Yehuda de Mordechai Cassuto

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jehuda de Mordechai Cassuto , pseudonym: Leon Quiroz, (born on September 4, 1808 in Amsterdam ; died on March 11, 1893 in Hamburg ) was a Hamburg chasan , rabbi , translator and author .

Live and act

The ancestors of Jehuda de Mordechai Cassuto originally came from Livorno, Italy . Jehuda de Mordechai Cassuto was born in Amsterdam, where he spent childhood and youth in an orphanage. His father, Mordechai Cassuto, had died early. Around 1827 he went to Hamburg, where he worked as Chasan and Rabbi ( Chacham ) for the Portuguese-Jewish community until 1893 . He was also the administrator of the Guemilut Hassadim Brotherhood of the community. At that time the parish consisted of only 30 families.

During the Hamburg fire in 1842 he was able to save the log book of the community ( Livro da Nação ). He was also involved in the community's guemilut association and was its administrator until death. On September 19, 1877 he celebrated his 50th service anniversary. On this occasion, parishioners presented him with a valuable silver writing instrument.

Jehuda de Mordechai Cassutos was married three times: with the sisters Rahel (died 1832), Sara (died 1838) and Lea de Rocamora (died 1883).

Cassuto and Lea de Rocamora were buried in the Jewish cemetery on Grindel , where their graves were located until the Nazi era . In 1937 Jehuda, Rahel and Sara were reburied in the New Portuguese Cemetery in Ilandkoppel . His gravestone reads in both Hebrew and Portuguese: “And you will be missed because your seat will be empty. Tomb of the blessed Yehuda, [son] of Mordechai Cassuto, who provided sacred service to the Holy Congregation of Bet Israel 65 years and 6 months. Died on Adar 23, 5653 at the age of 84 1/2 years. May his soul rejoice in eternal peace ”.

Cassuto's service contract is recorded in the log book of the Portuguese community.

In the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums ) in 1838 his work was honored: “Where can such a belief still be found in Israel? In addition, in the person of Mr. Jehuda Cassuto they have a man of many different kinds . - - <sic> In addition to religion, etc., he teaches in six living languages, and, although the father of a family, provides the Chasan office, which is far more busy with business than ours, for an insignificant salary, and also represents the rabbinical office, like the children of the poor taught religion etc. free of charge, Sóchra lo Elohim letohá! . "

Translation agency

Cassuto, who was considered to be extremely well-educated and gifted with languages, mostly earned his living by teaching languages ​​and translating. His translation Colmena Española (Beehive) or Spanish Reader comes from 1854 . A collection of easy reading pieces, anecdotes, stories, fragments from natural history, idiotisms, etc. For the book in Spanish he used the pseudonym Leon Quiros. In 1858 a second edition was published with the title Practical Grammar of the Spanish Language as It is Now Spoken, together with a reader . After his death, the translation agency managed by Cassuto was taken over by his son Isaac Cassuto (1848–1923) and grandson Jehuda Leon Cassuto, who continued it successfully until 1933.

On his death, Jehuda de Mordechai Cassuto left an important collection of Sephardic books, which Isaac Cassuto and Jehuda Cassuto's great-grandson Alfonso Cassuto (1910–1990) expanded considerably. The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana of the University of Amsterdam acquired them in 1974 from Cassuto's great-grandson Alfonso.

Fonts

  • Under the pseudonym "Leon Quiros": Colmena Española (Beehive) or Spanish Reader. A collection of easy reading pieces, anecdotes, stories, fragments from natural history, idiotisms, etc. Hamburg 1854; Second edition under the title Practical grammar of the Spanish language, as it is now spoken, together with a reader. 1858.

Web links

literature

  • The rite of the Portuguese synagogue. In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson , 2nd year, no. 11, Leipzig 1838, pp. 42-44.
  • Hans Schröder : Lexicon of the Hamburg writers up to the present. Volume VI, Hamburg 1873, p. 134.
  • Ulrich Bauche : Four hundred years of Jews in Hamburg. An exhibition by the Museum of Hamburg History. Hamburg 1991, p. 177.
  • Michael Studemund-Halévy : Alfonso Cassuto and the Portuguese Cemetery on Königstrasse. In: Michael Studemund-Halévy (Ed.): The Sefarden in Hamburg. On the history of a minority, Volume 2, Hamburg 1997.
  • Michael Studemund-Halévy: Cassuto, Jehuda de Mordechai . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 74-75 .
  • Entry CASSUTO, Jehuda. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (editors), edited by Carsten Wilke : Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781-1871. K G Saur, Munich 2004, p. 227 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Photos of the Portuguese-Hanseatic Society.
  2. ^ According to: Michael Studemund-Halévy: Portuguese grave inscriptions from the Grindelfriedhof. In: Ders .: The New Portuguese Cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf. 2004.
  3. ↑ The Rite of the Portuguese Synagogue. In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests. II. Year, No. 11, Leipzig 1838, p. 42.
personal data
SURNAME Cassuto, Yehuda de Mordechai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quiroz, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch chasan, rabbi, translator and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1893
Place of death Hamburg