MODEL, MARX (d. 1709), *Court Jew of *Ansbach. The Model family originated in *Oettingen in the 16th century and subsequently spread throughout *Bavaria. It included a number of rabbis and Court Jews, foremost of whom was Marx Model, who in 1676 inherited his father's position as military and court purveyor at the court of the Margrave of Ansbach. One of the earliest Court Jews to engage in economic ventures, Marx acquired a number of estates and farms, a paper mill, and a workshop making roof tiles. In 1691 he was freed from custom duties and was granted the right to be sole publisher of the Talmud in Ansbach. His eldest daughter married Wolf, son of Samuel *Oppenheimer, the influential Austrian Court
S. Haenle, Geschichte der Juden im ehemaligen Fuerstenthum Ansbach (1867); L. Loewenstein, in: JJLG, 8 (1910), 131–4; L. Lamm, ibid., 22 (1932), 152–9: M. Grunwald, Samuel Oppenheimer (1913), 305; S. Stern, The Court Jew (1950), 100, 193; H. Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und der moderne Staat, 4 (1963), 27–28; D.J. Cohen, in: Koveẓ al Yad, 6 pt. 2 (1966), 470, 514–5.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.