The Enlightenment
and Emancipation
1656-1858
31. William
Prynne. A Short Demurrer to the Jewes Long
Discontinued Remitter into England.... London: Edward Thomas,
1656.
Subscribing to an ancient tradition which held that the Messiah
would appear when the Jews were spread over the entire earth, the
rabbi and mystic Manasseh Ben Israel tried to further this goal,
and in England sought to have the ban on Jewish settlement lifted.
His failure was due in part to Prynne–a Puritan extremist
opposing religious toleration–who responded to Manasseh's
cause with the heated anti-Jewish arguments in the Short
Demurrer to the Jewes.
32. Thomas
Barlow. Several Miscellaneous and Weighty Cases of
Conscience. London: Mrs. Davis, 1692.
Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, known for his amenability to the various
governments of seventeenth century England, wrote "For Toleration
of the Jews" sometime around 1654, though it was not published
until much later. He looked favorably upon the issue, one of his
"weighty cases of conscience," perhaps because at the time Cromwell
favored readmitting the Jews. The arguments Barlow presented dealt
mostly with the usefulness of the Jews to the state, but he also
maintained that the presence of the Jews would make possible the
fulfillment of "a sacred and heavy obligation on Christians" to
convert them.
33. [John Toland ]. Reasons
for Naturalizing the Jews.... London: J. Roberts, 1714.
Toland established his reputation as an important and controversial
English thinker in 1696 with his Christianity Not
Mysterious, which attempted to show that everything in the
Scriptures as well as all elements of Christian revelation could be
harmonized with human reason. In Reasons for Naturalizing the
Jews, which he published anonymously in 1714, he argued for
facilitating the naturalization not of English Jews but of
foreign-born Jews, thus in fact attracting Jews to England. His
concept of toleration, in advance of its day, was based on the
belief that the Jews were economically useful to the country.
34. An Act to Permit Persons Professing the
Jewish Religion to Be Naturalized by Parliament. London:
Thomas Baskett, 1753.
The problem of the ill-defined status of the Jews in England was
thrown into relief when they demonstrated their loyalty by
supporting the government in the Jacobite insurrection of 1745.
Perhaps out of gratitude, the Whigs passed this bill through
Parliament allowing naturalization of the Jews. "The Jew Bill" of
1753 created an uproar among the Tories, who termed it an
"abandonment of Christianity." Although George II assented to the
bill, public outrage continued, and the bill was repealed the next
year.
35.
[Friedrich Wilhelm 1, King of Prussia] ....Edict, dass
in seiner Königl. Majestät gesamten Landen gar keine
Bettel-Juden mehr eingelassen... werden sollen. Stettin:
Johann Friedrich Spiegeln, 1738.
While encouraging the Jews' economic activities which were proving
useful to the state, the Prussian government restricted the rights
and numbers of Jews residing in its domain. This royal edict
stipulated that no Jewish beggars would be admitted into Prussia
since they carried goods which might spread the plague then raging
in Hungary. A year after the edict's promulgation, Frederick
II-ascended the throne, and a liberalization of official attitudes
toward the Jews began.
36.
Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. Letter signed to
Oberst von Retzow. Potsdam, July 4,1757.3 pages.
In central Europe during the early modern period, individual Jews
played an important role in helping ambitious princes to
consolidate power in their territories. These "Court Jews,"
especially active in financial and administrative matters, were in
a position to prepare the way for future emancipation. This letter
of Frederick the Great to one of his subordinates discusses the
details of contracts held with a member of the famous Gomperz
family, a dynasty of Court Jews in Berlin who were long active in
financial affairs on behalf of the Hohenzollerns.
37.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Nathan der Weise.
[Berlin: Voss], 1779. First edition, first issue.
