Hamburg / Altona – Sephardic Genealogy

The Portuguese Jews of Hamburg / Altona

This is from the University of Hamburg website:

“The Portuguese Jews living in Hamburg since the 1580s were treated as if they were Christians and due to their trade connections were highly welcome. Among them were the spice merchant Ferdinand Dias, an exporter trading with Brazil, Emanuel Alvares, the broker Adrian Gonzales, and the sugar importer Diego Gomes. Some 125 Sephardic Jews lived in Hamburg around 1612, by 1663 their number had already increased to 600. In 1603 they were for the first time officially deemed to be “Jews”, at which time the Bürgerschaft demanded of the Senat their expulsion. This demand was repeatedly raised by Hamburg’s clergy over the following decades. This resulted not only in publicly voiced abuse but also in physical violence directed against Jews by the incited populace. The following prejudiced insinuations have been made of Jews since the Middle Ages: abuse of Christian women, the desecration of churches and christian religious symbols, as well as flamboyant luxury, combined with the ever present fear of business competition. However, the Senat issued warnings against any attacks on Jews; they were fully aware of the economic importance for the town of the financially powerful Jews and their international business connections.

In 1612 the Senat accorded the Jews a permission of residence against a payment of 1,000 Marks for a period of five years, but at the same time denied them the right to practice their religion. An ordinance of 1650 permitted them to practice their religion in private; the building of Synagogues was nonetheless still prohibited. The Jews themselves tried to be inconspicuous in order not to give rise to any aversions. As a precautionary measure they accepted the privilege granted to them by the Danish King Christian IV to settle in the recently founded town of Glückstadt, established by the King downstream on the river Elbe as a trading centre competing with Hamburg. Here they were offered considerably better opportunities for settling, trading, and religious practice. Despite this the Portuguese-Jewish settlement in Glückstadt remained insignificant. By the end of the 17th century a number of the previously well respected and influential Sephardic personalities had died. When in 1697 the Senat and the Bürgerschaft demanded sizeable annual payments from the Portuguese Jews for their stay in Hamburg and rescinded their right to religious practice some of the rich families emigrated to the more tolerant Danish ruled Altona, Ottensen, and even to Amsterdam. This development and internal strife within the community led, in the 18th century, to a reduction in the numbers and influence of Portuguese Jews in Hamburg.”

The Portuguese Jews of Hamburg. The History of a Mercantile Community in the Seventeenth Century. A Sephardic World talk by Dr Hugo Martins

Genealogy of the Portuguese Jews of Hamburg / Altona

The information on the archives was kindly provided by TT, who will soon be creating his own website. I don’t want to put his details online without permission, but if you have any enquiries or information, I am happy to forward emails to him.

The archives of the Hamburg Portuguese community were divided between the city of Hamburg (http://www.hamburg.de/staatsarchiv/) and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) in Jerusalem in 1959. Each city has part of the original archive and the other part on microfilm. A list of the CAHJP holdings on Hamburg is available here. Files specifically relating to the Sephardic community are listed from page 106 under the heading: Portugiesisch-Jüdische Gemeinde in Hamburg (1611-1937). http://cahjp.nli.org.il/content/hamburg%E2%80%93altona-wandsbek-%E2%80%93-j%C3%BCdische-gemeinden

Hamburg Sephardic vital records are listed below. If anyone wants to fund their scanning and transcription, please get in touch.

PORTUGIESISCH-JÜDISCHE GEMEINDE IN HAMBURG (1611-1937)
	Personenstand	1696 – 1932
	a. Geburtsregister [Birth Registers]
HM/9406a	Bd I 1749-1864, (C 598)
HM/9406b	Bd II (1797-) 1817-1900
	b. Ehevertragsbücher (Livro das Qetubot) [Ketubot]
AHW/995	Bd I 1696-1845 (hebr.)
(oversize)	Bd II 1847-1932 (hebr.)
	Photokopie
HM/9407	c. 16 Eheverträge (Originale auf Pergament) in Mappe (hebr.) (C 744-758) [Marriage Contracts]
HM/9408	d. Ehevertrag (Original auf Pergament) in Kapsel (hebr.) (C 759)
	Friedhof an der Königstrasse in Altona	1675 – 1902
HM/9409a	a. Totenregister der Beerdigungsbrüderschaft, port. 1675-1760 (C597) [Death Registers]
HM/9409b	b. Verzeichnis der Grabsteine, angelegt 1874 (C 609) [Directory of gravestones]
HM/9409c	c. Verzeichnis der neu zu legenden Grabsteine 1902 (C 43) (bzw. der bei der Verbreiterung der Königstrasse 1902 exhumierten Personen)

The National Library of Israel has digitised Ashkenazi archives from Hamburg and will probably eventually get around to Sephardic records.

http://www.hamburg.de/contentblob/31352/data/kb-bestaende.pdf
Page number 335

Quellen zur jüdischen Familiengeschichtsforschung im Staatsarchiv Hamburg (Sources of Jewish family history research in the State Archives of Hamburg)
http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2015/155/pdf/HamburgUP_STAHH23_Sielemann.pdf

The first set of Protokollbücher was excerpted and translated in German by Isaac Cassuto. It is published in section in the Jahrbuch der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft (in 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1916 and 1920) under the title: Aus dem ältesten Protokollbuch der Portugiesisch-Jüdischen Gemeinde in Hamburg.

