10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100113 JUDEO-GREEK LEGACY IN MEDIEVAL RUS’ ● by Alexander Kulik Most of the evidence indicating the existence of Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe 1 prior to the mass migration from Ashkenaz 2 originates from territories that were an- nexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, i.e., from the southwestern principalities of Rus’, 3 which since then became an integral part of Lithuania and subsequently of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 4 These territories included the oldest and the most important centers of pre-Mongolian Kievan Rus’, in which a Jewish presence was attested from the tenth century. With the Mongolian conquest in the first half of the thirteenth century, evidence of the presence of Jews in Rus’ is reduced to the territory of Galicia-Volhynia, which suffered less from the Mongolian invasion due to its western location. 5 From the end of the Lithuanian conquest in Rus’ and the partition of Galicia-Volhynia between Po- land and Lithuania, which occurred in the mid-fourteenth century, there are no extant references to a local Jewish population in northeastern Rus’—what would come to be Muscovite Rus’. Sources from Rus’ refer at that time only to Jewish visitors coming to the area from elsewhere, 6 as opposed to the relatively plentiful evidence of Jewish presence from Lithuania and Poland from the same period of time. 7 References to Ru- sia ( ʠʩʱʥʸ / ʠʩʩʹʥʸ / ʤʠʩʹʥʸ ) in Jewish sources from Ashkenaz from this period also must refer to “Lithuanian Rus’,” which was still defined as “Rus’” in numerous foreign sources, as well. 1 According to its traditional narrow definition: the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation in its prime. 2 A term of medieval Jewish geography applied to Germany, normally to its southern and western lands. 3 Known in Hebrew sources as ʠʩʱʥʸ / ʠʩʹʥʸ / ʤʠʩʹʥʸ , the term equivalent to “Rus’” and referring to the lands of the Eastern Slavs in the Middle Ages. 4 Only single reports come from the adjacent lands: northeastern Rus’, Polnoe sobranie russkikh le- topisej (St. Petersburg 1841–1885) [henceforth PSRL] 2.114–115; 5.164–165; and Polish trade routes be- tween Germany and Rus’, B. D. Weinryb, “The Beginnings of East European Jewry in Legend and Histori- ography,” Studies and Essays in Honor of Abraham A. Neuman (Leiden 1962) 445–502; ʩ " ʠʺ ʮ - ʲʮʹ ' , ʺʥʣʬʥʺʬ ʩʤ ʺʥʠʮʡ ʯʩʬʥʴʡ ʭʩʣʥʤʩʤ " ʡ - ʩʤ " ʢ ,' ʢʰ ʯʥʩʶ ) ʮʹʺ " ʧ \ 1988 ( 347 – 370 ; id., ' ʩʤ ʺʥʠʮʡ ʯʩʬʥʴʡ ʭʩʣʥʤʩʤ ʺʥʣʬʥʺʬ ʺʥʹʣʧ ʺʥʲʩʣʩ " ʡ - ʩʤ " ʢ ,' ʣʰ ʯʥʩʶ ) ʮʹʺ " ʨ \ 1989 ( 203 – 208 . 5 With an exception of the short notice on a Jewish moneylender visiting Kashin in 1321 (see below; PSRL 15.414). For the Jews in Volhynia see below. 6 See East Slavic Chronicles: 1445–foreign Jewish merchants buy slaves in Novgorod (PSRL 3.240; 4.124; 17.187); 1471–Kievan Jews visit Novgorod in the retinue of the Prince Michailo Olelkovich (PSRL 4.235); 1490–a Jewish physician from Venice at the court of Ivan III. Jews from Lithuania and the Crimea are mentioned also in the diplomatic correspondence of Ivan III; Regesty i nadpisi. Svod materialov dlja istorii evreev v Rossii (80 g.–1800 g.) (St. Petersburg 1899) [henceforth RN] 1.77–84. 7 S. A. Bershadskij, Dokumenty i materialy dlja istorii evreev v Rossii I: Dokumenty i regesty k istorii li- tovskikh evreev (1388–1550) (St. Petersburg 1882); RN 1.68ff; ʠ " ʩʡʫʸʤ ʠ , ʭʩʰʹʩ ʭʢ ʭʩʹʣʧ : ʺʥʸʥʷʮ ʭʩʸʷʧʮʥ ʥʺʥʸʴʱʥ ʬʠʸʹʩ ʺʥʣʬʥʺʡ ) ʹʺ ʭʩʬʹʥʸʩ " ʬ ) ( ʱʥʴʣ - ʭʥʬʩʶ ( 6 – 17 .