Ten generations ago, in a much less prosperous time, Switzerland’s Jews were restricted to just two outlying villages
Jewish history in Switzerland actually goes much further back than the last few hundred years, Mr. Bollag explains. During the first half of the 14th century, the community in Zurich was led by a certain Rav Moshe ben Menachem, who was a talmid of Rabbeinu Peretz from Corbeil, one of the last baalei Tosafos. Rav Moshe authored Hagahos on the SeMaK (Sefer Mitzvos Hakatan, also sometimes known as the Amudei Golah) known as SeMak MiZurich.
The house of Rav Moshe’s mother, Frau Minna, is still visible in Zurich’s old city. A very wealthy woman, she lent money to the noblemen of the surrounding region of northern Switzerland. As our car drives through the outskirts of Zurich, alongside the River Limmat, Mr. Bollag describes to us the inscriptions in her house: “On the walls of the main reception room, archaeologists found Hebrew inscriptions and the coat of arms of surrounding nobles. They consulted a Jewish historian, Dr. Erich Hausman, and he discovered, written out in alef-beis, the names of various noblemen written in Hebrew next to each one’s coat of arms.”
But the Jewish communities that existed all over Switzerland came to a cruel and tragic end. In 1348–1349, the Bubonic Plague — the Black Death — swept across Europe. The death rate among Jews was very low, due to their scrupulous laws governing hygiene, and this provided enough “proof” for the gentiles to claim that the Jews were spreading the disease. Rav Moshe and his yeshivah students were rounded up in the town square and burned publically al kiddush Hashem on 3 Adar Beis 5109, February 23, 1349. Similar blood libels took place in other Swiss cities such as Bern, Basel, and Schaffenhausen. Jews were either killed or expelled and did not return for some centuries. A plaque in the old city of Zurich details where the Jews of the time were killed. Mr. Bollag tells us about his intervention to have the wording of the plaque changed. “They wrote ‘this is where the Jews died.’ I wrote to City Hall: They didn’t die — they were murdered. And they rephrased the plaque.”
But the old Judengasse of Zurich will have to wait for another day. Today we’re on the way to see and hear the stories of the Jews who settled in Switzerland from the 17th Century and on.
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