The Jews of Stühlingen

3-2

Ralph

December 21, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 The situation was more complicated in Switzerland. Familiar from the William Tell saga, Switzerland began to separate from imperial Germany in 1291 when the three original, regional, informal republics formed a loose confederation whose main purposes were the defence against external enemies and the consensual settlement of internal conflicts. The three initial entities, later to be designated ‘cantons’ after the Napoleonic occupation, were gradually joined by other such cantons, each jealously guarding its internal autonomy; thus the principles of a federal state gradually evolved. Unrestrained by a leaky imperial protectorate of Jews, the Swiss were able to evict the last Jews from Solothurn in 1582,12 rendering Switzerland judenrein (free of Jews).

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Endingen and Lengnau in the county of Baden, Canton Aargau, were the first two villages in Switzerland where Jews, fleeing from the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War, were again allowed to settle in the seventeenth century.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 We know from Stühlingen sources that Jews had lived in Klingnau13 and found refuge in Hallau. A certain Raphael’s (Phol) brother Menachem (Manno, B1.4) lived in Klingnau in 1604 [R1443], as did Isaias (Schai) in 1619 [R1516] and Mordechai (Mordigi) in 1630 [R2636]. Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg has postulated that Isaias and Mordechai belonged to the Tryfuss (Dreyfuss) family.14 It is plausible that they were related to the Treves brothers in Tiengen.15

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Kaiphas (Küffa, K1) was jailed in Klingnau in 1652 [R1884]. During the Thirty Years’ War Samuel (Schmull) ben Jacob Gugenheimb (G1.2) found refuge in Hallau, canton Schaffhausen [R4069].

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 During the unrests in 1641 and 1656, the sheriff of Klingnau inquired of his superiors what he should do about the Jews. In 1641 he was told to leave them alone, but around Carnival 1656, after the First Battle of Villmergen, the sheriff had the Jews evicted16 and apparently some lost their lives. We know from Stühlingen sources that a group of refugees from Switzerland arrived there at that time [R2060].

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 The first Jews arrived in Lengnau17 around 1633, probably refugees from the Thirty Years’ War in Germany.18 Apparently the local sheriff was requested by his superiors in 1634 to justify the fact that he had allowed twenty Jewish families to live there in the absence of a legal basis.19 As a temporary measure, passage taxes (Geleitzoll) were mandated for Jews in Bremgarten, Lenzburg,20 and Baden.21

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0  

12SSRQ, /SO/361.

13Klingnau, though south of the Rhine, formally belonged not to Switzerland but to the bishop of Constance.

14Guggenheim-Grünberg, “Die ältesten jüdischen Familien.”

15Sidorko, “Eliezer ben Naphtali Herz Treves.”

16Ulrichs, “Sammlung jüdischer Geschichten”, 267.

17Until the eighteenth century, the village was also known as ‘Lenglau.’

18Haller, “Die rechtliche Stellung”, 7.

19Ulrichs, Sammlung jüdischer Geschichten, 273.

20SSRQ, /AG/107.

21Ibid., /AG/373.