Abraham Meldola

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Abraham Meldola (born February 13, 1754 in Amsterdam ; died November 25, 1826 there ) was a writer , translator and chasan as well as the first Jewish notary in Germany.

Life

Abraham Medola was the son of the Amsterdam rabbi and scholar David de Refael Meldola (born in Livorno in 1714, died in 1818).

Meldola, who belonged to the Sephardic direction of Judaism , studied at the University of Leiden and also completed an apprenticeship at the Amsterdam Talmud School . From 1772 he was based in Altona and worked there as cantor of the local Portuguese-Jewish community, as the Sephardim called themselves there. From the mid-1780s he was also active in the same position at the Hamburg Portuguese-Jewish community. He also worked as a translator for the Hebrew, Portuguese and Dutch languages. In 1791 he moved to Hamburg .

In addition to his work as a cantor and translator, he was also a scientist and published a Portuguese grammar in 1785 .

Although the Imperial Notarial Regulations of 1512 reserved the office of Christian notary, he was the first Jew to be appointed imperial notary in 1782. After the Hamburg Jews were given full civil rights during the French era , he was one of the eleven (of over one hundred previous imperial notaries) who were taken over by the occupying power under the new notarial regulations and who were able to continue to exercise their office. The City Council of Hamburg also appointed him as a notary with the enactment of the new notary regulations of February 23, 1816, although these regulations named citizenship as a mandatory requirement and the Jews lost this after the restoration of the old legal system. The background to this was that due to the relatively high Jewish population of around 6 percent, notaries were needed who were familiar with Jewish forms and rituals in legal transactions as well as Jewish marriage and inheritance law. He formed an office community with his fellow believer, Meyer Israel Bresselau , who was appointed notary in 1811.

After 1822 he moved back to his hometown. He died there four years later.

Works

  • A palavra dada he mister manter-, ou hum virtuoso acarea outros. Comedia para a juventude, em hum acto. Voltado do alaman em Portugues by Abraham Meldola. Hamburg 1780.
  • Traducción de las cartas mercantiles y morales de JC Sinapius en Espanol y Portuguez. Hamburg 1784.
  • Nova Grammatica Portugueza. Hamburg 1785.
  • Thanksgiving speech for the happy salvation Sr. Königl. Majesty Christian VII and his royal Family from the fire of Christiansburg Castle in Copenhagen. Altona 1794.
  • Mozaisch empty space benevens de XIII. geloofsgronden from the Mozaische Godsdienst. In the Hoogduitsch signed by Abraham Meldola. Amsterdam 1823.

literature

  • Jutta Braden: Meldola, Abraham. In: The Jewish Hamburg. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0004-0 , p. 188.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (editor): Hamburgische Biografie. Lexicon of persons. Part 2. Christians, Hamburg 2003, p. 279.
  2. ^ Rainer Postel , Helmut Stubbe da Luz : The notaries Johann Heinrich Hübbe, Eduard Schramm, Gabriel Riesser, Hans-Harder Biermann-Ratjen. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2001, ISBN 3-86108-797-9 , p. 77.
  3. ↑ cf. Postel / Stubbe da Luz: The notaries Johann Heinrich Hübbe, Eduard Schramm, Gabriel Riesser, Hans-Harder Biermann-Ratjen. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2001, p. 33.
personal data
SURNAME Meldola, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Notary in Hamburg / Altona
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1826
Place of death Amsterdam