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The Constantinople Letter of 1489

On 1489 January 13, Jewish Rabbi Chemor of Arles in the French Provence wrote to the Grand Sandhedrin (the Jewish high court, which then had its seat at Constantinople) for advice, as the non-Jewish people of Arles were threatening the Jewish synagogues. This Rabbi wanted to know what to do, on behalf of all the Jews in Arles. On 1489 December 22, the Grand Sandhedrin answered with the following advice, which became known as the “Constantinople Letter”:

Dear beloved brethren in Moses. We have received your letter in which you tell us of the anxieties and misfortunes which you are enduring. We are pierced by as great pain to hear it as yourselves. The advice of the Grand Satraps and Rabbis is the following:

Do not swerve from this order that we give you, because you will find by experience that, humiliated as you are, you will reach the actuality of power.

Constantinople, Elders of Jewry,
signed V.S.S.V.F.F., Prince of the Jews,
21st Caslu (November), 1489

This letter was reprinted precisely four centuries later in Revue des Études Juives (Journal of Jewish Studies), Paris, France, 1889. This journal was financed by James de Rothschild.


This PateoPedia Key Subject was written on Saturday 2017 October 14 by Johan Oldenkamp.

© Pateo.nl : This webpage was last updated on 2017/10/14.