Metadata: Jewish Community Santomischel (Zaniemyśl)
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Archiv
- Postal address:
- Oranienburger Str. 28-30, 10117 Berlin
- Phone number:
- 0049-30-88028-425
- Web address:
- www.centrumjudaicum.de
- Reference number:
- CJA, 1 A Sa 6
- Title:
- Jewish Community Santomischel (Zaniemyśl)
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Santomischel
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Santomischel
- Date(s):
- 1811/1898
- Language:
- German
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 0.6 linear metres (72 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Poor
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Jewish community of Santomischel (now Zaniemyśl, Poland) contains files on the general administration of the community (statutes, administrative orders and correspondence with authorities, elections, meetings of the board and representatives, complaints and lawsuits) from 1833 to 1898. Four files relate to the employment of the religious officials (cantor and kosher butcher), 1834-1880, two more relate to the treasurer and the synagogue attendant.
Among the construction files there is a file on the extensive repairs to the synagogue in 1879 (with an expert opinion on the structural condition), as well as a statement of income and expenditure with the names of the donors. Other files concern the study and rabbi’s house, 1834-1837, and the school house.
The most extensive group are the financial files, including: budget (1834-1891), accounts of income and expenditure, cash items and audits, book of synagogue donations (1811-1823), cash book of the synagogue cash register (1861), assessment of community contributions, midwife contributions, members leaving the community, slaughter money and ‘krupke’ (meat tax), wills and legacies.
Other files relate to the school, including the employment of teachers, 1835-1844, and support. Finally, there are statutes of the Nursing and Burial Association (Chewra Kadischa) from 1875 and 1884 as well as the statutes of the Humanitarian Association of Santomichel from 1882.
- Archival history:
- The files of the Santomischel Jewish community were held in the former General Archive of German Jews. In 1996 the collection was transferred from the Federal Archives to the archive of the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Jews in the Greater Poland area were mostly descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who had migrated to Poland-Lithuania since the Middle Ages. The settlement of Jews was encouraged by the Polish kings and later also by the nobility; from the 16th century onwards the latter increasingly founded their own towns and granted settlement privileges there in order to promote economic development. After the dissolution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century these areas with a large proportion of Jewish population came under Prussian rule, as did large parts of Greater Poland upon the second partition of Poland in 1793. Under French rule the territory belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw, in 1815 it returned to Prussia as the Grand Duchy of Posen (after 1848 Province of Posen). The “Preliminary Ordinance Concerning the Jewry in the Grand Duchy of Posen” issued in 1833 defined, among other things, the boundaries of the community districts, regulated the election of representatives and administrative officials, compulsory schooling and the requirements for naturalisation. The Prussian law of 23 July 1847 was initially not applied to Posen; only after 1848 were the Jews granted civil rights with the Prussian constitution.
After the First World War, most of the province of Posen became part of the Second Polish Republic, which existed until 1939. Since 1945 it has again been part of Poland. This area largely corresponds to what is now the Greater Poland Voivodeship (województwo wielkopolskie).
More than 530 Jews lived in Santomischel around 1840; around 1890 it was about 360. A school existed from 1833. Rabbi Moses Veilchenfeld (1794-1872) worked here until 1840.
- Access points: locations:
- Santomischel
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2021