Apart from the accommodation question on which the municipality focused, the Governor, in accordance with the Order (patent) of 17th May 1789, also picked on Jewish issues in the neighbouring small towns which had previously been under the regional offices' jurisdiction.
The municipality appealed against the Order, claiming that the issue was not its concern, and that handling such matters would place the municipality under the jurisdiction of the regional office, in contravention of the town's constitution. On 22nd June 1826, the Vienna authorities approved the Governor's decision of 13th January 1826, to centralize all of Lwów's Jewish issues in the hands of the municipality, including
- To supervise the apportioning, as well as the collecting, of Jewish taxes.
- To deal with complaints by Jews against the supervisors.
- To register the Jews who were in Lwów.[6]
Due to congestion as well as difficulties from the townspeople and the authorities, the housing conditions in the Jewish Quarters worsened daily. During the Austrian rule, Lwów turned into a town of trade and industry to which new citizens flocked from all over Galicia. The townspeople did not tolerate the invasion of Lwów by the new crowds who would endanger the citizens' trade and crafts. The authorities too were against the rise in the Jewish population, and plotted to add further restrictions which were set in the Orders (patent) of 1793, 1797.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the situation was as follows: the Jews were permitted to reside at the Kraków and Żółkiew suburbs without restrictions; those residing at any of the other neighbourhoods, had to move there. The Jews were permitted to reside within the town but they could not purchase without permission, property on Szkocka, Ruska, Serbska and Nowa Streets, or in the adjoining alleys, except for special circumstances where the house–owners owed them sums equal to the value of the house.[7] They were permitted to keep shops on Ruska, Szkocka and Serbska Streets.
The authorities allowed for some exceptions: wholesalers who traded in foreign merchandise valued at 30,000 or 40,000 Gulden, were permitted to reside outside the Jewish Quarter,
[Pages 201-202]
and they had to be supervised by the municipality to ensure that a Jew whose assets were reduced, would move to the Jewish Quarter.[8]
Jews who owned houses outside the Jewish Quarter were granted an extension till 1803 to live in them, before moving with their families to the Jewish Quarters. They remained the house owners with the proviso that they did not let the accommodations or shops to Jews.
According to the 1825 census there were 25,117 inhabitants within the town, 954 of whom were Jews; the Halicz Quarter had 2,000 inhabitants, five of whom were Jews; the Kraków Quarter had 2,556 inhabitants, 1,247 of whom were Jews; the Brody Quarter had 1,256 inhabitants, five of whom were Jews; the Żółkiew Quarter had 3,033 inhabitants, 2,001 of whom were Jews.[9]
In order to check the growth of the population foreign Jews were not permitted to move to Lwów and register with the community, after 24th July 1804. In addition, Jews of Lwów were not permitted to marry foreign Jews, and any contravention would lead to a 100 Ducat fine.
On 22nd January 1805, the mayor of Lwów Franz Anton Lorenz, published an Order imposing a 12 Ducat fine on house owners who let flats to Jews expelled from Lwów, or not permitted to reside in the Christian Quarter. Any informer on such cases,[10] was promised a fee of 25 Florins. The Order also forbade any exchange of flats between a family at Lwów and one residing outside the town, except for exceptional cases of specialist craftsmen, printers etc.[11] The restriction also did not apply to teachers who came to Lwów and had been employed by the Jewish schools.[12]
Adopted children who had reached the age of majority, had to leave the town and return to the community whence they had come. (In the years 1814–1816, the Jews of Lwów had only adopted 14 children). The authorities considered the adoption of children a ploy to “smuggle” them into Lwów and increase the Jewish population. In August 1815, the Governor[13] proposed to the Vienna authorities to permit the adoption of a Jewish child in exchange for two large families who had left Lwów. The Court–office refused and gave instruction to follow the existing ruling. On 16th February 1816, the Governor sent the Kaiser a special request to delay any plea for the adoption of Jewish children until the approval of the new Jewish regulations being discussed by the government. The Emperor–office's reply stressed that in the previous two years only 14 children had been adopted, and that that could not be considered a threat of increasing Lwów's Jewish community, and that consequently there was no reason for the proposed change.[14]
When a Jew was permitted to move to Lwów, he had to provide an exit certificate from his community and a declaration from Lwów's community committee that there was no reason to refuse his acceptance. In addition, two families from Lwów would have to forego their right of residence and would have to leave the town. The transfer of the Jew was granted only after the two families who were leaving, had provided a certificate of acceptance from the other community.
