“Purim Vincent”: Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn & The Fettmilch Attack on the Frankfurt Jewish Quarter
“Purim Vincent”: Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn & The Fettmilch Attack on the Frankfurt Jewish Quarter
Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn was born around 1570 in Frankfurt-am-Main to a prominent Torah scholar named Rabbi Seligmann Hahn. Rabbi Seligmann Hahn was known in Frankfurt for his sermons and his halacha shiur on the Rif’s Sefer Alfasi.
Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn served as a dayan (rabbinic judge) on the Frankfurt beis din and shared a warm relationship with the preeminent Torah scholar, Kabbalist, and leader of German Jewry Rabbi Yeshayah Horowitz, author of Shelah. Rabbi Hahn’s Yosef Ometz is a collection of German minhagim and laws. He also wrote hagaos on the Shulchan Aruch.
His grandson, Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Kashman, also authored a work on German laws and customs titled Noheg K’tzon Yosef.
In August of 1614, Vincent Fettmilch, a grocer, baker, and a member of the reformed Calvinist group, led an attack on Frankfurt’s Jewish Quarter, whose residents numbered nearly 2,000 people. Fettmilch’s mob forced the Jews out of their homes into a nearby Jewish cemetery and ransacked their homes and shuls. A number of sifrei Torah and Hebrew books were burned in this tragic looting.
The next day, instead of choosing to slaughter the entire Jewish population, Fettmilch ordered their expulsion from Frankfurt. During this difficult time Rabbi Hahn encouraged his brethren to remain faithful and instituted a special chaburah that dedicated themselves to the study of mussar. The expulsion order was promulgated on the 26th day of Elul, 1614, and as Rabbi Hahn records (Yosef Ometz, #953) on the 27th of Elulthey were expelled from the city. To remember this day, the Jews of Frankfurt would fast on the 27th day of Eluleach year.
Expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt on August 23, 1614, after riots in the “Jews Street” led by Vincent Fettmilch. According to the text, “1,380 persons old and young were counted at the exit of the gate” and herded onto ships on the river Main. Jews were connected in business to the city’s wealthy merchants, while Fettmilch led the small craftsmen and traders opposed to the Jewish presence in Frankfurt.
The Catholic authorities eventually restored order. Matthias, the Holy Roman Emperor, declared that Fettmilch and his followers were heretics, and the group was arrested and imprisoned. In February 1616, a year and a half after the attack on the ghetto, Fettmilch and several of his accomplices were executed; the heads of Fettmilch and several others were placed on spikes on top of one of the city’s towers, while his house was razed to the ground. On the same day, the 20th day of Adar I, the Jewish population was allowed to return to Frankfurt, accompanied by Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn. As Rabbi Hahn records (Yosef Ometz, #1107, 1109), despite their fears that they would be assaulted upon their return to Frankfurt, the Jews were received by a large military parade and warmly welcomed back. Accordingly, that day, the 20th of Adar was established as a day of festivity and joy. It was called “Purim Vincent” by the Jews of Frankfurt.
Nosson Wiggins (@jewishhistorysheimhagedolim) is the author of two books on the subject of Jewish history, “The Tannaim & Amoraim” and “The Rishonim” (Judaica Press). He researches Jewish History at the Klau Library, HUC-JIR in his hometown of Cincinnati and leads tours of Klau’s Rare Book Room. He is a passionate enthusiast of Jewish history and when he’s not in the hospital working as a nurse, he can be found researching and writing posts for his Substack, “Jewish History—Sheim Hagedolim.”
