Die auff den traurigen Ascher-Mittwoch der Juden [“The Sad Ash-Wednesday of the Jews”: anti-Semitic lampoon concerning the destruction of the Frankfurt Ghetto]

(GERMANY)

(Frankfurt a/Main)

1711

German interspersed with pidgin-Yiddish in Latin letters

A Cynic Reflects on the Frankfurt Fire of 1711 This lampoon is in direct violation of the Imperial Edict which forbade ill-will toward Frankfurt's Jews in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the Ghetto (see previous Lot.) The anonymous pamphleteer cynically suggests that the Jews will well benefit from the reconstruction of the Ghetto, and so: "Jetzt bekommen wir auch wieder neuwe Häuser und Schoulum wirdt gröser gemacht mit fraaden will ich mein Jüngelger darnach drin Beschneiden lasen," ("Now we are to receive new homes and the Synagogues will be made bigger, with joy I will have my boys circumcised.")