# Mordecai Meisel > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mordecai_Meisel > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mordecai_Meisel.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Meisel > Source revision: 1316388650 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) '''Mordecai Marcus Meisel''' ({{langx|cs|Miška Marek Majzel}}; 1528, [Prague](/source/Prague) – 13 March 1601, Prague) was a [philanthropist](/source/philanthropist) and communal leader of the [Jewish community](/source/History_of_the_Jews_in_Prague) in [Prague](/source/Prague). He was one of the first [court Jews](/source/Court_Jew) of Eastern Europe.{{Cite book |last=Breuer |first=Mordechai |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3R5adgrm38C |title=German-Jewish History in Modern Times: Tradition and enlightenment, 1600-1780 |date=1996 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-07472-8 |pages=105-116 |language=en}} [[File:Grab Mordechai Maisel.JPG|thumb|Grave of Mordechai Meisel at the [Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague](/source/Old_Jewish_Cemetery%2C_Prague) (1601)]] == Biography == Born to the [Meisel family](/source/Meisel_family). In 1542 and 1561 his family, with the other Jewish inhabitants, was forced to leave the city, though only for a time. The source of the great wealth which subsequently enabled him to become the benefactor of his coreligionists and to aid the [Austria](/source/Austria)n imperial house, especially during the [Turkish](/source/Ottoman_Empire) wars, is unknown. He is mentioned in documents for the first time in 1569, as having business relations with the communal director Isaac Rofe, aka Lékař (meaning medical doctor in both Hebrew and Czech), subsequently his father-in-law. His first wife, Eva, who died before 1580, built with him the [Jewish Town Hall](/source/Jewish_Town_Hall_(Prague)) in Prague, which is still standing and serves today as the headquarters of the [Czech Jewish Community](/source/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Czech_Republic), as well as the neighboring [High Synagogue](/source/High_Synagogue_(Prague)), where the Jewish court sat. With his second wife, Frummet, he built (1590–92) the [Maisel Synagogue](/source/Maisel_Synagogue), which was much admired by the Jews of the time, being, next to the [Altneusynagoge](/source/Altneusynagoge), the metropolitan synagogue of the city; it still bears his name. The costly golden and silver vessels with which he and his wife furnished this building either were lost during the lawsuit over his estate or were burned during the conflagrations in the [ghetto](/source/ghetto) on 21 June 1689 and 16 May 1754. The only gifts dedicated by Meisel and his wife to this synagogue that have been preserved are a curtain (''paroket'') embroidered with hundreds of [pearl](/source/pearl)s, a similarly adorned wrapper for the [scroll of the Law](/source/torah_scroll), and a magnificent bronze ornament for the ''almemar''. [Jacob Segre](/source/Jacob_Segre), rabbi of [Casale Monferrato](/source/Casale_Monferrato), celebrated the dedication of the synagogue in a poem which is still extant, and his contemporary [David Gans](/source/David_Gans), the chronicler of Prague, has described in his ''Tzemach Dawid'' the enthusiasm with which the Jewish population received the gift. Meisel went on to build quarters and provide housing for Jews who migrated from what is now modern-day [Belarus](/source/Belarus). == See also == * [History of the Jews in Prague](/source/History_of_the_Jews_in_Prague) ==References== {{Reflist}} *[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=370&letter=M JewishEncyclopedia] *{{JewishEncyclopedia}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Meisel, Mordecai Marcus}} Category:Czech Orthodox Jews Category:Court Jews Category:16th-century courtiers Category:16th-century people from Bohemia Category:1528 births Category:1601 deaths Category:16th-century businesspeople from the Holy Roman Empire Category:Businesspeople from Prague --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mordecai Meisel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Meisel) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Meisel?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.