Lessing's arguments for toleration were grounded firmly in the
rationalism of the eighteenth century. One of Germany's outstanding
dramatists and philosophers, he was inspired by the example of his
friend Moses Mendelssohn to write Nathan der Weise. The
drama embodies its plea for toleration in the famous parable of the
three rings narrated by Nathan, the wise Jew. The story of the
three sons–representing Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam–who are would-be holders of a magical ring, attempts to
illustrate that the absolute truth of any religious faith cannot be
proven, and that the real worth of these faiths is to be found in
the effects they have on their individual members.
38.
Christian Wilhelm Dohm. Ueber die bürgerliche
Verbesserung der Juden. Berlin and Stettin . Friedrich
Nicolai, 1781.
On the Improvement of the Jews as Citizens voiced the
sentiments of enlightened Christians and Jews in Berlin. An
historian, diplomat, and advocate of free trade, Dohm, a Christian,
wrote this work at the request of Mendelssohn. In it, Dohm argued
that "the true reasons for [the Jews'] shortcomings" could be
traced to the "oppression from which [they] still suffer" and the
restrictions placed upon them throughout their history. He proposed
that better treatment would reform them and their customs and lead
ultimately to their assimilation into the outside world.
39. Leopold
1, Emperor of Austria. [Judenverordnung]. Vienna, 1659.
With autograph signature.
Possibly the greatest obstacle to arguments for toleration in
modern Europe was the militant religious spirit of the
Counter-Reformation. Such sentiments were to affect Emperor Leopold
I whose wife, for example, saw in tolerance for the Jews the reason
for the death of her first child. This edict of Leopold's contained
provisions for the regulation of Jewish butchers, but its
impediments were slight compared with Leopold's later actions which
culminated in 1670 with the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna. It
was not until the time of Joseph II (1780-90) that a major in
Austrian policy toward the Jews took place.
40. [Joseph
II, Emperor of Austria. Judenverordnung.] Vienna, 1782.
Image,
Complete Digitized Item
As part of his endeavors to modernize his empire, Joseph II of
Austria attempted to make the Jews useful citizens by reforming
their economic practices and abolishing many of the measures
enforcing their isolation. The Toleranzpatent of 1782 was
the first enactment of its kind in Europe, permitting Jews access
to new professions, state education, and even agriculture. While
the lot of Jews was thus improved, their religious expression was
suppressed; and severe restrictions against using the Hebrew
alphabet in business matters and a ban on establishing new
congregations remained in force.
41. Honore
Gabriel, Comte te Mirabeau. Sur Moses Mendelssohn, sur
la réforme politique des juifs. London [i.e. Paris],
1787.
Impressed by the enlightened Jewish communities during his visits
to Holland, England, and Prussia, and strongly influenced by
Mendelssohn, Mirabeau wrote this defense of Jewish rights. Echoing
Dohm's view that the faults of the Jews were a product of their
circumstances, Mirabeau urged the welcoming of the Jews into the
larger community. He defended their religious practice and
distinctiveness, but believed, as did many Jews of the time, that
an organized Jewish community would slowly disappear as the Jews
became assimilated into the economic and social life of the
majority.
42.
Abbé Henri Grégoire. Essai sur la
régénération physique, morale et politique des
juifs. Metz: Claude Lamort, 1789.
The campaign for the civic emancipation of the forty thousand Jews
living in France at the time of the French Revolution was led by
Abbé Grégoire. More extreme than his predecessors in
pressing for the abolition of the causes of Jewish separation, he
wrote this work attacking Jewish communal autonomy, the use of
Yiddish, and "superstitious beliefs" instilled by the rabbis. He
dismissed the traditional Christian claim that the Jews should
suffer for having killed Christ and was much inclined toward the
integration . of the Jews into French life.
43.
[Jacques Godard]. Pétition des juifs
établis en France adressée à
l'Assemblée rationale, le 28 janvier 1790.... Paris:
Prault, 1790.
The granting of legal equality and citizenship to France's Jews in
1791 did not simply follow from the liberal reforms of the new
government. The Jews themselves strongly desired the change in
their status, even at the cost of sacrificing their communal
autonomy. A delegation of Parisian Jews, with the Christian lawyer
Godard acting as their spokesman, brought before the National
Assembly this petition asking that the Jews be granted French
citizenship and stressing their loyalty to the French nation.
