The Life of Glückel of Hameln, Written by Herself. Translated from the original Yiddish and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams. New edition published in hardcover by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2010. <www.jewishpub.org>
If, as historian Jacob Shatzky once observed, catastrophe of one sort or another has been the usual impetus for the bulk of Jewish autobiographical writing, the celebrated chronicles left to us by Glückel of Hameln (1646–1724) are no exception.
The pious Glückel took up her quill in 1689 after the accidental death of her beloved husband, Chaim Segal of Hameln, who succumbed to internal injuries after falling on a slippery pavement. Beginning with the aim of “distracting my soul from the burdens laid upon it,” she wrote seven small books of memoirs over many years, strictly for the benefit of her dozen children.
Hailed as the first autobiography in Jewish letters by a woman, Glückel ’s memoirs provide a warm, intimate, and unique glimpse of her family and commercial affairs over an extended period. She writes with great candor whether the subject is finding desirable matches and dowries for her children, or suitable partners and equity for new business ventures. She possessed a shrewd business sense and was deeply involved in most of Chaim’s mercantile activities despite the demands of motherhood.
Glückel ’s memoir “is a cross-section of Jewish history in the Germany of her time,” writes Beth-Zion Abrahams in an introduction. It also provides a good sociological portrait of the harsh and difficult conditions under which the Jews lived and were permitted to conduct business. Further, it contains enough genealogical information to allow roots-minded readers to sketch out an extensive family tree. The book has proven invaluable to numerous contemporary researchers seeking information about their lineages.
Besides her first husband, Reb Chaim Segal, Glückel describes her second husband, Hirsch Levy, a banker who was president of the Jewish community of Metz, as well as a dozen or so children and their families. Glückel mentions numerous leading German-Jewish families to whom she was connected by blood, marriage, or business ties; they include Jost Lieberman the court Jew, and Glückel ’s brother-in-law, Lipman Cohen, known in official German circles as Leffman Behrens.
A highly intelligent, independent, and wise woman, Glückel probably couldn’t have imagined that the seven little books she penned for her children’s edification would ever have merited publication. Like Anne Frank’s diary, her memoir falls into a category of literature sometimes defined as “unconscious autobiography”—that is, writing not meant for publication.
Surprisingly, the book was kept within the relatively narrow circle of her own family for two centuries. What is less surprising is the level of discussion and scholarship it aroused after its first publication in 1896. It has been reprinted numerous times since—now in this welcome edition from JPS. No doubt Glückel would have been amazed to know that her memoir has earned a hallowed place on the shelf of Jewish autobiographical literature. She stands as a fine model today for anyone with the notion that their knowledge of family history is worth recording.
– Book review by Bill Gladstone
