The Rabbi and the English scholar

Conversion and Return

Naphtali Margoliouth (Joseph Conrad Otto), Grammatica Hebræa, Nuremburg, 1605

We will not ever understand fully the reasons why some Renaissance Jews converted. Naphtali Margoliouth (b. 1563) was a Viennese rabbi who converted to Christianity in 1603 and became a professor of Hebrew at the Altdorf Academy near Nuremburg. He wrote several books on Hebrew, including the Hebrew Grammar in 1605 on display, and in 1607 returned to Judaism.