Introduction: Why Study Oppenheim?

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik opens the series with an overview of Moritz Daniel Oppenheim's life and work. Oppenheim’s vivid depictions of Jewish life affirmed the dignity of Jewish tradition, rebutted anti-Semitic caricatures, and showed how German Jews sought to be both true to their faith and full members of German society. Drawing on stories from Lionel de Rothschild, Benjamin Disraeli, Heinrich Heine, and even Senator Orrin Hatch, Rabbi Soloveichik also illustrates the tension between Jewish faith and public life that played out in Enlightenment Germany, to which Oppenheim’s paintings were a response.