Under an ancient ordinance, every Jewish citizen of the town of Rotenburg, in Hessen, is under an obligation to make a gift of silver spoons each year to the local Catholic priest. For decades, the Jews of Rotenburg have been fighting against this levy, to get it removed as an unjust and undignified toll upon the Jewish population. The highest authority in the State, the Central Court at Cassel, the capital of Hessen, has now ruled that the Jewish citizens of Rotenburg must continue to pay their due of silver spoons, maintaining that it had not been proved whether the levy of silver spoons means that the Jews are considered serfs, paying tribute, or whether it is based upon a private legal agreement between the two parties.
The Jews of Hessen are downcast over the ruling of the Court, giving new validity to a state of affairs which they have long been denouncing as belonging to the Middle Ages.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
