Metadata: Jewish Community Gostyn (Gostyń); Jewish Community Jutroschin (Jutrosin); Jewish Community Kostrzyn (Kostrzyń); Jewish Community Kröben (Krobia); Jewish Community Lissa (Leszno); Jewish Community Miloslaw (Miłosław); Jewish Community Posen (Poznań); Jewish Community Pudewitz (Pobiedziska); Jewish Community Sandberg (Piaski)
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 Go 3, 1 A Ju 2; 1 A Ko 10; 1 A Kr 3; 1 A Li 5; 1 A Mi 3; 1 A Po 3, 1 A Pu 1, 1 A Sa 4
- Title:
- Jewish Community Gostyn (Gostyń); Jewish Community Jutroschin (Jutrosin); Jewish Community Kostrzyn (Kostrzyń); Jewish Community Kröben (Krobia); Jewish Community Lissa (Leszno); Jewish Community Miloslaw (Miłosław); Jewish Community Posen (Poznań); Jewish Community Pudewitz (Pobiedziska); Jewish Community Sandberg (Piaski)
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Gostyn; Jüdische Gemeinde Jutroschin; Jüdische Gemeinde Kostrzyn; Jüdische Gemeinde Kröben; Jüdische Gemeinde Lissa; Jüdische Gemeinde Miloslaw; Jüdische Gemeinde Posen; Jüdische Gemeinde Pudewitz; Jüdische Gemeinde Sandberg
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Gostyn; Jewish Community Jutroschin; Jewish Community Kostrzyn; Jewish Community Kröben; Jewish Community Lissa; Jewish Community Miloslaw; Jewish Community Pudewitz; Jewish Community Sandberg; Bloch, Philipp; Central Archives of the German Jews
- Date(s):
- 1821/1939
- Language:
- German
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Extent:
- 0.7 linear metres (62 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
Unfortunately, no files have survived from the two most important Poznań communities, Lissa and the city of Poznań.
From Posen (now Poznań, Poland), this collection only includes material whose provenance cannot be clearly determined (a total of eleven archive folders). Some documents from the early 19th century are written in Hebrew script, including some letters to Rabbi Akiba Eger (1761-1837) and a notebook containing records of the customs and habits of the Poznań community.
Other folders include printed matter on the 1854 election of representatives, including a report on the administration of the community in 1848-1853. There is also a cash book for the years 1938-1939 (Polish). In addition, the collection contains reports and statutes from the Posen-based Israelite orphanage (founded in 1836) from the period 1841-1910, the Ritsche-Flatau orphanage for girls (founded in 1861) for 1872-1910, the statute from 1895 and reports of the Association for the Promotion of Crafts and Agriculture among the Jews in Posen and the revised statute of S.B. Latz's home for the elderly and infirm from 1907.
Furthermore, there is material from the Israelite Brotherhood (founded in 1815), in which the reform-oriented members of the Jewish community came together - including statutes and synagogue regulations from 1847, programme for the inauguration of the temple of the Israelite Brotherhood on 14 October 1857, statute and temple regulations from 1899. These papers are believed to have belonged to Philipp Bloch (1841-1923), the long-time rabbi of the Brotherhood. Bloch was also director of the orphanage. The Centrum Judaicum archive also contains a small collection of material from Philipp Bloch, which is described elsewhere.
From Lissa (now Leszno, Poland) there are only two books on income and expenses of the community, 1828-1874, and the Joseph School, 1829-1897 (in Hebrew script), as well as two printed items (admission ticket and menu for the celebration) for the reopening of the synagogue on 11 April 1905.
The collection of the Jewish community of Gostyn (now Gostyń, Poland) comprises six files from the period 1862-1891. They mainly concern meetings and resolutions of the representatives, elections and affairs of the religious officials and rabbis (including Joseph Messing (1812-1880), A Rosenau, H Sarasohn) and school and religious matters.
There are six files from 1854 to 1900 from the Jewish community in Jutroschin (now Jutrosin, Poland), mostly administrative orders and board affairs, a file on the new construction of the synagogue and accounts of income and expenses of the community. There are also two volumes with receipts from synagogue donations in the years 1871-1887.
There are five files from Kostrzyn/Kostschin (now Kostrzyń, Poland) from the years 1850-1900: two files concern the employment of religious officials (teachers and slaughterers, cantors), 1863, 1892, 1897, and two files deal with the finances and the community’s budget. Finally, there is a description of the prayer house and adjoining buildings, 1876, which was prepared for fire insurance.
Four files from the period 1835-1883 have survived from the Jewish community in Kröben (now Krobia, Poland). Two files contain documents from the board for the administration of the community (including administrative orders, meetings, matters relating to the cantor and slaughterer) and two files concern the community finances (budget, accounts of income and expenditure, cash audits). The files are in a poor state of preservation.
Only one folder with various documents is available from Miloslaw (now Miłosław, Poland). It contains, among other things, notes on the organisation of the tailors' guild in Miloslaw (1834, 1858-1863), a building contract and cost estimate for the renovation of the synagogue in 1908 and documents of the Chevra Kadisha, including a book on the centenary of the Chevra Kadisha in 1887 with a list of members and a list of the deceased (continued until 1921). Some documents are in a poor state of preservation.
