Aleksander Jagiellonczyk°

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ALEKSANDER JAGIELLONCZYK°

ALEKSANDER JAGIELLONCZYK ° (1461–1506), grand duke of Lithuania 1492–1501, king of Poland 1501–06. In 1495 Aleksander expelled the Jews from Lithuania. The young prince may also have been indoctrinated by his rabidly anti-Jewish mentor Jan *Dlugosz. Aleksander would also have found it convenient to confiscate the property of the exiles to finance his wars against Russia. When elected king of Poland, however, Aleksander's attitude toward the Jews was more tolerant. In 1503 he allowed the exiled Lithuanian Jews to return. The Polish code, compiled by his chancellor Jan Laski (1506), includes the former grants of privileges accorded to Polish Jewry, but with the preamble that their incorporation is "to protect the citizenry from the Jews."

bibliography:

Dubnow, Hist Russ, 1 (1916), 4–5; I. Halpern (ed.), Beit Yisrael be-Folin, 1 (1948), 14–16. add. bibliography: M. Balaban, Historia i literatura zydowska, 2 (1925), 350–53.

[Nathan Michael Gelber]

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Aleksander Jagiellonczyk°

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