Josel of Rosheim: Encyclopedia II - Josel of Rosheim - Advocate of the German Jews

Josel of Rosheim - Advocate of the German Jews

Becoming steadily better known, even beyond the borders of Alsace, as a defender of Jewish communities in religious and legal matters, Josel gradually acquire a status as advocate, and even leader ("Befehlshaber") of all the Jews in the German empire. His status was not absolute: on one occasion he was fined for styling himself "Regierer der gemeinen Jüdischkeit", "ruler of the Jewry".

Soon after Charles V ascended the throne at Aachen in 1520, Josel procured a charter or letter of protection from him for the whole German Jewry, confirmed ten years later by in the Edict of Innsbruck, May 18, 1530. Several times he interceded successfully with King Ferdinand, brother of the emperor, in favor of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.

During the Peasant Wars, in 1525, the peasants of Alsace had decided to storm the city of Rosheim. With the peasants drawn up at the city gates, Protestant reformers Wolfgang Capito and Martin Bucer (or Butzer) failed to dissuade them from their plans, but after lengthy discussions Josel convinced them to leave the city and its Jews in peace. This stood in stark contrast to Sundgau, where the peasants had all of the Jews driven from the city.

In 1530, in presence of the emperor and his court at Augsburg, Josel had a public disputation with the baptized Jew Antonius Margaritha, who had published a pamphlet Der gantze Jüdisch Glaub (The Whole Jewish Belief) full of libelous accusations against Judaism. The disputation terminated in a decided victory for Josel, who obtained Margaritha's expulsion from the realm. (Despite this legal decision, this work would be repeatedly reprinted and cited by anti-semites over the coming centuries.)

At this same Reichstag, Josel defended the Jews against the strange accusation that they had been the cause of the apostasy of the Lutherans. Josel's most important action at the Reichstag of Augsburg was the settlement of rules for business transactions of the Jews. They were forbidden to exact too high a rate of interest, to call a negligent debtor before a foreign court of justice, etc. Josel announced these articles to the German Jews as "governor of the Jewish community in Germany", by means of a takkanot, a modification of Jewish law.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Advocate of the German Jews", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki