Glückel of Hameln
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Glückel of Hameln (; also spelled Glückel, Glüeckel, or Glikl of Hamelin; also known as Glikl bas Judah Leib) ( – September 19, 1724) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
businesswoman and
diarist A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal d ...
. Written in her native tongue of Western
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
over the course of thirty years, her memoirs were originally intended to be an
ethical will An ethical will (Hebrew: ) is a document that passes ethical values from one generation to the next. Rabbis and Jewish laypeople have continued to write ethical wills during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (Riemer) In recent years, the prac ...
for her children and future descendants. Liptzin, Sol, ''A History of Yiddish Literature'', Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972. . pp.14-15. Glückel's diaries are the only known pre-modern Yiddish memoirs written by a woman. ''The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln'' provide an intimate portrait of
German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
life between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and have become an important source for historians, philologists, sociologists, literary critics, and linguists.


Background


Naming conventions

Glückel was a popular name in the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. The name “Glückel” is diminutive of " Glück," the German translation of the Hebrew name “Mazal,” meaning “good fortune.” Mazal was exclusively used by
Sephardic Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
, while
Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
used either the German variations of "Glück" and "Glueck" or the Yiddish version "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 pseudo-aristocratic variation "Glückel von Hameln" was used by the editor of the memoir's first publication in Yiddish. Despite being referred to by many different variations, her preferred name would have most likely have been "Glikl bas Judah Leib," meaning "Glikl daughter of Judah Leib," in keeping with Jewish naming traditions of her time.


Life and death

Glückel was born into a wealthy family in the city of
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
in 1646 or 1647, one of six children born to Judah Joseph Leib and his second wife Beila. She had one brother, Wolf, and five sisters: Rebekah, Elkel, Hendele, and Mate. 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 less than three years old, 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. Glückel's father ensured that all of his children were both pious and well-educated, including his daughters. Although she was unable to study the Torah, Glückel received a formal education in a
Cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...
, the traditional Jewish primary school, where she learned Hebrew and the basics of Judaism. When she was twelve years old, Glückel was betrothed to Hayyim of Hameln, whom she married in 1660 at the age of fourteen. After the marriage, the couple lived in the groom's parents’ home in Hameln. A year after their marriage, the couple moved in with Glückel's parents in Hamburg, where Hayyim began dealing in gold and became an affluent businessman. A year after that, they became parents for the first time. Glückel assisted her husband in trading seed pearls, eventually 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. In addition to her business dealings, Glückel also maintained an extremely active social life which often required extensive travel. Her memoirs tell of travels to cities as varied as
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, Bamberg, Danzig,
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,
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,
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,
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,
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,
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,
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,
Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...
, and
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. Glückel and Hayyim had a total of fourteen children, thirteen of whom survived to adulthood: Zipporah (c. 1661), Nathan (c. 1663), Mata (c. 1666), Mordechai (c. 1670), Hannah (c. 1672), Loeb (c. 1673), Esther (c. 1677), Joseph (c. 1677), Hendelchen (c. 1678), Samuel (c. 1680), Freudchen (c. 1684), Moses (c. 1685), and Miriam (c. 1686). Glückel took great pride in the fact that many of her children were married into some of the most prominent Jewish families of Europe. In 1700, eleven years after Hayyim's death, Glückel remarried. Although she had rejected a number of proposals, she finally acquiesced as she believed that remarrying would ultimately benefit her children by protecting their future. Her second husband was Cerf Levy, a successful banker and ''parnas'' from Metz. Two years after their marriage, Levy failed financially, losing not only his own fortune but hers as well. Still deep in the throes of bankruptcy, Levy died in 1712, leaving Glückel a widow for the second time. Ever fearful of becoming a burden to her children, Glückel lived alone until falling too ill to care for herself in 1715. At the age of seventy, after much pleading from her children, she moved in with her daughter Esther and her son-in-law Moses. Glückel died from natural causes on September 19, 1724, in Metz.


