Johann Jakob Schudt

Johann Jakob Schudt (January 14, 1664 – February 14, 1722) was a German polyhistor and Orientalist.

He devoted himself especially to Jewish history and antiquities, beginning with the publication of a Compendium Historiæ Judaieæ (1700).

Up to that time he had been on friendly terms with the Jews of Frankfurt, writing a preface to Grünhut's edition of David Ḳimḥi's Commentary on the Psalms, 1712, while in 1716 he published the Purim play of the Frankfurt and Prague Jews with a High German translation.

He had, however, previously published Judæus Christicida, attempting to prove that Jews deserved corporal as well as spiritual punishment for the crucifixion.

His "Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten" is full of prejudice, and repeats many of the fables and ridiculous items published by Johann Andreas Eisenmenger; but it contains also details of contemporary Jewish life, a source for the history of the Jews, particularly those of Frankfurt.