This appeal is part of the files on the administration and organization of the Jewish congregations of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek, which are housed at the State Archive Hamburg. Among these files (signature 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 1691-1945, lot 887 “Jüdische Bibliothek und Lesehalle 1908[!]-1928”) which document the forming of the political will to found and run a library among the congregational committees and its ultimate success, is this printed “circular” / “flyer” (No. 176) from 1905 addressed to Hamburg’s Jewish citizens. What is notable about this appeal is that it marked the beginning of a—at the time—new kind of Jewish institution in Hamburg intended to cater not only to specifically Jewish needs but to general German ones as well. Moreover, it highlights the great willingness on the part of Jewish associations and individual Jewish Hamburg citizens to participate in this process.
Call for the Founding of a Jewish Library and Reading Room, Hamburg, October 1905 (translated by Insa Kummer), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, <https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-21.en.v1> [November 08, 2024].