Jews were permitted to settle in Wandsbek towards the end of the 16th century. In the middle of the 17th century a number of Jews, fugitives from the Chmielnicki massacres in the Ukraine, who had not been permitted into Hamburg, found refuge in Wandsbek. During that period, the Jews of Wandsbek united with the Ashkenazi Jews of nearby Altona and Hamburg (there was a Sefardi community in Hamburg with which were affiliated the Sefardim who resided in Altona) to form a single community. The union was dissolved some years later, but was reestablished in 1671 and was in existence until 1811.
The united Ashkenazi community of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek, was one of the most important Jewish communities of Western Europe. Famous rabbis officiated there. They included Rabbi Hillel ben Naphtali Herz, author of novellae on the Shulhan Aruch, of which only those on Yoreh De’ah and Even Ha’ezer were printed (Beth Hillel, Dyhernfurth, 1691); Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Ashkenazi (also known as the Hacham Zvi); Rabbi Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen, author of responsa Knesseth Yehezkel (Altona, 1732), who served the community for 35 years, and Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschuetz.
In 1726, Israel ben Abraham Halle, a proselyte, transferred his print shop to Wandsbek. He had been active earlier in Koethen and in Jessnitz. During the eight years of his stay in Wandsbek, until his return to Jessnitz, he printed about 40 works, including two Haggadoth, which appeared in 1727 and 1733, respectively.
The 1733 Haggadah, which is reproduced here, is illustrated. It includes the Seder instructions in Judeo-German and the Judeo-German versions of the hymns Adir Hu, Ehad Mi Yode’a and Had Gadya, as well as the entire Counting of the Omer and the Akdamot (with Judeo-German translation) for Shavuoth (the latter has been omitted in the reproduction.) In the original from which this Haggadah was reproduced, parts of Ehad Mi Yode’a and Had Gadya were missing. The text has been restored in the reproduction.
Some of the drawings show the influence of the illustrations of the famous Prague Haggadah (1526).
The reading of the word “Rabbi” in this Haggadah is “Ribbi”. This is how the word is pronounced by various non-Ashkenazi communities. Ashkenazi Jews, too, pronounced it “Ribbi” until approximately 200 years ago when the change was introduced.
This reproduction of the Wandsbek Haggadah, 1733, which is exceptionally rare, has been published by the Diskin Orphan Home of Israel to grace the Seder table of its friends and supporters.
Rabbi Munish Weintraub, director of this worthy institution, devoted much effort to this project.