Travel and Geography Books and Their Polemical Uses in 18th-Century Jewish Thought This lecture will discuss the uses of geographical and travel literature in two types of polemical writing. As many scholars have demonstrated, this literature had a significant influence on the construction of concepts such as “natural religion” and “primitive religion,” which became central to discussions of religious tolerance and to polemics between different religions and churches. The first type to be addressed is Jewish-Christian polemics. As will be demonstrated, Jewish writers utilized geographical knowledge to identify Christianity and its rituals with pagan practices described in contemporary travel literature. For example, the parodic text Pilpul al Zeman Zmanim Zmaneihem by the Italian author Yonah Rapa, preserved in numerous copies, employs identifiable geographical knowledge. The text integrates mocking descriptions of the Christian Easter and the Church’s efforts to convert the inhabitants of the New World into the framework of the Passover Haggadah. The second type to be discussed is internal Jewish polemics between rabbis and Maskilim who criticized the Talmud. Examples will be presented in which rabbis, in response to questions and criticisms about the Talmud, relied on travel books and geographical knowledge to resolve difficulties. In contrast, the Maskilim doubted both the reliability of Talmudic knowledge and the accuracy of early modern travel literature, presenting a critical and empiricist view of knowledge that only the most up-to-date encyclopedic works could satisfy. These examples will highlight at least one way in which travel literature and the geographical knowledge it contained influenced other types of literature and discussions beyond their immediate scop