Metadata: Jewish Community Culmsee [Chełmża]; Jewish Community Graudenz [Grudziądz]; Jewish Community Thorn [Toruń]
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 Cu 1; 1 A Gr 8; 1 A Th 2; 1 E, Nr. 103
- Title:
- Jewish Community Culmsee [Chełmża]; Jewish Community Graudenz [Grudziądz]; Jewish Community Thorn [Toruń]
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Culmsee; Jüdische Gemeinde Graudenz; Jüdische Gemeinde Thorn
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Culmsee (Synagogengemeinde Culmsee); Jewish Community Graudenz (Synagogengemeinde Graudenz); Jewish Community Thorn (Synagogengemeinde Thorn);
- Date(s):
- 1822/1914
- Language:
- German
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 0.95 linear metres (65 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Jewish community in Thorn (now Toruń, Poland) comprises 48 files from the period 1822-1912. The first series contains files on the legal status and general municipal administration, above all on the activities of the board and the representatives, on processes and on membership in the German-Israelite Association of Communities (circular letters and notices). There is also a copy of the law regarding Jews of 23 July 1847. Another series contains personal files, including one on Rabbi Joachim Oppenheim (1832-1891), who worked in Thorn from 1868 until his death. Among the property files there are documents on the purchase of the land for the construction of the synagogue, 1840-1844, later construction work on the synagogue and the conversion of the mikveh and construction of a mortuary. The files on religious affairs contain the printed synagogue regulations of the community from 1851 and 1857, prayer regulations, inventory lists of the synagogue and the school as well as items relating to shechita and the sale of kosher meat (1857-1903). Three files concern the school and the school commission (1849-1902).
There are also files on support and welfare (especially appeals for donations); for this series, a file was also taken from the collections of the Central Archive, which contains the statutes and house rules of the Israelite home for the elderly, which opened in Thorn in 1901. Finally, several files of associations have survived. The files on the Association for the Care of the Sick and Burial (Chevra kadischa w'bikur cholim), founded in 1855, contain, among others, the statutes of 1861. A file on the Jewish Women's Association, founded in 1868, contains a printed draft of the statutes, another file on the women's association from the collection of the Central Archive contains the statutes of 1877 and accounts for 1904-1910. Other files contain records relating to the Charity Society and the Central Benevolent Society. A citizen's certificate for the merchant Meyer Leiser from the city of Thorn, 1848, was also included as an appendix.
13 files from the years 1840-1910 have survived from the Culmsee Jewish community, district of Thorn (now Chełmża, Poland). The files mainly relate to the general administration of the community (authority orders, minutes of meetings and resolutions of the representatives, finances, membership in the Association of German-Israelite Communities, Association of German Jews, etc.), as well as the construction of the synagogue after 1840, the sale of synagogue seats, 1843- 1851, and the Jewish elementary school, 1847-1869.
From Graudenz (now Grudziądz, Poland) there is a prayer book for the prayer leader and prayers in memory of deceased souls [in Hebrew] from 1851, as well as other items such as printed statutes of the Association for Jewish History and Literature (Talmud Torah) in Graudenz of 1902 and the statutes of the Israelite Burial Society in Graudenz, 1911. In addition, printed matter from the Caspar Lachmann provincial orphanage in Graudenz, which opened in 1903, has survived in the collections of the Central Archive: statutes from 1900, annual reports for the years 1899-1913 (one folder).
- Archival history:
- The collection was previously held by the Central Archives of German Jews und was 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). Printed items of Jewish associations and institutions were kept in a separate collection in the Central Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The area of Kulmerland (in the south of what later became West Prussia), which was originally Prussian, belonged from 1230 to the territory of the Teutonic Order, in which Jews were forbidden to settle; from the 15th century it was subject to the Polish crown. Most of the area was annexed by Prussia with the first partition of Poland in 1772. The General-Juden-Privileg (“general Jews’ privilege”) of 1750 was extended to West Prussia, removing the privileges of the communities and intending the expulsion of poorer Jews.
Under French rule, Culmsee and Thorn belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw from 1807-1815. After 1815, West Prussia was included as a new province in the Prussian administrative system (1824-1878 with East Prussia as the Province of Prussia). The Prussian law on the conditions of the Jews of 1847 enabled the formation of synagogue congregations as public corporations.
Before 1772, no Jews were allowed to settle in the town of Culmsee. In 1840, there were 180 Jews in the twi - only two of whom had Prussian citizenship. Around 1890 there were 210 people (44 families) in the community, in c 1910 it was around 240. The community built a synagogue after 1840, and from around 1850 there was a public Jewish school.
Thorn was established in 1231 as a settlement of the Teutonic Order on the Vistula and received city rights in 1233. Together with other cities, the Hanseatic city rebelled against the Teutonic Knights in the 15th century and submitted to the Polish king, albeit with considerable autonomy. With the second partition of Poland in 1793, Thorn came to Prussia. The city had the privilege that Jews were not allowed to settle here - only a few Jewish traders were tolerated in the city on market days. In 1793 there were three Jewish families, in 1802 it was 16 families and in 1840 344 individuals - only two of whom had citizenship rights. The congregation initially used a rented prayer room; In 1842 it received permission to purchase a plot of land to build a synagogue (inaugurated in 1847). Around 1890 the community had over 1,100 members (around 250 families), in 1910 it was c. 1,000.
Jews were also not allowed to settle in Graudenz until 1772, and a Jewish community only developed after 1800. Around 300 Jews lived here in the middle of the 19th century, around 700 (5% of the population) in 1871, around 900 in c. 1890 and around 700 in 1910.
After the First World War, the area was part of the Second Polish Republic, which existed until 1939; since 1945 it has belonged to Poland again, now in the Kujawsko-Pomeranian Voivodeship (województwo kujawsko-pomorskie).
- Access points: persons/families:
- Leiser, Meyer
- Oppenheim, Joachim
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2022
