On March 7, 1789, the authorized
Superintendents of the Poor for the synagogues of the
Triple Congregation
issued an appeal, in which they asked for “generous gifts” for the poor on the
occasion of the
Purim holiday.
The brief appeal is written in the German language and is held in the
Central Archives for the History of the
Jewish People in
Jerusalem. By means of
this kind of appeal for donations, the poor members of the
Congregation were supposed to
be supported and simultaneously hindered from individual begging. The source
points to a structural change in the care of the poor in
Hamburg, which was not
without consequences for the Jewish congregations, requiring a break with old
traditions.
Superintendent of the Poor of the Triple Congregation, Collection for the Poor at the Purim Holiday, Announcement, Hamburg, March 7, 1789 (translated by Richard S. Levy), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History,
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-136.en.v1> [November 09, 2024].