The collection of the Jewish community of Pudewitz (now Pobiedziska, Poland) comprises 17 files from the years 1867-1902. Nine files concern the general administration of the community (official decrees, board and representatives, finances, requests, appeals for donations, repairs to the synagogue in 1893). One file contains applications for the position of religious official, 1880-1888. Other files deal with the cemetery (enlargement and fences, 1893-1901), financial matters and grants. In addition, the statutes of the Israelite sick care and burial association (Chevra Kadischa Bikur Holim) are available (undated). The files are in a poor state of preservation.
Nine files have survived from the Jewish community in Sandberg (now Piaski, Poland). They mainly concern the general administration of the community, 1880-1902 (board and representatives, community meetings, personnel matters, membership in the German-Israelite Community Association and in the Association of Synagogue Communities of the Administrative District of Posen). There are also files on the community properties, including repairs to the synagogue, 1845-1846, construction of the new synagogue, 1889-1891, and annual accounts of community income and expenditure for 1889/90, 1900-1903/04.
There are separate descriptions for larger community holdings or individual districts in the Poznan administrative district.
- Archival history:
- The collections of the Jewish communities in the administrative district of Posen 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. Printed items from Jewish associations and organisations were mostly kept in a separate collection in the former General Archive.
- 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).
In 1816 over 50,000 Jews lived here, making up 6.3% of the population, a far higher proportion than in all other Prussian provinces. In many smaller towns 20-30% of the inhabitants were Jews, in some cases significantly more.
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. In most of the small and medium-sized towns the number of Jewish inhabitants decreased from the mid-19th century due to emigration westwards, to Silesia and to larger cities.
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 largest Jewish communities in Greater Poland were in Poznań and Lissa.
Posen (Poznań), the capital of Greater Poland, was a bishopric as early as the 10th century, received city privileges in the 13th century and developed into an important trading centre. Jews have been in evidence since the Middle Ages. They lived in cramped conditions in their own residential district, which was only dissolved in 1803.
In the 17th century, the Jews of Poznan comprised half of all Jews in Greater Poland, and their rabbi was the representative for Greater Poland in the so-called "Four Countries Synod". In 1793 over 3,000 Jews were living in the city of Posen (about a quarter of the population), after 1840 it was over 7,000, in c. 1890 around 6,100 and in 1910 around 5,600. After the First World War, many Jews from Posen emigrated to Germany. In 1922, about 2,000 Jews were still living here; later, new Jewish residents immigrated from eastern Poland. From 1815, the rabbi of the community was Akiba Eger, whose real name was Jacob Moses Eiger (1761-1837). In 1815, the reform-oriented members founded the Israelite Brotherhood, later the Israelite Brothers' Community, whose long-standing rabbi was Philipp Bloch (1841-1923).
Leszno (Lissa in German) was established in the 13th century; in the 16th and 17th centuries it became a place of refuge for Protestant religious refugees from Bohemia (Bohemian Brethren) and therefore grew rapidly. In 1547 it was granted town privileges. From the end of the 16th century a Jewish community also developed here. The Jews in Lissa were mainly active in the cloth and leather trade. In the 18th century the Jewish community in Lissa was the most important in Greater Poland. In 1799 the community built a new synagogue, which was rebuilt in 1903-1905 and rededicated in April 1905. At the end of the 18th century, around 3,700 Jews lived in Lissa (over 40% of the population), in 1840 over 3,400, in c. 1890 around 1,300 and before the First World War there were still around 800.
Jewish families were only allowed to settle permanently in Gostyn at the beginning of the 19th century. About 200 Jews lived here around 1840, and a synagogue was also built around this time. Until 1871 the number of Jewish residents rose to over 300 (10% of the population), after which it fell rapidly; the community was dissolved after the First World War.
Because of the ban on settling in Gostyn, Jews had settled in neighbouring Sandberg (Piaski) since the 18th century – in c. 1820 almost 200 Jews lived here, in c. 1840 around 240, more than 45% of the population. Thereafter, their numbers fell due to emigration; around 1890 there were still twelve Jewish families (50 people) living here, the community was dissolved some time presumably after 1905. The existing synagogue was repaired in 1845-46 and by 1890 the community had built a new synagogue.
Jews settled in Jutroshin from the 17th century. After a fire destroyed the synagogue - as well as the school, mikveh and community centre - in 1854, the community built a new synagogue in 1861. Around 1840, there were 207 Jews living in the town, in 1861 it was over 250; after that their number dropped to 115 in c. 1890 and about 70 before the First World War.
The town of Kröben was owned by the bishopric of Posen until the end of the 18th century. For a long time, Jews were not allowed to settle here. After 1840, 55 Jews lived here and there was a prayer house; in 1871, 77 Jews lived in the town.
Around 1840 there were 30 Jews living in Kostrzyn/Kostschin and the surrounding area. They held religious services in the apartment of one of the members, although later a synagogue was established. In c. 1890 50 Jews lived here.
Around 600 Jews lived in Miloslaw after 1840 and over 300 (65 families) around 1890.
Around 1840 over 300 Jews lived in Pudewitz, in c. 1890 there were around 200 (about 10% of the population).
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2020-2021
