The Diaries of Bernhard Cahn: A Man of His Time, by Arline Sachs. Hardcover, xxi + 202 pages. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2003. Price: $29 pluse shipping/handling.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Although it is a factual book, it reads like a novel. Arline Sachs’ great-great-grandfather, Bernhard Cahn (1793 – 1877), kept a set of diaries consisting of over 3800 pages from 1817 to 1871. He wrote these diaries in proper German but using a script Hebrew alphabet.

In order to decipher the diaries, Sachs had to learn how to read this script. Then she painstakingly transcribed each individual letter from the Hebrew alphabet to the Roman. Finally she translated the resulting German into English. Having in my possession several family letters written in this Judeo-German, I can vouch as to how difficult a task this can be and how proficient at the task Sachs has become because she assisted me in my effort.

Bernhard Cahn was born in Balbronn, Alsace, lived his adult life in Kastel, and died in Mainz. Mainz is where the Main river flows into the Rhein, and Kastel is across the Rhein from Mainz. It is now a section of Wiesbaden, the capital of the present-day German Land (state) of Hessen. The diaries mainly cover Cahn’s life while in Kastel. He had a fairly common combined occupation of teacher, prayer leader (cantor), and schochet (ritual slaughterer). In his diaries, Cahn recorded events from the mundane (local weather), to world events (Lincoln’s assassination). Sachs has skillfully used the diaries as the basis of a biography of Cahn and a history of the era, describing events in his and his family’s life in a major portion of the 19th century. The time period of the diaries starts with the after-effects of the Napoleonic era and ends at the time of German unification. Both of these events greatly influenced the lives of the Jews in the region. Gradually, the rights of Jews increased in the various Kingdoms, Grand Duchies, etc. which eventually became Germany.

Most interesting from a genealogical point of view is that Cahn describes the process that he had to go through to be allowed to live in Kastel since at the time that he moved there, there still were restrictions on the number of Jews allowed to live in many places. Even though he had a job awaiting him, he needed approval to settle in Kastel. He also discusses the fact that he had to be approved several times to be a schochet especially as he got older. One also gets the feeling that despite the religious differences, the Christians and Jews in Kastel, in general, got along well together.

On a more worldly stage, one reads of Cahn’s opinions on topics such as the American Civil War, the arrival of steam power, and migration to America. There also are discussions of several anti-Semitic events around the world during the 19th century. Sachs has done a wonderful job of summarizing the thousands of pages in the original manuscript and turning them into a very interesting and absorbing book.

As with most books that cover the region that interests me genealogically, there are items in this book that are directly relevant to my own research even though I have no known connection to Kastel. As an example, there are about a half dozen references to Rabbi Dr. Joseph Aub who was the Rabbi for Mainz and surrounding towns for about 15 years in the mid-19th century. Rabbi Aub was born in Baiersdorf in Bavaria, had his first post in Bayreuth, then in Mainz, and finally in Berlin. He was a brother of my great-great-great-grandmother Dina Neu née Aub. Others will probably find similar relevant tidbits.

I greatly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in life in a town in western Germany in the 19th century.

Reviewed by Ralph Baer