Honorable Mayor, citizens of Ihringen and guests,

 

 I am honored and pleased to be invited to speak to you this evening. I am also rather amazed to find myself speaking to you here in this hall, in this town, on this occasion ----  “Europaeischer Tag der Juedischen Kultur”

 

Six months ago I was completely ignorant about my ancestors who came from Ihringen   I had been searching for the birthplace of my great grandfather, Leopold Levi Blum for many years.  My father could tell me very little about him.  He said that the Blum family came from Alsace; that they had family connections extending from Belgium to Switzerland; and that Leopold Blum on arriving in New York City in the 19th century became the owner of a wine import business.

 

Now that I know his birthplace is Ihringen,  Leopold’s occupational choice in America makes perfect sense to me, having myself tasted “the fruit of the vine” from Ihringen and the Kaiserstuhl. 

                                               

Six months ago I discovered that my great grandfather was born at Ihringen.  This evening I want to tell you a little about my great grandfather’s great great grandfather, my 5 times great grandfather, Abraham Levi, the first member of the Levi-Blum family to live and work in Ihringen.

 

I first heard of Abrham Levi when  I submitted a query to the Jewish genealogical website asking if anyone had information about the Levi Blum family from Ihringen.  Among several responses was one from Larry Burgheimer, my first cousin 5 times removed.

 

Larry sent me a Descendant Report of the Levi-Blum and Levi-Burgheimer families which led back to Abraham Levi, the earliest known ancestor, born about 1694 and died about 1764.   A note attached to Abraham Levi said that he possibly was  the Scribe of Ihringen who created three surviving Haggadot: one Haggadah dating to 1732 now in a museum in Jerusalem; another dating to  1740 in a private collection in Paris; and another dating to 1756 in a museum in London. 

I was surprised and excited by this revelation.  I began to search for more information  about Abraham Levi.  I contacted the London Jewish Museum, and its curator informed me that the museum did in fact own the 1756 Ihringen Haggadah.  She sent me 10 digital images.  I also received a faxed copy of the museum’s catalogue entry describing this Haggadah and assessing the ability of its creator: Abraham, the scribe from Ihringen.

 

I was astonished by the beauty of the colored illustrations and the floral designs decorating the pages of this book.   And I was impressed by the museum’s catalog description of the work and skill of its creator.  The following summarizes some  of the museum catalog entry: 

 

The Haggadah is 12 1/4 by 8 1/4 inches [= cm?]

It contains 27 pages made of parchment.  It has contemporary leather binding with gold lettering and blind toolings.

 

Its author is a very efficient professional scribe who is also the illustrator and illuminator of the entire book.

 

Different portions of the text are in Hebrew, German, and Jewish German (that is German mixed with some Hebrew word or phrases)---. —all in Hebrew script.  

 

The scribe used a wide range of water-colors for the illustrations, especially pastel shades.  All illustrations have captions in German rhymes    Many  initial letters are illuminated.

 

The scribe also wrote a brief advertisement in Jewish German rhyme using Hebrew script which appears after the title page.  The first lines of the advertisement read as follows:

 

Wer Solche Haggadah will kaufen / Der soll zu Avraham Sofer von Eiringen laufen; / Er gibt sie fuer ein billigen Preis / Er hat auch augewand sein besten Fleiss.....

 

I later obtained 4 images of pages from the 1732 Ihringen Haggadah which is owned by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.   The more writing and artwork of the Ihringen scribe I saw, the more intense became my desire to discover his identity.   Was my ancestor Abraham Levi, who lived at Ihringen from about 1730 until his death about 1764, the scribe of Ihringen whose surviving Haggadot all date to the same  period?   This question arose because in all three surviving Haggadot, its creator refers to himself only as Abraham the scribe from Ihringen near Old-Breisach.  He gives no patronym; no last name.

 

I had no idea how to resolve this historical puzzle.  I knew that there had to be records somewhere identifing who the scribe of Ihringen was—but how was I to find them?  I lived thousands of miles from where any of the relevant archival records might be stored.

 

In an act of desperation, I went to the Internet, and typed into the Google search window the following three words:     “Abraham Levi Ihringen”

 

To my astonishment I found a footnote in an article, in a book of  articles published in 1999.  The title of the article is, “Bitten um den Schutz: Staatliche Judenpolitik und Lebensfuehrung von Juden im Lichte von Schutzsupplikationen aus der Markgrafschaft Baden(-Durlach) im 18. (achtzehnt) Jahrhundert.”  The author is Andre Holenstein, a historian at the University of Bern, Switzerland.  Footnote  103, on page 127, cites two examples illustrating how difficult it was during the middle of the 18th century for Jews to receive the right of protection in Baden.  The second example is the following:                  

 

“1756 wurde Aaron Levi aus Ihringen, der seinen ueber 60jaehrigen alten Vater unterhielt und fuer diesen das Schutzgeld entrichtete, bis zum Tod seines Vaters in den Schutz aufgenommen; Aaron Levi hatte bereits vier oder fuenf Mal vergeblich um den Schutz suppliziert ; seit 6 ½ Jahren war Levi im Handel aktiv.  Nach dem Tod des Vaters sollte er aber sogleich fortgeschafft werden (137/168).”

 

This was interesting new information, but not quite enough to answer the question which I sought  to resolve.

