The other brother, Michael, was made
"fiscal agent to the king." In the eighteenth century, Andrey
Abramovich, of the same family but not of the Jewish faith, was senator
and castellan of Brest-Litovsk.[7] They were not unique exceptions.
Abraham Shmoilovich of Turisk is spoken of as "honorable sir" in leases
of large estates. Affras Rachmailovich and Judah Bogdanovich figure
among the merchant princes of Livonia and Lithuania; and Francisco Molo,
who settled later in Amsterdam, was financial agent of John III of
Poland in 1679. The influence of the last-named was so great with the
Dutch States-General that the Treaty of Ryswick was concluded with Louis
XIV, in 1697, through his mediation.[8]
That Russo-Poland should have elected a Jewish king on two occasions, a
certain Abraham Prochovnik in 842 and the famous Saul Wahl[9] in the
sixteenth century, sounds legendary; but that there was a Jewish queen,
called Esterka, is probable, and that some Jews attained to political
eminence is beyond reasonable doubt.[10] Records have been discovered
concerning two envoys, Saul and Joseph, who served the Slavonic czar
about 960, and an interesting story is told of two Jewish soldiers,
Ephraim Moisievich and Anbal the Jassin, who won the confidence of
Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Kiev, and afterwards became leaders in a
conspiracy against him (1174).
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