JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

esslingen
ris Schlesinger is credited with discovering singer/film star
Al *Jolson; Dore *Schary, executive producer at MGM studios,
produced as many as 350 movies and also wrote the Pulitzer
Prize-winning play Sunrise at Campobello; Essex County
claims world-famous comedian Joseph Levitch, a.k.a. Jerry
*Lewis; composer Jerome *Kern attended Barringer High
School; Broadway producer Burton Shevelove produced A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; choreographer
Dean Collins gave us the steps to the West Coast Swing;
there was children’s poet Ilo Orleans; Beat Generation poet
Allen *Ginsberg; and Newark’s Jewish neighborhoods, mom
and pop merchants, synagogues, rabbis, and institutions have
been immortalized on the pages of American literature by
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Weequahic High School
graduate Philip *Roth, who depicts Newark time and again
in his novels.
[Linda Forgosh (2nd ed.)]
ESSLINGEN, city in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. The
sum levied on Esslingen Jewry in the tax list of 1241 indicates
that it was one of the largest communities in Swabia, comprising
more than 10% of the town’s population. In the 13th century
the community owned a synagogue, a drinking (or dance) hall,
and a cemetery. The “Jews’ Street” is first mentioned in 1308,
but Jewish residence was not confined to it. Jews were allowed
to join the guild on payment; the main Jewish occupation was
moneylending. When attacked during the *Black Death persecutions
in 1349, the Jews in Esslingen set fire to their synagogue;
some committed suicide and others fled. However, in
1366 Jews are again mentioned in Esslingen. There were 14 in
1387, 21 in 1391. Esslingen Jewry loaned 84 hellers to the city in
1384; a Jew named Saecklin lent money to Duke Leopold III
of Austria some time before 1385. By 1439 there were no Jews
left in Esslingen. In the 16th century several Jews were admitted
for short periods at high rents and taxes. However, the
city expelled this group in 1543. Later it admitted two Jewish
physicians. In 1806 Frederick I of Wuerttemberg allowed five
Jewish families to settle in Esslingen, who founded a hardware
factory and organized a community. A synagogue was built
in 1817–19, a Jewish elementary school opened in 1825, and
an orphanage was established in 1842. The Jewish population
numbered 88 in 1823; 101 in 1831; 160 in 1860; 145 (1% of the
total) in 1892; and 128 in 1930. During the Nazi regime the interior
of the synagogue was destroyed (1938) and the building
later used as a center for training Hitler youth. The last 34 Jews
remaining in Esslingen were deported in 1941–42, including
some of the children of the orphanage and the headmaster.
There were 12 Jews living in Esslingen in 1965. After 1992 Jews
from the Former Soviet Union settled in Esslingen. About 230
Jews who belonged to the Jewish community in Stuttgart were
living in and around Esslingen in 2004.
Bibliography: Germ. Jud, 2, S.V.; P. Sauer, Die juedischen
Gemeinden in Wuerttemberg und Hohenzollern (1966), 173–78, incl.
bibliog.; FJW, 341; R. Overdick, Die rechtliche und wirtschaftliche
Stellung der Juden in Suedwestdeutschland (1965), 69–92, 144–150,
169–184. Add. Bibliography: H. Hoerburger, Judenvertreibungen
im Spa etmittelalter (1981); J. Hahn, Juedisches Leben in Esslingen
(1994).
ESTE, JOÃO BAPTISTA DE (17th century), Italian-Portuguese
convert to Catholicism and anti-Jewish polemist. Born
in Ferrara, he was baptized in Évora and became a consultant
in Jewish matters to the Portuguese Inquisition. His works
include a “Dialogue Between a Pupil and his Catechizing
Teacher, Resolving All the Doubts that the Obstinate Jews are
Wont to Make Against the Catholic Faith, with Cogent Arguments
both from the Holy Prophets and from their Own
Rabbis” (Dialogo entre discipulo e Mestre catechizante, Lisbon,
1621, 1674), and a “Summary of All the Festivals, Holidays, and
Ceremonies, both from the Written Law and from their Talmud
and Other Rabbis” (unpublished).
Bibliography: M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal
(1867), 291f.; Kayserling, Bibl, 115; J.L. D’Azevedo, Historia dos
Christaõs Novos Portugueses (1921), index; J. Mendes dos Remedios,
Os Judeus em Portugal, 2 (1928), 302–10.
[Martin A. Cohen]
ESTELLA (Stella), city in northern Spain. The Jewish community
there was one of the most important in the kingdom
of Navarre, the third after Tudela and Pamplona. The earliest
information concerning the settlement dates from the
11th century. The Jews lived in the citadel and in the adjacent
unwalled area. Because of the privileges granted to the Jews
there, the city attracted other Jews from many parts of Spain
during the 12th century. The growth of the Jewish community
in Estella was also due to the city’s location on the route
of the pilgrims to Santiago. There were Jews from Andalusia
who fled from the Almoravid invaders and Jews from France
who were attracted to the city. These included the poet Moses
*Ibn Ezra, who was warned by *Judah Halevi against residing
in so remote a town, which he compared to living among
wolves, bears, and lions. In 1144 King García Ramirez transferred
the synagogue to the bishop of Pamplona to be converted
into a church. A fuero (“municipal charter”) granted
to Estella in 1164 contained a series of articles regulating relations
between Jews and Gentiles. A responsum of Solomon
b. Abraham *Adret (4:268) deals with problems of the sewage
and the water conduit in the Jewish quarter. In 1265 there were
29 Jewish householders in Estella paying land tax and rent to
the king. Following the death of Carlos IV in 1328 the Jews of
Estella were particularly hard hit by anti-Jewish rioters. Many
were killed. The Jewish quarter in Estella was destroyed and
most of its inhabitants perished in 1328 during the French invasion,
as recorded by *Menahem b. Aaron ibn Zeraḥ in his
introduction to his code Ẓeidah la-Derekh. The community
began to revive in the second half of the 14th century. There
were 85 Jewish families in Estella in 1366. In 1365 Charles II appointed
Judah b. Samuel ha-Levi of Estella to act as high commissioner
for the crown for collecting the money in services
and taxes owed by Jews and in 1390 sent him on a diplomatic
514 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6