Synagogue and Rabbi Isaak Alexander

If it were not for the stone tablet on the wall of the stately home, on the street called Hinter der Grieb 5, hardly anybody would know what was once found here: "This late Gothic home housed a synagogue in the 18th century"

Probably as early as 1766, Isaak Alexander came to Regensburg, and became the rabbi of the small Jewish community, which once again had attempted to establish in Regensburg. The reason being that the Imperial Diet ("Reichstag") regularly convened in the free imperial city. Several of the ambassadors and princes asked for an exemption for bringing their "Hoffaktoren" (the so-called "court Jews"), and "Schutzjuden" (Jews given protection by either the Emperor, or the Prince Elector of Saxony, or the Reichserbmarschall von Pappenheim), and also their "Geleitjuden" (Jews given temporary protection by other nobility) with them to the sessions of the Diet.  Even though all Jews had been banned from Regensburg since 1519, a small number of them was present as "Schutzjuden" at the Diets of 1532, 1541 and 1546, as well as during all other sessions to follow.

The titles of the writings, which the early "philosopher of the Enlightenment" Rabbi Alexander wrote nearly, sound like a present-day commentary on self-conceit and prejudice. Three are here quoted: "Von dem Daseyn Gottes die selbst redende Vernunft" (From the Existence of God to natural Reason, 1775), "Wahrheiten zur göttlichen Weisheit" (Truths Concerning God's Wisdom, 1779), and finally "Abhandlung von der Freiheit des Menschen" (Treatise on the Liberty of Man, 1789).