl Herzog
Kulmus Mishpacha