Samson Wertheimer

Samson Wertheimer was the Court Jew to the Holy Roman Emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. He also acted as financier to rulers of Saxony, Mainz, Trier, and the Palatinate.

Samson was born in Worms, studied at the yeshivah in Frakfurt, and in 1684 through marriage came into contact with the powerful Oppenheimer family. The same year he went to Vienna to join the bank of Samuel Oppenheimer, whom he eventually replaced as the emperor’s Court Jew.

Wertheimer enjoyed great confidence of Emperor Leopold I, who did not trust him only on financial matters but had also sent him o diplomatic missions. For the success in obtaining for the daughter of the King of Poland a dowry of 1,000,000 florins from her father upon her marriage to Leopold's brother-in-law Duke Charles Philip, Wertheimer was rewarded with a portrait of the Emperor and a sum of 1,000 ducats.

After the death of Samuel Oppenheimer in 1703, Wertheimer was appointed as the new financier of the emperor’s court. He placed enormous sums at the disposal of the government, particularly during the Spanish War of Succession (1701–1714) and the wars against Turkey. He also found new sources of income for the imperial treasury by improving the salt industry of Siebenbuergen, increasing the export of salt by removing several customs stations and by leasing the mines.

Wertheimer used his influence and wealth to save the Jews of Rothenburg from expulsion and has also intervened successfully with the authorities on behalf of the communities of Worms and Frankfurt. In 1700 he obtained an order from the Emperor Leopold which resulted in the withdrawal from circulation of Johann Eisenmenger's anti-Jewish book, “Entdecktes Judentum”. He built a large synagogue in Eisenstadt and one in Nikolsburg. He also created a fund to help paupers in Palestine, and financed the building of synagogues in Eisenstadt and Nikolsburg.