TYROL

TYROL, autonomous province in W. Austria. Jews are first recorded in the Tyrol in the late 13th century: Isaac of Lienz was a large-scale moneylender and leased the income from the customs. A "Mayr the Monetarius" (mintmaster ) is mentioned in 1310 in merano . The few Jews living in innsbruck were massacred during the black death persecutions in 1348–49, and in the following decades few are recorded in the province. In Bozen (bolzano ) and Trient (trent ), scene of the notorious blood libel in 1475, Jews are first mentioned in 1403. In 1442 a blood libel also occurred in Lienz. The alleged murder of Andreas of Rinn on the local "Judenstein" was an early 17th-century fabrication on the lines of the Trent blood libel. Although Andreas was never beatified, his cult was tolerated by the Church in 1755; an attempt to revive the "Anderl" play in 1954 was not permitted. Expulsion orders of Jews from the Tyrol issued in 1520 and 1569 were not enforced, and a few Jews were found living there soon afterward, mainly in Innsbruck. After the expulsion from nearby hohenems in 1676, a few families settled in Innsbruck and elsewhere. Though Tyrol produced few scholars of distinction, two of the 17th century should be mentioned: Solomon b. Isaac and Shemaiah b. Meir Halevi Horowitz. During the anti-French uprising of andreas hofer the Jewish settlement in Innsbruck was pillaged. Legal and economic restrictions on the Jews were not abolished under Bavarian rule and were ratified by the estates in 1817. In 1850 about 90 Jews were living in the province, mainly in Innsbruck. In Merano, where the first Jew settled in 1832, a Jewish settlement developed following the growth of the resort town. The Koenigswarter burial foundation was established in 1872, a hospital was opened in 1893, and a synagogue in 1901. In 1914 there were 130 Jews living in the province; that year Joseph Link, formerly of Hohenems, became provincial rabbi of the Tyrol and vorarlberg at Innsbruck, officiating until 1932. He was succeeded by E.S. Rimalt, under whom Zionism gained ground. After World War I sheḥitah was prohibited in Tyrol. The early 1930s saw a rise in the support of Nazism by the local population. Isolated Jews living in the province were not molested during kristallnacht in November 1938, but the Jews of Innsbruck suffered extensively from Nazi attacks. Soon afterward all the Jews of Tyrol moved to Vienna. After World War II about 11 families established a new community in Innsbruck. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E.S. Rimalt, in: J. Fraenkel (ed.), Jews of Austria (1967), 375–85; Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 537, 823; K. Kruby in: W.P. Eckert and E.L. Ehrlich (eds.), Judenhass – Schuld der Christen? (1964), 301ff.; B. Muenz, in: AZJ, 70 (1906), 116f., 141f.