The prohibitions and restrictions also led to corruption. The community officials, especially the managers of the population register, were bribed to enter foreign Jews in the population list. The registrar Ber Chaim Modlinger in particular, grew rich from such transactions, as was demonstrated in his trial of 1817.
A further issue arose when the Maskilim [Hebrew Enlighteners], dressed in European clothes, approached the authorities with requests to allow them to reside in a non–Jewish Quarter. In many cases the authorities agreed to their move, on condition that not only the head of the family but all its members, men and women, be dressed in the European fashion. In October 1815, when Joseph Schwamberg who wore European clothes requested a licence to reside in a non–Jewish Quarter, the police rejected his request so long as his wife and the rest of his family did not cease wearing the Jewish traditional clothes. In March 1816 Schwamberg renewed his request, now appended by a police certificate that his entire family wore European clothes, but again his request was refused. He then appealed and provided proof that his son Izak was studying medicine at Vienna, that his second son, Karl, was working for a Vienna trading house, that his two daughters were enrolled at a Benedictine convent school, that he and his entire family had rid themselves of Jewish habits, that he was despised by the Jews and was unable to reside among them. In his business too, he was associated with trading houses outside the Jewish Quarter. In his written request he also stressed that Jews from Lwów: Johann Seligmann, Paul Mendelssohn and Zadok Hirsch Goldberg, had already been granted transfer licences. With the Governor's recommendation, the Vienna Court–office agreed to grant Schwamberg a licence to transfer into town.
The municipality did not approve of Jews moving to Christian Quarters. In January 1818 the townspeople complained to the authorities that Jews stayed in town, married and constituted a general danger. The authorities however rejected those accusations and demands as exaggerations. On the contrary, in September 1818 a number of Jewish merchants who excelled in cleanliness and order, who had replaced their Jewish garments and who adopted a way of life similar to the rest of the population, were granted permission to reside in town, outside of the Jewish Quarter.[15]
[Pages 203-204]
The community leaders did not accept the restrictions and made every effort to get the authorities to ease the terms of entering and residing within the town. The community leaders appointed by those who paid the candle tax, were supporters of the candle tax lessee. He was in charge of granting certificates to the candle tax payers as well as appointing the leaders and elders. He was also in a position to issue fake certificates,[16] and had a deciding vote in the elections in which the candidates were usually the lessees themselves. Although after each election appeals were submitted to the authorities by those opposing the lessees, those appeals remained unresolved.[17]
Till 1817, the community leaders were Joel Rappoport, Lieber and Rosenthal. Their objectors, Leib Balaban, Kalman Berger and a number of the community members, claimed that when they had left the community before the new elections, they had taken some of the community tax money, for their own use, leaving the community indebted to the kingdom's treasury by that sum.[18]
Those accusations enabled the tax lessees to elect their representatives with ease. In 1817, the elected community–elders were Józef Pineles, Gershon Kurzer, Chaim Blumengarten, Berl Schönfeld and Chaim Joschoua Glanz, four of whom were in partnership with the candle tax lessees. A group of known merchants, headed by Joseph Barach,[19] Schmelkes, Waldberg, Goldenblum, Ahlenberg, Joel Rappoport and Leib Mendrokhowicz opposed those elected, and presented a counter list which included Hirsch Rektor, Abel Fischler, Nathan Sokal, Aron Chaim Rappoport, the father of Salomon Jehuda Rappoport who for several years had been an appraiser for the authorities, and Moses Waag.
Forgery tricks and the lessees' hoaxes led to the list's rejection. The group of merchants did not accept the situation however, and appealed to the Governor stressing that the official candidates were corrupt, informers and devoid of education. In their written appeal they pointed out that Józef Pineles, who headed the list, had collected 13,000 Gulden for the establishment of a Jewish agricultural settlement in 1806, funds which he did not hand over to the community, and that he faced a criminal investigation; that Gershon Kurzer was a man devoid of a conscience, rude, and a known informer who had been in jail since 1810, was nonetheless a partner of the tax lessees; that Chaim Blumengarten was a veteran bartender devoid of any education; that Berl Schönfeld was a known loan–shark.
The appeal prompted the Governor to order new elections to take place in March 1818. Nevertheless, the results remained unchanged. Again, the supporters of the tax lessees were voted in by an overwhelming majority, with the opponents failing completely.[20] Despite the population's loathing of the lessees who in 1808 requested permission to reside outside the Jewish Quarter for fear of revenge and retribution, their influence on the community's affairs increased with help from the authorities and they controlled the community until the revolution of 1848. The increased loathing of the lessees was such that in 1808 the authorities were obliged to grant them permission to reside outside the Jewish Quarter, since they were been in constant fear of their lives.
