Letter to the Envoy Keller

Joseph Süss Oppenheimer

1735

His princely Eminence has been pleased in his benevolence, while I am still confined to bed because of my illness to reveal to me sufficient to let me know that the matter has met with difficulties, and that the first and particular obstacle is to be found in my professed religion, that, secondly, I am without special merits which could move His…

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Addressing a ducal district bureaucrat named Keller, Joseph responds to the arguments against granting him a noble title. One of the most significant arguments concerned Joseph’s religion: as a Jew he was not entitled to noble status. However, Joseph refuted this claim, arguing that other Jews had been ennobled before him (and not only Portuguese Jews who had converted to Christianity). Both his applications for noble status were rejected. Following Charles Alexander’s sudden death in 1737, Joseph was famously tried and executed.

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Creator Bio

Joseph Süss Oppenheimer

1698–1738

Better known as “Jud Süss,” Joseph Süss Oppenheimer served several German princes. In 1732, he befriended Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg from 1733, whom he served as Court Jew and minister, performing roles that included administration of unpopular financial reforms. Oppenheimer was arrested the day of Karl Alexander’s sudden death in March 1737 and executed months later; his case became a cause célèbre that continued to attract attention for centuries.

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