Gella Hopf  

Edited according to the chronicles of Moritz Tuchmann and
statements of Frau Kommerzienrat Elise Hopf.

Moritz Tuchmann writes:

"Gella was married to Löb Hopf in Ühlfeld, who was the adopted son of Simon Hopf (called Bockshimmel) and his companion; Löb lost his fortune through this, so that my sister had to make cotton wool for tailors to feed her family, which earned her a few Kreuzers a day. She even had a food stall with two newspapers on the table, where a maximum of 4‐5 people a day came. That was a merit! In the meantime, her husband recovered later under the company "Hopf & Rosenfeld" and, with the support of his sons, managed to make his hops business one of the largest in Nuremberg. With the great wealth that he left behind, Gella lived in the greatest comfort ‐, beloved and died in 1880 at the age of 77." ‐

The following letter from this able and clever woman is here given; it was written to her brother Salomon T. around 1851:

Dear sister‐in‐law and brother!

I was very pleased to learn from Hellmann that you, dear Jette, are perfectly well again. Just be careful and don't think that once you've had so many children you can defy your nature so much. In vain I would not be so patient and concerned about my health; I now know how every excitement, almost a word spoken aloud, attacks our whole being. Do not wait, dear sister‐in‐law, until the experience was made through open damage, but believe me and think how often I have confessed my regrets to you about this. You are independent and you can also see what good is your husband and children when you are on the deathbed. For the weak body only the constant annoyance remains, which arises from the discomfort of not feeling well. That I am anxious that you do yourself good, you will see from the following, make yourself some quite fatty shellfish, so that the lard runs down your cheeks; you will certainly look equally fat. I am sending you 3 pounds of lard at 16 kreuzer. I have gladly poured in the drippings; you can roast potatoes with it: you only need to let the lard melt.

By the way, farewell, many greetings and kisses to the dear children, especially my sweet Martin ..

from your happy sister-in-law

Karoline Hopf.

Although this letter is in German, it is written in Hebrew script; In general, this script was much more familiar than the German type to the Jews of the time; hence all her letters are written in this script. ‐ Following the example of his brother‐in‐law Salomon, Löb Hopf moved to the city around 1852; while he had first moved to Fürth, Hopf moved to Nuremberg. He was among the first 6 Jews who regained citizenship in this city after the great expulsion of the Jews from Nuremberg in 1499. On March 29th, 1857 Löb Hopf became elected the head of the Jewish Nuremberg municipality; after he resigned from this office, he was appointed a member of the reinforced committee on January 3, 1862. ‐ When Löb Hopf moved to Nuremberg, he bought a large property opposite the train station, Bahnhofstrasse 3; His son‐in‐law Heidenheimer (Bahnhofstrasse 1) and his brother‐in‐law Salomon Tuchmann (Bahnhofstrasse 5) later settled next to him. ‐

Stefan Hopf, the eldest son, had inherited his parents' talents and abilities to a high degree. His daughter‐in‐law, Kommerzienrat Elise Hopf, has compiled a short biography of him:

"Stefan Hopf ‐ following the commandment that Jews should learn a trade ‐ trained as a furrier; as a furrier he went as a journeyman to Northern Germany. He had a great striving for universal education, read Humbold, history, the classics and followed the trade with an open mind. On his return, he used the knowledge thus acquired in the