Menorah · 1923-01-01 · Heft 5 · p. Seite 11

11 MENORAH The Ancestry of Karl Marx By Bernhard Wachstem (Vienna) Conlinuation and end. Froni ihc cxperl opinion mentioned above which has been preserved in Or ha-Jashar, and which was clalcd from Wcdncsday evening, the 29th Tischri 528 2 Ist of Oclobcr 1767, wo learn thal at the timc he was aboul 75 years old. Conscqucntly hc was born in the ycar 1692. From this rcsulls that hc was a son of Ahron Lwow from Iiis firsL wifc (comparc Waclislein, Epitaphs of the old Jewish Cemetcry in Vienna II, pp. 346—347). Whcn Iiis falhcr died he was Iwcnly ycars old, and, consequently, could not succccd Iiis falhcr in the rabbinical officc of Frcvcs. He was, at the tirne, assessor of the rabbi in Metz (compare Or ha-Jashar 1. c.) wherc the father of his wifc Merle, Isak Ahron Worms, was rabbi (Löwenstein, History of the Jcws in the Palalinate, p. 99). Hc probably took Iiis posilion in Treves in ihc ycar 1 722. Tli-it hc was there in the ycar 1737 we learn fiom Iiis remark (Or ha-Jashar 1. c.) about a corrcspondcncc carried on during his activity in Freves more than 30 years ago. Froni 1749 to his dcath Josua Heshcl Lwow was rabbi of the district of Ansbach in Schwabach. Compaic Haenle, History of the Jcws in Ansbach, p. 124. Ahron Lwow, the father of Josua Heshel, was rabbi in Alsatia from about 1692. Aboul Iiis peisonality, his descendance as well as about his second marriage in the year 1700 which brought him into kinship with one of the most dislinguished scholars of that time, Gabriel Eskclcs, compare Wachstein 1. c. and Epitaphs of the Old Jewish Cemetcry in Eiscnstadt p. 122, n. 4. The obituary in the Memor-book dcdicalccl to him says in his praise that „from Iiis youtli he had devoted himsclf to the study of the Law, that he had trained many pupils, k-;pt open house, prolected poor scholars, lovcd peaec, had never flattered the powcrful and influcntial, and born the sufferings inflicted upon hiin for the last ninc months of his life with pious resignation (in love)". Of Moses of Lemberg, the father of Ahron, wc know nothing. From the title which is attributed to him we can only sce that he was a scholar. It is of coursc, impossiblc, to trace the name of origin, Lwow, which his dcsccndantc bear, in Lemberg itself. We have been ablc to trace the descendance of Karl Marx as far as the ancestor of the Lwows in the 17lh Century with mathemalical certainty. Now wc want to see whether there arc no traecs te be found farther back. In the Opinion mentioned in this study Josua Heschcl Lwow quotes (folio 72l\ 73b and 75b) the Cracow scholar Josef b. Gcrson ha-Cohen, the author of the RGA „Shccrith Josef", and, on this occasion, calls him his ancestor. On folio 77 b he gives the famous scholar Meir Katzenellenbogcn (maharaM Padua) the samc designation, „sekeni". On folio 7 1 •'' the rabbi in Amsterdam, Saul who then still alive, is mentioned as a relalion (rr), The lallcr, a great grandchild of the famous scholar R. Heschcl, is known to have belonged to the family of the Kalzencllcnbogens (comparc the proofs in Wachstein II, p. 339 et passim), consequently there are threc families in question who got connected by marriage. Lct us establish the fact in the first inslancc with the Katzenellcnbogcns and Cohens. Meir Kalzencllenbogen, the famous rabbi and head of the Talmudic high-school in Padua who died there in the year 1565, had a son, Samuel Juda, who sueeeeded his father in his offiecs, and who died in the ycar 1597. A son of Samuel juda's was the well-known Saul Wahl-Kalzenellenbogcn in Brcst-Litowsk whom the legend declarcs to have been King of Poland during one night. The son of Saul was Meir, rabbi in Brest-Litowsk. Ncssla, a daughter of Meir Wahl Katzencllenbogcn, manied Moses Cohen, rabbi of Luck in Poland. The father of this Moses Cohen was Pessach, and this one was the son of Tanchum. Tanchum, again, was the son of Josef b. Gcrson Cohen, the author of the Responsa „Schcerith Josef" who died when hc was the head of the College in Cracow in the ycar 1591. Issue of the marriage of Ncssla, nee Katzenellcnbogcn with Moses Cohen would thus have for ancestors the two famous men: Meir