Cruise on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, 2019 You never want to have to change planes in Heathrow Airport in London. This we had to do to fly to Basel, Switzerland to begin our cruise. It was a very long walk between planes, the directions offered on signs were not clear, and there was no transportation available unless you had signed up prior to your visit. From now on, wherever we fly, we will pre-order transportation through the airport.
The flight, as all flights should be was happily uneventful, and we landed at Basel and eventually found our tour. This was difficult, because there was an unaccompanied package that was found that forced everyone out of the designated meeting place, so we had to hunt for the Vantage bus. This we happily found and were transported to the boat. I learned that the difference between a boat and a ship was that a ship has life rafts, and a boat does not. This is as good a definition as any, though I think there may be more nautical type criteria. This is the second river cruise we have taken, the first being the one from Prague to Budapest on the Danube several years ago. I prefer river cruising to cruise ships for several reasons: River cruises are designed for older people so there are no children and no smoking. It generally takes several day on a ship to remember where our cabin is, but on the river, it’s either on the first, second, or third deck, and you can see from one end of the boat to the other. Dinner is open seating, and you can sit with whomever you like, where on many ships, you are assigned. And because there are usually about only 150 passengers, you get to converse with many people. Of course you don’t have the quality entertainment each night in the theater as you have on the ship, but the river cruise does offer professional artists. For example, one evening we had a male and female vocalists who sang opera very well, another night, a sting quartet, another young lady with a beautiful voice singing show music, a violinist, a pianist etc.. Performances were in the lounge. Nothing elaborate, and still entertaining. I thought the food was good, especially the evening when they served rack of lamb. Their soups were excellent, as was their Caesar salad. There were always four courses: appetizer, soup, entree, and dessert. Coffee and tea always followed, and there was a cheese selection. Since we were in mostly cruising through Germany, there were several dinners devoted to local cuisine featuring brats, sausages, and other pork products that looked wonderful. These I did not eat, but I did eat the veal. I had a little card at my place that informed the waiter that I was not to be served any pork or shell fish. Lunches were four courses also if you ordered from the menu, or there was always a salad bar. Breakfast was also a buffet with lots of healthy and not so healthy options. An omelette station was available. Our accommodations were quite nice with a king size bed, lots of closets, and a marble bathroom with a night light that was always on. We had a sliding door behind two chairs and a table, and while there was no balcony as there are on some boats, you did get the feeling of being one the water. Jo, the young man from Indonesia, took very good care of us, and we showed our appreciation with a generous tip that was in addition to the tip he would get when all the tips were split among the crew. Always chocolates on our pillows at night. The first evening we were there, we sat with two very nice couples from Pennsylvania. Steve, who was older than I was also a teacher, and now a docent as the Jewish American History Museum. Very knowledgeable. Bill was also a teacher. Laurie, Stan’s wife was a retired teacher, and Vera was a nurse. There was lots to talk about. We had just about each meal with them. Occasionally we had the pleasure of sitting with others for breakfast. Sadly, I became ill shortly after the trip began, and though I missed only two excursions, I did not meet as many people as I would have like to have met since I spent a good deal of my time in the cabin resting. There were two ethnic Indian couples who were very interesting, two ethnic Mexican women who were also very nice to be with, and two retired lady professors from Texas who I hope will stay in touch with me. One was a linguist, and one was a specialist in Medieval literature. Who knew that this late in life I would find someone who had also heard of Otto Jesperson and his Indo-European Hypothesis. Bazel, Switzerland: I was particularly interested in Basel because that the city where Theodore Herzl held the First Zionist Conference. Herzl wrote, “In Basel I found the Jewish state. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered with universal laughter. Perhaps in 5years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.” That was written August 29, 1897. Herzl was elected president. The Three Kings Hotel is the place where Herzl slept, and it was from a balcony in this hotel that the famous photo of him leaning on his arms looking over the Rhine. As I walked along with the tour guide, I asked him about the conference and Herzl. We happen to be passing by the hotel, and he pointed it out, and since we were all attached to his mike, everyone on the tour heard what he had to say. I realized that I and maybe a few others might be interested in the Jewish history of the places we were visiting, so I made it a point to asks such questions throughout the trip. I also realized that had I not done that, it would have been as if Jews had no history in these places. And since most if not all the towns we were to visit were settled by the Romans about 2000 years ago, you can bet that Jews were among the people who accompanied them. While the Swiss date their origin from 1291, Basel can look back on more than 2,000 years of history. While Basel is a modern city, there are still narrow streets and hidden squares with more than 180 fountains. Charming centuries-old buildings abound. The City Hall or Rathaus, is the seat of the Basel government and its parliament. In the midst of the Old Town, it is particularly eye-catching with its red facade, the characteristic tower and frescoes. It has a beautiful inner courtyard, and a most remarkable clock over the entrance. The City Hall dominates the market square were fresh vegetables, fruits, and flowers are available. Together with the Rathaus, the Cathedral is the most famous landmark of Basel. It has a very dramatic statue on the front of St. George killing a dragon, and a sun dial clock sitting above another clock. With its red sandstone walls, colorful roof tiles, and twin towers, no other building adorns the city scape like it. In our wanderings, we came across the Roman wall that we were able to look down upon through a glass window. I attended a wonderful exhibit in the Kunstrnuseum entitled, The Cubist Cosmos; from Picasso to Leger. The exhibit was dominated by works by Picasso and Braque. The museum also has a wonderful collection of Impressionists. First class exhibition. Since I was the one who had to initiate the questions that related to the Jewish history of the towns we visited, I have decided to devote the summary of the trip to the Medieval Jewish history of these places that few people know. “The people who win write the history,” and the Jews clearly did not win the battle for the minds and hearts of Christian Europe so mention of us in western history books ends with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and little reference is made to us until 1948 when Israel is born. For almost 2000 years, it is as if we did not exist. But we live and continue to live. I will also intersperse contributions Jews made to Western Civilization during the Medieval period to show that though brutalized, we made significant contributions. These will appear in italics. So here goes: Between 1000 and 1148 CE, Jewish translators in Spain begin translating Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic texts into Latin, thus allowing European scholars to access to ancient wisdom, discoveries, and inventions. Breisach and Colmar, Germany were our next stops. With its timber houses and painted plaster, the town looks very much like it came out of a story book set in the Middle Ages. Add to this the small canals that crisscross the town, and you have a picture book fantasy. We walked through a large out door market selling all sorts of dairy products, vegetables, and breads, and then an indoor market right next to it with cases of meats, poultry, and everything that was sold on the outside. Colmar is big on the stork, and many houses have large nests on them. Storks bring babies and good luck. Of course there was the church and the spacious cloisters around which were large frescoes depicting religious scenes. The Musee Unterlinden at Colmar contains a 13th century cloister and houses a medieval art gallery whose center piece is this huge painting of the crucifixion on five large pieces of wood that fold in on itself. The rear of the piece is also painted with pictures of saints. The Bartholdi Museum is there, and though we visited the courtyard which is a lovely cobbled stone space with a dramatic statue in the center of three women facing a globe. We did not have time to go in. Bartholdi, if you don’t know, was the man who created the Statue of Liberty. We stopped for lunch at Restaurant Pfeffel which was in this wonderful exposed timber and plaster building also build centuries ago. Like the rest of Europe, the Jews of Colmar were treated badly from the 12th century on with a few moments of respite. During the reign of Robert of Bavaria the condition of the community improved. On Sept. 28, 1401, he granted the Jews of Colmar a renewal of their old privileges. But the hostility of the council of Colmar continued to manifest itself in many ways; and in 1437 the council secured from King Sigismund an edict prohibiting the citizens of Colmar from renting or selling houses to Jews without special permission from the mayor. In 1468, the council made changes in the statutes affecting Jews, and added the following clauses: "In addition to the yearly taxes, the Jews shall contribute to the tax for the maintenance of the fortress, and give New-Year gifts to the mayor. In case of war they shall pay supplementary taxes. They shall remain in their houses during Holy