44.
Benedictus de Spinoza. Renati des Cartes principiorum
philosophiae. Amsterdam: Johannes Riewerts, 1663. First
edition.
Born into the Sephardic Jewish community during Holland's Golden
Age, Baruch Spinoza so involved himself with the secular studies of
his day that he caused an irreparable rift between himself and the
faith of his fathers. Central to Spinoza's development as a
philosopher was his knowledge of the works of Descartes, who was
also committed to a philosophy based on reason rather than
tradition. This work gives the Cartesian view in a geometrical form
and includes an appendix containing Spinoza's "Thoughts on
Metaphysics."
45.
Benedictus de Spinoza. Tractatus
theologicopoliticus. Hamburg [i.e., Amsterdam]: Henricus
Kunraht, 1670.
The Tractatus presented Spinoza's rationalistic critique
of revealed religion, his justification for intellectual and
religious freedom, and his political theories. Insisting that
religious tenets be justified exclusively on the basis of reason,
Spinoza rejected both the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and
the concept of the miraculous event. He offered a metaphysical
system in which the Bible was to be examined as a human document,
subject to the same methods of interpretation which applied to the
study of nature. The book caused.a sensation and was quickly
banned, selling subsequently under false title pages.
46. David
Herschel Franckel. A Thanksgiving Sermon. London:
W. Reeve, 1758.
Despite the restrictions imposed by Frederick the Great, members ot
the Jewish community in Berlin prospered through government
contracts. These in turn encouraged the Jews involved to take pride
in the achievements of the Prussian state. David Franckel, noted
for his commentaries on the Jerusalem Talmud, was appointed chief
rabbi of Berlin in 1743. Among the topical pieces he published is
A Thanksgiving Sermon, which commemorates Prussian
victories in the Seven Years' War.
47.
[Antoine Guenée ]. Lettres de quelques juifs
portugais et allemande, à M. de Voltaire; avec des
réflexions critiques. Lisbon: Laurent Prault, 1769.
First edition.
Voltaire, the symbol of eighteenthcentury rationalism and
toleration, held marked anti-Semitic views, as did some other
philosophes. Focusing his attack on the Jews of the Old
Testament&$150;whose ritualism was carried on by the Church,
which he despised–Voltaire expressed his disdain in his
article on toleration for his Dictionnaire philosophique.
A refutation came from Guenée, a French priest, who in the
guise of a Portugese Jew wrote Lettres de quelques juifs
primarily to defend the Scriptures. But the Jewish protagonist also
called for sympathy for contemporary Jews. The book was extremely
popular, and saw many editions and translations in a short
period.
48.
[Isachar Falkensohn Behr]. Gedichte von einem
pohlnischen Juden. Mietau and Leipzig: Jacob Friedrich Hinz,
1772.
After arriving in Berlin in 1764, destitute and speaking only
Yiddish, Behr was tutored by a relative and eventually introduced
to Mendelssohn and his circle. The verses in Behr's Poems of a
Polish Jew represent a pioneer achievement–the poetry
being among the first published in German by a Jew. Goethe reviewed
the collection, noting approvingly the extent to which
Enlightenment ideals and German culture had been adopted by a
foreign Jew.
49. Moses
Mendelssohn. Lettres juives du célèbre
Mendels-Sohn philosophe de Berlin . . . recueil memorable
concernant le judaisme, Frankfurt and La Haye, 1771.
A philosopher and the spiritual leader of German Jewry during the
Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn also became the symbol of
progressive Judaism to the Christian world. When in 1769 the
Protestant theologian Lavater challenged Mendelssohn to consider
the superiority of Christianity and to convert, Mendelssohn
demurred. The letters forming his reply, contained in this rare
French edition, neither attacked Christianity nor defended Judaism;
they maintained instead that such polemics were inconsistent with
Judaism and unbecoming of Jews. The controversy, which disturbed
Mendelssohn greatly, forced him to recognize that his Judaism
created a barrier between himself and his enlightened
colleagues.
