Jews and Freemasons in Europe
By Jacob Katz
Translated from the Hebrew by Leonard Oschry
Chapter III. The Order of the Asiatic Brethren
The generation growing up in the shadow of Mendelssohn accepted his ideal of the removal of all barriers separating Jews from Christians, but did not inherit his virtues of patience and moderation. His disciples and followers desired to attain in practice what they had been taught to believe in, and sought to hasten the process of absorption into the cells of their social environment-and here the Masonic cells were held to be of basic importance. Although these individuals were unable to crush the opposition, they would support every effort on the part of the Freemasons to create new frameworks where the principle of equality of Jews and non-Jews would be upheld. Three or four such attempts took place around the end of Mendelssohn's lifetime (1786), the period of the enactment of the first laws aimed at the removal of civil disabilities from Jews and of the first agitation for the integration of Jews into the general society. The initial attempt led to the flaring up of the first controversy over the acceptance of Jews in Masonic lodges.
The earliest attempt to found a Masonic order with the avowed purpose of accepting both Jews and Christians in its ranks was the formation of the Order of the Asiatic Brethren or, to give it its full name, Die Brüder St. Johannes des Evangelisten aus Asien in Europa. We are fully familiar with the history of this society which was more important than all the others because of the scope of its activities and its influence. Founded in Vienna in 1780-81, its central figure and promoter was Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen, of Bavarian extraction. He and his younger brother Hans Carl (whom we shall meet again) had behind them a rich past in the history of the Masonic societies in Germany. The Eckers were of the type of aristocrats who had lost their property and forefeited the economic support of their class. Yet, because of their illustrious name, their family connections, and their confident bearing they had succeeded, at least outwardly, in preserving their associations with the ruling classes. They were not at all discriminating in their choice of occupation-so long as it allowed them to maintain their standard of living. This could best be achieved through association with those who wielded the real power in the states: the absolute princes, and the rising capitalists who enjoyed their patronage. Members of Masonic societies were at times drawn from the upper and propertied classes, but because these organizations often had need of individuals ready to perform remunerative functions, they also served as a refuge for those searching an easy, but not always honest, livelihood. Heinrich was a man of this type. He had been active among the Rosicrucians in Bavaria and Austria, whose dabbling in alchemy served as confidence schemes to swindle money out of the naive and reckless. As a result of some quarrel, he severed his connections with them and, in 1781, published a book denouncing them. At that very time he was busy forming a new order, later to become renowned as the Order of the Asiatic Brethren but known in its first manifestation as Die Ritter vom wahren Licht.
I have no firsthand evidence on the immediate causes for the emergence of this order. Information has been culled from statements of members who became active later. According to them, an erstwhile Franciscan monk, Justus, whose civil name had been Bischoff, had taken a prominent part in its founding. Justus had spent years in the Orient, especially in Jerusalem, where he had struck up an acquaintance with Jewish Cabalists. He studied their disciplines and even obtained from them manuscripts which constituted the source for the Order's theosophic doctrines and ceremonial regulations. Although these details have not been corroborated, the traces of such a personality are very real, so that little if any doubt can be cast on his existence. On another figure, Azariah by name, who is reputed to have given Justus the manuscripts, the evidence is rather doubtful. According to the testimony (which we shall examine presently) of Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld, Azariah belonged to a cabalistic sect identified, according to another version, as a vestige of the Sabbatai Zevi movement. He entrusted all his affairs to his sons, while he himself traveled from place to place as an emissary of the sect. Nevertheless, even though the connection of the Asiatic brethren with the Sabbatian movement is conclusively proved by another source, as we shall soon see, the personality of Azariah lacks substance; information about him is too meager and full of contradictions. It seems that his existence was invented by members of the Order to lend credence to the assertion that their tradition had come from the Orient. The participation of a third person is beyond all doubt. He was Baron Thomas von Schoenfeld, an apostate Jew, who had made a name for himself as a prolific writer. His participation is prominently featured in the historical description of the Order, and his share in its founding is known from another source. Schoenfeld had much of the character of an adventurer, in both the intellectual and common connotations of the term. He turned up in Paris during the French Revolution and was executed during the Reign of Terror. For the Order of the Asiatic Brethren, Schoenfeld fulfilled the function of copyist and translator of Jewish Cabalistic works. The Order's historian, Franz Josef Molitor, had it by tradition that Schoenfeld was a grandson of R. Jonathan Eybeschütz, whose collection of Sabbatian cabalistic works he had inherited. We, however, are better acquainted with Schoenfeld's pedigree. He was a member of the Dobruschka family of Brünn and was in no way related, either by blood or marriage, to Eybeschutz. Nevertheless, the assertion was not altogether fortuitous for Mosheh Dobruschka, alias Thomas von Schoenfeld, actually had been an active adherent of the Sabbatian movement. As we shall see later, he incorporated liberal portions of Sabbatian doctrines in the teachings of the Order. I t is doubtful whether Ecker und Eckhoffen was capable of distinguishing between the various Cabalistic systems of thought, and it is improbable that he was especially interested in the Order's possessing a specific Sabbatian character. Yet it is equally obvious that he wanted to tie the Order to a tradition derived, in some manner, from the Orient, as the name, "The Asiatic Brethren in Europe," clearly shows. The Order had to possess some novel trait to set it off from the other lodges and orders, and its novelty was the tracing of its descent to some Oriental source. Justus' connections with the East and Schoenfeld's provision of Cabalistic source material gave this contention some semblance of authenticity.
On the other hand, it is also doubtful whether Ecker had ever intended to make his order the catch-all for a mixed society of Jews and gentiles. In his above-mentioned book he had taken issue with the Rosicrucians for sinning against Jews by not accepting them as members unless they were extremely affluent. His present, knightly order was presumably prepared to accept Jews-yet took no steps to pave the road for them to enter. True, the doctrines of the Ritter vom wahren Licht contained elements derived from Cabalistic sources. At this stage, however, the ideas were still clearly subject to Christian interpretation, and no syncretistic tendencies are discernible for merging the two religions. Ecker had intended to present his program for the new order to an assembly of all the Freemasons which was to have gathered in Wilhelmsbad near Hanau in 1782. The assembly had been convened by the head of all the German Masons, Duke Frederick of Brunswick, for the purpose of reviving the movement by introducing improvements in the conduct of its business. In this endeavor, he received the cooperation of the Landgrave Carl von Hessen, who administered the province of Schleswig on behalf of the Danish monarchy. Through Landgrave Carl, Ecker hoped to exert some influence in the forthcoming conference. He traveled to Schleswig at the beginning of 1782 and tried to gain an audience with the Landgrave. What occurred between them is not known. Ecker did not, however, succeed in his quest, since a protest was filed against his appearance in Wilhelmsbad from a prominent quarter in the Berlin lodge. Had Ecker, even then, included in the opening of his constitution any paragraph providing Jews with the prospect of being accepted on an equal level with Christians, he could never have hoped to have his constitution ratified by the conference at large. The tenor of the Berlin protest, too, proves that the Jewish question had nowhere been placed on the agenda. Here the purity of Christianity, which the Masons were obliged strictly to uphold, was at issue. Ecker had been held to have contaminated Christian purity, not by attempting to open the gates of his proposed order to Jews, but by his Rosicrucian activities which were still held against him, and because he had been denounced as a magician consorting with occult powers.
