Author: Robert Chazan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139493043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291
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Book Description
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: Israel Abrahams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jews
Languages : en
Pages : 494
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Book Description
Author: Israel Abrahams
Publisher: Jewish Publication Society
ISBN: 0827605420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479
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Book Description
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: Thérèse Metzger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Author: Elisheva Baumgarten
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691130299
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
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: Mark R. Cohen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691010823
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
On the Jews in the Middle ages
Author: Jonathan Elukin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691162069
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205
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Book Description
This book challenges the standard conception of the Middle Ages as a time of persecution for Jews. Jonathan Elukin traces the experience of Jews in Europe from late antiquity through the Renaissance and Reformation, revealing how the pluralism of medieval society allowed Jews to feel part of their local communities despite recurrent expressions of hatred against them. Elukin shows that Jews and Christians coexisted more or less peacefully for much of the Middle Ages, and that the violence directed at Jews was largely isolated and did not undermine their participation in the daily rhythms of European society. The extraordinary picture that emerges is one of Jews living comfortably among their Christian neighbors, working with Christians, and occasionally cultivating lasting friendships even as Christian culture often demonized Jews. As Elukin makes clear, the expulsions of Jews from England, France, Spain, and elsewhere were not the inevitable culmination of persecution, but arose from the religious and political expediencies of particular rulers. He demonstrates that the history of successful Jewish-Christian interaction in the Middle Ages in fact laid the social foundations that gave rise to the Jewish communities of modern Europe. Elukin compels us to rethink our assumptions about this fascinating period in history, offering us a new lens through which to appreciate the rich complexities of the Jewish experience in medieval Christendom.
Author: Ephraim Kanarfogel
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814336531
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
Paperback edition of a favorite text on the literary creativity and communal involvement in the production of the Tosafist corpus. The Jews of northern France, Germany, and England, known collectively as Ashkenazic Jewry, have commanded the attention of scholars since the beginnings of modern Jewish historiography. Over the past century, historians have produced significant studies about Jewish society in medieval Ashkenaz that have revealed them as a well-organized, creative, and steadfast community. Indeed, the Franco-Russian Jewry withstood a variety of physical, political, and religious attacks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to produce an impressive corpus of Talmudic and halakhic compositions, known collectively as Tosafot, that revolutionized the study of rabbinic literature. Although the literary creativity of the Tosafists has been documented and analyzed, and the scope and policies of communal government in Ashkenaz have been fixed and compared, no sustained attempt has been made to integrate these crucial dimensions. Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages considers these relationships by examining the degree of communal involvement in the educational process, as well as the economic theories and communal structures that affected the process from the most elementary level to the production of the Tosafist corpus. By drawing parallels and highlighting differences to pre-Crusade Ashkenaz, the period following the Black Death, Spanish and Provençal Jewish society, and general medieval society, Ephraim Kanarfogel creates an insightful and compelling portrait of Ashkenazic society. Available in paperback for the first time with a new preface included, Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages will be a welcome addition to the libraries of Jewish studies scholars and students of medieval religious literature.
Author: Thérèse Metzger
Publisher: New York : Alpine Fine Arts Collection
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 324
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Book Description
The miniatures which enhance medieval Hebrew manuscripts, whether in prayerbooks, ceremonials for feast days, ritual, legal or philosophical treatises, clearly reflect various aspects of Jewish life during the period. In addition to religious and ceremonial practices, the many facets of everyday life in the family, in cities and in the countryside are treated, as are social and economic activities at all levels and in all professions. Drawing upon the surviving miniatures in illuminated Hebrew manuscripts as primary source material, Thérèse and Mendel Metzger have reconstructed a detailed and exhaustive account of Jewish life in Europe during the Middle Ages. The volume is divided into five sections which encompass historic and geographic background, everyday surroundings, family life and education, social and economic life, and religious activity.--From publisher description.
Author: Jacob Rader Marcus
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jews
Languages : en
Pages : 504
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