Happily for us, the Goethe University of Frankfurt had digitised the publication and made it freely available online. On their website look in Digitale Sammlungen > Judaica > Compact Memory . TT has provided the precise URLs:

Year 6, 1908, pages 1-54
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3488884

Year 7, 1909, pages 159-210
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3488632

Year 8, 1910, pages 227-290
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3489645

Year 9, 1911, pages 318-366
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3490280

Year 10, 1912, pages 255-295
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3490757

Year 11, 1916, pages 1-76
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3490950

Year 13, 1920, pages 55-118
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/3491661

The Hamburg State Archives ‘ list of holdings includes something on Portuguese Jews in the category 522 NICHTCHRISTLICHE GEMEINDEN, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden. Unfortunately I don’t read German, but have the impression that there is nothing in the collection prior to 1812. Under 325 FRIEDHÖFE UND GRÜNANLAGEN, 325-1 Friedhofsverwaltung there is some information on the Beit Haim, but I suspect this data is more accessible through Michael Studemund-Halevy’s book. In German we are “portugiesische Juden (Sephardim)”. The Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden (IGdJ) appears to have an archive containing data on the Portuguese Jews of Hamburg. They have an online database here [225]. The Portuguese synagogue in Alter Wall was burned in the great city fire of 1842, and it is possible other records were held there. Michael Studemund-Halevy appears to be the principal expert on the Sephardim in Hamburg, His _Biographisches Lexikon der Hamburger Sefarden_ is especially useful for genealogists. There is a German-language article by him here [226] (use Google Translate). The Jewish cemetery in Altona has a website. The Hamburger Gesellschaft für Jüdische Genealogie e.V. [228] is the local Jewish genealogy group.

The Jacob Jacobson Collection of the Leo Baeck Institute holds the 1774-1797 Minute book of the Chevra Kadisha Hesed Vehemet of Congregation Neve Salom of Altona, handwritten, Portuguese. http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=147427#d1e444

Also https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/5/archival_objects/330800

There is an interesting-looking book by Hermann Kellenbenz, published in 1958: Sephardim an der unteren Elbe: ihre wirtschaftliche und politische Bedeutung vom Ende des 16. bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Unfortunately I can’t read German!

Gedenkschrift anlässlich des 275jährigen Bestehens der portugiesisch-jüdischen Gemeinde in Hamburg : mit Aufzählung der portugiesisch-jüdischen Rabbiner in Hamburg und der in Hamburg, Altona und Glückstadt gedruckten Bücher portugiesisch-jüdischer by Alfonso Cassuto. – Amsterdam : Hertzberger, 1927

Geschichte und rechtliche Gestaltung der Portugiesisch-Jüdischen und der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde zu Hamburg_ by Isaac S. Schwabacher. – Berlin : Frensdorf, 1914

Faust, Jürgen and Michael Studemund-Halévy. Betahaim: sefardische Gräber in Schleswig-Holstein [229]. Glückstadt: Augustin, 1997. Names reported in this cemetery are reported to be Benveniste, Nahmias, Abensur, Abenatar, Reul Jessurun (alias Paul de Pina), Aboab, de Castro (Crasto), Wessely (?), Bélinfante, Bravo, da Silva, Delmonte, Texeira, Lobato, Luria.

A little later than our period, but the Jacob Jacobson Collection [230] of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York contains the Minute book of the Chevra Kadisha Hesed Vehemet of Congregation Neve Salom of Altona, handwritten, Portuguese, for the years 1774-1797. They were smuggled out of Germany in 1939. I believe there is a copy of of one or two Hamburg documents in the Bevis Marks archives, held at the London Metropolitan Archives. Possibly there is more information in Amsterdam.

Genealogical Society of Hamburg

Deutschen Genealogieserver

FamilySearch page on Hamburg

A report from 1746:

“It is a common Maxim amongst Merchants,that no Town can enjoy a flourishing Trade, except its Inhabitants permit the Jews to settle amongst them. This Maxim, as it should seem, has prevailed in Hamburg; since there arc above thirty-five Thousand Jews in that City. Many of these inhabit Part of the New Town, towards Altena. The Streets occupied by the Jews are pretty large, but consist of very poor Houses. They have here, as in other Places, several Marks of Distinction, by which they are easily known.”

Source: Edward Harley Oxford (Earl of)._The Harleian miscellany_. 1746.

The estimated Jewish population, which would have been Ashkenazi as well as Sephardi, may be exaggerated in this report.

Portugiesengräber auf deutscher Erde; Beiträge zur Kultur-und Kunstgeschichte (1902)

Cecil Roth on Hamburg (in German)

Altona/Hamburg was an important community. In 1959 the archives of the Hamburg Portuguese community were divided between the city of Hamburg (http://www.hamburg.de/staatsarchiv/) and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) in Jerusalem. Each city has part of the original archive and the other part on microfilm. A list of the CAHJP holdings on Hamburg is available in German, starting on page 107, here: http://cahjp.huji.ac.il/webfm_send/499

1837 Constitution of the Portuguese-Jewish Community.

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