Possibly Ecker's failure to impose his patterns upon the existing lodges impelled him to build new organizational units of his own and, in so doing, he encountered Jewish candidates seeking to join his group. These were, after all, the years when the Edict of Toleration had been promulgated (in Bohemia, in October 1781, and in Austria, in January 1782). In the other German principalities as well, the eighties constituted the period when hopes ran high for a change in the political status of the Jewish community, as an ever greater number of Jews withdrew from the social and religious framework of their own people. The time seemed opportune for the removal of the barriers keeping Jews from joining gentile company and for the founding of a society composed of members of both faiths. The first paragraph of the general constitution of the Asiatic Brethren, which was completed in November 1784, announced the removal of these barriers:
Any brother, irrespective of his religion, class, or system, may join the Order, provided he is an upright person in thought and deed. Since the good and welfare of mankind are the sole purpose of our approach, these cannot be dependent on any other circumstance, be it a man's religion, his birth, or the class into which he has been bred.
The permission to enter presumably was intended for the rich Jews of Vienna and the enlightened Jewries of other cities, who were attracted to Ecker's company for social reasons. It is even more astonishing that Ecker should also have found a Jewish associate who assisted him in promoting the spiritual activities which were to justify the existence of the group.
Having failed in Schleswig, Ecker returned to Austria and took up residence in Innsbruck, in the Tyrol. There he worked to spread the Order until his return to Vienna in 1784, and there he became acquainted with Ephraim Josef Hirschel (later Hirschfeld) who was introduced to him as a rather unusual young Jew, well-educated but persecuted by his coreligionists on account of his ideas. Hirschfeld had been living in Innsbruck since 1782. He was employed as a bookkeeper by the wealthy Jew, Gabriel Uffenheimer, to whom the Tyrolian salt mines had been farmed out. Later, employee and employer quarreled, litigation ensued, and Hirschfeld was awarded a considerable sum of money by the court. While the proceedings were still in progress, he entered the local institution of higher learning and also accepted occasional, part-time employment as teacher and bookkeeper with the local aristocratic families. Through his work, he was brought into contact with the Baron who had him copy the writings of the Order, only to discover that the copyist himself had, in the meantime, become interested in their contents.
We are now familiar with Hirschfeld's origin and early life. He had been born in Karlsruhe. His father was a cantor and Talmudic scholar, author of a work on rabbinic law (novellae on treatises of the Babylonian Talmud), learned in Cabalistic literature, and had produced a Yiddish translation of Rabbi Mosheh Alshekh's commentary on Genesis. The elder Hirschfeld was highly ambitious. He did not live at peace with the local rabbi, Nathaniel Weill, whose commentary he set out to attack in his own work. However, he received the written approbation of prominent rabbinic authorities in other cities, among them the renowned Rabbi Ezekiel Landau of Prague. Most extraordinary of all was the fact that he had prefaced his work with a dedication in German, addressed to the Margrave, Karl Friedrich of Baden-indicating that the father sought to attract the attention of people of high station. His son, Ephraim, reaped the benefit of the father's endeavors, Johann Georg Schlosser, Goethe's brother-in-law and a leading official in the Margrave's service, provided for the son's education, perhaps after the elder Hirschfeld had died. He enrolled him in the local gymnasium and later sent him to the University of Strasbourg to study medicine. Hirschfeld did not complete this course of studies; instead he acquired a grounding in languages, philosophy, and literature and became accomplished in the social graces, a rather unusual feat among his Jewish contemporaries. In addition to the habits acquired through education and training, Hirschfeld possessed unusual innate traits: on the one hand he tended to isolation and solitude, while on the other he excelled in the art of conversation, exuded charm and confidence, and stoutly defended his considered opinions. This combination of features drew attention to him as an original, though somewhat odd, person. After his sojourn in Strasbourg, Hirschfeld moved to Berlin, taking with him the recommendation of his benefactor, Schlosser, to Moses Mendelssohn. There he obtained employment as tutor and bookkeeper in the household of David Friedlander. According to the testimonial given to him by Mendelssohn, when he left Berlin two years later, Hirschfeld had been a frequent visitor in the Mendelssohn home as well as in the homes of the city dignitaries. According to Friedlander's brother-in-law, Isaac Daniel Itzig, Mendelssohn took an interest in Hirschfeld and tried to find an explanation for his strange conduct. (At times he would sit speechless, even in company, behavior which Mendelssohn ascribed to extreme hypochondria.) Mendelssohn befriended Hirschfeld just as he had befriended others who had entered his house and had subsequently developed into admirers and disciples. Hirschfeld, however, was an exception. Apparently he never had subscribed to Mendelssohn's rationalistic doctrines, even when he was closely associated with his mentor, and he later openly turned against them. At all events, he refused to throw in his lot with this circle of intellectuals, which apparently is the reason there is no record of his stay either in Berlin or Vienna among the written remains of that group. From Berlin, Hirschfeld went to Innsbruck where, as we have seen, he struck up an acquaintance with Ecker. There too he was admitted to the Order of the Asiatics and its spiritual world. Hirschfeld frequently accompanied Ecker on his travels, and so made the acquaintance of other leaders of the Order. In the spring of 1785, he joined Ecker in Vienna and became attached to his home. They became firm friends and constituted, as one of the Vienna circle dubbed them, "a pair of originals."
By the time Hirschfeld joined it, the Order already possessed a written, ratified constitution, and the Vienna group at least was governed by these laws. It is worthwhile to cast a glance over this group and see who (in addition to the founders we have met before) participated in its activities. There were outstanding dignitaries among the non-Jewish members. Molitor mentions the Duke of Lichtenstein, Count Westenburg, Count Thun, and, anonymously, the Austrian Minister of Justice (N.N.).
