The Jewish Community of Hamburg
Hamburg
A major port city and state in Germany. Since 1937 it has included the towns of Altona and Wandsbeck.
In 2004 there were approximately 3,000 Jews living in Hamburg. There was one synagogue, the Hohe Weide Synagogue, one kindergarten, the Ronald Lauder Jewish Kindergarten, and kosher food was sold by one man, Shlomo Almagor, a native of Israel.
HISTORY
Jews have lived in Hamburg since the end of the 16th century, when wealthy Marranos from Spain and Portugal arrived in the city via the Netherlands. They unsuccessfully attempted to observe Jewish customs and rituals; when they were discovered, some of the Christian residents of the city demanded their expulsion. However, the city council opposed the measure, pointing out the community's economic contributions. German Jews began to be admitted to Wandsbeck by 1600, and in 1611 some of them settled in Altona, both of which were under Danish rule. By 1627 German Jews began to settle in Hamburg itself, although on festivals they continued to travel to Altona in order to worship, since in 1641 the Danish king had permitted the official establishment of a congregation and the building of a synagogue there. The rabbi of the Altona congregation was also responsible for mediating any disputes that arose within the congregation.
The Jews of Hamburg worked as financiers, and some helped found the Bank of Hamburg in 1619. Other Jewish residents of the city worked as shipbuilders, importers (particularly of sugar, coffee, and tobacco from the Spanish and Portuguese colonies), weavers, and goldsmiths. Their taxes were high; in 1612 the Jews of Hamburg paid an annual tax of 1,000 marks, a sum which had doubled by 1617.
The original Jewish community of Hamburg continued to maintain ties to their countries of origin. The kingdoms of Sweden, Poland, and Portugal appointed Jews as their ambassadors to Hamburg. Those who had come to Hamburg from Spain and Portugal continued to speak the languages of their native lands for two centuries. There were about 15 books printed in Hamburg in Portuguese and Spanish from 1618 to 1756, which was a major development in Jewish printing in the city; from 1586 Hebrew books, especially the Bible, had been published in Hamburg by Christian printers, often with the help of Jewish employees.
As early as 1611 Hamburg had enough of a Jewish community for three Sephardic synagogues, whose congregations jointly owned burial grounds in nearby Altona. In 1652 the three congregations combined under the name of Beth Israel.
The philosopher Uriel da Costa, who wrote the controversial book, "An Examination of the Traditions of the Pharisees," fled to Hamburg from Amsterdam in 1616 after his excommunication for blasphemy. The community, however, did not accept him (the fact that he did not understand German was an additional difficulty). The local physician Samuel da Silva wrote a pamphlet attacking him and his excommunication was announced publicly in the Hamburg synagogue. Da Costa returned to Amsterdam after one year.
Many Jews, fleeing from persecution in Ukraine and Poland, in 1648 arrived in Hamburg in 1648, and were helped by the local Jews. However, these refugees soon left for Amsterdam since tensions with the Christian community were rising, culminating in the expulsion of the Ashkenazi community in 1649. Most of those who were expelled left for Altona and Wandsbeck; only a few remained in Hamburg, residing in the homes of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews in order to obtain legal status in the city.
The expulsion proved to be temporary; after a few years, many of those who had been driven out returned to Hamburg. In 1656 a number of refugees from Vilna also arrived, adding to the Jewish presence in the city. The three Ashkenazi congregations, Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck, united in 1671 to form the AHW Congregation; the community's rabbinical headquarters were in Altona. One of the most famous rabbis of the merged congregation was Jonathan Eybeschuetz, who was appointed to the post in 1750. His equally famous adversary, Jacob Emden, lived in Altona. The congregation ceased to exist in 1811 when the French authorities imposed a single consistorial organization on the city; at that point, the Ashkenazim and Sephardim united to form one congregation. The Altona community retained its own rabbinate, which was also recognized by the Jews of Wandsbeck until 1864.
Sabbateanism swept the community in 1666; the community's governing body even announced that the community buildings were for sale, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Rabbi Jacob B. Aaron Sasportas was one of the few who was not swept up into the enthusiasm and he became a fierce opponent of the Sabbateans.
