| Much has been said about the alleged loss of the
knowledge of the family of David. But it would seem
that there are many now living who actually claim a
descent from the King of Israel, and whose claim is
actually acknowledged. We had for some time past
intended to copy the following piece from the
conversion organ of London, but our space would
<<53>>not permit us. At
present, however, we have unexpectedly more room
than we thought we should have, and therefore lay
the extract before our readers as a curious
memorandum, which they may rely on with the more
certainty, as it met our eye for the first time in a
magazine which bears in every page the amplest
testimony of its hatred of our religion, and is
supported by funds contributed to effect the
apostacy of our nation. “Let our enemies be judges,”
says the Bible, and we may freely repeat it; for,
even then we have nothing to fear.—Ed. Oc.
(From the Jewish Intelligence of Nov. 1849.)
The family of Abarbanel, the celebrated Jewish
commentator, is remarkable for having carefully
preserved its pedigree, according to which they
trace their descent from king David. Hence, in all
the documents and books of Abarbanel and his family,
they have ever added to their signature:
מגזע דוד מלך ישראל (from
the stem of David, king of Israel).
Don Isaac Abarbanello, whose family had long
lived in Spain, and who was permitted by authority
to have a lion in his crest, was expelled from that
country with the rest of the Jews, under Ferdinand
the Catholic, in 1492. The Abarbanel family settled
finally in the East, where strangers from Christian
countries were then called “Franks,” and when many
years afterwards the Abarbanel family left the East,
and settled in Vienna, they were still designated
“Franks,” with the peculiar Austrian provincial
diminutive “el,” and the family has ever since
retained the name “Frankel.”
The accomplishments and intelligence for which
the Abarbanel (Frankel) family was ever renowned,
soon distinguished them also in Austria, both in a
pecuniary and intellectual point of view.
Nevertheless, they were not exempted from the hard
fate which the Jews met with under Leopold, in
being, on February 14th, 1670, expelled from the
Austrian dominions, under pain of death. (See
“Jewish Intelligence” for December, 1845.)
The family Frankel united with some others of
their expelled brethren, in presenting a petition to
the resident minister of the elector of Brandenburg,
Andreas Neumann, begging that he would intercede
with his royal master, in order to obtain permission
for some of them to settle in his dominions.
In this petition they complained that though God
had created the earth for all men, yet the
countries were everywhere closed against them, so
that they knew not whither to turn their steps.
The poverty and very great depopulation
occasioned in the marquisate of Brandenburg, by the
Thirty Years’ War, induced the elector to grant
their request. The elector instructed his
plenipotentiary, under the date of April 19th, 1670,
that he had no objection to allow forty or fifty
families to settle in his dominions. On the 21st of
May an edict was issued, which gave them permission
to settle in the country, and carry on their mode of
worship in private houses, but not in public
synagogues.
As a characteristic of the times, it may be
noticed that in the special charter, which was
granted to various families, there are these
restrictive clauses: “that they are to abstain from
usury, and not to take more interest than three
pence a week for one dollar (360 pence); to
abstain from purchasing stolen goods, and
blaspheming Christ;” with a few other similar
clauses, all calculated to demoralize the Jews.
Some of the members of the Frankel family settled
in Berlin, others in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and
others in Dessau,—in which latter place they founded
the congregation which flourished so abundantly in
after times.
<<54>>
The family became the founders of very important
printing offices for Jewish literature, in Berlin,
Frankfurt, Jessnitz, and Dessau, whence proceeded
the Talmud in three complete editions (in Berlin),
and also the Pentateuch in various editions, as well
as the works of Maimonides (in Jessnitz), his
מורה נבוכים, as well as
a complete edition of the Jerusalem Talmud, and its
excellent commentary, קרבן עדת,
by the grandfather of Mr. F., now living at Dessau,
75 years of age. All these works are celebrated for
their clearness and correctness, and often quoted by
Christian writers.
The commentator on the Jerusalem Talmud, just
referred to, was afterwards Chief Rabbi in Berlin,
and was followed thither by the juvenile Moses, son
of Mendel, for the privilege of studying under so
great a rabbi the Talmud and other Jewish
literature. This pupil was Moses Mendelssohn,
afterwards the celebrated modern reformer of the
Jews. |
