Metadata: Jewish Community Insterburg [Chernyakhovsk / Черняховск]
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 In 1
- Title:
- Jewish Community Insterburg [Chernyakhovsk / Черняховск]
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Insterburg
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Insterburg (Kreissynagogengemeinde Insterburg)
- Date(s):
- 1858/1924
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 0.45 linear metres (33 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The first series of files from the community of Insterburg (now Черняховск/Russia) contains files on the general administration: statutes from 1858 and changes to the statutes, election regulations for the representative assembly, 1871, elections (including a list of eligible members around 1901), meetings of the board and the representatives, finance, school. The files contain various printed items, including cemetery regulations of the Insterburg district synagogue community from 1890, report on the situation in the synagogue community in Königsberg [Kaliningrad] in the years 1867-1893, with a list of the contributing members of the Königsberg synagogue community (around 1893). There are also three copy books for outgoing correspondence, 1871-1879, 1887-1906, and a file of relating to associations, 1880-1894, 1916/17 (including German-Israelite Congregational Association, Association of Synagogue Communities in East Prussia, Association of Rabbis in East and West Prussia, Israelite Orphanage for the city and province of Königsberg).
Among the personnel files there are a few sheets from the years 1900/1901 relating to Rabbi Max Beermann (1873-1935), who worked in Insterburg from 1898-1914, as well as files on the employment of the cantor, shochet and religion teacher, 1895/96, 1901/ 02. The construction files contain documents on the construction of the synagogue, which was inaugurated in 1865, as well as on later extensions and construction drawings for a meat selling hall, 1894. Regarding financial matters, there are income and expenditure books and cash invoices for 1884/85-1905/06, as well as invoices for the income and expenditure of the Association of Synagogue Communities in East Prussia for 1892/93-1899/1900. There are also files on religious matters (above all shechita and the supply of kosher meat, 1872-1899), a minute book of the school commission, 1879-1906 and a file on religious instruction, 1891-1899. Two files concern welfare, including numerous printed appeals for donations, 1880-1893, 1904. Finally, the minute book of the Israelite Association for Nursing and Burial (Chewra Kadischa) for the years 1874-1924 is available.
- Archival history:
- The files of the district synagogue community of Insterburg were previously held by the Central Archives of German Jews. They were transferred in 1996 by the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) to the archive of the Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum (Foundation New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Prussia, the settlement area of the Baltic Prussians, was conquered by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century and the State of the Teutonic Order was established, in which Jews were forbidden to settle. This lost large parts of its territory in the 15th century. In the remaining eastern part the Duchy of Prussia existed after the Reformation from 1525, which fell to the Electorate of Brandenburg in 1618 (personal union Brandenburg-Prussia), from 1701 the Kingdom of Prussia. From the end of the 18th century this part of Prussia was called East Prussia; with the Prussian administrative reform at the beginning of the 19th century it became a province. With the edict of March 1812, the Jews in Prussia were recognised as citizens, but it was not until 1869 that they received full equality. The Prussian law on the conditions of the Jews of 1847 enabled the formation of synagogue congregations as public corporations.
Insterburg (next to a castle on the Inster River) received city rights in 1583. After 1830 a Jewish family settled there for the first time, in 1843 eight families (41 people) lived here. In the years that followed, the community, to which the Jewish residents of the entire district belonged, grew rapidly: around 1890 there were over 300 Jews (65 families) living in the city and 419 in the district; in 1925 it was 338.
After the Second World War, the northern part of the province of East Prussia became part of the Soviet Union, now Russia (Oblast Kaliningrad/Калининградская область).
- Access points: locations:
- Chernyakhovsk
- Kaliningrad
- Access points: persons/families:
- Beermann, Max
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2022
