2024-03-28T12:16:21Z
https://keydocuments.net/oai
oai:jgo:source-135.en
2017-03-22T00:00:00Z
en
The “Israelitisches Familienblatt” and Its Support of Jewish Ceremonial Art, September 20, 1928
https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-135.en.v1
Leo I. Lessmann
Institute for the History of the German Jews
Online Ressource
This announcement from the Israelitisches Familienblatt [Israelite
Family Paper] no. 38, September 20, 1928, supplement “Aus alter und
neuer Zeit” [“Times Old and New”] no. 27, is more than just an
advertisement calling for participation in a contest by stressing the
valuable prizes to be won. For it also gives the reasons for selecting
these particular prizes. The author and designer of this contest, one
of a series held by the paper, is identified only as the “publisher
and editor.” It is safe to assume that the detailed texts for these
contests were written by Leo I. Lessmann, the paper’s publisher.
They reflect his interest in reviving Jewish tradition and spreading
knowledge about Jewish religious practice.
Leo I. Lessmann was born in 1891 in Altona. After his return from the
First World War, he took over the Israelitisches Familienblatt, which
his father, Max Lessmann, had founded. He was an Orthodox Jew and a
member of the Neue Dammtor Synagogue’s Neue Dammtor-Synagoge
administration. Between 1926 and 1932, the Israelitisches
Familienblatt, a Jewish newspaper published in Hamburg and distributed
nationwide, offered challenging contests that were very popular.
Solving them required knowledge on Jewish culture and religion, and
the prizes consisted mostly in valuable ritual objects for domestic
religious practice as well as in paintings and books related to Jewish
religion and culture. The many prizes offered were both very desirable
and precious.
2017-03-22