Another source, relying on hearsay, lists the following: Max Joseph Freiherr von Linden, Otto Freiherr von Gemmingen, Freiherr von Stubitza, and others. The documents in my possession mention several other members by name: J. B. P. Hartenfels, Franz Meltzer, Joseph von Juhász, Johann Gottlieb Walstein, Franz de Nevoy, Fr. van Ost, Jacob Jg. Zuz. Three of these were army officers; two, court officials; one, a doctor of medicine; neither the status nor occupation of the one remaining is known. As for these Christian members of the Order, Jews would have been only too proud to associate with their class on intimate social terms. Three wealthy Viennese Jews did belong to the Order: Arnstein, Eskeles, and Hönig, and there is no reason for presuming that there were no others. The information concerning this Order comes to us purely incidentally. We have no roster of its members, nor do we know when each individual was initiated into membership and whether it was before or after the arrival of Hirschfeld. Nevertheless, the evidence is clear that Hirschfeld actively endeavored to attract Jews to the Order, and that the three honorable gentlemen were accepted through his intercession. He maintained connections with wealthy bankers and engaged in financial transactions through the agency of Itzig in Berlin, Arnstein's brother-in-law, to the extent that his operations not only benefitted the coffers of the Order but filled his own pockets as well. He became financially independent as a result. In spite of his continuing to live in Ecker's home, credence should be accorded his statement-made after the dissolution of their association-that he gave his hosts more than he took from them.
As time progressed Hirschfeld's functions in the Order of the Asiatics increased. True, the constitution had been completed before he arrived in Vienna and, according to Molitor, who derived his information directly from Hirschfeld, the other, basic writings of the Order were not compiled by him but by Baron Schoenfeld. There were current needs, however, to attend to. Instructions had to be written down, which would guide the members in their "work"; these consisted of reflective interpretations of the symbols, word and letter combinations, and so on. Consistent with the origin of the doctrine of the Asiatics as a whole, the material for this spiritual activity, too, had been culled from Cabalistic literature. Very few members were at all familiar with these writings, and the group had been forced to rely on Justus and Baron Schoenfeld. Hirschfeld claimed to have received his instruction in gaining understanding of this literature from the former, but it is possible that he had acquired the rudiments from his own father. Some time later, he wrote a book incorporating Cabalistic concepts. It should not be assumed however that he really understood Cabalistic systems with any profundity. Yet he was a "discovery" as far as Ecker was concerned. Until then, Ecker had been utterly dependent on Schoenfeld, who had exploited his advantage by exacting, whatever remuneration he wished. Now Schoenfeld was challenged by a competitor. Hirschfeld's abilities, however, fell short of the work he was required to perform, and so he conceived the idea of inviting his younger brother, Pascal-who was apparently better qualified, since his education had centered mainly in studying the Jewish traditional sources-to join him. (Pascal was, however, his brother's inferior in personality traits and mental powers.) As a result of the presence of the two brothers, Schoenfeld was relegated to an insignificant position in the Order. Some time later he was expelled from the Vienna circle, though as we shall see, he did not sever his connections with the members altogether.
From 1785 to 1787, the two brothers served more or less as secretaries to the Order, and Ephraim Joseph was dignified by the title of Oker Harim (literally, "uprooter of Mountains). The various offices, too, were designated by Hebrew terms, and the members were addressed by names culled from Hebraic sources. Heinrich von Ecker was called Abraham: his brother, Israel: Justus, Ish Zaddik (righteous person), and Baron von Schoenfeld, Isaac ben Joseph. The use of the Hebrew language was no novelty, since this had been an accepted practice among Freemasons. The latter, however, generally restricted their choice to Biblical expressions, while the former drew upon the vocabulary of rabbinic literature, an indication that Jews who had received a traditional education exercized a considerable influence. In their use of alien concepts, the Asiatics differed from the other Freemasons, whose reliance on Hebrew was intended only to surround Masonic activities with an exotic aura. Here it was intended to give prominence to the Jewish element incorporated in the Order. The full purpose of this custom is exposed by the fact that Hebrew names were assigned to Christian members only, while Jews were given names with Christian overtones. In their decision to admit Jews, the Asiatics relied upon the well known paragraph of the English Masonic constitution, which limited the religious qualifications for membership to the universal principles common to all the sons of Noah. In contradistinction to the English lodges, however, Jews and Christians were not accepted here without regard to their denominations. The two religions were not ignored. The intention was to extract principles from both faiths and to create from the combination a composite pattern of ideas which would serve as a basis on which the ceremonial procedures in which Christian and Jewish symbols both played their parts could be constructed.
In theory, the Order of the Asiatics had not been founded as a substitute for Freemasonry but to construct an upper level above the regular Masonic structure. The assumption was that the members had already become familiar with the three main levels of Masonic lore and that a new order had come into being which promised to open doors to additional mysteries. In this respect, the Asiatics were following the example of, among others, the Scottish rite, which also had been constructed over and above the three original degrees of the Masonic order. This is the implication of the sentence, quoted above, from the first paragraph of the constitution that members would be accepted regardless of their religion, class, or "system"-the last term referring to the "system" of the Masonic lodge through which the candidate had previously passed. Yet, to follow this procedure in practice was quite difficult. Jews had not been permitted to become Freemasons; they should therefore have been ineligible for membership in the Order of the Asiatics.
It appears either that Ecker exerted considerable effort to pave the way for Jews to enter the Masonic brotherhood, or that he deluded Jewish dignitaries into believing that his efforts might meet with some success. Yet anyone who might have given credence to his assurances was doomed to disappointment. The regular lodges were still barred to Jews. If the leaders of the Order of the Asiatics desired to follow the practice of admitting only former Masons, they would have to find some substitute to serve the needs of the Jews. A solution was found. Special Melchizedek lodges, so called to distinguish them from those named after John the Baptist, were founded. The writings of the Order of the Asiatics speak of the Melchizedek rite as well-known, the proof being that "Jews, Turks, Persians, Armenians, and Copts labor in it." Yet, as we shall see later, this was an invention, a makeshift measure, but sufficient to show that some effort was being made to include Jews in the same order as gentiles. Jewish admission was made conditional, however, in practice if not in theory, on the candidate's relinquishing the Judaism prevailed at that time.
The ideology of the Asiatic Brethren has been subjected to a critical analysis by Professor Gershom Scholem. His study has revealed that on its theoretical level this ideology was a conglomeration of principles drawn from Christian and Jewish sources. Cabalistic and Sabbatian ideas were jumbled together with Christian theosophic doctrines. The same applied to symbols and festive and memorial days, which were fundamental to the activities of the various degrees of the Order. Along with Christian holidays, such as Christmas and John the Apostle's Day, Jewish festivals, such as the anniversaries of the birth and death of Moses, of the Exodus, and of the Giving of the Law, were celebrated. The Christian Asiatic, however, did not have to suffer pangs of conscience. He could easily have regarded himself as completely faithful to the tenets of his religion-and even look upon himself as reverting to the same pristine form of Christianity which was preserved within Judaism. The Jew, on the other hand, could hardly remain oblivious to the fact that he was trespassing beyond the boundaries of his own traditions. The adoption of Christian symbols could on no account be reconciled with the doctrines of Judaism. And, if these acts were not a sufficiently serious breach of his faith, he was also required, as a member of the Order, to eat pork with milk as part of some solemn celebration. Even the most ignorant of Jews was fully aware that he was thereby violating a law of his own religion. Such antinomian tendencies could only be found in Sabbatian conceptions, and this influence, as we have seen before, was clearly prevalent. The apostate and Sabbatian Moses Dobrushka-Schoenfeld served as the transmission line, carrying this influence to the Order of the Asiatics. Others too may have possessed a similar Sabbatian background, and their sectarian past paved the way for their participation in a Judeo-Christian society which had adopted their previous doctrines and observances.
