The General Charter of Jewish rights known as the Statute of Kalisz, and the Kalisz Privilege, granted Jews in the Middle Ages special protection against discrimination in Poland when they were being persecuted in Western Europe. These rights included exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish matters to Jewish courts, and established a separate tribunal for other criminal matters involving Christians and Jews designed to avoid Jewish discrimination. It led to the formation of a separate court and safety for persecuted Jews which attracted Jewish immigrants from across Europe to Poland.
Thanks to the statute, specialists in various crafts, trade and financial operations arrived in the country. An additional benefit for the country was the frequent practice of an additional tax for the possibility of practicing Judaism.
The statute was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Bolesław the Pious on September 8, 1264 in Kalisz. After the unification of Poland, the statute was then ratified by some subsequent Polish Kings: Casimir III in 1334, Casimir IV in 1453, and Sigismund I in 1539. It was at a time when rulers in Western Europe forced Jews to emigrate (England in 1290, France in 1290, Spain in 1492). Practically, this meant that the ruler robbed the Jewish people property and threw the robbed people outside the country's borders. The main motive was the robbery of property, justified by religious reasons. Polish Jews appreciated the opportunities Poland provided them and significantly contributed to its development. Their loyalty was also important to the ruler. After the establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the role of Jews as bankers and lenders was important. The weak tax system often could not provide sufficient funds for the functioning of the state (the nobility paid almost no taxes).Jewish subjects in Poland were freemen allowed to trade, rather than serfs, and so further enjoyed the country's religious toleration codified by the Warsaw Confederation of 1573.
The Polish aristocracy developed a unique social contract with Jews, who operated as arendators running businesses such as mills and breweries, and certain bureaucratic tasks to the exclusion of non-Jews, especially tax collection. After Poland expanded into Eastern Orthodox Ukraine, the introduction of the system was a partial cause of the Cossacks' anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648..
Following are abridged and translated excerpts from the 36 clauses of the Statute of Kalisz:[1]
Romuald Hube analyzed source documents and claimed that both the original and its authenticated copies could not be found and that the text was a forgery from the 1400s done for political purposes.[2] [3] [4] [5] This view is not confirmed by contemporary scientists.[6]
In the 1920s, Polish-Jewish artist and activist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951) illuminated the Statute of Kalisz in a cycle of 45 watercolor and gouache miniature paintings.[7] In addition to the original Latin, Szyk translated the text of the Statute into Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian, German, English, and Spanish.[8] In 1929, Szyk's Statute miniatures were exhibited throughout Poland, namely in Łódź, Warsaw, Kraków, and Kalisz.[9] With support from the Polish government, selections of the Statute miniatures were exhibited in Geneva in 1931,[10] once again in Poland as part of a 14-city tour in 1932,[11] in London in 1933,[12] in Toronto in 1940,[13] and in New York in 1941 and then, without government patronage, in New York in 1944, 1952, and 1974–75.[14] In 1932, the Statute of Kalisz was published by Éditions de la Table Ronde de Paris as a collector's luxury limited edition of 500.[15] Szyk's original miniatures are now in the holdings of the Jewish Museum (New York).[16]