Beschreibung
In Yiddish, with some German and a little Hebrew. Pages yellowed. (4) in Hebrew; pages 1 to 294 in Yiddish; Bottom of page 394 to page 400 in Hebrew, & LXXII pp in German. This is the first printed Yiddish edition. "Glick." The ending "el" is a diminutive which indicates "little" or "little one" and was used in the Yiddish and German variations of Glückel, Glukel, Glukil, Glickel, and Glikel. The "von" in her name, "Glückel von Hameln", first used by Kaufman, the editor of this, the first published edition in Yiddish of the manuscript, is either pseudo-aristocratic or, alternatively, simply means "from" because that's where she lived. Glückel was born into a wealthy family in the Hamburg. Her father was a successful diamond trader and parnas, a leader in the Jewish community; her mother was also involved in business. In 1649, when Glückel was 2, her family and the rest of Hamburg's Ashkenazic Jewish community was expelled to Altona. Her father had been so respected in Hamburg that he was the first German Jew permitted to return. At age 12 Glückel was betrothed to Hayyim of Hameln, whom she married in 1660 at the age 14. The couple first lived in the groom's parents' home in Hameln, then moved in with Glückel's parents in Hamburg, where Hayyim began dealing in gold and became an affluent businessman. A year later they became parents. Glückel assisted her husband in trading seed pearls, taking over the family business when he died in 1689. She was one of few women who traveled by themselves to conduct trade at European markets and fairs. She also maintained an active social life which often required extensive travel. Her memoirs tell of travels to Amsterdam, Bamberg, Danzig, Hanover, Hildesheim, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, Metz, and Paris. Glückel and Hayyim had 14 children and she married many of them into the most prominent Jewish families of Europe. In 1700, 11 years after Hayyim's death, Glückel remarried, believing it would ultimately benefit her children and protect their future. Her second husband, Cerf Levy, was a successful banker and parnas from Metz, but 2 years after their marriage Levy failed financially, losing both his and her fortune. He died in 1712, leaving her twice widowed. Fearing becoming a burden on her children, she lived alone until too ill to care for herself and in 1715, at age 70, after pleas from her children, she moved in with her daughter Esther and her son-in-law Moses, dying in 1724. In 1691, two years after the death of her first husband, Glückel began writing her memoirs. At the time she was a 44-year-old widow with 12 children, 8 of were unmarried. She initially stopped writing the diaries in 1699, shortly before her second marriage, but resumed in 1715. Glückel was born two years before the Thirty Years' War ended and lived through, and wrote about, many historical events, including Charles X Gustav of Sweden's war on Denmark, the 1648 Khmelnytsky Uprising, the 1644 Plague in Hamburg, the expulsion of the Jewish population of Hamburg to Altona, the false Messiah Sabbatai Zvi, the Franco-Dutch War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Glückel's stories reveal the often frightening and precarious situation under which the Jews of northern Germany lived during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Glückel's diaries provide a glimpse into daily life among the Jewish inhabitants of the Rhine valley in the 17th century. She tells how she guided the financial and personal destinies of her children through marriage arrangements, engaged in business travel and trade, and spent her life promoting the welfare of her large family. Glückel wrote of both her own and her first husband's families in great detail and was explicit that the works were to be preserved for future generations so that that her progeny will know their family history. Glückel's original manuscript was lost but her son copied it and his copy served David Kaufmann in producing this edition. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 012646
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