Decree, issued by Frederick II, King of Prussia [Present-day Germany and Poland]: “1. No country estates, regardless of their name, shall be leased to or managed by Jews any longer. Any landlord in violation of this section shall pay a fine of 500 guilders; the Jew, on the other hand, who dares to enter in such a forbidden contract, shall no longer be tolerated and be deported immediately and without mercy, along with his family. 2. Any such contractual relationships already in existence shall be terminated by the end of May of the current year. 3. In addition, anyone who employs a Jewish middleman as his agent in trade, shall pay a fine of ten percent of the value of the goods thus traded, whereas the Jewish middleman shall be subjected to three years in prison, followed by deportation. He who informs the authorities of such a violation, shall receive 1/3 of the fine as a reward. 4. All tolerated Jews in our Silesian lands shall concern themselves solely with commerce, in particular with the buying and selling of goods produced by domestic factories.”
“Verordnung, daß die von Adel auf ihren Güthern sich weiterhin keiner Juden bey ihren Oekonomien und Wirtschafts-Angelegenheiten bedienen; sondern die in Schlesien tolerirte Juden sich lediglich mit dem Commercio und Handlung beschäftigen sollen (Decree, that those of the nobility shall continue to refrain from hiring Jews for their domestic and financial affairs; and that the tolerated Jews of Silesia are to concern themselves solely with commerce and trade),” 3/8/1780; Decrees Collection; AR 379; Box 1; Folder 136; Leo Baeck Institute. Researched by Dominik Jacobs 12/30/2019