(ANTISEMITICA)

Antonio Becker

Cologne

1616

Schwab, Dietrich. Detectum velum Mosaicum Judaeorum nostri temporis. Das ist: Jüdischer Deckmantel des Mosaichen Gesetzes/ under welchem die Juden jetziger Zeit allerley Bubenstück/ Laster/Schand/und Finanzerey/ uben und treiben/auffgehoben und entdecket [“The Jewish mask of Mosaic Law, under which the Jews of today practice and carry on knavery, vice, disgrace and finagling…lifted and revealed.”]

Cf. Freimann, p. 414 (a later 1619 edition)

A rare text. The author, a Jewish convert to Christianity, offers a complete description of the Jewish prayer service, transliterating several blessings into German. The author's agenda was to uncover anti-Christian references in the Jewish prayer book. The blessing in the Shmonah-Esrei "Ve-la-malshinim" (or "Ve-la-meshumadim") and Rashi's (uncensored) commentary play into Schwab's hand in this respect (see pp.109-112). One notes with interest the extensive discourse of the prohibition of a Jew drinking "Yayin Nesech" (Christian wine) on pp. 204-210. Schwab discusses the way this prohibition was observed by the Jews of Frankfurt, Worms and elsewhere in Germany. In this regard, he mentions a ruling by "Rabbi Aaron of Paderborn" (p.208). Schwab's new Christian identity severly jaundiced his many early childhood memories even to ascribing to Jewish ritual the practice of employing Christian blood. See E. Carlebach, Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500-1750 (2001), pp. 98-9, 209, 213, 220, 300