The Story of the Passing of Joseph Süss

Joseph ben Issachar Süsskind Oppenheimer was a financier and court Jew who served as adviser to Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. Economic reforms enacted by Karl Alexander (and informed by Oppenheimer) angered the Protestant Württemberg States, especially after Karl had converted to Catholicism, and stoked anti-Jewish sentiment. Oppenheimer, who had embraced an ostentatious and promiscuous lifestyle and dabbled in economic intrigues, was resented for Karl’s financial policies. After Karl Alexander’s death in 1737, Oppenheimer was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes. In 1738, he was executed, and his body was exhibited in an iron cage for six years. Apparently Salomon Schechter visited, with Mordecai Schloss, Joseph Süss Oppenheimer’s Stuttgart house. According to this document, Oppenheimer requested that Schechter record his death, which he seemingly did in this Hebrew- and German-language text.