The readiness of the Jewish members to transgress the boundaries of their religion might have been derived from another source. Hirschfeld had become estranged from Jewish observance even before he made the acquaintance of the Asiatic Brethren. His sojourn among the "enlightened" Berlin Jews and his earlier academic career at the gymnasium and university might very likely have led him away from his past. The other members of the Order were not known as past Sabbatians, but rather as adherents of the disintegrating tendencies of the Haskalah which, explicitly or tacitly, provided the justification for abandoning Jewish traditions. The histories of the Itzig and Arnstein families in Berlin and Vienna respectively furnish a clear example of this process of alienation, which impelled many to forsake Judaism altogether and left others behind, with their bearings lost and the security of their environment destroyed. The lost souls of the latter group were easy targets for recruitment in orders of the Asiatic Brethren variety, since such an association offered them a new social haven, beyond the borders of Judaism, but where they were not called upon to sever their former connections and to adopt Christianity. The religious syncretism of the Order, which might be interpreted as according a status to Judaism within Christianity, was less of a restraint and more of a stimulus and an attraction.
The Masonic orders were not local organizations. Their tentacles penetrated into numerous cities and countries. Following suit, the founders of the new order also sought to spread beyond the limits of Vienna. But Ecker failed in his attempt to establish his order as a superstructure for all German Freemasons, and was forced to divert his efforts to the founding of new societies in various localities. We have already met him between 1783 and 1785, traveling through Austrian and German cities, conducting his propaganda tour. As to the measure of his success, we have no reliable information: still, it seems to have been considerable. The center of the movement remained in Vienna until the end of 1786 or the beginning of 1787. There the "Sanhedrin" which governed the order had its seat. It was a body composed of seven members as well as several officeholders and salaried employees. The "Sanhedrin" delegated powers to the heads of the districts-four in number-for all of Europe and these heads conferred authorization on the individual cells in their respective regions.
In theory, restrictive entrance requirements and a certain measure of supervision were supposed to be enforced by the "Sanhedrin." In practice, however, membership and new lodge authorizations were granted with the utmost generosity. We know of the existence of Asiatic lodges in Prague, Innsbruck, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. The Encyclopedie der Freimaurerei, published in 1822, mentions that the cities of Wetzlar and Marburg were teeming with devotees of the Order. A strong chapter must have existed in Prague, although we have almost no information on it. In Innsbruck the society was composed of the local aristocracy. As for Berlin, the sources yield only the name of Itzig, but other relevant literature mentions Bischofswerder, Wöllner, and even the Crown Prince, who was later to become King Frederick William. From Hirschfeld's 1787 visit to Frankfurt we learn of a lodge in that city; its members are not referred to by their real names, but by the pseudonyms conferred on them by their lodges, better known are the Hamburg brethren. Here lived Carl, Ecker's younger brother. He had been an active Mason even before the Order of the Asiatic Brethren came into existence. In his attitude toward Jews he showed himself ready to follow in his brother's footsteps. In 1783 he founded a lodge which admitted two Jewish members: Isaac Oppenheimer and Gottschalk Samson. This society was short-lived, but two years later Carl von Ecker founded a new lodge, which was formally initiated in December 1785. His older brother, who lived in Vienna, happened to be in Hamburg on that occasion and he persuaded the group to join the Order of the Asiatics. The 1786 membership roster gives the names, ages, occupations, and class of twenty-four persons, no distinguished persons are included, for, unlike Vienna, Hamburg was not the residence of high nobility. Eight of the names, however, bore the prefix "von"; the others too seem to have been borne by men of substance, to judge by their occupations: bankers, merchants, physicians, and even a clergyman. Six can definitely be identified as Jews. Beside Samson, mentioned previously, they are Isaac Guggenheimer, Jacob Götz, Wolf Nathan Liepmann, Hirsch Wolf, and Marcus Jacob Schlesinger. Two were bankers; two merchants; one a court agent; one a physician. With the exception of the physician, Hirsch Wolf, these Jews were not among the culturally distinguished of the generation. Their principal title to membership rested on their readiness to support the Order financially and their aspirations to rub shoulders with non-Jews.
From data on the Hamburg and Vienna groups, we can project conclusions about the other cities where branches of the Order were established. Its swift spread is a clear indication of the internal disintegration of a specific stratum of Jewish society in Western Europe. We must also take notice of the fact that a certain section of non-Jewish society was ready to establish social and spiritual contact with Jews. Yet we should not exaggerate the dimensions of this section, even for the period of greatest social progress, the eighties and nineties of the eighteenth century. Only a few years after the Order of the Asiatics had been founded, its declared policy of including Jews and gentiles together in a single group framework was challenged.
The first public attack on the principle of equality in Freemasonry was launched in Hamburg in an eight-page brochure. According to its title, it purported to convey "unbiased and basic information on Jewish Masonic lodges and other secret societies in Hamburg." The author describes the admission of Jews into the local lodges as a startling innovation. Until that time even unauthorized lodges had categorically refused to accept Jews, since these lodges too assented to the basic Masonic doctrine that Jesus Christ was the cornerstone of their structure. Yet now certain lodges wished to enjoy the benefits of Jewish wealth, and whispered in Jewish ears that, in return for 100 reichsthaler, admission to the Masonic order could be obtained. According to the author, this hunt for souls was undertaken in the name of a certain prince, a Masonic Grossordensmeister, who had ordered that Jews be accepted from now on, "since sufferance and tolerance now prevailed universally." Hardly any doubt remains that the prince in question was Carl von Hessen, who, as we shall soon see, became the Grossmeister of the Asiatics, and who could be described as tending to show tolerance to Jews. The founder of the lodge open to Jews must have been Ecker. Essentially the observations of the anonymous author agree with what is known to us from other quarters. He must have drawn his information from firsthand sources and was even aware that the initiation ceremony was concluded with a meal at which pork was served.
The author was not as much interested to inform as to condemn. He scorned the Jews for having accepted the offer, as they usually did, but refusing to pay the price. His bitterest resentment was reserved for the founder of the lodge who had removed the restrictions against Jews entering the Masonic movement. He wanted to focus the attention of the city government on what had taken place in the hope of having an end put to this state of affairs. That same year a reply was issued. The rebuttal did not deny a single allegation of the brochure. It rejected the slurs on Jewish behavior as being applicable only to the crude masses. In defending the existing practice, the rebuttal points to the custom of the English lodges which had never discriminated between Jew and gentile. It is most reasonable to assume that the author of the reply was none other than Carl van Ecker himself.