50. Moses
Mendelssohn. Jerusalem oder über religiöse
Macht und Judentum. Berlin: Friedrich Maures, 1783. First
edition.
Published toward the end of his life, Jerusalem summarized
and completed Mendelssohn's thoughts and beliefs of the preceding
thirteen years. The book also justified his stand against Jewish
critics who had claimed that arguments for Jewish emancipation
contradicted Jewish law. Mendelssohn contended that since Judaism
contained no compulsory belief or dogma but only complex
prescriptions for a way of life, it could not be at odds with the
forces of reason or with the secular laws of the state.
51. Moses
Mendelssohn. Sepher Netivoth Ha-Shalom [Book of the
Paths of Peace]. Vienna: Anton Schmid, 1795.
To lead Jewish society out of its spiritual isolation, Mendelssohn
chose the means that Luther had used in his Reformation–a new
translation of the Bible. Mendelssohn translated the Pentateuch and
with the help of other scholars provided a Hebrew commentary on the
ancient text. While acclaimed by friends of the Enlightenment as a
powerful instrument for progress and change, the translation was
attacked as blasphemous by some conservative rabbis who tried
without much success to have it banned. This translation of Genesis
presents the German in Hebrew characters and includes the Hebrew
original with commentaries.
52. Marcus
Herz. Versuch über den Schwindel. Berlin:
Christian Friedrich Voss and Son, 1786.
Berlin's intellectual and social life during the 1770s and 1780s
was greatly enriched by Marcus and Henriette Herz and their circle
of enlightened Berliners. A friend of the Mendelssohns and of
Immanuel Kant, Herz, one of the most skilled physicians of his
time, was given the honored title of "Professor" by the king of
Prussia in 1787. This treatise on vertigo considers psychological
methods of curing human illnesses.
53. Salomon
Maimon. Lebensgeschichte. Berlin: Friedrich
Vieweg, the Elder, 1792-93. 2 volumes in 1.
Another emancipated Jew who contributed much to the pre-eminence of
eighteenth-century Berlin as an intellectual center was the
philosopher and rabbinical scholar Salomon Maimon. He wrote much on
Maimonides, whom he revered and from whom he took his name, as well
as a great deal of non-theological philosophy. His autobiography
contains both valuable material on Jewish life in Berlin and useful
commentary on eastern European Jewry as well.
54. [David
Friedlander ]. Sendschreiben an seine Hochwürden,
Herrn Oberconsistorialrath und Probst Teller. Berlin: August
Mylius, 1799.
Friedlander, a member of Mendelssohn's circle, successful merchant,
and promoter of assimilation, addressed his anonymous Open
Letter to Berlin pastor William Teller. Its religious
syncretism revealed an ambivalence on the part of some enlightened
German Jews. "In the name of some Jewish householders," Friedlander
asked to be admitted to the Christian Church, but at the same time
not to be required to accept Christ or to perform all Christian
rituals. He held that Christianity and Judaism share a common,
natural religion free of ritual. His request was denied, but a
major controversy followed the Open Letter.
55.
Dorothea van Schlegel. Autograph letter signed to Frau E.
Malss. Frankfurt am Main, December 27, 1831. 1 page.
In the personality of Dorothea Schlegel the cosmopolitanism of
eighteenth-century life was to submerge Jewish identity. A daughter
of Moses Mendelssohn, author, and wife of a banker, she was also
the hostess of an important Berlin salon. Later, as the wife of
Friedrich van Schlegel, she found her way from Protestantism to
Catholicism. The depth of her religious sentiments is revealed in
this letter which sends a friend drops of holy water gathered at a
festival celebrating the healing powers of the Apostle John.
56. L'Assemblée des
députés des israélites de France et du royaume
d'ltalie.... Paris, 1806. Autograph signatures of Avigdor and
Rodrigues.
French Jews were granted equal rights during the French Revolution.
