Jews -- Germany -- History -- 1800-1933

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 a family tree of the Altschüler family of Grünstadt from 1760 to 1969, including birth, death, marriage, and emigration dates and locations. The family tree is accompanied by related correspondence. Also included is a certificate in memory of Henry Altschuler's work with the Jüdischen Jugendverein Ludwigshafen am Rhein.

43 original, handwritten letters in Judeo-German, written by Anselm Marum mostly in Sobernheim to Sara Marcus in Kreuznach and in Hüffelsheim during their long courtship, 1828 to 1842.

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

The diaries in this collection were kept by Sophie Dann and two of her children, Sidonie and Ludwig. In addition to recording the ups and downs of family life, including illnesses, births, and deaths, the contents also reflect various shifts in sentiment and lifestyle over two generations of German Jews. All of the diaries except for the booklet of toasts in folder 9 are accompanied by English translations or summaries.

The collection contains documentation of the Stein and Kaufman families, including family correspondence and histories.

The collections contains various documents relating to members of the Plaut family; documents are primarily family trees and photocopies of 19th century documents.

The collection consists of the correspondence, personal documents and family photos of Erica Furnberg, her mother, and daughter. A large part of the correspondence deals with Erica's attempts to help her sister Magda to emigrate from France to the USA.

The collection contains documentation of the Erna Weingold Kleinermann family, including vital records, identity cards and passports, school certificates, and correspondence.

The collection contains certificates issued and signed by various heads of state throughout Europe conferring medals and honors upon Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; letters to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy from Bernhard von Bülow, Otto von Bismarck, and Auguste Viktoria; and handwritten letter from Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to historian Adolf von Harnack regarding collections at the Königliche Bibliothek zu Berlin, of which Harnack was director.

The collection contains various documents pertaining to research conducted by Esriel Hildesheimer and comprises 14 folders.

This collection contains a variety of material regarding Gabriel Riesser, such as personal and professional correspondence in his own hand; a typescript, describing two publications about Riesser; photographs of his portrait; and a 1983 letter to the Leo Baeck Institute, discussing correspondence from Adolphe Cremieux to Gabriel Riesser. Also included is an album with personal messages from friends and colleagues.

The collection contains correspondence between George Simon Spir, serving in the Franco-Prussian War, and his family in Magdeburg. Included are eight field post letters, 105 letters, and 1 telegram from Spir to his family and 25 letters to Spir from family and friends. The second folder also contains a small notebook pertaining to Spir's service. The third folder contains a photocopy of a letter pertaining to George Simon Spir's grandfather Geoffroi Simon Spire's receipt of the Décoration du Lys; and family tree of the ancestors of George Simon Spir's father Albert Spir.

The Germany (Vilna Archives) collection contains materials of diverse provenances pertaining to Jewish life in Germany and, to a much lesser extent, other German-speaking areas of central Europe (Austria, Bohemia, Moravia), from the 16th century until the beginning of the Second World War. It includes correspondence, financial records, official documents, business records, writings, minutes, reports, book catalogs, printed ephemera, occasional clippings, and a handful of photographs. A little more than 60% of the collection comprises personal and family papers, or individual items of correspondence (approximately 140 different name headings); and a little over 20%, portions of the records of the Jewish communities of Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, Filehne (Wieleń), Raschkow (Raszków), and Rybnik. The remainder of the collection consists of various printed ephemera and scattered records related to Jewish communities, organizations, or firms, including publishers and booksellers. Also included are some 15 individual older items dating from the mid 16th to the early decades of the 19th century, including Schutzbriefe (residence permits), petitions, and attestations, as well as a mohel book (registry of circumcisions). Especially noteworthy among the personal papers are those of art dealer Josef Sandel, comparative law scholar Ernst Rabel, the Henschel brothers (artists), writer and social activist Lina Morgenstern, engineer Erich Kempinski, and writer and editor Julius Rodenberg. The several rabbis represented include Josef Jona Horovitz, of Hunsdorf (Huncovce) and Frankfurt am Main; Salomon Breuer and Isidor Friedmann, both of Frankfurt am Main; and Wolf Landau, of Dresden.

The collection contains documents of Gustav Wendel and his family, including documents pertaining to Wendel's service as a physician in the German army; family documents, such as birth, marriage, and citizenship certificates, family history, and correspondence; and documents pertaining to Wendel's medical training. Also included is a letter to Wendel from Lion Feuchtwanger.

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

The collection contains documentation of the Hennigson and related families, including family trees; birth, educational, citizenship, and military service certificates; marriage contracts; wills; wedding and funeral announcements; and correspondence. An antisemitic pamphlet about Hungarian Jews is located in folder 8.

The collection contains documents pertaining to the Hertz family of Rheinberg, particularly Emanuel Hertz, his brother Callmann Hertz, and Emanuel Hertz's wife Philippiena Hertz née Spier of Rees. Included are items pertaining to the military service of Emanuel Hertz and Callmann Hertz and family correspondence.

The collection contains items pertaining to the life and work of lawyer Isidor Choyke, particularly items documenting his legal career. The collecion also contains some family documents, including birth, vaccination, and school certificates.

