Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom
Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom

Author: Robert Chazan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-11-27

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1139441019

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During the course of the twelfth century, increasing numbers of Jews migrated into dynamically developing western Christendom from Islamic lands. The vitality that attracted them also presented a challenge: Christianity - from early in its history - had proclaimed itself heir to a failed Jewish community and thus the vitality of western Christendom was both appealing and threatening to the Jewish immigrants. Indeed, western Christendom was entering a phase of intense missionising activity, some of which was directed at the long-term Jewish residents of Europe and the Jewish newcomers. This 2003 study examines the techniques of persuasion adopted by the Jewish polemicists in order to reassure their Jewish readers of the truth of Judaism and the error of Christianity. At the very deepest level, these Jewish authors sketched out for their fellow Jews a comparative portrait of Christian and Jewish societies - the former powerful but irrational and morally debased, the latter the weak but reasonable and morally elevated - urging that the obvious and sensible choice was Judaism.

The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom
The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom

Author: Robert Chazan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-11-23

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1139459872

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Between the years AD 1000 and 1500, western Christendom absorbed by conquest and attracted through immigration a growing number of Jews. This community was to make a valuable contribution to rapidly developing European civilisation but was also to suffer some terrible setbacks, culminating in a series of expulsions from the more advanced westerly areas of Europe. At the same time, vigorous new branches of world Jewry emerged and a rich new Jewish cultural legacy was created. In this important historical synthesis, Robert Chazan discusses the Jewish experience over a 500 year period across the entire continent of Europe. As well as being the story of medieval Jewry, the book simultaneously illuminates important aspects of majority life in Europe during this period. This book is essential reading for all students of medieval Jewish history and an important reference for any scholar of medieval Europe.

Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe
Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe

Author: Robert Chazan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-09-27

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1139493043

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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.

Christian Jewish Relations 1000-1300
Christian Jewish Relations 1000-1300

Author: Anna Sapir Abulafia

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-05-22

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1317867718

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The history of relations between Jews and Christians has been a long, complex and often unsettled one; yet histories of medieval Christendom have traditionally paid only passing attention to the role played by Jews in a predominantly Christian society. This book provides an original survey of medieval Christian-Jewish relations encompassing England, Spain, France and Germany, and sheds light in the process on the major developments in medieval history between 1000 and 1300. Anna Sapir Abulafia's balanced yet humane account offers a new perspective on Christian-Jewish relations by analysing the theological, socio-economic and political services Jews were required to render to medieval Christendom. The nature of Jewish service varied greatly as Christian rulers struggled to reconcile the desire to profit from the presence of Jewish men and women in their lands with conflicting theological notions about Judaism. Jews meanwhile had to deal with the many competing authorities and interests in the localities in which they lived; their continued presence hinged on a fine balance between theology and pragmatism. The book examines the impact of the Crusades on Christian-Jewish relations and analyses how anti-Jewish libels were used to define relations. Making adept use of both Latin and Hebrew sources, Abulafia draws on liturgical and exegetical material, and narrative, polemical and legal sources, to give a vivid and accurate sense of how Christians interacted with Jews and Jews with Christians.

The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism
The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism

Author: Alan T. Levenson

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-03-12

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 1118232933

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The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism presents a panoramic and comprehensive overview of the major aspects of Jewish life and culture, from the biblical period through to contemporary times. A collection of outstanding contributions from leading experts presents the latest scholarship on a range of questions relating to Jews, Jewish history, Judaism, folk practices, politics, economic structure, the relationship of Judaism to Christianity, and the manifold participation of Jews in general culture through various times and geographical locales. In addition, the book explores Jewish historiography and the lives of ordinary people, the achievements of Jewish women, and the sustained interaction of Jews within the environments they inhabited. In exploring the major periods and themes of Jewish history and the history of Judaism, the volume features a wide range of contemporary approaches that demonstrate the maturation of Jewish studies. Special attention is accorded to underrepresented eras, including the early modern and post-1945 periods of Jewish history in all their major dimensions. More contentious scholarly issues – such as the relationship of Ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible, or the nature of Zionism diaspora and its implications for contemporary Israel – feature multiple essays that reveal varied points of view. Lively and informative, this essential single-volume reference reflects our current state of knowledge on the evolution of Jewish life and culture, from its ancient origins to the modern age.

Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures
Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures

Author: Ehud Krinis

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-10-25

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 3110702266

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In his academic career, that by now spans six decades, Daniel J. Lasker distinguished himself by the wide range of his scholarly interests. In the field of Jewish theology and philosophy he contributed significantly to the study of Rabbinic as well as Karaite authors. In the field of Jewish polemics his studies explore Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew texts, analyzing them in the context of their Christian and Muslim backgrounds. His contributions refer to a wide variety of authors who lived from the 9th century to the 18th century and beyond, in the Muslim East, in Muslin and Christian parts of the Mediterranean Sea, and in west and east Europe. This Festschrift for Daniel J. Lasker consists of four parts. The first highlights his academic career and scholarly achievements. In the three other parts, colleagues and students of Daniel J. Lasker offer their own findings and insights in topics strongly connected to his studies, namely, intersections of Jewish theology and Biblical exegesis with the Islamic and Christian cultures, as well as Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-Christian relations. Thus, this wide-scoped and rich volume offers significant contributions to a variety of topics in Jewish Studies.

A Philosopher of Scripture
A Philosopher of Scripture

Author: Raphael Dascalu

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-08-05

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 9004409114

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Tanḥum b. Joseph ha-Yerushalmi (d. 1291, Fusṭāṭ, Egypt) was a rigorous linguist and philologist, philosopher and mystic, and a biblical exegete of singular breadth. As well as providing us with an insight into the inner world of a profound and original thinker, his oeuvre sheds light on a Jewish historical and cultural milieu that remains relatively poorly understood: the Islamic East in the post-Maimonidean period. In A Philosopher of Scripture: The Exegesis and Thought of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi, Raphael Dascalu presents the first detailed intellectual portrait of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi. Tanḥum emerges as a polymath with a clear intellectual program, an eclectic thinker who brought multiple traditions together in his search for the philosophical meaning of Scripture.

Popes and Jews, 1095-1291
Popes and Jews, 1095-1291

Author: Rebecca Rist

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0198717989

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In Popes and Jews, 1095-1291, Rebecca Rist explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jewish communities of western Europe. Rist analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. She breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story - Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution - through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The author engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian-Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy's authorisation of crusading, prohibitions against money lending, and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the Mendicant Orders. Popes and Jews, 1095-1291 is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian-Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter - religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states, and the development of relations between East and West - makes it extremely relevant to today's multi-cultural and multi-faith society.

The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 6, The Middle Ages: The Christian World
The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 6, The Middle Ages: The Christian World

Author: Robert Chazan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-10-31

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108340199

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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.