Did the Polish nobility take seriously the teaching of the Catholic Church? Reflections on the relations between the nobility, the Church, and the Jews

ENMuch has been written on the subject of close and manifold links between the Jewish population and the nobility in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Older historiography emphasized the role of a king as the main protector of the Jews, but even exponents of “martyrological historiography,” such as Simon Dubnow, noted that part of the nobility, particularly the magnates, favored them. Subsequent generations of historians did not contradict this view. The fate of Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian state depended on the attitude of the dominant nobility. In 1539, the nobles forced the Crown to grant them judicial powers over their Jewish subjects. The consequences of this noble protection, and particularly that of the magnates, is eloquently illustrated by the fact that a clear majority of Jews settled in private estates. Of the sixteen towns in the commonwealth with a Jewish population in excess of two thousand, at least ten were owned by the nobility.