Kalzencllenbogen and Josef Cohen. Supposed, now, that a daughlcr of Moses and Ncssla was the first wifc, unknown to us, of Ahron Lwow, then Josua Heshcl might call both men his ancestors. Chronologically liiere is no objection to this, as will bc scen from the sketch added to this study. Bul of coursc, il is also possiblc that lIiis supposed daughlcr is the wifc of Moses in Lemberg. Whalcver may bc the case, there is no reason to doubt the Statement of a man of the standing of Josua Heshel Lwow liimself. The fact being cstablished that Karl Marx is a descendant of milharaM Padua, wc may continuc to go back a step farther in Iracing this pedigree. We know that Cliana, the wife of Meir Katzenelnbogen who died 1564 was a daughter of Abraham ha-Levi Minz who died about 1525 as rabbi in Padua. Abraham's father, Jehuda b. Elicser, was one of the most distinguished master spirils of German as well as of Italian Jcwry. He was born about 1408, had left Iiis German home in conscqucnce of the persecutions which broke out in the middlc of the 15th Century, and came to Padua about 1456. Jehuda: Don Isak Abravanel, the proli fic author promblcms, and even lectured in the university of Padua. His portrait is put up in the hall of the university with an inscription in his honour (Ncpi-Ghirondi p. 122). Hc died at the age of a hundred years about 1508. Fivc days aftcrwards anolher famous emigrant died in V'cnicc and went to his ctcrnal rcsl in Padua, ncar Jehuda: Don Isak Abravanel, the prol fic author and minister of finance of Ferdinand the Catholic. The tombs arc no longer preserved. The names of both the Italian ancestors of Karl Marx keep alive the memory of the two German communitics Katzenelnbogen in Hesse, and Mainz1), the city on the Rhinc. Lct mc add a fcw references. As the families of Katzenellenbogcn and Marx arc famous for having given a great many scholars to the world I may restriel mysclf to the sources of the genealogical statcnicnts. For the connection by marriage Cohen-Katzcnellcnbogen, sce Prefacc to Pi Shenaim. Altona, 1735, and Edelmann, Gedulath Saul, London, 1854, fol. 24b. Jhe epitaph of Joseph C. Gcrson Cohen last printed in Friedbcrg's Luchot Sikaron, p. 4; lor the succession of gecrations, see Dembitzer, Kelilath Jofi I, fol. lb, note. The epitaphs of the family of Katzenellenbogcn were printed correetly by Luzzatto in Kochbe Yitzchak XV, 14—16, and by Edelmann 1. c, XII—XIV. As to Saul Wahl, see Wachstein II, 360, note. As to Kalzenellenbogcn-Minz, see Wiener of Eisenstadt, Da'at Kedoshim, Appendix Pcssak ha-Chercm as also pp. 42 if.,,63, 82 If. Another linc of descendanls of Minz-Katzenellcnbogen still flourishing in Dcnmark was traced by Joseph Fischer in his J. C. E. M i c Ii a c 1 s e n o g Hustrus F o rfaedre. Kopenhagen, 1913. l) .i'ro was certainly pronouneed ,Menz' in the olden times, e having been mostly rendered by ', As to JVI c n z, M c n t z -~ Mainz, sec Oestcrlcy, Hist.-gcogr, Wörterbuch des deutschen Mittelalters, p. 422. In the Genealogical Sketch annexed below, thc namc, in deference to general usagc, is rendered ,Minz'. ♦Mlö 1DW ♦parsi »2 n«a .-reu"}* r,»;c-;.a -jnr.D)'. ^■unm vc" 7J,,-~ «in -itrsNi .n-a unr-intr na b2 n« nr.oS « « bv intr« nn-n n«rn nsntr |ci« ^22 pspcS itr-aa \s »rrn* sbc* nai o^a^a nrra ^ryn vv^z br,i r>s bv nna«2 urDin pai .mb i\c citr gj ub p«i 212b .nznpa emsn 12: in:n cpna byv «>a>« »2?t? bv -*6n^"Tiy .czvb izb -itrs« lrryi r«a nsrs c'jnr i:« .nnnn che rbn :rn:s bv ins nn-n Ii5ü7 nsl pi2:S:*p •zs .nrncz 1525 nzv2 21 nrc natr p^a ^n;a nmc pra urba p nw ,cni2« 1408 ib\: — „Tp^am rr;ai:n nn,Tn m-amn n«ca ,T;a-i;2 im^ia n« 2*>'— 1450 r\:v2 S2i mrs? rann n«a2 r« l^nnir nma nitrSanca c: pev p^a nn.T .nane^ Hiren-^:*« n-na n/12 i^ek mican 'tb trän nibyan cbi«2» r.«::a; rnaan .nanea itr« n^nrrnznr npipn n,!?>n nconr-isa n»« .1508 jn:*"2 njsr nsa pr na »c*m22^ -i2p:i in« n;na na ~"n« na'an pn :«m «i*?n .^■T^n, bv 112p t bv nzinca z^zzzb TtTC'ram bren isicn ^«3212« pn^- xrn iv n»^; c^2pn .-Sitipn i;r*n£ ^3:« by bv c:prn mz« bv cn-mnat:^ :nr;ai:n mbnpn ^nr ivzv irv cnar: cpia .psi in: bv ps-'ai jc~2 pia5?:-»^ n\s rn: rur^ rrr-rz . xv—xn c. 1 pSn« H\s- — :;>y piiiirspi " v--2'