Die Juden

Juden, Die, a one-act play written by G. E. Lessing in 1749, and first published in 1754 in Lessings Schriften (vol. 4). It aims at combating anti-Jewish prejudice. A baron who is set upon by robbers and rescued by a stranger believes his assailants to be Jews. They prove, however, to be the baron's Christian servants, and it is the resolute rescuer who is revealed as a Jew. This plea for tolerance, in dramatic form, probably reflects Lessing's regard for his friend, the young Jew M. Mendelssohn.