To clear up remaining questions about the legal status of the Jews,
Napoleon convoked the Assembly of Jewish Notables which was to
determine whether or not the traditions and laws of the Jews
conflicted with their new citizenship. The answers of the assembly
pleased Napoleon, who requested it to call together a second body
to formulate propositions which would be binding on all Jews. The
assembly responded by issuing this invitation, in French and
Hebrew, to the Jewish communities of the French Empire.
57. Diogene
Tama, editor. Collection des procèsverbaux et
décisions du Grand Sanhédrin. Paris: L'Editeur
and Treuttel & Wurtz, 1807.
The invitation of the Assembly of Jewish Notables convoked the
meeting of the Great Sanhedrin, named after the Jewish governing
body of Roman times. The Sanhedrin reported to Napoleon that
Judaism was merely a matter of relgion in the private sense and
that Judaism did not involve national or political loyalties, that
the French Jews considered themselves to be Frenchmen first and
Jews second. Nine binding regulations were issued dealing with
marriage, professions, and relations with gentiles; and these,
along with reports of the Sanhedrin meeting printed in this
collection, stated the basic principles which were to guide Jewish
integration into the modern national state.
58. Vollständige Verhandlungen des
Ersten Vereinigten Preussichen Landtages über die
Emancipationsfrage der Juden. Berlin: A. Hoffmann, 1847.
In 1847 Frederick William IV, in response to liberal agitation,
called for the meeting of a Prussian united diet. Among the many
questions it considered was the status of the Jews; its discussion
of the topic, published in Vollständige
Verhandlungen, formed the first public debate on Jewish
emancipation in Germany. Here for the first time emancipation
became identified with liberalism. The Jews, who up until this time
had been supporters of the princes, thus crossed into the liberal
camp, and conservatives, who were beginning to combine political
rights and religious profession into the concept of a "Christian
state," emerged as the opponents of fill Jewish emancipation.
59. David
Friedländer . Ueber die Verbesserung de r
Israeliten im Königreich Pohlen. Berlin, 1819.
Friedländer forms the link between Jewish theories of
emancipation and toleration and their application. His program was
one of assimilating the Jews into German society and transforming
traditional Judaism into a general code of ethics. Throughout his
life he labored for the development of a state policy favorable to
the Jews. In this tract, a response to the Bishop of Kujawia, he
suggests means for improving the condition of the Jews in
Poland.
60. [Rahel
Varnhagen]. Rahel. Fin Buch. des Andenkens
f&$252;r ihre Freunde. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1834.
3 volumes.
The conflicts and tensions in the life of a Jewess in high society
are revealed in these collected letters of Rahel Varnhagen. A woman
of emotional depth and intellectual gifts, she was the hostess of a
salon where some of Berlin's most illustrious figures often met. In
such an atmosphere, she came to view her Jewish background as a
personal tragedy. Socially adroit yet disappointed in love,
hesitant to convert yet captured by the Romantic revival of
Christian spirituality, she reflects the emotional and intellectual
complexities of assimilation.
61. Dibere Haberith . . . oder Briefe der
ausgezeichnetsten Rabbiner und Rabbiner-Collegien. Altona:
Gebrüder Bonn, 1819.
The changes in Jewish life and thought which came with emancipation
extended to the worship service. Reform Judaism wanted not only a
new faith but also a form of observance more in keeping with the
times. Thus when some Hamburg Jews establishes a Reform synagogue,
they also published a new prayerbook. The Orthodox rabbinate of
Hamburg responded with Dibere Haberith, a collection of
opinions of noted Jewish scholars, concluding that the all-Hebrew
service must remain unchanged and that no organ should be allowed
in the synagogue.
62. [Joshua
Van Ovenl. Letters on the Present State of the Jewish
Poor in the Metropolis.... London: W. J. and J. Richardson;
1802.