''The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln''


History of the memoirs

In 1691, two years after the death of her beloved husband, Glückel began writing her memoirs in an attempt to comfort herself during her immense grief. At the time she was a 44-year-old widow with twelve children, eight of whom remained unmarried. She initially stopped writing the diaries in 1699, shortly before her second marriage to Cerf Levy, but resumed in 1715 while she was living with her daughter following her second husband's death. Glückel completed the seventh and final book in 1719. Glückel was born two years before the end of the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...
. She lived through, and subsequently wrote about, many other notable historical events, including but not limited to Charles X Gustav of Sweden's war on Denmark, the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648, the expulsion of the Jewish population of Hamburg to Altona, the scandal of the "Messianic pretender"
Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...
, the Franco-Dutch War, and the
War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
. Glückel's stories reveal much about the often frightening and precarious situation under which the Jews of northern Germany lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Glückel's diaries, a rare account of an ordinary woman, provide a glimpse into day-to-day life among the Jewish inhabitants of northern Germany in the 17th century. The diaries are the sole pre-modern diary written by a woman in Yiddish. Glückel tells of how she guided the financial and personal destinies of her children through marriage arrangements, engaged in business travel and trade, and generally 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 because she wanted her children to know about their lineage. She was explicit that the works were to be preserved for future generations, fearing that her children's children or grandchildren would one day know nothing of their family history. The memoirs amalgamate several Jewish literary traditions: the ''Tsava'ah'', or ethical will; the ''Tekhines'', or women's prayer books; the ''Sefer musar'', or book of moral instruction; the '' Mayse bukh'', or Yiddish storybook; and the "Family Scroll."


Book One

The opening pages of Glückel's book include details of her reasons for writing, as well as the underlying beliefs that will come to define her entire narrative. She explains that she began writing her memoirs following the death of her husband of nearly thirty years, Hayyim of Hameln. She explicitly states that she does not wish to write a book of morals for her children to follow; she believes that the
Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
provides all of the necessary instructions and thus should be studied diligently. She also states that she intends to complete the memoirs as a series of "seven little books." Book One provides much of the backstory of Glückel's life. In this book, Glückel tells of her childhood in Hamburg, where her father ensured that all of his children, male and female, received both secular and religious educations. She mentions that her mother worked making gold and silver lace. Glückel recalls experiences of
anti-semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
and how her community was severely impacted by the expulsion of Jews to Altona around 1650. Glückel illustrates her family's importance in the community by noting that her father was the first German Jew allowed to resettle in Hamburg. She has memories of the so-called "Swedish Winter" when the Swedes went to war with the King of Denmark, a monarch who she remembered as great man and friend to the Jews. Glückel also tells of the devastating effect that the plague had on Hamburg's Jewish community, including the death of her grandmother. Glückel reveals that her father had been a widower when he married her mother. She remembers the circumstances of her sister Hendele's engagement to the son of Reb Gumpel of
Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...
, in which Hendele received 1,800 Reichsthalers as her dowry, the most anyone had ever been dowered in Hamburg. Glückel recalls that the match been the most important in all of Germany and that "the whole world admired its excellence and the size of the dowry."


Book Two

Book Two is one of the shortest of the seven books, and it is also the most joyful. This book begins with Glückel's betrothal to Hayyim of Hameln at age twelve and their marriage two years later; the relationship was arranged by her father. After Glückel and Hayyim were married in Hameln, they moved in with his parents where she was "alone with strangers in a strange world." She recalls her first impressions of Hameln being "a dull shabby hole" and "back-country town where lived only two Jews." She was ultimately not discouraged by her new surroundings, however, because of how well she was treated by her in-laws, especially her father-in-law, Joseph Hameln. She spends most of the second book giving details about Hayyim's family. She tells the story of Hayyim's eldest brother, Moses, who was shot and killed while being robbed on the way to his own wedding. Joseph's second son, Abraham, was a brilliant Talmud scholar who faced many hardships in his life, including difficulties conceiving without what was rumored to be mystical intervention. Hayyim had a sister named Yenta, who experienced great personal turmoil after marrying the son of the wealthy Sussmann Gans of Minden-on-the-Weser. The fourth child of the family, Samuel, studied in Poland and married the daughter of the prominent Rabbi Sholem of Lemberg. Glückel never met the fifth child, Isaac, who died at age fifty in
Frankfort-on-the-Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its n ...
. Glückel writes very little about Hayyim's sister Esther, stating instead that "all the world knows the excellent woman she was." The seventh child, Loeb, lived in
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
. He died young "but in riches and honor." Hannah was the eighth child who, like Loeb, also died very young; she, however, was without any wealth. Hayyim was the ninth child, referred to in this book as "your faithful father." He is not discussed at length in the chapter, however, as Glückel advises that the details will be found in the coming pages instead.


