On 7 May 1862 Sally Blumenfeld had written the board of the Jewish community in Adelebsen requesting the use of an additional room. He needed room to house a boarding student who was coming to live with him. This request had still not been granted five months later!

Geehrter Herr Vorsteher! [lit.: Dear Mr. President]
After learning that you have been appointed by the Board to see that I am granted the use of an additional room, I take the liberty of informing you that it is important for me that I see my request being fulfilled quite quickly.¹

Sally hopes that Herz Stehberg will understand that he had made his request because circumstances demand it. “And if the room can’t be used as a bedroom this year [!], then perhaps it can serve as a store room for various things.” Sally reminds Mr. Stehberg that the floor in that room needs to be fixed. He also says that he is willing to share it with Mr. Dannenberg, who evidently is now using this room. In closing, Sally reminds Stehberg that “I have to set up a bed for my pupil, for which I, however, have no room.”

The next letter in the collection is missing the second page with date. In it Sally complains — without doing so in so many words — that the requested room has still not been provided. It appears that Sally is visiting his sister who will be coming with him when he returns to Adelebsen the next week. “It would be very unpleasant, if she were to have to leave again” because I have no room for her.

When Sally’s request was granted, is not known. A proper room is the subject of Sally’s next letter and of the next blog.

1. 2 November 1862, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Adelebsen Jewish Community Records (RG 244), Series IV: Other community records, circa 1775, 1830-1913, Subseries 2: Correspondence from community members and others, 1862-1913, Correspondence – Blumenfeld, S., Jewish teacher (1 of 3), 1862-1863, Box 4, Folder 90. ↩︎