In 1697 the city unexpectedly raised the annual tax levied against the Jews to 6,000 marks. Consequently, the majority of the wealthy Jews of Hamburg moved to Altona and Amsterdam.
The Reform movement, which began in Berlin, eventually reached Hamburg. A Reform temple was dedicated in 1811, and in 1819 a new prayerbook was published that better suited the needs of the new congregation. The Reform community of Hamburg, however, faced extreme opposition from the other rabbis in the community. The rabbinate in Hamburg published the opinions of noted Jewish scholars that sought to discredit the temple, and they prohibited the use of its prayerbook. During Rabbi Isaac Bernays' term leading the community (1821-1849), controversy flared again when the Reform congregation built a new synagogue building and published a more radically abridged and revised version of the prayerbook, "Siddur HaTefillah," in 1844. Rabbi Bernays, for his part, was a proponent of Modern Orthodoxy, and sought to endow the traditional service with greater beauty; he also modernized the curriculum of the local Talmud Torah and regularly gave sermons in German. Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger, a fierce opponent of Reform Judaism, founded an anti-Reform journal around the same time.
Other German Jews of note who lived in Hamburg included Glueckel of Hameln, the merchant and philanthropist Salomon Heine (the uncle of Heinrich Heine), Moses Mendelssohn (as well as Rabbi Raphael Kohen who was fiercely opposed to Mendelssohn's translation of the Pentateuch into German), the poets Naphtali Herz Wessely and Shalom B. Jacob HaCohen, the author of Dorot HaRishonim Isaac Halevy, the art historian Aby Warburg, the philosopher Ernst Cassirer, the psychologist William Stern, the shipping magnate Albert Ballin, and the financiers Max Warburg and Karl Melchior. The municipal library and the library of the University of Hamburg contained a large number of Hebrew manuscripts. Nearly 400 Hebrew books were printed in Hamburg between the 17th and 19th centuries; during the 19th century, Jewish printers mostly issued prayer books, the Pentatuch, books on mysticism, and popular literature.
The Jewish congregation of Hamburg became the fourth largest community in Germany. In 1866 there were 12,550 Jews in Hamburg; by 1933 that number had risen to 19,900 (1.7% of the total population), including more than 2,000 who lived in Altona. The last rabbi of the community before World War II was Joseph Carlebach (the father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Professor Miriam Gillis-Carlebach) who was deported in 1942 and killed by the Nazis.
Between 1933 and 1937, after the Nazi party came to power in Germany, more than 5,000 Jews from Hamburg emigrated to other countries; another 1,000 Polish citizens were expelled on October 28, 1938. Shortly thereafter, on the night of November 9, 1938, there was a pogrom that came to be known as Kristallnacht. Most synagogues were looted and vandalized. This led to another surge of Jews leaving Germany. A deportation took place in 1941, when 3,148 Jews were deported to Riga, Lodz, and Minsk. 1,848 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Theresienstadt in 1942. Between 1941 and 1945 there were 17 transports of Jews from Hamburg to Lodz, Minsk, Riga, Auschwitz, and Theresienstadt. By 1943 there were 1,800 Jews left in Hamburg, most of whom were married to non-Jews; the official liquidation came in June of that year.
Approximately 7,800 Jews from Hamburg were killed during the Nazi era, including 153 who were mentally ill and executed, and 308 who committed suicide. During this period the community was led by Max Plaut and Leo Lippmann (who committed suicide in 1943). A concentration camp, Neuengamme, was located near the city; a total of 106,000 inmates passed through its gates, more than half of whom were killed.
On May 3, 1945 Hamburg was liberated by British troops, who offered aid to the few hundred Jewish survivors. On September 18, a Jewish community was organized and managed to reopen the cemetery, old age home, mikvah, and hospital. By March 18, 1947 the community numbered 1,268, its numbers fluctuating due to emigration, immigration, and a high mortality rate.
In 1960 a hospital with 190 beds was opened, and a large modern synagogue was consecrated. Herbert Weichmann was elected Buergermeister in 1965 and the Institute for Jewish History was founded in 1966, which worked to promote Jewish-Christian understanding. During the sixties a number of Jews arrived from Iran, sent by the shah in order to import Persian carpets.
In January 1970 there were 1,532 Jews in Hamburg, two-thirds of whom were above 40 years old. Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union began arriving in the 1990s.
