The 1938 Budget and Yearly Report of the Instenburg Jewish Community
Source: The Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem, S 374/2 Instenburg.
Document 1:
Instenburg, 31 October 1938 Report on the 1938 Budget On the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the community, this is the 100th budget that is being submitted to the board of the community. Like our predecessors, we too have taken care to serve the community to the best of our ability and on the other hand, to consider the situation of the community members and not to harm them. This is true for the 100th budget that is being submitted at a time that is the most sombre in the one hundred years history of the community. In recent years we have lost 70% of the community's members due to emigration and migration to other places and due to deaths. Among them were the most important tax payers, men who had served and who had been the pillars of the community. Under present circumstances, we ought to be proud of this budget, which is very special. Not many communities of our days have performed so well. It is this special achievement that fills us with gratitude to the men who in the past decade…did not only think about today and tomorrow, but also provided for the future. It is their accomplishment that lent strength and security to our community until this very day, that puts us in the position that we have been able to fulfil all our obligations without any upheavals and that we can safely look forward to the future, as gloomy as it may seem. The assembly of 23 February 1938 approved our request…for a monthly allocation of 250 Marks from the reserve funds to cover expenditure together with the income from taxes and the allocation from the Prussian Association of Jewish Communities. We have managed to cover all the expenses in the last ten months without touching even one Mark of that money. We have allocated 200 Marks for special cases, should there be exceptional needs in the months of November and December, but which we may be fortunate enough not to spend…. We have saved wherever possible in expenditures. For article 3, "Social aid and Culture", we naturally have to increase our expenses for the poor from 1720 Marks to 2300, with the hope that this amount will be sufficient. We believed we could reduce the amount for "poor people on the move" and for "library, newspapers and committee for cultural activities"…. We have decided not to pay insurance and are therefore saving 70 Marks. Article 7, "training of young people", requires a larger amount of 650 Marks instead of the 350 in last year's budget. We believe that the entire amount will be used, since expenses for training are increasing annually. We were unable to keep our pledge to reduce the taxes this year. The reason is that the Prussian Association of Jewish Communities will not budge from its position that in abnormal times there can be no tax reduction. We had to comply with this position due to their explicit declaration that if our community defies their instructions, they would immediately cancel their very important support 3000 Mark support. This budget…is smaller than those of former years and will probably be the last one to still retain some of the community's lost splendour. The impoverishment of the community members and the exhaustion of tax sources will in the future lend a different character to the budgets. With the decrease in tax revenues, we will be left in the future with only the funds from the Prussian Association of Jewish Communities, and will have to balance the budget with the reserve funds, as long as they exist. With God's help our community led an honourable existence for 100 years. It grew from very small beginnings and reached an impressive size. Our community has seen happy times in which most of its members were successful in all areas. Now the community has shrunk and is, like all other communities, on the decline. But our heads are held high. As long as it is God's will, it will fulfil its mission, even in reduced form. The board.
Document 2:
The Budget Income: Balance from last year 1,258.19 Rent, Leases …606.Contributions 250, Cemetery - Balance from properties 1300 Reserve Funds 200. Taxes 5,305.18 Unpaid taxes due 3,400.- Contribution by anonymous donor 100.- Miscellaneous 30.- Total 12,450.- Expenditures: Employees a) Rabbi Dr. Augapfel … 3,000 b) Accountant - Miss Bloch 1,598.40 c) Kastellan Metschulat 1,694.40 d) Cantor 380.- 6,672.80 Administrative costs Mail and office supplies 75.- Taxes 320.- Publications 30.- Telephone expenses for Dr. Augapfel 180.- 605.- Welfare and Cultural Activities a) local poor 2,300.- b) wandering poor 70.- c) library and newspapers 40.- d) assistance to the cultural committee 100.- 2,510.- Synagogue a) heating, light, etc. 300.- b) repair 50.- c) water 50.- d) fire insurance 120.- e) burglary insurance 100.- 620.- Contributions to Associations and others 650.- Unpaid taxes and debts 470.- Training 650.- Cemetery 40.- General 232.20 Total 12,450.-
Document 3:
Farewell When the community of Insterburg was preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary on 22 May 1938 at the synagogue with numerous guests from other communities, it had no inkling that the year 1938 would not only mark its 100th anniversary but also its extinction. On November 10 1938, six months after the celebrations, between 3 and 4 a.m., the beautiful synagogue that has seen one hundred years of Jewish life in the town of Instenburg, went up in flames. Everything that was inside, including various memorials and other valuables dating from 1838 to 1938, with about 20 Torah scrolls, their costly covers and drapes of the holy ark…numerous prayer books belonging to community members, a rich library and others, were reduced to ashes. One hundred years of Jewish life were extinguished. The work of committed, powerful, leading men, who sacrificed everything to serve the community and Judaism, was in all in vain. A community with statutory standing, with a board and a member assembly, that managed the affairs in an orderly fashion, with a rabbi and a cantor to guarantee Jewish life and education, is no more. Today there is only an empty space at the corner of two streets, surrounded by a fence, where our synagogue once stood. Only a small remnant is left of the once large community. They are led by the elder of the community, Mr. Josef Kador, who has reached the biblical age of 81. This remnant is still able to conduct religious services on the Sabbath and on holidays. Led by the former secretary of the community assembly, Mr. David Simon, they hold services in a prayer hall. Only the sublime almighty knows how long this shrunken remnant will subsist as a Jewish body. It is in God's hand. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on the entire Jewish people. Instenburg, 24 April 1941.
