According to David Myers, Jews living in German states began to receive partial emancipation in the year 1812, following the ideals of all humans being equal as taught by the Enlightenment. However, Jews faced backlash from non-Jews over the idea of full equality and integration within Jewish society (706). There was still resentment within European society over the success of the Jewish people and an “otherness” about them from their non-Protestant derived religious lives. In an effort to help the Ashkenazi Jews integrate into German society, academic Jews began to focus on Wissenschaft des Judentums, which is German for the “Science of the Jews.” David Meyers explains that ideology “[connotes] both scientific study and [an] all-encompassing…show more content… It was believed that this could best be achieved by looking at the past and putting together a complete history of the Jewish people, something that had been neglected for a long time. By critically evaluating their own history, Jews would be able to develop a clear sense of who they have been historically. As stated by David Myers, “[a historical account of the Jewish past] would not only serve to clarify the contours of the Jewish past; it might also yield a sharper image of Judaism’s function and relevance in the present” (707). Members of the Wissenschaft movement hoped that by being critical of their own past, the research would be viewed as scholarly significant and empirically sound. Michael Meyer explains that the Jews “recognized the appearance of a new historical consciousness that began to play a crucial role in the formation of modern Jewish identity… after centuries in which historical interest was at best limited” (160). This formation of the Enlightened Jewish identity created a new set of problems: how does, what was perceived to be a particular religion, work in a society that fundamentally built on…show more content… According to Dr. Cooper, Mendelssohn taught that the Noachide Commandments served as proof for the “fundamental universality of Judaism.” These laws were a requirement for all of humankind, not just the Jewish people. Therefore, the Noachide Commandments provide evidence for the universality of Judaism (“Lecture 15”, 3/19/2018). By Enlightenment standards, a universal faith would provide a clear path to full emancipation. Mendelssohn’s work was heavily contested by the Christian’s of his time period, but his reasoning was solid and Mendelssohn never converted to Protestantism despite the heavy pressure he received. Unfortunately, solid reasoning is not always enough to change a nation’s viewpoint, even during the time of universal, Enlightenment
