Marcus Mordecai Meisel

Meisel was a Bohemian financier, philanthropist and communal leader. He was a court banker to the Austrian imperial house. The persecution of the Jews of Prague by the fanatical Ferdinand I occurred while Mordecai was a youth. 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 Austrian imperial house, especially during the Turkish wars, is unknown.

He built the Meisel Synagogue in Prague in 1597, and he also financed the building of a hospital, a bet midrash and a mikveh. In addition he sent money to Jerusalem and granted loans to the Jewish communities in Krakow and Poznan.