Auction 66 - Rare and Important Items
Printed Booklet for a Bat-Mitzvah Ceremony – Dunedin, New Zealand, 1886 – The Southernmost Jewish Community in the World – Signature of the President of the Community Mr. Julius Hyman – The Only Known Copy in the World
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Sold for: $1,250
Including buyer's premium
A printed booklet – "Torat Emet", Confirmation Service, Catechism for Instruction in the Mosaic Religion, by the "Beit Israel" congregation. Dunedin (New Zealand), 1886. English with Hebrew verses.
The booklet comprises 29 questions and answers about the Jewish faith. It was printed for a Bat-Mitzvah ceremony that took place in Dunedin on Lag BaOmer (May 23) 1886, for nine girls of the Jewish community. It was the first ceremony of its kind in Dunedin (on the days preceding the ceremony, invitations were printed in the press of New Zealand, and a day after it, the Otago Daily Times published a long news item about it – see enclosed material).
A handwritten inscription on the endpaper: "First Confirmation Service after my returne from England", signed: "J. Hyman" (presumably, Mr. Julius Hyman, 1827-1911, the president of the Jewish community of Dunedin at the time. Born in Melbourne, Australia, a watchmaker and jeweler by profession, he arrived in Dunedin in 1862, during the Gold Rush in southern New Zealand. One of the prominent activists of the community since its early days, who founded and headed the Jewish Philanthropic Society of Otago and the Chevra Kadisha).
This is an interesting documentation of a Bat-Mitzvah ceremony which was common in several Jewish communities in Germany and its surroundings. The ceremony centered around the catechism – a manual arranged in the form of questions and answers presenting the principles of Judaism. The source of the ceremony, as indicated by its name (and the title of this booklet), is the Christian confirmation ceremony. The confirmation service confirms the child's entrance into religion with his or her adolescence. The idea of catechism is also borrowed from Christianity. To a large extent, the ceremony was adopted by Jewish communities due to the demands of the authorities. R. Yaakov Ettlinger, author of Aruch LaNer, performed a similar ceremony in Altona, twenty years before the ceremony documented in this booklet. The sermon that he delivered during the ceremony was printed in Responsa Binyan Zion HaShalem (vol. 2, section 107). In his sermon, the Aruch LaNer expressed his reservations regarding the ceremony and emphasized that unlike Christianity, in Judaism there is no need to accept the religion and confirm one's faith, since a child belongs to the Jewish religion from birth, and so he said: "The act for which we have gathered here is new to our community, and therefore I allow myself to explain its cause… the external form is that of the 'Confirmation' that is customary among those who believe in a different religion, but in essence it is very far from it. There the objective is that children accept religion and confirm their faith, but in Judaism there is no need for this at all… In Judaism there is no need for a festive-religious ceremony to confirm faith, since from the moment he is born, all the commandments of the Torah are imposed on him and in no manner can he detach himself from them. The act we perform here is not a kind of religious ritual, but only an exam in Judaic studies, and as a matter of fact, its place is not in the synagogue but rather in school, however, the law requires that it be performed in a synagogue…".
The first answer in this booklet emphasizes that one belongs to the Jewish People by right of birth, in the gist of the words of the Aruch LaNer. The question "What is the reason of your being present to-day in this Holy Place?" was answered by the girls as follows: "We are resolved to acknowledge ourselves as members of the Congregation of Israel, to which we already belong by right of birth".
The Dunedin community, the southernmost Jewish community in the world, was founded in 1862, after many Jews arrived there subsequent to the Gold Rush which began at that time. The synagogue ("Beit Israel") was inaugurated in 1864, and again in 1881.
It was a modern orthodox community which adopted the customs of the Jews of England and which was subordinate to the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
8 pages. 20.5 cm. Good condition. A few stains. The front endpaper (with the handwritten inscription) is detached. Stamp on title page. Cardboard binding, with damage.
No other copy is known. Not in OCLC. Not in the National Library of New Zealand nor in the Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout at the Victoria University of Wellington Library.
Printed material from New Zealand with Hebrew letters is extremely rare.
The booklet comprises 29 questions and answers about the Jewish faith. It was printed for a Bat-Mitzvah ceremony that took place in Dunedin on Lag BaOmer (May 23) 1886, for nine girls of the Jewish community. It was the first ceremony of its kind in Dunedin (on the days preceding the ceremony, invitations were printed in the press of New Zealand, and a day after it, the Otago Daily Times published a long news item about it – see enclosed material).
A handwritten inscription on the endpaper: "First Confirmation Service after my returne from England", signed: "J. Hyman" (presumably, Mr. Julius Hyman, 1827-1911, the president of the Jewish community of Dunedin at the time. Born in Melbourne, Australia, a watchmaker and jeweler by profession, he arrived in Dunedin in 1862, during the Gold Rush in southern New Zealand. One of the prominent activists of the community since its early days, who founded and headed the Jewish Philanthropic Society of Otago and the Chevra Kadisha).
This is an interesting documentation of a Bat-Mitzvah ceremony which was common in several Jewish communities in Germany and its surroundings. The ceremony centered around the catechism – a manual arranged in the form of questions and answers presenting the principles of Judaism. The source of the ceremony, as indicated by its name (and the title of this booklet), is the Christian confirmation ceremony. The confirmation service confirms the child's entrance into religion with his or her adolescence. The idea of catechism is also borrowed from Christianity. To a large extent, the ceremony was adopted by Jewish communities due to the demands of the authorities. R. Yaakov Ettlinger, author of Aruch LaNer, performed a similar ceremony in Altona, twenty years before the ceremony documented in this booklet. The sermon that he delivered during the ceremony was printed in Responsa Binyan Zion HaShalem (vol. 2, section 107). In his sermon, the Aruch LaNer expressed his reservations regarding the ceremony and emphasized that unlike Christianity, in Judaism there is no need to accept the religion and confirm one's faith, since a child belongs to the Jewish religion from birth, and so he said: "The act for which we have gathered here is new to our community, and therefore I allow myself to explain its cause… the external form is that of the 'Confirmation' that is customary among those who believe in a different religion, but in essence it is very far from it. There the objective is that children accept religion and confirm their faith, but in Judaism there is no need for this at all… In Judaism there is no need for a festive-religious ceremony to confirm faith, since from the moment he is born, all the commandments of the Torah are imposed on him and in no manner can he detach himself from them. The act we perform here is not a kind of religious ritual, but only an exam in Judaic studies, and as a matter of fact, its place is not in the synagogue but rather in school, however, the law requires that it be performed in a synagogue…".
The first answer in this booklet emphasizes that one belongs to the Jewish People by right of birth, in the gist of the words of the Aruch LaNer. The question "What is the reason of your being present to-day in this Holy Place?" was answered by the girls as follows: "We are resolved to acknowledge ourselves as members of the Congregation of Israel, to which we already belong by right of birth".
The Dunedin community, the southernmost Jewish community in the world, was founded in 1862, after many Jews arrived there subsequent to the Gold Rush which began at that time. The synagogue ("Beit Israel") was inaugurated in 1864, and again in 1881.
It was a modern orthodox community which adopted the customs of the Jews of England and which was subordinate to the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
8 pages. 20.5 cm. Good condition. A few stains. The front endpaper (with the handwritten inscription) is detached. Stamp on title page. Cardboard binding, with damage.
No other copy is known. Not in OCLC. Not in the National Library of New Zealand nor in the Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout at the Victoria University of Wellington Library.
Printed material from New Zealand with Hebrew letters is extremely rare.
Jewish Communities Worldwide and Americana
Jewish Communities Worldwide and Americana