Ruderman David B. Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History

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184 C H A P t e r f i v e

Moses Marcus was the son of a rich Jewish diamond

merchant and grandson of the well-known Jewish busi-

nesswoman and autobiographical author Glikl von

Hameln. He had learned of the career of Johann

isaac

and

viewed it as a model of his own behavior as a Chris-

tian convert with enduring Jewish commitments.

724, Marcus published a small book announcing and

justifying his conversion to the Anglican Church under

the personal supervision of the learned chaplain of the

Archbishop of Canterbury,

david

Wilkins. Among the

many interesting aspects of the young man’s composi-

tion was its open rebuttal of a well-known defense of

rabbinic Judaism penned by the famous

sephardic

rabbi

of London

david Nieto some years earlier

from

the time of Moses’s well publicized conver-

sion, he seems to have taken a series of confusing steps

that left his immediate family, his Jewish friends, and

his Christian associates highly uncertain about the sin-

cerity of his conversion and his ultimate feelings about

his ancestral faith.

despite

a letter to his parents deny-

ing his intention of ever converting, he challenged his

father with a prolonged suit in

english

court, demand-

ing material support from him, even while living as a

Christian. While conveniently seeking out and gaining

employment as a Hebrew and Judaic studies teacher for

learned Christians in want of his expertise, he seems to

have fancied himself as an author and translator in his

own right and even a defender of Jewish interests.

highly revealing begging letter to the well-known scholar

and cultural patron

sir

Hans

sloane,

Marcus listed all

of his many Jewish compositions, including an

english

translation

of the entire Jewish liturgy, a guide to Jewish

ceremonies, and a defense of the Masoretic text of the

M i N G L e d i d e N t i t i e s 185

Hebrew Bible against the highly controversial ndings

of William Whiston.

addition, he also listed the many

illustrious students who befriended him, including some

of the most distinguished of the

english clergy

Marcus represents a well-documented example of the

tenuous nature of conversion for Jews enticed by Chris-

tian missionaries to relinquish the Jewish faith.

ironi-

cally

Marcus could only survive in a Christian world

as a self-proclaimed expert on Judaism.

yet his

primary

role as an expositor of Judaism inevitably shaped his

ercely loyal and warm feelings for Jews and their be-

liefs.

despite his formal repudiation of his birthright, he

could not extricate himself from his former life as a Jew.

As he wrote in his attack on Whiston, “

had a particular

ambition to vindicate the Jews, my own brethren and

countrymen,” and despite their indelity to Christ, he

continues, “still

retain, and ever shall retain that regard

for my brethren, whom

have left for the sake of Christ,

as to do them all reasonable justice, and to defend their

reputation against downright calumny.”

our last mention of a convert with similarly deep-

seated loyalty to his former community of Jews is Carl

Anton. Anton was known formally as Moses Gerson

Cohen and apparently was an associate of the

sabbatean

rabbi

Jonathan

eybeschütz,

who was discussed earlier in

this chapter. Anton converted to Christianity in 1748,

taught Jewish languages at Helmstadt, and subsequently

published many books of Jewish interest, including a

series of reports describing the

emden-eybeschütz

con-

troversy. When the learned Christian Johann Andreas

eisenmenger

published his bitter denunciation of Juda-

ism titled Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism

revealed)

1711, Anton eventually felt compelled to refute it.

the

186 C H A P t e r f i v e

introduction to his work Einleitung in die rabbinischen

Rechte (

introduction

rabbinic

Law), he passionately

proclaims, “

confess that

love the Jews because

was

born and raised among them, more because my beloved

savior

sprang among them.

love them with Paul and

wish daily that they would nd the right path.”

the

same

distinction we have seen in

isaac

and Marcus between

religious identity and ethnic loyalty marks Anton’s self-

understanding as well. Baptism had not fully erased his

allegiance to and affection for the Jewish people, espe-

cially in critical moments when their very lives and good

names were threatened by such defamers as the danger-

ous

eisenmenger

Jewish Christians and Christian Jews

While the confessional convert in early modern europe

was a phenomenon distinct from the converso, the am-

biguous and ambivalent statuses of both in Christian and

Jewish societies overlapped and intersected. And as we

have seen, conversos were often simultaneously

sab

bate-

ans who found in this special form of Jewish messianism

a blending of their Jewish and Christian identities.

sab

bateanism in particular, in its

fra

nkist and other radical

forms, could easily be conjoined with radical Christian

ideologies like those of the

ros

icrucians,

swe

denburg-

ians, and

fre

emasons.

