VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN: REPRESENTATIONS OFJEWS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMANY*

Yaacov Deutsch

Representations of Jews appeared in a variety of literary and artis-tic forms in sixteenth-century Germany. Jews were mentioned in lit-erary novels and in poetry. They were depicted in engravings andpictures, were the subject of caricatures, and were mentioned in pam-phlets of di!erent sorts.1 Many of these representations are the sub-ject of recent scholarship, which has studied the images of the Jewsin particular genres. There is one common denominator to all thisscholarship: It focuses on images of the Jews in artistic and fictionalworks and not on descriptions that intend to reflect the lives of actualJews. This article will focus on descriptions that claim to o!er a real-istic description of the Jews, and more specifically of Jewish ritual.This shift from symbolic and fictional images to what are purportedto be descriptions of actual Jewish life is an important new devel-opment in Christian-Jewish relations and it is this innovation thatwill be the focus of this article.

The main focus of this study is a new literary genre that appearedfor the first time in Germany during the sixteenth century and iscrucial for understanding the Jewish image in early modern Germany.The main characteristic of this genre is the detailed description of

* Based on Paulus Sta!elsteiner, Von der Iuden Ceremonien, so sie in Vermählungen derkinder, und ihren Begräbnussen pflegen zu uben . . . (n.p., 1583). I wish to thank ElishevaBaumgarten and Maria Diemling who read drafts and commented on this article,and HaNadiv Fellowship awarded by the Rothschild Foundation and LamdaFellowship granted by the Posen Foundation for supporting this research.

1 See Eric M. Zafran, “The Iconography of Antisemitism: A Study of theRepresentation of the Jews in the Visual Arts of Europe 1400–1600” (PhD diss.,New York University, 1973); Ludwig Geiger, “Die Juden und die deutsche Literatur,”ZGJD 2 (1888): 308–74; Oskar Frankl, Der Jude in den deutschen Dichtungen des 15.,16. und 17. Jahrhundertes (Leipzig, 1905); Petra Schöner, Judenbilder im deutschenEinblattdruck der Renaissance: Ein Beitrag zur Imagologie (Baden-Baden, 2002); RichardI. Cohen, Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe (Berkeley, 1998), 10–67; EdithWenzel, “Do worden die Judden alle geschant:” Rolle und Funktion der Juden in spätmittel-alterlichen Spielen (Munich, 1992).

the ritual and ceremonial life of the Jews. These descriptions focuson the di!erent cycles in Jewish life—the holidays, life cycle events,and every day life. In addition to these books, other compositionsthat appeared during that period—especially polemical treatises—help characterize the ways in which the Jews were perceived anddepicted by non-Jews. I will focus on the emergence of this newethnographic genre in the writing about the Jews and argue thatthese descriptions, despite their accuracy, were aimed at creating adistinct image of the Jew. In addition, I will suggest a few explana-tions for the emergence of this new genre and point to some of itsimplications for the study of Christian-Jewish relations in the earlymodern period.

The Historical Background

The Jews as a separate and distinct group drew the attention of theirneighbors already in the ancient period.2 This aspect of the Jewishreligion, especially in theological contexts, grew and developed afterthe birth of Christianity and indeed Christian references to Jews areas old as Christianity itself.3 One of the main subjects in the writ-ings of the Church Fathers was the claim that the Jews were nolonger Verus Israel.4 Many of the Church Fathers argued that sincethe coming of Christ the biblical precepts should not be followedaccording to their literal meaning, rather they should be adhered tofrom a spiritual point of view. The main focus of the Church Fathers,however, was the Bible and the discussion of its meaning, while ref-erences to actual Jews were very rare and scattered.5

2 See Molly Whittaker, Jews and Christians: Graeco-Roman Views (Cambridge, 1984);Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia, Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge,MA, 1997).

3 For the Christian-Jewish polemic in antiquity, see Alan F. Segal, Rebecca’s Children:Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Cambridge, MA, 1986). In addition, seethe encyclopedic overview in A. Lukyn Williams, Adversus Judaeos: A Bird’s-Eye Viewof Christian Apologiae until the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1935); Bernard Blumenkranz,Les auteurs chrétiens latins du Moyen Age sur les juifs et le judaïsme (Paris, 1963); Schreckenberg,Adversos-Judaeos-Texte, vol. 1.

4 See Marcel Simon, Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jewsin the Roman Empire (135–425), trans. H. McKeating (Oxford, 1986).

5 See Amos Funkenstein, “Basic Types of Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics in theLater Middle Ages,” Viator 2 (1971): 373–82, here at 373–77.

336 "##$%& '()*+$,

The stormy relationship between Christians and Jews intensifiedduring the twelfth century and it is in that period that a dramaticchange in the perception and attitude of Christians toward Jewsoccurred. The discovery of rabbinic literature led Christian scholarsto the conclusion that the Jews did not adhere to the biblical pre-cepts, rather to what the Christian scholars described as talmudicreligion.6 The consequences of this understanding marked a newphase in the relationships between Jews and Christians, since itsimplication was that the Augustinian reasoning for the existence ofthe Jews was no longer relevant.7 This new attitude, whose seedsappeared already during the twelfth century but culminated in thethirteenth century, resulted in an intense e!ort to convert the Jews,and can mainly be seen in the works of mendicant monks such asPablo Christiani and Raymond Martini.8

For the Christian scholars of thirteenth-century Europe, Jews werethe adherents of a new religion: rabbinic Judaism—a religion basedon the Talmud. The actual knowledge that they had about the waysin which the Jews observed the laws of their religion, however, wasvery limited and in the writings of medieval Christian scholars thereare very few factual descriptions of Jewish religious customs and cer-emonies.9 One of the main goals in the writings of these medievalscholars was to prove Jewish hostility toward Christianity, mainly byrevealing anti-Christian passages in the rabbinic literature.10

6 For this view see especially Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of theJew in Medieval Christendom (Berkeley, 1999), 317–63.

7 Ibid.8 Ibid., 334–58. The literature about the changing attitudes toward the Jews

during the high Middle Ages is vast, and there are di!erent opinions, especiallyregarding the definition of the period in which the change in attitude toward theJews took place. A summary of this debate can be found in Daniel J. Lasker,“Jewish-Christian Polemics at the Turning Point: Jewish Evidence from the TwelfthCentury,” HTR 89 (1996): 161–73. For a detailed bibliography on the subject, seeCohen, Living Letters of the Law.

9 For some medieval examples of Christian familiarity with Jewish ceremonies,see Yaacov Deutsch, “ ‘A View of the Jewish Religion’—Conceptions of JewishPractice and Ritual in Early Modern Europe,” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 3 (2001):273–95. All these examples, however, are fragmentary and relate only to one ortwo specific customs or ceremonies of the Jews, and they all prove that prior tothe sixteenth century there was no systematic discussion of Jewish practices inChristian literature.

