The Jews in a Polish Private Town: The Case of Opatw in the Eighteenth Century (Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies)

About this book

Winner of the Montreal Jewish Public Librarys J. I. Segal Prize Originally published in 1991. In the eighteenth century more than half of the worlds Jewish population lived in Polish private villages and towns owned by magnate-aristocrats. Furthermore roughly half of Polands entire urban population was Jewish. Thus the study of Jews in private Polish towns is central to both Jewish history and to the history of Poland-Lithuania. The Jews in a Polish Private Town seeks to investigate the social economic and political history of Jews in Opatw a private Polish town in the context of an increasing power and influence of private towns at the expense of the Polish crown and gentry in the eighteenth century. Hundert recovers an important community from historical obscurity by providing a balanced perspective on the Jewish experience in the Polish Commonwealth and by describing the special dimensions of Jewish life in a private town.