Metadata: Archive of the Jewish community of St. Gallen
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Community of St. Gallen
- Holding institution (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde St. Gallen
- Postal address:
- Frongartenstraße 16; 9001 St. Gallen
- Phone number:
- +41 71 222 71 55
- Email:
- jgsg@gmx.ch
- Reference number:
- JGSG
- Title:
- Archive of the Jewish community of St. Gallen
- Title (official language):
- Archiv der Jüdischen Gemeinde St. Gallen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Rabbis of St. Gallen; Jewish community of St. Gallen
- Date(s):
- 1863/2017
- Language:
- German
- French
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- three cupboard, each of which has five compartments
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Audio
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is arranged in compartments in cupboards. The first cupboard does not contain archival material.
Compartment one of the second cupboard contains documents of the Jewish poor relief of St. Gallen. They date from between 1914 and 2003 and include correspondence of various kinds, minutes of meetings, reports, accounts and so on. Compartment two holds correspondence of the Jewish community with the authorities, companies and individuals. It dates from 1917 to 1948. It also includes two folders concerning the refugee relief including lists (of refugees, donors, etc.), correspondence and so on. It also holds three old stamps with the seal of the Jewish community. Compartment three holds mainly documents of the religious school of the Jewish community and contains school certificates, curriculums, correspondence, minutes of meetings and lists dating from 1882 to 1933 as well as documents of the Chewra Kadisha and the Adass Jisroel from the first half of the 20th century. It also holds an old seating plan of the synagogue, applications for the vacant office of rabbi (1938-39) and documents concerning the building of the new Jewish cemetery of St. Gallen. Compartment four holds protocols, a folder with documents concerning the Jewish cemetery and four account books of the Jewish community. Compartment five mainly holds documents concerning various anniversaries of the community as well as lists of donors, old pictures (e.g. rabbi Lothar Rothschild) and correspondence concerning the building of the synagogue.
The third cupboard mainly holds 31 folders containing correspondence of the Jewish community with organisations, authorities, companies and private persons. It covers a time span of more than 130 years (1863 to 1994) and is to be found in compartments one to four. Compartment four also holds protocols and correspondence of the Swiss Jewish Community Association (1980-88) and the service for Jews in the USSR. Compartment five holds various books, newspaper articles and miscellaneous documents relating to the community.
In the first compartment of the fourth cupboard there are a number of regulations of the community (including the founding statute of 1863), covering a time span from 1863 to 1971. The compartment also holds the minutes fo the meetings of the general assembly of the community dating from 1869 to 2013. These folders also include lists of members of the community. Furthermore, there are various scrolls in this compartment, e.g. the Esther scroll. These are relatively modern. Compartment two contains mainly reports of the community presidium (1866-1926 and 1961-79), which consists mainly of activity and financial reports. The compartment also holds documents, CDs and DVDs concerning the birthday of Rabbi Schmelzer as well as documents of various kinds concerning the 150th anniversary of the Jewish community of St. Gallen in 2013. Compartment three holds eleven folders containing minutes of meetings of the executive committee of the Jewish community (1863-2013) as well as one folder containing reports of the presidium (1927-1961). Compartment four holds a card index containing the names of people who died after 1945 and are buried in the Jewish cemetery as well as a box containing a number of copies of financial regulations for the communities. Compartment five holds various books, academic papers and documents concerning a discussion about the Swiss anti-racism law that took place in 1994-95 as well as documents about the 100 year anniversary of the synagogue in 1981.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The collection holds the records of the Jewish community of St. Gallen. Although it mainly contains the documents of the liberal community it also holds information of the former orthodox community. The liberal community was established in 1863 and witnessed several migration waves into the region, which caused the formation of a second community, which was orthodox. Therefore the Jewish community of St. Gallen was very heterogenous.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abraham
- Altschüler
- Barschall
- Bernheimer
- Biedermann
- Bierenzweig
- Birnbaum
- Bloch
- Bornstein
- Brandeis
- Brandenburger
- Brandes
- Brandt
- Brettauer
- Brunner
- Buchwald
- Burgauer
- Degginger
- Denneberg
- Denneberger
- Einstein
- Ellenbogen
- Engelbert
- Fink
- Finkelstein
- Fleischner
- Frank
- Frank-Spira
- Fride
- Friedberg
- Godlewitz
- Goldmann
- Goldschmidt
- Grünfeld
- Guggenheim
- Guggenheim-Fürst
- Günther
- Guttmann
- Haas
- Hahn
- Hamburger
- Hauser
- Herschmann
- Herz
- Heß
- Hirschberger
- Hirschfeld
- Homburger
- Ikle
- Jablonski
- Jablonsky
- Kahn
- Kaller
- Kaufmann
- Kellmann
- Klauber
- Knapp
- Kohl
- Kutas
- Kuttner
- Landauer
- Landsmann
- Levy
- Levy-Brager
- Lewin
- Lewinstein
- Lichtenstein
- Lippmann
- Loeb
- Löwengard
- Maier-Sylvain
- Malinsky
- Manz
- Marschall
- Mayer
- Mayer-Rothschild
- Metzger
- Meyer
- Michel
- Mirelmann
- Moos
- Nathan
- Nathan-Weil
- Neuburger
- Neumann
- Nieburg
- Nördlinger
- Ornstein
- Pollag
- Przednowek
- Pulaski
- Pulasky
- Ricard
- Richter
- Ritterband
- Rosenbaum
- Rosenthal
- Rubinstein
- Ruf
- Samuel
- Sax
- Schlesinger
- Schmal
- Schönfeld
- Schuchhalter
- Schwarz
- Selig
- Seligmann
- Silberstein
- Speishändler
- Sprinberg
- Strauß
- Sturmband
- Theilheimer
- Ullmann
- Weil
- Weissbord
- Willstädt
- Wohlgenannt
- Wolffers
- Wormser
- Wyler
- Zögal
- Access, restrictions:
- This collection can only be viewed with permission of the Jewish community.
- Finding aids:
- There is no finding aid but the archive itself is well structured.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht, Jewish Museum of Hohenems, 2017
