Goldschmidt Basel
The Goldschmidt Basel AG , formerly Victor Goldschmidt Jewish bookstore and publishing house is, one in Basel -based publishing company, which is mainly dedicated to the care of the Jewish book, but also music and rituals has on offer. So far about 60 titles have been published by the book publisher.
history
The Passover Meir Goldschmidt, who came from a respected Soferim family, immigrated to Switzerland from Plungiany ( Lithuania ) in 1900 and opened a small shop in Basel at Spalenberg 43 in 1902 with a few books, mainly siddurim , as well as the most common cult objects on offer . In addition, he continued to work as a sofer, wrote a Sefer Torah , Mezusot , Megillot , Ketubbot etc. He died in 1924 at the age of only 47, so that his son, Victor (Pinchas) Goldschmidt (he managed the business from 1927 to 1973 ), was forced to enter his father's business at an early age. Before that, he had been able to complete a two-year training as a sofer and regularly learned in the yeshiva from Rav Joseph Breuer. Since Victor Goldschmidt's entry into the small business, the range has grown slowly but steadily.
In 1925 the business moved to Kornhausgasse 10, in 1936 to Kanonengasse 15 and finally in 1940 to Mostackerstrasse 17, where the company is still located today.
After the end of World War II , sales grew significantly. Because the Nazis had destroyed all Jewish cultural assets that they could get hold of, there were hardly any books with Jewish-religious content in the German language, especially Siddurim, Chumaschim, Machsorim etc. Victor Goldschmidt saw his real life task in the publication of such books. In 1951 he founded the Victor Goldschmidt publishing house and published the first Rödelheimer editions to appear again after the war , which had a first-class reputation (error-free, good German, clean print image, clear layout). Later he was able to buy existing rights from other publishers ( Kauffmann & Lehrberger , Frankfurt am Main).
Victor Goldschmidt's son, Salomon Goldschmidt, had to start the business in 1957 as a young, inexperienced man due to a serious illness in his father. The second son, Raw Pessach Meir Goldschmidt jun., Also Sofer and today Rosch Koilel in Kirjat Sefer , entered the business in 1960 and ran it until 1991. He had completed an apprenticeship as an offset printer, but stayed on as a Sofer active and mainly wrote Gittin .
In 1955, the publishing house opened a small branch in Zurich that existed for forty years and was operationally managed by Aba Wolff and at the forefront of store sales.
In 1973 Victor Goldschmidt died and Salomon Goldschmidt became the new owner. A few years ago the company also opened a web shop and a good collaboration developed with Morascha-Verlag, which also publishes Jewish-religious literature, including the works of Samson Raphael Hirsch . In the spring of 2011 Salomon Goldschmidt withdrew from the business, ending an era and a piece of family history.
The legal successor is Goldschmidt Basel AG under the management of Esra Weill.
literature
- Salomon Goldschmidt: From Plungian to Basel. A bookstore and a publisher through the ages . Goldschmidt Basel, Basel 2020, ISBN 978-3-85705-083-1 .
Web links
swell
- Die Jüdische Zeitung , Zurich, June 24, 2011, pp. 15–18