Metadata: Minutes of the directors’ meetings (1811-1936)
Collection
- Country:
- Sweden
- Holding institution:
- Regional State Archives in Gothenburg
- Holding institution (official language):
- Regionarkivet i Göteborg
- Postal address:
- Box 2154, 403 13 Göteborg
- Phone number:
- 031-701 50 00
- Reference number:
- Judiska församlingen i Göteborgs arkiv, A3 a: 1–7
- Title:
- Minutes of the directors’ meetings (1811-1936)
- Title (official language):
- Föreståndarprotokoll (1811 – 1936)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community of Gothenburg
- Date(s):
- 1811/1936
- Date note:
- Volume 1 – 1811/1840; 1855; 1870 <br/><br/> Volume 2 – 1838/1855 <br/><br/> Volume 3 – 1855/1870 <br/><br/> Volume 4 – 1870/1887 <br/><br/> Volume 5 – 1888/1912 <br/><br/> Volume 6 – 1912/1929 <br/><br/> Volume 7 – 1929/1936
- Language:
- German
- Swedish
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 0.5 linear metres (1 archival box; 6 bound volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains a box of minutes on loose sheets and six bound volumes containing minutes from the board meetings of the Jewish Community of Gothenburg from 1811 to 1936, and thus spanning more than 100 years of the Community’s activities. The protocols in the first volume are written in German and Yiddish, while volumes two to seven are written in Swedish, with a few words in Hebrew. They are all handwritten.
In addition to meeting minutes, the first volume also contains rolls of members of the community. In these lists the names of prominent families, not only in the Jewish community, but also in Gothenburgian society, are mentioned; families such as Magnus, Delbanco, Beneck, Abrahamson, Fränkel, Fürstenberg, Mannheimer, Heyman, Marcus, Philip, Philipson, Wolff, Warburg and Valentin. The first volume also contains documents, such as petitions and letters that were put before the board, from 1855 and 1870.
The second volume also differs in that it not only contains minutes from the board meetings, but also includes (1) minutes from meetings with the board and the directorate of the charity foundation Göthildastiftelsen, from 1838 to 1852; (2) minutes from meetings about a prosecution against a local newspaper in 1851; and (3) an audit report from 1851.
In general, the minutes in all seven volumes contain the same kind of information and have the same form. The minutes all begin with stating that these are notes taken at a meeting held with the executive board of the Jewish Community of Gothenburg, which date the meeting was held and a list of the executives present at the meeting. A short account of the issues that were discussed during the meeting follow. In some of the meetings there are also accounts of the various expenses of the community, such as paying the organist and the cantor, how much the lighting costs, rents for different buildings etc. There are also some accounts from the different charity foundations and funds that the community administered. The minutes are then signed by the people present at the meeting.
Volume 6 (1912-1929) includes the minutes from a discussion held on 18 December 1922, concerning the historian Hugo Valentin’s request to borrow and use the early minutes of the community in Gothenburg (those written before 1840) for his large research project about the history of the Jews in Sweden [published in 1924 under the title Judarnas historia i Sverige].
There is a chronological index of the minutes of the period until 1851 in volume 1. There is also an index to the period 1853-1892 in volume D 19:1 in the archive.
- Archival history:
- The records were preserved by the Jewish Community of Gothenburg and were transferred to the Regional Archive in Gothenburg in 1980.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jewish Community of Gothenburg was founded in 1780 and over the following decades the small community grew to around 415. On 12 October 1855 the town’s new synagogue was inaugurated. From the 1830s, the community leaders were known to be very liberal. Jews contributed greatly to the flourishing industry and cultural life of Gothenburg and several also served as politicians in the city council. Of the Jewish families who immigrated to Gothenburg before the 1870s only a few remain as members of the Jewish community. Most current members are descendants of immigrants from Tsarist Russia, Holocaust refugees and survivors as well as refugees from countries in Eastern Europe, not least Poland.
- Access, restrictions:
- Permission is required and should be obtained in advance. Applications are made to the Jewish Community of Gothenburg.
- Finding aids:
- An index is available on request from the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum in Stockholm
- Author of the description:
- Johanna Eek
