This essay is taken from a larger work in progress on Alexander McCaul, his associates
and acolytes, and the Jewish responses to his attack on rabbinic Judaism. I thank
the Jewish Historical Society of England for sponsoring me as a “scholar in residence”
in March 2015, allowing me to work on this project at the Bodleian Library in Oxford
and at the British Library in London. I especially thank Professor Piet van Boxel
for proposing this invitation and for organizing a conference on missionaries directly
related to this project, thus providing me an invaluable community of scholars to
respond to my work. This essay is based on my paper given at the conference. I also
thank Professor Agnieszka Jagodziňska for reading a version of this essay (and see
her work mentioned in n. 3 below).
