Language:
German
Year of publication:
1991
Titel der Quelle:
Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für Deutsche Geschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
20 (1991) 77-101
Keywords:
Hourwitz, Zalkind,
;
France History Revolution, 1789-1799
Abstract:
An account of the life and activities of Zalkind Hourwitz (ca. 1740-1812), a Jewish disciple of the Haskalah and French Enlightenment. Born in Poland, he sought freedom first in Berlin and then in France. He became known through a treatise submitted in 1787 to a competition of the Academie Royale of Metz, which had asked for proposals "to make the Jews more useful and happier in France". Hourwitz corrected anti-Jewish distortions of the Talmud to refute both the traditional lies against Jews, such as the blood libel, and new accusations born of the Enlightenment, such as that of Jewish separatism. He responded to Johann David Michaelis's criticism of Dohm's essay on emancipation. Admitting that some Jews were guilty of usury and crooked dealing, he argued that these evils would disappear once Jews were granted freedom to choose their occupations. Hourwitz's essay aroused hostility in the Jewish community because of his attack on the authority of the rabbis, but it was influential among French liberals. He later became a publicist for the Girondists.
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