A major port city and state in Germany. Since 1937 it has included the towns of Altona and Wandsbeck.
In 2004 there were approximately 3,000 Jews living in Hamburg. There was one synagogue, the Hohe Weide Synagogue, one kindergarten, the Ronald Lauder Jewish Kindergarten, and kosher food was sold by one man, Shlomo Almagor, a native of Israel.
HISTORY
Jews have lived in Hamburg since the end of the 16th century, when wealthy Marranos from Spain and Portugal arrived in the city via the Netherlands. They unsuccessfully attempted to observe Jewish customs and rituals; when they were discovered, some of the Christian residents of the city demanded their expulsion. However, the city council opposed the measure, pointing out the community's economic contributions. German Jews began to be admitted to Wandsbeck by 1600, and in 1611 some of them settled in Altona, both of which were under Danish rule. By 1627 German Jews began to settle in Hamburg itself, although on festivals they continued to travel to Altona in order to worship, since in 1641 the Danish king had permitted the official establishment of a congregation and the building of a synagogue there. The rabbi of the Altona congregation was also responsible for mediating any disputes that arose within the congregation.
The Jews of Hamburg worked as financiers, and some helped found the Bank of Hamburg in 1619. Other Jewish residents of the city worked as shipbuilders, importers (particularly of sugar, coffee, and tobacco from the Spanish and Portuguese colonies), weavers, and goldsmiths. Their taxes were high; in 1612 the Jews of Hamburg paid an annual tax of 1,000 marks, a sum which had doubled by 1617.
The original Jewish community of Hamburg continued to maintain ties to their countries of origin. The kingdoms of Sweden, Poland, and Portugal appointed Jews as their ambassadors to Hamburg. Those who had come to Hamburg from Spain and Portugal continued to speak the languages of their native lands for two centuries. There were about 15 books printed in Hamburg in Portuguese and Spanish from 1618 to 1756, which was a major development in Jewish printing in the city; from 1586 Hebrew books, especially the Bible, had been published in Hamburg by Christian printers, often with the help of Jewish employees.
As early as 1611 Hamburg had enough of a Jewish community for three Sephardic synagogues, whose congregations jointly owned burial grounds in nearby Altona. In 1652 the three congregations combined under the name of Beth Israel.
The philosopher Uriel da Costa, who wrote the controversial book, "An Examination of the Traditions of the Pharisees," fled to Hamburg from Amsterdam in 1616 after his excommunication for blasphemy. The community, however, did not accept him (the fact that he did not understand German was an additional difficulty). The local physician Samuel da Silva wrote a pamphlet attacking him and his excommunication was announced publicly in the Hamburg synagogue. Da Costa returned to Amsterdam after one year.
Many Jews, fleeing from persecution in Ukraine and Poland, in 1648 arrived in Hamburg in 1648, and were helped by the local Jews. However, these refugees soon left for Amsterdam since tensions with the Christian community were rising, culminating in the expulsion of the Ashkenazi community in 1649. Most of those who were expelled left for Altona and Wandsbeck; only a few remained in Hamburg, residing in the homes of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews in order to obtain legal status in the city.
The expulsion proved to be temporary; after a few years, many of those who had been driven out returned to Hamburg. In 1656 a number of refugees from Vilna also arrived, adding to the Jewish presence in the city. The three Ashkenazi congregations, Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck, united in 1671 to form the AHW Congregation; the community's rabbinical headquarters were in Altona. One of the most famous rabbis of the merged congregation was Jonathan Eybeschuetz, who was appointed to the post in 1750. His equally famous adversary, Jacob Emden, lived in Altona. The congregation ceased to exist in 1811 when the French authorities imposed a single consistorial organization on the city; at that point, the Ashkenazim and Sephardim united to form one congregation. The Altona community retained its own rabbinate, which was also recognized by the Jews of Wandsbeck until 1864.
Sabbateanism swept the community in 1666; the community's governing body even announced that the community buildings were for sale, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Rabbi Jacob B. Aaron Sasportas was one of the few who was not swept up into the enthusiasm and he became a fierce opponent of the Sabbateans.
In 1697 the city unexpectedly raised the annual tax levied against the Jews to 6,000 marks. Consequently, the majority of the wealthy Jews of Hamburg moved to Altona and Amsterdam.