Book Three

Signs of Glückel's business acumen begin to appear in Book Three. She reveals that her husband took business and financial advice from her and no one else, stating that he did nothing in business without her knowledge. Glückel mentions that she drafted a business contract when her husband took ill on a trading trip to Leipzig, a prime example of her husband's utmost confidence in her business capabilities. Hayyim's illness in Leipzig was particularly stressful for Glückel because of the well-known danger that the city posed to Jews. Although Jews were allowed to do business at the Leipzig Fair due to the high taxes they paid, they had not been allowed to live in
Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
since 1537. Glückel knew that if Hayyim had died in Leipzig, it would have been difficult to recover his body for a proper Jewish burial and that all of his possessions would be forfeited, resulting in major personal as well as financial damages. In this book, Glückel tells of the commotion caused by the false prophet
Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...
and how it impacted her family. As the plague continues, Glückel explains of the difficulty of conducting trade and receiving mail, as well as the strange illness and remarkable recovery of her daughter Zipporah, to whom she refers as the "Virgin of Peinholz." Over the course of Book Three, Glückel gives birth to two more daughters, Mata and Hannah. Unfortunately, at age three, Mata contracted a mysterious and painful illness which made her hands and feet swell; she died four weeks later.


Book Four

Glückel has another child in this volume, a son named Mordecai. Glückel gives more insight into her social and economic status by mentioning that she employs a servant named "Elegant Sam," who had been a replacement for a "Clumsy Sam." Zipporah follows in her mother's footsteps and is also engaged at age twelve, and the townspeople place bets on her marriage. Glückel tells of her embarrassment when, during the marriage ceremony, it was discovered that the ''
ketubah A ketubah (; he, כְּתוּבָּה) is a Jewish marriage contract. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. In modern practice, ...
,'' or Jewish marriage contract, had not been written; although the wedding proceeded without the official contract, this went against custom and Glückel feared that the community would react negatively. Zipporah's wedding is the first of many which are described at length in the memoirs. Glückel mentions the attendance of nobility as well as the performance of the " Dance of Death." Glückel suffers the loss of her beloved sister Hendel, who is buried in Emmerich. She mentions the dangers of sailing from
Wangerooge Wangerooge is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea located close to the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is also a municipality in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony in Germany. Wangerooge is one of the East F ...
to Hamburg due to pirates. By this time, her son Nathan is fifteen and becomes involved in the family business. Glückel and Hayyim have another daughter, Esther. Glückel details many economic woes, including the loss of 11,000
Reichsthaler The ''Reichsthaler'' (; modern spelling Reichstaler), or more specifically the ''Reichsthaler specie'', was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the ...
s in one year. In a stroke of bittersweet luck, Glückel's father dies after suffering from gout and she gives birth to her son, Loeb, after sitting
shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
. Glückel details the distribution of her father's will, which left 1,600 Reichsthalers to her mother and about 1,400 Reichsthalers to each of his children; although Glückel's husband and brother-in-law were entitled to a claim of half the share of a son, they insisted that the money be given to Glückel's mother and her children only. Glückel details the excellent treatment of her mother by her sons-in-law after she became a widow. Glückel notes that her mother's age at widowhood was forty-four and remarks on the fact that she never remarried. Glückel also mentions the existence of other female-authored wills, indicating that her memoirs were not an anomaly for the time. She gives her impressions of the war between the King of France, Holland, and the Emperor. Hayyim again falls ill on a business trip, this time in
Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bomb ...
. Glückel's father-in-law had died three years before she began writing the fourth book, and she tells a story about her daughter Hannah's experience with a ghostly presence the night before he died. She writes of her husband's experience with s''hneim asar chodesh'', the twelve-month period of mourning for one's parent. Her mother-in-law died two years later at age eighty-two and was buried next to her husband. Glückel celebrates her daughter Esther and son Nathan both becoming engaged, but she also mourns losing an unnamed child in infancy. She describes her experience of giving birth every two years, a period which had begun with her daughter Hendele; two sons, Samuel and Moses, and two daughters, Freudchen and Miriam, followed. The book ends with the death of Hayyim, the "crown of erhead," in 1689. She laments being left with eight unmarried children and mentions that the four married children also still need help.


