Who's heard of the 'Wintz Scroll'? The Frankfurt community's private Purim miracle

February 25, 2021   

Many communities celebrate their own private Purim holiday, and their personal salvation from the "local Haman," who often tried to destroy, kill, and destroy the Jews, just like his grandfather, the original Ben Hamedta from the Book of Esther. Food stamps: When will they be distributed? Who is eligible for assistance? How much money do you receive? Enter: Registration for daycare for the 2012 school year is moving online Josh Wiener, a young Jewish man studying rabbinical studies in Berlin, tells the National Library website about the discovery of the evil Haman of the Frankfurt community. "The 'Sefat Emet' siddur is a fairly well-known siddur in Germany. It was first published in 1799 in Rödelheim, in the renowned printing house founded by Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim – and in the German-speaking Jewish world it is still reprinted today. Almost every page of it notes the special traditions practiced in Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, they usually say this and that, in Frankfurt they usually change the seder, in Frankfurt they usually omit this word. For a certain period of time I used a copy that I received from my grandfather and tried to get used to it, and then I noticed an interesting note. As part of the list of feasts for joy – holidays and days of celebration on which it is not customary to say the prayer of supplication, the note states, in Frankfurt Demain, that Frankfurt Purim is also [celebrated] on the 20th of Adar." I love regular Purim very much, but I have never heard of 'Frankfurt Purim.' I decided to do a little research on the subject, and this is what I discovered. 'Frankfurt Purim', also known as 'Purim Winz', commemorates a local miracle that occurred on the 20th of Adar, just six days before Purim. Winzenz Fetmilch was a local baker and troublemaker in the city who saw himself as the "new Haman", and in 1614 he led the city's professional guilds in an uprising against the new emperor. Among their demands for lower taxes, the rebels also demanded a reduction in the number of Jews in the city and a reduction in the interest rate charged by Jews on money loans. When the emperor ignored or rejected the demands of the city's guilds, Winzenz led a mob in the sack of the Jewish quarter in Frankfurt, which attacked the neighborhood, burning and looting it until the Jews there were forced to flee for their lives. Two years later, in February 1616, Emperor Matthias ordered Winzenz Fetmilch and five other rebels to be hanged, and the Jews were allowed to return safely to the city. The closeness of time that year between the execution and the holiday of Purim, as well as the echoes of the entire Purim story in the background, encouraged the community to celebrate the return to the city as a minor redemption, including composing special songs and putting the story of the event down in writing – in Yiddish, at length and in a poetic style – in a text that became known as the "Wintz Scroll.".

Yaner concludes: "As someone who lives in Berlin and continues my rabbinical studies there, these stories about local Purim celebrations add layers of vividness and complexity to the country in which I live today, and connect me to the libraries and synagogues in Frankfurt and Jerusalem.

""As far as I know, no one in Frankfurt celebrates 'Purim Winz' today, and since my late grandfather passed away, I have no one to ask – except for the siddur that he used from his youth. The Jewish story is a colorful and complex one, and the retelling of an event like that of Purim – including its continuing relevance – serves as a source of inspiration for me today.".