Part 1: From the Churban to Italy to Germany

This article is transcribed l’zaicher nishmas: Moshe Yedidya ben Yechiel Michel, Yitzchak ben Avraham, Harav Avraham Yitzchak ben Harav Yechezkel Yehoshua and Rivka Tzirel bas Moishe Issac

Rav Hamburger heads Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz, the Institute for German Jewish Heritage.

It should be noted that Rav Hamburger is not a native English speaker. The following transcription has been slightly modified for literary ease, while at the same time the transcriber has endeavored to stay true to Rav Hamburger’s style of speech. Additionally, many of the quotes from seforim are not exact, but rather convey the ideas of the various authors.

Our heritage began 1,100 years ago in Germany, but it did not start there. That is the beginning of our “Ashkenaz-German'' identity. The real roots of our heritage go back to Yerushalayim, to Eretz Yisrael, in the early times of bayis sheyni (the Second Temple period). As the Rosh expressed himself, our German tradition goes back to the times of the churban habayis (destruction of the temple). There was a contingency of Torah scholars from our people, wherever they were, since the destruction of the second temple.

The first stop of our people outside of the Holy Land was in Italy. Our journey to Europe started in Italy. Shortly after the churban habayis we find an interesting personality in Rome by the name of Tordus ish Romi (Tordus of Rome). He was considered by our sages as a very important person “yisrael chashuv haya”. He was a person that supported Torah learning - he would “fill up” the pockets of Torah scholars to support them. This is the first mention of the existence of “Jewishness” in the land of Italy.

But we know, it wasn’t just a single man. Who were those talmidei chachamim which he supported? We find that there was a yeshiva in Rome in those times. In the times of chazal there was a yeshiva in Rome. As the chachamim say, “go after the sages to yeshiva”. Who are they? “Go after Rabbi Eliezer to Lod, after Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai to Beror Chayil, after Rabbi Akiva to Bnei Brak.” And after Bnei Brak, which is the most important yeshiva? “Go after Rabbi Masyah to Rome.”

Can you imagine? I come from Bnei Brak - and Rome is compared to Bnei Brak as a yeshiva - as a makom Torah! Not only that, we find that the greatest Tanaim used to go to Rome for all kinds of reasons, political or other. We find that Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi all visited Rome. We find several places in midrashim and various gemaras that these people came to Rome. These are the very early roots of our existence in the European exile.

Along the road, we have very little evidence, but we do have oral traditions, regarding the power of the yeshivos of Italy. The majority of the Jews in Italy during the 6th to 9th centuries, were in Southern Italy, in the Calabria area. Two towns were there, which were very famous for their Torah centers. One was called Bari and the other was called Otranto. Rabbeinu Tam records that they had a tradition that they used to say “Ki m’Bari taitzei Torah, udevar HaShem m’Otrant” (a French pronunciation of Otranto).

However, these are our roots of Torah learning and of halacha preservation, and for keeping the old style of halacha [which is what] we call minhagim, which eventually came to the north of Italy, to Germany.

We find in the 9th century that there was a Torah center in the north, in the town of Lucca. In this “Lucca”, there was a great talmid chacham by the name Rabbi Moshe bar Kalonymos, the composer of the piyut ‘Aimas Noriosecha’, which is recited on the seventh day of Pesach. He was taken by Charlemagne from Northern Italy to Germany, to the Rhineland, to the town of Mainz (which was also known as Magentza). This is actually an old Latin or Roman name which was given to this colony. Its name kept changing based on the dialect and expression of the people.

However, that was the first time that a great, great, Torah scholar came to Germany, and he managed to settle around him many other people. This was the first ‘valuable’ community of German Jews, of Ashkenazik Jews, [from] the lands of Northern Italy, which we call Germany or Ashkenaz.

At the same time, we find flourishing communities in Germany. Not only Mainz, but Worms and Speyer. These three communities have the rashei teivos (acronym) of “SHUM” - Speyer, Worms, Mainz. These were the greatest Torah centers of Europe for generations. Rashi, who belonged to the French branch of the Ashkenaz community had to travel to Germany to the communities of Mainz and Worms to learn Torah, which he brought back to France and created the whole b’allai Tosefos movement.

I am not going to go into detail to discuss how these communities developed, but it is a historical fact - which the Ohr Zaruah emphasized when he used to say that from these three kehillos, Torah goes out to all of Israel - to the whole diaspora, which has survived on the Torah that was taught in these three communities.

How did the Eastern Ashkenazi communities develop [out of] this stronghold of Ashkenaz? We know that unfortunately there were the Crusades which slaughtered the majority of the people and destroyed those kehilos, and it took some time for those kehilos to reestablish and recover. As soon as they recovered, there was another Crusade. And then another Crusade. And then, eventually, 100 years later, there were the Rindfleisch persecutions, and then the Black Plague, all of these were an excuse for something else, always an excuse to kill more [Jews]. These were Holocausts. Statistically speaking, by percentage, these were Holocausts. The number of people who were killed, relatively, were as many as were [killed] during the Second World War.

And yet, although Jews were expelled fully from England, Spain, France - each in a different period, they were never fully expelled from Germany. They were expelled from local communities, they moved from one place to another, but eventually the emigration became stronger and stronger, pushing to the east.