This minor controversy which occurred in Hamburg in 1786 may be regarded as the opening shot in a crushing barrage which rained down upon the heads of the Order of the Asiatics a year later. We have already noted that Heinrich van Ecker had come from Vienna to Hamburg to attend the induction ceremony of his brother Carl's lodge. The older brother's journey to northern Germany had a clear, deliberate purpose: he was seeking the protection for his Order of one of the princes who had some sympathy for Freemasonry and its mystic ramifications. Such persons were Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick and the Landgrave, Carl von Hessen, and Heinrich tried his luck with both. He was in sore need of this protection, since his personal standing and the existence of the entire Order in Vienna had been put in jeopardy. The heads of the Freemasons (they belonged to the uppermost classes and had influence in government circles) had fought the Order of the Asiatics from its very inception. By the end of 1785 they had succeeded in persuading Kaiser Joseph II to promulgate a law which would have placed all Masonic lodges under strict government supervision. Ecker sought to nip this threat in the bud by finding refuge in royal patronage elsewhere, and in Schleswig he found a sympathetic response on the part of the Landgrave, Carl van Hessen, with whom he had exchanged words previously. All his life Carl had longed to uncover the secrets hidden in Masonic doctrine, and he believed Ecker's assertion that these were known to the members of the Asiatic Order. He therefore consented to become the head of the Order, and invited Ecker, and through him, Hirschfeld, to come and settle in Schleswig. Hirschfeld's brother, Pascal, remained for the time being in Vienna. Some time later, Prince Ferdinand too responded, and Carl, the younger of the brothers, left Hamburg to join the Prince's court in Brunswick.
The removal of the center of the Order to Schleswig alerted the Masons outside of Hamburg. At the time, Schleswig was under Danish tutelage and Carl von Hessen exercised his office as the deputy of the Danish King. Freemasons in Copenhagen, afraid lest the Order of the Asiatics acquire influence in their territory, resolved to oppose it openly and expose its nature in public. This was not difficult to do. The members of the Order had not been at all particular in whom they admitted. Their constitution was therefore not properly guarded and was passed from hand to hand. The Copenhagen Masons decided to publish the entire constitution together with an introduction and critical notes, so as to show how far the new Order had strayed from the authentic principles of Freemasonry. A person capable of handling the assignment was found, and the book, Authentische Nachrichtl von den Ritter und Bruder --Eingeweihten aus Asien, Zur Beherzigund fur Freymaurern, was published anonymously in 1787. The author, however, son of a local Protestant clergyman, is known to have been Friedrich Münter, a Freemason, who afterward became famous as an Oriental scholar and the Bishop of Copenhagen.
In his introduction, inter associated the Order of the Asiatics with the occult current in Rosicrucianism which had achieved notoriety for its extortion of money from the gullible and for its frauds and swindles. Admittedly, the members of the Order of the Asiatics had held themselves out as opposed to the Rosicrucians, but the two were, in truth, of the same type. Their common feature was their pursuit of spurious, secret doctrines which confused minds and dulled senses. Munter spoke in the name of reason, of the sciences and philosophy of the enlightenment, which alone were the guarantees for the freedom, truth, and happiness of mankind. Hand in hand with these disciplines went rational theology, which stood in no need of any allegorical or mystical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, which claimed authority "in spite of human intelligence." Munter represented the position of the educated and enlightened Christian. What does occasion surprise is that this position, which had normally served as the starting point for a closer approach to Jews, now became his pretext for opposing the opening of the lodge doors to Jews.
Munter appended his notes to paragraph after paragraph of the constitution of the Order of the Asiatics. As for the paragraph which allowed Jews to be accepted in Melchizedek lodges from where they would become eligible for membership in the Order of the Asiatics, he attacked it from all sides. Jews were never, according to him, admitted into legitimate lodges conducted in accordance with the laws of the Grand Lodge of London. The exceptions were a few lodges in Holland, and they had acted illegally in this instance. The other lodges which had accepted Jews had never been granted authorization. He asserted that it was an established rule among all Freemasons, regardless of their rite, that only Christians were eligible, "and the entire constitution of the Order is predicated on this principle." As for the Melchizedek lodges, they were a pure invention of the Order of the Asiatics. Their story that such lodges existed in Oriental countries and included "Jews, Turks, Persians, Armenians, and Copts" was a figment of the imagination, intended to legalize the entry of Jews into the Masonic lodges in the European countries. Thoroughly familiar, with Masonic affairs, Munter possessed in addition a keen sense for historical criticism. In this remark, he had undoubtedly hit upon the truth. Hirschfeld himself later conceded that the Melchizedek lodges existed only in the mind of Heinrich von Ecker.
Munter's vigorous attack produced its effect. The Ecker brothers took the attack to be directed at them. Heinrich's name had been mentioned explicitly by Munter as one who had been an active member of the Order in Vienna and was now living in Schleswig. Heretofore the brothers had always been mentioned in the same breath and each was made to suffer for the sins of the other. Both depended for their positions on the existence of the Order -- Heinrich because he had been invited by Duke Carl of Schleswig as a result of the latter's belief in the truth of the Asiatic doctrines, and Carl because the group flourishing in Hamburg provided him with his keep. Now, however, the representatives of the Order had been portrayed as money grubbers and the Order itself as possessing a false and confused ideology. It was not surprising that both felt constrained to reply. Heinrich compiled a book of one hundred pages to which he appended his full name, while Carl published his eighty-page reply anonymously.
Possibly the brothers deliberately divided the functions between them. On the other hand, each might, on his own, have replied to those accusations which affected his personal circumstances. Heinrich, who had made his future dependent upon Duke Carl's belief in the spiritual benefit lying hidden in the ideology of the order, denied Munter's accusations on this aspect. He admitted the existence of the Order openly and even proudly. He delineated its history during the past generation and alluded to a prior genealogy from which the Order, as it now existed, had descended. All this argument was obviously intended to support the contention that the Order of the Asiatics indeed had access to the true interpretations of all Masonic symbolism. Such interpretations also entailed uncovering the very secrets of nature itself, and, although the Asiatics were not alchemists seeking to produce gold, they were nevertheless "far-seeing investigators of nature, possessing profound insights." They sought to be no more than a group "engaged in the ultimate deciphering of all Masonic hieroglyphics, and as a group they occupied themselves, with all the truths and cognitions of natural things following from that." This modest claim advanced on behalf of the Order was calculated to pacify its adherents: as for Duke Carl, there was no limit to his credulity. For if it was true that the Asiatics possessed knowledge of the secrets of the world, then all other possible deficiencies, were of no account in comparison. Heinrich von Ecker dealt only cursorily with Munter's other accusations. He referred in passing to the Jewish question. He denied, though not too vigorously, that the Asiatics had founded lodges of their own to provide themselves with members. But he flatly contradicted Munter's allegation that Jews had never been accepted in legitimate lodges. He himself cited the names of three Jews who had been admitted into the movement-one in London, one in Paris, and one in Gibraltar, where many Jews visit the lodges."