Book Five

Book Five deals extensively with the sickness and eventual death of Hayyim. On January 11, 1689, he fell on a sharp stone, agitating his already long-suffering and "badly twisted bowels." Hayyim initially refused to call for a doctor for want of privacy, but he eventually calls for Abraham Lopez, a physician and " chirurgeon-barber." Glückel offers her body to console or comfort her dying husband, but he refuses her because she is "unclean" due to menstruation and had not visited the '' mikveh''. Hayyim dies on Shabbat while reciting the first lines of the prayer
Shema Yisrael ''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewi ...
: "Hear O'Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!" He is buried January 16, 1689, after which the customary week of mourning commenced. Glückel describes her grief in great detail and also reveals that she felt that she was forgotten by the community after the mourning period ended. Hayyim died 20,000 Reichsthalers in debt, but Glückel's business acumen ensured that the debts were completely cleared within a year. Life gradually returns to normal as Glückel officially takes over control of the business and family. She describes difficulty with her son Loeb's marriage plans as well as business decisions. After Loeb falls deep into debt after going into business for himself in Berlin, she begins to see the city as cursed. This feeling deepens after her daughter Hendele falls sick and dies there, only seventeen weeks after she got married. She describes how a trusted
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
teacher misled her son Joseph at the age of fourteen. Glückel recalls the murders of Abraham Metz and Aaron ben Moses, a story which illustrates the complicated relationships that existed between Jews and Gentiles in Hamburg.


Book Six

Book Six opens with a sense of deep regret. Glückel describes her second marriage as the "change in life hesought to avoid." She interprets her second marriage as a punishment for her sins, especially for not committing herself to God after Hayyim's death. She tells of her secret betrothal to Cerf Levy, a widower from Metz, which occurred in June 1699. She relates the story of King Jedijah from Araby to illustrate how even good intentions, such as her desire to protect her children by remarrying, can sometimes go terribly wrong. Although Glückel agrees to the marriage with the assurance that her new husband was a wise businessman who would offer her "nothing but abundance," she recalls her extreme hesitation. She details difficulties with both her new step-children and the Levy family's staff which included two manservants, two maids, and "numerous lackeys." Glückel describes how distraught she was after she learned her troubled son Loeb had died, expressing her grief with the story of King David and his son Absalom. Glückel ends Book Six expresses her fears for her family with a desperate plea for God's forgiveness: "May the Almighty God spare us and Israel from further evil, and in His great mercy and grace forgive us sinners all our debts, and lead us back to the Holy Land, that our eyes may see the rebuilding of Thy holy house and our glory restored!"


Book Seven

According to Glückel, the final book "contains both pleasures and pains, as does the world itself." In this book, both her son Samuel and her second husband die. Samuel dies less than two years after the move to Metz and leaves behind a pregnant widow. After twelve years of marriage, Cerf dies on July 24, 1712. Glückel was unable to recover even her initial
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
because his business was in such a state of ruin at the time of his death. She recalls the dissatisfaction of living in the home of Jacob Marburg, an otherwise unidentified Metz resident who provided her with a room which featured "neither hearth nor chimney." Being old and ill, she had difficulty getting up the twenty-two stairs which lead to her bedroom. Despite her previous protests, Glückel eventually gives in to her son-in-law Moses Krumbach's demands to move in with him and his wife, Esther. In 1715, she finally moves in with her daughter and son-in-law and experiences life in a rapidly changing Metz. The memoirs close with the following passage:
"In the month of Nisan, 5479 arch–April 1719 a woman was kneeling by the bank of the Moselle, washing her dishes. It was about ten o'clock at night, and of a sudden it became as light as day, and the woman looked in the Heavens, and the Heavens were opened, like unto a... ord illegible..and sparks flew therefrom; and then the Heavens closed, as one closes a curtain, and all was dark again. God grant that it be for our good!"


