Metadata: Jewish community of Norrköping, F-Ö
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/F–Ö
- Title:
- Jewish community of Norrköping, F-Ö
- Title (official language):
- Mosaiska församlingen i Norrköping, F–Ö
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community of Norrköping
- Date(s):
- 1810/2015
- Language:
- Swedish
- German
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- English
- Extent:
- 39 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of a series of volumes with documents structured thematically. The first volume (F1) contains legal documents regulating practicing Judaism in Sweden from 1838, when the restrictive so-called ‘Judereglementet’ that regulated Jews’ rights to settle and live in Sweden was abolished, as well as the Jewish community of Norrköping’s own statutes and liturgical order from 1857 to 1953. The second volume in the series (F2) is a collection of documents related to the synagogue and other properties that were owned or used by the community, from 1810 to 2015. There are title deeds, charters, mortgages, lists of inventories, insurance papers, as well as documents relating to work having been done on the synagogue building over the years. Volume F3 contains documents related to the care of the Jewish burial ground, as well as transcriptions and translations of the inscriptions on the tombstones as well as drawings of the burial ground made in 1931 and 1945. There is also an undated list of individuals who were buried there between 1803 and 1943. The collection also (in F 4) includes documents relating to Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors in Norrköping, as well as to the refugee aid and relief work of the Jewish Community of Norrköping, from 1938 to 1961. This includes calls for donations (1942-1949) and subscription lists (1942-1945) while the largest part of the collection consists of correspondence with refugees and potential refugees, other Jewish communities and relief organisations and government authorities on refugee issues (1943-1956). Finally, there are also newspaper clippings, lists of refugees and survivors in the Norrköping area from 1945 as well as lists of graves of Holocaust survivors in Norrköping between 1945 and 1961 (Flyktinggravar) along with nine photographs of such graves and some assorted documents relating to refugee aid.
Volume F5: 1 contains lists of taxable congregants, income records, taxation records, lists of unpaid taxes, and other documents related to the Jewish community tax, from 1851 to 1984. F6: 1 includes documents concerning personnel employed by the community, including employment contracts, from 1845 to 1983, and F7 is a collection of donations and wills from 1859 to 1960. In the volume there is also an undated transcript of a list of donations from the early 19th century. Volume F8 contains manuscripts written and translated by rabbi Moritz Schönthal (1820-1890), who conducted the sermons from 1844. Among the manuscripts are Schöntal’s sermon’s from 1846 to 1857, a speech held at the funeral of Isac Davidson in 1849 "Worte des Trostes", as well as two prayer books (n.d.), a collection of parables from Midrashim (n.d.) and a chronicle of the Jewish community of Norrköping ("Någon historik öfver Norrköpings Mosaiska församling" (n.d.)).
Volume F9: 1 and 2 contain musical sheets and note books, including a 74-page, hand-written and undated “Choral Book” (“Koral-Bok”) where [Joseph] Czapek is mentioned several times as composer, two undated handwritten songbooks (28 and 36 pages), and several song-, choral- and note books, in print and handwriting, from at least 1858 to 1958, as well as many undated notebooks and single music sheets, for particular holiday services, for particular rituals such as the (Reform) Jewish confirmation, as well as for special occasions, e.g. the synagogue’s 100-year anniversary in 1958. There is also a collection of handwritten notebooks and music sheets with music by Joseph Czapek (1825-1915), of which one piece, “Hallel”, was performed at the opening ceremony of the synagogue in Norrköping in 1958.
Volume F10 contains various documents, including transcripts of documents (originals dated 1812-1820) relating to the Swedish citizenship of Philip Jeremias, a declaration by a non-Jewish Swedish butcher, J. Eriksson, that he was able to perform kosher slaughter in 1849, correspondence and other documents from 1870 to 1982 relating to the Jewish communities of Stockholm and Gothenburg. Furthermore, the collection includes the community’s financial records (G), architectural plans (J) and photographs (K) of the synagogue as well as lists of its interiors, and (in Ö 1) a prayerbook, handwritten in Hebrew, by ‘sofer’ Baruch Landsburg (later Baruch) from 1804.
- 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.
- Access points: locations:
- Stockholm
- 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
