Several years ago I wrote in Ohr HaMizrach (vol. 24, numbers, 3-4, Nissan-Tammuz 5740) about the “Jerusalems of the Exile”. I listed cities and towns, which Jews called “second” or “little Jerusalem”, either because they were centers of Torah study, boasted an intensive Jewish life, or because Jews enjoyed there a great measure of freedom. In my article I quoted from Professor Alexander Scheiber’s contribution to the subject, which appeared in the periodical Yeda Am.
Walking through the fields and vineyards of Jewish literature, I have come across several more “Jerusalems of the Exile.”
Carpentras – Jerusalem of Comtat Venaissin
Carpentras was one of the “Four Holy Communities” of Comtate Venaissin, the former papal region in south-eastern France. Armand Lunel calls it the secret Jerusalem of the south of France.
In his book Juifs du Langedoc, de la Provence et des Etats Francais du Pape (Paris, 1975) Lunel speaks of the “Four Holy Communities” of Comtate Venaissin:
“Depuis 1624 le pouvoir pontificial avait interdit aux Judeo-Comtadins, sous peine de 500 ecus d’amende, toute autre residence sur son territoire que les quatre Carrieres d’Avignon, de Carpentras, de Cavaillon et de L’Isle sur Sorgue, don’t chacune avait sa synagogue et qui formerent ainsi mystiquement, aux yeux et pour la ferveur de leurs fideles, les Quatre Saintes Communautes (Arba Kehillot) comtadines, en souvenir des Quatre Saintes Communautes de Jerusalem Hebron, Safed et Tiberiade.” (p. 76)
Lunel then writes about the uniqueness of the Jewish community of Carpentras:
“…. a Carpentras, climat et milieu combine differents! C’est ici, dans ne petite ville plus alpestre que Rhoda andienne, plus rustique, plus provinciale que put s’elaborer levertiable esprit du Judaisme comtadin. Les Rituels des Quatre Saintes Communautes n’avaient besoin que d’une approbations, maais c’etati celle de Rabbis de Caprentra!
See also p. 185 in the same volume. 1
Siena in Italy — Little Jerusalem
Siena, a city in Tuscany, central Italy, was called by the Jews Little Jerusalem. We read in The Landmarks of a People (A guide to Jewish Sites in Europe) by Bernard Postal and Samuel H. Abramson (New York, 1962) p. 157:
“The split panels of the doors of the Ark recall a tragic episode of 1799. The liberating French army burned the Ghetto gates in 1796. The reactionary movement against the French several years later brought misery and death to the Jews of Siena. In 1799 a mob from Arezzo plundered the Ghetto and burned nineteen Jews alive in the Piazza del Campo, four of them women. The synagogue was desecrated and the ax marks are still to be seen in the doors of the Ark. The Jewish community of Siena recovered from the harrowing experience and later earned the title Little Jerusalem from its sister communities.”
Pitigliano – Little Jerusalem
There was still another locality in Tuscany known as Little Jerusalem: Pitigliano, a village roughly two hundred kilometers south of Florence. It is said that Jews settled in Pitigliano in the fourteenth century. At times Jews formed from twenty-five to fifty percent of the population. In 1880 when the village’s entire population was 300, ten percent were Jews.
Jewish life in the village had been described by Edda Servi Machlin in her book The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews (New York, 1981). One chapter carries the title: “Pitigliano, the Little Jerusalem.”
Pitigliano was a cradle of Hebrew culture that nurtured many scholars and dedicated people, like my father,” writes the author (p.23). “It is little wonder that it earned the nickname ‘Yerushalayim Sheni {ya], the little Jerusalem.”
Pressburg– Jerusalem of Hungary
About this title and its use before World War I, see Shemuel HaKohen Weingarten’s monography on Pressburg in the series Arim VeImmahot Beyisrael (vol 6, Jerusalem, Mosad HaRav Kook, 1960) p. 119. 2
Vac (Waitzen) — Litle Jerusalem
In a review of Shemen LeAsher by Rabbi Asher Anshel Naiman (rabbi of Vac, Hungary, who settled in 1863 in Jerusalem), the rabbinical periodical (New York, Kislev -Tevet, 5743) noted that the volume contained also a history of the Jewish community of Vac, as well as biographies of its rabbis, “whose activities caused Vac to be called Little Jerusalem.”
The designation Little Jerusalem apparently occurs in Shemen LeAsher (Bnai Brak, 5742). I haven’t seen the book.
Iasi (Jasssy) – Jerusalem of Moldavia
Yisrael Levanon in his Maza Hen BaMidbar (Haifa, 1982), p. 69 writes: Speaking of Jassy, I would like to sketch briefly the uniqueness of that city. once it was called the Jerusalem of Moldavia, for it was a city of scholars and writers, of famous rabbis and well -known Hasidic leaders. There were many synagogues, and whoever visited the Jewish quarters was deeply impressed by the vigorous and vibrant Jewish life…”
Winnipeg- Jerusalem of Canada
The late Dr . Henry (Chaim) Shoskes, famous Jewish globe-trotter, whose travel impressions were published widely, called the chapter describing his visit to Winnipeg: What’s new in the Jerusalem of Canada” (Olam Umelo’o Shel Rabbi Hayyim, Tel Aviv, 1964, pp. 161-163).
