Storm in the Community: Yiddish Political Pamphlets of Amsterdam Jewry, 1797-1798

The first in a series of Yiddish polemical pamphlets (Diskursn) appeared one week before the elections to the second National Assembly in the Republic of the Netherlands on August 1, 1797. Inspired by the expanded freedom of the press and the satirical and often vulgar Spectatorial writings which were popular at the time, a small but energetic group of enlightened Jews in Amsterdam decided the previous summer to publish a periodical. These Yiddish polemical pamphlets would serve as an …