Parchment Manuscript – Memorbuch – Bamberg (Germany), 17th/18th Century

Parchment Manuscript – Memorbuch – Bamberg (Germany), 17th/18th Century

Manuscript, Memorbuch (memorial book), Hazkarat Neshamot (yizkor memorial service) for the rabbis of the district of Bamberg who passed away in the 17th century. [District of Bamberg (Bavaria, Germany), ca. 17th/18th century, after 1685].
Square and cursive Ashkenazic script on parchment. The main part of the Memorbuch was presumably written in the late 17th century or in the first half of 18th century. Later, in 1830, it was rebound to be used by the community of Hagenbach (district of Bamberg). The first page (originally blank) contains an inscription in cursive script, handwritten and signed by the cantor and teacher Yaakov Reis, who writes that the book was "produced" (presumably in reference to the rebinding of the book) in Av 1830, and adds historic details about the Hagenbach community: the building of the synagogue in 1727 and the purchase of the cemetery in 1737. Additional prayers in Hebrew and German were added on the front endpaper, in the middle of the manuscript and at the end, in a later hand (ca. 19th century).
Memorbuchs were used in German communities to memorialize the deceased members of the community in the yizkor prayers on Shabbat. They included the text of the prayers recited between the Torah reading and mussaf, with the addition of special lists memorializing the leading German Torah scholars and the many Jews martyred in the numerous massacres the Ashkenazi countries suffered over the generations, as well as lists memorializing the rabbis of the local community.
The present manuscript includes: Yekum Purkan; Mi Sheberach for the congregation; Birkat HaChodesh; prayer for the monarchy (with an empty space for adding the names of the king and of the members of the royal family); Mi Sheberach for those who fast Monday, Thursday, Monday; Av HaRachamim; memorial service for early German and French rabbis; memorial service for rabbis and Torah disseminators of the districts of Bamberg and Schnaittach, until the late 17th century (the last name mentioned was a rabbi of the district who passed away in Tishrei 1685); and a long list of German communities whose Jews were martyred.
At the beginning of the manuscript, inscription dated 1830: "Belongs to the Hagenbach community, produced on Wednesday, Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 1830, Yaakov son of R. Avraham Reis, cantor and trustee of Hagenbach. The synagogue in Hagenbach was built and completed in 1727, and the cemetery was purchased in 1737". Additional inscription on the front endpaper: "Belongs to the Hagenbach community", followed by the text of the Yehi Ratzon recited prior to Birkat HaChodesh. On p. [11] in the middle of the volume, an inscription was added (in later script), memorializing a philanthropist from Copenhagen, Denmark, who donated to the synagogue and passed away in Kislev 1865. Two paper leaves were added later at the end of the volume, with the text of the Mi Sheberach for ill people, and blessings in German for King Ludwig I (king of Bavaria in 1825-1848) and his family. The binding is wrapped in paper, with a label stating: "Memorbuch von Hagenbach, angelegt am Erev Rosch Chodesch Elul 1837 vom Vorbeter Jakob Reis" (=Memorial book of Hagenbach, produced on Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 1837 by the cantor Yaakov Reis). The writer of this label read Reis's inscription at the beginning of the book incorrectly, and it should be read 1830.
The list of German and French Torah scholars includes: R. Shimon son of R. Yitzchak (Rabbenu Shimon HaGadol); the Rash of Sens; Rabbenu Tam, Rashbam and Rivam; the Maharam of Rottenburg; R. Eliezer of Touques, Rabbenu Peretz, Rabbenu Chaim and other Torah scholars; the Maharam Mintz; the Maharil; R. Menachem son of R. Asher; R. Moshe Diedelsheim "rabbi of two states"; R. Zavlin Peretz son of Shimon "rabbi of the district of Bamberg and Schnaittach"; R. Mordechai Lipschitz "rabbi of the district of Bamberg" (d. Tishrei 1686 – see his epitaph in: Eckstein, Geschichte der Juden im ehemaligen Fürstbistum Bamberg, Bamberg 1898, p. 166).
The manuscript then features several memorial pages for the victims of the massacres the various German communities suffered during the Middle Ages, including the names of the victims and in some cases the date of the massacre. Among the communities: Bamberg, Würzburg, Forchheim, Nürnberg, Höchstadt, Niesten, Kitzingen, Weissenburg, Eggolsheim, Hollfeld, Ebermannstadt, Kronach, Burgkunstadt, Pforzheim, Arnstadt, Mergentheim, Bischofsheim (Tauberbischofsheim), Iphofen. This is followed by a list of some 150 European communities where Jews were killed in medieval massacres, without listing the names of the victims. HaGomel blessing and Mi Sheberach for the sick scribed at the end of the manuscript.
Hagenbach is a small village in Upper Franconia (Oberfranken), Bavaria (present day: Germany). There are records of a Jewish community operating there already in the 17th century. Hagenbach was one of the five districts which were included in the district rabbinate of Bamberg. Yaakov Reis served as cantor in Hagenbach, and was a teacher in the first Jewish school which opened in the town in 1827, serving until 1846 (when he relocated to Fürth to direct the Jewish hospital there). In the 20th century, the community dwindled; the last Jewish residents joined the Bamberg community in 1934.

[17] parchment leaves (leaf [3] bound back to front) + [2] paper leaves. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Tiny marginal tears. Open tear to final leaf, affecting text. Old binding with leather spine, wrapped in paper (blemishes to binding and paper cover).

Literature: Dr. Magnus (Menachem) Weinberg researched this Memorbuch and its significance. See: Magnus Weinberg, "Das Memorbuch von Hagenbach", JJLG, XVIII 203-216, (1926).
Weinberg dates the Memorbuch 1737, apparently due to misreading the date in Yaakov Reis's inscription. Nevertheless, Weinberg writes that the parchment leaves are from an earlier date, from an older Memorbuch.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, GR.012.016.