Lasker Family Collection

This collection documents Helmuth Lasker's genealogical research project on the origins of his family. Series includes research notes, notes, and drafts of the Descriptive genealogy of the Lasker family compiled by Helmuth Lasker and Rabbi M. Koppenheim. There is also a large amount of correspondence sent out and received by H. Lasker in an attempt to collect more information on the family. Correspondents include a large array of individuals both in Central Europe and the United States, Jewish congregations (For the most part in the area of what today is Poland and Lithuania), and research institutes such as Gesamtarchiv der deutschen Juden in Berlin and YIVO in Vilnius. Most of the work on the Descriptive Genealogy appears to have occurred during the years 1935-1936, while Lasker lived in Berlin. The manuscript and family tree attempt to trace the Lasker family back to the biblical time of King David, but the research primarily documents the time period from 1680 to the early twentieth century. It focuses on descendents of Meier Hindel, rabbi in Łask, Łódź province, Poland.

The second series includes original vital documents as well as family papers and correspondence dating to the nineteenth century. A few documents pertain to the family of Daniel and Rebecca Lasker, parents of the liberal politician Eduard Lasker. This series also includes some correspondence, including one letter from Louis Herzfeld in Guatemala (1893). Finally, there are a few printed wedding poems and reprints and transcripts of speeches memorializing Eduard Lasker.