Statutes of the Jewish Community of Rychnov nad Knìžnou (Reichenau an der Knieschna), 1657
Statutes of the Jewish Community of Rychnov nad Knìžnou (Reichenau an der Knieschna), 1657

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents an edition and translation of the statutes of the Jewish Community of Rychnov nad Knìžnou, which were confirmed by the manorial lord, Count Franz Karl I. Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky in 1657. The previously unpublished source that contains the statutes probably dates from the last third of the 17th century and is kept in the library of the Rychnov nad Knìžnou Chateau under reference No. I.d.27 (8789). It also includes statutes pertaining to the collection of the Perdon Tax, which were issued in 1671/72, as well as two later notes from the 1730s. The statutes are written in Yiddish in Hebrew characters. There is also a Hebrew transliteration of Kolowrat’s German-language confirmation. With regard to the current state of research, the Rychnov statutes are the earliest known community statutes from Bohemia. At the same time, the statutes reveal traces of influence or interventions of the manorial authorities, to which the text had to be submitted for approval. The final wording is therefore a result of negotiations that took place between the two sides, and this is also why the content of these internal statutes is, in some respects, close to that of the regulations issued by the manorial authorities elsewhere. The manorial interventions and influences, as well as the other content and form of the statutes, are analyzed in the introduction to the edition. There is also an outline here, in basic terms, of the demographic development of the Rychnov Jewish community, as well as a history of the town’s owners, of whom the Jews were direct subjects. The edition and analysis of the text provide a contribution to the study of Jewish self-government and to the study of the genesis of, and connections between, internal and external documents concerning the administration and autonomy of Jewish communities.

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