<b>(GERMANY).<br />F&uuml;rth Memorbuch. A Yizkor - Memorial Volume, 1650-1828.</b> <br /> <br /> <br /> <span>Hebrew Manuscript written on vellum in square and cursive calligraphic in various Ashkenazic hands. With several hundred entries of names.</span> <br />pp. 152. Lightly stained in places. Later calf retaining earlier covers, rubbed. 4to. <br />F&uuml;rth: 1650-1828 <br /> <br /> <br />This wonderful manuscript is the Memorbuch used by the community of F&uuml;rth on Sabbaths and Festivals when the Yizkor memorial service was recited. It is ripe with genealogical, onomastic, and historical information of generations of Jews from this Bavarian city and its surrounding communities. The volume begins with the prayers following the reading of the Torah and then provides a list of names of Ashkenazic sages and communal leaders from centuries past. The second entry is for Rabbeinu Gershom Me’or HaGolah of the 11th century, the fourth is for Rashi (“for he enlightened the eyes of those in the exile with his commentaries”), and the fifth, his grandsons the Tosafists Rabbeinu Tam and Rashba’m. Earliest is a prayer for Rabbi Shlomo and Madam Rachel, “for they acquired the cemetery of Mayence, toiled for the communities, and annulled [unfavorable] decrees.” Following this are hundreds of entries for rabbis, communal leaders, philanthropists, scholars, men and women of high standing and renown in F&uuml;rth. These entries are written in a variety of handsome hands over a period of nearly two centuries. Many of the entries record the good qualities and deeds of these individuals and thus an insight is provided whereby names can be seen as actual individuals. The final entry is from January of 1828: “Remember O God, the soul of an upstanding man, a leader of our community, the Chaver Shmuel the son of the Chaver Yitzchak of Stuttgart, for his fine qualities, honesty, and faithful service to the community. He distributed an abundance of funds to the poor and to scholars. His widow and children donate charity for his soul.” Following this are a few blank folios for entries never made, and then a lengthy section of Yizkor prayers in memory of martyrs from towns throughout Germany and Poland: 39 German towns and cities are recorded and 35 Polish locations named. Communities afflicted by the Chmelnitsky massacres of 1648-49 and pogroms in the 1650’s are of course noted, yet the martyrs of Poland are also disturbingly recent in date. Jews were first mentioned in connection with F&uuml;rth in 1440. Later dispersed, the community was augmented at the end of the Thirty Years' War (1614-48). Its cemetery dates from 1607; the first synagogue was built in 1617. This aesthetically pleasing manuscript is unique and preserves names, history, and Jewish customs, which would otherwise be lost to time.