Judenhüte

 Already Martin Luther knew and wrote in 1523 in his essay, "Das Jhesus Christus eyn geborner Jude sey (That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew)." 

Referring to the bad treatment the Old Church was bestowing on the Jews, he wanted to convert the "blood friends, cousins, and brothers of our Lord" to his reformed religion. He argued all you need is for them to hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly.

No chance! Luther became furious, and when the famous Rabbi Josel of Rosheim asked him in 1537 to influence the Elector of Saxony Frederick III to lift the ban on Jews settling in Saxony, Luther replied, "Dear Josel, I would willingly do my best for your people. Still, I will not contribute to your [Jewish] obstinacy by my kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good lord."

Eventually, Luther wrote 1543 his treatise, "Von den Jüden und jren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies)" and an anti-Semitic pamphlet, "Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (Of the Unknowable Name and the Generation of Christ)."

The façade of the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg - the church where Luther preached - shows a Judensau (Jews' sow) from 1305. In 1570 after the reformer's death, the parish supplemented the sculpture with the inscription Schem HaMphoras right from his pamphlet.

The Nicholas window of the Freiburg Minster church.
A Jew with his funnel hat is waving a stick standing there for his bond?

Without commenting further, what is important in this context are those hats the Jews wear. The funnel shape is the "classical" way to identify the bearer as a Jew ... 

Jew in the Middle Ages wearing a yellow ring.
He carries a bunch of garlic and the obligatory purse.

... but other forms are typical, like a bonnet or hood called Gugel.

On those Jewish hats, Professor Michael Bachmann had based his talk "The Freiburg Minster and Its Jews." He spoke in the framework of the Jewish Cultural Days Freiburg's active Jewish community had organized.

Professor Bachmann pointed out the interesting fact that there are "friendly" Jewish hats in and around the Minster church, as in the nativity scene in the tympanum of the main entrance hall.

Joseph sitting at the foot of the crib in a daze wears the funnel head. Indeed, in an earlier blog, I wrote, "Joseph, not being Jesus' bodily father, is an embarrassing figure for the teaching Church. Medieval paintings of the Holy Family frequently show the carpenter as a small, unimportant, and hidden figure sometimes placed in a corner." The same here. Note the festively dressed shepherd to the right wearing a Gugel hat.

Here comes a discovery. The Crucifixion scene of the tympanum shows the righteous people at the right of the cross.

 

On the cover of Professor Bachmann's book, you recognize enlarged on the right Constantine the Great. On his side is his mother, Helena, who allegedly discovered the Holy Cross at Golghata. The correct one of the three unearthed crosses was identified by a miracle. Here a Jewish workman wearing a hat found the inscription I.N.R.I. (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) belonging to the Holy Cross.

Another Jewish friendly example is the Tree of Jesse, where the ancestors of Jesus' mother, Mary (up in the middle), wear crowns, hats, and funnel hats.

And with Luther, we know that Jesus was born a Jew. This fact is dramatically illustrated in the resurrection trilogy above: Near the tomb, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, the unbelieving Thomas lays his hand into Jesus' wound, and two disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize Jesus wearing a funnel hat while breaking the bread.

Here is a presentation in the keystone of a vault barely visible to the occasional visitor. It shows the child Jesus teaching the elders in the Temple. The scribes wear hats. Note to the left of the scene the Austrian "lark" coat of arms, to the right the Austrian barred shield red-white-red, and at the bottom the cross of St. George, one of Freiburg's patrons.

Here is the "classical" confrontation of the Church and the Synagogue. On the one side, the triumphant Church, a chalice, and a lance in hands riding a horse showing head and feet of the four evangelists. On the other side, the Synagogue blindfolded - not recognizing Christ as the Messiah - with a broken lance carrying a billy goat's head and riding a donkey.

Did Luther not recognize the Jews as "blood friends, cousins and brothers of our Lord?" Judaism is the precursor of Christendom. So at the end of his talk, Professor Bachmann wanted to prove that St. Paul, who opened the Christian faith to the non-Jews, gave it to the world but never lost his Jewish roots.

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