Issachar Berush Eskeles

Issachar Berush Eskeles was an Austrian rabbi and financier. He was son-in-law of Samson Wertheimer, another very wealthy financier and rabbi. Issachar’s father was rabbi of Olkusz, Poland. Owing to his family connections, Eskeles was named rabbi of Kroměříž, Moravia, in 1710, when he was only eighteen years old. Because he was often absent from Kroměříž on account of business affairs, he had a substitute rabbi to attend to rabbinical matters. Issachar was rabbi at Kroměříž from 1710 till 1719, but it seems that he settled at Vienna before 1719. In 1718 he succeeded his father in the rabbinate of Nikolsburg, Moravia, without, however, leaving his residence in Vienna, where he was associated with his father-in-law in the banking business. At that time he was the “Landesrabbiner” of Moravia and in 1725 was appointed by the Emperor Charles VI “Landesrabbiner” of Hungary, a position which had been occupied by his deceased father-in-law.

From Vienna Eskeles could work to greater advantage in behalf of the Jews, such as in 1742 when a heavy tax was imposed upon the Jews of Moravia, the exertions of Eskeles and Baron d'Aguilar secured its annulment by Maria Theresa. The two of them successfully intervened on revoking another decree, which was supposed to banish the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia because they were suspected of Prussian leanings, in midwinter of 1744-45.