The eighteenth century saw a renaissance of the illuminated manuscript Haggadah. During that period about 240 printed editions of the Haggadah appeared, but illuminated handwritten Haggadoth were also used. Evidence of this is the large number of such Haggadoth preserved from that time. What is the explanation for this phenomenon? According to the Jewish art historian Ernest M. Namenyi there were two main reasons for the rebirth of the illumination of handwritten Haggadoth, Megilloth and other liturgical books: The continued vitality of the art of the Torah scribe and the emergence of a new class of wealthy Jews who endeavored to add beauty and elegance to Jewish religious observance.
In this period there were in Central Europe a number of Torah scribes who devoted themselves to the production of illuminated Haggadoth. It seems that Ya’akov ben Yehudah Leib, the artist-scribe who produced the original of this Haggadah edition, could be classed among them. In addition to this Haggadah, which was written in 1728, we know of two other Haggadoth written by him. One of these, preserved in the New York Public Library, was written in 1731. A facsimile edition of it was published in New York in 1961 by the “Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel”. The other Haggadah, written in 1751, is in the possession of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana of Amsterdam, where the Haggadah under discussion is also kept.
Except for the information he himself supplied us in the colophons of the Haggadoth we do not know much about Ya’akov ben Yehudah Leib.
He was “of the family of Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe,” author of Levush, a famous rabbinic code. Jaffe, a student of Rabbis Moshe Isserles and Shlomo Luria, served in several communities and finally in Posen where he died in 1612.
Our scribe lived in Berlin, and perhaps was even born in that city. Later he lived in Hamburg. It was there that he produced this as well as the other two Haggadoth.
The appearance of the illustrated Haggadah, printed in Amsterdam in 1695, was a major event in the Jewish publishing world. Printers and manuscript artists sought to copy and imitate it, especially its illustrations. Our Haggadah is an exact copy of the Amsterdam Haggadah, containing all its features: The decorated title page, the beautiful pictures, the “order” of the Seder in Judeo-Italian, Judeo-German and Judeo-Spanish, the Ashkenazi as well as Sefardi version of the Grace after Meals, the Judeo-German versions of the songs Adir Hu, Ehad Mi Yode’a and Had Gadya, the commentaries (an abridged version of Don Isaac Abravanel’s commentary and a short esoteric commentary) as well as the map showing the division of the Land of Israel among the Twelve Tribes.
The artist demonstrated great ability both in drawing and in calligraphy.
2.
The sister communities of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck were among the most famous Jewish communities of Germany in recent times. Jews first settled in Altona and in Wandsbeck in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, but we have definite information about a Jewish presence in these places only from the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Ashkenazi Jews first established themselves in Hamburg in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Sefardi Jews, Marranos from the Iberian Peninsula, came to that port city already in the last decades of the sixteenth century. At first they pretended that they were Catholics. When it was discovered that they were Jews, they were threatened with expulsion, but finally, in 1612, were given permission to remain.
For more than 140 years the Ashkenazi Jews of Hamburg and the community of Wandsbeck, recognized the jurisdiction of the Altona rabbinate. This arrangement came to an end in 1811, during the French occupation of Hamburg. The Hamburg Jewish community retained its independence from the Altona rabbinate, even after the French had withdrawn.
For a long time the three sister communities were a center of Torah studies. Famous rabbis were active there, including Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Ashkenazi (Hakham Zvi) and Rabbi Yonathan Eybeschuetz. Rabbi Ya’akov Ettlinger, the “last Gaon of Germany”, served for thirty-six years (1836-1871) as Chief Rabbi of Altona.
Sefardi rabbis and scholars who were active in Hamburg included Rabbi Ya’akov Sasportas and Benyamin Mussafia.
From the 1880’s until the first World War a large stream of Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe passed through Hamburg on their way to North America. The Hamburg Jewish community greatly assisted the emigrants during their temporary stay in the city.
In 1900 there were 18,000 Jews in Hamburg, 2,000 in Altona and 250 in Wandsbeck, constituting 2.3%, 1.7% and 0.8% of the general population, respectively.
The respective figures for 1925 were: Hamburg 20,000 (1.7% of the general population), Altona 3000 and Wandsbeck 200.
Jews were prominently associated with several branches of the economy in Hamburg and Altona. The Jews of these cities produced also a number of persons who gained worldwide renown for their achievements in various fields.
After the Nazis’ rise to power the majority of Hamburg’s Jews (Altona and Wandsbeck were absorbed by the city in 1937) succeeded in emigrating. In October 1938 Jews of Polish nationality were expelled from Hamburg and taken to the Polish border. By the fall of 1941 about seven thousand Jews were left. In October of that year the Nazis embarked on the liquidation of that remnant by deporting them to the East. Among those who perished there was Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach.
After the war the Hamburg Jewish community was reestablished.