Add to this mix Christian He-

braists in pursuit of their pristine Jewish origins and

one begins to appreciate the fascinating complexity of

Jewish-Christian relations in early modern

eur

ope and

the appearance of what

ric

hard Popkin and others have

labeled Jewish Christians and Christian Jews.

surely

these new congurations reect the weakened and fragile

M i N G L e d i d e N t i t i e s 187

state of Judaism and Christianity in early modern eu-

rope and the prominent search for spiritual meaning in

an unstable political and social climate.

the nal analysis, the historian can readily dis-

cover a remarkably uid, protean, and instable set of

relationships among Jewish and Christian theologians

and thinkers, messianic enthusiasts, book dealers, mer-

chants, and others, irting with each other’s faith and at-

tempting to construct their own confessional creeds on

the basis of highly individualized life choices. Conversos,

sabbateans,

Christian Hebraists, and Jewish neophytes

to Christianity invariably could no longer be satised

with the traditional orthodoxies out of which they had

been raised.

the

simultaneous embrace of certain hybrid

forms of Jewish and Christian faith and praxis became

a more viable option to members of these groups and to

others than ever before.

one

might question, nevertheless, the importance of

the “mingled identities” described in this chapter as sig-

nicant indicators of the transformation of early mod-

ern Jewish culture. Were the converts and Hebraists,

sabbateans

and conversos anything more than marginal

gures on the fringes of Jewish (and Christian) culture

and society with relatively little impact on the Jewish or

Christian majorities? Were they geographically diverse,

or more concentrated in only a few metropolitan cen-

ters in western

europe such as Amsterdam, Hamburg,

or London?

Admittedly, it is impossible to offer precise num-

bers of each of the four groups under discussion. Cer-

tainly the conversos and their settlement patterns from

the

ottoman empire

to Amsterdam, London, and the

New World suggest a sizable and signicant network of

188 C H A P t e r f i v e

people extending throughout early modern europe and

beyond. Converts and their writings can also be located

in western

europe,

especially in Germany and

england,

but are also noticeable to some degree to the

east

well.

sabbateans,

as we have seen, created networks of-

ten aligned with those of the conversos and were seen

as a threat to Jews across

eurasia,

including the Middle

east

and eastern

europe.

And Christian Hebraists even-

tually appeared in most universities where high culture

was transmitted both in the West and in the

east,

from

London and

oxford to Leipzig,

Prague, and Krakow.

Beyond the sheer numbers of these groups was the

overall impact their remapping of the borders of Juda-

ism and Christianity had on Jewish and Christian cul-

tures in their own era and upon the subsequent history

of these religious civilizations and their interactions in

the modern period as well.

the

implications of these

new, mingled identities were profound for Jews living in

early modern

europe

in precipitating a turning point in

Jewish self-denition based on human autonomy rather

than communal will, and in weakening traditional rab-

binic authority.

the

impact on the Christian community

was less profound but still noticeable. Judaism became,

more than ever before, an object of intense scrutiny for

some Christian scholars, clergy, and others as part of a

complex reevaluation of Christianity in relation to other

cultures and civilizations, in both the past and the pres-

ent.

the

study of Judaism by Christians always reected

a need to denigrate the other in authenticating the

self, but in light of the growing awareness—

especially

in this

age—that the Jewish “other” was indeed a vi-

tal and intrinsic part of the Christian “self,” repulsion

and vilication went hand in hand with attraction and

M i N G L e d i d e N t i t i e s 189

even embrace, as the individual cases of Helmont, späth,

and

surenhusius

demonstrate in their own ways. Juda-

ism also became for others a part of the subversive mix

of radical political and religious movements, includ-

ing the aforementioned millenary movements affecting

Jews, Christians, and conversos, as well as, of course, the

spinozist

revolution. Jewish mysticism and messianism

were both subjects of scorn and enchantment on the part

of Christians and they sometimes entered the discourse

of clerics, antiquarians, politicians, and other intellectu-

als.

ways unimagined and unexpected, the boundary

crossings of Jews into Christianity and Christians into

Judaism (with occasional intermingling with

islam

well) created a new set of dynamic relations between

these faith communities, new challenges to their clerical

leaders, and new articulations of religious identity in an

increasingly cosmopolitan and ecumenical world.

