The Letters of Sore bas Ayzik Shalit

The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam holds a small bundle of only eight leaves, containing 16 neatly copied Yiddish letters from the 18^th century. A codicological description of the letters can be found in Evi Michels, Jiddische Handschriften der Niederlande (Leiden 2013), p. 330–333.

The letters are signed “Sore bas Ayzik Shalit”, who, if we can take the content of these letters at face value, was a young woman living in Amsterdam. Her letters are addressed to relatives and she writes about her children, other family members and acquaintances, the vagaries of daily life, travel, and small trade she conducts on behalf of her relatives.

In my paper, I will analyse the letters, compare them with similar texts from the period and try to answer the following questions: What was the function of these carefully copied letters? Was Sore bas Ayzik the author and did she keep copies of her own letters to keep track of her correspondence? Do we have an authentic source of information about Jewish life in 18^th century Amsterdam? Are these letters exercises in letter writing? Is this a letter-writing manual? Could the letters have had another function?