Issued in 1264 by Bolesław Pobożny (Boleslaus the Pious), Duke of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), this charter of liberties for the Jews – known as the Statute of Kalisz – was modeled on earlier rights extended to Jews in Bohemia, Austria, and Hungary. Composed of thirty-six articles, the Statute regulated matters of jurisdiction over the Jewish population, the rules for the credit and trade activities pursued by the Jews, and their relations with Christians. It brought order to the basic economic, organizational, and cultural/religious issues shared by all the Jewish communities within Wielkopolska. Initially, the Statute of Kalisz was binding only in Wielkopolska. However, it was later confirmed by King Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III the Great), who in 1334 extended it to all Jews in the Kingdom of Poland. As a result, Poland – and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) – became the early modern era’s greatest (if only numerically) center for the Jewish diaspora, for the reason that it guaranteed exceptionally advantageous conditions for life and for cultivating Judaism and Jewish customs.