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six

toWArd ModerNity:

soMe fiNA

tHoUG

y presenting what i consider to be the ve most sa-

lient features of Jewish cultural formation during

the early modern period,

have tried to offer a meaning-

ful response to the challenges posed at the beginning of

this work.

the

rst, the reader will recall, was the chal-

lenge offered by the single most inuential reconstruc-

tion of early modern Jewish history, especially the notion

that the history of Jewish culture is primarily derivative

of general trends located in non-Jewish society.

the sec-

ond

was that offered by Jewish historians who prefer to

speak about the early modern period exclusively from

the vantage point of a particular region or locality they

study, implicitly denying the possibility that a transre-

gional early modern Jewish cultural experience can ever

be intelligibly described.

the

third challenge is the one

posed by both

european

and world historians who have

grappled with the slippery term early modernity and the

difculties of writing comparative history in the rst

place.

consider my own portrait of early modern Jew-

ish culture a fuller and more accurate portrait than any

previous one.

these

ve features, although they vary in

intensity and frequency throughout this long period and

192 C H A P t e r s i x

over a vast continental terrain, do capture a sense of

the whole in relation to its parts. Mobility, communal

cohesion, a knowledge explosion, rabbinical authority

in crisis, and a muddling of religious identities clearly

transgure the culture and society of Jews living across

europe

in early modern times.

finally

, in employing the

notions of connected histories and cultural exchange,

hope

have found a useful way to speak about Jews in

early modern

europe,

recognizable to other early mod-

ern historians and comparable with their national and

regional historical narratives.

these common conditions also point to a conscious-

ness of a worldwide community transcending local or re-

gional boundaries. Mobility made certain Jews intensely

aware of Jews from other lands and other cultural set-

tings. Complex communal organizations administering

increasingly expansive areas, such as those in eastern

and central

europe,

naturally facilitated and encouraged

constant contact and engagement with their counter

parts across europe

and beyond.

the

printing presses

broke down cultural barriers in an unprecedented way,

enlarging the horizons of Jews even in the most remote

and isolated of regions.

the sabbateans

created complex

networks of emissaries and followers over vast areas;

their campaign to organize a movement extending from

the Middle

east

to the far corners of western

europe

precipitated

in turn strong oppositional structures of

rabbis and communal ofcials who were equally intense

in a common cause against the “heretics” crossing po-

litical and cultural borders.

the

mixed identities of con-

versos,

sabbateans,

Christian Hebraists, and individual

converts, whatever their actual number and wherever

they lived, posed a universal threat to those protectors

t oWA r d M o d e r N i t y: s o M e f i N A L t H o U G H t s 193

of the communal norms and upholders of traditional

praxis and belief.

they

were menacing to the very foun-

dations of the entire Jewish community, and its leader-

ship everywhere was forced to deal with a new reality

destabilizing the long-established boundaries demarcat-

ing one religion from others.

Accordingly, the markers described in the previous

chapters signal both a distinctive age and cultural expe-

rience for all Jews living in the early modern era as well

as the presence of a vast community linked by common

values, common circumstances, and common challenges

to its very existence.

these shared experiences emerge

against a reality of cultural, social, and political diversity

among the Jewish subcultures we have surveyed.

early

modern

Jewish life was predicated on profound local

and regional differences reected in distinct languages,

customs, political structures, and ritual life. But within

this heterogeneity of recognizable local traditions and

practices, there emerged a clear sense of connectedness.

Jews were members of Polish, German,

ottoman,

se-

phar dic,

and

italian

communities while simultaneously

in contact with and aware of their afliation with Jews

everywhere.

times of crisis and stress, such as that

engendered by the

sabbatean

heresy, this feeling was es-

pecially magnied, as we have seen.

When does the early Modern Period

Begin and When

does it end?

if indeed my argument in favor of an early modern era

of Jewish history is plausible, what remains to be con-

sidered in this nal chapter are the following questions:

When should we date its beginning and its closure, and