The Jews of Stühlingen

10-11

Ralph

December 26, 2016

Gugenheimb

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 By far the largest Jewish family in Stühlingen, the least risk aversive, and the most rambunctious were the Gugenheimbs. The origin of the Gugenheimb family is also uncertain. The earliest Gugenheimbs were not among the signatories of the 1610 debt certificate, but Jerkuffen (Jacob, G1) appears on the 1615 letter of protection. It has been argued23 that Jekhuffen was Jacob Gugenheim, son of the Josef Gugenheim of Frankfurt described in Ele Toldot.24 Josef probably died during the Fettmilch uprising.25

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 According to Ele Toldot, Jacob married a Merga from Alsace in 1609, and according to the Frankfurt Jews’ list, Jacob and his wife were still listed as residents in 1619. Such information would probably exclude him as a resident of Stühlingen during that period. However, Ettlinger himself questions the validity of the 1619 Jews’ list26 that was reconstructed after the Fettmilch uprising. Josef’s father is listed as “Teacher Kiwe,” the famous rabbi Akiva Frankfurter. Ettlinger seems to base this paternity only on the fact that Akiva had lived in the house “zur Flasche” (bottle) until­ 1560, when he moved to the house “zur Traube” (grape), and Jacob lived in the house “zur Flasche” at the time of his death in 1614. No other evidence for the relationship has been cited. John Berkovitch has suggested that the family name Gugenheim derives from the place name Jugenheim in Hesse via palatalization of the palatal approximant “j” to “g.”27 In fact, a Joseph, son of Abraham of Jugenheim, came from Bingen to attend the 1600 and 1603 synods of German rabbis and signed the decrees.28 But Joseph was no scholar; he demanded that the decrees be translated for him before signing, since he did not understand Hebrew.29 Jacob/Jekhuff Gugenheim/Gugenheimb could have come from Frankfurt to Stühlingen between 1610 and 1615 along the old trade route southward from Frankfurt;30 but plausibility is not evidence.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0  

23John Berkovitch, personal communication.

24Ettlinger, part C, Hauptteil (Personalblätter), E. 1600–19, “Josef Gugenheim 1614 oder 1615?”

25Ulmer, “Turmoil, Trauma and Triumph.”

26Ettlinger, Abkürzungen, Li. 1619.

27John Berkovitch, personal communication; Bhat, “A General Study of Palatalization,”

28Zimmer, Jewish Synods, 190–1.

29Ibid., 98.

30Ranke, “Die wirtschaftlichen Beziehungen,” 000. <pg #?>