The Religious Condition of German Jewries in the First Half of the 18th Century. Rural and Urban Communities in Comparison

Ohio State University, Columbus

This presentation focuses on Jewish attitudes towards non-Jews in the first half of the 18^th century as depicted in the travelling journals of Pietist missionaries. If up to that point, interreligious encounter had been a field of interaction between Jewish and Christian scholars, in the 18^th century the missionaries began to engage in conversations on faith with Jews of all social strata, genders, ages and educational backgrounds. Such interactions yielded many different forms of individual and communal Jewish reactions. Examining cases of missionary encounters with the large urban Jewry of Frankfurt (Main) and the smaller, rural kehilah of Celle (in the Principality of Hanover), I will discuss the different levels of openness Jews displayed in their interaction with the missionaries and their connection to the respective communal structure and living conditions of each settlement. In addition, I will show that, in contrast to older views, one should not confuse the openness of Jews towards their Christian environment with a decrease in faith, a decline in communal cohesion, or a dissolution of traditional structures. Finally, I will contrast the findings on the religious condition of the Jewry of Celle with the critique on the matter made by Isaak Wetzlar, the author of the ‘Libes briv’ (see the presentation by Rebekka Voß) and a member of the Celle kehilah.