Metadata: Jewish Community Schwersenz (Swarzędz)
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 Schw 5
- Title:
- Jewish Community Schwersenz (Swarzędz)
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Schwersenz
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Schwersenz
- Date(s):
- 1735/1899
- Language:
- German
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Extent:
- 3 linear metres (183 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Poor
- Scope and content:
-
The first series from the Jewish community of Schwersenz (now Swarzędz, Poland) contains files on the general administration of the community from 1797-1897: announcements, official decrees, statutes of the community, board and representatives, finance commissions, real estate, etc. For the years 1834-1835 there is a minute book of the meetings of the representatives. Other files contain complaints and lawsuits. Ten files concern the employment of community officials (cantor and butcher, 1834-1867, 1889-1891, election of a new rabbi in 1867 and teacher, 1825-1841).
The second group contains files on the buildings and real estate of the community, including the construction of the school building in 1837 and the mikveh, 1835, 1845-1846, as well as a list of synagogue seats (with drawings), 1836-1840.
The most extensive group comprises the community's financial files, including files on the budget for 1865-1873, 1889-1892, cash management and accounting (including annual accounts for 1849-1871), as well as a series of cash books and income and expenditure registers for the period 1804- 1882 (partly in Hebrew script).
The cash books contain, among other things, recruitment payments, taxes for kosher meat and privilege payments. There is also a transcript of the 1804 settlement with the community of Poznań, in which the Schwersenz community agreed to pay 2,000 thalers by 1820. In addition, the files contain the repayment of community debts and mortgage repayments as well as lawsuits relating to monetary claims. There are also files on community tax and tax claims, 1843-1888, and on determining payments for joining or leaving the community, 1834-1861.
Another group of files concerns religious and school matters, including the synagogue regulations, dowry (rachash) and auctioning of privileges, 1837-1855. Several files relate to the school, which was set up in 1824: elections and meetings of the school board, proof of school attendance, school budget, school children's clothing, 1826-1856. Three files deal with the efforts to provide apprenticeships for boys when they leave school, 1834-1839.
The last set of files relates to welfare and benefits, 1823-1861, along with a minute book and cash book of the Chevra Kadisha, 1833-1844, and a file on income and expenditure of the Chevra Bikur Holim, 1830, 1893, 1899.
- Archival history:
- The files of the Schwersenz 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 Jews in the city of Posen (Polish: Poznań) lived in cramped conditions in an overcrowded Jewish quarter in which there were frequent fires; nevertheless, they were forbidden to settle outside of this area. To allow the foundation of a town, the aristocratic landlord of the neighbouring manor of Schwersenz permitted a branch community to be established in 1621 in a contract with the Posen Jewish community. Due to the favourable conditions of the privilege, this grew rapidly. At the end of the 18th century there were around 1,300 Jews in the town, more than half of the inhabitants. The Schwersenz Jews remained dependent on Posen for a long time and it was only after 1800 that a separate Jewish community was formed, which agreed to payments to the Posen community in a settlement. Around 1840 more than 1,600 Jews lived in the town; then a tendency to emigration began. In 1890 the community still had over 500 members.
- Access points: locations:
- Schwersenz
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2021