Van Oven, a surgeon and member of a leading Jewish family in
England, became deeply concerned with the squalid living conditions
of those Jews who had emigrated to London from central Europe. In
these letters, he pointed out that the problem was partly due to
various restrictions placed upon these Jews, and he proposed
legislation for a Jewish governing body to administer aid to the
poor. This early Jewish social welfare scheme, however, failed to
materialize.
63.
[Leopold Zunz, editor]. Zeitschrift für die
Wissenschaft des Judenthums. Berlin: Schlesingerschen Buch-
und Musik-Handlung, 1822-23.
With the ending of ghetto life, the traditional talmudic culture of
the Jews began to fade. To fill the void some Jewish intellectuals
sought to develop a modern conception of Jewish history, or a
"science of Judaism." Zunz was one of the founders of this
movement. His exacting scholarly techniques were to place Jewish
culture within the context of Western history, and his Journal
for the Science of Judaism was to be the vehicle for this
task. Although the journal was short-lived, others took its place,
and Zunz went on to become the model for modern scholars of
Judaica.
64. Gabriel
Riesser. Ueber die Stellung der Bekenner des
Mosaischen Glaubens in Deutschland. Altona: Johann Friedrich
Hammerich, 1831.
Upon receiving his law degree, Riesser found that because he was a
Jew he could neither practice nor teach law. However, instead of
converting, as were many other Jews in a similar predicament,
Riesser chose to devote his life to the struggle for Jewish
emancipation. In this work, Concerning the Situation of the
Followers of the Mosaic Faith in Germany, Riesser rejected
apologetics and demanded instead full emancipation in the name of
honor and justice. He lived to see some of his principles
established and in 1860 he became the first Jewish judge in
Germany.
65. Abraham
Geiger. Ueber den Austritt aus dem Judenthume.
Leipzig: Otto Wigand, 1858.
The task of developing a theology for Reform Judaism was taken up
by Abraham Geiger–scholar, rabbi, and, along with Zunz, one
of the founders of the "science of Judaism." He set out to strip
Judaism of its ethnic characteristics and to replace these with the
idea of an evolving ethical and spiritual mission. In this open
letter On Withdrawal from Judaism, Geiger argued against
conversion to Christianity, pointing out the sources of Jewish
spirituality and maintaining that to reject Jewish ceremonial law
was not to reject Judaism. His ideas laid the foundation of modern
Reform Judaism.
66.
Heinrich Heine. Buch der Lieder. Hamburg:
Hoffmann and Campe, 1827. First edition.
The creative energies released through emancipation reached
fruition in the spectacular career of Heinrich
Heine–journalist, wit, and poet. Buch der Lieder,
the work which established his reputation, is considered to contain
some of the finest lyric poetry in any language. As a young man
Heine converted to Christianity, speaking of the baptismal
certificate that allowed him to get his degree as an "admission
ticket to western civilization." Later in life, he came to regret
his conversion.
67. Ludwig
Borne, editor. Die Wage, Eine Zeitschrift für
B࣌rgerleben Wissenschaft und Kunst. Frankfurt am Main:
Hermann, 1818. Volume 1.
Börne, along with Heine, was a leader of the group of radical
writers known as 'Young Germany." Embittered by the restrictions
placed upon him as a Jew, he turned to journalism. Die
Wage, which he edited from 1818 to 1821, contained lively
political articles and satiric drama reviews; but it was especially
noted for the political innuendo and subversive allusions which
Borne injected into it. The paper was eventually suppressed, and
Borne fled to Paris, where he continued to propagandize in support
of freedom and democracy.
68. [Isidor
Busch, editor]. Kalender und Jahrbuch für
Israeliten auf das Jahr 5603. Vienna: Franz Edlen van Schmid
and J. J. Busch, 1842.
A journalist and political liberal, Busch presented articles by
leading Jewish scholars with differing outlooks to the general
Jewish reading public. His yearbooks, the first almanacs written by
Jewish authors for Jewish readers, included contributions from
important intellectuals and contained several items of contemporary
concern. Among the selections in this volume for 1842/43 are poems,
a review of the preceding year's events, and a biographical sketch
of Moses Montefiore.
