Antisemitic Hate Signs in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from Medieval Germany

Antisemitic Hate Signs in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from Medieval Germany PDF Author: Ruth Mellinkoff
Publisher: Jerusalem : Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
ISBN:
Category : Antisemitism in art
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Rejects the widely-held theory that medieval artists distorted the human faces in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts due to anti-iconic attitudes of German Jewry. Presents the hypothesis that the illustrations were done by Christian artists under the supervision of Jewish scribes and for Jewish patrons. Concludes that artistic devices such as profile portrayal and animal features were antisemitic signs, whereby the artists expressed hatred and denigration. The animals chosen had negative connotations (e.g. asses and pigs). Another feature, closed eyes, suggested the "blindness" of the Jews. Further, human features were often distorted according to stereotypes (beaked noses) or deformed to the point of grotesque or demonic, suggesting that Jews were less than human. To the question of how the Jewish scribes and patrons overlooked such signs, responds that the "looking but not seeing phenomenon" operated in the past as it does in the present.

Antisemitic Hate Signs in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from Medieval Germany

Antisemitic Hate Signs in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from Medieval Germany PDF Author: Ruth Mellinkoff
Publisher: Jerusalem : Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
ISBN:
Category : Antisemitism in art
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rejects the widely-held theory that medieval artists distorted the human faces in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts due to anti-iconic attitudes of German Jewry. Presents the hypothesis that the illustrations were done by Christian artists under the supervision of Jewish scribes and for Jewish patrons. Concludes that artistic devices such as profile portrayal and animal features were antisemitic signs, whereby the artists expressed hatred and denigration. The animals chosen had negative connotations (e.g. asses and pigs). Another feature, closed eyes, suggested the "blindness" of the Jews. Further, human features were often distorted according to stereotypes (beaked noses) or deformed to the point of grotesque or demonic, suggesting that Jews were less than human. To the question of how the Jewish scribes and patrons overlooked such signs, responds that the "looking but not seeing phenomenon" operated in the past as it does in the present.

The Monstrous Middle Ages

The Monstrous Middle Ages PDF Author: Bettina Bildhauer
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1786831759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
The figure of the monster in medieval culture functions as a vehicle for a range of intellectual and spiritual inquiries, from questions of language and representation to issues of moral, theological and cultural value. Monsters embody cultural tensions that go far beyond the idea of the monster as simply an unintelligible and abject other. This text looks at both the representation of literal monsters and the consumption and exploitation of monstrous metaphors in a wide variety of high and late-medieval cultural productions, from travel writing and mystical texts, to sermons, manuscript illuminations and maps. Individual essays explore the ways in which monstrosity shaped the construction of gendered and racial identities, religious symbolism and social prejudice in the Middle Ages. Reading the Middle Ages through its monsters provides an opportunity to view medieval culture from fresh perspectives. It should be of interest in the concept of monstrosity and its significance for medieval cultural production.

Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History

Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History PDF Author: Iris Idelson-Shein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350052159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This is the first study of monstrosity in Jewish history from the Middle Ages to modernity. Drawing on Jewish history, literary studies, folklore, art history and the history of science, it examines both the historical depiction of Jews as monsters and the creative use of monstrous beings in Jewish culture. Jews have occupied a liminal position within European society and culture, being deeply immersed yet outsiders to it. For this reason, they were perceived in terms of otherness and were often represented as monstrous beings. However, at the same time, European Jews invoked, with tantalizing ubiquity, images of magical, terrifying and hybrid beings in their texts, art and folktales. These images were used by Jewish authors and artists to push back against their own identification as monstrous or diabolical and to tackle concerns about religious persecution, assimilation and acculturation, gender and sexuality, science and technology and the rise of antisemitism. Bringing together an impressive cast of contributors from around the world, this fascinating volume is an invaluable resource for academics, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates interested in Jewish studies, as well as the history of monsters.

How the West Became Antisemitic

How the West Became Antisemitic PDF Author: Ivan G. Marcus
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691258201
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
An examination of how the Jews—real and imagined—so challenged the Christian majority in medieval Europe that it became a society that was religiously and culturally antisemitic in new ways In medieval Europe, Jews were not passive victims of the Christian community, as is often assumed, but rather were startlingly assertive, forming a Jewish civilization within Latin Christian society. Both Jews and Christians considered themselves to be God’s chosen people. These dueling claims fueled the rise of both cultures as they became rivals for supremacy. In How the West Became Antisemitic, Ivan Marcus shows how Christian and Jewish competition in medieval Europe laid the foundation for modern antisemitism. Marcus explains that Jews accepted Christians as misguided practitioners of their ancestral customs, but regarded Christianity as idolatry. Christians, on the other hand, looked at Jews themselves—not Judaism—as despised. They directed their hatred at a real and imagined Jew: theoretically subordinate, but sometimes assertive, an implacable “enemy within.” In their view, Jews were permanently and physically Jewish—impossible to convert to Christianity. Thus Christians came to hate Jews first for religious reasons, and eventually for racial ones. Even when Jews no longer lived among them, medieval Christians could not forget their former neighbors. Modern antisemitism, based on the imagined Jew as powerful and world dominating, is a transformation of this medieval hatred. A sweeping and well-documented history of the rivalry between Jewish and Christian civilizations during the making of Europe, How the West Became Antisemitic is an ambitious new interpretation of the medieval world and its impact on modernity.

