Massacre of יהודים YEHUDIM during the Rintfleisch persecutions.

The complete surviving applicable register is presented from Siegmund Salfeld’s 1898 edition of the Nürnberger Memorbuch. Each עברית IVRIT passage is followed by a TJD English translation checked against the facsimile and Salfeld’s German rendering. This is a normalized reading transcription: printed wrapping, pointing and note numbers are omitted; abbreviation punctuation is normalized. Names, order, unnamed relatives and textual gaps are retained. Brackets in the original reproduce editorial restorations; English explanatory brackets are TJD’s. Medieval vernacular names sometimes admit more than one reading. R. preserves an honorific without assuming rabbinic ordination; Mistress renders the respectful title for women.

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

הרוגי בירכינגן אוי לירח אב נח לפרט:

ר׳ יהושע הלוי הזקן ואשתו מרת רכלין וג׳ בניו צפורה ומינא והנער מנחם הלוי. מרת שרה בת החבר ר׳ אליעזר הלוי ובנה אליעזר הלוי. החבר ר׳ אליעזר בר יחיאל ובתו מינא. ר׳ פריגורם ואשתו מרת מרים. ואחיו ר׳ שמואל ואחיו ר׳ מנחם ואחיו ר׳ יעקב. ר׳ שבתי הזקן ואחיו ר׳ קלונימוס ובנו ואחותו מרת ריבלין. ובן אחיו ר׳ אשר. ר׳ מנחם בר שמואל החבר ר׳ שמואל בר יצחק ובתו אודלחייט ואמו מרת אדלהייט הזקינה ונערה. ר׳ יצחק ואשתו מרת צרויה. ר׳ חייא בר אכשלרד ואשתו מרת חנה ואחיו ר׳ יעקב בחיי אביהם. ר׳ יוסף בר יצחק. ר׳ משה מאיר ואשתו מרת גוטלין וג׳ בניו:³

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

Those killed at Berching, “woe” [17] in the month of Av, [50]58 in the abbreviated reckoning:

R. Joshua the Levite, the elder, his wife Mistress Rechlin, and his three children: Zipporah, Minna and the boy Menahem the Levite. Mistress Sarah, daughter of the scholar R. Eliezer the Levite, and her son Eliezer the Levite. The scholar R. Eliezer son of Jehiel and his daughter Minna. R. Prigoros and his wife Mistress Miriam. His brother R. Samuel, his brother R. Menahem and his brother R. Jacob. R. Shabbatai the elder, his brother R. Kalonymos, his son and his sister Mistress Riblin. His brother’s son R. Asher. R. Menahem son of Samuel. The scholar R. Samuel son of Isaac, his daughter Adelheit, his mother Mistress Adelheit the elder, and a young girl. R. Isaac and his wife Mistress Zeruiah. R. Hiyya son of Axelrad, his wife Mistress Hannah, and his brother R. Jacob, during their father’s lifetime. R. Joseph son of Isaac. R. Moses Meir [possibly Moses son of Meir], his wife Mistress Gutlin and his three children.⁴

The entry records kinship across three generations. It also says that Hiyya and his brother Jacob were killed during their father’s lifetime: the father’s continued life belongs to the account of loss, rather than to the list of those killed. The town is Berching in Bavaria; its municipal historical account also records the 1298 massacre.⁵ The final Moses Meir is preserved with Salfeld’s suggested Moses son of Meir identified as a possible reading, not silently inserted into the Hebrew.⁶

Salfeld explains the word that carries the date:

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

Hds. אוי „Wehe“, bibl. Interjektion zur Bezeichnung des Datums, Zahlenwert 17; s. S. 170, N. 1.⁷

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

The manuscript has אוי, “woe,” a biblical interjection used to designate the date, with the numerical value 17; see page 170, note 1.⁸

The same letters communicate mourning and calendar placement: alef equals one, vav six and yod ten. Reading the word only as a cry of grief would lose the day of the month. Reading it only as seventeen would lose the memorial register’s language of mourning.

The heading gives אוי לירח אב נח לפרט: woe, numerically seventeen, in Av of year 58 of the abbreviated reckoning. This supplies י״ז באב ה׳נ״ח 17th 𝑜𝑓 Av, AM 5058. Salfeld prints Sunday, 27 July 1298; a fixed-calendar check gives Sunday, 27 July Julian / 3 August Gregorian. The weekday is supplied in brackets by Salfeld rather than written in the Hebrew heading.⁹

• What does using woe to encode seventeen preserve beyond an ordinary numerical date?
• How does the mention of a father who remained alive change the history of Hiyya and Jacob’s household?