The Reform movement, which began in Berlin, eventually reached Hamburg. A Reform temple was dedicated in 1811, and in 1819 a new prayerbook was published that better suited the needs of the new congregation. The Reform community of Hamburg, however, faced extreme opposition from the other rabbis in the community. The rabbinate in Hamburg published the opinions of noted Jewish scholars that sought to discredit the temple, and they prohibited the use of its prayerbook. During Rabbi Isaac Bernays' term leading the community (1821-1849), controversy flared again when the Reform congregation built a new synagogue building and published a more radically abridged and revised version of the prayerbook, "Siddur HaTefillah," in 1844. Rabbi Bernays, for his part, was a proponent of Modern Orthodoxy, and sought to endow the traditional service with greater beauty; he also modernized the curriculum of the local Talmud Torah and regularly gave sermons in German. Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger, a fierce opponent of Reform Judaism, founded an anti-Reform journal around the same time.
Other German Jews of note who lived in Hamburg included Glueckel of Hameln, the merchant and philanthropist Salomon Heine (the uncle of Heinrich Heine), Moses Mendelssohn (as well as Rabbi Raphael Kohen who was fiercely opposed to Mendelssohn's translation of the Pentateuch into German), the poets Naphtali Herz Wessely and Shalom B. Jacob HaCohen, the author of Dorot HaRishonim Isaac Halevy, the art historian Aby Warburg, the philosopher Ernst Cassirer, the psychologist William Stern, the shipping magnate Albert Ballin, and the financiers Max Warburg and Karl Melchior. The municipal library and the library of the University of Hamburg contained a large number of Hebrew manuscripts. Nearly 400 Hebrew books were printed in Hamburg between the 17th and 19th centuries; during the 19th century, Jewish printers mostly issued prayer books, the Pentatuch, books on mysticism, and popular literature.
The Jewish congregation of Hamburg became the fourth largest community in Germany. In 1866 there were 12,550 Jews in Hamburg; by 1933 that number had risen to 19,900 (1.7% of the total population), including more than 2,000 who lived in Altona. The last rabbi of the community before World War II was Joseph Carlebach (the father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Professor Miriam Gillis-Carlebach) who was deported in 1942 and killed by the Nazis.
Between 1933 and 1937, after the Nazi party came to power in Germany, more than 5,000 Jews from Hamburg emigrated to other countries; another 1,000 Polish citizens were expelled on October 28, 1938. Shortly thereafter, on the night of November 9, 1938, there was a pogrom that came to be known as Kristallnacht. Most synagogues were looted and vandalized. This led to another surge of Jews leaving Germany. A deportation took place in 1941, when 3,148 Jews were deported to Riga, Lodz, and Minsk. 1,848 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Theresienstadt in 1942. Between 1941 and 1945 there were 17 transports of Jews from Hamburg to Lodz, Minsk, Riga, Auschwitz, and Theresienstadt. By 1943 there were 1,800 Jews left in Hamburg, most of whom were married to non-Jews; the official liquidation came in June of that year.
Approximately 7,800 Jews from Hamburg were killed during the Nazi era, including 153 who were mentally ill and executed, and 308 who committed suicide. During this period the community was led by Max Plaut and Leo Lippmann (who committed suicide in 1943). A concentration camp, Neuengamme, was located near the city; a total of 106,000 inmates passed through its gates, more than half of whom were killed.
On May 3, 1945 Hamburg was liberated by British troops, who offered aid to the few hundred Jewish survivors. On September 18, a Jewish community was organized and managed to reopen the cemetery, old age home, mikvah, and hospital. By March 18, 1947 the community numbered 1,268, its numbers fluctuating due to emigration, immigration, and a high mortality rate.
In 1960 a hospital with 190 beds was opened, and a large modern synagogue was consecrated. Herbert Weichmann was elected Buergermeister in 1965 and the Institute for Jewish History was founded in 1966, which worked to promote Jewish-Christian understanding. During the sixties a number of Jews arrived from Iran, sent by the shah in order to import Persian carpets.
In January 1970 there were 1,532 Jews in Hamburg, two-thirds of whom were above 40 years old. Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union began arriving in the 1990s.