Page "Landesrabbiner" Paragraph 1

The transfer of the Jews from the status of imperial to that of territorial subjects, provided by the charter of Frederick II.

of Austria ( 1244 ) and recognized by Emperor Charles IV.

in his Golden bull ( 1356 ), as well as their very frequent expulsion from the large cities in the 15th and 16th centuries, scattered the Jews in small communities.

These were without protection against the arbitrary action of petty tyrants ; and they caused the rulers considerable inconvenience owing to constant litigation concerning encroachments on the rights of Jews living under their protection.

Therefore the Jews of a given territory organized themselves into an association which elected an advocate (" Shtadlan ") for the protection of their interests.

Such an official was recognized by the government as the legal representative of the Jews, whose duty it was to see that the taxes imposed on the Jews as a body were promptly paid, that the laws against usury were obeyed, and who in turn was given jurisdiction in civil cases.

This jurisdiction, which he exercised either personally if a scholar or through his deputy if not one, gave the Landesrabbiner an authority within the community.

Inasmuch as the Jews from the sixteenth century lived almost exclusively in small communities and could not maintain a rabbi or a rabbinical court ( which consisted of three members in every settlement ), several communities in a district combined to do so.

To this condition of things may be attributed the real creation of the office of Landesrabbiner, the former attempts to appoint a chief rabbi over all the Jews of a country — e. g., in Germany by Emperor Rupert in 1407, and in Spain, France, and Portugal, partly in the 14th, partly in the 15th, century — having been mostly abortive, and at all events merely fiscal measures designed for the purpose of tax-collecting ( see Heinrich Grätz, " Gesch.

" viii.

8, 102, et passim ; Scherer, " Rechtsverhältnisse der Juden ", p. 258 ; Bishop of the Jews ; Hochmeister ).

The first Landesrabbiner of whom there is authentic record is Judah Löw ben Bezaleel, of whom his contemporary David Gans says that he was for 20 years ( 1553 – 73 ) the spiritual head (" ab bet din ") of all the Jewish congregations in the province of Moravia (" Ẓemaḥ Dawid ", year 5352 ).