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Apologists

Judaism took on a harsher animus. The silence of the Jews for several centuries in the face of such attacks was a deplorable error, especially in view of the fact that the hitter effects of this anti-Jewish literature were felt in the keenest degree. This silence cau be accounted for only by assuming that the Jews of those days were not afraid of any enduring consequences from these attacks, or from the influence of the Christian propa-

Silence of ganda upon their own coreligionists. the Jews. The fundamental principles of Christianity

— Trinity,

Incarnation, etc.

were deemed by them to stand in such direct contradiction to both the spirit and the letter of the Bible that it seemed like a work of supererogation to point out the contradiction. Aside from this, these attacks were written in Latin or in Greek, familiarity with either of which had been lost by the Jews.

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apoplexy

Whenever any vernacular

discussions,

founded upon such material, occurred, the crass ignorance of the Christian clergy of the day rendered the victory of the Jews an easy one. And it

was because the Jews felt so sure of their own ground that they did not think it necessary to defend themselves.

So far as ascertained, the first to venture a defense any degree was Saadia ben Joseph (died 942), who was gaon in Sura and a very prolific writer. In his translation of the Bible into Arabic, and in his commentaries upon it, as well as in his philosophical work, "Emunot we-De'ot" (written in Arabic and translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon), he attacked the claims of Christianity and Islam; the former receiving from his pen greater attention than

in

was not so insistent in its missionary zeal as Christianity. Saadia maintained the latter, because Islam

that Judaism would always exist, and that its religious system, which allowed man to reach perfection as nearly as possible, would not be displaced by any In any case, Christianity, which transformed other. mere abstractions into divine personalities, was not qualified to supersede it; nor was Islam, which lacked sufficient proof to displace the undisputed

wrote polemical works; and the latter in addition compiled the apologetic book "Milhamot Mizwah." In Spain, although prominent Jewish scholars had embraced Christianity and placed their

French and Spanish Apologists,

loose and the might of the Church grew rapidly when, furthermore, the Christian clergy had learned to make use of the services of baptized Jews in aiding schemes for the wholesale Cluistianization of their brethren, the leading spirits among the Jews felt constrained to lay aside all hesitation and reserve, so that with the twelfth century Jewish polemics appeared more frequently and more numerously. In northern Prance, R. Samuel b. Mel'r (Rashbam) and Joseph Bekor Shor demonstrated the weakness of the foundations sought for Christianity in the Bible and

Joseph b. Isaac Kimhi wrote the " Sefer ha-Berit," in which he applied himself to the discussion of Christian dogmas and their scientific refutation. Moses ibn Tibbon, in Montpellier(1240), and Me'ir b. Simon

Church

either in special books or in the shape of letters adAgainst Abner of Burgos dressed to the apostates. (called, as a Christian, Alfonso of Valladolid), Shem"

ibn Shaprut wrote his pamphlet " Eben Bohan (The Touchstone). To Maestro Astruc Raimuch (who, as a Christian, took the name of Francisco Dios Carne) Solomon b. Reuben Bonfed addressed his epistle, full of sharp points, against ChristianThe philosopher Hasdai Crescas singled out ity. Solomon ha-Levi (who, as a Christian, bore the names of Paul de Santa Maria and Paul of Burgos) and replied most vigorously to his attacks upon Jewish docPossibly the most important apologetic writrine. tings of all are those of Profiat Duran, of the fifteenth century, and of Simon b. Zemah Duran. Around these arrayed themselves a number of prominent Apologists, who wrote independently or quoted chapters from the works of the Purans. In Italy Abraham Farrissol (horn 1451) wrote an apologetic book, "Magen Abraham" (Shield of Abraham), in which he proved that the popes had permitted the Jews to take usury in order to enable them to pay In Germany, in the high imposts laid upon them. the beginning of the fifteenth century, Lipman of Milhlhausen wrote his apologetic treatise, "Nizzahon " (Victory), which name was given also to many other books of similar scope published in Germany. Much less fanatical were the attacks encountered by Judaism from the side of Mohammedanism. The

Tob

more favorable political and social position of Jews among the Mohammedans of Persia and Egypt and among the Moors in Spain the latter of whom possessed but a scanty knowledge of the Bible and of Jewish literature hardly far

the

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—

Mohammedan

revelation from God on Siuai. From the period of Saadia polemical passages are

encountered in Midrashic works and ritual poems directed against both Christianity and Mohammedanism; but although such passages usually close with some kind of a defense of Judaism, they seem to labor under a species of reserve and timidity. But when at the time of the Crusades fanaticism broke

services at the disposal of the

for public disputations and polemical writings, there were also Jewish Apologists that published their replies,

Attacks,

gave such scope to aggressive polemics as would call out the Jewish defense. In addition to Saadia and to the Karaite writers, the following were the

chief Jewish authors

who assailed

Islam in defense of

Judaism Sherira b. Hanina Gaon, Judah ha-Levi (in his " Kuzari "), Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses b. Maimon, Moses of Coucy and the author of the " Zohar. " The whole range of Jewish literature contains but a single production of any extent (originally a portion of a larger work) that applies itself to an attack upon Islam. Under the title " Keshet u-Magen " (Bow and

,

Shield)

it

was published

in the eighteenth century

to Simon Duran's work, Shield of the Fathers). This supplement was translated into German by Steinschneider in 1880 in "Magazin fur die Wissenschaft

at

Leghorn as a supplement

"Magen Abot" (The

des Judenthums. The invention of printing was the signal for the outpouring of a veritable flood of anti-Jewish literature. Johann Christian Wolf, in the second part of his "Bibliotheca Hebrsea," published in 1721, enumerates the titles of all publications by Christians against Jews and Judaism and these titles alone