10 This tendency is dominant in the attacks on the Talmud during the middleof the thirteenth century and continues in later polemical works. See Chen Merhavya,The Church versus Talmudic and Midrashic Literature (500–1248) ( Jerusalem, 1970), espe-

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 337

The Emergence of Ethnographic Literature

The period beginning at the end of the fifteenth century witnessedthe flourishing of Christian Hebraism. The new interest in Judaicaand Hebraica led to the publication of numerous books on di!erentsubjects related to Jews and Judaism. Among them one can discerna new genre of ethnographic writing about the Jews, that is exemplifiedin the writings of a number of authors such as Johannes Pfe!erkorn,Victor von Carben, and others. Their writing exposes the noveltyof the genre as well as the relationship of their writings to those oftheir predecessors.

In 1508, Johannes Pfe!erkorn, a Jew of Moravian origin who con-verted to Christianity with his wife and children in the year 1504,published a booklet entitled: Ich heyß ein buchlein der iuden peicht.11 Inthis book, Pfe!erkorn provides a description of the rituals and cer-emonies of the holidays of Rosh Ha-Shanah (New Year) and YomKippur (Day of Atonement). In his descriptions he portrays di!erentaspects of these two holidays. He starts with the description of thespecial prayers [Selihot] that are said during the days before RoshHa-Shanah and writes that on these days the Jews blow the ram’shorn in order to warn the people that they should repent and askfor the forgiveness of their sins, “in the same way as we Christiansare admonished by the preachers during Fasts.”12 In addition, theJews ask God to forgive their sins and to bring them back to Jerusalemand build the Temple, so they will be able to sacrifice in it like theirancestors.13

Later on Pfe!erkorn describes the ritual immersion on the eve ofRosh Ha-Shanah, and then moves on and describes the prayers ofthe holiday. Among the di!erent prayers, Pfe!erkorn makes specialmention of those that relate to the Christians, such as the prayer

cially 274–81 [Hebrew]; Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, “The Inquisition and the Jewsof France in the Time of Bernard Gui,” HTR 63 (1970): 354–63.

11 Nuremberg, 1508 [= The Confession of the Jews, trans. Erica Rummel, in idem,The Case Against Johann Reuchlin: Religious and Social Controversy in Sixteenth-Century Germany(Toronto, 2002), 69–85 (including woodcut illustrations. See also Pfe!erkorn’s TheEnemy of the Jews [ Judenfeind], ibid., 53–68]. On Pfe!erkorn, and on his writingsabout the Jews, see Hans-Martin Kirn, Das Bild vom Juden im Deutschland des frühen16. Jahrhunderts: dargestellt an den Schriften Johannes Pfe!erkorns (Tübingen, 1989).

12 “gleicher weyse wir christen in der fasten durch dye prediger vermant wer-den.” See Pfe!erkorn, Ich heyß ein buchlein der iuden peicht, A2v.

13 Ibid., A2v.

338 "##$%& '()*+$,

“blessed are you God . . . that did not make me a Gentile.”14 Healso mentions the prayer “that God will save the Jews from thehands of the uncircumcised,” and explains that the uncircumcisedrefers to the Christians.15 According to Pfe!erkorn, the Jews do notsee how miserable they are, being scattered and humiliated in eter-nal poverty among the nations, and they do not understand thatthey will be saved only if they convert to Christianity. He writesthat altogether their prayers are meaningless and aimed only atachieving power and taking revenge upon Christians. He also addsthat if the Jews claim that they do not have such prayers, he canprove from their prayerbooks that they do have these prayers as wellas curses against Christians, and he concludes, therefore, with theadvice that such prayerbooks should be taken from the Jews in orderto prevent them from using them.16

In general, the information in Pfe!erkorn’s account is reliable andverified by di!erent Hebrew sources of the period.17 Reading throughPfe!erkorn’s booklet, the tone of the description is very neutral.Pfe!erkorn reports the di!erent aspects of these two holidays, butavoids almost all critical or negative comments regarding the Jewsand their ceremonies, except when outlining the anti-Christian prayers.When he remarks against the Jewish ceremonies, his remarks arevery mild.18 It seems, however, that he himself felt that the image

14 Ibid., A3r. Pfe!rkorn refers to the blessing alç µlw[h ˚lm wnyhwla yh hta ˚wrbywg ynç[. This prayer is not unique to Rosh Ha-Shanah and is part of the dailymorning prayers.

15 “vor dem unbeschneyden das sein wir christen.” See Ibid., A3r. Here he prob-ably refers to the prayer “tyrb ˆb wnyaç ˆybw tyrb ˆb awhç ˆb ! ! ! ˆwxr yhy” that isalso part of the daily morning prayers.

16 “warumb wer mein getrewer rat nach meinen cleynen verstant sulch bücherder flüche von ynnen zunemen in dy nit lassen.” See Ibid., A4r.

17 Kirn’s claim that Pfe!erkorn’s’ description includes many mistakes and inac-curacies is incorrect. Thus, for example, he writes that the description of the lash-ing ceremony is false and has no source in Jewish legal sources (Kirn, Das Bild,41). In this case, he is unaware of descriptions of this ceremony in Jewish custombooks. See, for example, Rabbi Abraham Klausner, Sefer Minhagim (Deva, Rumania,1929), 12.

18 For example, after he described the kapparot ceremony, the custom of bestow-ing one’s sins on a rooster, he writes at the end of his description that the Jewsbelieve that in this manner their sins are forgiven, and although it is clear that hedoes not accept this belief and scorns it, his comment is very moderate: “meinenhalden und gelauben das gentzlich das in yre sunden verzyhen und vergeben sein.”See Pfe!erkorn, Ich heyß ein buchlein der iuden peicht, B1v.

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 339

of the Jews that derived from his description was too “positive,” andas a result he added a section at the end of his description in whichhe explained why he published his work, and how it is possible tobring the Jews back from their wickedness.19 In this section Pfe!erkornexplains that the purpose of his writing is to reveal the mockery ofthe Jewish rituals. In addition, he writes that the Jews cause theChristians much harm, and as examples he mentions the curses ofJews against Christians and the mock names that they use when theyrefer to Jesus and to Mary.20

Pfe!erkorn’s work marks the beginning of the new literary genreof what Ronnie Hsia has called ethnographic descriptions of Judaism.21

His booklet is a pioneering attempt to present a detailed account ofthe ceremonies and customs of contemporary Jews to Christian read-ers. More important for our topic is the attempt to reveal the mock-ery of Jewish customs and ceremonies and to demonstrate that theJewish ritual has many anti-Christian elements, which as we will see,is dominant in almost all sixteenth-century ethnographic representa-tions of the Jews, and had a tremendous impact on the image ofthe Jew in sixteenth-century Germany.

