Pinkas hakehilla

This large bound volume containing 420 folios out of an original 454, constitutes one of the oldest preserved communal books (so-called pinkas) of the Jewish community from the Castlemount area of Bratislava. The book records the incomes and expenses of individual community members between the years 1764 and 1792, including over 540 heads of households. A special sheet is asigned to every taxpayer; in the case of higher fees, additional sheets are also reserved for these. The records are divided into two parts, debits and credits, and in the event of death the required fees were deducted from the bequest and payment duties transferred automatically to the widow of the deceased. Fees were collected four times a year at intervals of two or three months (in the months of Cheshvan, Shevat, Iyar and Tammuz); later, this practice of collecting fees was fixed for every half-year (in Cheshvan and Iyar) and over the last few years the fees were collected only once a year. There was a compulsory tax to pay for the protection of the Jewish quarter by municipal guards and a regular, annual religious tax. In some exceptional cases, we come across communal fees linked to the Jewish life cycle (wedding, burial, etc.). The oldest records often have an entry of the last fee from an older communal book appended to them in order to allow for the smooth transfer of fees from the original registry. The community offices probably kept several communal books at once, listing further tax duties for managing business affairs, direct and indirect taxes for the feudal landlord, and other Jewish fees.

Bratislava

ca. 1765-1792

HEB, GER

Purchased at Sotheby’s, New York, 2005

ŽM-D 1593 XVIII-15

Pinkas hakehilla of the Jewish community

27 x 37 cm

Ivan Galamboš

POLAKOVIČ, Daniel: Pinkas Hakehilla. IN: BORSKÝ, Maroš - ŠVANTNEROVÁ, Jana et al.: The Jews of Bratislava and Their Heritage. Bratislava: Jewish Heritage Foundation - Menorah 2012, p. 40.