What was of minor importance to Heinrich was of major significance to his brother. Carl hardly touched on the question of the Asiatic Order. He contented himself with the assertion that there did indeed exist higher degrees than the basic three of the Masonic movement, and that those who reached these higher levels were vouchsafed revelations not disclosed even to the best among the Masons. It was therefore quite possible that the Order of the Asiatics did in fact contain these higher degrees. Nevertheless, preparation in the three Masonic levels was a precondition for ascending to the higher degrees. Yet what were the prerequisites for the acceptance of members in the Masonic lodges themselves? Munter had asserted that such acceptance depended upon the candidate's adherence to the Christian faith, and so Jews were ipso facto excluded. This contention Carl van Ecker undertook to dispute, as the title of his work explicitly shows: Werden und konnen Israeliten zu Freymaurern aufgenommen werden? (Would and should Israelites be accepted as Freemasons?). This was the first time that the problem had been aired in public, and Ecker's book was the beginning of a whole series of publications which took up the question during the succeeding generations. Ecker's affirmative answer to this question was the fruit of the prevailing circumstances of his time and his locality.
Like Heinrich, Carl refuted Munter's contention that lodges using the English rite had never accepted Jews. In England Jews had been and were still being granted membership. He mentioned the names of Jews known to him personally, which had appeared in the publications of the English lodges. For added support, he reprinted the authorization conferred by an English lodge on a Jew named David Hertz, in London, on July 24, 1787. Those lodges which had accepted Jews conducted themselves in accordance with the original principle of Freemasonry, and here Carl von Ecker quoted the paragraphs of the constitutions discussed in Chapter II. It was true that most of the lodges in Germany and some in France and Italy had deviated from this principle. It had been acknowledged by the German Freemasons that no lodge could legally function unless it had been authorized by the Grand Lodge of London. Yet they had adapted their constitutions to the conditions existing in their respective states, and these circumstances had been responsible for Jews being excluded from the lodges since, in Germany, discrimination against Jews was prevalent even among Freemasons, occasioned by religious fanaticism or hypocrisy or from fear of attacks by fanatics. The barring of Jews and the prejudice against them also stemmed from their inferior political status, for Jews had not been granted citizenship in the states where they lived.
So far the defense rested on blaming the opponents of the Jews. Yet German Jews themselves were guilty to some extent. They lagged behind their brethren in England, France, and Italy. They did not follow the law of Moses, but observed absurd rabbinical customs. Carl found fault even with the enlightened Jews. These ostentatiously paraded their culture, yet found difficulty in liberating themselves from their original mentality. They forced themselves to discuss scientific topics, while their attention remained riveted on mortgage foreclosures and bad debts. Their very singsong intonation set them apart from the rest of civilized society.
It is worthwhile to examine this argument in its various aspects. Here we have a description of an intense emotional revulsion in which elements of actual impressions are mixed with stereotyped imagination. Such portrayals emerge quite frequently in contemporaneous literature, which dealt extensively with the Jewish problem and the possibility of Jews being allowed to enter Christian society. Among those in favor of granting civil rights to Jews, revulsion was coupled with the rational reflection that a change could occur in the future. Carl von Ecker adopted this attitude, and so he was able to justify opening the doors of the lodges to Jews. At bottom human nature was the same. "Christians and non-Christians alike are suitable for this instruction [of the Freemasons] which includes, basically, what is known as the law of nature which is impressed on the heart of man by God:" Christians, however, must take the first step. Since they have oppressed the Jews for so many generations, they are now obliged to restore human dignity and civil rights to Jews and to remove from the latter all the blemishes, which had become attached to them as a result of their exclusion from society. A special responsibility devolves upon the Freemasons. "Why bar the way to Freemasonry against this people-the only way perhaps to enlightenment, the way through which they will more easily become reconciled with the rest of the human family and through which they will mend their habits and refine their ways of thinking?" Hamburg Jews, who belonged to the lodge headed by Ecker, could then see themselves as marching steadily forward, as a result of their Masonic membership, toward integration in the general, human society. And so they certainly did regard themselves at the time.
Carl von Ecker pointed to the anomalous situation. Precisely those lodges which acknowledged no other Masonic authority than that derived from the Grand Lodge of London were the ones to deny the principles of that very Grand Lodge in matters affecting Jews. It is no less paradoxical to see the representatives of the Order of the Asiatics, so utterly removed from the rationalism of English Freemasonry, justify the admission of Jews by reference to that rite. In actuality, principles, tendencies, beliefs, and ulterior motives, all together in utter disorder, influenced Masonic attitudes toward Jews, so it should not be surprising to find in the history of the Asiatic lodges twisting and vacillating and a lack of consistency.
The representatives of the Order apparently stood the test successfully. They had publicly defended the right of Jews to be admitted to their society and to all Masonic lodges. The Jewish participant in the leadership of the organization, Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld, maintained his position in Schleswig, and we find him there fulfilling an important part in the functioning of the Order. Sent in l787 by Duke Carl, he had undertaken an extensive tour on behalf of the Order. He traveled to Frankfurt and from there, by way of Nuremberg and Regensburg, to Prague and Vienna. After his return, he settled in Schleswig, but still maintained contact with Hamburg. The center of the movement was now located in northern Germany: in Schleswig under the patronage of Carl von Hessen, and in Brunswick under the patronage of Duke Ferdinand. Senior officials in Carl's administration were active in the Order, and Hirschfeld made friends even on this level of society. There, as in Vienna, his function was to provide the Order with exercises in meditation culled from Cabalistic printed works and manuscripts. Although he had drawn upon others and had even accepted assistance from his brother when he was in Vienna, in Schleswig he relied, at least during the earlier years, upon his own resources. To this end, he fortified himself during his Frankfurt sojourn with the necessary textbooks. It is doubtful whether anyone else in Schleswig was capable of reading a Hebrew book or of expounding the texts of the Order which had been compiled by the founders in Vienna and were based on Cabalistic writings. The members needed to understand the doctrines of their Order, and so they, and Duke Carl, their leader, were forced to depend on Hirschfeld. His position now seemed secure because he was indispensable.
Nevertheless, Hirschfeld did not enjoy peace and quiet in his new home. He was obviously more isolated in Schleswig than he had been in Vienna. Here he was an alien, a foreigner, probably the only Jew in the group. Although the Ecker brothers had defended the principle of equality in their Order, the Schleswig members were reluctant to accept its validity. Some were of the opinion that, although Jewish members already in the Order should not be expelled, new applicants should not be admitted in large numbers. According to Hirschfeld's own account, the Schleswig "Sanhedrin" rejected a Jewish candidate on the grounds of his religion, and Hirschfeld undertook the defense of the principle and the struggle to have it implemented in practice.
