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The Jewish Scholar David Cassel and the Protestant Christian Wiese The Divergent Path of TwoBrothers: The JewishScholar David Cassel and the Protestant MissionaryPaulus Cassel¹ 1 In February 1893, the London JewishChronicle published an obituary remembering two brothers who had diedwithin afew months—two brothers whose biographies could not have been more different.One of them had acquired renown as an histor- ian of Jewish literature, whereas the other had chosen the path of conversion and be- come aProtestant theologian involved in the project of missionizingthe Jews. Reunit- ing in death the twoscholars who had been separated by religious difference during their lives, the obituary declares: The deaths of David and Paulus (formerlySelig) Cassel remove two brothers, both of whom had wonaplacefor themselvesamongthe honoured names of Jewish scholarship. Paulus Cassel, though aconvert to Christianity,never ‘went over to the enemy’scamp,’ to use Graetz’s much-attacked but all to-just expression. Paulus was the greater man of the two, but David’s works on Jewish literature,and the part he playedincommunal life were not without value and importance.[…]PaulusCassel was ascholar and writer of ahigher type, and his works will live.Hetook aworthypart in the struggle against anti-Semitism. […]Paulus Cassel was per- hapsthe first man to recognize what was reallymeant by writingahistory of the Jews.² Interestingly enough for an obituaryinaJewishjournal, more than merelyassigning the convert aplace within the history of Jewish scholarship, emphasizing bothhis innovative contribution as ahistorian to the understanding of Judaism and his role in defending Jews and Judaism against the accusations of modernanti-Semi- tism, it even suggests that he was, in comparison to his brother who remained faith- ful to his tradition, the greater mind and more original scholar. Who then was Paulus Cassel, the historian who turned against his ancestral faith to become aProtestant theologian and missionary?What can be said about the motivation of bothhis con- version and his role as adefender of the Jews?What was his understanding of Jewish history and how did it changeafter his conversion?How werehis conversion, his missionary activities and his defense of Judaism perceivedbyChristians and Jews, This essayhas been written within the contextofthe Hessian Ministry for Scienceand Arts funded interdisciplinary research LOEWE hub “Religious Positioning: Modalities and Constellations in Jew- ish, Christianand Islamic Contexts” at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the Justus-Liebig University Gießen. All translations of originallyGerman sources are those of the author of this essay. TheJewishChronicle 27 February 1893, 11. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110530797-005 56 Christian Wiese includinghis brother David?Asimilar set of questions need to be asked with regard to David Cassel’sdivergent spiritual and intellectual path. How did he, as ahistorian of Jewishliterature,respond to the political and intellectual challenges to which Jew- ish scholarshipwas exposed duringthe nineteenth century?How did he interpret Ju- daism’srole in the history of humankind and its contribution to contemporary Euro- pean culture? What was his perception of Judaism’srelationship to Christianity and his attitude towardJewish conversions to the dominating religion? The story of David and Paulus Cassel is, indeed, afascinating one, not onlybe- cause of the dramatic personal dimension involved, but alsowith regard to the very different paths Jewish scholars in nineteenth century Germanywereable to choose when confronting the challenges the Jewishminority had to face in view of the pro- tracted process of emancipation, the continuingpressure of Christian supersession- ism, and the emergence of political and racialanti-Semitism. Within that context, Selig (Paulus Stephanus) Casselturns out to be arather unique figure, aserious and learned intellectual, neglected by historiographyand rarelydiscussed among scholars of Jewish intellectual history (as well as in scholarshiponcontemporary Protestantism).In1933, he appears all of asudden in Arnold Zweig’s Bilanzder deut- schen Judenheit (1933), in achapter dedicated to Silesian Jewishintellectuals in which he is mentioned as one of those converts who should continue to be counted as Jews, “as if they had not left us” [als wären sie nichtvon uns weggegangen]. There are, among the converts, Zweigargues, characters such as Cassel, “who make their baptism aturning point in their life and, continuouslyfighting for their former fellow believers, develop aChristian element in themselvesthat would carry them until the end of their lives.”