Interreligious dialogue in the Polish lands in the 18th century

Abstract

Dov Ber of Bolechov (1723-1805), Jewish wine merchant and polyglot, known for his dispute with the Frankists in Lwów (Lemberg) in 1759, left the Hebrew manuscripts of his two main works: זכרונות ר׳ דוב מבולחוב (The Memoirs of Dov Ber of Bolechov) and iדברי בינה   (Understanding Words). In the former work he describes his life story and the story of his family but also the history of Jews in Eastern Galicia, writing also about important events from the history of Poland, and his description as an outside observer seems to be reliable. In the latter work Dov Ber reveals his attitude towards other religions, especially towards Christianity, and the defence of Rabbinic Judaism and its main book Talmud, or more precisely, of the complete reliability of the Oral Torah, is the leitmotif of Diwre binah. Can we speak of religious dialogue in the 18^th century?

            The purpose of the paper is to present Christian-Jewish relations in the Polish lands, in particular in Eastern Galicia in the 18^th century from a Jewish perspective in the description of Dov Ber of Bolechov.