 

I wroteProfessor Hollenstein,  telling him that I had read his footnote in his article,  and that I was directly descended from Aaron Levi and his father Abraham Levi from Ihringen.  I then said:

 

“....I am writing to you in hopes that you might still have your notes concerning the “Schutzsupplikationen” of Aaron Levi, and that you might be able to provide me with details those petitions might contain concerning either Aaron Levi or his father....

 

Six days later I received the following message:

 

 

“Dear Mr. Bing

“I received your e-mail few days ago and I would like to apologize for my delayed answer. It took me some time to find my old notes dating back to archival studies I undertook ten years ago....
Fortunately, I could find some more details concerning your ancestors in my notices and I will try to summarize them as accurately as possible in german language in the following lines. They are all to be found ... in the Generallandesarchiv in Karlsruhe....

“- 10. August 1756: Bericht des Oberamts Emmendingen an den badischen Hofrat in Karlsruhe:
Aaron Levi aus Ihringen ist Sohn des Zehngebotschreibers Abraham Levi. Vater Abraham ist zwischen 60 und 70 Jahre alt, ein armer Mann, und nicht im Stande, selber einen Kreuzer zu verdienen. Er wird von seinem Sohn unterhalten, der bei ihm lebt. Der Sohn bezahlt das Schutzgeld für sich und für seinen Vater. Der Sohn Aaron bittet darum, von der Herrschaft den Schutz oder die Bewilligung zu erhalten, den Handel weiterhin gegen Entrichtung des Schutzgelds, das er für seinen Vater entrichtet, ausüben zu dürfen.

“- 14. August 1756: Beschluss des Hofrats in Karlsruhe:
Aaron Levi wird gestattet, sich weiterhin gegen Bezahlung des gewöhnlichen Schutzgeldes bei seinem Vater aufzuhalten. Nach dem Tod des Vaters soll Aaron Levi sofort fortgeschafft werden.

“- 4. April 1757: Bericht der Ortsvorgesetzten von Ihringen an das Oberamt Emmendingen:
In Ihringen besitzen 12 jüdische Haushaltungen den Schutzstatus, darunter befindet sich auch Abraham Levi, der wegen seines geringen Vermögens und Alters sein Schutzgeld nicht mehr selber entrichten kann. Sein Sohn Aaron bezahlt das Schutzgeld für den Vater und hat selber auch wenig Vermögen.


“- 29. April 1757: Bericht der Ihringer Ortsvorgesetzten an das Oberamt Emmendingen:
Abraham Levi hat noch 2 Kinder. Er treibt keinen Handel. Er schreibt dann und wann die 10 Gebote....
Aaron Levi hat nicht mehr als 2 Kinder und hat eine Haushaltung von 5 Personen. Er treibt Viehhandel meist in österreichische Nachbargebiete....

“These are all the supplementary informations I could draw from my notices. Probably you might find other informations in the archives in Karlsruhe.


Kind regards,

André Holenstein”

 

 

The archival evidience is conclusive: Abraham Levi, whose descendants at Ihringen took the family surname Levi Blum, was the creator of the beautiful Ihringen Haggadot of 1732, 1740, and 1756.

 

I have only a few  additional comments.

 

The archival petitions of Ahron Levi reveal  the impoverished circumstances of the Levi family in Ihringen in the middle of the 18th century.  Although Abraham Levi was a highly skilled and professional scribe, he was extremely poor.  We do not know how much time was required for him to create a single Haggadah, nor do we know what the “billiger Preis” was that he charged for his beautiful books.  Moreover, his overhead was high: parchment, leather, gold-tooling, were not cheap.  We must also keep in mind that, despite the beauty of his scribal and artistic hand work, he was competing with the much cheaper mass produced Haggadahs manufactured by printing presses, using much cheaper materials such as paper by the 18th century. 

 

Perhaps further archival research would tell us how Ahron Levi was able to live in Ihringen following his father’s death.   I have read the civil records which clearly show that Ahron , and his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren lived and died  in Ihringen through the 19th century. 

 

As for the meaning of the occupational term: Zehngebotschreiber: this was a Christian term which was used to refer to Jewish scribes of sacred texts.  Abraham Levi refers to himself in his Haggadot as Sofer Sofrim, Tefillin, Mezuzot, or  “A scribe of books, phylacteries, and mezuzahs.”  We know that at least some of his books were Haggadot.  Phylacteries were worn by men at special times such as when praying their morning prayers.  Mezuzahs are best known for their being placed in doorways and entrances to Jewish homes.  These religious items contain Hebrew scriptural passages which did not include the 10 Commandments.

 

I want to conclude by saying that I am proud of my Jewish heritage.  I am proud of the artistic achievement of Abraham Levi whose beautiful Haggadot not only represents the Jewish culture of Baden in the 18th century, but also represents the general culture of the upper Rhein region: Alsace and Baden.  I recently showed photographs of the 1756 Ihringen Haggadah to a friend of mine in Knoxville, Tennessee.  His ancestry goes back to 18th century Pennsylvania Germans.   He was very impressed, and he said that the floral designs in that Haggadah reminded him of the floral decorations on walls and hope chests made by the Germans of Pennsylvania in the 18th century.  So, I believe that the artistic achievement of Abraham Levi, the Jewish scribe of Ihringen, is a heritage which we all share and can be proud of.

           

Thank you very much