Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe
Title | Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe PDF eBook |
Author | Robert Chazan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 291 |
Release | 2010-09-27 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1139493043 |
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.
Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe. Robert Chazan
Title | Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe. Robert Chazan PDF eBook |
Author | Robert Chazan |
Publisher | |
Pages | 292 |
Release | 2014-05-14 |
Genre | Christianity and other religions |
ISBN | 9780511860706 |
Chazan argues that the challenges of life for Jews in medieval Western Christendom stimulated ingenuity, leading to later Jewish successes.
From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism
Title | From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism PDF eBook |
Author | Robert Chazan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 271 |
Release | 2016-12-24 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1107152461 |
This book traces the hardening of Christian attitudes to Jews, Judiasm and their history during the second half of the Middle Ages.
The Cambridge History of Judaism : Volume 6, The Middle Ages: The Christian World
Title | The Cambridge History of Judaism : Volume 6, The Middle Ages: The Christian World PDF eBook |
Author | Robert Chazan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 950 |
Release | 2018-10-11 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9780521517249 |
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.
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
Title | Jewish Life in the Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | Israel Abrahams |
Publisher | Jewish Publication Society |
Pages | 479 |
Release | 1993 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0827605420 |
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.
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
Title | Jewish Life in the Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | Israel Abrahams |
Publisher | |
Pages | 494 |
Release | 1896 |
Genre | Jews |
ISBN |
Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe
Title | Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe PDF eBook |
Author | Ephraim Shoham-Steiner |
Publisher | Wayne State University Press |
Pages | 488 |
Release | 2020-11-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0814345603 |
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.