The community's powers and scope of transactions remained unchanged apart from a rise in the candle tax: in 1800, by 50%; in 1806, by another increase. The meat tax rose by 50%; in 1802 the price of 1/2 kg. Kosher meat was 19 Kreuzer; 12 Kreuzer in provincial towns; non–Kosher meat cost 7 1/2 Kreuzer in Lwów, and 5–7 in provincial towns. Apart from the meat price and tax, the Jewish consumer also paid expenses and interest to the tax lessees.
Besides the general taxes, the Jews paid marriage tax, tolerance tax, Kosher meat tax, candle tax, Minyanim tax as well as a tax on the building of synagogues and to establish cemeteries.
The system of taxation was based on personal tax (Klassensteuer [class taxation]) which included: 1. A special tax on house and land, 2. Head of family tax, 3. Poll tax, which was subject to change. In 1802, the Jews paid 112,000 Florins which was apportioned according to family and property. In 1804, a five–florin tax was levied on every head of family as an overall rather than a personal amount. In 1806, an increase of 30 Kreuzer per Gulden of tax was introduced. Under the 20th July 1824 Order (Decree), however, besides income tax an overall tax was levied on all of Galicia's Jews, totalling 836,000 Florins.
Besides tax collecting, the community was also responsible for the upkeep of the charitable institutions. With the authorities setting more stringent sanitary standards, 18 Jewish prisoners were employed to clean the Jewish Quarter, each at a monthly salary of six Gulden. Due to the spread of disease in the Jewish Quarter, the sanitary authorities fined the community heavily for neglect of cleanliness in the streets.
From 1801, the Jewish community kept a Jewish hospital with a doctor, two surgeons, a midwife and several medics. The hospital also kept two bathhouses which were let out. The hospital's management was appointed by the community and the expenses were paid for from the
[Pages 205-206]
bathhouses' leasing fees as well as from donations from the meat tax lessees and from individuals.
Ten police inspectors (Polizeirevisoren): five Christian and five Jewish were employed to maintain order within the Jewish Quarter. According to Lwów's management report, the Jewish inspectors fulfilled “useful and successful services, not only in Jewish affairs but also in other matters”. As a result, in 1824 their annual salary was raised from 200 to 300 Florins.[21]
One of the community's special enterprises was the collection of funds for Eretz Israel. The dispatch of funds to Eretz Israel was closely monitored by the authorities who forced Lwów's elders and its rabbi, Rabbi Izak Ornstein, to submit a detailed report on each dispatch.
In May 1818, the community–elders submitted a complaint against the elder Ber Chaim Modlinger, known for his employ as registrar of the citizens' census, who collected funds for the Jews of Eretz Israel.[22] It is not known what the authorities did about that complaint, nevertheless, during the inquiry it was revealed that the funds were collected by one Kolikower. who had used receipts signed by Rabbi Jakob Meschulam Ornstein, and by Lwów's community secretary, Ber Chaim Modlinger. According to Abraham Kahana's report to the authorities, Modlinger had pressured him and three other Jews to emigrate to Eretz Israel, and to collect funds for that purpose. An anonymous report was also submitted claiming that Ber Chaim Modlinger and Rabbi Meschulam Ornstein engaged in collecting funds for Eretz Israel, but the inquiry was repealed due to lack of evidence.
The economic composition of Lwów's Jews had not undergone great change. In town, the shopkeepers and the pedlars, who were particularly active during the fairs (“Kontracts”) which took place annually during May and October, were still there. The fairs kept going till the arrival of the railway and communication with the West.
The 1820 census contains interesting facts about the Jews of Lwów, their occupations and professions. The entire town population numbered 45,162, of which 17,932 (38.7%) were Jewish. Of the 2,140 who were engaged in trade and industry, 1,308 were Christian, 832 were Jewish. The percentage of Jews engaged in trade was 55.2%, and in crafts 24.5%. Among the 262 merchants, 200 were Jews, and among the 290 shopkeepers, 265 were Jews. Out of the 381 bartenders, restaurant and coffee house owners, 58 were Jewish.[23] Next to the restaurants were also hotels and simple hostelries where impoverished nobles, and Jewish merchants stayed during their stay at Lwów in the winter months, for the “Kontracts” season.
