This essay investigates the appearance in the Dutch Purim productions of such contemporary
political issues as the poverty and the unproductivity of the Ashkenazi Jews. At
the end of the eighteenth century, pejorative images of the Jew and maskilic reform, as well
as enlightened ideals, interacted within these writings. As a result, the focus of the Purim
productions shifted from absurd humor to the hardships of Jewish life. This essay analyzes
how maskilim employed the Ashkenazi Purim productions to cope with and address the “Jewish
Question.” As such, it demonstrates that humor became an ideological motor for Jewish
cultural change.

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• Addressing the Jewish Question with Humor: Poverty and Unproductivity in the Dutch Purim Productions (ca. 1800)