³ Historian Ernest Hamburgerdevoted apassagetoCassel in his book, Juden im öffentlichen LebenDeutschlands,inwhich he described the latter’s shortlivedepisode as aconservative Prussian parlamentarian in 1866 and 1867, but mainlyhonored him as ascholarwho wrote a “much-noticed history of the Jews” and, basedonhis profound knowledge of Judaism and Christianity, composed the most courageous and pugnacious attack against late nineteenth century political anti-Semitism.⁴ Alan T. Levenson, who wrote the onlyexistingscholarlyarticle about Cassel, aptly portrayshim—alongside Edith Stein (1891–1942)—as a “philose- mitic apostate,” in contrast to the manyexamples of Jewish converts who turned into enemiesofJews and Judaism, and as a “devout Christian and proud Jew.”⁵ And final- ly,Todd M. Endelman, in his study, Leaving the JewishFold,lists Paulus Cassel among the rare cases in Central Europe in which conversion was not an expression of radical assimilation on the part of those who wereunable or unwillingtoendure Arnold Zweig, Bilanz der deutschen Judenheit. Ein Versuch (Leipzig:Reclam, 1991), 110. Ernest Hamburger, Juden im öffentlichen Leben Deutschlands.Regierungsmitglieder,Beamte und Parlamentarier in der monarchischen Zeit 1848–1918 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr,1968), 219. Alan T. Levenson, “The ApostateasPhilosemite,” in Levenson, Between Philosemitism and Anti- semitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany,1871–1932 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 132–141, here141. The Divergent Path of TwoBrothers 57 the burden of being Jewishand who desired to be liberated from the marks of Jewish particularism for the sake of social acceptanceand equal rights.⁶ Cassel’smain ach- ievement,accordingtoEndelman, wasthat,incontrasttomost of his Protestant con- temporaries, he became aware of the fact that the modern race-based anti-Semitism in Germanywas “an assault on the doctrinal foundations of Christianity,” and fought with courageand dignity against both the denigration of Jews and Judaism and the undermining of the Christian faith.⁷ Cassel thus falls into the category of what Endel- man terms “conversions of conviction,” which he defines as follows: Amongthe manyJews whobecame Christiansinthe modern period wereafew whowere, by their own testimonyand the testimonyofothers,sincere converts.Unlikethe majority,who changedtheir religion to escape the disabilities of Jewishness,these converts viewed their change of religion as the outcome of spiritual illumination, philosophical reflection, scriptural study, or some combination thereof. Unlike the majority,these converts took their new faith se- riously. They believed that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah; that his death atoned for the sins of humankind;that the Christian reading of the Hebrew Bible was correctand the Jew- ish reading willfullyincorrect; and that God’scovenant with the Jewish people was void, having been reassigned to the New Israel, that is, Christendom. They worshiped regularlyand often tes- tified publiclytothe truth of their new faith. Forthem, Christianity was morethan anew cloak in which they enveloped themselvesfor worldlyadvantage.⁸ The following analysis of Paulus Cassel’sbiographical path and writingswill demon- strate thatEndelman’scategory of “conversion by conviction” as well his insistence that even such conversions mayinclude elements of a “conversion by convenience” does, indeed, help to do justicetohis individual case. It seems, however,that con- viction did playacrucial role in Cassel’sdecision. He was,aswewill see, not merely aconvert who engaged in active missionary work and, at the sametime,defended contemporaryJews against the attacks of religious and racialanti-Semitism. He was also ascholar, once arepresentative of Wissenschaft des Judentums,and later ahistorian who embarked on rewritingand refiningthe theological narrative adopt- ed as part of his conversion, particularlywhen he felt compelled to refutealternative, nationalist and racist narrativesbecause they threatened both the Jewish minority and the balance he himself had found between acritical appreciation of Jewish tra- dition and his new Christian identity.Bycontrasting Selig (Paulus Stephanus) Cas- sel’sintellectual and spiritual journey with his brother David’sinterpretation of Ju- daism, this article also endeavors to elaborate on the distinct historical and theological concepts underlying the convert’sconviction and the alternative attitude provided by Jewish scholarship in nineteenth century Germany—the alternative Pau- lus Cassel uncompromisingly left behind when embracing Christianity. Todd M. Endelman, Leaving the JewishFold: Conversion and Radical AssimilationinModern Jewish History (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press,2015), 4–5. Ibid., 240. Ibid., 225. 58 Christian Wiese 2 Wissenschaft as an AntidotetoConversion: ThePolitical Dimensions of David Cassel’sJewish Scholarship
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