No 118 - Summer 2014

ABSTRACTS of issue 118

Bernard Wils
Wittenheim (Higher-Rhine); the zenith, fall and disappearing of an Alsatian Jewish community (18th-19th centuries)
In the 18th century Wittenheim was one of those many villages sheltering a Jewish minority on the outskirts of Mulhouse. A peak was reached in 1807 with 7% of the total population. Followed a rapid and inexorable decline; the synagogue was deconsecrated in 1877. Bernard Wils studies this Jewish community, its evolution, families, their surnames and given names, the male and female trades, demography, religious life, their integration and the reasons for an early extinction at the end of the 19th century.

Pascal Faustini
New data on the origins of the first Aron of Phalsbourg, Lorraine, and Ella Cahen, his wife
Pierre-André Meyer published a few years ago in our journal (nos 75 and 76) two long and very well documented articles about the Aron family of Phalsbourg. Some genealogical information by Aaron Worms (1754-1836), chief rabbi of Metz, about his ancestors Aron Isaac and Elle Cahen, and the discovery of the tombstone of Ella Cahen in the cemetery of Saverne let the author expose new elements about this couple who had thousands of descendants.

Pierre-André Meyer
About the ancestry of Rabbi Abraham Bloch (1859-1914), first rabbi who 'died for France' during WW1
Having found errors regarding ancestry Rabbi Abraham Bloch in a book that was recently dedicated, the article goes in search of the ancestors of this great figure of French Judaism, dating back from Strasbourg to ancient Jewish communities of Uttenheim and Rosheim. From a specific case, it is an example of genealogical approach and use of sources in Judeo-Alsatian environment.

Anne-Marie Fribourg
Blum and Blum and the Rabbi
How with a Blum family from Germany, allied several times to the author' Alsacian family we discover an wedding ring with Lazare Isidor, France'chief rabbi.

Bernard Lyon-Caen
The Werthenschlags of Cernay, Higher Rhine
Beginning with articles published in our journal in 2007 Dr. Wertenschlag, Strasbourg, applies himself to clarify the vicissitudes and variants of the name from the end of the 18th century to the present day.

Eliane Roos Schuhl
A list of communities of Alsace around 1800 in a manuscript of Jacob Meyer known as Rabbi Yeqel Ribeauvillé 1739-Strasbourg 1830), Member of the Sanhedrin and Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg
The author gives the transcription of the names in Hebrew of 31 Alsatian communities at the beginning of the 19th century thanks to a manuscript copied by Rabbi Jacoc Meyer's two sons. The latter was organising a federation with charitable aims. They pertained to the famous Weyl, Meyer, Gugenheim and Kahn families.

Pierre-André Meyer
Judeo-alsacian genealogy: the bases for a good start
How to discover one's Jewish ancestors in Alsace? Where to start ? How to go back in time, especially before the establishment in 1792 of the state vital records ? What are the online sources? Which census are available? What basic books have been published on the subject ?

 

View and download this issue (only for subscribers)

Buy this issue (paper version)