Sepher Bereishith [Book of Genesis]

(AUSTRIA).

Gregorios Manhardt

Steyer

1757

With vowel points. Printer’s mark on title, historiated view of creation with the the Yiddish word “Gott’” shining above (f. 1).

Most attractive and competently printed. Entirely unrecorded Hebrew book . Indeed there is no record of any Hebrew printing stemming from Steyr, a city located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. The earliest recorded presence of Jews resident in Steyr dates to 1310. In 1420 all the Jews of Steyr and indeed Upper Austria as a whole, were expelled or murdered during the violent anti-Jewish persecutions known as the Vienna Gezerah. Centuries later, individual Jews lived in Steyr in the 18th and 19th centuries, however it was not until 1894 that a synagogue was established there. On October 1st, 1938, the Linz Gestapo dissolved the Steyr congregation. According to a statement issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior, no Jews remained in the provincial district of Steyr as of December 11th, 1939.