Carl Anton (; 11 September 1722 – ?) born Moses Gershon Cohen (), was a Curonian writer and

Hebraist A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...

Biography

Moses Gershon Cohen was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Mitau Jelgava (; german: Mitau, ; see also #Name, other names) is a state city in central Latvia about southwest of Riga with 55,972 inhabitants (2019). It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the unit ...

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...

. He claimed descent from Issachar Berman ben Naphtali ha-Kohen, the Bartenura, and Ḥayyim Vital Calabrese. After studying for seven years at

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

under Jonathan Eibenschütz, Anton traveled in the East, and on his return became a convert to Christianity. He was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

under the name Carl Anton on 30 January 1748. The

Duke of Brunswick Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...

then appointed him professor of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of ...

. Though he occasionally reviled his former coreligionists, he also spoke well of them, even vindicating them in his book on Jewish

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...

s (''Einleitung in die Jüdischen und Rabbinischen Rechte, dabey Insbesonderheit von einem Judeneide'', Brunswick, 1756), against some of

Eisenmenger Eisenmenger (German for "ironmonger") is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Arthur Eisenmenger (1914–2002), German graphic designer *August Eisenmenger (1830–1907), Austrian painter *Johann Andreas Eisenmenger (1654–1 ...

's aspersions. Anton took part in the well-known dispute between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eibenschütz, in which he defended the latter (''Kurze Nachricht von dem Falschen Messias, Shabbethai Ẓebi'', Wolfenbüttel, 1752; ''Nachlese zu Dieser Nachricht'', Brunswick, 1753). He wrote a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

tract on the legend of the

Wandering Jew The Wandering Jew is a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion was then cursed to walk the Earth until the Second Coming. Th ...

, entitled ''Commentatio Historica de Judæo Immortali in qua hæc Fabula Examinatur et Confutatur'' (Helmstedt, 1756); translated Abraham Jagel's

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

, ''Lekaḥ Tov'' ('Good Instruction', Brunswick, 1756); and gave a description of a rare copy of '' Shulḥan Arukh Even ha-Ezer'', to be found in manuscript in the City Library of Hamburg. He also wrote ''Fabulæ Antiquitatum Ebraicarum Veterum'' (Brunswick, 1756) and ''Sammlung einiger Rabbinischer Oden nebst einer Freyen Übersetzung'' (Brunswick, 1753), among other works.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anton, Carl 1722 births Year of death missing 18th-century writers in Latin Converts to Christianity from Judaism Academic staff of the University of Helmstedt People from Jelgava