Among the occupations of Jews one notes salaried employees, servants, coachmen and porters who were known for their agility and honesty.[24] Lazar Zucker and Izak Heilpern were known coaching–contractors for the route Lwów–Olmütz [Olomouc]–Vienna.
Among the 745 Jewish craftsmen, 249 were tailors, 22 glaziers, 51 bakers, 133 furriers, 34 silversmiths, 28 twiners, 19 bookbinders, 9 carpenters, 9 belt makers, 8 candle makers, 1 watchmaker, 28 goldsmiths (jewellers), 7 mead distillers, 3 weavers, 13 whitewashers, 3 blacksmiths, 3 cotton–wool processors, 8 upholsterers, 5 wax pourers, 1 printer, 3 brick–makers, 1 sock–maker, 2 mirror polishers, 3 hatters, 2 engravers, 1 shoemaker, 99 were engaged in other occupations such as: butchers, liquor distillers, soap makers, coppersmiths, carvers, woodcutters, painters [decorators], tanners, beer brewers, hairdressers.[25]
The wholesale trade from Vienna to Russia was in the hands of Jews. A number of Jewish wholesale traders from Lwów frequented the fairs at Leipzig. By and by, however, they were displaced by Jews from Brody who in time represented Galicia at the fairs. In 1829 for example, of the 226 merchants representing Galicia at the Leipzig fair, all were Jews from Brody.
Among the wholesalers one knows of Moses Pinkas who was in charge of most of eastern Galicia's timber trade, which he transported to Danzig by rafts along the Vistula [Wisla]. Lwów's Jewish timber merchants kept large warehouses at Józefów and Krystynopol [Czerwonogród] and supplied goods to Moses Pinkas and Joseph Mendel of Kraków, and to Izak Hirsch of Brody.[26]
Josef Mizys managed wholesale trade in wax, and Gabriel Reizes, in fur.
A number of Jews engaged in brokerage and in the maintenance of warehouses. Zadok Balaban and Gezl were known as large–scale shop owners who supplied fashion items to Polish nobles of Galicia and Poland. There were also Jews who supplied the armed forces, among whom one knows of Izak–Ze'ev Rappoport, a wholesaler in tobacco, grains and salt. The authorities valued his economic operations, and backed him when Chaim Hainisch of Lwów reported him, and they proved that the denouncements against him were untrue, and that the Jewish merchants of Lwów benefitted the country[27] as suppliers, wholesalers and industrialists. At the time, several of Lwów's Jews took part in the development of industry, establishing workshops and the first factories, including the liquor factories of Leib Mimels and Fischel Dobs, Baceles and Margulies, and a beer brewery of Bruner from Lwów. Large flour mills were also established by Jews.
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The economic standing of the [Jewish] population was so depleted that the community requested a reduction in taxes. Even high government officers submitted reports stressing that the tax burden levied on the Jews was too heavy, and was considerably greater than the taxes levied on the rest of the population.[28]
In October 1816, the Lwów community requested that the Governor consider the situation of the Jews, and ease their tax burden. The memorandum highlighted that as an outcome of the wars the value of money bills had fallen and the assets of the wealthy had shrunk due to the restrictions barring them from the purchase of properties and estates, which had kept their value. Jewish trade plummeted when the relationship with Russia, the major buyers' market, was cut off by the Russians. The war had ruined the fundamental existence of Lwów's Jewish population and consequently it was unable to meet the tax burden.
Governor Hauer took no account of the community's arguments however, and rejected its request. That refusal to ease the taxes prevented any improvement in the economic situation of Lwów's Jews. Their standing was reduced year by year to such an extent that, according to the community commission, by 1817–1822 the number of those able to pay tax had fallen from 1800 to 900.
In its request the community pointed out to Kaiser Franz I, the grim reality that a large number of heads of families who had previously paid taxes, could hardly support themselves while they and their families suffered hunger.
In 1821, the community's Jewish tax debt amounted to 39,419 Florins, and the general taxes debt amounted to 60,000 Florins.[29] Even then, the authorities rejected the request to ease their tax burden.[30]
The general economic reality of Galicia weighed heavily on the Jews' circumstances, especially due to the devaluation of the currency. The 20th December 1811 decree, reduced the value of banknotes (Bankzettel) by 20%.
The reduced credit and investment of funds was especially felt in the grain and timber trades, and it became difficult to export them to Danzig.
