Karl Fischer (1757–1844) II. The Work of a Hebrew Censor
Karl Fischer (1757–1844) II. The Work of a Hebrew Censor

Summary/Abstract: (Article transl. by S. Hattersley) "When Karl Fischer became a Hebrew censor in 1789, this office had already had a long and turbulent history. Hebrew books had been regularly censored in Bohemia from about 1560. It came under the authority of the Prague Archbishop and, from almost the outset, was associated with the activities of the Jesuit Order which, in accord with the Archbishop Consistory, it carried out until its abolition in 1773. Censorship involved mainly checking manuscripts to be printed, reviewing books that had already been published and undertaking preliminary censorship of sermons. The task of censors was to check that the Jewish texts in question did not contain anything that was counter to Christianity, its followers or the rulers of the country and that they did not contain nonsensical or exaggerated statements in praise of Jews. Hebrew censorship was undertaken most frequently by Jesuit professors of Hebrew at the University of Prague."

• Details
• Contents