Week, Easter and the feasts of Corpus Christi and Assumption. Only unmarried children may reside with their parents, and no Jew shall harbor without special permission any foreign coreligionist. Foreign Jews shall pay, on entering the city, a 'blappert' at the gate, and a pfennig to the gatekeeper. If they wish to pass a night in the city, they shall pay one shilling. The city protects the Jews only from persons amenable to its tribunal." I found the synagogue, but wasn’t sure if it was the building I could see in the distance. A police car was sitting at a light and I asked in broken French if they could tell me where the synagogue was. They said they did not know, yet they were sitting on a one way street that ran past the building. Draw your own conclusions. The building was closed, and there were several plaques commemorating the murdered Jews of the Holocaust, and the history of the building. In 1204 Maimonides, French rabbinic commentator, doctor, and philosopher, reconciles Aristotelian ideal of balance with faith allowing philosophy to buttress religious faith. This was a major influence on Thomas Aquinas. Strabourg, France: Strasbourg is the capital city of the Alsace region in northeastern France. I’ts the seat of the European Parliament and sits near the German boarder with culture and architecture blending German and French influences. Our introduction to Strasbourg was from a boat, and moving in and out of the canals reminded me of our visit to Bruge and Amsterdam. The Cathedral de Notre Dame, is a Medieval masterpiece built between 1176 and 1439. During the Middle Ages, its 469 foot spire was the higest in Europe. The cathedral has an Astrometric clock that still announces the hours after 300 years. There is a statue on the clock of the clock’s creator admiring his masterpiece. The sculptures on the facade of the cathedral are so intricate, and so numerous, I could not help but wonder if Anton Gaudi was inspired by this church to design the intricate facade of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. We found the opera house but it was closed to visitors, so we decided to have lunch on the balcony of the building. I had a local beer and a very plentiful salad of greens, asparagus, and goat cheese beautifully presented. There was a very nice breeze One of the streets we walked past was Rue Des Juifs Judegass. There were such streets in most of the town we visited attesting to a Jewish presence. The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a "large number of learned men" in "Astransbourg"; and it is assumed that it dates back to around the year 1000. Although Jewish life in Alsace was often disrupted by outbreaks of pogroms, at least during the Middle Ages, and reined in by harsh restrictions on business and movement, it has had a continuous existence ever since it was first recorded. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people. The language traditionally spoken by the Jews of Alsace was Judeo-Alsatian (Yédisch-Daïtsch), originally a mixture of Middle High German, Old Alsatian, Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic, and largely indistinguishable from Western Yiddish. From the 12th century onwards, due among other things to the influence of the nearby Rashi school, French linguistic elements were incorporated as well; and from the 18th century onwards, due to immigration, some Polish elements were blended into Yédisch-Daïtsch too. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning the wells with plague. On February 14, Saint Valentine's day, several hundred Jews were massacred during the Strasbourg pogrom. The Black Death which killed about one-third of Europe’s population, was blamed on the Jews despite the fact that the plague also killed Jews. Jews were first tortured to confess to spreading the Black Death in 1348 in Switzerland, and the verdict was that all Jews from the age of seven, cannot excuse themselves from this crime. Jewish children under the age of seven were then baptized and reared as Christians after their families were murdered. If fewer Jews died in the Black Death, it was because of the Jewish laws of family purity which demanded that Jews attend the ritual baths regularly. The Christian population, from the king to the peasant, avoided regular bathing and stank. The Inquisition used this reality by smelling people to see if they stank. People who didn’t were accused of being Jews. Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town and were reminded every evening at 10 o'clock by a Cathedral bell and a municipal herald blowing the "Grüselhorn" to leave. Alsatian Jews then settled in the neighboring villages and small towns, where many of them became cloth merchants or cattle merchants. Today, Strasbourg is an active, highly organized, intellectual Jewish community of about 12, 500 persons. Most of the chief rabbis of France have come from this center of Jewry, which as deep roots in the province of Alsace. In 1145CE Abrhm Bar Hiyya, a Jewish astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher in Barcelona, introduces the scientific method into Europe and deals with practical geometry and algebra in an original ways. This Hebrew work is translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli, an apostate. Heidelberg, Germany: Ever since I saw the movie, The Student Prince, by Sigmund Romberg, I wanted to see Heidelberg. Mario Lanza was supposed to star in it, but he had become too heavy to fit into the costumes so Edmund Purdom was picked to play the prince, and Lanza did the musical voice overs. I had another reason. A very distant cousin, Lazer Bayme survived the Holocaust, and returned to Heidelberg to attend medical school. I could never understand why anyone who survived the Shoah would want to return to the place where it all began. But I was much younger when I wondered that, and now I can see how his return might have closed an open gestalt. In a magnificent hilltop setting of woodland and terraced gardens sits Heidelberg’s magnificent Schloss, probably the country’s most famous castle. Sacked by French troops under Louis XIV in 1689, it has remained a dignified ruin that inspired the Romantic painters and poets from around the world. Mark Twain described it as “the Lear of inanimate nature-deserted, discrowned, beaten by the storms, but royal still and beautiful.” From the Philosopher’s Walk, one has a wonderful view of the Keckar River that runs though the red roofed town below. The University of Heidelberg is Germany’s oldest, founded in 1386. In 1272, Judah ben Moses and Isaac ibn Sid create the famous “Alfonsine Tables” which are widely used by navigators and also by Kepler and Galileo centuries later. Speyer, Germany: We visited Speyer, with its lovely Medieval town center that escaped the bombs of WWII. Speyer had a rich Jewish community life between 1184 and 1349, but the tour did not go to the ruins of the synagogue, the ritual bath and the museum. The first record of the Jews in Speyer dates from 1070, and in 1084 there is a major influx of Jews fleeing the pogroms in Mainz and Worms. Bishop Huzmann invited Jews in in 1084 with a charter granting protection. Jews were important to the bishop because of their skills in trade, their foreign connections, and their financial acumen. Besides, money was needed for the building of the cathedral, and the Jews would be an important resource. Jews paid protective fees and were able to loan vast sums of money throughout the kingdom to bishops, lords, and kings who also granted protection. But 12 years after the charter was granted, a wave of progoms swept the country triggred by the plague and the accusation that the Jews caused it by poisoning the wells. This was followed by the First Crusade in 1096. Eleven Jews were murdered in Speyer, and the others were saved by the bishop who moved the Jews into his palace, thus saving a valuable resource of revenues. One thousand Jews were slaughtered in Mainz, and 800 in Worms. A contemporary chronicler, Guilbert de Nogent, quoted the Crusaders of Rouen; “We desire to go and fight God’s enemies in the East; but we have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical to God than any other.” Wherever Crusaders found Jews they offered them the choice of Christianity or death. In May 1096, upon learning of the Crusaders’ murder of the Jews of Speyer, the Jews of Worms sought assistance. Some Jews sought refuge in the palace of Bishhop Adalbert, while others, having been promised help by the local burghers, remained in their homes. Those in their homes were immediately murdered, while those in the palace, after refusing Bishop Adalbert’s offer to save them if they converted, were murdered under the bishop’s orders. Those who saved their lives by converting were prohibited by returning to Judaism and formalized by a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent III. “...he who is led to Christianity by violence, by fear, and by torture, and who received the sacrament of baptism to avoid harm receives indeed the stamp of Christianity...and must abide by the faith they had accepted by force.” Of course the money loaned to bishops, lords and kings never had to be repaid if the Jews who loaned them the money were murdered or expelled. The art of glass making was already 2,000 years old when Rome was founded. The invention of high-temperature furnaces for smelting iron developed by Mesopotamian smiths were wedded to the Sumerian discovery for glazing and glassmaking was born. The secret traveled to Canaan along the biblical route followed by Abraham, and remained there untill Judaic practitioners brought it to Europe following the Roman conquest. Two Roman emperors identified the glassmakers of their times as Jews; Hadrian who reported that the Jews of Alexandria were “blowers of glass.” Diocletian listed two classes of glassware; viti Alexandrini, and vitri Iudaici or Jew glass which had become a generic term for glassware in Latin. Jewish glassmakers followed the Roman legions into the heart of Europe and southeastern France, Cologne, and other cities along the Rhine could also claim a glass making industry established mainly by Jewish glassmakers in the 1st century. Trier was the oldest Judaic settlement in Germany, and the first glass houses of the Rhineland were founded there. But Christianity became dominant, and St. Jerome accused the “Semitic” artisans of having a strangle hold on the Roman world because of their unique skills. So the church launched a campaign to convert or displace the Jews from manual trades by placing artisans guilds under the patronage of Christian saints. But in Cologne where Jews were barred from almost all industrial occupations, they were still allowed to become glaziers because no other qualified personnel were available. Be assured that the magnificent stained glass windows we admire in most or not all of these Gothic churches would not be there had the Jews not brought their talents to these French and German cities. Mainz, Germany is another one of those picturesque Medieval towns with the big church, the town square, the colorful timber and plaster houses, and lots of cobble stone streets. After a while, they merge into one. Mainz, once a center of Jewish study, suffered the same horrors at the hands of the populous and the church so there is no need to go into specifics. What Mainz does have is St. Stephen’s Church. What singles this church out from the others is that it is the only German church for which the Jewish artist Marc Chagall created windows. Blue light shines through the stained glass into the interior of the church, and not only angels but other Biblical figures move apparently ethereally in this light. Equally important is the Mainizer Dom, or the many towered Gothic cathedral with equally magnificent windows that were hidden during the Second World War. And across the square from the cathedral is the The Gutenberg Museum, one of the oldest museums of printing in the world. It is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing from movable metal type in Western Europe. The collections include printing equipment and examples of printed materials from many cultures. Actual printing was developed in China. A group of people founded the museum in 1900, 500 years after Johannes Gutenberg’s birth, to honor the inventor and present his technical and artistic achievements to the public at large. They also aimed to exhibit the writing and printing of as many different cultures as possible. Publishers, manufacturers of printing machines and printing houses donated books, apparatus and machines, which formed the basis of the collection. In its first few years the museum was part of the city library, meaning that the most beautiful and characteristic volumes from the library’s extensive collection could be requisitioned for the museum. Visitors were thus presented with a survey of almost 500 years of the printed book. In time the museum expanded to include sections on printing techniques, book art, job printing and ex-libris, graphics and posters, paper, the history of writing of all cultures of the world and modern artists’ books. In 1927 the museum was able to move into the Zum Römischen Kaiser (1664), one of the most beautiful buildings in Mainz. This is now where the museum's administration, the restoration workshop, library and Gutenberg Society are housed. The Late Renaissance building was heavily bombed in 1945; the museum's contents had been stored in a safe place and thus remained intact. And speaking of things related to books, in 1518 Elias Levita, an Italian Jew, crfeates the first copyright statement in a book entitled, The Grammar of Elias Levita. There is also a Talmudic decree that forbids writing a passage from the Torah without showing by a symbol that the statement is not an original thought of the writer: Thus, the quotation marks are created. Our guide, after I asked the question about the Jews of Mainz, pointed out a small bronze square impregnated into the sidewalk. He said that such squares were all over Germany, and part of a memorial to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Each plaque carries the name of the deceased, when they were deported, and where and when they died. In 1271 CE Jacob of Ancona in northern Italy travels by boat to China four years before Marco Polo to open up trade and write about what he finds. On either side of the Rhine River are vineyards unlike any I have ever seen. Unlike our vineyards, these rise on terraces and the angles the gatherers must negotiate to harvest the grapes form precipitous angles. I was told that they had to wear safety harnesses. Some of the days were absolutely perfect, so we sat on the top deck marveling at the miles of vineyards, and noticed that the name of the vineyard was proudly displayed on the side of the mountain. Reading and understanding a German wine label is daunting with all the long, unpronounceable words, but each will contain the name of the producer, the vintage, the region, and sometimes the name of the grape. Try pronouncing Trocenbeerenauslese. That’s a dessert wine made from shriveled grapes. We glided past the proverbial “castles on the Rhine,” learning that most of these castles and many of the towns on the tour were deliberately burned and destroyed during the many wars Germany had with France. It seemed that the French took great pleasure in destroying all things German. The Rhine remains a major artery for the transportation of all sorts of goods. Barge after barge passed us. It was especially interesting to go through the many locks created to allow shipping to be raised or lowered. The Rhine had been straightened so it could become the waterway it is today. We did see the statue of The Lorelei, on the banks. She is the legendary woman who lured sailors to their deaths with her song. Very like the Sirens of Greek mythology. In 1233, Moses of Palermo translates into Latin from the Greek Hippocrates treatise on the diseases of horses. This book becomes the source of most veterinary writings from his day to the late Renaissance. Koblenz, Germany: Where Rhine and Moselle join, lies a city that pays tribute to both famous rivers: Koblenz - the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. In more than 2000 years of history, Koblenz saw many armies come and go but the city kept the best of all conquests. The Prussians left behind the huge construction high above Koblenz, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, that made the city to the greatest bastion on the old continent. On top of that, the fortress is home to the Koblenz State Museum. Stolzenfels Castle and the neo-classical Theater are well maintained as is the great equestrian monument of Emperor William I where the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers meet The Jewish community of Koblenz was annihilated during the Black Death pogroms of 1348/49. Although Jews resettled in Koblenz at some point after the pogroms, they were expelled from the town in 1418, and it was not, in fact, until 1518 that a lasting Jewish presence was established there. The community of the Middle Ages maintained houses of worship and a cemetery, the latter of which was consecrated in 1303 and later used by the modern community. Many prominent rabbis lived in or were associated with Koblenz. I found another plaque embedded among the cobble stones in Koblenz, and one that tells the history of the synagogue that once stood on that spot. Though the plaque was written in German, I found it odd that they referred to WWII as the Nationalsozialisten War or the war of the national socialists. The word Nazi is not used. They also do not use the term “Kristalnacht,” the night of broken glass where Jewish businesses were destroyed, synagogues were burned, and Jews were rounded up and murdered. I forgot the term they use. In 1281 Isaac Solomon Sahula writes a book stating the world is a globe and when it is light on one side, it is dark on the other. In 1300CE, Jacob Ben Makhir compiles a series of astronomical tables/almanac that will be used by Dante in structuring his vision of the Divine Comedy. Five years later he writes in the Zohar that the earth is round and it rotates. This is 2000 years before Copernicus. He also invents a quadrant used during the Renaissance called the quadrans judaicus. Bernkastel, Germany: A name to make the wine connoisseurs’s hearts beat faster, Bernkastel is the center of the vineyards of the Moselle has Bernkastel has a lot to offer: the ruins of Landshut Castle, the half-timbered houses with their sttp roofs and the market place with its fountain. The market square is considered to be the perfect example of German town architecture, and is one of the classic tourist destinations of the Moselle region. The Michael’s Fountain was built in 1606, and the Renaissance-style town hall built in 1608, and the much photographed “pointed house” built in 1416 show the vibrance of the place. The Pointed House is typical of a traditional old Moselle-Style winegrower’s house withits oak-beamed wine cellar supported by blocks of slate, the upper floors protruding outwards on both sides and the tall attic for storing winter food and accomodating pets. I was once given a bottle of Bernkastel Doctor which is the premier wine of the region, but to have another would cost me $40.00, and I just don’t pay that kind of money for a bottle of wine. In 1310 CE Levi ben Gerson, an eminent astronomer who influenced Copernicus, is credited by some writers with the discovery of the camerra obcura, the first kind of camera known. In 1335CE, he also is the first to describe and reputedly invents a quadrant which was used for centuries by navigators including Columbus, Magllan etc. It’s called Jacob’s Staff. Levi ben Gerson also lays the foundation of trigonometry. Trier, Germany: Trier, the oldest city in Germany is located on both sides of the Moselle River bank. At the entrance to the old town stand the Porta Nigra, a fortified Roman gateway whose truly colossal dimensions make it a unique monument of its kind and time. It was built of the distinctive light sandstone by placing one row of huge blocks on top of another, and then joining them with iron clamps without using any mortar. Its construction dates from the 2nd century CE when Trier was surrounded by walls with their towers and gates. The Amphitheater on the outskirts of the modern as well as the Roman town, was built to accommodate 20,000 spectators. Much of the original stone was used for quarrying in the Middle Ages. The Roman bridge played an important role in the town’s development. One of the best preserved Roman building is a three storied Constantine Basilica. It’s constructed of red brick that I think it was once the