Victor von Carben

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A stone relief memorial, commemorating the converted rabbi Victor von Carben, showing Saint Anne and Saint Mary with Von Carben kneeling at Anne's feet, looking up at the Christ child, who holds a bunch of grapes out towards him. In Cologne Cathedral, carved ca. 1470.
A stone relief memorial, commemorating the converted rabbi Victor von Carben, showing Saint Anne and Saint Mary with Von Carben kneeling at Anne's feet, looking up at the Christ child, who holds a bunch of grapes out towards him. In Cologne Cathedral, carved ca. 1470.

Victor von Carben (1422 – 1515) was a German rabbi who converted to Catholicism and became a priest.[1] He was involved in the Pfefferkorn controversy, and was one of the four imperial commissioners appointed to examine Jewish books for blasphemy against Christianity, the others being Johannes Pfefferkorn, Johann Reuchlin, and Jacob van Hochstraten.[2] His work, Judenbüchlein, published in Cologne in 1508 described the conditions and customs of Jews with a view toward aiding in their conversion.[1] He disputed with learned Jews before the Archbishop of Cologne at Bonn, and secured the expulsion of Jews from Brühl, Deutz, and other towns in the area, though like Pfefferkorn, he tried to persude Christians that mistreating Jews would not aid in their conversion.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Gow, Andrew Colin (1995). The Red Jews: Antisemitism in an Apocalyptic Age, 1200-1600. Brill Academic Publishers, 133. ISBN 9004102558. 
  2. ^ Coudert, Allison P. (1999). Judaeo-Christian Intellectual Culture in the Seventeenth Century. Springer, 68. ISBN 0792357892.