page_title: Jewish heraldry
section_title: Pre-Enlightenment
hierarchical_section_title: Jewish heraldry / History / Pre-Enlightenment
context_page_description: Jewish heraldry is the tradition and style of heraldic achievements amongst Jewish communities throughout Europe and in modern times abroad, including national and civic arms of the State of Israel, noble and burgher arms, synagogal heraldry, heraldic displays and heraldic descriptions. Jewish Heraldry is commonly influenced by its country of origin, yet often preserves common Jewish symbolisms such as the Lion of Judah or the Star of David.
context_section_description: The first adopters of the Heraldic tradition were the wealthy Sephardic Jews of Spain, who had risen to great economic and social prominence. Families such as the Abravanel adopted heraldry, displaying it on their houses and using it on their seals. Yet the Abravanel, like many other Jewish families at the time, retained Jewish symbolism, which differentiated their arms from their neighbours, (such as a double Star of David).
  About 200 years later, several influential Jewish French families adopted the heraldic tradition of official familial seals. Like the early 14th century seal of Kalonymos bar Todros HaNasi, the leader of the Jewish community in Narbonne, France, who used a lion rampant to represent him and his family. He adopted this symbolism to represent his connection to the Davidic Line. Thus setting the precedent of the Lion of Judah as a common Jewish heraldic charge. Another example is the arms of the wealthy Jew, "Samuel of Venice", which a 1383 manuscript describes as "per fess a lion issuant and a fess wavy". A number of Jews also used a Jew's Hat on their arms. One amusing example is the seal of a German-Jewish man named "Byfegin of Koblenz" (1397) who bears a lion rampant "crowned" with a Jew's hat. Additionally, several Jewish Heraldic achievements were those of the Jewish community of a city: early 13th century examples in France show that the Jews of Paris used an eagle rising on a semis of fleurs-de-lys.
  The trend of Jewish Heraldry was accelerated in the 16th century, especially in Amsterdam and parts of Italy, where several Jews obtained chairs at universities in Perugia, Ferrara, Bologna in 1528, and Rome in 1539, which in some cases carried with them personal nobility. One Jew of Bologna even received a knighthood from Charles V. In the early 17th century, several wealthy Western Sephardic Jews immigrated to Amsterdam and with them, brought in great economic prosperity to the city. Many Dutch Jews were granted minor noble titles and given the rights to bear arms. Such as the Benveniste family who, when emigrating to the Amsterdam adopted a new arms which included the Star of David, a lion cub of Judah a castle and 10 moons (the Kabbalist symbols of the 10 Sefirot). This was a common trend of the Dutch Jewish community who adopted arms which were not overtly Jewish, yet had several deeply rooted Jewish symbolisms. Jewish Heraldry also spread to the Holy Roman Empire in the late 17th when the laws against Jews carrying arms became more relaxed. The first Jew in the HRE to receive a grant of arms was Jacob Batsheba Schmieles who was ennobled at the same time, having in 1622 been made a knight of the Holy Roman Empire with the title of *Bassevi von Treuenberg.(Sable, on a bend argent between two lions passant bendwise or, three eight-pointed stars gules)
caption: Arms of Abravanel Family
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