Aaron Markovich Of Wilna:

By: Herman Rosenthal

Agent (court Jew) of King Ladislaus IV. of Poland in the seventeenth century. The only known document in which his name occurs is a letter, dated January 11, 1638, in the official correspondence between the Russian and Polish courts in the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich, the first Russian ruler of the Romanof dynasty. In it Ladislaus asks of the czar permission for Aaron Markovich, "the king's agent," to visit Moscow for the purpose of purchasing (with the privilege of exemption from custom duties) certain utensils for the royal household; also that he be allowed to take with him, for sale, some "precious goods." This request, together with the fact that Ladislaus was not very favorably disposed toward the Jews ( see Ladislaus ), is evidence of the influential standing of Aaron with the Polish king. The czar did not grant the request, a factprobably due to the strained relations of the two courts at the time.