This information is corroborated by another source which recounts an incident occurring in Hamburg. Carl van Ecker sought to obtain Masonic authorization for his Order from Ferdinand of Brunswick, and the latter made the granting of his authorization dependent upon the expulsion of Jewish members from the group. Duke Carl, who wanted to save the Jewish members, proposed that they be organized in a separate lodge named Melchizedek, such membership being intended to confer the right on Jews to visit Christian lodges. Carl thereby acknowledged the distinction instituted between two types of lodges by the Order of the Asiatics, but without raising the status of Jews to equality with Christians. The Jewish members of the Order, whose number had risen to twenty, rejected the proposal and left the Order.
Duke Carl tried to placate the Jews, but not at the expense of his connections with Christianity. Though he longed to learn the meanings of the secrets by having recourse to Jewish sources, he believed that such revelations would lead him to truths that were basically Christian. Heinrich von Ecker, too, adapted himself to the Schleswig atmosphere and made sure that he was seen reading Scripture with all due Christian fervor.
Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that Hirschfeld began to feel that he was a victim of discrimination. Although rumors spread upon occasion that he had been or had appeared to be converted to Christianity, the truth is that he refrained from taking this step. Even in his religious position he remained an exception, as we shall see later. Not everyone considered this a fault, and several persons in Schleswig were attracted to his unique personality. Nevertheless, here as in every court society, social standing was determined by the mere fact of a man's belonging to a particular class or religion. Carl von Ecker's friendship for the Jew availed him nothing. The honors conferred on Ecker, the noble, were denied to Hirschfeld, the Jew. Social discrimination strained their relations and in the end led to an open breach between the two old friends.
Details and minutiae of the quarrel and the resulting litigation do not fall within the scope of this discussion. In brief, Hirschfeld sued Ecker for the payment of debts owing to him, and Ecker, in turn, accused Hirschfeld of threatening his life in the presence of Duke Carl. As the trial progressed, it became evident that Ecker Was exerting an increasingly strong influence on the Duke and the officials conducting the proceedings. Distraint was levied on Hirschfeld's personal effects and the manuscript in his possession, and he was placed under house arrest. The Order of the Asiatics, too, turned its back on the very person who had once been its central spiritual pillar. It was resolved to expel Hirschfeld from the Order, and a circular was sent to all branches explaining why this disciplinary action had been taken. The legal proceedings and the act of expulsion clearly reveal anti-Jewish overtones and warrant our attention as evidence that the social status acquired by Jews. Even in a marginal group such as the Order of the Asiatics, was of a doubtful nature.
In the course of the trial both parties gave accounts of the history of their association and cooperative efforts. Ecker did not fail to relate how he had promoted Hirschfeld, even in Innsbruck, despite his Jewishness. To refute Hirschfeld's contention that he had given him financial assistance in Vienna and Innsbruck, and not vice versa, Ecker invited high-level acquaintances to submit their testimony in writing. Many of these letters reek with contempt for the Jew, Hirschfeld--and undoubtedly echo Ecker's call for aid in his suit as a wronged noble against a Jewish extortioner. One of the Innsbruck writers stated quite bluntly that in his locality no Jew would have the audacity to institute legal proceedings against a nobleman of the social eminence of Ecker und Eckhoffen.
A similar tone is sounded in the notification of the Order of Hirschfeld's expulsion. He was accused, among other things, of having imposed a Jewish, Cabala-derived pattern on the rites of the Order. The authors of the circular acknowledged the value of Cabala as a source for Masonic meditation, but argued that the object of these intellectual exercises should have been to lead the Christian far beyond the limits attainable by a Jew. Nor was this all. I do not have the complete text of the circular, but the reaction to it --other than on the part of Hirschfeld--shows clearly that its arguments could have proved injurious to all the Jewish members of the Order.
What is most interesting about Hirschfeld as a person and the stand he took is, that, although he was most sensitive to, and would defend himself most vigorously against, any affront to his honor, he did not regard himself as being attacked as a Jew. Nor apparently did he feel that his Jewishness had played any part in the deterioration of his position. Once his doom had overtaken him and he was imprisoned, he turned wherever he could to prove that he was innocent and had not committed any crime. Yet nowhere is there any indication that he had been made to suffer because he was a Jew. This might have been sheer simulation, yet it is possible that his fervent desire to regard himself above any Jewish-Christian conflict may have inhibited him psychologically from identifying his lot with that of his people. This neutral attitude may have crystallized within Hirschfeld over the course of years. In his reply to the circular's accusation he denied that the Cabala was dependent on any positive religion, and argued that anyone, be he Catholic, Moslem, or Jew, who occupied himself with it would thereby pass beyond the confines of his specific religious tradition and reach "the one and only, true, pure, and over-all religion. It is also true in this instance that he was here giving Carl von Hessen, to whom he had addressed his reply, the grounds to believe that the Christian would eventually find, in the authentic wisdom of the Cabala, the truths of Christianity heretofore concealed from the ordinary member of that religion. In his distress, Hirschfeld went so far as to deny his own conception, which had been based on the belief that there was a single, mystic wisdom common to all religions.
Hirschfeld's oblivious attitude to the attacks upon him as a Jew was not shared by all the Jewish members of the Order. We know of the reaction of one of the more important members, the wealthy Berlin banker, Itzig, previously mentioned as being active. He was one of those to whom Hirschfeld had appealed to extricate him from his present predicament. By using his influence with the royal court, Itzig could have obtained a Prussian government position for Hirschfeld who would then have enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Instead of this wild plan, Itzig tried a more direct approach. He addressed a long letter to Carl von Hessen to intercede on behalf of the distressed Hirschfeld. He praised Hirschfeld's character and cited Moses Mendelssohn's encouragement of him as a young man in Berlin. Itzig also indicated that he was prepared to defray any costs involved in settling Hirschfeld's affair with Ecker, if financial considerations were in fact involved.
Itzig's plea did not refer to the personal instance of Hirschfeld alone. He also submitted his own claims to the Duke in respect to the anti-Jewish accusations which had risen above surface in the publications of the Order dealing with the Hirschfeld affair. Itzig protested most vehemently against the insults hurled against "the entire Jewish people, and especially the Jewish brethren" of the Order." How can a few individuals have the effrontery to cast aspersions for the second time upon a people with whom they have no acquaintance and which has no acquaintance with them?" Such an attempt had in fact been made once before in the worthless pamphlet Werden und konnen Israeliten zu Freymaurern aufgenommen werden? Itzig's remarks prove that the negative portrayal of Jewish character by Carl von Ecker at the time in his brochure had not gone unnoticed, at least by the Jewish members of the Order. It also proves that the circular contained some of the very allegations disseminated by the pamphlet, and that both had issued from a common source--the hands of the Ecker brothers. The whole affair throws a lurid light upon the true nature of the tolerance of the Eckers and their like. This was a product of cold, intellectual calculation to be destroyed by the first, emotional outburst fanned by personal considerations.