Roman seat of government. The interior is a massive open space with two tiers of arched windows rising to a corbeled wooden ceiling. It is truly an impressive structure. We stopped by a beautiful white, pink and gold Baroque Electoral Palace that may be the seat of government today. There is also a massive Romanesque style cathedral that dominates a beautiful town square. Trier's "Judengasse" leads into the former medieval Jewish Quarter. I found a small plaque by chance indicating the area. Locally produced weights with Hebrew inscriptions show that there were Jews in Trier as early as the first or second century. Starting with the eleventh century, we have records of a Jewish community in Trier, and in 1235 four Jews had four houses built on the left of the later Judengasse. The cellars are still the original ones; in the Pub Abwaerts, you can still see the walled-up entrance to a flight tunnel leading to the Cathedral Close. The Jews were expelled from Trier in 1418. Many Jews went east; Yiddish has preserved traces of Trier Middle High German up to today. When the Jews were called back after 1600, they settled in different parts of the city. Since the Holocaust of the Nazi era, the Jewish community in Trier is quite small. The New Synagogue is located in Kaiserstrasse. No other person influenced the history of the 19th and 20th centuries as did Karl Marx who was born in Trier on May 5, 1818, as the third child of the lawyer Heinrich Marx and his wife Henrietta. The parents came from an extremely traditional rabbinic family, but converted, however, under the rule of Prussia to Protestantism because the father would otherwise not have been able to continue his career as a lawyer in the Prussian legal system. In 1377CE Abraham Crescas a cartographer living in Majorca creates the Catalan Atlas incorporating the information brought back by Marco Polo. Cochem, Germany: There may not be a lovelier scene in Germany than the town of Cochem, couched in the high, vine-clad slopes of the Moselle Valley. The town of half-timbered and gabled houses built on steep, narrow alleys that twist and turn, and medieval gates is on a loop in the river, under the steady watch of the Romantic Reichsburg castle. The town boasts houses with typical slate roofs, an historical market place, Medieval town gates, churches and walls. Excellent Riesling wines are served everywhere you go. Cochem’s crowning glory is a Medieval toll castle, rebuilt in a Romantic style in the 1870s after its complete destruction by the French. No matter which route you take into Cochem your gaze will be drawn to this fantasy-like sight and its giant four-storey octagonal tower far above the river. The many delicate pointed towers, battlements, and oriels give the impression of a typical fairy tale castle. The castle goes back to the start of the 12th century. There are remnants of the Medieval building in the ring wall, octagonal tower, “Hexenturm” witch’s gate and the building housing the great hall (Rittersaal). But most of what we see today was done in the Neo-Renaissance style when the Berlin banker Louis Fréderic Jacques Ravené restored the property according to the Romantic tastes of the 19th century. A lot of the city’s original wall has survived, including three of four of the 14th-century gates, testifying to an eventful past when Cochem was an Imperial Estate. Jews are first mentioned there in 1242. In 1287, following the blood libel of Oberwesel, 17 Jews, including ten children, were massacred in Cochem. In the 14th century the town came under the rule of the archbishops of Trier, and Jews are frequently mentioned in documents concerning money lending and property transactions. Cochem Jews were victims of the Armleder massacres in 1337 and the Black Death massacres in 1349. There were Jews living in Cochem in 1359; they were expelled in 1418. In the middle of the 16th century Jews are again mentioned in the town but they were expelled in 1589. There is information about Jews in Cochem from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The community numbered 49 in 1834, 104 in 1894, and 49 in 1932. It came to an end during the Holocaust. The synagogue, built in 1861, was destroyed in 1945. The Jewish cemetery has been preserved. I found two plaques related to the history of the Jews of Cochem and what happened to them. In 1480 CE Abraham Zacuto, a Spanish Jew, compiles a navigational guide and invents a more precise astrolab that was used by Colombus and de Gama. Cologne, Germany: The 14th century poet Petrarch thought Cologne’s twin-towered Cathedral on of the finest cathedrals in the world. I did not clime the 509 steps to the windswept gallery high in the 515 foot south tower even though I could have bragged that I had climbed the highest church tower in the world. It took 600 years to complete what was in its day the tallest man made structure on earth. Construction was done over Roman ruins after Frederick Barbarossa donate the relics of the Three Magi to Cologne establishing the city as a major pilgrimage destination. They are still on display in the original 12th century reliquary behind the high alter. Just south of the cathedral is the Germao-Roman Museum. While digging a bomb shelter, workers uncovered ancient Roman foundations, including a perfectly preserved mosaic floor from a Roman villa. Cologne was founded and established in the 1st century CE, and it was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and the headquarters of the military in the region. Cologne was an important city in Roman times. It is reasonable to assume that the spread of Christianity in any Roman province was preceded and accompanied by the existence there of Jews. The presence of Christians in Cologne in the 2nd century would therefore argue for the settlement of Jews in the city at that early date. To the Romans, Judaism was recognized as a religio licita (permitted religion), and Jews were exempt from the offering to the Emperor and to the offerings to the Roman state gods. However, Jews were refused access to public offices because these were the basic requirements for access to a public office. For the appointment to a town office a person was required to own land and to have a certain reputation. In Late Antiquity, the Roman upper class increasingly refused to participate in these expensive offices, and the Roman administration went into crisis and the emperor had to look for alternatives. It became necessary for the Cologne Council to use a decree of Emperor Constantine the Great of 321, which permitted Jews to be appointed to the curia. This is the first evidence of the existence of a Jewish community in the town of Cologne. The emperor's decree was passed down in the Codex Theodosianus (439), which indicates the existence of a firmly established Jewish community in Cologne in 321 and 331. A partial translation of the Codex reads: "We allow all town councils to appoint through general law, Jewish people in the Curia. To give them a certain compensation for the previous rules, we let that always two or three of them enjoy the privilege not to be taken to any office." Archaeological finds indicate the presence of Orientals at about that period, and among them there were Syrians, as is proved by an Aramaic inscription dug up in 1930. In another document, from 341, it is recorded that the synagogue was provided with the emperor's privilege. These decrees of Constantine remained for some centuries the only accounts of the existence of a Jewish community in Cologne. Like all the other cities along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers the Jewish population of Cologne was destroyed by the Crusaders, and the townspeople for allegedly causing the Black Death by poisoning the wells. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Cologne was a center of Jewish learning, and the "wise of Cologne" are frequently mentioned in rabbinical literature. A characteristic of the Talmudic authorities of that city was their liberality. Many liturgical poems still in the Ashkenazic ritual were composed by poets of Cologne. In 1485CE Elijah del Medigo teaches philosophy and Hebrew studies to the foremost Italian humanist of the age, Pico della Mirandola. Elijah is commissioned to translate Averroes commentary on Aristotle’s Meterology, parts of the Metaphysics, and paraphrase Plato’s Republic, sis treatises on Aristotle’s Logic and a series of annotations on the Physics into Latin. It was raining the day we had a walking tour of Nijrnege, the oldest city in the Netherlands, and since Toby and I were ill, neither of us were up for a walk in the rain. We also missed our excursion to Luxembourg and Schweich for the same reason. The following morning, we visited Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for a guided tour. Afterwards, we hand the pleasure of a narrated canal cruise along the city’s 17th century canal ring. The last time we were in Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum was being renovated, so one did not get the full majesty of this magnificent museum. So now I was able to revisit familiar painting that I couldn’t see before. The Night Watch by Rembrandt was sadly hidden by a machine that was restoring it, but I was able to see Vermeer’s Little Street, The Milkmaid, and several others. Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride, his self portrait, amazing doll houses, Delftware, the model of the William Rex ship, Meissen porcelains, Goya, Van Gogh – all wonderful treats for the eyes. River Cruise on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers 2019 You never want to have to change planes in Heathrow Airport in London. This we had to do to fly to Basel, Switzerland to begin our cruise. It was a very long walk between planes, the directions offered on signs were not clear, and there was no transportation available unless you had signed up prior to your visit. From now on, wherever we fly, we will pre-order transportation through the airport. The flight, as all flights should be was happily uneventful, and we landed at Basel and eventually found our tour. This was difficult, because there was an unaccompanied package that was found that forced everyone out of the designated meeting place, so we had to hunt for the Vantage bus. This we happily found and were transported to the boat. I learned that the difference between a boat and a ship was that a ship has life rafts, and a boat does not. This is as good a definition as any, though I think there may be more nautical type criteria. This is the second river cruise we have taken, the first being the one from Prague to Budapest on the Danube several years ago. I prefer river cruising to cruise ships for several reasons: River cruises are designed for older people so there are no children and no smoking. It generally takes several day on a ship to remember where our cabin is, but on the river, it’s either on the first, second, or third deck, and you can see from one end of the boat to the other. Dinner is open seating, and you can sit with whomever you like, where on many ships, you are assigned. And because there are usually about only 150 passengers, you get to converse with many people. Of course you don’t have the quality entertainment each night in the theater as you have on the ship, but the river cruise does offer professional artists. For example, one evening we had a male and female vocalists who sang opera very well, another night, a sting quartet, another young lady with a beautiful voice singing show music, a violinist, a pianist etc.. Performances were in the lounge. Nothing elaborate, and still entertaining. I thought the food was good, especially the evening when they served rack of lamb. Their soups were excellent, as was their Caesar salad. There were always four courses: appetizer, soup, entree, and dessert. Coffee and tea always followed, and there was a cheese selection. Since we were in mostly cruising through Germany, there were several dinners devoted to local cuisine featuring brats, sausages, and other pork products that looked wonderful. These I did not eat, but I did eat the veal. I had a little card at my place that informed the waiter that I was not to be served any pork or shell fish. Lunches were four courses also if you ordered from the menu, or there was always a salad bar. Breakfast was also a buffet with lots of healthy and not so healthy options. An omelette station was available. Our accommodations were quite nice with a king size bed, lots of closets, and a marble bathroom with a night light that was always on. We had a sliding door behind two chairs and a table, and while there was no balcony as there are on some boats, you did get the feeling of being one the water. Jo, the young man from Indonesia, took very good care of us, and we showed our appreciation with a generous tip that was in addition to the tip he would get when all the tips were split among the crew. Always chocolates on our pillows at night. The first evening we were there, we sat with two very nice couples from Pennsylvania. Stan, who was older than I was also a teacher, as was Bill. Laurie, Stan’s wife was a retired teacher, and Vera was a nurse. There was lots to talk about. We had just about each meal with them. Occasionally we had the pleasure of sitting with others for breakfast. Sadly, I became ill shortly after the trip began, and though I missed only two excursions, I did not meet as many people as I would have like to have met since I spent a good deal of my time in the cabin resting. There were two ethnic Indian couples who were very interesting, two ethnic Mexican women who were also very nice to be with, and two retired lady professors from Texas who I hope will stay in touch with me. One was a linguist, and one was a specialist in Medieval literature. Who knew that this late in life I would find someone who had also heard of Otto Jesperson and his Indo-European Hypothesis. Bazel, Switzerland: I was particularly interested in Basel because that the city where Theodore Herzl held the First Zionist Conference. Herzl wrote, “In Basel I found the Jewish state. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered with universal laughter. Perhaps in 5years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.” That was written August 29, 1897. Herzl was elected president. The Three Kings Hotel is the place where Herzl slept, and it was from a balcony in this hotel that the famous photo of him leaning on his arms looking over the Rhine. As I walked along with the tour guide, I asked him about the conference and Herzl. We happen to be passing by the hotel, and he pointed it out, and since we were all attached to his mike, everyone on the tour heard what he had to say. I realized that I and maybe a few others might be interested in the Jewish history of the places we were visiting, so I made it a point to asks such questions throughout the trip. I also realized that had I not done that, it would have been as if Jews had no history in these places. And since most if not all the towns we were to visit were settled by the Romans about 2000 years ago, you can bet that Jews were among the people who accompanied them. While the Swiss date their origin from 1291, Basel can look back on more than 2,000 years of history. While Basel is a modern city, there are still narrow streets and hidden squares with more than 180 fountains. Charming centuries-old buildings abound. The City Hall or Rathaus, is the seat of the Basel government and its parliament. In the midst of the Old Town, it is particularly eye-catching with its red facade, the characteristic tower and frescoes. It has a beautiful inner courtyard, and a most remarkable clock over the entrance. The City Hall dominates the market square were fresh vegetables, fruits, and flowers are available. Together with the Rathaus, the Cathedral is the most famous landmark of Basel. It has a very dramatic statue on the front of St. George killing a dragon, and a sun dial clock sitting above another clock. With its red sandstone walls, colorful roof tiles, and twin towers, no other building adorns the city scape like it. In our wanderings, we came across the Roman wall that we were able to look down upon through a glass window. I attended a wonderful exhibit in the Kunstrnuseum entitled, The Cubist Cosmos; from Picasso to Leger. The exhibit was dominated by works by Picasso and Braque. The museum also has a wonderful collection of Impressionists. First class exhibition. Since I was the one who had to initiate the questions that related to the Jewish history of the towns we visited, I have decided to devote the summary of the trip to the Medieval Jewish history of these places that few people know. “The people who win write the history,” and the Jews clearly did not win the battle for the minds and hearts of Christian Europe so mention of us in western history books ends with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and little reference is made to us until 1948 when Israel is born. For almost 2000 years, it is as if we did not exist. But we live and continue to live. I will also intersperse contributions Jews made to Western Civilization during the Medieval period to show that though brutalized, we made significant contributions. Between 1000 and 1148 CE, Jewish translators in Spain begin translating Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic texts into Latin, thus allowing European scholars to access to ancient wisdom, discoveries, and inventions. Breisach and Colmar, Germany was our next stop. With its timber houses and painted plaster, the town looks very much like it came out of a story book set in the Middle Ages. Add to this the small canals that crisscross the town, and you have a picture book fantasy. We walked through a large out door market selling all sorts of dairy products, vegetables, and breads, and then an indoor market right next to it with cases of meats, poultry, and everything that was sold on the outside. Colmar is big on the stork, and many houses have large nests on them. Storks bring babies and good luck. Of course there was the church and the spacious cloisters around which were large frescoes depicting religious scenes. The Musee Unterlinden at Colmar contains a 13th century cloister and houses a medieval art gallery whose center piece is this huge painting of the crucifixion on five large pieces of wood that fold in on itself. The rear of the piece is also painted with pictures of saints. The Bartholdi Museum is there, and though we visited the courtyard which is a lovely cobbled stone space with a dramatic statue in the center of three women facing a globe. We did not have time to go in. Bartholdi, if you don’t know, was the man who created the Statue of Liberty. We stopped for lunch at Restaurant Pfeffel which was in this wonderful exposed timber and plaster building also build centuries ago. Like the rest of Europe, the Jews of Colmar were treated badly from the 12th century on with a few moments of respite. During the reign of Robert of Bavaria the condition of the community improved. On Sept. 28, 1401, he granted the Jews of Colmar a renewal of their old privileges. But the hostility of the council of Colmar continued to manifest itself in many ways; and in 1437 the council secured from King Sigismund an edict prohibiting the citizens of Colmar from renting or selling houses to Jews without special permission from the mayor. In 1468, the council made changes in the statutes affecting Jews, and added the following clauses: "In addition to the yearly taxes, the Jews shall contribute to the tax for the maintenance of the fortress, and give New-Year gifts to the mayor. In case of war they shall pay supplementary taxes. They shall remain in their houses during Holy Week, Easter and the feasts of Corpus Christi and Assumption. Only unmarried children may reside with their parents, and no Jew shall harbor without special permission any foreign coreligionist. Foreign Jews shall pay, on entering the city, a 'blappert' at the gate, and a pfennig to the gatekeeper. If they wish to pass a night in the city, they shall pay one shilling. The city protects the Jews only from persons amenable to its tribunal." I found the synagogue, but wasn’t sure if it was the building I could see in the distance. A police car was sitting at a light and I asked in broken French if they could tell me where the synagogue was. They said they did not know, yet they were sitting on a one way street that ran past the building. Draw your own conclusions. The building was closed, and there were several plaques commemorating the murdered Jews of the Holocaust, and the history of the building. In 1204 Maimonides, French rabbinic commentator, doctor, and philosopher, reconciles Aristotelian