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History of the Polish Jews

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The Jewish community has been living in Poland for over a millennium, and scholars also believe that Jewish people could have possibly moved even earlier. Poland is known to be one of the largest Jewish communities in the world; it was also known to be the center of Jewish culture. The first Jews to come into Poland were merchants, who were called, Radhanites. These were well experienced merchants who covered vast distances between the east and the west. Because they covered so much land they learned multiple languages like, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Spanish, and Slav. The Polish state was forming simultaneously as the Jewish community started to called Poland their home (Rosenzweig 1). The Jewish community started to migrate to Poland because they were facing persecution in other areas of the world during the crusades. They came to Poland for various reasons but the biggest reason is because they were persecuted or they were banished from their native countries for being Jewish (Rosenzweig 1). As the Jews settled in Poland they started to be persecuted by the Roman Catholics and German states that where around the border. Some of the princes of Poland wanted to keep the Jewish inhabitants, it was considered to be a good move for their economic development. Towards the end of the sixteenth century there was a flood of immigration in the Eastern part of Poland; Jews continued to settle in larger numbers throughout the sixteenth century. Five hundred thousand Jews were living in Poland during the middle of the seventeenth century. Some Jews found settling down in Poland to be easy, others towns made restrictions for Jews and some cities didn't allow Jews to settle. During the fifteen hundreds to sixteen hundreds the Jewish community went further into the works of the economy, the primary source of income for Jewish families was trade and crafts. The people of Poland started to prefer the crafts made by Jews instead of the royal cities,

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