Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach (Bak) (deceased)

Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach (Bak)
Also Known As:	"Ventura de Bachi", "Gans"
Birthdate:	estimated between 1515 and 1641
Death:
Immediate Family:	Son of Jacob ben Joseph Bak and Feigle Bak Husband of Lida Ventura Father of David Gans and Rehuben Ventura de Bachi Brother of Serl Malach; Moses ben Jacob Bak; Esther Bak and N.N. Katz

Managed by:	Randy Schoenberg
Last Updated:	today

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About Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach

Bunatova, p. 235, 281

Also see German (Deutsch Text) translation below:

The Prague-based trader Rabbi Wentura de Bachi from Verona, in addition to the spring trade, also led tropical fruits and spices, he was known for his spring trade because of his bankruptcy, which overtook him and his entire family in 1594. "

Rabbi Wentura came from Verona, Italy, and settled in Prague sometime during the 1680s, where he bought a house in the Jewish city. This wealthy trader used his business contacts to other Italian business people who were in Prague. His business, too, was primarily geared towards importing goods of Italian origin. B. In the course of the 1690s, however, he became insolvent, he was no longer able to repay the business loans he had received, in 1594 he declared his bankruptcy and fled from his creditors in Prague. In total he owed them 18,675 guilders. Many creditors then claimed his property, including foreign trading companies and Prague citizens and courtiers of the emperor.765 Until the execution in 1595, two houses were added to his property. A house 766 bought back Rabbi Mojžíš Vlach from the creditors for 1,000 guilders in 1600 and sold it to the debtor's son, David Wentura.

See Joanna Weinberg, A Humanist in the Kloyz: New Perspectives on the Maharal of Prague and Jacques Bongars

The first (or last) page of Bongars’s Album amicorum, an entirely different kind of literary artifact, forces the reader to reevaluate the Maharal’s homiletic outpourings on this subject. It reads: Truth will spring from a distant land. Let it be known how these two devout men, one called Don Giacomo [Jacques] and the other Don Guglielmo [Guillaume], came here to the holy community of Prague from France. They went to the Bet ha-Midrash [Academy] of the great eminent scholar [Gaon], our teacher, Rabbi Loew [Maharal]. Since they were going to stay here in Prague for several months it was their wish to learn the Holy Tongue. They asked the Gaon to provide them with an educated person who would speak to them in the vernacular. The Gaon therefore sent a message to me requesting that I should teach them [lit. study with them, “lamadeti imahem”] the modes of the holy tongue as the good Lord would inspire me. I should not refrain from giving them all possible help. Thus, since the Gaon had requested it and they, too, I learned with them until they knew how to read the Pentateuch, Prophets and Writings in the Holy Tongue. Verily, I discovered that they were intelligent men who were expert in all disciplines and languages. The time came for their departure. Because we had formed a great deep friendship, they asked me to inscribe my name as a memento in this book. Consequently, in view of the longestablished friendship and since their request was both honorable and fitting I shall inscribe my name. And the name by which all people call me is Judah Seligmann Waal son to his father Jacob Bak of blessed memory, the judge in the holy community of Prague, dated Friday, 21 Adar Sheni 345 [March 12, 1585] here in Prague the capital. Ventura the Jew of Venice who is presently in Prague.19

The truths that this letter reveals are indeed astonishing. Jacques Bongars and Guillaume le Normant de Trougny entered the Maharal’s Bet ha- Midrash (or Kloyz) and asked him to provide a Hebrew teacher, since they were intending to stay in Prague for a few months. The Maharal turned to a trusted member of the rabbinic elite, son of a judge of a rabbinical law court.20 Judah Seligmann, or Ventura, an Italian Jew, as the designation Waal (or Wohl) indicates, was a Venetian of the Bak family.21 The Maharal encouraged or insisted that Judah teach Hebrew to the two Christians. And he obediently took them through the Hebrew Bible and became impressed by their erudition and culture. The men struck up a close friendship, and before they took leave of each other, Bongars produced his Stammbuch and Ventura wrote an affectionate description of the course of their friendship on the first (or last) page of the book. The story of the intimate relationship that developed between these Christians and one Jew is documented in the album belonging to one of the two visitors to the Jewish academy, Jacques Bongars. (Judah Seligmann refers to both Bongars and de Trougny, but since the Stammbuch belonged to Bon

