Contributions to the City Walls?

It was not just the king and the city authorities who concerned themselves with the Jews' involvement in city defences. There were also discussions within the Jewish community on the extent to which they should contribute to the construction of city walls, for example.

This Hebrew manuscript contains a responsum in which R. Hayim Or Sarua addresses this issue, amongst others. Responsa are replies from Jewish scholars to questions posed to them by Jewish communities, individuals and other scholars. Responsa can cover all areas of life, and provide many indications of everyday relations and interactions between Christians and Jews. Places, times and questioners are usually anonymised in both queries and replies.

This responsum from the period between October 1297 and the year 1300, however, specifies a great many details. R. Hayim Or Sarua is responding to a question, which has not survived, from Regensburg's Jews. The interesting point here is the question of whether Jewish citizens of Regensburg have a duty to contribute financially to the new city walls. Or Sarua stresses that he does not see the need for the construction of a new wall as a wall that is perfectly fit for purpose already exists. He is referring to the wall that had been built around 920 under Duke Arnulf when the town first expanded.