Spenden Einlegbuch [“Donations Deposit-Book.”]

(VIENNA)

Vienna

Late 19th-Century

Calf case opens to reveal four pages with designated slots

This ingenious device from a yet unidentified Viennese synagogue was a means of recording donations on the Sabbath when no writing is permitted. It reads horizontally: Cohen, Levi, shelishi, revi'i, chamishi, shishi, shevi'i, acharon, maphtir, hagbahah, gelilah (the seven aliyoth to the Torah plus the subsequent raising and rolling of the Torah scroll). Vertically, we have a menu of the various charitable institutions and organizations of Vienna: Altersfürsorge (the Old Age Home), Armenhaus III. Bez[irke] (the Poorhouse in the IIIrd District), Bikur Chaulim (Society for Visiting the Sick), Blinden Inst. (i.e. Israelitisches Blinden-Institut, the Jewish Institute for the Blind), Chewra Kadischa (Burial Society), Kerenhajessod (Keren Hayesod), Keren Kayemeth (Jewish National Fund), Kinderbewahr A[nstalt] (Jewish Orphan Asylum), Kinderspital (Children's Hospital), Merores Waisenhaus (i.e. Charlotte Merores Waisenhaus für israelitische Mädchen, the Charlotte Merores Girl's Orphanage), Talmud Thora, and Taubstummen Inst. (the Institute for Deaf-Mutes), to name but a few. See JE, Vol. XII, pp. 432-439; M. Grunwald, Geschichte der Wiener Juden bis 1914 (1926)