Margalita, the Debater and Troublemaker

• Authors: Doktor J.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Aron Margalita was one of the most colourful figures among 18th century Jewish converts. During the tide of Messianic fervour, he accepted baptism in the Reformed Evangelic Church in 1695. However, he could not find himself a place in the Christian world. Apart from a several spell at Viadrina University, he could not find employment at any university, despite the fact that he published several widely known books. 'Oblatio Aaronis', first published in Latin and next in German as 'Malach ha-berit', was the first of the publications written by Jewish converts in the 17th and 18th century that did not condemn the Jews and their tradition but sought a reconciliation between the Christian and the Jews. Margalita was trying to convince Christians and Jews that they shared a common source of their faith. He accepted both the mission of Jesus and the inspired status of the Gospel and the cabalistic Jewish traditions. This is why he did not want to persuade the Jews to join any of the Christian churches, just tried to convince them to accept his own variant of Judaism, which was a certain form of Judeochristianity. He wanted to reconcile them with Christianity as Jews who preserve their identity and only reject the deviations of the 'new' Talmudic Judaism.

Keywords

EN

CONVERSIONS; JUDEOCHRISTIANITY; MARGALITA ARON; RELIGIOUS DISPUTES

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Żydow
• Year: 2008
• Issue: 1(225)
• Pages: 5-19
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Doktor J.

• J. Doktor, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, ul. Tlomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA04488686