ideal of balance with faith allowing philosophy to buttress religious faith. This was a major influence on Thomas Aquinas. Strabourg, France: Strasbourg is the capital city of the Alsace region in northeastern France. I’ts the seat of the European Parliament and sits near the German boarder with culture and architecture blending German and French influences. Our introduction to Strasbourg was from a boat, and moving in and out of the canals reminded me of our visit to Bruge and Amsterdam. The Cathedral de Notre Dame, is a Medieval masterpiece built between 1176 and 1439. During the Middle Ages, its 469 foot spire was the higest in Europe. The cathedral has an Astrometric clock that still announces the hours after 300 years. There is a statue on the clock of the clock’s creator admiring his masterpiece. The sculptures on the facade of the cathedral are so intricate, and so numerous, I could not help but wonder if Anton Gaudi was inspired by this church to design the intricate facade of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. We found the opera house but it was closed to visitors, so we decided to have lunch on the balcony of the building. I had a local beer and a very plentiful salad of greens, asparagus, and goat cheese beautifully presented. There was a very nice breeze One of the streets we walked past was Rue Des Juifs Judegass. There were such streets in most of the town we visited attesting to a Jewish presence. The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a "large number of learned men" in "Astransbourg"; and it is assumed that it dates back to around the year 1000. Although Jewish life in Alsace was often disrupted by outbreaks of pogroms, at least during the Middle Ages, and reined in by harsh restrictions on business and movement, it has had a continuous existence ever since it was first recorded. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people. The language traditionally spoken by the Jews of Alsace was Judeo-Alsatian (Yédisch-Daïtsch), originally a mixture of Middle High German, Old Alsatian, Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic, and largely indistinguishable from Western Yiddish. From the 12th century onwards, due among other things to the influence of the nearby Rashi school, French linguistic elements were incorporated as well; and from the 18th century onwards, due to immigration, some Polish elements were blended into Yédisch-Daïtsch too. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning the wells with plague. On February 14, Saint Valentine's day, several hundred Jews were massacred during the Strasbourg pogrom. The Black Death which killed about one-third of Europe’s population, was blamed on the Jews despite the fact that the plague also killed Jews. Jews were first tortured to confess to spreading the Black Death in 1348 in Switzerland, and the verdict was that all Jews from the age of seven, cannot excuse themselves from this crime. Jewish children under the age of seven were then baptized and reared as Christians after their families were murdered. If fewer Jews died in the Black Death, it was because of the Jewish laws of family purity which demanded that Jews attend the ritual baths regularly. The Christian population, from the king to the peasant, avoided regular bathing and stank. The Inquisition used this reality by smelling people to see if they stank. People who didn’t were accused of being Jews. Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town and were reminded every evening at 10 o'clock by a Cathedral bell and a municipal herald blowing the "Grüselhorn" to leave. Alsatian Jews then settled in the neighboring villages and small towns, where many of them became cloth merchants or cattle merchants. Today, Strasbourg is an active, highly organized, intellectual Jewish community of about 12, 500 persons. Most of the chief rabbis of France have come from this center of Jewry, which as deep roots in the province of Alsace. In 1145CE Abrhm Bar Hiyya, a Jewish astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher in Barcelona, introduces the scientific method into Europe and deals with practical geometry and algebra in an original ways. This Hebrew work is translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli, an apostate. Heidelberg, Germany: Ever since I saw the movie, The Student Prince, by Sigmund Romberg, I wanted to see Heidelberg. Mario Lanza was supposed to star in it, but he had become too heavy to fit into the costumes so Edmund Purdom was picked to play the prince, and Lanza did the musical voice overs. I had another reason. A very distant cousin, Lazer Bayme survived the Holocaust, and returned to Heidelberg to attend medical school. I could never understand why anyone who survived the Shoah would want to return to the place where it all began. But I was much younger when I wondered that, and now I can see how his return might have closed an open gestalt. In a magnificent hilltop setting of woodland and terraced gardens sits Heidelberg’s magnificent Schloss, probably the country’s most famous castle. Sacked by French troops under Louis XIV in 1689, it has remained a dignified ruin that inspired the Romantic painters and poets from around the world. Mark Twain described it as “the Lear of inanimate nature-deserted, discrowned, beaten by the storms, but royal still and beautiful.” From the Philosopher’s Walk, one has a wonderful view of the Keckar River that runs though the red roofed town below. The University of Heidelberg is Germany’s oldest, founded in 1386. In 1272, Judah ben Moses and Isaac ibn Sid create the famous “Alfonsine Tables” which are widely used by navigators and also by Kepler and Galileo centuries later. Speyer, Germany: We visited Speyer, with its lovely Medieval town center that escaped the bombs of WWII. Speyer had a rich Jewish community life between 1184 and 1349, but the tour did not go to the ruins of the synagogue, the ritual bath and the museum. The first record of the Jews in Speyer dates from 1070, and in 1084 there is a major influx of Jews fleeing the pogroms in Mainz and Worms. Bishop Huzmann invited Jews in in 1084 with a charter granting protection. Jews were important to the bishop because of their skills in trade, their foreign connections, and their financial acumen. Besides, money was needed for the building of the cathedral, and the Jews would be an important resource. Jews paid protective fees and were able to loan vast sums of money throughout the kingdom to bishops, lords, and kings who also granted protection. But 12 years after the charter was granted, a wave of progoms swept the country triggred by the plague and the accusation that the Jews caused it by poisoning the wells. This was followed by the First Crusade in 1096. Eleven Jews were murdered in Speyer, and the others were saved by the bishop who moved the Jews into his palace, thus saving a valuable resource of revenues. One thousand Jews were slaughtered in Mainz, and 800 in Worms. A contemporary chronicler, Guilbert de Nogent, quoted the Crusaders of Rouen; “We desire to go and fight God’s enemies in the East; but we have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical to God than any other.” Wherever Crusaders found Jews they offered them the choice of Christianity or death. In May 1096, upon learning of the Crusaders’ murder of the Jews of Speyer, the Jews of Worms sought assistance. Some Jews sought refuge in the palace of Bishhop Adalbert, while others, having been promised help by the local burghers, remained in their homes. Those in their homes were immediately murdered, while those in the palace, after refusing Bishop Adalbert’s offer to save them if they converted, were murdered under the bishop’s orders. Those who saved their lives by converting were prohibited by returning to Judaism and formalized by a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent III. “...he who is led to Christianity by violence, by fear, and by torture, and who received the sacrament of baptism to avoid harm receives indeed the stamp of Christianity...and must abide by the faith they had accepted by force.” Of course the money loaned to bishops, lords and kings never had to be repaid if the Jews who loaned them the money were murdered or expelled. Though horror stories abound regarding the treatment of Jews at the hands of their Christian neighbors, and Church officials, there were many outstanding contributions Jews made in the middle ages that are not acknowledged. For example, the art of glass making was already 2,000 years old when Rome was founded. The invention of high-temperature furnaces for smelting iron developed by Mesopotamian smiths were wedded to the Sumerian discovery for glazing and glassmaking was born. The secret traveled to Canaan along the biblical route followed by Abraham, and remained there untill Judaic practitioners brought it to Europe following the Roman conquest. Two Roman emperors identified the glassmakers of their times as Jews; Hadrian who reported that the Jews of Alexandria were “blowers of glass.” Diocletian listed two classes of glassware; viti Alexandrini, and vitri Iudaici or Jew glass which had become a generic term for glassware in Latin. Jewish glassmakers followed the Roman legions into the heart of Europe and southeastern France, Cologne, and other cities along the Rhine could also claim a glass making industry established mainly by Jewish glassmakers in the 1st century. Trier was the oldest Judaic settlement in Germany, and the first glass houses of the Rhineland were founded there. But Christianity became dominant, and St. Jerome accused the “Semitic” artisans of having a strangle hold on the Roman world because of their unique skills. So the church launched a campaign to convert or displace the Jews from manual trades by placing artisans guilds under the patronage of Christian saints. But in Cologne where Jews were barred from almost all industrial occupations, they were still allowed to become glaziers because no other qualified personnel were available. Be assured that the magnificent stained glass windows we admire in most or not all of these Gothic churches would not be there had the Jews not brought their talents to these French and German cities. Mainz is another one of those picturesque Medieval towns with the big church, the town square, the colorful timber and plaster houses, and lots of