Metadata: Jewish Community of Norrköping, A-E
Collection
- Country:
- Sweden
- Holding institution:
- City Archive of Norrköping
- Holding institution (official language):
- Norrköpings Stadsarkiv
- Postal address:
- Rådhuset, 602 24 Norrköping
- Phone number:
- 011-15 00 00
- Email:
- stadsarkivet@norrkoping.se
- Reference number:
- SE/E010/NSA_6539-1, A–E
- Title:
- Jewish Community of Norrköping, A-E
- Title (official language):
- Mosaiska församlingen i Norrköping, A–E
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community of Norrköping
- Date(s):
- 1755/2010
- Language:
- Swedish
- German
- French
- English
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 12 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes one volume (A 1: A) with minutes of the council of the Jewish community of Norrköping from 1838 to 1988 (with gaps in 1839-1852, 1863-1891, 1903-1904, 1906-1921, 1982, 1984-1987). The minutes from the years 1853 to 1860 are only partly preserved. The volume also includes the minutes of the community’s executive board from the years 1923, 1930, and 1941 as well as the minutes of the community’s tax committee of the year 1900. The Jewish community council, which was the governing body of the community, was responsible for the arrangement of Jewish education, the election of an executive board, supervision of the Jewish burial ground in the city, and for determining the level of the community tax, to give poor relief and to organise the Chevra Kadisha society. The members of the executive board were elected for three years at a time. Unfortunately, no documents from the Chevra Kadisha have been preserved.
Another volume (A 1: B) contains, from various years between 1855 and 1988, calls to the Jewish community council meetings as well as the annual reports, audit reports and budgets that were decided upon in the Jewish community. The meeting minutes of the executive board between 1861 and 1975 are preserved in yet another volume (A2: 1), which also includes minutes and other documents of the community’s poor relief committee (Välgörenhetskassan/Understödsanstalten) with decisions on relief to poor congregants as well as visitors from the years 1849-1934, documents from the committee responsible for building the new synagogue (Byggnadskommittén för synagogan) from 1854-1855. The volume also contains some documents from the so-called Taxation committee from various years between 1859 and 1901. There is also correspondence in separate volumes. In B1 there are drafts and copies of letters sent by the members of the boards and other community officials from the years 1895-1982 and E1 and E2 incoming letters concerning various aspects of the community’s activities from 1854 to 1998 are preserved.
The collection also includes the so-called congregation books (volume D1:1 and D1:2), which includes births, deaths, marriages, and in- and outgoing migration. The first records in D1 were filled in in 1835 but it includes details about births and migration from 1755 and onwards. The Norrköping congregation was an early adherent to reform Judaism and Jewish confirmations from 1845 to 1895 are also listed in the back of the book. Similarly, the later volume, D1: 2, was created in 1860 but includes details from 1790 to 1986. In addition to these there are separate books for births, deaths, marriages and for joining and leaving members (vol. D2) and in yet another volume (D3) there are various documents from 1850 to 1981 with details that the congregation books are based on, such as birth certificates, applications to become a member of the community, information about marriages and applications for permission to get married, death certificates, burial records, passports of foreign Jews, certificates and documents with details about foreign Jews, lists of men of conscription age, statistics of the Jewish population in Norrköping, etc.
In this volume there is also a handwritten book with the title "Scharwit Hasohof" on the back cover. On the front of the book is written "Hartwig Baruch 1801". The book contains two texts in Hebrew, "Sod Adonai" and "Scharwit Hasohof/Sharvit Hazahav”, which deals with customs and laws of circumcision. The book also contains an instruction for the Mohel as well as a journal in Yiddish of circumcisions carried out by mohel Hartwig Baruch from 1801 to 1815 in Norrköping. Baruch also functioned as cantor, tutor and treasurer to the community. Attached to the book is a description of it written in 2010 by the former rabbi of Stockholm, Morton Narrow.
- Archival history:
- The material was created by the Jewish community of Norrköping, who transferred it to the City Archive of Norrköping in 1999.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
This is a part of the archive of the Jewish community of Norrköping, where Jews were first allowed to settle in 1782 according to a royal decree, the so-called Judereglemente. The community was founded by Jacob Marcus and his business partner Salomon Jacob from Mecklenburg, who, among other things, ran a successful wool trade business. In 1793, Jacob Marcus also founded a textile printing company together with Levin Moses Lamm. Other early settlers were Philip Jeremias and Jacob Wahren whose families Philipson and Wahren, together with a few other early settler families, came to be very influential in the small community during the 19th century.
Initially, Jacob Marcus’s private house was used as a synagogue of the small community, before he had a separate house built for the purpose on his property. A larger synagogue, which is still used, was inaugurated in 1858. The purpose of the Jewish community of Norrköping, as stated in its statutes, was to uphold and nurture Jewish religion and tradition. Membership in a religious congregation was at that time mandatory for all Swedish citizens.
The community played an important role in the care and rehabilitation of Jewish survivors who arrived in Norrköping and the surrounding area in 1945. A few of the survivors did not recover but died soon after their arrival. Their burial was arranged by the community.
Due to decreasing membership numbers the Jewish community of Norrköping was finally dissolved as a religious congregation. In 1995 the community was reconstructed as a corporate body in charge of the synagogue and the burial ground while the congregants became members of the Jewish community of Stockholm. A society called Föreningen Norrköpings Synagogas Vänner (Friends of the Synagogue of Norrköping Society) cares for the preservation of the synagogue and occasionally arranges religious services and cultural events there.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is thematically structured.
- Access, restrictions:
- Access to the collection is restricted to academic and genealogical research. Permission is required and should be obtained in advance from the Jewish community of Norrköping.
- Finding aids:
- The archive that this collection is a part of has been indexed by the archivist Rolf Svensson of the City Archive of Norrköping. The index can be found in a folder in the archive and in the archive’s online database, NAD (Nationell Arkivdatabas).
- Links to finding aids:
- https://sok.riksarkivet.se/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum in Stockholm
- Author of the description:
- Pontus Rudberg