Metadata: Errera archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Museum of Belgium
- Holding institution (official language):
- Musée Juif de Belgique
- Postal address:
- Miniemenstraat 21 / Rue des Minimes 21, 1000 Bruxelles
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 512 19 63
- Web address:
- http://www.new.mjb-jmb.org
- Email:
- info@mjb-jmb.org
- Reference number:
- JM-Brussels-Fonds Errera
- Title:
- Errera archives
- Title (official language):
- Fonds Errera
- Creator/accumulator:
- Errera family
- Date(s):
- 1850/1992
- Language:
- French
- Italian
- German
- English
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- Extent:
- 9 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains notebooks, various notes, photos, manuscripts of publication by Isabelle Errera on textiles, fabrics and copies of these publications as well as documents related to her donation to the Musées des Beaux-Arts. We also find books and handwritten notes by Paul and Jacques Errera. The fonds also contains a rich correspondence produced mainly by Marie Oppenheim, by Isabelle, Paul and Maurice Errera, including letters by Italian prisoners of war during the First World War, addressed to Isabelle Errera. It includes private correspondence as well as correspondence related to the assets of the family. We also mention the correspondence between Jacques Errera and his parents during the First World War and those related to the function of Paul Errera as mayor of Uccle during the war. The fonds furthermore contains correspondence by Marie Oppenheim and Ferdinand Gravrand, her tutor. We also note a file concerning the activity of Jacqueline Bauman-Errera as a member of the Belgian War Relief USA during the Second World War.
- Archival history:
- The material was donated by Isabelle Fink-Errera in 2012-2013.
- 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:
- Uccle
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bauman-Errera, Jacqueline
- Errera, Isabelle
- Errera, Jacques
- Errera, Maurice
- Errera, Paul
- Gravrand, Ferdinand
- Oppenheim, Marie
- Access, restrictions:
- Access requires the authorisation of the archivist of the Jewish Museum of Belgium.
- Finding aids:
- A. Cherton, Inventaire provisoire du Fonds Errera, MJB, unpublished, 2013.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