69. [Karl
Wilhelm Friedrich Grattenauer]. Wider die Juden.
Berlin: Johann Wilhelm Schmidt, 1803.
A widely circulated tract attempting to rouse public opinion
against Jewish emancipation, Against the Jews is one of
the most important works of its kind. Grattenauer, among the first
to introduce the concepts of race into arguments against the Jews,
based his opposition on non-religious grounds, and thus opened the
way for marking as Jews even those individuals who no longer wished
to remain Jewish.
70. Julius
van Voss. Die Hep Heps in Franken und anderer
Orten. Teutonien, 1819.
"Hep! Hep!" a derogatory rallying cry used in driving domestic
animals, was the name given to a series of widespread anti-Jewish
riots which broke out in Germany in 1819. In part a result of the
surge of Romantic nationalism which accompanied the Wars of
Liberation, the riots were also sparked by old prejudices against
the Jews that were intensified by their new demands for civil
rights. Voss, a German comic poet, was the only writer to raise his
voice against the riots. But Die Hep Heps, as it turned
out, damaged his reputation, raising suspicions that he was in the
pay of the Jews.
71.
Sabbatja J. Wolff. Wieder Juden. Berlin: Maurer,
1819.
Although Voss's arguments were largely ignored, he did gain the
gratitude of Jews–among them his friend Sabbatja J. Wolff, a
physician from Berlin. This pamphlet, an open letter to Voss,
expresses that gratitude and continues the defense of the Jews.
Wolff's statement is largely apologetic, asserting that the faults
of individual Jews should not be attributed to the group as a
whole. The Jews as a group, he wrote, are loyal to the state and do
not form a wealthy enclave within society. Wolff also emphasizes
the basic incompatibility of the riots with the teachings of
Christianity.
72. A. F.
Thiele. Die jüdischen Gauner in Deutschland.
Berlin: Privately printed, 1841. Volume 1.
As an official in the Prussian bureaucracy responsible for law
enforcement, Thiele produced this compendium on Jewish criminality
as an aid to other police officials. Containing an analysis of
approximately four thousand Yiddish words and idioms, Die
jüdischen Gauner in Deutschland is one of the first
significant dictionaries of Yiddish. Yet beneath the philologically
useful presentation lies the author's belief that the rootlessness
and rapaciousness of the Jews had always made them a dangerous
element in German society.
73. "Die Generalpumpe." Berlin: A. Schepeler,
circa 1845.
Since 1800 the name Rothschild has become synonymous with opulence
and munificence, representing on the one hand Jewish wealth and
philanthropy and on the other the notion of international Jewish
conspiracy in finance. This infamous caricature of Meyer Amschel
Rothschild (1818-74), depicts him as an evil, slovenly figure in
the form of a two-handled pump, its side disgorging cash to those
in need of it and its feet in a reservoir of money.
74.
Alphonse Toussenel. Les juifs, rois de
l'époque. Paris: Librairie de l'Ecole
sociétaire, 1845.
Toussenel's brand of anti-Semitism was not based on philosophic or
religious precepts, about which he knew very little, but derived
from the common nineteenth- century misconception that the Jews had
complete control over the monetary affairs of Europe–the
thesis of The Jews, Kings of the Age. Here Toussenel
defended past persecutions of the Jews, extending his strident
attacks to include Protestants and foreign traders as well.
75</75a>. "Wie die Juden das Ablegen
mittelalterlicher Vorurtheile verstehen." Frankfurt am Main,
circa 1848.
The merging of formerly segregated populations into a system of
legal equality inevitably meant conflict. Popular resentment in
Germany to Jewish emancipation is reflected in this satirical
broadside, "How the Jews Understand the Casting off of Medieval
Prejudices." The caricature illustrates a fictitious demand made by
members of the Jewish community to the revolutionary National
Assembly of 1848. These Jewish parvenues, calling themselves the
"chosen people," demand not political and civil equality but rather
all of the privileges formerly possessed by the nobility.
