Reassessing Jewish Life In Medieval Europe

Author : Robert Chazan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2010-09-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9781139493048

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Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe by Robert Chazan Pdf

This book re-evaluates the prevailing notion that Jews in medieval Christian Europe lived under an appalling regime of ecclesiastical limitation, governmental exploitation and expropriation, and unceasing popular violence. Robert Chazan argues that, while Jewish life in medieval Western Christendom was indeed beset with grave difficulties, it was nevertheless an environment rich in opportunities; the Jews of medieval Europe overcame obstacles, grew in number, explored innovative economic options, and fashioned enduring new forms of Jewish living. His research also provides a reconsideration of the legacy of medieval Jewish life, which is often depicted as equally destructive and projected as the underpinning of the twentieth-century catastrophes of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Dr Chazan's research proves that, although Jewish life in the medieval West laid the foundation for much Jewish suffering in the post-medieval world, it also stimulated considerable Jewish ingenuity, which lies at the root of impressive Jewish successes in the modern West.

Author : Robert Chazan
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2014-05-14
Category : Christianity and other religions
ISBN : 0511860706

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Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe. Robert Chazan by Robert Chazan Pdf

Chazan argues that the challenges of life for Jews in medieval Western Christendom stimulated ingenuity, leading to later Jewish successes.

Author : Robert Chazan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2016-12-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107152465

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From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism by Robert Chazan Pdf

This book traces the hardening of Christian attitudes to Jews, Judiasm and their history during the second half of the Middle Ages.

Author : Israel Abrahams
Publisher : Jewish Publication Society
Page : 479 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : History
ISBN : 9780827605428

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Jewish Life in the Middle Ages by Israel Abrahams Pdf

This classic work of scholarship illustrates the richness, complexity, and fullness of medieval Jewish life. Readers will discover how much was hidden from the inquisitive and often hostile gaze of Christian Europe. Israel Abrahams vividly details the customs, manners, and mores, and delves into the social culture of Jewish life at this time.

Author : Israel Abrahams
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 494 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 1896
Category : Jews
ISBN : HARVARD:32044024189433

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Jewish Life in the Middle Ages by Israel Abrahams Pdf

Author : Robert Chazan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 950 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2018-10-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0521517249

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The Cambridge History of Judaism : Volume 6, The Middle Ages: The Christian World by Robert Chazan Pdf

Volume 6 examines the history of Judaism during the second half of the Middle Ages. Through the first half of the Middle Ages, the Jewish communities of western Christendom lagged well behind those of eastern Christendom and the even more impressive Jewries of the Islamic world. As Western Christendom began its remarkable surge forward in the eleventh century, this progress had an impact on the Jewish minority as well. The older Jewries of southern Europe grew and became more productive in every sense. Even more strikingly, a new set of Jewries were created across northern Europe, when this undeveloped area was strengthened demographically, economically, militarily, and culturally. From the smallest and weakest of the world's Jewish centers in the year 1000, the Jewish communities of western Christendom emerged - despite considerable obstacles - as the world's dominant Jewish center by the end of the Middle Ages. This demographic, economic, cultural, and spiritual dominance was maintained down into modernity.

Author : Jacob R. Marcus
Publisher : Hebrew Union College Press
Page : 603 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 1999-12-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780878201761

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The Jew in the Medieval World by Jacob R. Marcus Pdf

To gain an accurate view of medieval Judaism, one must look through the eyes of Jews and their contemporaries. First published in 1938, Jacob Rader Marcus's classic source book on medieval Judaism provides the documents and historical narratives which let the actors and witnesses of events speak for themselves. The medieval epoch in Jewish history begins around the year 315, when the emperor Constantine began enacting disabling laws against the Jews, rendering them second-class citizens. In the centuries following, Jews enjoyed (or suffered under) legislation, either chosen or forced by the state, which differed from the laws for the Christian and Muslim masses. Most states saw the Jews as simply a tolerated group, even when given favorable privileges. The masses often disliked them. Medieval Jewish history presents a picture wherein large patches are characterized by political and social disabilities. Marcus closes the medieval Jewish age (for Western Jewry) in 1791 with the proclamation of political and civil emancipation in France. The 137 sources included in the anthology include historical narratives, codes, legal opinions, martyrologies, memoirs, polemics, epitaphs, advertisements, folk-tales, ethical and pedagogical writings, book prefaces and colophons, commentaries, and communal statutes. These documents are organized in three sections: The first treats the relation of the State to the Jew and reflects the civil and political status of the Jew in the medieval setting. The second deals with the profound influence exerted by the Catholic and Protestant churches on Jewish life and well-being. The final section presents a study of the Jew "at home," with four sub-divisions with treat the life of the medieval Jew in its various aspects. Marcus presents the texts themselves, introductions, and lucid notes. Marc Saperstein offers a new introduction and updated bibliography.