We do not know whether Itzig's protest made any impression on the Duke. Help reached Hirschfeld from an unexpected quarter. His antagonist, Heinrich von Ecker, suddenly died in August 179l, before the trial had ended. Even before that, help had been extended to Hirschfeld in the field of communication by the publication of a book entitled Der Asiate in seiner Blosse oder grundlicher Beweis dass die Ritter und Bruder Eingeweihten aus Asien aechte Rosenkreuzer sind (The Asiatic in his nakedness, or a thoroughgoing demonstration that the initiated Knights and Brethren from Asia are genuine Rosicrucians). This served as the last stage of the controversy over the acceptance of Jews into Masonic lodges, at least at this period of the history of the problem.
The booklet was anonymous both in respect of its author and the place of publication. The author proceeds to attack the Order and especially the Ecker brothers on the basis of new material which had not been available to the author of the Authentische Nachrichten. He adduces numerous proofs for the assertion that the Asiatics merely constitute a manifestation of the former Rosicrucians. He reverts to the question whether Jews are fit for membership, not in the Freemasons this time, but in the Asiatic brotherhood. He argues that they had been deceived, since they had been induced to swear allegiance to Jesus the Redeemer and his laws. Now the author had failed to detect the syncretistic intent of the Order, and so he hoped that some Jew would come forward, divest himself of the false oath he had been unwittingly tricked into swearing, and expose the Order's secrets in public. It is almost certain that he had good reason to believe that this would happen. Taking a definite stand on the Hirschfeld-Ecker controversy, he argued that all the wisdom of the Asiatic Order had been derived from Marcus ben Binah, alias Hirschfeld, whom in the end the very Asiatics themselves had persecuted and imprisoned. He called upon the Christian Freemasons to rally to the rescue of the victim, but at the same time indicated another means to secure his release. Pascal, Hirschfeld's brother, was still alive. Let him threaten to disclose all the secrets of the Order unless his brother was freed.
Ecker's death put an end to Hirschfeld's confinement. He proceeded to make peace with the Duke, and later effected reconciliation with Carl von Ecker as well. The Duke granted him an annuity in lieu of the debt owed him by the deceased Ecker, and still took an interest in Cabalistic material supplied by Hirschfeld, as well as in his advice on the times, favorable and unfavorable, for engaging in its study. But Hirschfeld never was restored to his former standing in the Order, the Duke himself stipulating that he was to keep away. In addition to the previous resentment against him, Hirschfeld was now suspected of having been the author of the expose, Der Asiate, which had subjected the Order to such vicious attack. To clear himself of the suspicion, he undertook to write a pamphlet which would demolish all the arguments of Der Asiate. Work on this reply became bogged down, and Hirschfeld, was called upon to explain his inaction. The truth is that he was probably not the author, but had only supplied the author with the material in his brother's possession to prepare his defense. No wonder his stay in Schleswig had become uncomfortable! But he had become burdened with debt--probably because of the expense of the litigation--and was unable to leave. He relied on his tested means: an urgent call for help went out to his former groups in Berlin and Vienna, and they hastened to his rescue.
In February 1792 there appeared in Schleswig a person referred to as I. Ben Jos. He was introduced by Hirschfeld as a leading member of the order. Having heard of, but never having seen him, the Schleswig brethren found it difficult to believe that he existed. This leading brother paid 550 thaler to discharge Hirschfeld's debts, and now all barriers to departure were gone. Hirschfeld wanted to take advantage of the presence of his guest to gain prestige. Unfortunately the Landgrave Carl was not home at the time. So Hirschfeld introduced him to all the other important members, and then took him to Brunswick, hoping to introduce him to Duke Ferdinand. There they dined at the table of Carl von Ecker. During the meal the guest was identified as a Jew. Though he neither denied nor admitted the fact, all hope for an audience with the Duke vanished. Thereupon, Hirschfeld and the leading brother left northern Germany, and we find them in Strasbourg in May or thereabout. There they parted company. Hirschfeld returned to Germany, arriving in Karlsruhe, his birthplace, in the middle of June. There he waited for the promised return of the leading brother.
Who was this obscure person? Molitor's account gives the solution by relating that Hirschfeld had accompanied Thomas van Schoenfeld to Strasbourg: (where they made the acquaintance of the famous spiritualist St. Martin, author of Des erreurs et de la verite). From another source we learn that Schoenfeld arrived in Strasbourg in March 1793, and that from then onwards he appeared under the name of Junius Frey. The data agree, and the facts leave no room for doubt. What can reasonably be deduced from them is that Hirschfeld's appeal to the veteran members of the group led them to summon the aid of the arch-adventurer Thomas von Schoenfeld. He came to Schleswig from the city of "P.," that is, Prague, by way of Vienna, Berlin, and Hamburg. Certainly he did not draw the money to discharge Hirschfeld's debts from his own pocket. The money had been raised among the rich brethren in Vienna and Berlin, who had involved themselves in the issue and rallied to Hirschfeld's aid. Schoenfeld took the opportunity to cross into France--or else this was his original destination, and his mission to Schleswig was later incorporated into his itinerary. It is a fact that his brother and sister joined him in Paris when he arrived there in the middle of June. Hirschfeld waited for him in Karlsruhe. Declaring later that he had seen his bitter end in a dream. Hirschfeld claimed that Schoenfeld might have been engaged in a mission on behalf of the Austrian government. This suspicion may have been well founded; yet it is equally possible that this was a post facto supposition. One thing is clear: the leading brother had abandoned his spiritual, for the much higher stakes of the great political adventure that had seized Paris. He died on the guillotine on April 5,1793.
Hirschfeld's rescue was the last activity, as far as we know, of the Jewish group within the Order of the Asiatics. There are grounds to assume that Jews continued to leave the Order, and that the Order itself went into decline. Soon after Hirschfeld's departure from Schleswig, the Order lost one of its patrons with the death of Duke Friedrich of Brunswick (July 1792). Carl von Hessen lived on. He did not reject the doctrines of the Order but turned to other groups and ideologies for explanations of the Masonic secrets. He maintained some contact with his spiritual mentor, Hirschfeld, as for the latter, he settled in Offenbach--near Frankfurt--the center of the Frankist movement. From time to time he tried to interest people in his spiritual, conceptual system, and in the next chapter we shall meet these two remnants of the Order of the Asiatic Brethren in a new context.
Jews & Freemasonry 1723-1939 Preface
Jews & Freemasonry 1723-1939 Chapter 1
Jews & Freemasonry 1723-1939 Chapter 2
Jews & Freemasonry 1723-1939 Chapter 3