In a book that probably was published during the same year asPfe!erkorn’s booklet, we find another description of the customs andceremonies of the Jews published under the title Hierinne wirt gelesen,wie Her Victor von Carben, Welicher eyn Rabi der Iude gewest ist zu Cristlichemglawbn komen.22 The author, Victor von Carben, was also a Jew whoconverted to Christianity.23 Von Carben’s work is a combination of

19 “Warumb ich solch weyse und gewonhait an den tag gepracht han, und wieman die juden von yrer böshait bringen müge.” See Ibid., B3r.

20 Ibid., B3r–B4v.21 See R. Po-chia Hsia, “Christian Ethnographies of Jews in Early Modern

Germany,” in The Expulsion of the Jews: 1492 and After, ed. Raymond B. Waddingtonand A. H. Williamson (New York, 1994): 223–35. For a discussion of this term seebelow, n. 64.

22 Cologne. The publication date of von Carben’s book is not certain since thefirst edition does not mention the year of publication, but it is most likely that itwas published in 1508. See Maria Diemling, “ ‘Christliche Ethnographien’ überJuden und Judentum in der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Konvertiten Victor von Carbenund Anthonius Margaritha und ihre Darstellung jüdischen Lebens und jüdischerReligion,” (PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1999), 14–16.

23 On von Carben’s biography, see Hava Fraenkel-Goldschmidt, “On the Peripheryof Jewish Society: Jewish Converts to Christianity in Germany during the Reformation,”in Culture and Society in Medieval Jewry: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Haim HillelBen-Sasson, ed. Menahem Ben-Sasson, Robert Bonfil, and Joseph R. Hacker ( Jerusalem,1989), 623–54 [Hebrew]; Diemling, “ ‘Christliche Ethnographien,’” 10–16.

340 "##$%& '()*+$,

classical polemic against the Jews with the innovative contemporaryapproach of describing the customs and ceremonies of the Jews. Thelast two sections of the composition belong to the traditional polemicliterature, presenting a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew thatfocuses on questions related to the Messiah, and to the Christianbelief in Mary and the Holy Spirit. In the first section of the book,however, there are several chapters that deal—although not in avery organized manner—with the customs and ceremonies of theJews. Thus, for example, after a few chapters in which von Carbenwrites, inter alia, about his conversion and about the origins of theTalmud, there are chapters about Jewish marriage; the laws con-cerning food; Ninth of Av (the fast in commemoration of the Temple’sdestruction); Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur (New Year and Dayof Atonement); Sabbath; grace after meals and divorce—and theyappear among other chapters that deal with issues such as the holyname of God, the Messiah, and interest taken by Jews who lendmoney. As we can see, the breadth of von Carben’s description ismuch greater than that found in Pfe!erkorn’s work; on the otherhand, his descriptions are short and usually are not more than oneor two pages.

To illustrate von Carben’s approach, I will provide a brief descrip-tion of his account of one subject, the wedding ceremony. VonCarben reports that when a Jewish couple is married the weddingis performed by the rabbi in the synagogue. The ritual is carriedout in the presence of some friends, with a gold ring that the groomplaces on the bride’s index finger.24 Von Carben writes that the rabbiand the friends ensure that the groom will not put the ring on themiddle finger, and this is based on what is written in the Talmudthat when Mary was married the ritual was performed by puttinga ring on her middle finger, and therefore, according to Jewish law,no woman can wear a ring on this finger. Then the rabbi takes aglass of wine and recites a long prayer, and gives the bride andgroom wine to drink. After they drink, the groom takes the glass ofwine and throws it toward the wall, and the wine spills over the

24 This was indeed the custom in early modern Germany. See Jousep ( Juspa)Schammes, Wormser Minhagbuch, 2 vols., ed. Benjamin Salomon Hamburger ( Jerusalem,1988–92), 2:37 [Hebrew].

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 341

ground so that the dead people from his family receive a share ofthe blessed wine.25

Von Carben’s description is very brief, consisting of no more thantwenty-three lines. It is not surprising, therefore, that he relates onlya few parts and details of the wedding ceremony—his decision torelate these elements and not others may tell us about his motiva-tions. Thus, for example, von Carben’s decision to mention the fingeron which the Jews place the wedding ring is part of his motivationto show that Jewish customs have anti-Christian and anti-Marianmeanings. In addition, the reference to the custom of throwing theglass is part of another agenda: proving the absurdity and stupidityand in some cases the superstitious character of Jewish customs andceremonies. It is true that there is no direct reference to such aclaim, but other instances where von Carben refers to customs andceremonies that fit this category, as well as references of contempo-rary authors to such claims, support this argument.26

I focus here on Pfe!erkorn and von Carben because their booksplayed a key role in the development of this new genre of describ-ing Jewish ritual life. Their writings reveal the continuity and changein the books about Jews in the sixteenth century. On the one hand,they reflect the medieval approach of exposing the hidden anti-Christian expressions in Jewish writings, and on the other hand, theyreveal the novelty of writing about the Jewish ceremonies and cus-toms, and not only about Jewish texts. Pfe!erkorn’s and von Carben’sworks o!er the Christian reader a picture of Judaism that is not lim-ited to discussions of Jewish texts and to generalizations that are

25 “u! das die toden so aus irem geslecht begraben sein des gesegneten weinsauch mit tayl ha!tig werden.” See von Carben, Hierinne wird gelesen, B2v. The cus-tom in medieval and early modern Germany was to throw the glass against thewall. See Jousep ( Juspa) Schammes, Wormser Minhagbuch, 2:40. I could not find anyreference to what von Carben says about the drinking of wine by the dead, althoughaccording to some Jewish sources, the wine was intended for the demons—see JacobZ. Lauterbach, “The Ceremony of Breaking a Glass at Weddings,” in Beauty inHoliness: Studies in Jewish Customs and Ceremonial Art, ed. Joseph Gutmann (New York,1970), 340–69.

26 For example, von Carben’s reference to the belief that if the sound of theShofar (ram’s horn) on Rosh Ha-Shanah is clear and loud, it is a sign that the sinswere forgiven and that they will not die in the coming year. See von Carben,Hierinne wird gelesen, B6v and see Diemling, “ ‘Christliche Ethnographien,’” 97–98and 110–11, for more examples.

342 "##$%& '()*+$,

based on stereotypes.27 This is the first time such a service is pro-vided. Despite a polemical tendency, their depictions of the Jewishreligion present Judaism as a religion of human beings and as dynamic,not as a static religion as it used to be portrayed.

