Mayer Bretzfeld (1747–1823) – der letzte bayerische Landesrabbiner

Based on an edition of previously unexplored epistolary sources, this volume is an introduction into the world of Mayer Bretzfeld (1747–1823), the last chief rabbi in Schnaittach, Bavaria, whose biography combines Franconian and Bavarian perspectives. Bretzfeld‘s Jewish-German family correspondence documents the voices of men, women and children from numerous towns and villages around 1800, thereby offering a rare direct testimony of community, economic and family life, gender relations, and religious customs. Like few other sources, these letters allow to experience the diversity of Franconian-Jewish language usage in Jean Paul's time, as well as the quotidian writing culture, the beliefs, and the mentality of ordinary people before the drastic changes of modernity.

With contributions by
Daniela Eisenstein | Alisha Meininghaus | Avner Shuam | Paula Somogyi | Franziska Strobel | Carsten Wilk