Author : Kenneth Stow
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2009-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0674044053

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Alienated Minority by Kenneth Stow Pdf

This narrative history surveying one thousand years of Jewish life integrates the Jewish experience into the context of the overall culture and society of medieval Europe. It presents a new picture of the interaction between Christians and Jews in this tumultuous era. Alienated Minority shows us what it meant to be a Jew in Europe in the Middle Ages. The story begins in the fifth century, when autonomous Jewish rule in Palestine came to a close, and when the papacy, led by Gregory the Great, established enduring principles regarding Christian policy toward Jews. Kenneth Stow examines the structures of self-government in the European Jewish community and the centrality of emerging concepts of representation. He studies economic enterprise, especially banking; constructs a clear image of the medieval Jewish family; and portrays in detail the very rich Jewish intellectual life. Analyzing policies of Church and State in the Middle Ages, Stow argues that a firmly defined legal and constitutional position of the Jewish minority in the earlier period gave way to a legal status created expressly for Jews, who in the later period were seen as inimical to the common good. It was this special status that paved the way for the royal expulsions of Jews that began at the end of the thirteenth century.

Author : David Engel,Lawrence H. Schiffman,Elliot R. Wolfson
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 343 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2012-01-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004222335

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Studies in Medieval Jewish Intellectual and Social History by David Engel,Lawrence H. Schiffman,Elliot R. Wolfson Pdf

Thirteen leading scholars offer a fresh look at four key topics in medieval Jewish studies: the history of Jewish communities in Western Christendom, Jewish-Christian interactions in medieval Europe, medieval Jewish Biblical exegesis and religious literature, and historical representations of medieval Jewry.

Author : Ephraim Shoham-Steiner
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780814345603

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Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe by Ephraim Shoham-Steiner Pdf

Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is a topic laced by prejudice on one hand and apologetics on the other. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Jews were often portrayed as criminals driven by greed. While these accusations were, for the most part, unfounded, in other cases criminal accusations against Jews were not altogether baseless. Drawing on a variety of legal, liturgical, literary, and archival sources, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner examines the reasons for the involvement in crime, the social profile of Jews who performed crimes, and the ways and mechanisms employed by the legal and communal body to deal with Jewish criminals and with crimes committed by Jews. A society’s attitude toward individuals identified as criminals—by others or themselves—can serve as a window into that society’s mores and provide insight into how transgressors understood themselves and society’s attitudes toward them. The book is divided into three main sections. In the first section, Shoham-Steiner examines theft and crimes of a financial nature. In the second section, he discusses physical violence and murder, most importantly among Jews but also incidents when Jews attacked others and cases in which Jews asked non-Jews to commit violence against fellow Jews. In the third section, Shoham-Steiner approaches the role of women in crime and explores the gender differences, surveying the nature of the crimes involving women both as perpetrators and as victims, as well as the reaction to their involvement in criminal activities among medieval European Jews. While the study of crime and social attitudes toward criminals is firmly established in the social sciences, the history of crime and of social attitudes toward crime and criminals is relatively new, especially in the field of medieval studies and all the more so in medieval Jewish studies. Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe blazes a new path for unearthing daily life history from extremely recalcitrant sources. The intended readership goes beyond scholars and students of medieval Jewish studies, medieval European history, and crime in pre-modern society.

Author : Robert Chazan
Publisher : Behrman House, Inc
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1980
Category : History
ISBN : 0874413028

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Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages by Robert Chazan Pdf

A collection of medieval European documents of the Church and state, including theological positions on the Jews; papal decrees and local and national charters granting rights to Jews; documents relating to protection of Jews; ecclesiastic limitations on Jews, relating particularly to usury and attacks on the Talmud; missionizing (e.g. forced sermons and disputations); and persecution by the state (e.g. confiscation of properties, bodily attacks, and expulsions).

