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שמשון ורטהיימר

Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724), court Jew, financier, scholar, sיtadlan, philanthropist and rabbi, born at Worms, Germany, and died at Vienna, Austria. He was educated at the yeshivot of Worms and Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 1684 he married the widow of Nathan Oppenheimer and as a result came into contact with Samuel Oppenheimer who invited him to Vienna and appointed him manager of his affairs and presented him to the Emperor Leopold I.

Wertheimer became the wealthiest Jew of his day; from 1694 to 1709 Wertheimer was the chief administrator of the finances of Leopold and his two successors, Joseph I and Charles VI. In the Spanish War of Succession and the war against Turkey, Wertheimer together with Samuel Oppenheimer procured the funds needed for the equipment of the imperial army and for the supply of provisions. After Oppenheimer's death in 1703, Wertheimer found new sources of income. In 1703, the emperor appointed him court factor, and extended for twenty years his privileges of free religious worship, residency, and immunity from taxation. Joseph I., who succeeded his father in 1705, confirmed Wertheimer's title and privileges. Emperor Charles VI confirmed him as "Landesrabbiner", which the Jews of Hungary had originally bestowed on Wertheimer. According to a contemporary account of one of his relatives, Abraham Levi, Wertheimer was also called the "Juden Kaiser". Ten imperial soldiers stood as sentinels before his house. He owned several palaces in Vienna, and numerous estates and houses in Frankfurt am Main, Worms, and other cities. He established schools, and distributed large amounts of money in Europe and in the Holy Land.

Throughout his career Wertheim continued to study Talmud. He left a volume of number of drashot which he had delivered in the private synagogue in his house. Many questions and requests for advise were submitted to him and to the rabbinical court over which he presided; Moses Meir Perls, for many years Wertheimer's secretary and almoner, refers to him in his "Megillat Sefer" (1709) as "a rabbi of great congregations in Israel". In some works Wertheimer is called "rabbi of Prague and Bohemia"; but he did not accept this title. His reputation spread even to the Orient, where he was described as a "prince of the Holy Land" and given the title of "rabbi of Hebron and Safed". His native city also honored him with the title of rabbi. He and his son-in-law Moses Kann bore the greater part of the expense of printing the Babylonian Talmud at Frankfurt am Main in 1712-1722.

When Eisenmenger's anti-Semitic Entdecktes Judenthum ("Judaism disclosed") appeared at Frankfurt in 1700, Wertheimer addressed to Emperor Leopold a petition in which he exposed the grave dangers which the malicious and slanderous attack of the unscrupulous author would bring upon the Jews. Accordingly, the 2,000 copies of the book were confiscated, and for years its sale was forbidden. When the Jewish congregation of Eisenstadt had been dispersed after the Rakoczy riots in 1708, many of the wealthier members of the community had taken refuge in Vienna, Wertheimer persuaded them to return or to help their poorer brethren rebuild the congregation. He himself built a new synagogue in Eisenstadt which for many years was called "Samson's Schule". He helped to establish about forty congregations in Hungary. In Frankfurt am Main he founded and endowed a Yeshiva, whose head was his son-in-law Moses Kann.

By the marriages of his children, Wertheimer became connected with the most prominent families of Austria and Germany. His stepson Isaac Nathan Oppenheimer married a daughter of the wealthy purveyor Pösing; his eldest son, Wolf, married a daughter of Emanuel Oppenheimer. Samson's second son, Löb, married a daughter of Issachar ha-Levi Bermann of Halberstadt, a relative of Leffman Behrens, court Jew of Hanover; thus the three great "shtadlanin" were closely connected. Samson's sons-in-law were: R. Moses Kann of Frankfort-on-the-Main; Issacbar Berush Eskeles, father of the Vienna banker Bernhard Eskeles; Joseph, son of R. David Oppenheimer; and Seligmann Berend Kohn, called Solomon of Hamburg. His youngest son, Joseph Josel (b. 1718), married a daughter of his stepbrother Wolf.