Another step in the development of this new genre is found inAnthonius Margaritha’s Der gantz Jüdisch glaub, published in Augsburgin 1530, which is discussed at length in the article by Maria Diemlingin this volume.28 The importance of this work for our discussionstems from the fact that Margaritha was the first author to providea systematic description of the ritual life of the Jews. His book dealsmainly with the annual cycle and the di!erent Jewish holidays, buthe also discusses most of the life cycle events from birth to death,the dietary laws and the daily prayers, and thus he tries to adhereto the completeness mentioned in the title of the work (Der gantzJüdisch glaub). According to his title, the subject of the book is Jewishbelief ( Jüdisch Glaub), but in fact Margaritha does not write aboutthe beliefs of the Jews nor does he write about their articles of faith.29

Thus, more than being a book about the entire Jewish belief, hiswork is about the entire Jewish praxis. Another new, and at thesame time old, feature of Margaritha’s work is the translation of theJewish prayers that appeared in the book. The novelty of this trans-lation is that it is the first translation of the Jewish prayerbook fora non-Jewish audience.30 On the other hand, it also reflects themedieval tradition of revealing the anti-Christian elements in Jewishtexts, which I discussed earlier, since the primary reason for mak-ing the translation available was to expose the reader to the anti-Christian components of the Jewish liturgy.31

As Stephen Burnett and Maria Diemling have shown, Margaritha’swork is also characterized by its discussion of theological issues.32

27 On the role of stereotypes in the medieval image of the Jews, see, for exam-ple, Robert Chazan, Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism (Berkeley, 1997).

28 See her article in this volume. 29 The first writer who discusses the Jewish thirteen articles of faith in his ethno-

graphic description of Judaism is Johannes Buxtorf, in his book Synagoga Judaica:Das ist Juden Schul: Darinnen der gantz Jüdische Glaub und Glaubens-übung mit allen CeremonienSatzungen Sitten und Gebräuchen (Basel, 1603). See Burnett, From Christian Hebraism,56–58.

30 There are earlier translations of the prayerbook into Arabic, and probably alsointo Yiddish, but they were intended for Jewish audiences.

31 See Maria Diemling’s article in this volume.32 See Stephen G. Burnett, “Distorted Mirrors: Antonius Margaritha, Johann

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 343

Margaritha underlines the sharp distinction between biblical and rab-binic Judaism, and argues that by following the laws of the rabbis,the Jews do not obey the Mosaic Law. This approach is of medievalorigin, and it is by no means Margaritha’s invention.33 Margaritha,however, is the first author who systematically deals with Jewish cus-toms and ceremonies in order to prove this claim.34 In his discus-sion of the circumcision ceremony, for example, he refers to threestages of the ceremony and says that the last two do not appear inthe Mosaic law and are based on the interpretation of the rabbis,35

and thus support his claim that rabbinic religion is di!erent fromthe biblical one. Another polemical tendency which can be foundin the writings of Margaritha is the exposition of the superstitiousnature of Jewish rituals. As I mentioned before, this approach canbe seen already in the works of Pfe!erkorn and von Carben, butMargaritha is the first to mention this claim explicitly. This can beseen, for example, when he discusses a widespread custom observedby Jews, according to which they each light a candle on the eveningof Yom Kippur. The belief was that the clarity of the flame predictedthat person’s fate in the year to come. Margaritha notes that the Jewshave a custom to light a candle, and that “they have many super-stitious beliefs regarding this candle, depending on whether the can-dle burns brightly all day long, or does not melt, break, or crumble.”36

Pfe!erkorn and von Carben37 can be characterized as those who

Buxtorf and Christian Ethnographies of the Jews,” Sixteenth Century Journal 25 (1994):275–87 and Maria Diemling’s article in this volume. According to Burnett, how-ever, the theological criticism of Judaism is secondary to Margaritha’s agenda ofchanging the social and political status of the Jews.

33 See above, note 6. 34 A similar claim is found, for example, in Raymond Martini’s work, where

Martini argued that the sucking of the member during the circumcision ceremonyis based on the sayings of the rabbis. See Raymond Martini, Pugio Fidei adversusMauros et Judaeos (Leipzig, 1687), 786.

35 “solchs saugen heissen sy hxyxm mezizo aussaugen, solches thüt dem kindlingar wee, ist aber gar nit in der schri!t gründet;” “Soliche Prio ist in der Bibel garnit gründet.” See Margaritha, Der gantz Jüdisch glaub, H3v.

36 “habenn sye vil aberglaubens, Wann aynen seyn Kertze den gantzen tag helleprennt, das sye nicht schmyltzt, krümpt, oder zerpricht oder erlischst.” Ibid., F1r.

37 In addition, one should not entirely ignore François Tissard’s De Judeorum ritibuscompendium, which was published as part of the author’s Dialogus Prothymopatris kaiPhronimos (Paris, 1508). This work contains a very short description of some Jewishcustoms and ceremonies such as the abstinence from eating pork and from eatingbread during Passover, and in this regard is part of the new genre of ethnographicwriting about the Jews. The influence of this composition on the development of

344 "##$%& '()*+$,

laid the foundations for ethnographic writing about the Jews, andMargaritha as the author who brought this genre to an almost com-plete form. Nevertheless, their works are only the tip of the icebergand their publications are just the beginning of a wave that contin-ued and reached its peak during the first half of the eighteenth cen-tury.38 Other sixteenth-century representatives of this genre are PaulSta!elsteiner, Marcus Lombardus, and Ernst Ferdinand Hess, whowere all converted Jews.39 In their books one finds descriptions oftopics similar to those that were discussed in the writings of theirpredecessors—Pfe!erkorn, von Carben, and Margaritha—but in addi-tion they deal with new topics such as birth, the redemption of thefirstborn, the prohibition to drink the wine of non-Jews, the inter-pretation of dreams, and more, widening the range of topics andsubjects under discussion. The combination of a detailed descriptionof the ritual life of the Jews mixed with a polemical attitude towardthe Jews that was dominant in the works of Pfe!ekorn, von Carben,and Margaritha is also present in the works of these later authors.Sta!elsteiner, for example, devotes large parts of his discussion tocustoms that, according to his opinion, reflect the hostility of Jews

the ethnographic writing about the Jews was minimal, and I could not find anyreference to this work in later ethnographic descriptions of the Jews. Since Tissard’swork is not of German origin, I do not describe it here. For discussion of this workand its author, see Nathan Porges, “Die Anfangsgründe der hebräischen und griechi-schen Gramatik des Franciscus Tissardus,” in Festskrift I Anledning af Professor DavidSimonsens 70-aarige Fødselsdag (Copenhagen, 1923), 176–84; David B. Ruderman, TheWorld of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol(Cincinnati, 1981), 98–106.

38 For a general overview and a list of more than sixty-five books that belong tothis genre, see Deutsch, “ ‘A View of the Jewish Religion.’”

