Appeal for funds by "Gluckselig Geir mi-Zera Yehudim" [Gluckselig the Convert from the Seed of the Jews"]. Addressed to a Herr Carstensen

(DENMARK).

Tonder, Denmark

August 1788

Scribal Hebrew characters provided with nikud

It is with difficulty to glean the facts surrounding this unusual document. The fact that the letter is composed in a most articulate, learned - and what is more, idiomatic - Hebrew, suggests that the writer is indeed a Jew. This is further attested to by the fact that he signs himself "mi-Zera Yehudim" ("from the seed of the Jews"). If so, the term "Geir" (convert) attached to his surname, indicates that he is indeed a convert from Judaism to Christianity. One should not be overly surprised that the language of the appeal is Hebrew. As Prof. Elisheva Carlebach has pointed out, "Converts from Judaism positioned themselves as the ideal mediators between Jews and Christians, able to function both as teachers of Hebrew to Christians and as missionaries to Jews" (Carlebach, Divided Souls, p. 163). Tonder, just north of the German border, alternated between Danish and German jurisdiction