Metadata: Jewish Community Rawitsch (Rawicz)
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 Ra 5
- Title:
- Jewish Community Rawitsch (Rawicz)
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Rawitsch
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Rawitsch
- Date(s):
- 1773/1909
- Language:
- German
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 3 linear metres (106 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Poor
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Jewish community of Rawitsch (now Rawicz, Poland) includes files on the general administration of the community, especially meetings and resolutions of the board and the representatives, as well as decrees of the authorities and details of members leaving the community. One file concerns the issue of marriage certificates, 1846-1848. One file includes the printed statute of the Israelite Nursing and Burial Association (Chevra Kadischa) from 1893. Other files contain personnel matters, especially the employment of rabbis, 1834-1889, as well as applications for the post of cantor, 1870- 1885, and for teaching posts, 1841-1867. These include contracts with the rabbis Rudolf Ungerleider (1833-1911) from 1865 and Markus Mordechai Koref (1833-1900) from 1872. The files on the appointment of rabbis also contain a draft for synagogue regulations from 1846, a list of marriages from December 1866 to January 1870 and a list of community members with voting rights, 1872.
The most extensive series comprises the financial files: community budget, invoices for income and expenditure from the community treasury for 1835-1851, invoices for the synagogue treasury for 1836-1895/96, cash books and income and expenditure books (1785-1794, 1811-1899, partly in Hebrew script), audits, budget and bills of the funds for the poor, orphans and the hospital for 1835-1850. There are also cash books of the poor fund, 1773-1819, for recruitment money, 1801-1834, for the pardon tax, 1796-1810, for slaughter fees, 1833-1835 and for privilege payments, 1843-1856 (all in Hebrew script) as well as invoices, receipts and account books of the school fund for 1835-1849. Other files concern the settlement of community debts, 1789-1851, and the dues and contributions of the members. Of interest is a small file from 1823-1824 with a demand for money for shirts which were delivered to the Russian military hospital in 1813.
The final series contains files on religious and school affairs and support, including a list of synagogue offices, 1783-1795 (in Hebrew script) and delivery of flour for matzah, 1821-1848.
The collection also contains the official diary of the director of the private secondary school for girls in Rawitsch for the years 1898-1909 (the school was attended by Protestant, Catholic and Jewish students). Also of interest is a mohel book kept by Meir Bergel, 1832-1848 (in Hebrew script).
- Archival history:
- The files of the Rawitsch 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).
The town of Rawitsch, not far from the Silesian border, was founded around 1638 and was quickly settled by Protestant religious refugees from Bohemia and Silesia, among others. At that time, Jews were already living there, but they were repeatedly expelled. A Jewish community was established around 1700; a privilege from 1719 regulated the rights and the taxes to be paid by the twelve Jewish families living in the city. At the end of the 18th century around 1,000 Jews lived in the city (just under 200 families), around 1830 around 400 families, in 1849 over 1,700 people (almost 20% of the population) and around 1890 there were still 850 people (170 families).
- Access points: locations:
- Rawitsch
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2021