39 See Paulus Sta!elsteiner, Ein kurtze underrichtung, das man einfeltig dem Herrn JesuChristo nach wandern und in in volkummenlich und seinem wort glauben sol und sich die JüdischenLerer als ire Rabini Schri!gelerte und Phariseer heuchler und gleyszner mit iren ungegründet erdichtenCeremonien, mit welchen sie ire ungelerte Juden und Judengenossen zü verfüren untersteen nichtsol abwenden lassen, Aus Hebraischer gegründter sprach (Nuremberg, 1536); Von den zwel!Monaten, Fasten, vier newen Jarn, Beschneidung der Kneblin: vnnd wie die Mutter die ersteGeburt lösen müs bei den Juden auß Hebraischer sprach in deutsche gebracht (Heidelberg,1562); Etliche Artickel von den Juden als nemlich deren verheiratungen Hochzeiten Ehelichemleben Absterben Begrebnussen Grabsteinen Bahn Viehschlachtung Wein trincken und dergleichenaus irem Hebreischen Talmut unnd Cabolisten (Heidelberg, n.d.). See also Marcus Lombardus,Gründtlicher Bericht und Erklärung von der Juden Handlungen unnd Ceremonien (Basel, 1573),and Ernst Ferdinand Hess, Flagellum Iudaeorum, Juden Geissel, das ist ein neuwe sehr nützeund gründliche Erweisung, dass Jesus Christus, Gottes und der H. Jungkfrauwen Marien Sohnder wahre verheissene und gesandte Messias sey (Erfurt, 1598).

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 345

toward Christians. One example that he provides is the custom ofbreaking a plate during the engagement ceremony. According toSta!elsteiner, this childish custom symbolizes God’s deeds; just asthe plate broke, so too God will break and destroy Christianity.40

Continuity and Change

One important aspect in regard to most of the books I mentionedso far is that they were all first published in German, and not inLatin, the accepted language of theological discussion in the sixteenthcentury. This decision meant that the authors of these voluminousworks did not limit their scholarship to an academic and scholarlyaudience, rather they intended it for a wider public that read onlythe vernacular language. Another point of great importance regard-ing the publication of the ethnographic descriptions of Judaism isthat almost all of them were published in more than one edition,something that testifies to their popularity. Thus, for example,Pfe!erkorn’s book was published six times in 1508,41 and eight yearslater was also published in Danish.42 Von Carben’s work, first pub-lished around 1508, was published again in 1509, 1511, 1513, and1550, and Margaritha’s book was published at least seven times inthe sixteenth century.43

40 “Mit disem kindischen gebrauch, meinen sie, das ir Gott die Christen also solzerschmettern und gantz zu nicht machen.” See Sta!elsteiner, Etliche Artickel von denJuden, A2v. The custom of breaking a plate during the engagement ceremony isknown from contemporary Jewish sources. See Daniel Sperber, Customs of Israel:Sources and History, 7 vols. ( Jerusalem, 1990–2003), 6:58–61 [Hebrew]. The originof this custom, however, is not the one mentioned by Sta!elsteiner, and even if theJews believed that it also had an anti-Christian meaning, it is not surprising thatthere is no written record of this belief.

41 Four editions were printed in di!erent German dialects, and two others aretranslations to Latin. For a list of the di!erent editions, see Kirn, Das Bild, 202.

42 See Martin S. Lausten, “Jodernes hemmeligheder; den danske udgave af detantijodiske skrift Libellus de Judaica confessione (1516),” Rambam 31 (1991–92): 67–81.

43 Twice in 1530, twice in 1531, 1540, 1544, and 1561. In addition, it was pub-lished in 1617, 1689, 1705, and in 1713. See Diemling, “ ‘Christliche Ethnographien,’”238–39; Peter von der Osten-Sacken, Martin Luther und die Juden: Neu untersucht anhandvon Anton Margarithas “Der gantz Jüdisch glaub” (1530/31) (Stuttgart, 2002), 162–69.In addition, at least one of Sta!elsteiner’s books, Etliche Artickel von den Juden, waspublished again in 1583 under the title Von der Iuden Ceremonien. Lombardus’ workwas translated into Latin in 1575 and Hess’ book, which was first published in1598, was published again no less than nine times within ten years (twice in 1599,

346 "##$%& '()*+$,

The popularity of these books attests to the importance of theethnographic writings on the Jews for studying the perception of Jewsin early modern Germany.44 Moreover, reading through these ethno-graphies about Jews and Judaism, one can not ignore the fact thatall but one of the books that discuss Jewish ritual and ceremoniallife in the sixteenth century are of German origin, making this aGerman phenomenon. As a result, one must ask why were thesebooks so popular in Germany and why did they originate there?45

One last shared feature of these books is that all the sixteenth-century authors who wrote these descriptions were converts fromJudaism with one exception—Tissard. This is an important pointbecause it means that the idea, and also the ability to write aboutthe customs and ceremonies of the Jews, came from people whoconverted to Christianity. Only at the beginning of the seventeenthcentury, and with the aid of earlier works written by converts, didJohannes Buxtorf publish his book Juden Schul, the first descriptionof the ritual life of the Jews penned by a Christian from birth.46

The Emergence of the Ethnographic Literature

One question that arises from the discussion above is the reasonsfor the emergence of the ethnographic literature about Jews in thesixteenth century. As I argued before, prior to that period we wit-ness only rare and partial descriptions of the customs and ceremoniesof the Jews, and it is only from the beginning of the sixteenth cen-tury that this literature starts to appear as a unique genre. Ronnie

1600, twice in 1601, twice in 1605, 1606, and 1608) and once more later in theseventeenth century (probably in 1624).

44 The reception and influence of these works is beyond the scope of this arti-cle, but elsewhere I discussed this topic at greater length; see Yaacov Deutsch,“Judaism in Christian Eyes—‘Ethnographic’ Descriptions of Judaism in the Writingsof Christian Scholars in Western Europe from the Sixteenth to the Middle of theEighteenth Century” (PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2004), 323–24[Hebrew]. In addition, see Diemling’s article in this volume, which deals with thereception and influence of Margaritha’s book and Burnett, From Christian Hebraism,84–89, who deals with the influence of Buxtorf ’s work.

45 The only exception is Tissard, De Judeorum ritibus compendium, which was pub-lished by a Frenchman, based on observations made while he was residing in Italy;and see above, note 37.

