Library of Land Rabbi Isaac Prager

The library of Rabbi Dr. Isaac Prager (1847-1905) is part of the historic old collection of the Murhard Library of the City of Kassel. It entered their collection as early as 1906.

Little is known about the person and life of Isaac Prager. From 1885 to 1905 he was the regional rabbi in the administrative district of Kassel in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.

Early on, his library was not set up as an independent collection in the Murhard library, but was distributed among the subject groups. This may have contributed to the fact that the collection was not destroyed during National Socialism.

During the heavy fire bombing of Kassel in October 1943, the Murhard Library was severely damaged and lost about 60% of its holdings (about 174,000 volumes). In the process, entire subject groups burned and with them the associated books of the Prager library.

However, numerous volumes from the estate of Isaac Prager escaped the fire, among them especially pieces from the group of Rabbinica.

For some time now, the library has been endeavoring to reconstruct the Prager library as far as possible and also to physically reunite the preserved holdings within a shelfmark group.

In this context, the books, which are very often printed in Hebrew script, are being professionally catalogued by Sabina Lüdemann. The volumes that have already been processed can be accessed via KARLA.

In addition, the library has for some time intensified its efforts to restore severely damaged and particularly valuable older items with the help of donations. Selection list Prager Collection