He did not seek, but he found: at the beginning of the 20th century the Orientalist Karl Süßheim spent several years in the Ottoman Empire establishing himself professionally. In the process, the young man from a liberal Jewish family in Nuremberg encountered established religious communities unfamiliar to him given his religiously indifferent milieu in the German Empire. Süßheim’s diary tells a unique story of his (re)discovery of Judaism. Via his exploration of Islam, he found a firm Jewish faith, which he retained for the rest of his life.