46 See Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica.

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 347

Hsia, who was the first to describe this literature as ethnographicliterature about the Jews, argued that the investigations that accom-panied the ritual murder case in Trent (1475) show an interest inJewish ritual, an interest that could not be found in earlier investi-gations. According to Hsia, the popularity of the ritual associatedwith Simon of Trent in Germany explains the growing interest withJewish ritual in this country. Even if this claim is correct,47 it doesnot explain why authors like Pfe!erkorn or von Carben, who wereconverts, wrote their books, but only why their works were relativelypopular in Germany.48

In order to understand the rise of the ethnographic literature aboutthe Jews, one needs to examine the first authors who composed thesebooks, and the circumstances in which they were written. As men-tioned before, all but one of the ethnographic works from the six-teenth century were published by converted Jews in Germany. Inmy opinion, this is an important point for understanding the rise ofthe ethnographic literature.49 From the twelfth century and through-out the high Middle Ages, converts played an important role in theChristian-Jewish polemic, as initiators of disputations and debates,and as informants about texts that the Jews wanted to keep secret.Thus, Nicolas Donin instigated the attacks on the Talmud in themiddle of the thirteenth century,50 Pablo Christiani led the disputa-tion against Nahmanides at Barcelona in 1263,51 the converts Solomon

348 "##$%& '()*+$,

47 Hsia says nothing about earlier investigations of the inquisition, and thereforehe does not prove that the interest in Jewish ritual is not an earlier phenomenon.

48 And see also Elisheva Carlebach, who argues that the explanation that is givenby Hsia is not su-cient. See Carlebach, Divided Souls, 173.

49 The discussion here is based on some ideas that were pointed out by Carlebachin her book. I have added and emphasized some issues; see ibid., 173–82.

50 See Judah M. Rosenthal, “The Talmud on Trial,” JQR 47 (1956): 58–76,145–69; Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism(Ithaca, 1982), 52–99; Robert Chazan, “The Condemnation of the Talmud Re-considered (1239–1248),” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 55(1988): 11–30; Merhavya, The Church versus Talmudic and Midrashic Literature, 227–360.

51 See Robert Chazan, Barcelona and Beyond: The Disputation of 1263 and Its Aftermath(Berkeley, 1992). For a report about another polemic that was recently found andin which Christiani played a key role, see La deuxième controverse de Paris: Un chapitredans la polémique entre Chrétiens et Juifs au Moyen Age, ed. Joseph Shatzmiller (Paris,1994). For information about this polemic, see Jeremy Cohen, “The Second Disputationof Paris and its Place in Thirteenth-Century Jewish-Christian Polemic,” Tarbiz 68(1999): 557–78 [Hebrew].

Halevi and Abner of Burgos published polemical treatises against theJews during the fourteenth century,52 and Joshua Halorki took anactive part in the Tortosa disputation at the beginning of the fifteenthcentury.53

The phenomenon of people who left their religion and then turnedto attack their former religion is known from studies about conver-sion. In the Jewish context it has been described by Sander Gilman,who dealt with a list of people who converted from Judaism andthen held key roles in the struggle against the Jews, among whomhe also mentioned Pfe!erkorn and von Carben.54 Their convert iden-tity can partly explain the anti-Jewish tendency in their writings, butit is not su"cient as an explanation for their decision to write aboutthe customs and ceremonies of the Jews. Thus we should turn ourattention to the wider context in which these converts acted, andhere I allude to their relationships with the Dominicans in Cologne.55

As mentioned before, from the thirteenth century and onward themendicant ideology focused on the break between biblical and rab-binic Judaism. The Mendicants argued that contemporary Judaismwas a new religion, and set out to prove this claim. Thus mendi-cant theology created the interest in contemporary Judaism, whichwas manifested in the thirteenth century mainly by the study of theTalmud, and in revealing the gap between ancient and contempo-rary Judaism. This concept in regard to the Jews continued duringthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is evident mainly in Spainwith the activities of Abner of Burgos and Joshua Halorki, andaccording to Chazan, it was still present during the sixteenth century.56

As such, mendicant theology is a significant factor in the growing

52 On Abner of Burgos (Alfonso de Valladolid), see Yitzhak Baer, A History of theJews in Christian Spain, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1966), 1:327–54. On Solomon Halevi(Pablo de Sancta Maria), see ibid., 2:139–50.

53 On Joshua Halorki, see ibid., 2:139–50; on his part in the Tortosa disputa-tion, see Ram Ben-Shalom, “The Disputation of Tortosa, Vincente Ferrer and theProblem of the Conversos according to the Testimony of Isaac Nathan,” Zion 56(1991): 21–45 [Hebrew].

54 See Sander Gilman, Jewish Self Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language ofthe Jews (Baltimore, 1986).

55 Carlebach was the first who pointed to the importance of the Dominican con-text for understanding the ethnographic writing about the Jews. See Carlebach,Divided Souls, 178.

56 See Robert Chazan, Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing andJewish Responses (Berkeley, 1989), 165–69.

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 349

interest in contemporary Jews, and therefore it is not surprising thatthe publication of the first books that focus on the description ofeveryday life of the Jews was influenced by figures that were con-nected to the Dominican order.

It is not di!cult to trace the links between the phenomenon inSpain and in Germany. The relationship between Spain and Germanybecame closer after 1496, as a result of the marriage of HabsburgEmperor Philip, son of Maximilian I, to Juana of Castile, the daugh-ter of Ferdinand and Isabella.57 The tightening relationship betweenthe two nations broadened the relationships between the Dominicansin Spain and those in Germany, and resulted in the attempts ofGerman Dominicans to implement the anti-Jewish policy of theSpanish Dominicans.58 It is not incidental that von Carben (in 1486,ten years after his conversion) and Pfe"erkorn (who converted in1504) reached Cologne, the center of the Dominicans in Germanyand gained their support. In Cologne, von Carben met with OrtwinGratius, one of the Dominican leaders, and as a result of this rela-tionship he published his book about the Jewish customs discussedabove. Pfe"erkorn received the support of both Gratius and Jacobof Hoogstraten, who was at the time the inquisitor of the provincesof Cologne, Mainz, and Trier. The help that von Carben andPfe"erkorn received reflected the Dominican policy to employ con-verts in their campaign against the Jews, which was dominant mainlyin Spain.

The first book that Pfe"erkorn published was Der Joeden Spiegel, apolemical treatise against the Jews in which he explains why theJewish belief is wrong, and brings evidence from the Bible to provethe truthfulness of Christianity. After Pfe"erkorn published his book-lets about Yom Kippur (Ich heyß ein buchlein der iuden peicht, 1508) andPassover (In disem buchlein vindet yr ein entlichen furtrag wie die blindenJuden yr Ostern halten, 1509), he occupied himself with the attempt toban Jewish books and to destroy those that contain curses againstChristianity, an attempt that led to a struggle between Pfe"erkorn

57 See Michael Hughes, Early Modern Germany 1477–1806 (Philadelphia, 1992), 24.58 On the relationships between the Dominicans in Spain and those in Germany,

see Carlebach, Divided Souls, 48–52. See also Carl Brisch, Geschichte der Juden in Cölnund Umgebung, 2 vols. (Mülheim, 1879–82), 2:59, on the implementation of theSpanish method of using converts by the Dominicans in Germany.

