JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ecame prominent in Ansbach and Fuerth for a while in the
18th century, particularly because of their services in managing
the state’s economy.
In the Napoleonic era Jewish children were permitted
to attend the general schools (1804), the men were accepted
into the militia (1805), the poll tax was abolished (1808), and
Jews were granted the status of citizens (1813). However, at
the same time their number and rights of residence were still
restricted, and only the eldest son in a family was allowed
to marry (see *Familiants Laws). In 1819 anti-Jewish disorders
broke out in Franconia (the “*Hep! Hep!” riots). Owing
to the continued adverse conditions and the restrictions on
families a large number of young Bavarian Jews immigrated
to the U.S. A second wave of emigrants left for the U.S. after
the 1848 Revolution, which had been accompanied by
anti-Jewish riots notably in rural Franconia. In 1861 the discriminatory
restrictions concerning Jews were abolished,
and Jews were permitted to engage in all occupations. However,
complete equality was not granted until 1872 by the
provisions of the constitution of the German Reich of 1871.
Certain special “Jewish taxes” were abolished only in 1880.
The chief occupation of Jews in 19th century rural Bavaria was
the livestock trade, largely in Jewish hands (see *Agriculture).
By the beginning of the 20th century Jews had considerable
holdings in department stores and in a few branches of industry.
A number of Jews were active after World War I in the
revolutionary government of Bavaria which was headed by
a Jew, Kurt *Eisner, who was prime minister before his assassination
in 1919. Another Jew, Gustav *Landauer, who
became minister of popular instruction, was also assassinated
that year. In the reaction which followed World War I
there was a new wave of antisemitism, and in 1923 most of the
East European Jews resident in Bavaria were expelled. This
was the time when the National Socialist Movement made
its appearance in the region, and antisemitic agitation increased.
Jewish ritual slaughter was prohibited in Bavaria in
1931.
The size of the Jewish population in Bavaria varied relatively
little from the Napoleonic era to 1933, numbering 53,208
in 1818 and 41,939 in 1933. A Bavarian Jewish organization, the
Verband bayerischer israelitischer Gemeinden, was set up in
1921 and included 273 communities and 21 rabbinical institutions.
In 1933 the largest and most important communities
in Bavaria were in Munich (which had a Jewish population
of 9,000), Nuremberg (7,500), Wuerzburg (2,150), Augsburg
(1,100), Fuerth (2,000), and Regensburg (450). At this time the
majority of Bavarian Jews were engaged in trade and transport
(54.5%) and in industry (19%), but some also in agriculture
(2.7% in 1925 compared with 9.7% in 1882). Over 1,000
Jews studied at the University of Bavaria after World War I, a
proportion ten times higher than that of the Jews to the general
population.
Regensburg was a center of Jewish scholarship from the
12th century. Regensburg was the cradle of the medieval Ash-
bavaria
kenazi *Ḥasidism and in the 12th and 13th centuries the main
center of this school. The traveler *Pethahiah b. Jacob set out
from there in about 1170. Prominent scholars of Bavaria include
*Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg (the leading authority
of Ashkenazi Jewry, 13th century); Jacob *Weil (taught at
Nuremberg and Augsburg, beginning of the 15th century);
Israel *Bruna (settled in Regensburg, mid-15th century); Moses
*Mintz (rabbi of Bamberg, 1469–1474); and the Renaissance
grammarian Elijah *Levita (a native of Neustadt). In the 19th/
20th centuries there lived in Munich the folklorist and philologist
Max M. *Gruenbaum; Raphael Nathan Nata *Rabinovicz,
author of Dikdukei Soferim; and Joseph *Perles, rabbi
of Augsburg, 1875–1910.
The Jews in Bavaria were among the first victims of the
Nazi movement, which spread from Munich and Nuremberg.
Virulent and widespread antisemitic agitation caused the depopulation
of scores of the village communities so characteristic
of Bavaria, especially after the *Kristallnacht in 1938.
The first concentration camp was established at *Dachau in
Bavaria and many Jews from Germany and other countries in
Europe perished there.
After World War II thousands of Jews were assembled in
displaced persons’ camps in Bavaria; the last one to be closed
down was in Foehrenwald. Almost all of the 1,000 Bavarian
Jews who survived the Holocaust were saved because they
were married to Germans or were born of mixed marriages.
A year after the end of hostilities a Nazi underground movement
remained active in Bavaria, and the neo-Nazi anti-Jewish
demonstrations of June 1965 started in Bamberg. Antisemitic
sentiment was also aroused when the minister of Jewish
affairs, Philip Auerbach, was prosecuted for misappropriation
of funds in 1951.
In 1969 there were in Bavaria about 4,700 Jews, forming
13 communities, the majority from the camps of Eastern
Europe. The largest communities were in Munich (3,486),
Nuremberg (275), Wuerzburg (141), Fuerth (200), Augsberg
(230), and Regensburg (150). There were smaller numbers of
Jews in *Amberg, Bamberg, *Bayreuth, Straubing, and Weiden.
In 1989 there were 5,484 community members. Due mainly
to the emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, the
number rose to 18,387 in 2003, the largest communites being
those in Munich (8,917), Straubing (1,713), Augsburg (1,619),
Nuremberg (1,286), and Wuerzburg (1,027).
Bibliography: S. Taussig, Geschichte der Juden in Bayern
(1874); Germ Jud, 1 (1963), 22–24; 2 (1968), 57–60; S. Schwarz,
Juden in Bayern im Wandel der Zeiten (1963); R. Strauss, Regensburg
and Augsburg (1939); H.B. Ehrmann, Struggle for Civil and Religious
Emancipation in Bavaria in the First Half of the 19th Century (1948),
199; H.C. Vedeler, in: Journal of Modern History, 10 (1938), 473–95;
P. Wiener-Odenheimer, Die Berufe der Juden in Bayern (1918), 131.
Add. Bibliography: PK Bavaria; B.Z. Ophir (ed.), Die juedischen
Gemeinden in Bayern 1918–1945 (1979); J.F. Harris, The People Speak
(1994); R. Kiessling (ed.), Judengemeinden in Schwaben … (1995); G.
Och (ed.), Juedisches Leben in Franken (2002).
[Zvi Avneri]
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 229