Jesus of Hollywood

Jesus of Hollywood PDF Author: Adele Reinhartz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199724857
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Since the advent of the cinema, Jesus has frequently appeared in our movie houses and on our television screens. Indeed, it may well be that more people worldwide know about Jesus and his life story from the movies than from any other medium. Indeed, Jesus' story has been adapted dozens of times throughout the history of commercial cinema, from the 1912 silent From the Manger to the Cross to Mel Gibson's 2004 The Passion of the Christ. No doubt there are more to come. Drawing on a broad range of movies, biblical scholar Adele Reinhartz traces the way in which Jesus of Nazareth has become Jesus of Hollywood. She argues that Jesus films both reflect and influence cultural perceptions of Jesus and the other figures in his story. She focuses on the cinematic interpretation of Jesus' relationships with the key people in his life: his family, his friends, and his foes. She examines how these films address theological issues, such as Jesus' identity as both human and divine, political issues, such as the role of the individual in society and the possibility of freedom under political oppression, social issues, such as gender roles and hierarchies, and personal issues, such as the nature of friendship and human sexuality. Reinhartz's study of Jesus' celluloid incarnations shows how Jesus movies reshape the past in the image of the present. Despite society's profound interest in Jesus as a religious and historical figure, Jesus movies are fascinating not as history but as mirrors of the concerns, anxieties, and values of our own era. As the story of Jesus continues to capture the imagination of filmmakers and moviegoers, he remains as significant a cultural figure today as he was 2000 years ago.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture

The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture PDF Author: Colum Hourihane
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195395360
Category : Architecture, Medieval
Languages : en
Pages : 4064

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Book Description
This volume offers unparalleled coverage of all aspects of art and architecture from medieval Western Europe, from the 6th century to the early 16th century. Drawing upon the expansive scholarship in the celebrated 'Grove Dictionary of Art' and adding hundreds of new entries, it offers students, researchers and the general public a reliable, up-to-date, and convenient resource covering this field of major importance in the development of Western history and international art and architecture.

Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz

Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz PDF Author: Elisheva Baumgarten
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812290127
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
In the urban communities of medieval Germany and northern France, the beliefs, observances, and practices of Jews allowed them to create and define their communities on their own terms as well as in relation to the surrounding Christian society. Although medieval Jewish texts were written by a learned elite, the laity also observed many religious rituals as part of their everyday life. In Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz, Elisheva Baumgarten asks how Jews, especially those who were not learned, expressed their belonging to a minority community and how their convictions and deeds were made apparent to both their Jewish peers and the Christian majority. Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz provides a social history of religious practice in context, particularly with regard to the ways Jews and Christians, separately and jointly, treated their male and female members. Medieval Jews often shared practices and beliefs with their Christian neighbors, and numerous notions and norms were appropriated by one community from the other. By depicting a dynamic interfaith landscape and a diverse representation of believers, Baumgarten offers a fresh assessment of Jewish practice and the shared elements that composed the piety of Jews in relation to their Christian neighbors.

Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy

Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy PDF Author: Flora Cassen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107175437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
This book examines the discriminatory marking of Jews in Renaissance Italy and the impacts this had on the Jewish communities.

Jews in Byzantium

Jews in Byzantium PDF Author: Robert Bonfil
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004203559
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1059

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Book Description
Byzantine Jews: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures is the collective product of a three year research group convened under the auspices of Scholion: Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The volume provides both a survey and an analysis of the social and cultural history of Byzantine Jewry from its inception until the fifteenth century, within the wider context of the Byzantine world.

Cultures of the Jews, Volume 1

Cultures of the Jews, Volume 1 PDF Author: David Biale
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0805212000
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Scattered over much of the world throughout most of their history, are the Jews one people or many? How do they resemble and how do they differ from Jews in other places and times? What have their relationships been to the cultures of their neighbors? To address these and similar questions, some of the finest scholars of our day have contributed their insights to Cultures of the Jews, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award upon its hardcover publication in 2002. Constructing their essays around specific cultural artifacts that were created in the period and locale under study, the contributors describe the cultural interactions among different Jews–from rabbis and scholars to non-elite groups, including women–as well as between Jews and the surrounding non-Jewish world. What they conclude is that although Jews have always had their own autonomous traditions, Jewish identity cannot be considered the fixed product of either ancient ethnic or religious origins. Rather, it has shifted and assumed new forms in response to the cultural environment in which the Jews have lived. Mediterranean Origins, the first volume in Cultures of the Jews, describes the concept of the “People” or “Nation” of Israel that emerges in the Hebrew Bible and the culture of the Israelites in relation to that of neighboring Canaanite groups. It also discusses Jewish cultures in Babylonia, in Palestine during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods, and in Arabia during the formative years of Islam.