-4. Jodenrijtje (Jewish Row) – Joderye

Juderia
Page on the Joderye (Jewish Row)

Summary

In a medieval charter from the year 1435 a house was mentioned as being located in a place known as the Joderye. This is as far as known the first “hard” evidence of Jewish presence in Utrecht.

The origin of these Jews is not known, but a relation with the expulsion of the Jews from Cologne in 1424 is rather probable, even though some of the Jews from Cologne settled in the nearby Deutz..

Contract 1435 referring to the Joderye
Contract referring to the Joderye (1435) – HUA

Images of Jews from approximately the same period are shown in the booklet (frontpage and 2. Karel V, the Church, and the expulsions). As the painting and the reliefs served in part to show the distinctness of the Jews the images may contain stereotypical elements and deviate from “reality”.

References

Relief Wittevr 1
Relief from Wittevrouwenklooster (origin in Centraal Museum)

The Utrecht Archive – Entry 709  No 1363 and 1305/1-3: An agreement between a certain Steven Boen and his wife Uedel with the St.Barbara and St.Laurens Hospital in which they are allowed to stay in the house (1435) and later legate their belongings to the hospital (1438-1443)  

On the Jews of Cologne:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Cologne and http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/cologne.html  and http://www.museenkoeln.de/archaeologische-zone/default.asp?s=4311