Jewish Divorce Proceedings
Johann Christoph Georg Bodenschatz
1749

Creator Bio
Johann Christoph Georg Bodenschatz
German Protestant theologian Johann Christoph Georg Bodenschatz was born in Hof, Bavaria. He studied oriental languages at the University of Jena and developed a scholarly interest in Jewish custom and ritual. He published his four-volume Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden, sonderlich derer in Deutschland (Religious Constitution of Today’s Jews, Especially Those in Germany) in 1748/49. Bodenschatz is also reported to have made elaborate models of Noah’s ark and the Tabernacle (Heb., mishkan), the portable sanctuary built by Moses as a place of worship for the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert.
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Early Modern Jewish Languages (1500–1750)
As Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews migrated eastward, Yiddish and Ladino emerged as distinct languages. Both languages developed literary traditions, as print became more widespread.
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