Translations

The original manuscript was lost, but a copy made by Glückel's son Moses survived. The family copy was used to create the first printed edition entitled ''Zikhroynes'' (Yiddish for "Memoirs"), which was edited by
David Kaufmann David Kaufmann (7 June 1852 – 6 July 1899) (Hebrew: דוד קויפמן) was a Jewish-Austrian scholar born at Kojetín, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic). From 1861 to 1867 he attended the gymnasium at Kroměříž, Moravia, where he studi ...
and published in 1896. Bertha Pappenheim, one of Glückel's great-granddaughters, published the first German translation of the ''Memoirs'' in 1910. In 1913, an alternate abridged German translation by Alfred Feilchenfeld was published and, due to its immense popularity, went into its fourth edition by 1923. Feilchenfeld's edition eventually became the basis of the first English translation by Marvin Lowenthal, published in 1932 and reissued in 1960 and 1977. In 1962, Beth-Zion Abrahams offered a more accurate English translation of the original Kaufmann edition. An abridged Hebrew translation based on the Feilchenfeld edition was published by A. Z. Rabinowitz in Tel Aviv in 1930. Joseph Berenfeld completed a full translation of the memoirs into modern Yiddish in 1967.


Legacy and descendants

The permanent exhibition at the
Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses ...
(''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') featured Glückel of Hameln from 2001 to 2017. "Two Millennia of German-Jewish History" was broken down into fourteen periods spanning from the Middle Ages to the present, with Glückel representing the Baroque period. The exhibit has been closed since 2017 for a complete redesign and is expected to re-open on August 23, 2020. It is still unclear if Glückel will be featured in the new redesign. Her memoirs have been adapted several times. Margoa Winston's fictionalized ''"Glückel Von Hameln: a Dramatization of Her Autobiography''" appeared in print in 1941. Adrienne Cooper and
Frank London Frank London (born 1958 in New York) is an American klezmer trumpeter who also plays jazz and world music. Early life London was born to a Reform Jewish family and grew up in New York and Connecticut. He started playing the trumpet in fourt ...
of the Great Small Works theater troupe brought the memoirs to the stage in the early 2000s. The production combined puppetry with European storytelling traditions and was performed in both Yiddish and English. In 2016, a street in Hamburg was named after Glückel. Glückel-von-Hameln-Straße is located in the borough of Altona, the same place to which her family and all other Hamburg Jews were exiled in 1648. Because her family lineage is so well documented, it has been possible to identify many of her descendants. Among these are notable figures such as Bertha Pappenheim, Heinrich Heine, and Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the '' Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', hi ...
.


Bibliography

* Manuscript in original Yiddish: *
Ms. hebr. oct. 2 - Zikhronot
* Original publication in Yiddish, with introduction in German: ** ''Zikhroynes Glikl Hamel, זיכרונות גליקל האמיל, Die Memoiren der Glückel von Hameln, 1645–1719.'' Herausg. von David Kaufmann. Frankfurt am Main, J. Kauffmann, 1896. * German translations: ** ''Die Memoiren der Glückel von Hameln''. Aus dem Jüdisch-Deutschen von Bertha Pappenheim (Autorisierte Übertragung nach der Ausgabe von Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann, Wien 1910). Mit einem Vorwort von Viola Roggenkamp. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz Verlag, 2005. ** ''Denkwürdigkeiten der Glückel von Hameln''. Aus dem Jüdisch-Deutschen übersetzt, mit Erläuterungen versehen und hrsg. von Alfred Feilchenfeld. Mit 25 Bildbeigaben. Berlin, Jüdischer Verlag, 1913. * English translations: ** ''Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln''. Translated by Marvin Lowenthal, 1977 () **''The Life of Glückel of Hameln 1646–1724, Written by herself.'' Translated from the original Yiddish and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams, Yoselof 1963 (1962 Horovitz Publ. Co., London). * Hebrew translations: ** ''Gliḳl : zikhronot / hehedirah ṿe-tirgemah mi-Yiddish''.Translated by Chava Turniansky, Jerusalem 2006 (). (Note: this edition also includes the Yiddish text.)


See also

*
Yiddish language Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
*
Yiddish literature Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Euro ...