On numerous occasions in its messages to the Vienna authorities, the Galician Sejm pointed out the difficult economic situation. Prince [von] Metternich who due to his sudden illness spent an extended period at Lwów, also wrote to his wife that Galicia was a fertile country rich in natural resources, but that the lack of funds and transportation hindered export and led to an excessive reduction in the price of goods. The commissioner Prince [von] Lobkowitz, who became Governor in 1826, tried nonetheless to amend the economic situation by improvements, and he also recognized the injustice done to the Jews.
After years even the authorities had to recognized the reality, and enlightened officers awakened the central offices' attention to the reduced situation of the Jews of Galicia and of Lwów. By and by even the Vienna authorities took note that the policy of taxing the Jews to destruction had to stop. In 1830, the Court–cabinet (Hofkanzlei) proposed to abolish all the taxation on Jews, and place them financially on a par with the rest of the population, but the proposal was not approved by the Emperor, saying that the time had not yet come for such changes.[31] Most of the administrative staff considered the reduced state of the Jews, not due to external conditions –economic circumstances, taxation etc.– but due to their internal way of life.
The central authorities also debated the restrictions of habitation within Lwów and asked the Governor the following questions: 1. Should one continue to restrict the habitation of Lwów's Jews? 2. Should one annul the prohibition on acquiring houses and plots? and 3. Should one allow Jews to purchase houses in the Jewish Quarter from Christians?
The Governor replied in the positive to questions 2. and 3. only, stating that as for question 1., each case had to be considered on its own merits.
The Vienna Court–cabinet concluded that the attractive sections of town should be devoid of Jews. With regard to questions 2. and 3., it agreed with the Governor. The Governor's proposals of 12th December 1828 and of 26th March 1830 –regarding the reduction of Lwów's Jewish population, and the organization of the Jewish Quarters– were decided in the negative, since “after detailed consideration we have reached the conclusion that one need abandon the old system to turn the Jews into useful citizens through restrictions, and that it is preferable to turn them into useful citizens through religious, moral and intellectual education, and by and by eliminate the restrictions which would become redundant”.[32]
The issue of amending the way of life of Galician Jews also occupied the authorities, just as it had in earlier periods. They accepted every proposal submitted to them, hoping to arrive at the right means to implement the alterations they were after. From time to time the Vienna officials troubled the Lwów Governor with demands for
[Pages 209-210]
suggestions that would at least accomplish the alterations they had achieved in Bohemia and Moravia.
There were inevitably some bothersome Jews who submitted endless proposals on the issue to the Governor. One of them, Menachem Schnaier, submitted a programme in 1805 to turn the Jews into “productive, happy citizens”. His intention was to receive the fare to Vienna and a licence to stay there in order to submit the details of his proposal, but the Governor replied that he could submit his proposal, in person, and it would be forwarded to Vienna. Already in October 1805, his programme was in front of the Court–advisor Reichmann, who considered it very interesting since for the first time he found “a true and unflattering description of the Jews and their character”.
Schnaier reported details of the children's education and its failings; he stressed specifically that the Talmud taught Jews to hate Christians; that the prayers included curses of non–Jews; that the education led to savagery and to distancing from the rest of the population. Change would come about through secular education of mixed Jewish and Christian youths; dissolving of Jewish schools; teaching the Torah in the German language; abolishing the Jewish traditional dress and forbidding sidecurls [payot] and beard; appointing a national Jewish elder (Überlandesältester), a Maskil [Hebrew Enlightener] who, as a governmental officer at an annual salary of 2,000 Florins, would represent the Jews. Apart from him one had to appoint a Christian clerk. Both would appoint Jewish commissars who would organize a census with an index card for each individual. For administrative reasons, it was preferable for the municipality to have the authority over the Jews. Every community would be led by a single elder, apart from the towns of Lwów, Brody Kraków and Lublin, where two elders would be appointed.[33]
The author of the programme, Menachem Schnaier, was a Lwów restaurant owner, who had an adventurous past. He had been accused in the past of theft and burglary, found not guilty and placed under police supervision. He tried to insinuate himself into the community's committee and become a member, but he was expelled. It is unknown whether he associated with any Enlightenment circles. From time to time he bothered the authorities with his proposals which remained filed in clerks' desks. He was one of many bothersome characters who flooded the offices with suggestions and programmes “for the good of the Jews”.
In 1813, talk among the clerical circles of Lwów and Vienna considered the need to improve the condition of the Jews of Galicia. The Court advisor, Johann Fidelis von Erggelet, wrote a comprehensive memorandum the principal conclusion of which was that one had to bring them [the Jews] out of their isolation, ease the harsh restrictions on them, and place their rights and obligations on a par with the rest of the population.
