Contract of David Oppenheim with the Prague Jewish Community

The Jewish Community of Prague

1702

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Page with Hebrew text of decorative border and Star of David located in bottom section, with signatures in the Roman alphabet below. — David Oppenheim (1664–1736) was the chief rabbi of Prague. Born in Worms, he was the son of a communal leader and nephew of Samuel Oppenheim (1630–1703), financier and war contractor to the Habsburg emperor, Leopold I. From 1689 to 1702, David Oppenheim served as the chief rabbi of Moravia, while based in Nikolsburg (present day Mikulov, Czech Republic). In 1701, he was named Nasi Erets Yisra’el and later rabbi of Jerusalem. This contract formalizes his assumption of the post of chief rabbi of Prague. From 1713, he also served as chief rabbi of Bohemia, a post he shared with his father-in-law Binyamin Wolf Spira-Wedeles until the latter’s death in 1715. Oppenheim wrote several rabbinic tracts and was a noted bibliophile. His large collection of books and manuscripts is now held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

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With permission of the Jewish Museum in Prague.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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The Jewish Community of Prague

There is evidence of Jews in Prague from the tenth century onward. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, it was a major center of rabbinic activity. The community suffered from persecutions in 1096 and 1142 and established the Jewish quarter as a result. Despite intermittent attacks, both legal and physical, the Jewish community continued to grow and became one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe in the early modern period, consisting of about 35,000 inhabitants. World War II put an end to centuries of vibrant Jewish life in Prague, which now has a Jewish population of less than two thousand.

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