History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)Graetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
to pay annually to the imperial treasury a sum of about 200,000 gulden.
These restrictions were maintained almost up to the Revolution of 1848.
Jonathan Eibeschütz rightly or wrongly was declared a traitor to his
country, and forbidden ever to set foot on Austrian soil.
If, during the first years passed in Metz, he was so popular that the
community would not allow him to accept the post of rabbi at Fürth,
offered to him, he must have made himself disagreeable later on, as
during his difficulties, he could not find supporters there, nor any
witnesses to his innocence. If he committed only a small portion of the
mean actions with which he was reproached, his life must have presented
a striking contrast to the sermons which he composed. Eibeschütz
did not feel at home in Metz; he missed the bustling, argumentative
band of young admirers, and the wide platform on which to display
his Talmudical erudition. In France there were fewer students of the
Talmud. It was therefore pardonable that he strenuously exerted himself
to obtain the post of rabbi of the "three communities" (Hamburg,
Altona, and Wandsbeck). Thanks to the efforts of his connections and
admirers, and his fame as the most distinguished of Talmudists and
miracle workers, the choice fell on him. As the Jews of the three
towns had their own civil jurisdiction, based on Rabbinical law, they
required an acute rabbi, a lawyer, and they could not, from this point
of view, have made a better selection.
But an evil spirit seems to have entered Altona with his instalment,
which threw into disorder not only the three communities, but also the
whole of German and Polish Judaism. Eibeschütz, though not free from
blame, must not alone be made answerable. The tendency of the age was
culpable, and Jacob Emden, an unattached rabbi, was more especially the
prime mover in the strife. He desired to unmask hypocrisy, and in doing
so laid bare the nakedness of his Jewish contemporaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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