The officers claimed that it was impossible to give up the Jews of Galicia and expel 40,000 families from the country. Under those circumstances and despite their shortcomings, one had to treat them as fairly as the rest of the population.
Their proposals laid stress on improving the education of the youths which, except for religious studies, should be taught
at state schools.[34] Von Erggelet's memorandum was given to the members of the Court–committee for their opinions, and most of them concurred with him that the Jews should be granted the same civil rights as the rest of the population if they were required to fulfill all the obligations of the state's citizens. So long as no such policy was in place, the Jews' evasion of fulfilling their duties, and their stratagem to circumvent any laws which were to their detriment, was justified. Some of them claimed that as long as rabbis who lacked any general education were leading the Jews, no improvement was possible. On the other hand, the authorities had to realize that regulations and administrative arrangements alone could not alter the character of a people, and therein lay the mistake of tackling the Jewish issue. Although radical changes could not be implemented at once, one had to strive to prepare the Jews to embrace equal rights, by and by.
First of all, by eliminating the restrictions one had to allow them an
economic living condition that would forgo their need for deception and immoral living. Despite those proposals submitted to the central authorities and to Kaiser Franz I, however, they remained deaf to any request to lighten the living conditions of the Galician Jews.
Besides the principal issues, in the 1820s tradition dress surfaced again, with the aim to apply the 16th May 1781 prohibition against the traditional Jewish clothes, that the authorities had abolished in 1790 due to an inability to implement it. The authorities were greatly interested in the question of dress once certain wealthy circles and admirers of the Enlightenment had removed their traditional dress, out of their own volition.
The Maskilim of Brody were largely responsible for that. Several members of Brody's community submitted a memorandum to the authorities[35] in which they requested that in conjunction with the new Jewish regulations a new law should be enacted to oblige the Jews of Galicia to replace their traditional dress which was a principal hindrance to their relations with the Christian population. The Maskilim requested to hasten that process even though, “elderly Jews were attached to their traditional dress, whether from ancient law or from habit”.
The Brody Maskilim's request encouraged the Governor to draw the
[Pages 211-212]
attention of the Vienna authorities to the question of clothing.
In July 1816, in a report after his voyage throughout Galicia, the commissioner Freiherr von Hauer stated with satisfaction that replacing the traditional clothing was raised among the Jews of Galicia, especially by the well to do. It was however advisable for the authorities not to get involved, “so as not to arouse the zealots' wrath”.[36]
During the 1820–1821 debate over the new Jewish regulation, the advisor von Widmann proposed the following questions in his summary to the commissioners:
- Is it necessary to abolish the traditional Jewish clothing with a law or was it preferable to leave the matter to the Jews themselves?
- Should one separate the improvements regarding dress from the Jewish regulation?
- Need a date be set for abolishing the traditional clothes, while permitting only rabbis and religious officials to wear the traditional dress?
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According to commissioner Hauer it was advisable to bridge the existing abyss between the Jews of Galicia and the rest of the population, specifically concerning their peculiar dress, and to bring them together as soon as possible. Considering the situation, however, justice and law should not be mixed with habits and tradition. Although it was advisable to introduce improvements to the Jews' lifestyle, it was difficult to force them to alter their habits –of which dress made part– just as it was impossible to force the nobles and farmers to give up their national dress. After all, till then the Jews of Galicia appeared in their traditional dress in front of the nobles, and travelled in it to the fairs of Germany where they received credit. Since Galicia had several national costumes there was no good reason to demand from the Jews in particular to wear European clothes. The argument that the change of dress would encourage the process of bringing them closer to the rest of the population and to secular Enlightenment, was fundamentally flawed and consequently he believed that it was better to start the improvement by granting them permission to engage in occupations from which they had been barred, to live outside the specified Quarters, to establish elementary schools for them and admit them to secondary schools without hindrance. Every aspect indicated that no law should be enacted to force the Jews to give up their traditional dress.
Despite his opinion, and since the Jews had not responded to the 1817 authorities' call to alter their clothes voluntarily, the Governor proposed to combine the Jewish regulation with renewal of the decree on Jewish dress, under the assumption that it would prepare the ground for general alterations to the lifestyle of Galician Jews, and that the Jews were unlikely to alter their clothes voluntarily.
The Governor was also guided by the Jews' wishes to prohibit the Jewish traditional dress which delayed the Europeanization of their people. Based on the Governor's proposals the Vienna authorities ordered that Jews replace their dress with European outfits. At Lwów, according to the Governor's instructions, the timetable for the changes was:
- For those on third–level income and for community leaders