350 #$$%&' ()*+,%-

and his Dominican supporters and Reuchlin and the humanists.59 Inthis case, we can see that Pfe!erkorn focused on the Jewish booksand their anti-Christian content, and in this way he continued theagenda set by Nicolas Donin who led the war against the Talmudin 1235.

As such, both von Carben’s book and Pfe!erkorn’s literary pro-duction and his activities against Jewish books, and the support theyreceived from the Dominicans in Germany, indicate that their bat-tle against the Jews was in many aspects the continuation of themedieval battle, which focused on revealing the anti-Christian char-acter of Judaism. Thus, I suggest that von Carben’s decision to dealalso with Jewish ceremonies and customs and not only with Jewishtexts comes from his motivation to bring forth new evidence for thehostility of Jews toward Christians, but not as a systematic attemptto change the nature of the polemic. Moreover, one cannot ignorethe fact that Pfe!erkorn’s work on Yom Kippur, and to a lesserdegree his booklet on Passover, exhibits a new dimension of expos-ing the absurdity of Jewish customs. It seems, however, that this ten-dency is not continued in his later works, which focus on the battleagainst the Jewish books and their anti-Christian content.

In short, von Carben and Pfe!erkorn are a connecting link betweenthe medieval tradition of the Dominicans and the new tendenciesthat will be manifested in the ethnographic writing in the years tocome. Thus, even if they were not aware of their contribution tothe creation of a new genre in the writing about the Jews, theydeserve to be mentioned among the forerunners of this genre.

Another factor that might explain the interest of converts in Jewishcustoms and ceremonies is linked to an inner Jewish development,and here I refer to the flourishing of the customs literature amongGerman Jews, especially from the fifteenth century and on.60 Accordingto Carlebach, authors like Pfe!erkorn, who was a slaughterer, andMargaritha, who came from a family of rabbis, were from the samestrata of second rank rabbis who composed the custom literature,

59 See Kirn, Das Bild, 121–88; Thomas Bartoldus, “Humanismus und Talmudstreit:Pfe!erkorn, Reuchlin und die ‘Dunkelmännerbriefe’ (1515–1517),” in Judentum undAntijudaismus in der deutschen Literatur im Mittelalter und an der Wende zur Neuzeit, ed.Arne Domrös, Thomas Bartoldus, and Julian Voloj (Berlin, 2002), 179–228.

60 See Yedidya Alter Dinari, The Rabbis of Germany and Austria at the Close of theMiddle Ages: their Conceptions and Halacha-Writings ( Jerusalem, 1984), 190–228 [Hebrew].

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 351

and therefore, despite the di!erence in their motivations, there is agreat resemblance between the Jewish custom books and the descrip-tion of Jewish customs in the works of the converts.61 If this assump-tion is correct, it seems easier to understand the attraction of theconverts mentioned here to describe the customs and ceremonies ofthe Jews.

In addition to this internal Jewish factor, we should also take intoaccount that from the end of the fifteenth century there was a grow-ing interest in ethnographic descriptions of di!erent nations and eth-nic groups, in which the customs and ceremonies of these nationswere discussed. Although we have no direct evidence for the influenceof works like this on von Carben and Pfe!erkorn or on later authorslike Margaritha and Sta!elsteiner, we cannot ignore the influence ofthese works on the Zeitgeist, and the contribution of the ethnographicliterature in general to the increasing interest in the ethnographicwritings about the Jews.62

As I have argued elsewhere, the Jewish ethnographies reflect theplace Jews filled within early modern European society. On the onehand, the importance of this new attitude should not be underesti-mated since these books lay open for Christian eyes an hitherto terraincognita by removing the veil that hung over Jewish life. In my opin-ion, this process of disenchantment with Jewish ritual was the begin-ning of a larger process that culminated during the Enlightenment,when Jews were integrated into the civil society.63 On the other hand,

61 See Carlebach, Divided Souls, 176.62 Although it is hard to prove direct influence of the ethnographic writing about

other nations on the ethnographic writing about the Jews, there are several cluesthat link these two phenomena—for example, the publication of von Carben’s bookin a Latin translation together with a book describing the customs and ceremoniesof the Turks (Georgius de Hungaria, Tractatus de moribus condictionibus et nequiciaTurcorum), and a book about the Muslims (Ricoldo de Montecrucis, Contra sectamMahumeticam non indignus scitu libellus, Paris, 1511). In later periods, this link is moreevident with the publication of encyclopedic works that describe di!erent religionsand also include a description of Judaism. To the best of my knowledge, the firstcomposition in which we can find a description of contemporary Judaism along-side the description of other religions is Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimage. OrRelations of the World and the Religions Observed in all Ages and Places Discovered, from theCreation unto this Present (London, 1613).

63 In my dissertation I touched upon the relationship between the disenchant-ment with Jewish ritual and the changing attitudes toward the Jews. See Deutsch,“Judaism in Christian Eyes,” 156–57. In the future I hope to expand my researchon this subject.

352 "##$%& '()*+$,

the polemical aspects of the ethnographic literature outlined abovewere a crucial component of these compositions.64

The sixteenth-century ethnographic writing about the Jews wasrooted in the medieval polemic against the Jews, and characterizedby an anti-Jewish agenda. Already in some of the sixteenth-centuryworks, though mainly in books that were published later, the polem-ical agenda became marginalized, and thus led to less biased andmore neutral descriptions.

The outcome of this new literary genre of ethnographic writingabout the ritual life of the Jews was that for the first time imagesof the Jews were based upon first-hand knowledge and not uponprejudice and generalizations. On the other hand, another conse-quence of this literature was that Jewish ritual became more visibleand thus the customs and ceremonies of the Jews faced Christianscrutiny and attack.65 The new knowledge revealed that the Jewswere not monsters or children of the Devil, and therefore, that theywere similar to their Christian neighbors. At the same time, thisknowledge proved that the Jewish religion made Jews very di!erentand strange, and therefore, very distant from their neighbors.

In order to underline the novelty of the ethnographies, it is impor-tant to note that other books published during the sixteenth centuryreflect a more traditional approach to the Jews. I refer to books thatdescribe actual or fictional disputations with Jews, enlist di!erentcurses the Jews use against the Christians, and polemical works that

64 Elsewhere I argued that the term “Christian Ethnographies of Jews” coinedby Ronnie Hsia is problematic because it ignores this aspect of the ethnographicwritings about the Jews, and suggested the term “polemical ethnographies” be usedinstead. And if this is true for this genre in general, it is even more so when wedeal with the ethnographic writings of the sixteenth century. See Yaacov Deutsch,“Polemical Ethnographies: Descriptions of Yom Kippur in the Writings of ChristianHebraists and Jewish Converts to Christianity in Early Modern Europe,” in HebraicaVeritas, 202–33.

