Adler, Nathan Marcus, 1803-1890

The collection contains records of the Jewish community of Adelebsen, Germany, spanning the years 1832 to 1917. During this period Adelebsen, a small town in the vicinity of Göttingen, was at first located in the kingdom of Hanover. When the latter was annexed by the kingdom of Prussia in 1866 it became known as the province of Hanover; and in 1871 it became part of the German Empire. A small amount of material pertains to the Jewish community in Barterode, some members of which eventually joined the Adelebsen community. Approximately half of the collection comprises financial records covering the period from 1838 to 1917 (with gaps), including annual statements; account books; lists of taxes, donations, synagogue fines, and synagogue seat fees collected from members; lists of families with school-age children; and accounts of the Adelebsen Jewish charitable association. The remainder of the records comprise administrative correspondence and documents, with correspondents including the government offices in Adelebsen, Uslar, and Hildesheim; the rabbis who headed regional districts of Jewish communities ('Landrabbiner'); and community members, including Sally Blumenfeld, the long-time teacher heading the Jewish school. Noteworthy documents include a handwritten copy of the Hanoverian synagogue regulations issued by Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler in 1832, with later amendments; minutes of two meetings with Adler, one in 1836 at which he initiated the project to build a new synagogue; a regulation of 1841 governing the community's tax assessment; minutes of oath-taking by community officers and assessors in the Adelebsen municipal court; election materials; and files related to matters such as employment of the Jewish teacher, petition for exemption from the municipal poor tax, preparations for matzah baking, and purchase of a garden plot to expand the Jewish cemetery.

This collection contains the personal papers, photos, and correspondence of educator Bruno Schindler and journalist James Heckscher. The Heckscher materials include several letters from notable cultural figures like Moses Montefiore and Ivan Turgenev, as well as several from members of Parliament.

Contains letters and articles in manuscript to Leeser pertaining to: his work as editor of The Occident, his translation of the Bible and his other literary works; discussions concerning Jewish law, the Reform movement in the United States and in Curaçao; Reform and Orthodox Judaism in Albany, N.Y., Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson's anti-Semitic comments in the United States Congress; the founding of a synagogue in San Francisco; the condition of Jews and Jewish education in America and in England; equal rights for Jews in Massachusetts and North Carolina; the controversy over the Touro Monument; slavery and the Civil War; and converts to Judaism. Also includes information on Israel Joseph Benjamin's trip in the U.S., 1859-1862; Isaac Mayer Wise; Sabato Morais; a manuscript guidebook on Jewish ritual slaughter written by Moses Julian in Barbados in 1820; Moses Montefiore's report on his mission to Rome on behalf of the Edgardo Mortara affair; articles discussing Christian theology; the Jews in Cochin, India and in China; a Latin preface to Leeser's Hebrew Bible; a Portuguese prayer against the evil eye; and poems on topics of Jewish interest.

This collection documents the genealogical research of the lawyer Walther Meyer. Among the many families mentioned here are branches of the Meyer, Eger, Oppenheimer, Borchardt, Neufeld, Ballin, Wertheimer, and Wallach families. Material on them includes many drafts of family trees as well as exchanges of genealogical research correspondence. This collection also contains official decrees and announcements pertaining to the Jewish communities of Hannover from the 1800s.