JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

of the community were learned and righteous. Considering
the tax paid, the community remained small in the 15th century.
Following the edict ordering Jews and Christians to live
in separate quarters, Ferdinand and Isabella gave instructions
in 1483 that the alcabalá (“indirect taxes”) should not be collected
from houses owned by Christians which were situated
in the new Jewish quarter. In May 1492 the Jews of Dueñas
complained that they would not be able to leave the city on
the date fixed by the decree of expulsion, as they were being
hindered in selling their possessions and collecting their debts
and the townspeople kept presenting them with claims dating
back for generations.
The Jewish quarter was near the castle.
Bibliography: Baer, Urkunden, index; Suárez Fernández,
Documentos, index; León Tello, in: Instituto Tello Téllez de Meneses,
25 (1966), index. Add. Bibliography: J.M. Lizoain Garrido (ed.),
Documentación del Monasterio de las Huelgas de Burgos (1985).
[Haim Beinart / Yom Tov Assis (2nd ed.)]
DUENNER, JOSEPH ẒEVI HIRSCH (1833–1911), rabbi and
talmudist. Duenner was born in Cracow. He studied in the
yeshivah there and subsequently at the University of Bonn. In
1862 Duenner was appointed director of the rabbinical seminary
in Amsterdam and in 1874 chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi
community there. Regarded as the spiritual leader of Orthodox
Jewry in Holland, Duenner nevertheless combined traditional
learning with a critico-historical approach. The results
of his researches and his new interpretations were published
as glosses to 19 tractates of the Talmud (1896–1929). His main
work is Die Theorien ueber Wesen und Ursprung der Tosephta
(1874). Duenner became a supporter of the early movement
for settlement in Ereẓ Israel in consequence of his contacts
with Moses *Hess while studying in Bonn. He later became a
leader of the *Mizrachi party.
Bibliography: B. de Vries, in: Shai li-Yshayahu… Wolfsberg
(1955), 247–83; idem, in: L. Jung (ed.), Guardians of our Heritage
(1958), 337–44; idem, in: L. Jung (ed.), Men of the Spirit (1964),
624–44; EẓD, 1 (1958), 652–5.
[Jacob S. Levinger]
DUEREN, city near Aachen, Germany. Jews from Dueren
are mentioned in 13th-century records. In 1238 Anselm of Dueren
and his wife, Jutta, acquired some property in the Jewish
quarter of Cologne. In 1241 the Jews of Dueren paid ten marks
imperial tax. Judah of Dueren was involved in a famous controversy
over a marriage mentioned in a responsum of Meir
b. Baruch of Rothenburg. During the second half of the 13th
century Isaac ben Meir *Dueren lived in the city.
The community was annihilated during the Black Death
(1348–49), and was not reconstituted until the 19th century. The
modern community, which had its own elementary school,
numbered 252 in 1880, 268 in 1905, and 358 in 1933, but was
reduced to 184 in 1939. During Kristallnacht (November 10,
1938) the synagogue and community center were burned down
by the Nazis. One hundred Jewish men from Dueren were in-
dueren, isaac ben meir
terned in Buchenwald. In July 1941 the remaining Jews were
deported to the death camps. After the war, 15 Jews returned
there, but subsequently left, and Jewish community life was
not resumed.
Bibliography: W. Bruell, Chronik der Stadt Dueren (1895);
Germ Jud, S.V.; A. Kober, Grundbuch des Koelner Judenviertels (1920);
I. Kracauer, Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt a.M., 1 (1925); Salfeld,
Martyrol; A. Schoop, Quellen zur Rechts- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
der rheinischen Staedte: Juedische Staedte, 1 (1920); A. Wedell, in: Geschichte
der Stadt Duesseldorf… zum 600–jaehrigen Jubilaeum (1888);
H.J. Zimmels, Beitraege zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland
(1926); Hoeniger-Stern, Judenschreinsbuch. Add. Bibliography:
N. Naor, Erinnerung. Eine Dokumentation ueber die Juedinnen und
Juden in Dueren (1994).
[Ze’ev Wilhem Falk]
DUEREN, ISAAC BEN MEIR (second half of 13th century),
German halakhic authority on the laws of *issur ve-hetter.
Isaac’s surname Dueren derives from the town of that name
in Germany. In his youth he studied under Tobias b. Elijah of
Vienne in France. The period of Dueren’s activity has hitherto
been uncertain owing to the possibility of his having
been confused with other contemporary local scholars of the
same name. His date however can now be determined with
some precision. Not only does Israel Isserlein state (Pesakim
u-Khetavim, no. 215) that *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg is
to be regarded as a batrai (“a later authority”) compared with
Dueren, but the recent discovery that the issur ve-hetter, in
which Dueren is already referred to as an accepted authority,
was written by a disciple of *Perez b. Elijah of Corbeil,
and not, as previously accepted, by *Jeroham b. Meshullam,
fixes his dates as the latter part of the 13th century. The statement
therefore that he was the teacher of Alexander Suslin
ha-Kohen, the author of the Sefer Aguddah, is erroneous.
Dueren is chiefly known for his Sha’arei Dura (Issur ve-Hetter
shel Rabbi Yiẓḥak mi-Dura, She’arim mi-Dura, Dura, etc.),
which deals with the laws of forbidden food and of menstruant
women. This book, based wholly upon the traditions of
Germany and France, became the basis of halakhah in this difficult
sector, exerting a decisive influence upon all Ashkenazi
halakhic authorities after him from the Aguddah of Alexander
Suslin ha-Kohen through Terumat ha-Deshen of Israel Isserlein
until Torat Ḥattat of Moses Isserles. The early halakhic
authorities guided themselves by the rule that Isaac was to be
followed in issur ve-hetter even when he was lenient, although
the rule did not apply to terefot (Pesakim u-Khetavim, no. 215).
Sha’arei Dura was first published in Cracow in 1534. Since then
it has been republished ten times with the addition of many
glosses and commentaries by the greatest talmudists in each
generation, among them Israel Isserlein, Solomon Luria, Elijah
Loans, and Nathan Spiro. These glosses, as well as those
of the scholars who preceded Israel Isserlein, were sometimes
indiscriminately incorporated into the text, so that it is difficult,
without the aid of manuscripts, to determine the original
content of the book, a critical edition of which is still lacking.
The book was regarded with such sanctity that Ḥayyim
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