Ruediger°

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RUEDIGER°

RUEDIGER ° (Hutzmann ), bishop of *Speyer, Germany, from 1073 to 1090. Ruediger enlarged and fortified the city, encouraging Jewish refugees to settle and augment its prosperity and prestige by granting them a charter of privileges (Sept. 13, 1084), one of the earliest and most magnanimous of medieval charters. A contemporary Jewish source emphasizes Ruediger's fatherly and benevolent attitude. In 1090 he took steps to have the rights of the Jews confirmed by his ally, *Henry iv. His successor saved most of the Speyer Jewish community from massacre during the First Crusade (1096).

bibliography:

A. Epstein, in: mgwj, 41 (1897), 25–43; Germ Jud, 1 (1963), 327–30.