Rabbinaal College van Examinatoren
Item
Country
NL
Name of institution (English)
University of Amsterdam Collections - Allard Pierson Museum
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
dut
Contact information: postal address
Oude Turfmarkt 127-129, 1012 GC Amsterdam
Contact information: phone number
0031 (0)205255501
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
Ros. Responsa
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
Responsa Moreh examinations collection
Title (official language of the state)
Rabbinaal College van Examinatoren
Language of title
dut
Creator / accumulator
Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana
Date(s)
1843/1963
Language(s)
heb
Extent
32 items
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Good
Scope and content
The Rabbinaal College van Examinatoren is part of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana collection. It comprises 32 items created between 1843 and 1963, collected by the curators of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in the course of the years, particularly from 1880 onwards. Each item in the collection covers a single question and the student response. There are 119 responsa given by 36 candidates. The collection depicts the religious history of the Dutch Jewish communities from the perspective of the rabbinate as their chief religious establishment: the Rabbinaal College van Examinatoren (Rabbinical College of Examiners), which was responsible for all rabbinical examinations regarding both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities in the Netherlands It was established by Royal Decree No. 1 on January 15, 1819. The Responsa in this collection probably follow the Jesiba Ets Haim tradition started by the Parnassim in 1698, requiring rabbinical students, then under the leadership of Haham Shelomo Oliveira, to write Responsa as part of their educational process. Such student Responsa were published in the Peri Ets Haim over the period 1728-1808 and summarised by Menko Hirsch in 1936. The Rabbinical College reported to the Hoofdcommissie tot de zaken der Israëlieten (Supreme Committee for Jewish Affairs). After 1870 the examinations were delegated to the Colleges of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, to proceed in the same way as before that date. The rabbinical examinations comprise the questions formulated by the College and the answers provided by the rabbinical candidate. The Responsa is a part of the rabbinical examination, which is decisive to attain the rabbinical qualification of "moreh". The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam holds a more complete collection of Responsa from the Portuguese (Sephardic) community. The Dutch National Archives in the Hague keeps additional Responsa from the period 1855-1870, along with minutes of the examination meetings of the College for each candidate. The National Archives also preserve exam questions albeit without student answers for the period 1828-1848.
Archival history
A major focus of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana is the cultural history of the Jews in the Netherlands. One of its collections is the Responsa Moreh Examinations. The Sephardic responsa were originally stored within the Portuguese Synagogue complex in Amsterdam. The Nederlands Israëlitisch Seminarium preserved Ashkenazic responsa, but several curators of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana have been involved in bringing this collection together. In 2014, the collection was arranged in chronological order.
Administrative / Biographical history
Leeser Rosenthal (Nasielsk 1794 - Hanover 1868) collected a large number of rare and important Hebraica and Judaica. By his death on August 7, 1868, the library had grown to become the largest private collection in this field in Germany. The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana has been part of the University Library since 1880 and is now part of the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam. The first librarian of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana was Meijer Marcus Roest, who had already produced the first printed catalogue of Leeser Rosenthal's private collection in 1875 at the request of the Rosenthal family. Under Roest's leadership, and with resources from the family, the collection developed from a German Enlightenment library into a general library in the field of Jewish cultural history, in which the Netherlands formed a centre of gravity. This process was continued by Roest's successor, Jeremias Meijer Hillesum, who was the curator from 1890 to 1930. After World War I, the financial responsibility for the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana was taken over by the municipality of Amsterdam for the benefit of the library, because the invested funds had lost their value. The collection has been and continues to be expanded with extensive purchases at domestic and foreign auctions, as well as numerous donations. Under Hillesum and his successor Louis Hirschel, who was curator until the beginning of World War II, ties with the Jewish community in Amsterdam and beyond were also strengthened, and the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana became the most important centre for the study of the history of the Jews in the Netherlands. After World War II, when an important part of the collection was confiscated by the Germans, the first years were dominated by reconstruction. The collection was returned almost entirely, but the Jewish community previously served by the library was no longer there. Leo Seeligmann was curator of the library from 1946 to 1949. Leo Fuks, who was curator from 1949 to 1973, has revived the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana by strengthening ties with academics in the Netherlands and the academic world beyond, and also through numerous publications in the Dutch Jewish press, through popular scholarly publications, to draw attention to the library's special collections. Fuks also founded the magazine Studia Rosenthaliana in 1967. Fuks' policy was continued by his successor Adri Offenberg, who worked for the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana from 1965 to 2004. The scholarly practice of Jewish book studies became then an increasingly essential part of daily work, which was ultimately also reflected in the user audience and in the nature of the correspondence and services.
Access points: locations
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The collection is arranged in chronological order.
Access, restrictions
The collection has been digitized and can be consulted online via the collection inventory. The original documents are not made available for consultation.
Links to finding aids
Existence and location of originals
The original Responsa written by candidates from the Sephardic community are held by Jewish Historical Museum and could be available on the catalogue online research.
Author of the description
Maria Aires do Carmo, 2021
Linked resources
Filter by property
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| De Collecties van de Universiteit van Amsterdam - Allard Pierson | Collections (official language of the state) |