The Jews of Lemberg
A three-page broadside in Yiddish, issued by the
representatives of the Lemberg Jewish Community, informs the Jews of
Galicia (of which Lemberg was the capitol), Cracow, and Bukovina of a
change in the Austrian Imperial government's marriage requirements law. A
royal decree issued in 1805 made it mandatory for a Jewish bride and groom
to pass a test in reading and writing in German, arithmetic, and Jewish
knowledge in order to receive Imperial permission to marry A new law,
announced on January 20, 1858, rescinded the test, substituting in its
stead proof that bride and groom had studied German at school or at home,
and an authentication by a rabbi or a religious teacher that they had
sufficient Jewish religious knowledge. The law further provided that a
bride and groom would be released from such requirements on submission of
proof that economic hardship made it impossible to study, e.g., if they
were orphans, common laborers, servants, etc.
A proclamation, on March 22, 1858, by the
representative body of the Jewish community of Lemberg, informing the Jews
of Galicia, Cracow and Bukovina that the special test for grooms and brides
before their marriage, imposed by royal decree in 1805, has been rescinded
by the government, Kundmachung, Lemberg, 1858. Hebraic Section, Library of Congress Photo).
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The broadside discloses that many Orthodox couples resisted the government
decree to study German and Judaism from
a governmentally approved textbook, B'nai Zion, which they
considered not only religious coercion but forced assimilation which might
lead to apostasy. They married secretly, "according to the Laws of
Moses and Israel," without registering their marriages with the
government. Legally, they remained unmarried, which the broadside reminds,
led to all sorts of problems and scandals. Now, the broadside announces,
the new legal provision makes it possible for all Jews to disclose their
marital status without fear of punishment, and it urges all Jewish brides
and grooms to conform to these governmental requirements.
This broadside brings into sharp focus the conflict
between segments of the Jewish community in the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
which promoted emancipation, and welcomed "enlightenment," even
if governmentally inspired or promoted, and the majority of Jews who
resisted such religious and cultural coercion, however well-meaning and
benign it might be.
Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From
the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress,
(DC: Library of Congress,
1991).
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