Antoni Opolski - missionary or beggar : a look at the fate of Jewish neophytes

An article about the life and literary output of the neophyte Antoni Opolski. By contrast to other European countries, in Poland the neophytes from Judaism did make an impact as teachers of Hebrew not did they play a major role in missionary activity among the Jews. One of the few exceptions was Opolski, who tried to act in both of these capacities after 1760. Opolski, a former rabbi according to his own account, baptized together with other Jewish heretics (Frankists), at first tried in vain to secure the Hebrew language chair in Rome, then sough similar positions at the Cracow Academy and later the Lubrański Academy in Poznań, again to no avail, more or less. He was better known for his „Jewish” texts, however. In the first of them, Zarzuty trudniejsze w materyi wiary... [More difficult charges relating to faith], which was of a missionary nature, he tried to present arguments that were to encourage former fellow believers to convert to Christianity. Although for various reasons this text did not play any role in the missionary work among the Jews, it is extraordinary in that the author did not in principle refer to the tradition of Christian polemical literature. This text is remarkable for being exceptionally moderate compared to the text O zabobonach narodu żydowskiego [About the superstitions of the Jewish people], published shortly before his death. That publication was probably a reply to the proposals for a reform of the Jews’ legal status, which appeared in the 1780s. By contrast to Opolski’s previous publications, this one was of a clearly anti-Jewish nature, repeating the traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes, and going as far as to make indirect allegations about ritual murders. The author of the article makes an attempt to analyze the reasons for this radical change in Opolski’s attitude