References


Further reading

* Abrahams, Beth-Zion. ''The Life of Glückel of Hameln: A Memoir''. Access and Diversity, Crane Library, University of British Columbia, 2014. * Adler, H. G. ''The Jews in Germany: From the Enlightenment to National Socialism''. University of Notre Dame Press, 1969. * Cahnman, Werner J. ''German Jewry: Its History and Sociology''. Edited by Joseph Maier, Judith Marcus, and Zoltán Tarr. Transaction Publishers, 1989. * Davis, Natalie Zemon. ''Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-century Lives''. Harvard University Press, 2003. * Gold, Doris B., and Lisa Stein. ''From the Wise Women of Israel: Folklore and Memoirs''. Biblio Press, 1995. * Gorr, Shmuel. ''Jewish Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation, and Diminutive Forms''. Edited by Chaim Freedman. Avotaynu, 1992. * Hertz, Deborah. ''Jewish High Society in Old Regime Berlin''. Syracuse Univ. Press, 2005. * Hertz, Deborah. ''How Jews Became German''. Yale UP, 2006. * Idelson-Shein, Iris
"What have I to do with Wild Animals?": Glikl Bas Leib and the Other Woman. Eighteenth Century Studies 44.1
2010. * Kaganoff, Benzion C. ''A Dictionary of Jewish Names and Their History''. Jason Aronson, 1996. * Kaplan, Marion A. ''Jewish Daily Life in Germany: 1618-1945''. Oxford Univ. Press, 2011. *Kaplan, Marion A. ''The Jewish Feminist Movement in Germany: The Campaigns of the Jüdischer Frauenbund, 1904-1938''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979. * Kirsch, Adam. ''The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature''. W.W. Norton & Company, 2017. * Liptzin, Solomon. ''A History of Yiddish Literature'', Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, . * Lowenthal, Martin, trans. ''The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln''. Random House, 1989. * Moseley, Marcus. ''Being for Myself Alone: Origins of Jewish Autobiography''. Stanford University Press, 2006. * Note, Joris: Vanwege mijn hartepijn, De Brakke Hond, No. 81, 1989. * Rabinovitz, A.Z., Introduction to the Hebrew Translation of "Memories of Glikl," זכרונות גליקל, Dvir, Tel Aviv, 1929. * Randall, Ronne, and Mandy Ross, eds. ''For Generations: Jewish Motherhood''. Nottingham: Five Leaves in Association with European Jewish Publication Society, 2005. * Riemer, Nathanael, Some parallels of stories in Glikls of Hameln "Zikhroynes". In
PaRDeS. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e.V. (2008) 14, p. 125-148.
* Schechter, Solomon. ''Studies in Judaism''. Second Series. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1938. * Taitz, Emily. ''Remarkable Jewish Women: Rebels, Rabbis, and Other Women from Biblical Times to Present''. Biblio Press, 2002. * Teplitsky, Joshua. Messianic Hope in Hamburg, 1666], in: ''Key Documents of German-Jewish History'', February 13, 2018. * Turniansky, Chava
"Glueckel of Hameln."
Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. January 4, 2010. * Umansky, Ellen M. ''Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Sourcebook''. Beacon Press, 1992. * Wiesner, Merry E. ''Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe''. Cambridge University Press, 2008. * Winston, Margoa. ''Glückel Von Hameln a Dramatization of Her Autobiography''. Behrmans Jewish Book House, 1941. * Wunder, Heide. ''He Is the Sun, She Is the Moon: Women in Early Modern Germany''. Harvard University Press, 1998.


External links

*This article draws on the :he:גליקל מהמלין, corresponding article in the Hebrew Wikipedia, retrieved February 22, 2004.
"Glückel of Hameln: Businesswoman," ''Jewish Heritage Online Magazine''

Who Was Gluckel of Hameln?
by Dr. Henry Abramson
Glückel von Hameln at "Other Women's Voices"

Glikl bas Judah Leib (Gluckel of Hameln), excerpt from her memoirs on "Early Modern Notes"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gluckel Of Hameln 1646 births 1724 deaths 18th-century German women writers Yiddish-language writers German memoirists Yiddish 18th-century Jews Jewish women writers Women memoirists Jewish German writers 18th-century German businesswomen Jewish women in business 17th-century German businesswomen 17th-century diarists 18th-century diarists