Pulling the cheese over their eyes: an 18th century Hebrew cheese fools Oxford professors.

Picture this: two Jews claiming to be rabbis visit 18th century Oxford University. They came bearing cheese, stamped with a Hebrew inscription, a relic of the Holy Land! How exotic! But then a Dutch (=Ashkenazi) Jew came and noticed that the cheese was made by his own mother in Amsterdam. The Hebrew inscription? It was his father's name!

Out of this came an aphorism: "A chimney's sweeper's boy could always make a fool out of every doctor in the university."



That's a great story. However, what is the significance of the Hebrew stamp? A hashgacha perhaps?

For illustrative purposes only. It's not as easy to find Hebrew-stamped cheese as you'd think (photo credit):



The passage is from Memoirs of a social monster; or, the history of Charles Price, Otherwise Bolingbroke, otherwise Johnson, otherwise Parks, otherwise Wigmore, otherwise Brank, otherwise Wilmott, otherwise Williams, otherwise Schutz, otherwise Trevors, otherwise Polton, otherwise Taylor, otherwise Powel, &c. &c. &c. and commonly called Old Patch. Containing an accurate account of the astonishing fraud and ingenious forgeries of that truly great man on the Governor and Company of the Bank of England for a Period of Fifty-Five Years. (London 1786)