STUDIA ROSENTHALIANA 36 (2002-2003)

Printed in Amsterdam for Immigrants

ADRI OFFENBERG

O ACCOMPANY THE CONFERENCE on Migrants: Their Organisations Tand Absorption (1600-2000) held on 13 and 14 November 2002 to mark the 370th anniversary of the University of Amsterdam, the Univer- sity Library organised an exhibition that ran from 14 November 2002 to 31 January 2003 entitled Printed in Amsterdam for Immigrants. The show featured publications printed by immigrants, providing a glimpse into their lives in the Dutch capital. As well as Jews, the exhibition also focused on Armenians (17th cen- tury to today), Huguenots (late 17th to 18th century), Germans (19th and early 20th century), Frisians (late 19th and early 20th century), Chinese (20th century), Surinamese (20th century) Turks (second half 20th cen- tury) and Ghanese (last quarter 20th century). The exhibition was compiled by Norbert van den Berg, Henko Dun, Emma Los, Adri Offenberg, Frank Suurenbroek and Chaja Zeegers. The Jewish section of the presentation featured printed works in two showcases and against the back wall with a brief introduction and accompanying texts selected by Adri Offenberg, curator of the Biblio- theca Rosenthaliana. Because of the wealth of items in the collection the objects chosen for display were confined mainly to the period before c. 1800.

Introduction

After the expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492 and the forced baptism of the Jews of Portugal in 1497, an enormous exodus took place to the south and east – to North Africa, Italy and especially to the Ottoman Empire. Around a century later, descendants of those who had 308 ADRI OFFENBERG remained the so-called New Christians, sought refuge from the Inqui- sition in the north, some coming to Amsterdam. Often referred to by the pejorative term Marrano, they knew little of the Judaism of their forefathers. When it became clear that the Dutch authorities had no objection (the Eighty Years’ War against Spain was still being waged), many returned openly to the Jewish faith. Rabbis were engaged from elsewhere in Europe to teach these ‘new’ Jews the elements of their religion. A Sephardic Spanish and Portuguese community soon emerged: a house served as a synagogue, education and care of the sick was organised, a cemetery was acquired (Ouderkerk aan de Amstel). Within a matter of years there were three Sephardi congregations in Amsterdam. Religious books were soon needed. At first they were imported, mainly from Venice, or printed by Dutch presses. Because they had all but lost any knowledge of Hebrew, these books were mainly in Spanish and Portuguese. Thanks to an excellently organised education pro- gramme the knowledge of Hebrew soon increased; the young Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel discovered a gap in the market and founded a print- ing press which was able to produce the kind of Hebrew religious litera- ture that the community’s leaders and congregants needed. On 1 January 1627 he published the first Hebrew prayerbook to be printed in Amster- dam, the start of the tremendous growth of Hebrew (and Yiddish) print- ing in Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1639 the three Sephardi communities merged to form a cen- trally organised Portuguese Jewish community (Talmud Torah) which subsequently became the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in Europe. Meanwhile, a new group of Jewish refugees began to arrive from the East. Most of these Ashkenazi Jews from Germany, Poland and other Eastern European countries came bereft of all possessions. In Amsterdam they founded their own congregation, which soon boasted even more members than the Sephardi community. Yiddish was their common language. In 1671 the large Ashkenazi synagogue was com- pleted, followed in 1675 by the even larger Portuguese synagogue. For visitors from abroad, the freedom that Jews enjoyed in the Dutch Republic was astonishing. Besides Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew literature, there was also a demand for Yiddish books. The number of Jewish printing PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 309

1 Machzor 1604 (Ros. 1895 H37) 310 ADRI OFFENBERG presses increased considerably in the second half of the seventeenth century in Amsterdam, as a vigorous export market emerged alongside the Dutch demand for Jewish publications. More than one hundred Jewish printing presses and publishers were active in Amsterdam between 1627 and 1940, including a number of famous dynasties, such as the Athias, Proops, Levi Rofé (Van Embden), Levisson and Joachimsthal families. In 1725 for example, there were at least four- teen Jewish printers working in Amsterdam, some together, others in competition. After many years of prosperity, the general economic malaise of the eighteenth century hit the Portuguese community particularly hard. The poverty of Amsterdam’s Jews reached shocking proportions. The French Revolution and the Batavian Republic heralded a period of dramatic change. Emancipation and assimilation led many to aban- don Orthodox Judaism as the Jewish communities lost their indepen- dence. Yiddish was banned in synagogue and official documents (although it was many years before this took effect), while Portuguese lapsed into disuse. Meanwhile, many new, small Jewish communities emerged, mainly outside Amsterdam (the Mediene). Towards the end of the nineteenth century, socialism began to exercise a powerful attraction on the Jewish population, while for a much smaller group, it was Zionism that formed the new ideal. The German invasion of May 1940 brought a violent end to the three-and-a-half centuries of Jewish life and culture in the Netherlands. For the few who managed to sur- vive the Second World War, reconstruction was an almost impossible task.