cobble stone streets. After a while, they merge into one. Mainz, once a center of Jewish study, suffered the same horrors at the hands of the populous and the church so there is no need to go into specifics. What Mainz does have is St. Stephen’s Church. What singles this church out from the others is that it is the only German church for which the Jewish artist Marc Chagall created windows. Blue light shines through the stained glass into the interior of the church, and not only angels but other Biblical figures move apparently ethereally in this light. Equally important is the Mainizer Dom, or the many towered Gothic cathedral with equally magnificent windows that were hidden during the Second World War. And across the square from the cathedral is the The Gutenberg Museum, one of the oldest museums of printing in the world. It is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing from movable metal type in Western Europe. The collections include printing equipment and examples of printed materials from many cultures. Actual printing was developed in China. A group of people founded the museum in 1900, 500 years after Johannes Gutenberg’s birth, to honor the inventor and present his technical and artistic achievements to the public at large. They also aimed to exhibit the writing and printing of as many different cultures as possible. Publishers, manufacturers of printing machines and printing houses donated books, apparatus and machines, which formed the basis of the collection. In its first few years the museum was part of the city library, meaning that the most beautiful and characteristic volumes from the library’s extensive collection could be requisitioned for the museum. Visitors were thus presented with a survey of almost 500 years of the printed book. In time the museum expanded to include sections on printing techniques, book art, job printing and ex-libris, graphics and posters, paper, the history of writing of all cultures of the world and modern artists’ books. In 1927 the museum was able to move into the Zum Römischen Kaiser (1664), one of the most beautiful buildings in Mainz. This is now where the museum's administration, the restoration workshop, library and Gutenberg Society are housed. The Late Renaissance building was heavily bombed in 1945; the museum's contents had been stored in a safe place and thus remained intact. And speaking of things related to books, in 1518 Elias Levita, an Italian Jew, crfeates the first copyright sttement in a book entitled, The Grammar of Elias Levita. There is also a Talmudic decree that forbids writing a passage from the Torah without showing by a symbol that the statement is not an original thought of the writer: Thus, the quotation marks are created. Our guide, after I asked the question about the Jews of Mainz, pointed out a small bronze square impregnated into the sidewalk. He said that such squares were all over Germany, and part of a memorial to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Each plaque carries the name of the deceased, when they were deported, and where and when they died. In 1271 CE Jacob of Ancona in northern Italy travels by boat to China four years before Marco Polo to open up trade and write about what he finds. On either side of the Rhine River are vineyards unlike any I have ever seen. Unlike our vineyards, these rise on terraces and the angles the gatherers must negotiate to harvest the grapes form precipitous angles. I was told that they had to wear safety harnesses. Some of the days were absolutely perfect, so we sat on the top deck marveling at the miles of vineyards, and noticed that the name of the vineyard was proudly displayed on the side of the mountain. Reading and understanding a German wine label is daunting with all the long, unpronounceable words, but each will contain the name of the producer, the vintage, the region, and sometimes the name of the grape. Try pronouncing Trocenbeerenauslese. That’s a dessert wine made from shriveled grapes. We glided past the proverbial “castles on the Rhine,” learning that most of these castles and many of the towns on the tour were deliberately burned and destroyed during the many wars Germany had with France. It seemed that the French took great pleasure in destroying all things German. The Rhine remains a major artery for the transportation of all sorts of goods. Barge after barge passed us. It was especially interesting to go through the many locks created to allow shipping to be raised or lowered. The Rhine had been straightened so it could become the waterway it is today. We did see the statue of The Lorelei, on the banks. She is the legendary woman who lured sailors to their deaths with her song. Very like the Sirens of Greek mythology. In 1233, Moses of Palermo translates into Latin from the Greek Hippocrates treatise on the diseases of horses. This book becomes the source of most veterinary writings from his day to the late Renaissance. Koblenz, Germany: Where Rhine and Moselle join, lies a city that pays tribute to both famous rivers: Koblenz - the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. In more than 2000 years of history, Koblenz saw many armies come and go but the city kept the best of all conquests. The Prussians left behind the huge construction high above Koblenz, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, that made the city to the greatest bastion on the old continent. On top of that, the fortress is home to the Koblenz State Museum. Stolzenfels Castle and the neo-classical Theater are well maintained as is the great equestrian monument of Emperor William I where the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers meet The Jewish community of Koblenz was annihilated during the Black Death pogroms of 1348/49. Although Jews resettled in Koblenz at some point after the pogroms, they were expelled from the town in 1418, and it was not, in fact, until 1518 that a lasting Jewish presence was established there. The community of the Middle Ages maintained houses of worship and a cemetery, the latter of which was consecrated in 1303 and later used by the modern community. Many prominent rabbis lived in or were associated with Koblenz. I found another plaque embedded among the cobble stones in Koblenz, and one that tells the history of the synagogue that once stood on that spot. Though the plaque was written in German, I found it odd that they referred to WWII as the Nationalsozialisten War or the war of the national socialists. The word Nazi is not used. They also do not use the term “Kristalnacht,” the night of broken glass where Jewish businesses were destroyed, synagogues were burned, and Jews were rounded up and murdered. I forgot the term they use. In 1281 Isaac Solomon Sahula writes a book stating the world is a globe and when it is light on one side, it is dark on the other. In 1300CE, Jacob Ben Makhir compiles a series of astronomical tables/almanac that will be used by Dante in structuring his vision of the Divine Comedy. Five years later he writes in the Zohar that the earth is round and it rotates. This is 2000 years before Copernicus. He also invents a quadrant used during the Renaissance called the quadrans judaicus. Bernkastel, Germany: A name to make the wine connoisseurs’s hearts beat faster, Bernkastel is the center of the vineyards of the Moselle has Bernkastel has a lot to offer: the ruins of Landshut Castle, the half-timbered houses with their sttp roofs and the market place with its fountain. The market square is considered to be the perfect example of German town architecture, and is one of the classic tourist destinations of the Moselle region. The Michael’s Fountain was built in 1606, and the Renaissance-style town hall built in 1608, and the much photographed “pointed house” built in 1416 show the vibrance of the place. The Pointed House is typical of a traditional old Moselle-Style winegrower’s house withits oak-beamed wine cellar supported by blocks of slate, the upper floors protruding outwards on both sides and the tall attic for storing winter food and accomodating pets. I was once given a bottle of Bernkastel Doctor which is the premier wine of the region, but to have another would cost me $40.00, and I just don’t pay that kind of money for a bottle of wine. In 1310 CE Levi ben Gerson, an eminent astronomer who influenced Copernicus, is credited by some writers with the discovery of the camerra obcura, the first kind of camera known. In 1335CE, he also is the first to describe and reputedly invents a quadrant which was used for centuries by navigators including Columbus, Magllan etc. It’s called Jacob’s Staff. Levi ben Gerson also lays the foundation of trigonometry. Trier, Germany: Trier, the oldest city in Germany is located on both sides of the Moselle River bank. At the entrance to the old town stand the Porta Nigra, a fortified Roman gateway whose truly colossal dimensions make it a unique monument of its kind and time. It was built of the distinctive light sandstone by placing one row of huge blocks on top of another, and then joining them with iron clamps without using any mortar. Its construction dates from the 2nd century CE when Trier was surrounded by walls with their towers and gates. The Amphitheater on the outskirts of the modern as well as the Roman town, was built to accommodate 20,000 spectators. Much of the original stone was used for quarrying in the Middle Ages. The Roman bridge played an important role in the town’s development. One of the best preserved Roman building is a three storied Constantine Basilica. It’s constructed of red brick that I think it was once the Roman seat of government. The interior is a massive open space with two tiers of arched windows rising to a corbeled wooden ceiling. It is truly an impressive structure. We stopped by a beautiful white, pink and gold Baroque Electoral Palace that may be the seat of government today. There is also a massive Romanesque style cathedral that dominates a beautiful town square. Trier's "Judengasse" leads into the former medieval Jewish Quarter. I found a small plaque by chance indicating the area. Locally produced weights with Hebrew inscriptions show that there were Jews in Trier as early as the first or second century. Starting with the eleventh century, we have records of a Jewish community in Trier, and in 1235 four Jews had four houses built on the left of the later