Gluckel of Hameln was a seventeenth century Jewish woman from Hamburg who wrote a lengthy memoir in Yiddish. While she was not a famous person in her time, Gluckel’s memoir has been regarded as one of the most important documents for European Jewish history, of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and the earliest autobiography written by a Jewish woman. Beginning in 1690, Gluckel’s diary of a German Jewish widow is addressed to her fourteen children, and is written as an undertaking as a kind of therapy after her husband’s death, to get her through her sadness and, “melancholy thoughts.
She writes to her children reassuring them that she is not writing these memoirs as a book of morals, but rather the memoir is an attempt to include her children into her experiences, memories and life. In her memoir she explains how she directed the financial and personal destinies of her children, how she engaged in trade, while promoting the welfare of her large family. Gluckel’s memoir enables a reader to gain an understanding of what a widowed Jewish woman would face in Christian dominated Germany both from a personal and public perspective throughout seventeenth and eighteenth century.
Throughout her memoirs Gluckel describes the worries that a mother would have over her children, her relations with both her first and second husband while addressing the responsibilities she faced as a businesswoman. Gluckel arranged her life narrative in seven books. The first four books and the opening section of the fifth book have been written consecutively in the months or year of mourning after Haim’s (her first husbands) death in 1689.
The rest of Book 5 was written during the decade of the 1690’s but given final form after her second marriage. The sixth book was written in 1702 or shortly afterward, during the initial shock of Hirsch Levy’s (Gluckel’s second husbands) bankruptcy in Metz, and the seventh and final book was composed in 1715, during her second widowhood, with a final paragraph from 1719 before her death. Gluckel has conveniently broken down her narratives in seven books, which help the reader clearly identify with individual aspects occurring in her life.
In her memoirs Gluckel thoroughly encompasses a social, cultural and economical perspective about her life as a Jewish woman while contrasting it to Christian ways which dominated Germany during both 17th and 18th century. By examining Gluckel’s memoirs the reader is placed first hand into the life of a Jewish woman, who although has many responsibilities still feels the importance in explaining in detail, her experiences to her children as a mother and businesswoman.
Gluckel’s role as a mother is an influential reason why she wrote her memoirs to begin with. Gluckel particularly wrote her memoirs to her children to guide them in their ways not morally but rather through her own experiences. Gluckel writes in book one of her memoirs: I am not writing this book in order to preach to you, but, as I have already said, to drive away the melancholy that comes with the long nights. So far as my memory and the subject permit, I shall try to tell everything that has happened to me from my youth upward.
Not that I wish to put on airs or pose as a good and pious woman. No, dear children, I am a sinner. Every day, every hour, and every moment of my life I have sinned, nearly all manner of sins. God grant I may find the means and occasion for repentance. But alas, the cares of providing for my orphaned children, and the ways of the world, have kept me far from that state. Gluckel’s role as a Jewish mother is greatly influenced by the Christian community and cultural setting around her.
As Natalie Zemon Davis writes in her book, Women on the Margin Gluckel’s autobiography to her children is very similar to Christian autobiographies written in seventeenth and eighteenth century in Germany. Davis contrasts the two types of autobiographies by explaining that, “Jewish life histories were given a frame of family interest, recording something of past generations and elaborating on the preset so that children would know where they came from and be guided in how to live.
Throughout her memoirs Gluckel directly addresses her “dear children,” her “beloved children” several times in her manuscript. Gluckel has made it a keen interest to explain to her children that keeping family history alive is very important and that knowing their culture is what will keep the family generations precious. Gluckel emphasizes to her children that she is writing her memoirs, “so that if today or tomorrow your dear children or grandchildren come and do not know about their family, I have recorded here briefly who their people are.
What is of great importance when analyzing the method in which Gluckel writes her motherly narrative is the genre in which her memoirs unfold. Comparing Christian style of family history autobiographies to that of Gluckel’s methods enables the reader to understand Gluckel’s blend of memoir and story. Davis argues that, “Christian life history was often a spin-off from an account book and or from a record of births, marriages, and deaths penned into a book of hours, Bible, religious calendar or other devotional text.
Such a method of writing is not visible in Gluckel’s memoirs, but rather Jewish life history was written based on personal wisdom passed on to ones children from ancestors. Therefore from a parental perspective Gluckel’s method of writing included words of wisdom, and moral lessons which are the key in setting out history. Gluckel’s main purpose for writing her memoirs was to inform her children of her life experiences and to do that she chose an autobiographical genre, which emphasized Jewish history.
