The Many Deaths of Jew Süss: The Notorious Trial and Execution of an Eighteenth-Century Court Jew

Joseph Süss Oppenheimer—“Jew Süss”—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 Württemberg. When Carl Alexander died unexpectedly, the Württemberg 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. Investigating conflicting versions of Oppenheimer’s life and death as told by his contemporaries, Yair Mintzker conjures an unforgettable picture of “Jew Süss” in his final days that is at once moving, disturbing, and profound. The Many Deaths of Jew Süss is a masterful work of history and an illuminating parable about Jewish life in the fraught transition to modernity.

Yair Mintzker: Court Jews, Then and Now

Awards and Recognition

• One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: History
• Winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in History (Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award)
• Finalist for the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, Jewish Book Council