Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany

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.

The collection contains documents pertaining to chemist Bernhard Proskauer (1851-1915), his son physician Arthur Proskauer (1880-1960); and his maternal grandfather Gottschalk Rosenberg.

This collection contains a wide variety of family, personal, vital, and legal documents pertaining primarily to the Herz, Steinthal, Buchholz, Isenstein, and Cohn families.

The collection contains handwritten letters by a variety of prominent rabbis and Jewish thinkers, including Jacob Bernays, Philipp Bloch, Zacharias Frankel, Abraham Geiger, Heinrich Graetz, Ludwig Philippson, and Gabriel Riesser, all regarding applications and recommendations for positions at the Jewish teacher training school of the Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung in Münster. Two brief letters by Alexander Haindorf, the founder of the Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung, are administrative in nature. Also included is a passport issued to Hermann Steinthal by King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia.

The collection contains official documents and correspondence pertaining to the family of Elly Hirschel née Heymann and the family of her mother Rosa Heymann née Goslar. The papers include a certified copy of the testament of Dora Zadeck, the widow of Jacob Herz Cohn, who established Nauensche Stift, a boarding school for orphans and underprivileged children, in Berlin in 1789. In addition, there are marriage certificates, vital records, and official correspondence pertaining to the Schutzjuden privileges of the Goslar family, mostly dating from the first half of the 19th century. Also included is a prayer by Rabbi S. Egers for protection against the cholera epidemic of 1831.

Materials within this collection include correspondence, photographs, family documents dating back to the 18th century, travel documents and naturalization papers.

Personal documents of Abraham Jakob Hammerschlag and his son Sally Hammerschlag such as birth certficates, certificates of citizenships (1901, Prussia, Lippe), work and trade permits, military passport, identity cards, military draft for World War I; correspondence; photos

The collection contains documents of the Heinemann family of Lüneburg, including official and legal documents, business documents, and correspondence.

The collection contains the 1753 contract for royal medalist Jacob Abraham for work at the royal mint in Stettin. The contract includes a clause guaranteeing Abraham the protection of Frederick II, King of Prussia.

The Jewish Press Agencies Collection consists of press reports that document the events of 1933-1935 in Nazi Germany, with a focus on the persecution of German Jews. The bulk of the material derives from reports of the Jewish Central Information Office, although Inpress and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency are also represented. Almost the entirety of the collection consists of reports, but there are also photocopies of various documents, timelines and a few publications.

The bulk of the Kate and Herman Hoerlin Collection consists of the personal correspondence between Kate Tietz Schmid (later Hoerlin) and Herman Hoerlin in prewar Germany, 1934-1938. In addition are documents pertaining to Kate Schmid's insistence of reparations from the Third Reich for the wrongful murder of her first husband Willi Schmid and to the complexities of Kate Hoerlin's classification as a Mischling under the Nuremberg Laws, including how this factored into Kate and Hermann Hoerlin's efforts to wed when a Jewish/ Aryan marriage was forbidden. Other professional and official documents are included.

The collection contains documentation of the Lessing family of Danzig, including citizenship documents; correspondence with the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin confirming family members' birth and marriage dates and other genealogical information; letter to the Leo Baeck Institute discussing recent family history; identity card; and family photographs.

Manuscripts on this history of the Jewish community in Mühlhausen and a few other localities near Bamberg. Several of the manuscripts contain reproductions and transcriptions of original documents.

Handwritten mortgage indenture of the Jew Loew (Levi) and his wife Haya of Marckelsheim (today Markelsheim in Bad Mergentheim), Franconia, in favor of Johann Theobald Falkner, November 11, 1659. Also included are an appraisal and a typed translation of the document.

The Mühlfelder and Roeckert Families Collection contains both primary sources and research materials that, together, combine to record the history of these families. Charles C. Milford (born Klaus Mühlfelder) compiled the research materials; the greatest quantity of correspondence, documents, and photographs in the collection also pertains to his life. Documents include vital documents, educational records, military service records, and materials relating to Charles C. Milford’s career as a librarian. In addition to Milford, his father Simon Mühlfelder and wife Patricia E. Milford feature most prominently in the first three series of the collection. Family history research focuses on Simon Mühlfelder’s first wife Martha Kassel and people within her milieu. This research is compiled from Milford’s correspondence with scholars and archives, relevant archival finding aids and photocopies of documents held by various archives, articles, photocopies from books, catalog records for pertinent books, and Wikipedia pages and other printouts of biographical information from the Internet. These same types of material also make up Milford’s research on topics of interest, including the history of Jews in Germany broadly and of the Mühlfelder family specifically.

Vital, business, and family documents of Nussbaum and Groedel families from Friedberg in Hesse. This collection also notably contains a Hungarian patent of nobility for Hermann Groedel, who had relocated to Budapest.

The file contains various documents pertaining to the activity of the Reich Representation of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden) and comprises ten folders.

Vital documents, papers, and correspondence of the family of Simon May (1816-1866, Hamburg), as well as religious treatise on Orthodox Judaism by Simon May.

The collection contains documents pertaining to the Sulzbach family, as well as documents pertaining to the Jewish communities of Hungen and Birstein.