19 Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 468, 297. I have slightly emended my translation, first published in Ludwig’s Stammbu¨ cher, 23, and I differ from Ludwig in the interpretation of the document. The last line reads: “Ventura Hebreo di venec¸ia al presente in prago.” The spelling prago rather than praga is uncommon. I am grateful to Fabrizio Lelli for helping me to establish this point. 20 His name appears on a 1577 list of elders of the Prague community. See Gottlieb Bondy and Franz Dworsky, Zur Geschichte der Juden in Bo¨ hmen, Ma¨hren und Schlesien von 906 bis 1620 (Prague: Gottlieb Bondy in Prag, 1906), 2:559n772: “Juda Seligmann Jacobs Sohn.” 21 On the Bak family of printers and their connection with Prague, see Olga Sixtova, Hebrew Printing in Bohemia and Moravia (Prague: Academia, the Jewish Museum in Prague, 2012), 60.

http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=E1BD2EA1B72711DF8...

Über Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach (Deutsch)

Bunatova, p. 235, 281

"Der in Prag niedergelassene Händler Rabbi Wentura de Bachi aus Verona führte neben dem Federnhandel auch Südfrüchte und Gewürze ein Bekannter als mit seinem Federnhandel wurde dieser gebürtige Veronese durch seinen Bankrott, der ihn und seine gesamte Familie im Jahre 1594 ereilte."

Rabbi Wentura stammte aus dem italienischen Verona und ließ sich irgendwann im Laufe der 80-er Jahre des 16. Jahrhunderts in Prag nieder, wo er ein Haus in der Judenstadt kaufte. Dieser vermögende Händler nutzte seine geschäftlichen Kontakte zu weiteren italienischen Geschäftsleuten, die sich in Prag aufhielten. Auch seine Geschäfte waren vor allem auf die Einfuhr von Waren italienischer Herkunft ausgerichtet, in die andere Richtung exportierte er z. B. Im Laufe der 90-er Jahre wurde er jedoch zahlungsunfähig, er war nicht mehr in der Lage, seine erhaltenen Geschäftskredite zurückzuzahlen, im Jahre 1594 erklärte er seinen Bankrott und flüchtete vor seinen Gläubigern aus Prag. Insgesamt schuldete er ihnen 18.675 Gulden. Auf sein Vermögen erhoben anschließend viele Gläubiger Anspruch, unter ihnen auch ausländische Handelsfirmen und auch Prager Bürger und Höflinge des Kaisers.765 Bis zur Vollstreckung im Jahre 1595 kamen zu seinem Vermögen unter anderem auch noch zwei Häuser. Ein Haus766 kaufte im Jahre 1600 Rabbi Mojžíš Vlach von den Gläubigern für 1.000 Gulden zurück und verkaufte es an den Sohn des Schuldners, David Wentura, weiter.

764 TEIGE, Pražské Ghetto (wie Anm. 35), S. 94-98. 765 Zwischen seinen Gläubigern gehörten z. B.: Bernhart Botyni, Antonín Buty, Herkules de Arconati, Oratius de la Porta, Petr Antonio Becone, Jan Buteri, Jeremiáš Werdeman, weiter die Nürnberger Handelsgesellschaften Joachym Finold u. Co., Lukas Torrisani u.Co, die Augsburger Handelsgesellschaft Matthias Heinhoffer u.Co., Leipziger Kauffman Thomas Lebzelter usw. In: LAJ, fol. 277r-v, Prag, 1595-1605; ebd., fol. 282r-v, Prag, 1595 August 11; ebd., fol. 282v, Prag, 1595 August 11; ebd., fol. 282v, Prag, 1595 August 11; ebd., 283r, Prag, 1595 August 14; fol. 284v, Prag, 1595 August 25. 766 Wahrscheinlich handelte es sich um das Haus Nr. 264-V in der Pinkasgasse, vgl. TEIGE, Pražské Ghetto (wie Anm. 35), S. 128. 767 LAJ, fol. 353v-354v, Prag, 1600 Mai 5.

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????		Birth of Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach
????		Birth of David Gans
????		Birth of Rehuben Ventura de Bachi
????		Death of Rabbi Judah Seligmann Stastny Wentura Wlach

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