Jewish Life in the Middle Ages

CHAPTER XII. TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS (continued)

CHAPTER XII TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS (c(Jntimted) THE medieval Jews, however, even where they were free to choose their own handicrafts, were not very prone to select those which involved mere physical exertion. They were not so much wanting in endurance, they were not so much to shirking bodily toil, as they were contemptuous of unskilled labour. The restrictions placed upon them, which more and more converted the Jew into a head-worker, only emphasized an innate inclination to use the body as the servant of the mind. This , produced some evil consequences upon the physique as well as on the Jewish character, and gave point and truth to the proverb which the Jews themselves became wont to use , Save me from Christian K(lack, Save me from Jewish Maack,' I M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu is more than just to the when he ascribes all the evils of this tendency to the life in the ghettos. On the other hand, though it be certain that the Jews showed no predilection for arduous physical undertakings, they were by no means averse to 1 K/Huh (nj) =strenglh, and A/each (rn~)"" brains. Both w","cis arC Hebrew. 23° Dangerous Occupations 231 dangerous occupations. One rarely sees a Jewish brick~ layer nowadays, but the reason is to be sought not in the danger of the occupation, but in the fact that it reduces the man to a mere instrument for the exertion of brute strength. A most common Jewish occupation is that of the glazier, which is not free from danger, but makes less demand on the strength. So too the Jewish peddler of recent centuries was no coward; had he lacked courage, he must have remained at home. The whole array of Jewish travellers in the middle ages, when a journey was as hazardous as a battle is now, proves the same possession of manliness. Jewish soldiers and sailors abounded, and so did Jewish martyrs. Tradition has it that the first man to sight America was a Jewish sailor on board one of Columbus' vessels. It is true that the same qualification might here again be entered; the Jews were more often navigators in the theoretical than in the practical sense. A Jewish astronomer prepared nautical tables or invented nautical instruments, a Jewish financier would pay for build· ing a ship to use them, but the crew would only contain a straggling Jewish sailor or two. Yet these generalizations are very precarious. The Jews of Spain not only fitted out fleets in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but they displayed their patriotic zeal personally as well as scientifically and financially.1 Jayme III, the last king of Mallorca. testifies in 1334 that Juceff Faquin. a Jew of Barcelona. 'had navigated the whole of the then known world.' In the Portuguese Armada. which captured Mauritania in 1415. there were many Jews. Jewish travellers were of direct service in times of war; they were the Intelligencers of 1 Kayserling, C4rislopker Col_INs and Ike Participation of t/u yews in t/u Spanisk anti Portuguese Discoveries, p. 3. etc. Trades and Occupations Cromwell as well as of Julius Caesar. But their chief services to the navigation of the middle ages were services of peace. It is no exaggeration to assert that but for Jewish encouragement Columbus would never have sailed. The Jews were noted map-drawers, cartography in the fifteenth century being almost entirely in the hands of the Mallorcan Jews. Jafuda Cresques was called the' MapJew ,' just as his friend Moses Rimos was popularly known as the' parchment-maker.' 1 Besides cosmography Jews were proficient in the manufacture of nautical instruments, and it is commonly asserted that the Portuguese Jews deserve a large share of praise for the most important medieval improvements. Vasco de Gama was materially aided on his voyages by Jewish pilots and navigators. Another Jew was the constant companion and most intimate friend of another noted Portuguese admiral, Alfonso d'Albuquerque.2 Evidence is indeed accumulating to prove that the Jews were personally concerned in most of the great exploring enterprises in the middle ages. A striking instance con· nected with the East India Company may be here cited. A Jew, born in the Barbary States, but domiciled for some time in England, and well acquainted with the English language, sailed with Captain James Lancaster in 1601 on the first expedition of the East India Company, and rendered...