During the 1400's under the sponsorship/protection of the Pasini Family in Bologna, Italy the "Joffe=Ehrenburg" Family's wealth and influence grew. MOSES OF BOLOGNA, b. abt 1400, obtained a charter to supply John Huyanidi, a Hungarian Nobleman, with money to fight though Ottoman Turks. In 1456, Huyandi defeated the Turks. In 1458 his son,Matthius, became King of Hungary. With money supplied by Moses of Bologna, Matthius worked to strengthen the royal power. Hungary prospered and became the centre of Italian Renaissance. Around this time Moses moved with his wife and infant son, Abraham,to Prague that was under Hungarian kingship and had a large Jewish community. The stature and wealth of the family grew with loans to the forever bankrupt nobility. One of the family's patrons was Maximilian I, probably one of the greates Hapsburgs. In 1490, Matthius died. The Hungarian Diet, an assembly of Noblemen, gained much power during this time period and the monarchy under Wldislaw grew weak.

On ascending to the Polish throne Sigismund I inherited an impoverished state and a sizable Jewish population. Moses's son, Abraham, was recommended to Sigismund by the latter's brother, the King of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1512, Sigismund I of Poland issued a decree notifying his subjects in Great and Little Poland that he had appointed ABRAHAM, a JEW OF BOHEMIA, Prefect over them, and that one of Abraham's duties was to collect the royal taxes and to deliver the same into the King's treasury  The law courts of Poland had no duristriction over Abraham, he being responsible only to the king's own court. He was also from time to time Councillor for some of the Jewish communities of Poland, as is apparent from the King's order to the Jews of Krakow to pay Abraham 200 Florins promised him as a reward for defiance "against certain accusations." The Polish Jews were not pleased with their new Bohemian Prefect, who had become so powerful. The King ordered all the Jews of Poland, and especially the Rabbis, to respect the privileges granted to Abraham, and not to encroach on him by excommunication or in any other way. For these privileges Abraham paid an annual tax of 20 ducats.

It is already evident in transactions the use of a seal/coat-of-arms ?1st used by Moses

In 1526, Maximillian's grandson, Ferdinand, become Emperor of Hungary and Bohemia and invited the financier JOSEPH, grandson of Abraham of Bohemia, to live in Prague and manage his financial affairs in Hungary and Bohemia. Joseph's older brother, Moses, remained in Poland to tend the family fortune. Joseph had three sons who continued in his business; Abraham who remained in Prague with his father; Isaac who went to Germany; and Eliezer who went to Mantua in Northern Italy. ABRAHAM OF PRAGUE's son, MORDECHAI "the LEVUSH," was born about circa 1540 in Prague. He had the best of religious and secular teachers of the time studying Jewish, religious studies, philosophy, astronomy and mathematics.Mordechai became a head of a Yeshiva in Prague until 1561, when by order of the Emperor Ferdinand (on pressure from the Pope) the Jews from Bohemia. The Joffe family were requested to stay by Ferdinand under his personal protection, however they decided to join their co-reliogonists in exile. Joseph and Abraham returned to Poland, where in 1563 Joseph died. Mordechai joined his uncle, Eliezer, in Mantua thereafter going to Venice to study astronomy, were he remained until 1571. In 1566, when Maximillian II became emperor he invited the Jews back to Prague and decreed that the Jews should never again be expelled from Prague. Abraham returned to Prague where a few months later his eldest grandson PERETZ joined him. In 1571 Mordechai returned to Prague In 1572, with the influence of his father, Abraham, Mordechai was elected the rabbi of Grodno, in Lithuania In 1588, Mordechai became rabbi of Lublin, where he became one of the main leaders of the Council of Four Lands, the supreme Jewish legislative board of Eastern Europe Later, Mordechai accepted the post of rabbi of Kreminitzy  In 1592 Mordechai returned to Prague where he became Chief Rabbi in place of R. Yehuda Loew who resumed the position of rabbi of Posen which he had occupied from 1584-1588 before taking up the post in Prague. In the last third of the 16th century the circumstances of the Jews in Bohemia werebetter and brighter than ever before due to trade with the interior of Austria and with Bavaria and Saxony, which the Jews controlled as well as financial transaction with the imperial house. In 1598, when the Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Judah Loew, left Posen to settle in Prague, Mordechai returned to Poland to officiate as Chief Rabbi in Posen, where he died on 7 March 1612. In 1618, a group of Bohemian nobles revolted against Habsburg rule. They elected a Protestant king of Bohemia. The Bohemian revolt touched off the Thirty Year's War.,a series of wars that spread through Europe. The Jews of Bohemia remained loyal to the emperor, receiving in return the protection of his generals.

In 1620,the Hapsburg armies defeated the nobles in the Battle of the White Mountain. Bohemia then lost its self-governing powers. It was divided into three provinces - Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia - ruled by representatives of the Hapsburgs.The Hapsburgs forced these vassal states to adopt the German language and culture.In about 1620, Peretz Joffe's son, ABRAHAM ABERLE, was invited by Cardinal Franz von Dietrichson, governor of Moravia, to collect the taxes from the sizable Jewish population. Cardinal von Dietrichson was a special protector of the Jews as their taxes were necessary for the prosecution of the thirty years' wars. Abraham took up residence in Nickolsburg, a town in Southern Moravia owned by the Von Dietridhson Family since 1575 when the Emperor Maximillian II gave Nickolsburg to Adam von Dietrichson, a converted Jew and Cardinal von Dietrichson's father. In 1620, peace was restored in Poland after a war they had with Turkey in which they were defeated. However, Poland did a great service to Austria by blocking a Turkish invasion at a critical period in the Thirty Years War.

In the late 1600's, Hapsburg forces drove the Turks out of Hungary and gained complete control of the country. The Hapsburgs governed Hungary especially harshly. In 1703, there was a nationwide uprising led by Rakoczi, the son of a prominant family , including princes of Transylvania. With the aid of information and money supplied by ABRAHAM JOFFE, the revolt was eventually squashed in 1711, when Charles VI, Archduke of Aystria became Holy Roman Emperor. Abraham was given extensive lands in Transylvania forfeited by the rebel families.The Joffe family continued to support Charles VI and on the 15 May 1712Abraham was made Minister of the Exchequer,given Extensive land around Ehrenburg, and raised to the nobility as Baron Von Ehrenburg. Later that year his first grandson Mordechai was born. In 1721, on the conclusion of the Northern Wars in Poland , Abraham's son JOSEPH was appointed Ambassador to the Polish throne of Augustus II. In 1724, on his way from Posen to Plumgian, Joseph and his entourage were attacked by soldiers of the Polish Cofederacy. Joseph was killed and his son, MORDECHAI, held hostage and eventually ransomed by a wealthy Jew, Enoch Zyndel, who looked after him and gave him a religious education. About seven years later he married Enoch's daughter. In 1756, he was appointed Rabbi at Keidany. There was also a younger son, Myer, who remained behind with his mother ,Leah. Leah remarried to a man by the name of Levi Halle. Myer used the Surname Halle-Ehrenburg, with no use of the title nor the surname Joffe. He had a son Shmuel Ehrenburg who had a daugter who married Louis Rosenweig.
 

(This information was given by Anthony Lyle Avrohom Chayim Joffe (von Ehrenburg). His family has had the title of Baron von Ehrenburg.