Listing of the pogroms against the Jewish communities of Switzerland in 1802 and the proclamation of a fast day. ...

Listing of the pogroms against the Jewish communities of Switzerland in 1802 and the proclamation of a fast day. Initial and unique record of this event from the history of these communities. Document of paramount importance to the history of Swiss Jewry.
In 1801, following local unrest, the longstanding Jewish communities of Endingen and Lengnau in Surb River Valley were in danger of destruction at the hands of the local villagers, who wanted their money and even their lives. Ultimately, with divine providence the communities were saved and in commemoration of the events, the communities declared an annual fast day. These events, including the declaration of the annual fast day, are recorded in several sources, both Jewish and gentile.

This unique document, recorded by one of the community elders, records the events shortly after they happened, was written on a flyleaf of a Homburg machzor in the Ashkenazi tradition, printed in 1737.

On one side of the leaf are the words, “It protects all who sign in it, therefore I signed my name, Shmuel Troyes, 1 Adar Bet, 1813.” On the other side of the leaf is the record of the events and the proclamation of the fast day by the head of the Beit Din, Rabbi Raphael Ris Hagenthal, who died in Iyar 1813.