“Not without a reason is Winnipeg called the Jerusalem of Canada,” writes Dr. Shoskes. “A warm Jewish atmosphere pervades the entire community… Jewish communal life is well organized… most of the second generation Jews, even those born there, live full Jewish lives…”
Bukhara — Little Jerusalem
Dr. Baruch Moshavi pointed out in HaDoar (Shevat 19, 5735) that the Jews of Bukhara called their country Little Jerusalem. He quoted the missionary Joseph Wolff (Researches and Missionary Labors among the Jews, Mohammedans and other Sects London, 1835, pp. 188-189).
Wolff writes about the religious renaissance among the Jews of Bukhara, brought about by the Land of Israel emissary Rabbi Joseph HaMaaravi, who came to Bukhara in 1793:
Rabbi Joseph Moghrebee … preached: Woe is to me, oh my bretheren, to find you in such a condition, that you have forgotten the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the words of the wise men. He refused to eat of their meat for six months, during which time he taught them to kill animals according to the law of the Jews, ordered them to perfom ablutions, included them to send a man… for the purpose of purchasing Talmudical books, he sent for a Sopher, who wrote for them the Law of Moses upon parchment, he then took under his instruction several young men and thus made Bukhara, as they expressed themselves, a little Jerusalem.” 3
Notes
1. In my article in Or Hamizrach I noted that I listed only such appellations of which we know or of which we can assume, that they were in vogue when the centers they referred to were still in existence, but not expressions coined by historians and writers long after these centers had disappeared or lost their significance. I am inclined to believe that the title Jerusalem for Carpentras had not been devised by Lunel, but was in use long before him (comp. the title “Four Holy Communities” for the four Jewish communities of Comtat Venaissin, which corresponds to the “Four Holy Communities” of the Holy Land. See also Lunel’s Jerusalem a Carpentras, Paris, 1937, p. 98.)
2. See also Kisiel Singer’s introduction to Torat HaReMaH (Lemberg, 1846): “I feel sad when I remember that from the Midrash of Posen went forth Torah and the word of G-d from the Yeshiva of Pressburg.” In Or HaMizrach I mentioned a number of paraphrases of Isaiah 2;3 referring to various centers of Torah. Pressburg was also called Little Jerusalem. See P.J. Kohn, Rabbinischer Humor aus alter und neuer Zeit (Berlin, 1915), pp. 52-53.
3. In Or HaMizrach I expressed doubt whether the title Jerusalem of Bohemia for Prague listed by some writers on the subject was in vogue when Prague was still a Jewish center. Recently I found the expression in a poem by Pinhas Peli (Ilan Mehupakh Shorashav Ba Shamayim, Tel Aviv, 1979, p. 13). Rabbi Baruch Epstein writes in Mekor Barukh, vol. 3 (Vilna, 1928) chapter 22, that Prague was called Jerusalem of the Exile.
In Or HaMizrach I mentioned that Fuerth was called Little Jerusalem and referred to the article “Fuerth” in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Not long ago I found the following in an essay by M.G. Saphir. “I spent the rest of the morning in Fuerth, which is the Bavarian Jerusalem” (N. Ausubel, A Treasury of Jewish Humor, New York, p. 117).
When this article was already in print, I found Smyrna – Little Jerusalem (see Yitzhak Nahum, Hatzofeh Oct. 6, 1985): Boston — America’s Jerusalem (See G. Levenson. The Jewish Week, N.Y. March 7, 1986 p. 18). My daughter Pearl Herzog informed me that Corfu was once called Little Jerusalem (see Maimon Ventura, HaMaggid (Jan. 11, 1865, p. 12) See also La Petite Palestine for Corfu mentioned by Jos. Nehama in Memoriam, homage aux victimes juives des Nazis en Grece, vol. 2 (Salonique, 1949) p. 69.
In Or HaMizrah I made mention of Mezhibezh which S. A. Horodesky called the Jerusalem of Hasidism, Rabbi Y.L Maimon called it the Zion of Podolia (Sare HaMeah, vol. 2 (1950), p. 16; vol. 3 p. 11)
Interesting is the expression in Rabbi E.M. Faivelson’s Netzah Yisrael (Warsaw 1914) p. 269, Jerusalem of Russia for Moscow, which then had a small but wealthy Jewish community.
There are “little Jerusalems” also in the Land of Israel. A Sorasky remarks in his Hevlei Yotzer vol. 2 (1974) p. 160, the story of Rabbi Y. Gerstenkorn, founder of Bnei Brak: “Some called Bnei Brak little Jerusalem.” Rabbi M. Porush writes of Petach Tikva, which was founded by religious Jews from Jerusalem, that it has been called the Jerusalem of the new Yishuv in The Jewish Press (March 2, 1984).
The article above appeared in Occident and Orient: A Tribute to the Memory of Alexander Scheiber, Edited by Robert Dan, Akademiai Kiado Budapest and E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1988