Gluckel’s writing fostered, “centuries-old ethical will, an exposition of moral lessons and personal wisdom passed on to one’s children along with instruction for one’s burial and the disposition of one’s goods. ” Being a businesswoman was very common for many Jewish widows and wives. As Gluckel refers to it in her book to be a business women was considered to be that of a prestigious role, since a wife was helping her husband, or was working to support her family. Among the German Jews throughout seventeenth and eighteenth century it was expected that women worked.
In the case of Gluckel and the passing of her husband in 1689, Gluckel is left managing the family business while taking on the role of businesswomen. Gluckel writes in her fifth book, “As for the family business, Haim had felt no need to make any executor or guardians. ” Therefore Gluckel assumed responsibility herself. Throughout her novel Gluckel emphasizes that many German Jewish women were left minding the family business. In book five she discusses other resourceful matrons such as Esther Mattie who Gluckel describes as, “A pious, honorable woman who always went to fairs.
Gluckel continues to give examples of other widows such as the Baruch of Berlin, “who still remained fully in business after her husband’s death. ” Jewish businesswomen were assumed to be honorable for travelling to the fairs abroad to sell their merchandise. Contrary to Jewish ways, Davis argues that Christian women in renaissance Germany ordinarily stayed within the city walls, playing an active role in the retail sector. However, in 17th and 18th century a few Christian women in Hamburg did attend to their husbands’ firms until their sons were old enough to take over.
But it was very unlikely that a business as extensive as Haims’ (Gluckel’s first husband) would have been left to a woman. Rather it would be left to male workers/ relatives while women themselves used their time to take part in leisure activities such as taking care of the household or going to Church. It wasn’t viewed to be flattering for Christian women being dominant members of society to be fully involved in male labor. Whereas, Jewish individuals viewed to be subordinates to the rest of society were assumed to take any role to bring home an income.
The Jewish women travelling to the fairs to sell their goods did not detract from a woman’s reputation but on the contrary if a woman made as much money as Gluckel did, it brought additional marriage proposals, because it showed a woman’s commitment to her husband. Therefore in her memoirs Gluckel uses her experiences as a businesswoman to teach her children the value of hard work. But as Davis emphasizes in her book the role of businesswomen was very contrast between the German Jewish women such as the widowed Gluckel and the German Christian women during seventeenth and eighteenth century Germany.
The comparison of German Jewish women’s lives to that of German Christian women’s lives, using the primary source of Gluckel of Hameln is the focus of analysis. This source says a great deal about the attitudes structures beliefs and concerns prevalent during this time period. Gluckel emphasizes that there were many great differences between the lives of Jewish women and Christian women and the two have been analyzed in the above pages. This document shows that there were two co-existing conditions of life, which existed in Hamburg during this time.
There was the condition of life available to the Jews and there was the life, which existed to the Christians. Jews had no right of residence in Hamburg and many were living there purely at the mercy of the Town Council, who granted them temporary residence citizens for work purposes. The difficulties besetting the Jews everywhere, the endless threats they were subjected to, the need for special papers and permits of residence, was a constant backdrop, which Gluckel describes in her memoirs.
Gluckel characterizes the situation in Hamburg as, “From time to time we enjoyed peace, and again we were hunted forth; and so it has been to this day and I fear, will continue in like fashion as long as the burghers rule. ” Such a quote represents the fear in which Jews lived during this time in Hamburg. It was unknown what the days would bring them, or what their future would be like. Gluckel’s memoir tells a great deal about the conditions of life that the Jews faced in Hamburg.
Their inability to live as full citizens in the city placed them in a subordinate status, which is depicted in the memoirs. The personal memoir of Gluckel of Hameln is an invaluable source for historians, since the memoirs give us an understanding of Jewish middle classness, and the life and death matters which constituted Jewish life. These memoirs help us to understand the life of a Jewish woman in Hamburg, and the difficulties of everyday life, while showing us the expression of spirituality by a Jewish woman and revealing the importance of the preservation of Jewish self-identity.
Most importantly Gluckel’s accounts are a rich source for the understanding of social and cultural history of seventeenth century Europe. Gluckel wrote these memoirs as a way to instruct her children on the importance of prioritizing values, maintaining family and religious ties, while maintaining their Jewish identity in times of hardship. She writes, The best thing for you, my children, is to serve God from the heart, without falsehood or sham, not giving out to people that you are one thing while, God forbid, in your heart you are another. Say your prayers with awe and devotion.