Geniza Lab

Document in Yiddish. Dated: 5637 AM, which is 1876/77 CE. Recto: This fragment is a page of the accounts book of the Bikur Holim [Visiting the Sick] Society of Cairo for the year 1876–77. The Yiddish text lists the expenses of the Society for the year, but the fragment does not include the actual amount for each item. These expenses include those for staffing (for the Jewess of the hospital, the sexton, Doctor Hess), for laundry and cleaning, for repairs and upkeep, for ink and paper, and for postal fees. It lists costs for sending patients to the hospital as well as expenses incurred for handling the deceased, including costs for candles placed beside the corpse, cost of guarding the corpse and of cleaning the hospital after a death. A few specific family names are listed, including Shpiglman, Herman, Hess and Perets. Place names listed include Warsaw and Keshenof [probably Kishinev] The ledger page is signed by Yosef Berkovitsh who held the accounts of the Society. The page is stamped with the official stamp of the Ashkenazi Bikur Holim Society, which reads (in Italian): Società Soc{c}orsale de{gl}i Am{m}alati {della Communità} Israelitica Tedesca in Cairo 1867. Verso: This Yiddish fragment is a list of accounts receivable from people who have paid or are owing payment. Amounts are listed in 4 columns but the column headings are missing so it is unclear what each figure represents. Only a few family names are listed, including Stoler, Eynbinder, Zoger, Kats, Shmikler, Avtsi. Most entries are only by personal name. The amounts listed seem to refer to dues [uncertain - using the abbreviation Kh”d], pledges, circumcisions, guarding [the infant prior to circumcision], weddings and being called to the Torah on Passover. Information kindly provided by Agnes Romer Segal, January 2021.