Judaica from Sulzbürg

The collection

Format, state and content of the books vary greatly. The oldest book dates back to the 18th century, the newest was printed in 1924. The majority of the collection is made up of Jewish liturgic books in Hebrew. Among the most numerous works in the collection is “Siddur Sfat Emet” by Wolf Heidenheim, the popularity of which can be seen by the large number of different editions. Besides, there are machzor editions, talmud tractates and editions of “Tseno Ureno” (alternative spellings: Tsene-rene, Tz´enah Ur´enah) - sometimes called the Women’s Bible. Most of the books were meant for daily use.

The collection also includes three manuscripts. The „Schuldenbuch“ (Debt Register) of Abraham ben Nathan Goldberg and Lazi Wertheimer meticulously records debts and loans from 1771 to 1855. Over several years, the „Aufrufung zur Tora“ (Summons to Read from the Torah) lists the honorees that were allowed to read a Torah segment to the congregation in Sabbath services. There are also two parchment scrolls from the 18th or 19th century: an Esther scroll (Cod. Sm 469), from which the biblical story of Esther was read in the synagogue on the feast of Purim, and the fragment of a Torah scroll (Cod. Sm 468).

One book in the collection stands out: It is a Hebrew Bible, which originally belonged to a student of Catholic theology in Würzburg (04/1 Sulz 52). Thematically, it is not connected with any of the other books or manuscripts.

Damage symptoms

Almost all of the books show signs of long and intensive use. Some have been damaged by water to varying degrees, in some cases this has caused the books to get moldy. Some books are missing their cover or part of it. Many of the bindings are well-worn and dog-eared and in some of the books pages are torn or have come loose. However, there are some books that are quite well preserved, most of them of later origin.

By and large, the damage symptoms of the books are too unspecific to allow more precise assumptions about their original locations. What can be ruled out, however, is that the books have been put up as a closed collection over a longer period of time or that they have come from the Sulzbürg genizah.

None of the books show traces of violence. They show damage typically associated with age, in some cases exacerbated by unfavorable storage conditions. The exception here is the afore-mentioned Torah scroll, which looks like someone tried to rip it. This might have happened during the desecration of the Sulzbürg synagogue in the Reichspogromnacht - in Nazi Germany coined Reichkristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in November 1938.

Handwritten entries

Many of the books contain handwritten entries, some of them in Hebrew or Yiddish and some in German. 26 of the 52 books show handwritten entries in Hebrew, either in print or cursive writing and 35 books in German or Latin script. We were able to decipher and translate about two thirds of the Hebrew entries.

Contentwise the entries differ: In some cases they are children’s writing exercises or simple arithmetic problems. There are also Bible quotations and general axioms. Other entries give us clues to the previous owners and their families. In several cases, there are birth announcements or so-called “Jahrzeit” (yiddish: Yahrtzeit) entries, i.e. memorial entries on the anniversary of a loved one’s death.

Of particular importance are ownership entries: of the 33 volumes in which names of previous owners can be clearly identified, 25 contain only one name each, while eight books contain two or more names. Only some of the entries that indicate ownership or possession are dated, with the dates ranging from 1738 to 1926. What leaps to the eye is the repetition of some of the last names among ownership entries: Kahn, Löw, Neustädter, Sondhelm, Wertheimer, Wolf and especially Regensburger. In addition to the handwritten entries, there are also name stamps in some of the books. There are no other stamps or entries that would indicate any kind of institutional ownership.

Synagogue?

It is certain that as late as June 1942 “30 to 40 folios” remained in the synagogue, which had been desecrated during the November pogroms in 1938. Nevertheless, Wolf Grünebaum, the last Jewish community warden (Hebr. parnas/ gabbai/ shamas; German: Parnass/Barnos) of Sulzbürg continued to live in that building after 1938, up until 1942. Since the mentioned “folios” were seized for the Gestapo, it is hardly imaginable that they would have been left in the care of Wolf Grünebaum. They would have to have been stored in a room that was not accessible to the Jewish community warden. Soon after the deportation of the last Jews, the merchant woman Maria Mies bought the former synagogue building. Although the purchase did not become legally valid until quite a few months later, reconstruction work on the building began as early as August 1942 and the former synagogue was turned into a residential and commercial building. At this point at the very latest, it is to be assumed that the “folios” were removed from the building as they must have been in the way of the renovations. Removing them must have been in the interest of the village community, which would still have had to reckon with the Gestapo coming to pick up the books.

At this rate, a connection between the mentioned “folios” and the collection now stored in the University Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt seems unlikely, but not impossible. We can, however rule out that all the books in the collection have come entirely from the genizah of the Sulzbürg synagogue and were only discovered when the attics were undergoing reconstruction in 1944. The books differ too much in their state of preservation to allow for this option.