Huck
I've learnt, that in our collections of notes about old playing cards astonishingly Jewish use of cards in the researched time is usually not mentioned - although one finds early notes researchuing Jewish dictionaries. Somehow it looks like a blind spot of general playing card history ... Therefore it might be useful to collect such notes.
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Some notes in a Jewish dictionary:
"Playing-cards were one of the first products of the art of wood-engraving; they were printed from wooden blocks and then colored. As the invention of "books of lots" and playing-cards, originally merely picture-cards, must be ascribed to the Jews and Saracens, it may be assumed that Jews were engaged at an early date in their manufacture; in fact, the only painter of playing-cards whose name has come down from the beginning of the sixteenth century in Germany is the Jew Meyer Chaym of Landau (1520)."
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=379&letter=E&search=playing cards
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"Dice, lotteries, betting, cards, and other games were commonly indulged in by the Jews of medieval Europe, and many decrees ("taxk.k.anot") were passed in the various communities against them. So wide-spread were these games that even scholars and prominent leaders of the synagogue were seized with an uncontrollable passion for them. Leo da Modena (an eminent scholar who lived in Venice at the close of the sixteenth century) was known as an inveterate card-player, so that the rabbis of Venice, fearing the pernicious results of such an example, issued a decree (1628) excommunicating any member of the congregation who should play cards within a period of six years therefrom. Such communal enactments had been very frequent in Italy, a typical instance being preserved in a decree of the community of Forli dated 1416 (S. Halberstamm in "Grätz Jubelschrift" [Hebr. section], p. 57).
These enactments were stringent, and equally so was the punishment for their violation; yet they were not always heeded by the people. The eve of Christmas ("Nittal Nacht"), when the students of the Law refrained from study, was considered most favorable for card-playing. The restrictions were also disregarded on new moons and the week-days of Passover and of the Feast of Tabernacles, at weddings, on Purim, and especially on H.anukkah, when even pious and scholarly men indulged in card-playing. In spite of the strenuous objections of the Rabbis, the custom still prevails in many cities of eastern Europe of playing cards on H.anukkah soon after the candles are lighted ("H.awwot Ya'ir," p. 126)."
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=58&letter=G&search=playing cards
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Card playing at Christmas
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/hol...ember_864/JewsChristmas/JewsChristmasHome.htm
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Some notes in a Jewish dictionary:
"Playing-cards were one of the first products of the art of wood-engraving; they were printed from wooden blocks and then colored. As the invention of "books of lots" and playing-cards, originally merely picture-cards, must be ascribed to the Jews and Saracens, it may be assumed that Jews were engaged at an early date in their manufacture; in fact, the only painter of playing-cards whose name has come down from the beginning of the sixteenth century in Germany is the Jew Meyer Chaym of Landau (1520)."
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=379&letter=E&search=playing cards
*******
"Dice, lotteries, betting, cards, and other games were commonly indulged in by the Jews of medieval Europe, and many decrees ("taxk.k.anot") were passed in the various communities against them. So wide-spread were these games that even scholars and prominent leaders of the synagogue were seized with an uncontrollable passion for them. Leo da Modena (an eminent scholar who lived in Venice at the close of the sixteenth century) was known as an inveterate card-player, so that the rabbis of Venice, fearing the pernicious results of such an example, issued a decree (1628) excommunicating any member of the congregation who should play cards within a period of six years therefrom. Such communal enactments had been very frequent in Italy, a typical instance being preserved in a decree of the community of Forli dated 1416 (S. Halberstamm in "Grätz Jubelschrift" [Hebr. section], p. 57).
These enactments were stringent, and equally so was the punishment for their violation; yet they were not always heeded by the people. The eve of Christmas ("Nittal Nacht"), when the students of the Law refrained from study, was considered most favorable for card-playing. The restrictions were also disregarded on new moons and the week-days of Passover and of the Feast of Tabernacles, at weddings, on Purim, and especially on H.anukkah, when even pious and scholarly men indulged in card-playing. In spite of the strenuous objections of the Rabbis, the custom still prevails in many cities of eastern Europe of playing cards on H.anukkah soon after the candles are lighted ("H.awwot Ya'ir," p. 126)."
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=58&letter=G&search=playing cards
*******
Card playing at Christmas
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/hol...ember_864/JewsChristmas/JewsChristmasHome.htm
