LL-L "History" 2006.05.23 (03) [E]

Tue May 23 19:37:16 UTC 2006

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L O W L A N D S - L * 23 May 2006 * Volume 03
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From: "jonny" <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2006.05.23 (02) [E]

Hi Ron,

you wrote:

> Even after Indo-European identities had been firmly established in Europe
> there were numerous cases of non-Indo-European immigration and admixtures.
>  This includes cases such as Uralic (Finnic and Ugric) establishment and
> Turco-Mongolic layers in Eastern and Central Europe (including the Mongol,
> Ottoman and Hunnic invasions).  There are also lesser-known cases in which
> Indo-Europeans layers were added that are not usually associated with
> Europe, such as the Iranic-speaking Alans (related to today's Ossetians)
> whose presence stretched from China to Spain and Morocco, and who in
> conjunction with the Germanic-speaking Vandals inhabited what are now
> Poland and Pomerania and there mixed with the Germano-Slavonic population.

You forget our Jewish population, I fear.
Having made some genealogic investigations in my own and my ex-women's
(just two of them ;-)) ancestors I found Jewish forebears in all our
family trees. I guess this won't be different in a greater part of German
folks, in special in those with some urban background.

Is there anybody able to say when the fisrt Yews came to the Northern
parts of Europe? I guess them to have accompanied the process of
christianization; why???

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: History

Hi, Jonny!

It is generally assumed that actual Jewish communities were established
rather late in Northern Germany, as also in most of the rest of the
Cointinental Lowlands.  Most of it seems to have happened in the 16th
century and 17th century.  There were two main immigrant groups: (1)
Sephardim and (2) German Ashkenazim (later also East European Ashkenazim).

(1) Sephardic communities came first, as a result of the Iberian
Inquisition, though mostly from Portugal rather than from Spain.  They
sought refuge from Roman Catholic power, and found a modicum of it in
Protestant-dominated, commercially rather than church-minded merchant
cities.  Most immigrants landed in Amsterdam, and many of them went on to
Hamburg via Emden.  Their contributions to the development of Amsterdam
and Hamburg was considerable, including in education and the sciences. 
Most members were highly educated, being able to speak, read and write
Portuguese, Spanish, Lusitanian Mozarabic, Dutch and Saxon, as well as
Hebrew.

(2) Most Ashkenazic immigrants came from other parts of Germany, mostly
Roman-Catholic-dominated ones, possibly also in search of more tolerance
in Protestant parts.  They seem to have trickled into Northern Germany and
the Netherlands rather than have arrived _en masse_.  Many Ashkenazi
family names were place-name-based, and those tend to point to places in
Southern Germany.  However, especially in the 17th century naming after
place names continued in Northern Germany, and this is how Jewish surnames
like Hamburg, Hamburger, Hameln and Braunschweiger came about.  Most of
these new arrivals were proficient in Western Yiddish and German, also in
Hebrew, which they continued in the North.  I assume that at least those
with frequent and direct contacts with ordinary Northerners learned to use
Low Saxon as well, certainly before German proficiency went beyond the
higher social strata. Insights into their lives can be found in the
memoirs of GlÃ¼ckel von Hameln (Glikl bas Judah Leib) who was born in
Hamburg in 1647.  (They are available in various translations.  See P.S.)

(3) East European Ashkenazim arrived most recently, probably mostly in the
19th century.  They spoke various dialects of Eastern Yiddish and in
larger cities (e.g., Hamburg) established their own _kehilot_
(congregations), keeping themselves apart from German _kehilot_.

However, I think it is quite likely that there were Jewish individuals in
the North before the aforementioned communities came to be established.  I
wouldn't be too surprised if this included refugees from Britain,
following their expulsion in 1290.

Struan Robertson offers an excellent website about the history of
Hamburg's Jews: http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035//jh_welcome.html

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.:

English:
Memoirs of Glueckel of Hameln. Schocken, 1987, ISBN 0805205721

German:
Die Memoiren der GlÃ¼ckel von Hameln. Beltz AthenÃ¤um, 1994, ISBN 3895470406

Russian:
Ð Ð°ÑÑÐºÐ°Ð· Ð¾Ñ‚ Ð¿ÐµÑ€Ð²Ð¾Ð³Ð¾ Ð»Ð¸Ñ†Ð°. Izdat. Lechaim, 2001, ISBN
5900309177

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