65 On this point see also Carlebach, Divided Souls, 182–92, especially 191–92.Another locus where the change in the nature of the writings about the Jews isevident is the anti-Jewish propaganda that focuses on the social life of the Jews asusurers and criminals rather than on their theological inferiority and their respon-sibility for Jesus’ crucifixion. On this, see Ben-Zion Degani, “Evidence for theAppearance of the ‘Criminal’ Type in the Jewish Stereotype in Germany at theEnd of Middle Ages and the Beginning of the Modern Period,” in Culture and Societyin Medieval Jewry: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, ed. MenahemBen-Sasson, Robert Bonfil, and Joseph R. Hacker ( Jerusalem, 1989), 655–86[Hebrew].

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 353

deal with anti-Christian passages in the Talmud or in the Jewishliturgy. Among these books, one can mention Verzeichniss . . . von denerschrecklichen Jüdischen Gottslesterungen (A List of Frightening JewishBlasphemies), which was first published in 1560 and contains morethan a hundred di!erent curses that, according to its compiler, areused by the Jews against the Christians.66

Nevertheless, even some of these compositions, which reveal tosome extent the medieval attitude that was first used in the polemicagainst the Talmud—that of exposing the anti-Christian elements ofthe Jewish texts—display the novelty of the ethnographic genre. Inthis new genre, instead of focusing on the written text, the authors’goal is to expose anti-Christian elements in the oral tradition of theJews, and as such, these texts reflect a more intimate and accuratedescription of the Jews.

The main purpose of the first ethnographic descriptions of Jewishritual life was similar, and their authors focused mainly on the cer-emonies that proved that the Jewish ritual contained many anti-Christian elements. Only later—already in some works from thesixteenth century, although mainly during the seventeenth century—did these works begin to focus on other aspects of Jewish ritual, pri-marily its alleged superstition and deviance from biblical law.

The growing Christian interest and knowledge of Jewish ritual wasalso evident in more traditional polemical works, for example in abook written by Christopher Mandel in 1557 as a dialogue betweenthe Christian author and a Jew named Simeon.67 The first part ofthe book includes the question of the Christian about the ritualfringes (tzitzit) that the Jew wears, and a long answer of the Jewwhere he explains the laws and the meaning of this garment. Inaddition there is another discussion concerning the Jewish rules for

66 See Anonymous, Verzeichniss und kurtzer Auszug aus etlicher Hochgelehrter (auch vieleranderer Gottseliger Menner und erfahrner der Hebrayschen Sprach) von den erschrecklichen JüdischenGottslesterungen wider unsern Herrn Christum die Jungfrau Maria wider alle Christen und WeltlicheObrigkeit so von den Juden teglich geübt wirt (n.p., 1560). For example, according to thisbook the Jews say “Moshec bachevel yipol bazevel,” literally the one who drawsthe rope will fall into the garbage, but the actual meaning is that the Dominicanmonks, who wear a rope on their clothes, will fall into the garbage. I intend topublish this book and deal with its content elsewhere.

67 Christopher Mandel, Beweisung aus der Juden Gesatz Nemlich aus den dreyen IsmaelsKindere Namen Mischma, Duma, Massa Das unser Herr Jesus Christus warer Gott und Menschder verhaissen Samen Hailand und gelaisstet Messias sey Inn ain Gesprech zwischen ainem Christenund Juden Gestellt (Newburg an der Thunaw, 1557).

354 "##$%& '()*+$,

the days in the week on which New Year and Passover cannot fall,again as a response of the Jew to his interlocutor.68 It is not clearif this book reflects a real dialogue that took place or is fictional,but in any case it reveals the interest and familiarity of Christianswith Jewish ceremonies and rituals.

In many important respects the sixteenth century marks a turningpoint in the attitude toward Jews and in the way that Jews wereviewed by Christians. Christians began to write not only about Jewishtexts but also about Jewish praxis. Christian focus moved from thestudy of Judaism to the study of Jews and the things they do. Thisshift in Christian attitudes toward the Jews, however, was a longprocess, and during the sixteenth century the publication of tradi-tional works about and against the Jews continued.69 Moreover, someof the authors who wrote books that marked the shift in Christianattitudes, and showed interest in the Jewish customs and ceremonies,wrote other works that reflect the medieval tradition of writing aboutthe Jews—using proofs from the Bible to demonstrate the truth ofChristianity and collecting and describing anti-Christian texts andcurses against Christianity and Christian symbols. Thus, for exam-ple, Pfe!erkorn compiled other polemical works in which he listedcurses and maxims against Christianity and its symbols,70 Sta!elsteinerwas the author of a few polemical treatises that deal with Jewishwritings and opinions about Jesus, Christianity, and Christians,71 andHess published a polemical work against the Jews that is more tra-ditional and includes a chapter of proofs from rabbinic and kab-balistic sources for the truth of Christianity.72 This, along with the

68 According to the Jewish tradition the first day of New Year will not be on aSunday, Wednesday, or Friday, and the first day of Passover will not be on aMonday, Wednesday, or Friday (jsp wùùdb alw çar wùùda al).

69 See, for example, Georg Nigrinus, Juden Feind: Von den Edelen Früchten derThalmudischen Jüden, so jetziger zeit Teutschlande wonen (Giessen, 1570).

70 See, for example, his Ich bin ain buchlin Der Juden veindt ist mein namen (Cologne,1509), A2r–v.

71 For example, Paulus Sta!elsteiner, Die grosse Gottes lesterung, der Talmutisten unndCapholisten, die sie beschreiben, wieder Jhesum Christum unsern Erlöser und Seligmacher(Heidelberg, n.d.).

72 See Ernst Ferdinand Hess, Speculum Judaeorum, Das ist, Juden Spiegel: Ein new sehrnutzlich Buchlein, darinn sich nit allein die gottlose lästerer, schänder, schmäher Götttliches worts,die Juden, in besehen das Jesus Christus, Gottes, und der H. Jungfrawen Marien Son, der rechteSchlangen tretter sey, Sonder auch ein jeder frommer Gottseliger Christ sich darinn ersehen undspieglen mag, was die Juden davon halten (Cologne, 1601).

VON DER IUDEN CEREMONIEN 355

publication of other traditional works in the sixteenth century, indi-cates that the sixteenth century was a period of transition and thatthe change in attitude toward the Jews was a long process. In spiteof this, the emergence of this new genre of ethnographic writingsabout the Jews was not only an important indication of the chang-ing attitude toward the Jews that paved the way to the acceptanceof the Jews into the society during the eighteenth century, but alsoa central contributor to this process.

356 !""#$% &'()*#+

JEWS, JUDAISM, AND THE REFORMATION IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY

GERMANY

EDITED BY

DEAN PHILLIP BELL AND STEPHEN G. BURNETT

BRILLLEIDEN • BOSTON

2006