Manuscripts belonging to the Jewish Community of Copenhagen

Since the mid-1980’s, parts of the manuscript collection, with provenance in the Jewish Community of Copenhagen, have been deposited in the Royal Library. The deposit consist of app. 125 manuscripts, covering haggadot (the Passover liturgy), mohel books (circumcision liturgies), megillot (Esther scrolls), marriage contracts etc.

The so-called Copenhagen Haggadah (shelf mark: MT9) is beyond doubt the most famous of these manuscripts, also from the facsimile editions that have been produced. But also other manuscripts have attracted attention, such as a version of Isak Euchel’s play Reb Henoch, oder: Woss tut me damit, which upon its discovery became the basis for a scholarly edition (for references, see below). There is no complete register of the collection, but in 1964 The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jerusalem, listed and microfilmed the manuscripts then in the Jewish Community’s keeping. The list is available in IMHM’s database, available on the internet (the Community collection can be found through "Call no. Custodian no." = "COPEN COM").

Apart from the deposit in the Royal Library, manuscripts with provenance in the Jewish Community can be found in
- the Jewish Community’s Archives kept in the State Archives, Copenhagen (archival number: 10.411)
- The Samson/Copenhagen Judaica Collection, Stanford University.

Manuscripts of Danish Jewish provenance can also be found in The Royal Library’s Judaica Collection, and in the collections of the Danish Jewish Museum.

For all manuscripts in the deposit, permission for reproductions etc. should be obtained from Det Mosaiske Troessamfund (The Jewish Community), ensuing orders for scans etc. should be sent to The Photographic Studio of the Royal Library (fa@kb.dk).

Referencer

List of photocopies in the institute. Vol. 2:  Hebrew Manuscripts in the libraries of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, by N. Allony and E. Kupfer, Jerusalem: The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, 1964.

Euchel, Isaak: Reb Henoch, oder: Woss tut me damit: eine jüdische Komödie der Aufklärungszeit / Textedition von Marion Aptroot und Roland Gruschka; mit einleitenden Beiträgen von Marion Aptroot ... [et al.]. – Hamburg: Helmut Buske, 2004