The Many Deaths of Jew S?s: The Notorious Trial and Execution of an Eighteenth-Century Court Jew (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780691172323)

A groundbreaking historical reexamination of one of the most infamous episodes in the history of anti-Semitism

Joseph S?s Oppenheimer--"Jew S?s"--is one of the most iconic figures in the history of anti-Semitism. In 1733, Oppenheimer became the "court Jew" of Carl Alexander, the duke of the small German state of W?ttemberg. When Carl Alexander died unexpectedly, the W?ttemberg authorities arrested Oppenheimer, put him on trial, and condemned him to death for unspecified "misdeeds." On February 4, 1738, Oppenheimer was hanged in front of a large crowd just outside Stuttgart. He is most often remembered today through several works of fiction, chief among them a vicious Nazi propaganda movie made in 1940 at the behest of Joseph Goebbels.

The Many Deaths of Jew S?s is a compelling new account of Oppenheimer's notorious trial. Drawing on a wealth of rare archival evidence, Yair Mintzker investigates conflicting versions of Oppenheimer's life and death as told by four contemporaries: the leading inquisitor in the criminal investigation, the most important eyewitness to Oppenheimer's final days, a fellow court Jew who was permitted to visit Oppenheimer on the eve of his execution, and one of Oppenheimer's earliest biographers. What emerges is a lurid tale of greed, sex, violence, and disgrace--but are these narrators to be trusted? Meticulously reconstructing the social world in which they lived, and taking nothing they say at face value, Mintzker conjures an unforgettable picture of "Jew S?s" in his final days that is at once moving, disturbing, and profound.

The Many Deaths of Jew S?s is a masterfully innovative work of history, and an illuminating parable about Jewish life in the fraught transition to modernity.

Author: Yair Mintzker
ISBN-10: 0691172323
ISBN-13: 9780691172323
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/30/2017
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.70w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/10/2017
Library Journal 05/15/2017 pg. 90