Object of the Month: Generation Book of the Rosenberg family of rabbis

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This manuscript currently viewable in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek is a rich source of material on Jewish family research and the history of Jewish rituals. It was begun in 1825 and ends with the final entry made in 1916. Documents from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, written by Jews for Jews and featuring rabbi families of the Lower Rhineland plain, are very rare.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Kupferstich, Hamburg 1785 (Quelle: Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky)

Generation Book of the Rosenberg family of rabbis (Source: Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf)

The manuscript relates to two 18^th-century Düsseldorf rabbis and two 19^th-century, all four of who were instrumental in shaping and influencing their community. The ancestors of the Rosenberg family stemmed from two important families of rabbis, whose family tree can be traced back to the beginning of the 16^th century thanks to the manuscript.

The manuscript was handed down through the generations, with each author writing about the preceding generation of deceased persons. The handwritten entries cover 32 pages of the 41-page volume. Around the year 1900 Gabriel Rosenberg drew up a family tree in order to better illustrate his genealogy.

The first entry by Gabriel (Izchak) Rosenberg is the transcript of a will written by the Düsseldorf rabbi M. Halberstadt in 1761. Gabriel (Izchak) Rosenberg writes that he is has copied the wording of the will from the original document penned by his great grandfather. In the introduction to the will Rabbi Halberstadt writes that he has just (26^th Iyar 5521 / 30^th May 1761) brought the week of mourning for his deceased daughter to a close and now wants to instruct his family in how to conduct itself following a bereavement. He then goes on to describe local and family customs when keeping vigil at a deathbed, when attending a funeral and in the first year following the person’s death.

The whereabouts of the original will are not known. The text of this transcript may be the only existing record of the mourning rituals of 18^th-century Jews in Düsseldorf. After the Second World War the Generation Book found its way from the Offenbach Archival Depot to the USA. In 2012 it was acquired by the Freundeskreis des Stadtmuseums Düsseldorf e.V.

Further links:

Stadtmuseum der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf

Das Digitale Kunst- und Kulturarchiv Düsseldorf (d:kult)

LVR-Kulturhaus Landsynagoge Rödingen - Jüdisches Leben im Rheinland

Leo Baeck Institute, New York - Forschungsressourcen zum deutschsprachigen Judentum

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