Judengasse. The cellars are still the original ones; in the Pub Abwaerts, you can still see the walled-up entrance to a flight tunnel leading to the Cathedral Close. The Jews were expelled from Trier in 1418. Many Jews went east; Yiddish has preserved traces of Trier Middle High German up to today. When the Jews were called back after 1600, they settled in different parts of the city. Since the Holocaust of the Nazi era, the Jewish community in Trier is quite small. The New Synagogue is located in Kaiserstrasse. No other person influenced the history of the 19th and 20th centuries as did Karl Marx who was born in Trier on May 5, 1818, as the third child of the lawyer Heinrich Marx and his wife Henrietta. The parents came from an extremely traditional rabbinic family, but converted, however, under the rule of Prussia to Protestantism because the father would otherwise not have been able to continue his career as a lawyer in the Prussian legal system. In 1377CE Abraham Crescas a cartographer living in Majorca creates the the Catalan Atlas incorporating the information brought back by Marco Polo. Cochem, Germany: There may not be a lovelier scene in Germany than the town of Cochem, couched in the high, vine-clad slopes of the Moselle Valley. The town of half-timbered and gabled houses built on steep, narrow alleys that twist and turn, and medieval gates is on a loop in the river, under the steady watch of the Romantic Reichsburg castle. The town boasts houses with typical slate roofs, an historical market place, Medieval town gates, churches and walls. Excellent Riesling wines are served everywhere you go. Cochem’s crowning glory is a Medieval toll castle, rebuilt in a Romantic style in the 1870s after its complete destruction by the French. No matter which route you take into Cochem your gaze will be drawn to this fantasy-like sight and its giant four-storey octagonal tower far above the river. The many delicate pointed towers, battlements, and oriels give the impression of a typical fairy tale castle. The castle goes back to the start of the 12th century. There are remnants of the Medieval building in the ring wall, octagonal tower, “Hexenturm” witch’s gate and the building housing the great hall (Rittersaal). But most of what we see today was done in the Neo-Renaissance style when the Berlin banker Louis Fréderic Jacques Ravené restored the property according to the Romantic tastes of the 19th century. A lot of the city’s original wall has survived, including three of four of the 14th-century gates, testifying to an eventful past when Cochem was an Imperial Estate. Jews are first mentioned there in 1242. In 1287, following the blood libel of Oberwesel, 17 Jews, including ten children, were massacred in Cochem. In the 14th century the town came under the rule of the archbishops of Trier, and Jews are frequently mentioned in documents concerning money lending and property transactions. Cochem Jews were victims of the Armleder massacres in 1337 and the Black Death massacres in 1349. There were Jews living in Cochem in 1359; they were expelled in 1418. In the middle of the 16th century Jews are again mentioned in the town but they were expelled in 1589. There is information about Jews in Cochem from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The community numbered 49 in 1834, 104 in 1894, and 49 in 1932. It came to an end during the Holocaust. The synagogue, built in 1861, was destroyed in 1945. The Jewish cemetery has been preserved. I found two plaques related to the history of the Jews of Cochem and what happened to them. In 1480 CE Abraham Zacuto, a Spanish Jew, compiles a navigational guide and invents a more precise astrolab that was used by Colombus and de Gama. Cologne, Germany: The 14th century poet Petrarch thought Cologne’s twin-towered Cathedral on of the finest cathedrals in the world. I did not clime the 509 steps to the windswept gallery high in the 515 foot south tower even though I could have bragged that I had climbed the highest church tower in the world. It took 600 years to complete what was in its day the tallest man made structure on earth. Construction was done over Roman ruins after Frederick Barbarossa donate the relics of the Three Magi to Cologne establishing the city as a major pilgrimage destination. They are still on display in the original 12th century reliquary behind the high alter. Just south of the cathedral is the Germao-Roman Museum. While digging a bomb shelter, workers uncovered ancient Roman foundations, including a perfectly preserved mosaic floor from a Roman villa. Cologne was founded and established in the 1st century CE, and it was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and the headquarters of the military in the region. Cologne was an important city in Roman times. It is reasonable to assume that the spread of Christianity in any Roman province was preceded and accompanied by the existence there of Jews. The presence of Christians in Cologne in the 2nd century would therefore argue for the settlement of Jews in the city at that early date. To the Romans, Judaism was recognized as a religio licita (permitted religion), and Jews were exempt from the offering to the Emperor and to the offerings to the Roman state gods. However, Jews were refused access to public offices because these were the basic requirements for access to a public office. For the appointment to a town office a person was required to own land and to have a certain reputation. In Late Antiquity, the Roman upper class increasingly refused to participate in these expensive offices, and the Roman administration went into crisis and the emperor had to look for alternatives. It became necessary for the Cologne Council to use a decree of Emperor Constantine the Great of 321, which permitted Jews to be appointed to the curia. This is the first evidence of the existence of a Jewish community in the town of Cologne. The emperor's decree was passed down in the Codex Theodosianus (439), which indicates the existence of a firmly established Jewish community in Cologne in 321 and 331. A partial translation of the Codex reads: "We allow all town councils to appoint through general law, Jewish people in the Curia. To give them a certain compensation for the previous rules, we let that always two or three of them enjoy the privilege not to be taken to any office." Archaeological finds indicate the presence of Orientals at about that period, and among them there were Syrians, as is proved by an Aramaic inscription dug up in 1930. In another document, from 341, it is recorded that the synagogue was provided with the emperor's privilege. These decrees of Constantine remained for some centuries the only accounts of the existence of a Jewish community in Cologne. Like all the other cities along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers the Jewish population of Cologne was destroyed by the Crusaders, and the townspeople for allegedly causing the Black Death by poisoning the wells. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Cologne was a center of Jewish learning, and the "wise of Cologne" are frequently mentioned in rabbinical literature. A characteristic of the Talmudic authorities of that city was their liberality. Many liturgical poems still in the Ashkenazic ritual were composed by poets of Cologne. Here are the names of many rabbis and scholars of the 11th and 12th centuries: the legendary Amram, traditional founder of the Talmudic school in the 10th century; R. Jacob ben Yaar, disciple of Gerson Meor ha-Golah (1050); the liturgist Eliakim ben Joseph; Eliezer ben Nathan (1070–1152), the chronicler of the First Crusade; the poet Eliezer ben Simson, who, together with the last named, took part in the famous assembly of French and German rabbis about the mid-12th century; the Tosafist Samuel ben Natronai and his son Mordecai; the liturgist Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi (d. 1200); Uri ben Eliakim (mid-12th century); R. Eliakim ben Judah; Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn (b. 1132), the chronicler of the Second Crusade. The last lost at Cologne, in 1171, his son Eliakim, a promising youth, who was murdered in the street. His tombstone is still to be seen in the cemetery of Cologne. Among the rabbis and scholars of the 13th century were: Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi; Uri ben Joel ha-Levi; Jehiel ben Uri, father of R. Asher; Isaac ben Simson (martyred in 1266); Isaac ben Abraham, brother of the Tosafist Simson ben Abraham of Sens (martyred in 1266 at Sinzig); R. Isaiah ben Nehemiah (also martyred in 1266 at Sinzig); The rabbis and scholars of the 14th century include: Samuel ben Menahem, Talmudist and liturgist; Jedidiah ben Israel, disciple of Meïr of Rothenburg; and Mordecai ben Samuel. In Middle Ages there were in Cologne the following buildings, synagogues, mikvehs, schools, hospices and cemeteri In 1485CE Elijah del Medigo teaches philosophy and Hebrew studies to the foremost Italian humanist of the age, Pico della Mirandola. Elijah is commissioned to translate Averroes commentary on Aristotle’s Meterology, parts of the Metaphysics, and paraphrase Plato’s Republic, sis treatises on Aristotle’s Logic and a series of annotations on the Physics into Latin. It was raining the day we had a walking tour of Nijrnege, the oldest city in the Netherlands, and since Toby and I were ill, neither of us were up for a walk in the rain. We also missed our excursion to Luxembourg and Schweich for the same reason. The following morning, we visited Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for a guided tour. Afterwards, we hand the pleasure of a narrated canal cruise along the city’s 17th century canal ring. The last time we were in Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum was being renovated, so one did not get the full majesty of this magnificent museum. So now I was able to revisit familiar painting that I couldn’t see before. The Night Watch by Rembrandt was sadly hidden by a machine that was restoring it, but I was able to see Vermeer’s Little Street, The Milkmaid, and several others. Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride, his self portrait, amazing doll houses, Delftware, the model of the William Rex ship, Meissen porcelains, Goya, Van Gogh – all wonderful treats for the eyes. |
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