Correspondence of Ismar Elbogen with individuals, including Elias Auerbach, Julius Bab, Leo Baeck, Salo Baron, Markus Brann, Martin Buber, Umberto Cassuto, Ludwig Feuchtwanger, Ludwig Geiger, Robert Raphael Geis, Louis Ginzburg, Ignaz Goldziher, Max Gruenewald, Moritz Güdemann, Julius Guttmann, Bernhard Kahn, Mordechai Kaplan, Adolf Leschnitzer, Lily Montagu, Claude Montefiore, Adolph Oko, Paula Ollendorf, Bertha Pappenheim, Felix Perles, Koppel Pinson, Peter Reinhold, Julius Rosenwald, Cecil Roth, Caesar Seligmann, Selma Stern-Taeubler, Henrietta Szold, Hermann Vogelstein, and Stephen Wise.

The collection contains primarily manuscripts by Ismar Freund (partly published as hectographs by Peter Freund, Jerusalem) pertaining to German-Jewish history in particular in Prussia, and presumably written after Freund's immigration to Palestine in 1939. Some of the texts are based on research in the "Geheimes Staatsarchiv" ("Prussian Privy State Archives"). Titles include:

The collection holds a variety of official documents from government agencies as well as from Jewish communities in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main from the 1830s until the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Also included are two documents pertaining to the 1848 revolution.

Correspondence and autographs, including letters from former residents of Mannheim, as well as Rabbi Joseph Carlebach, Rabbi Jacob Hoffman, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Jacob Rosenheim, Felix Theilhaber, Fritz von Unruh, and Karl Wolfskehl.

This collection contains assorted items regarding the Jewish community in Karlsruhe: photocopied excerpts from Carlsruher Wochenblatt, 1774-1775 about court cases; manuscript of songs and prayers on occasion of Prince Carl Ludwig Friedrich and his wife Stephanie Napoleon's visit to the Karlsruhe synagogue on July 18, 1806; manuscript entitled Geschichte und Schicksal des Karlsruher Judentums, an unpublished 1985 research paper by the Karlsruhe municipality, containing lists of Jewish residents in Karlsruhe during the 1930s and their fate. Includes extensive appendix of names and last known fate.

The collection holds materials about the company’s 175th anniversary in 1955.

This collection focuses on Anna Laqueur (nee Levy) (1850-1932), who became a matriach of the extended Laqueur-Levi family. Her spirited correspondence with her husband Siegfried Laqueur, a successful entrepreneuer, with her sons, her brother, her sisters, with an ever growing number of nephews and nieces, as well as her family's correspondence with her, reached an astounding volume. While it was possible to trace the lineage of the Laqueur family it required an extraordinary amount of patience and some guessing to establish the family relationships of the Levy clan, who like the Laqueur family originated from small towns in Silesia and who by virtue of hardwork and a well- focused business acumen achieved economic security. Their histories reflected in their correspondences and diaries are an example of the rise of German Jews from Eastern provinces from modest beginnings to a comfortable bourgeoisie. According to the grade of their assimilation it is not surprising that the second and third generation felt no longer restrained to marry outside the Jewish faith. Measured by the volume and intensity of the correspondence between the mother and sons Walter and Ernst, who both were to become physicians, it can be concluded that they were quite attached to each other. Unfortunately the bulk of the correspondence between Ernst and his mother is in shorthand. Anna, besides being the center of the Laqueur family, had wide ranging interests: poetry (mostly offered on festive occasions), correspondence with intellectuals (Geiger, Ludwig) and active involvement in social welfare and charities. She also travelled frequently. In short, she led a very active life, a true "mater familiae".

The collection contains documents pertaining to Margot Garon née Straus, her father Jakob Straus, and her grandfather Hermann Straus.

The collection contains items commemorating the weddings of several members of the Weinmann family. Included are items pertaining to the wedding of Sophie Hachenburger and Simon Weinmann, including a menu and handwritten book of poems and sketches, entitled Jugendbilder, dedicated to Sophie Hachenburger on the occasion of her wedding; items pertaining to the wedding of Johanna Weinmann and Jakob Burg, including a menu, poem, celebratory newspaper, and songs; and items pertaining to the wedding of Paula Weinmann and Gustav Marxsohn, including a menu, poem, and song. The collection also contains additional items pertaining to Sophie Weinmann née Hachenburger, including a certificate commemorating her bat mitzvah, and a letter from Max Weinmann to the Leo Baeck Institute regarding the Weinmann family.

The collection contains certificates for seats at the synagogue in Mannheim (1857-1910); and Jewish National Fund certificates for trees planted in honor of Otto Simon's 80th birthday (1961).

The collection mainly comprises manuscripts of Paul Collin in English, including two autobiographical narrations in the form of typescripts; and four completed books (copies of typescripts, in binders) that he distributed to friends. Three of the books convey a mixture of personal reminiscences and ruminations on various historical, social and political topics; one is a collection of jokes, in both German and English. There is also a small binder of recipes handwritten in German, along with some recipes on loose notes, and a few items of miscellaneous correspondence, including one photograph. Also included are a tribute and an obituary for Collin that were published in bulletins of the Jewish Council of 1933 (San Francisco), of which he was a longtime member.