This defamatory text against the Jewish physician Simon Lefmans from the year 1733 is simultaneously a source for the entry of Jews into German medicine and also for the antisemitic resistance that it aroused. The text is a sharply tendentious evaluation of a scientific work by the Jewish physician Simon Lefmans (variant spellings: Lafmans, Leffmann, Leefmann). Lefmans had practiced in Hamburg since 1700, and in 1733, had his dissertation “De Variolis” [Concerning Smallpox] newly reprinted by the book printer, Conrad König. In the article, whose author is unknown, the publication is foregrounded in the guise of a book review, but its actual aim is the dismantling of Lefmans on grounds of his Jewish descent.

The “Niedersächsischen Nachrichten von Gelehrten neuen Sachen“ [Lower Saxon Notices for New Learned Matters] was published in Hamburg and stood in the tradition of early scholarly periodicals. The journal appeared in the years 1729 to 1736 (until 1731 under the name “Niedersächsische neue Zeitungen“ [New Lower Saxon Newspaper] and followed the example of other reviewing papers, such as the “Neue Zeitschrift für Gelehrte Sachen” [New Periodical for Learned Affairs]. Every two weeks it reported on all areas of the sciences with a focus on scholarly life in Hamburg.