Language:
German
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Menora; Jahrbuch für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
12 (2001) 39-65
Keywords:
Mendelssohn, Moses,
;
Dohm, Christian Wilhelm von,
;
Jews History 1500-1800
Abstract:
Moses Mendelssohn encouraged Christian friends, foremost among them Dohm, to publish treatises for the emancipation of the Jews. When Dohm's work, and subsequently also Mendelssohn's own preface to Menasseh ben Israel's work, met with a stream of hostile reactions by scholars who identified themselves with the Enlightenment, but who reverted to traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes in order to deny the Jews equal rights, Mendelssohn responded with his defense of Judaism, "Jerusalem" (1783). This produced even more vitriolic reactions, and Mendelssohn bitterly concluded that for Jews to enter the debate over emancipation was counter-productive; they should leave it to others. The issue then faded away for a time in Germany; but Mendelssohn's and Dohm's influence played a decisive part in securing Jewish emancipation in France.
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