Trudy Gold
The Phenomenon of the Court Jew
Summary
Trudy Gold discusses the significance of the court Jew and why their success was to prove so considerable for the future of the Jews of Vienna and for the history of the empire. The symbiotic relationship that developed in the 16th and 17th century between wealthy court Jews and the Habsburg state left a profound mark on the political orientation of Austrian Jewry.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
Yes, of course, they were. Oh yes. Most Jewish marriages were arranged. In fact, all Jewish marriages were arranged at this period. Everybody’s marriage. You know, this is the point.
Oh no, not at all. We do.
Careful. Jews, in the main, were not peasants. They couldn’t work the land. Jews tended to go into what I call the small service industries. Look, the bulk of Jews in the Habsburg Empire would actually have been in Galicia or in Eastern Hungary, where, if you think about the normal society, they would be the little shopkeepers. And a lot of them were dirt poor. They were peddlers. but they didn’t actually work the land, because they didn’t fit in the system. Jews didn’t fit in the system.