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שמשון ורטהיימר

Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724), court Jew, financier, scholar, sיtadlan, philanthropist and rabbi, born at Worms, Germany, and died at Vienna, Austria. He was educated at the yeshivot of Worms and Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 1684 he married the widow of Nathan Oppenheimer and as a result came into contact with Samuel Oppenheimer who invited him to Vienna and appointed him manager of his affairs and presented him to the Emperor Leopold I.

Wertheimer became the wealthiest Jew of his day; from 1694 to 1709 Wertheimer was the chief administrator of the finances of Leopold and his two successors, Joseph I and Charles VI. In the Spanish War of Succession and the war against Turkey, Wertheimer together with Samuel Oppenheimer procured the funds needed for the equipment of the imperial army and for the supply of provisions. After Oppenheimer's death in 1703, Wertheimer found new sources of income. In 1703, the emperor appointed him court factor, and extended for twenty years his privileges of free religious worship, residency, and immunity from taxation. Joseph I., who succeeded his father in 1705, confirmed Wertheimer's title and privileges. Emperor Charles VI confirmed him as "Landesrabbiner", which the Jews of Hungary had originally bestowed on Wertheimer. According to a contemporary account of one of his relatives, Abraham Levi, Wertheimer was also called the "Juden Kaiser". Ten imperial soldiers stood as sentinels before his house. He owned several palaces in Vienna, and numerous estates and houses in Frankfurt am Main, Worms, and other cities. He established schools, and distributed large amounts of money in Europe and in the Holy Land.

Throughout his career Wertheim continued to study Talmud. He left a volume of number of drashot which he had delivered in the private synagogue in his house. Many questions and requests for advise were submitted to him and to the rabbinical court over which he presided; Moses Meir Perls, for many years Wertheimer's secretary and almoner, refers to him in his "Megillat Sefer" (1709) as "a rabbi of great congregations in Israel". In some works Wertheimer is called "rabbi of Prague and Bohemia"; but he did not accept this title. His reputation spread even to the Orient, where he was described as a "prince of the Holy Land" and given the title of "rabbi of Hebron and Safed". His native city also honored him with the title of rabbi. He and his son-in-law Moses Kann bore the greater part of the expense of printing the Babylonian Talmud at Frankfurt am Main in 1712-1722.

When Eisenmenger's anti-Semitic Entdecktes Judenthum ("Judaism disclosed") appeared at Frankfurt in 1700, Wertheimer addressed to Emperor Leopold a petition in which he exposed the grave dangers which the malicious and slanderous attack of the unscrupulous author would bring upon the Jews. Accordingly, the 2,000 copies of the book were confiscated, and for years its sale was forbidden. When the Jewish congregation of Eisenstadt had been dispersed after the Rakoczy riots in 1708, many of the wealthier members of the community had taken refuge in Vienna, Wertheimer persuaded them to return or to help their poorer brethren rebuild the congregation. He himself built a new synagogue in Eisenstadt which for many years was called "Samson's Schule". He helped to establish about forty congregations in Hungary. In Frankfurt am Main he founded and endowed a Yeshiva, whose head was his son-in-law Moses Kann.

By the marriages of his children, Wertheimer became connected with the most prominent families of Austria and Germany. His stepson Isaac Nathan Oppenheimer married a daughter of the wealthy purveyor Pösing; his eldest son, Wolf, married a daughter of Emanuel Oppenheimer. Samson's second son, Löb, married a daughter of Issachar ha-Levi Bermann of Halberstadt, a relative of Leffman Behrens, court Jew of Hanover; thus the three great "shtadlanin" were closely connected. Samson's sons-in-law were: R. Moses Kann of Frankfort-on-the-Main; Issacbar Berush Eskeles, father of the Vienna banker Bernhard Eskeles; Joseph, son of R. David Oppenheimer; and Seligmann Berend Kohn, called Solomon of Hamburg. His youngest son, Joseph Josel (b. 1718), married a daughter of his stepbrother Wolf.

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