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 מוזבך י״ח באב נח לפרט:

ר׳ אשר בר משה וזוגתו מרת חנה בת ר׳ נתן הלוי ור׳ יחיאל בנו וזוגתו מרת צרליף ובתו יכנט וחתנו ר׳ יהושע בר שמשון וזוגתו מרת צרויה וכלתו מרת ברונא בת ר׳ נתן ובנה אשר הנער. מרת שרה בת ר׳ שניאור הלוי ובנה יצחק הנער ובתה רחל. ר׳ יצחק הבחור בר שניאור הלוי וזוגתו מרת ברונא. מרת רחל בת ר׳ שמחה ובנה יעקב הלוי ובתה ברונא הבתולה. ר׳ פנטיר בר יהודה הלוי וזוגתו מרת חנה. הבחור ר׳ יצחק בר שמעון הלוי וזוגתו מרת רחל בת ר׳ יעקב הלוי ובתו הנערה ואחיו ר׳ משה ובנו נער. ר׳ שמחה בר שמואל הלוי וזוגתו מרת שונא וב׳ בניו. ר׳ שמואל הנקדן בר אלעזר וזוגתו מרת בת שבע בת החבר ר׳ משה הלוי וכלתו מרת שרה בת ר׳ יעקב הלוי ובתו ליבא הבתולה. ר׳ יהודה בר אלעזר הכהן וזוגתו מרת מייא ובתו הבתולה ובתו מרת מינגוט וחתנו הבחור ר׳ משה בר יעקב הלוי. מרת ורודא האלמנה. ר׳ יוסף בר ברוך וזוגתו מרת יוטא ואחיו ר׳ כשריל וזוגתו מרת רחל וב׳ בניו ואחיו ר׳ יצחק [וזוגתו] מרת גוטליף ובנו. ר׳ יהודה בר שלמה וזוגתו מרת צרויה והנער ברוך. ר׳ נתן הבחור בר אברהם וזוגתו מרת רבקה. ר׳ אשר בן הרב ר׳ שמואל הלוי. חנה הבתולה בת ר׳ שמואל הכהן. הנער יהודה בר שמואל:³

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

Those killed at Mosbach, 18 Av, [50]58 in the abbreviated reckoning:

R. Asher son of Moses, his wife Mistress Hannah, daughter of R. Nathan the Levite, and R. Jehiel his son, his wife Mistress Zarlip, his daughter Jachent, and his son-in-law R. Joshua son of Samson and his wife Mistress Zeruiah; and his daughter-in-law Mistress Bruna, daughter of R. Nathan, and her son Asher, the boy. Mistress Sarah, daughter of R. Shneur the Levite, her son Isaac, the boy, and her daughter Rachel. R. Isaac the young man, son of Shneur the Levite, and his wife Mistress Bruna. Mistress Rachel, daughter of R. Simha, her son Jacob the Levite and her daughter Bruna, the unmarried young woman. R. Pantir son of Judah the Levite and his wife Mistress Hannah. The young man R. Isaac son of Simeon the Levite, his wife Mistress Rachel, daughter of R. Jacob the Levite, his young daughter, and his brother R. Moses and his son, a boy. R. Simha son of Samuel the Levite, his wife Mistress Shona and his two children. R. Samuel the vocalizer, son of Eleazar, his wife Mistress Bathsheba, daughter of the scholar R. Moses the Levite, his daughter-in-law Mistress Sarah, daughter of R. Jacob the Levite, and his daughter Lieba, the unmarried young woman. R. Judah son of Eleazar the priest, his wife Mistress Mija, his unmarried daughter, and his daughter Mistress Mingut and his son-in-law, the young man R. Moses son of Jacob the Levite. Mistress Froda the widow. R. Joseph son of Baruch, his wife Mistress Jutta, and his brother R. Kasriel, his wife Mistress Rachel and his two children; and his brother R. Isaac, [his wife] Mistress Gottlip and his son. R. Judah son of Solomon, his wife Mistress Zeruiah and the boy Baruch. R. Nathan the young man, son of Abraham, and his wife Mistress Rebecca. R. Asher son of the rabbi R. Samuel the Levite. Hannah, the unmarried daughter of R. Samuel the priest. The boy Judah son of Samuel.⁴

Samuel’s occupational title makes a communal function visible within the list of victims. His death belonged to the destruction of a household and of the skilled work by which יהודים YEHUDIM transmitted sacred texts. The record also includes a daughter of a scholar and a son of a rabbi, connecting learning with family continuity. The state-archive study confirms the massacre at Mosbach in 1298.⁵]

Salfeld explains the technical title vocalizer:

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

Punktator nannte man im Mittelalter den jüdischen Grammatiker, dessen engere Berufsarbeit im Schreiben und Vokalisieren hebr. Werke, in erster Linie des hebr. Bibeltextes, bestand, der aber im weiteren Sinne, je nach seinem Können, für Massora, Grammatik, Lexikographie, Übersetzung und verwandte Wissenszweige thätig war.⁶

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

In the Middle Ages, vocalizer was the name for a Jewish grammarian whose professional work more narrowly consisted of writing and vocalizing Hebrew works, especially the Hebrew biblical text, but who, more broadly and according to his abilities, worked in Masorah, grammar, lexicography, translation and related branches of knowledge.⁷

The title therefore describes more than handwriting. It places Samuel within the transmission of authoritative reading and interpretation. One textual difference also remains visible: the Hebrew calls Judah’s father Eleazar the priest, while Salfeld’s German calls him the Levite; the TJD translation follows the Hebrew.⁸

The Hebrew heading in the Nürnberger Memorbuch reads Those killed at Mosbach, 18 Av 5058. Salfeld’s edition identifies Mosbach as a place in Baden and prints 28 July 1298. A fixed-calendar conversion maps this Hebrew date to 4 August 1298 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, equivalent to 28 July in Julian date notation. A Hebrew day begins at sunset, so the conversion does not establish the hour of the killings. The July and August dates are not competing Hebrew dates.⁹¹⁰

The Bavarian Academy catalog dates the book’s start to 1296 and describes its martyrology as covering persecutions from 1096 to 1349. This confirms the memorial source’s setting, but it does not date the writing of this entry or independently prove that every person named died on 18 Av. Modern accounts confirm the massacre in Mosbach in 1298; they offer no competing exact day.¹¹¹²¹³

This article therefore gives the date assigned by the memorial list, not a separate reconstruction of the time of every death.

• What does Samuel’s title reveal about the communal knowledge lost in the massacre?
• Why should the Hebrew priest/Levite distinction remain visible when the edition’s German translation differs?