Central European Regulations on the Taxation of Jews and Kosher Food, Composite Register of Printed and Manuscript Instructions for Tax Collectors

Composite register of printed and manuscript regulations related to the taxation of Jews and kosher food in Central Europe.

Special taxes on Jews were a defining feature of fiscal policy in the Habsburg lands in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While Emperor Joseph II, through his edicts of toleration, formally abolished several older imposts that had explicitly targeted Jews, Jewish households remained subject to a complex regime of toleration payments and indirect taxes. The Habsburg state made systematic use of taxes on kosher meat, wine, and fish as part of its strategy for raising revenue from Jewish communities. The present item, a working handbook for tax collectors charged with administering Jewish household taxes and levies on kosher provisions in and around Brünn, reflects precisely this context. The volume is a substantial composite of printed and manuscript material intended for Habsburg officials. Together, its components form a coherent administrative handbook for the regulation and collection of Jewish taxes at the local level, particularly levies on kosher meat, fish, and wine, which had become an important instrument of Jewish fiscal policy in Bohemia, Moravia, and other Habsburg provinces by the turn of the nineteenth century.

The register is divided into two main parts, with additional loose documents attached. The first is a printed section in red and black containing three distinct sets of instructions, all promulgated in Brünn, each followed by detailed appendices: an Instruction of 31 October 1798; an Instruction of 9 August 1805; and a further Instruction of 31 October 1798. These increasingly detailed ordinances provide guidance for the collection of taxes on Jewish families and on the consumption, trade, and possible export of kosher meat, fish, kosher wine, and related products. They include model passes and forms naming dozens of individuals—Joshua Nathan, Moses Sitgras, Moses Binder, Salomon Bleicher, Simon and Markus Ehrlich, Salomon Deutsch, Salomon Hirsch, Moses Ehrenreich, Levi Mayer, Aaron Kraus, Samson Auspi(t)zer, among others—along with their places of residence, towns of origin, or, for travelers, destinations. The most frequently mentioned towns are Brünn, Lamboritz, Nikolsburg, Auspitz, Vienna, Holitsch in Hungary, and Jägensdorf in Silesia; the countries named include Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and Poland. In terms of content, the instructions go so far as to specify which parts of the animal, being non‑kosher or “tröfe,” are not subject to tax; the condition required of the slaughtering knife; the involvement of the local rabbi; and the risks of de‑kashering the meat during handling. The purchase of fish for the Sabbath meal is specifically mentioned (“der Fisch Einkauf zur Shabes Mahlzeit”), and particularly detailed sections concern kosher wine and its trade.

The second part of the volume consists of later handwritten copies, in German and by several hands, of more than seventy supplementary instructions dated between August 1830 and June 1833. These short orders—typically one or two pages—likewise concern the collection of taxes on Jews and their food and contain numerous references back to the printed instructions in the first part. Enclosed with the volume are six additional unbound printed documents on Jewish taxation, one undated and the others issued between October 1830 and March 1833 (one a six‑page folio), as well as three loose documents: one signed by a bishop and two dealing with coins under the reign of Maria Theresa. A rare composite working handbook combining printed instructions, manuscript updates, and related loose documents on Jewish food taxation.

Physical Description

Composite register, folio (various sizes; approximately 14 1/8 x 8 1/2 in.; 360 x 215 mm), 192 leaves, often folded, plus additional loose material. Part I (ff. 2–146; pp. 1–146): printed on paper in red and black, in German, comprising three sets of instructions and their appendices as follows: Instruction of 31 October 1798, ff. 2–6, with appendices, ff. 7–11; Instruction of 9 August 1805, ff. 12–18, with appendices, ff. 19–41; Instruction of 31 October 1798, ff. 42–78, with appendices, ff. 79–146. Part II (ff. 147–192): manuscript in ink, in German, by several hands, later pagination 1–91, with two unpaginated flyleaves; together with six unbound printed documents (one undated and five dated between October 1830 and March 1833, including one six‑page folio) and three loose documents (one episcopal document and two concerning coinage from the reign of Maria Theresa); intermittent toning, soiling, and dampstaining, with a few small spots. Contemporary parchment, gilt tooled spine with parchment label; the ink lettering on the label is faded, bowing and soiling to boards.

Literature

Michael Laurence Miller, Rabbis and Revolution: The Jews of Moravia in the Age of Emancipation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010).