The Jews of Stühlingen

10. Le-Dor va-Dor

Ralph

December 26, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 The Hebrew formula Le-Dor va-Dor (from generation to generation)1 en­cap­su­la­tes the central theme of ge­ne­ra­tio­nal con­ti­nui­ty in Judaism. Adam’s des­cen­dant tree is the first genealogy of the Torah, and such trees are found throughout the Tanakh (Hebrew bible). In the essay “Seder Tanaim ve-Amoraim,” written in Arabic, Joseph ben Juda ibn Aknin (1150–1220) extended this preoccupation with generational continuity even to the teacher-disciple lineage of Talmudic scholars.2 This genealogical concept has even been applied to the field of mathematicians in this century; as of Dec. 27 2016, the Mathematics Genealogy Project lists 206’552 individuals in its academic genealogy.3

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 The goal of this chapter, by far much more modest than the previous ones, is to trace the lineage of the Stühlingen Jews between 1600 and 1743. As in the biblical lineages, this chapter too will have a major deficiency: women are mentioned infrequently in municipal, county, and court records, our major sources. Named women are even rarer; more commonly they appear as “daughter of …,” “sister of …,” or “wife of …” However, we will make every effort to trace women whenever possible.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 The little information available indicates a high degree of intermarriage among the established Jewish families in Stühlingen and the families in surrounding communities. This would also help to explain the high prevalence of such given names as Marum and Lehemann in the families, a result of name diffusion from both paternal and maternal lines. In essence, the Jews in Stühlingen were all related to each other in one way or another. This practice of endogamy too has biblical roots.4

1Cf. Deut. 32:7.

2Judah and Reifmann, “Mavo Ha-Talmud.”

3“Mathematics Genealogy Project.”

4Cf. Num. 27:1–11.