Author : Elisheva Baumgarten
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2007-07-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691130293

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Mothers and Children by Elisheva Baumgarten Pdf

This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history. Elisheva Baumgarten draws on a rich trove of primary sources to give a full portrait of medieval Jewish family life during the period of childhood from birth to the beginning of formal education at age seven. Illustrating the importance of understanding Jewish practice in the context of Christian society and recognizing the shared foundations in both societies, Baumgarten's examination of Jewish and Christian practices and attitudes is explicitly comparative. Her analysis is also wideranging, covering nearly every aspect of home life and childrearing, including pregnancy, midwifery, birth and initiation rituals, nursing, sterility, infanticide, remarriage, attitudes toward mothers and fathers, gender hierarchies, divorce, widowhood, early education, and the place of children in the home, synagogue, and community. A richly detailed and deeply researched contribution to our understanding of the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors, Mothers and Children provides a key analysis of the history of Jewish families in medieval Ashkenaz.

Author : Steven F. Kruger
Publisher : Medieval Cultures (Hardcover)
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0816640610

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The Spectral Jew by Steven F. Kruger Pdf

Medieval European culture encompassed Judaic, Christian, Muslim, and pagan societies, forming a complex matrix of religious belief, identity, and imagination. Through incisive readings of a broad range of medieval texts and informed by poststructuralist, queer, and feminist theories, The Spectral Jew traces the Jewish presence in Western Europe to show how the body, gender, and sexuality were at the root of the construction of medieval religious anxieties, inconsistencies, and instabilities. Looking closely at how medieval Jewish and Christian identities are distinguished from each other, yet intimately intertwined, Kruger demonstrates how Jews were often corporealized in ways that posited them as inferior to Christians—archaic and incapable of change—even as the two mutually shaped each other. But such attempts to differentiate Jews and Christians were inevitably haunted by the knowledge that Christianity had emerged out of Judaism and was, in its own self-understanding, a community of converts. Examining the points of contact between Christian and Jewish communities, Kruger discloses the profound paradox of the Jew as different in all ways, yet capable of converting to fully Christian status. He draws from central medieval authors and texts such as Peter Damian, Guibert of Nogent, the Barcelona Disputation, and the Hebrew chronicles of the First Crusade, as well as lesser known writings such as the disputations of Ceuta, Majorca, and Tortosa and the immensely popular Dialogues of Peter Alfonsi. By putting the conversion narrative at the center of this analysis, Kruger exposes it as a disruption of categories rather than a smooth passage and reveals the prominent role Judaism played in the medieval Christian imagination. Steven F. Kruger is professor of English and medieval studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is author of several books and editor with Glenn Burger of Queering the Middle Ages (Minnesota, 2001).

Author : Israel Abrahams
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017-08
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1974039625

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Jewish Life in the Middle Ages Israel Abrahams by Israel Abrahams Pdf

THE expression ' middle ages' is often employed in a very elastic sense, but as applied to the inner life of the Jews it has little or no relevancy. There was neither more nor less medievalism about Jewish life in the ninth than there was in the fourteenth century. If medievalism implies moral servitude to a Church and material servitude to a polity, - a polity known in one form as Imperialism and in another as feudalism, - the Jews bad no opportunity for the latter and no inclination for the former. The Synagogue was the centre of life, but it was not the custodian of thought. If Judaism ever came to exercise a tyranny over the Jewish mind, it did so not in the middle ages at all, but in the middle of the sixteenth century. A revolt against medievalism such as occurred in Europe during and at the close of the Renaissance may be said to have marked Jewish life towards the close of the eighteenth century.

Author : Norman Golb
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 668 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1998-05-04
Category : History
ISBN : 0521580323

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The Jews in Medieval Normandy by Norman Golb Pdf

This 1998 book is a comprehensive account of the high Hebraic culture developed by the Jews in Normandy during the Middle Ages, and in particular during the Anglo-Norman period. This culture has remained virtually unknown to the public and to the scholarly world throughout modern times, until a combination of recent manuscript discoveries and archaeological findings delineated this phenomenon for the first time. The book explores the origins of this remarkable community, beginning with topographical evidence pointing to the arrival of the Jews in Normandy as early as Roman and Gallo-Roman times, through autograph documentary testimony available in the Cairo Genizah manuscripts and early medieval Latin sources, finally using the rich manuscript evidence of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century writers which attest to the high cultural level attained by this community and to its social and political interaction with the Christian world of Anglo-Norman times and their aftermath.