Letter to Her Husband

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.