1. Machzor. Orden de Roshasanah y Kipur, trasladado en Español…[Ams- terdam?]: financed by Franco de Mendoça & Compañia a primero de Nisan 5364 [1 April 1604].

One of the earliest New Year and Yom Kippur prayerbooks to appear in the Netherlands, printed by a Christian printer. He clearly had no supply of Hebrew types: the characters of the title ‘machzor’ (festival prayerbook) are woodcuts. Franco de Mendoça was probably a pseudo- nym employed by the well-known Isaac Franco, one of the founders of the Sephardi community in Amsterdam. PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 311

2 Sefer Ma’aneh lashon 1627 (Ros. 19 E13) 312 ADRI OFFENBERG

3 Jacob Jehudah Leon 1644 (Ros. 1898 E16) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 313

4 Tikkun 1666 (Ros. 20 C5) 314 ADRI OFFENBERG

5 Torah, nevi’im ukhetuvim 1667 (Ros. 3823 D16) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 315

2. Isaac Uziel, Ma’aneh lashon (‘Answer’). Amsterdam: Manasseh ben Israel, 26 May 1627. A short Hebrew grammar. One of the first books printed by Manasseh ben Israel. The title is a quotation from Proverbs 16:1. Rabbi Isaac Uziel of Marocco was one of the teachers of the Portuguese community of Amsterdam’s subsequent cadre of religious leaders.

3. Jacob Jehudah Leon, known as Templo, Afbeeldinge vanden Tempel Salomonis. [2nd edition]. Amsterdam: Jan Fredericksz Stam, 1644. A small number of Amsterdam Jews consciously sought contact with their Christian neighbours. One of these was Jacob Jehudah Leon. Together with interested Christians he built a scale model of the Jerusalem Temple in Middelburg and published a book about it. This first appeared in Dutch, and was soon followed by numerous reprints and translations. The model was an enormous success and was later shown at Leon’s home in Amsterdam on Korte Houtstraat where it attracted numerous Dutch and foreign visitors. Leon also toured with the model, showing it at the courts of the Oranges and the British king in London, as well as at fairs in Haarlem and The Hague.

4. Tikkun keriah lekhol lailah vayom (‘Supplications for day and night’). Amsterdam: David de Castro Tartas, 1666. Commotion broke loose in 1666 when news reached Amsterdam that the Messiah had arrived. When it transpired that he was yet another false messiah the commotion was even greater. This is the subject of the engraving on the title page: it shows Sabbatai Zvi seated as a Messiah on a royal lion’s throne. The date is given in the form of a chronogram (‘Lo, I shall rescue my people’), which also refers to the Messiah.

5. Torah nevi’im ukhetuvim. Biblia Hebraica. With Hebrew and Latin marginal notes by Johannes Leusden. Amsterdam: Joseph Athias, 1667. This collaborative project, the production of a Hebrew Bible by the Sephardi printer Joseph Athias and the Calvinist professor Johannes Leus- den, resulted in such a superb edition that the States General rewarded the former a gold medal and chain ‘to the value of six hundred guilders’. 316 ADRI OFFENBERG

6 Gazeta de Amsterdam 1675 (Ros. 19 C10) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 317

7 Torah, nevi’im ukhetuvim 1687 (Ros. 15 B34) 318 ADRI OFFENBERG

8 Seder hatefillot 1771 (Ros. Cass. 1376) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 319

9 Catalogue of books with prices, c. 1770 (Ros. Ebl. A-61) 320 ADRI OFFENBERG

6. Gazeta de Amsterdam. Amsterdam: David de Castro Tartas, 1675. Only fragments survive of the first ‘Jewish’ newspaper, published by a famous Jewish printer in Amsterdam. The first known issue appeared on 12 September 1672 and later issues also survive from 1675. The Span- ish text offers general European news and was probably intended as a source of information about world affairs for Sephardi merchants active in the international market. A news item in translation from 7 January 1675: ‘A Spanish ship that sailed from Cartagena to Santiago was cap- tured by a French ship and taken to Jamaica. Two ships have safely reached Texel from Curaçao.’

7. Torah nevi’im ukhetuvim. Mileshon hakodesh ne’etakim uvileshon ashke- naz nikhtavim. Translated from Hebrew by Joseph Witzenhausen. Amsterdam: Immanuel Athias, 1687. This is the first complete translation of the Old Testament into Yiddish. The language is clearly influenced by the Lutheran translation and the Dutch States translation of 1637. The title page shows the coat of arms of the Seven Provinces of the Dutch Republic with the famous Latin motto ‘Strength through unity’ (roughly translated). Around the same time a rival translation by Jekuthiel Blitz was published in Amsterdam by the printer Uri Faiwes Halevi.

