Metadata: Maurice Errera papers
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Archives of the Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archives de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Postal address:
- Campus du Solbosch AX1.222, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50 / Franklin Rooseveltlaan 50, 1000 Bruxelles
- Phone number:
- +32 02/650.35.66
- Email:
- archives@ulb.ac.be
- Reference number:
- ArUnLib-Brussels-130PP
- Title:
- Maurice Errera papers
- Title (official language):
- Papiers Maurice Errera
- Creator/accumulator:
- Errera family
- Date(s):
- 1800/1999
- Date note:
- 19th-20th centuries
- Language:
- French
- Italian
- English
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 8 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains notebooks, a rich correspondence, personal documents (passports, naturalisation certificates, marriage contract), bookkeeping notebooks, brochures and books, postcards, various photos (family pictures, photos of the house in the rue Neuve and at rue de la Loi 38), medallions and glass plates (pictures). These documents were not only produced by Maurice Errera but in fact also by the families Errera, May and Oppenheim. We notes for instance many documents produced by both Giacomo and Marie Errera as well as by Léo and Alfred. We also find a file related to the inheritance of assets owned by the Errera, Oppenheim and May families. The fonds also includes the unique Cahiers by Marie Errera-Oppenheim, written between 1856 and 1880, her correspondence, her travel notes and various notes for essays.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Errera family originated from a family of Italian bankers. Giacomo (Jacques) Errera (1834-1880) joined the Oppenheim bank. He married Marie Oppenheim (1836-1918), daughter of the banker Joseph Oppenheim, of whom he became an associate in 1866. He successfully developed business relations with his in-laws. The offices of the Errera-Oppenheim bank were located in a magnificent hotel particulier in the rue Royale in Brussels. Parallel to his flourishing activity as a banker and his functions as consul general of Italy in Belgium he was active in the Jewish community as member and later treasurer of the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium. His first son, Léo Errera (1858-1905), a botanist, taught at the ULB. He married Rose-Eugénie May, daughter of the banker Jules May, with whom he had three children. He published many articles and books as well as having an academic and scientific career. Léo Errera always stressed his Jewishness but was not as active in the community as his father and grandfather. His brother, Paul Joseph Errera (1860-1922), was also a professor at the ULB. He married Isabelle Goldschmidt-Franchetti (1869-1929), with whom he had two children. Paul Joseph Errera had a brilliant career as a law professor, lawyer, rector of the ULB and liberal mayor. He was also involved in the Jewish community, as advisor to the Consistory and later as president of the Belgian committee of the Alliance israélite universelle (AIU), member of the central committee of the AIU and honorary president of Ezra. His wife Isabelle Errera was equally active in Jewish institutions – she was notably the president of the Société des Mères Israélites. She assembled a fine collection of art, fabrics and laces. Isabelle Errera held a salon where the intellectual, political, artistic and financial elite of Belgium met. In this salon the clandestine newspaper Le Flambeau, symbol of the resistance during the First World War, was founded. Their son Jacques Errera (1896-1977), doctor in applied chemistry, taught at the ULB as well. He had a remarkable scientific career. He received the Prix Franqui in 1938 and was a close associate of Albert Einstein. He kept the tradition of holding a private salon in the hotel particulier in the rue Royale. (M. Errera-Bourla, Une histoire juive: Les Errera. Parcours d’une assimilation, Bruxelles, Racine, 2000; M. Bourla-Errera, "Errera, Giacomo dit Jacques", "Léo-Abram Errera", "Paul Joseph Errera", "Isabelle Errera", "Alfred Errera", "Jacques Errera", in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2002, pp. 95-100.)
- Access points: locations:
- Brussels
- Access points: persons/families:
- Errera family
- Errera-Oppenheim, Marie
- Errera, Alfred
- Errera, Giacomo
- Errera, Léo
- Errera, Marie
- Errera, Maurice
- May family
- Oppenheim family
- Access, restrictions:
- Access requires the authorisation of the archivist of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
- Finding aids:
- There is a summary (hand written) inventory.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
