Letter to Her Husband

Rachel Olivetti of Pesaro, Italy, was the wife of Judah Montefiore. She embroidered a Torah ark curtain and donated it to a synagogue in Pesaro in 1620.

Paul Christian Kirchner converted to Christianity in 1709. He is the author of Jüdisches Ceremoniel (Jewish Ceremonial Customs), published in Erfurt, Germany, in 1717, which took a critical stance on Judaism but which was later republished by Sebastian Jugendres with more neutral text.

Sarel and her husband, Leib Sarel Gutmans of Prague, are known to history thanks to the preservation of a bundle of more than fifty letters sent from Prague Jews to Vienna on Friday, November 22, 1619, during hostilities later considered the opening throes of the Thirty Years’ War. The letters were apparently confiscated before reaching their destination. Sarel’s letter to her husband, then in Vienna, shows that the couple were organizers of this courier service, collecting, for a fee, letters from neighbors to be sent via a single messenger.