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WAAD ARBA ARATSOT AND AMSTERDAM BIBLE IN YIDDISH, HISTORY OF A TITLE PAGE (Waad Arba Aracot i amsterdamska biblia w jidysz. Historia pewnej karty tytulowej)

100%

Bendowska M., Doktor J.

Kwartalnik Historii Żydow

2010

issue 1(233)

89-100

In 1679, two Jewish printing houses in Amsterdam, one owned by Josef Athias and the other by Uri Fajbusz, published huge print runs (some 6,000 copies each) of a Bible translated into Yiddish, to be distributed chiefly on the Polish market. Both printers secured various privileges for their publications, guaranteeing them exclusive rights. Uri Fajbusz had a privilege granted to him by the Polish King Jan III Sobieski, guaranteeing exclusive distribution rights for his edition in Polish lands for a period of twenty years, and a privilege - a forged one, as it turned out later - granted for a period of ten years by the Jewish Council of Four Lands (Waad Arba Aratsot). Josef Athias had a privilege granted to him for a period of fifteen years by the States-Provincial of Holland and West Frisia, as well as the approval of the Council of Four Lands. However, both printers fell into financial problems as the Polish market remained off-limits for both editions: Athias's Bible could not be distributed because of the royal privilege, granting exclusive distribution rights to Fajbusz, while Fajbusz's edition did not have Waad's (genuine!) approval. King Jan III Sobieski, whose ambition was hurt, decided to compensate the ineffectiveness of that privilege to Fajbusz. In 1690 roku Uri Fajbusz received a royal privilege to open a Hebrew printing house in Zólkiew, which was Jan III's private town. The privilege, granted for an indefinite time, guaranteed him and his descendants exclusive right to print Jewish books in the Republic of Poland. The Zólkiew printing house preserved its monopoly for more than seventy years. Josef's son, Immanuel Athias, tried to sell the Bible again with a new title page, on which he also was mentioned as the printer. So far, the only known copies of that edition were those with the second, later title page, dating back to 1687. However, it was evident that there had to be the original title page, on which Josef Athias was given as the printer, and the year of printing was given as 1679. This was what Shabtai ben Josef Bass wrote in his bibliography. It is precisely such a copy, with a title page on which there is no Immanuel yet, only his father Josef Athias, with the year of printing given as 1679, which has now been discovered in JHI collections.

DIFFICULT RETURNS: RECONVERTS AS PUBLISHERS OF JEWISH BOOKS – MOSHE BEN ABRAHAM AVINU, SIMCHA BUNIM AND ISRAEL BAR AVRAHAM 1792 (Trudne powroty: rekonwertyci jako wydawcy ksiązek zydowskich – Mosze ben Awraham Awinu i Israel bar Abraham)

88%

Doktór J.

Kwartalnik Historii Żydow

2010

issue 4(236)

389-409

The instances of reconversion to Judaism are particularly difficult to study. We either know the biographies of Jewish converts from the Jewish and Christian periods of their lives but once they return to the Jewish religion, any trace of them is lost, or it is the other way round: we are dealing with Jewish reconverts, about whose previous Jewish or Christian ‘incarnations' we hardly know anything. Tak wlaśnie bylo w przypadku wydawców, o których mowa w niniejszym artykule. Why did they become publishers? After the change of faith, converts typically try to do the work they have mastered, using the knowledge and skills obtained in the original milieu. If they hailed from Jewish intelligentsia, once they joined the Christian community they became university teachers, censors of Jewish books, or wrote books about Jews and Jewish traditions. Those converting to Judaic faith faced a bigger problem because the Jews did not need experts in Christianity. The reconverts did not find the going easy either but still it was less taxing than the life of Christian converts to Judaism. They were helped by the knowledge of the Jewish languages and familiarity with Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish literature. As they could not dream of a career as rabbis, the profession of a printer or publisher of Jewish books appeared to be the optimum choice. Their competence attests to the fact that they must have hailed from the Jewish community, have studied in quality yeshivas or have gained experience in Jewish publishing businesses. Whatever scant information about them we have, we owe it to their very profession: we find it on title pages or in the colophons of the books published by them, and also in official documentation concerning their activities, regulated as they were both by the Christian powers and Jewish religious authorities.

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2 Kwartalnik Historii Żydow

2 2010

1 Bendowska M.

1 Doktor J.

1 Doktór J.

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WAAD ARBA ARATSOT AND AMSTERDAM BIBLE IN YIDDISH, HISTORY OF A TITLE PAGE (Waad Arba Aracot i amsterdamska biblia w jidysz. Historia pewnej karty tytulowej)

DIFFICULT RETURNS: RECONVERTS AS PUBLISHERS OF JEWISH BOOKS – MOSHE BEN ABRAHAM AVINU, SIMCHA BUNIM AND ISRAEL BAR AVRAHAM 1792 (Trudne powroty: rekonwertyci jako wydawcy ksiązek zydowskich – Mosze ben Awraham Awinu i Israel bar Abraham)