Jaffe Family, Posen Collection 1832-1986 Bulk: 1970-1986

The Jaffe Family of Posen Collection focuses entirely on the genealogical research of the family conducted by Johanna Jaffé. It includes extensive research correspondence with family members, family trees, and a small amount of documentation accumulated during the research, including a few copies of photographs and some newspaper clippings. The bulk of this collection consists of Johanna Jaffé's correspondence with her family members regarding her investigation of the family history. Family trees are extremely lengthy and provide basic biographical data. In addition, there are extensive copies of personal letters of the historian Philipp Jaffé.The collection mentions the following individuals and families:Hirschberg family; Merzbacher family; Muehsam family; Muehsam, Clara; Oppenheimer family; Porten family; Portner family; Silberstein family; Silberstein, Simon; Sternfeld family; Tittel, Klaus-F.; Zuckermann, Moshe EphraimThe Jaffe (sometimes spelled Jaffé) family derived from the Posen (now Poznań) and Miłosław regions of present-day Poland. Included among its members was Rabbi Mordecai Jaffe, known for his works Levush Malkhut or the Levushim, which interpreted the Jewish laws. Another noteworthy member of the family was the historian Philipp Jaffé.Johanna ("Hanni") Eva Jaffé was born in Posen (now Poznań, Poland). She grew up in a well-to-do family; her father owned the family wood wholesale business, and her mother Alice came from a bankers' family from Warsaw. Soon after Johanna's birth, her father relocated his business to Berlin. She had a younger sister, Hilde, with whom she was very close. In 1919 Johanna Jaffé completed her schooling at Berlin's Auguste Victoria Schule. In 1924 Johanna Jaffé went to Dachau near Munich, where she befriended the Swedish artist Carl Olaf Petersen and his wife Elly. In Munich, Johanna Jaffé worked at the Israelitische Jugendhilf, later becoming principal of the institution. Eventually, she assisted the Petersens in their literary work.In April 1939 she went to England as a domestic servant. Ultimately she settled near Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds region, where she owned a teashop. In her later years she spent much of her time in genealogical research, documenting the descent of various branches of the Jaffé/ Jaffe family from Mordecai (Mordechai) Jaffe of Posen as well as tracing the spread of the family, with family members in Germany, England, the United States and Israel.ProcesseddigitizedBlese