8. Seder hatefillot keminhag kehillah kedoshah Sefarad. Amsterdam: Janson & Mondovi, 1771. Hebrew prayerbook according to the Sephardi rite. While the prayers and Bible readings in the synagogue service are all in Hebrew, one part of the liturgy is in the vernacular. Here the traditional blessing of the government – in this case the States General, the House of Orange and the burgomasters and regents of Amsterdam – is in Portuguese.

9. Catalogue of 350 Hebrew and Yiddish books with prices. Unique plano published by the Gebroeders Proops in Amsterdam, c. 1770. In the eighteenth century, the brothers Jacob, Joseph and Abraham Proops exercised an almost complete monopoly on the Hebrew and Yiddish printing trade. The publishing and printing house of Proops produced PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 321

10 Loshn zouhev 1734 (Ros. 1884 G10) 322 ADRI OFFENBERG

11 Marriage contract 1723 (Ros. Pl. B-15) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 323

12 Takkanot 1776 (Ros. 19 D17) 324 ADRI OFFENBERG books from 1704 to 1914. This list contains two hundred Proops editions, one hundred foreign editions and fifty editions by other Jewish printers in Amsterdams (not mentioned by name!). Most of the books were sold unbound.

10. Joseph Maarssen, Loshn zouhev (‘Golden tongue/language’). Amster- dam: Salomo Proops. 1734. Yiddish sample letters for prospective marriage partners. Printed in a fine script type which first appeared in work produced by the schoolmaster and publisher Joseph Maarsen. This booklet of examples of correspondence first appeared in 1715. The page displayed here shows a letter from a fiancee to his prospective bride, thanking her for a visit to her parents where he was able to meet her. It finishes with a touching poem enclosed in a heart: ‘Maine hertzliche, hefliche un fraindliche griessen Zoln ois diese federkel [quill] fliessen Un ois grund maines hertzen schiessen Tzu ihre rumwerdige eltern, sehr hoch geacht Mit betung [prayer] dem Almacht Er wolle ihnen nehmen in sain ob-acht [his care] Adieu, tzu guter nacht.’

11. Hebrew/Aramaic marriage contract The text of the Jewish marriage contract (ketubah) is an ancient formula which is intended principally to provide legal and financial security for the wife. The document itself was often beautifully decorated. For decades, Sephardi weddings in Amsterdam were sealed with a handwritten parch- ment ketubah decorated with a printed margin featuring the name and date of death (1693) of the famous Chief Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. The contract shown here was drawn up in 1723 in Amsterdam for the marriage of Joseph ben Jacob Teixeira de Mattos and Judith bat Abraham Hisquiau Nunes Henriques.

12. Takkanot dechevra kadisha Gemilut Chassadim dekehillah kedoshah Ashkenazim. Amsterdam: Jacob Proops 1776. Hebrew regulations of the Ashkenazi burial society of Amsterdam ‘Requit- tal with goodness’. The society performed the rites associated with Jewish PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 325

13 Diskursn 1797-98 (Ros. 19 E18) 326 ADRI OFFENBERG

14a Almanac 1842-43 (Ros. V.V. 1175)

14b Almanac 1843-44 (Ros. V.V. 1175) PRINTED IN AMSTERDAM FOR IMMIGRANTS 327 funerals. The title page shows symbols of death: a skull, an hourglass and a candle.

13. Diskursn. Amsterdam, 1797-98. At the close of the eighteenth century a group of enlightened Jews in Amsterdam ceded from the Ashkenazi community and founded their own congregation, called ‘Adas Jeshurun’. This led to considerable unrest and for several months each camp (the ‘Alte Kille’ and the ‘Naye Kille’) bombarded the other with satyrical polemic magazines in Yid- dish in the style of the popular Dutch newssheets. Disregarded until recently, these extremely rare texts provide a valuable insight into the period. In 2002 an edition appeared with an excellent English transla- tion by Prof. Marion Aptroot and Dr Jozeph Michman, entitled ‘Storm in the Community’.

14. Yiddish Almanac. Amsterdam: Van Embden & Co 1842/43. Dutch Almanac. Amsterdam Van Embden & Co 1843/44. Jewish almanacs (luches) provided a calendar with one month to a page and a short history of the Jewish people. In addition, they offered timetables of freight ships, ferries, post coaches and similar services. After almost 125 years, in 1843 the firm of Van Embden (originally Levi Rofé) switched from Yiddish to Dutch. Other publishers continued to produce Yiddish almanacs for another ten years.