“Der verkehrte und doch widerbekehrte Thomas”: Ambiguities of Jewish Conversions and Christian Hebraism in Nuremberg around 1700

Abstract Jewish conversions to Lutheranism occurred in the imperial city of Nuremberg under specific cultural, religious, social and economic conditions, which were closely related to the question of the benefits for the local university in Altdorf. The article shows, by analysing a printed baptismal sermon, the efforts to convey certain religious and cultural norms that the baptizand was to take with him into his new life and that were also intended to illustrate the superiority of Christianity. It is significant that Michael of Prague turned his back on Protestantism again a few years after his conversion, thus demonstrating great flexibility with regard to his affiliation. At the same time, anti-Jewish prejudices on the part of Lutheran “orthodoxy” were increasingly reinforced by such cases. The article therefore shows how strongly Jewish conversions were characterized by ambiguity and that confessional clarity was hardly achievable in such cases.