Letter to Her Husband

Sarel bat Moses Gutman

1619

Many good, blessed and pleasant years, may they surely come to you and to your head and hairs! To the hands of my lovely, dear, beloved husband, the pious and prudent, worthy R. Loeb, may his Rock and Redeemer keep him.

First know of our good health; you, too, shall be so always and in every hour. Further, my lovely, dear, beloved husband, you…

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Sarel Gutman of Prague and her husband, Leib, 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.

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Creator Bio

Sarel bat Moses Gutman

17th Century

A resident of Prague, Sarel, along with her husband Leib, organized a courier service for mail between Jews in Prague and Vienna. One surviving letter by her details current events in Prague, as well as reflections from her personal life. 

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