Abraham (Avraham ben Moshe Baruch) Goldschmidt

“According to a rescript of 13 XII 1647 the brothers Abraham and Simon Goldschmidt were not subordinate to the town of Kassel ... After the death of Simon (1658), Abraham functioned as Obervorsteher of the Jewish community in Hessen until his death on 28 VIII 1676” (Cohen 1996, p. 442). However, there is no evidence that Abraham ever was Obervorsteher. Cohen confuses Abraham with his namesake and relative in Witzenhausen, who was Landesfürsprecher of the Jews in Hessen. “Hirtz, ... , is one of three Jews, besides Abraham Goldschmidt and one Salomon, who had ‘letters of protection’ in Kassel in 1664” (Hallo 1930). “Abraham, ‘the Jew who lived on the Pferdemarkt’, died in 1675 according to the Arnoldschen Chronik in the Landesbibliothek” (Hallo 1930). However, his tombstone mentions 21 Menachem Av 5436 as the date of his death and calls him ‘parnas Avraham ben Moshe Baruch Segal.’ Next to him lies his wife Hinla, who died in Kassel on 25-7-1675. Her tombstone mentions that she was a daughter of gaon av beth din morenu harav David Katz. It is possible that Lea Rösche, who died in Hamburg on 12-11-1727 is his daughter. Her tombstone calls her father Mosche Awraham Halevi Kassel. The name of her husband is Naftali Hirz Rintel. Grunwald (1904: 291) mentions a man called Herz ben Is. [=Isaac] Rintel who died in Hamburg on 17-4-1703.

References: Daniel J. Cohen (1996), Die Landjudenschaften in Deutschland als Organe Jüdische Selbstverwaltung von der Frühen Neuzeit bis ins Neunzehnte Jahrhundert: Ein Quellensammlung, Band 1 (Jerusalem: Israeli Academy of Sciences). Max Grunwald (1904), Hamburgs Deutsche Juden bis zur Auflösung der Dreigemeinden (Hamburg: Alfred Janssen). Rudolf Hallo (1930), “Aus der Geschichte der Kasseler Gemeinde”, Jüdische Wochenzeitung für Cassel, Hessen und Waldeck 7.