In and out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany

by Edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia , Hartmut Lehmann

• ISBN13: 9780521522892
• ISBN10: 0521522897
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

During the 1920s much attention was paid to the history of Jews in Germany since the Enlightenment and the subject became popular again, with renewed emphasis, after 1945. Many historians were deeply committed to understanding and explaining the tragic path that led from the emancipation of the Jews to the Holocaust. For a long time, much less work was done on the history of Jews in Germany in earlier periods, particularly the period between the late Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. This book is the first comprehensive account of Jewish-Gentile relations in central Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It lays particular emphasis on cultural, economic, social, and political issues, and incorporates much new research.

Table of Contents

Editors' Prefaces	ix
List of Contributors	xvii
Reflecting on German-Jewish History	1	(12)
Jacob Katz
PART I THE LEGACY OF THE MIDDLE AGES: JEWISH CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE PRICE OF EXCLUSIVENESS
The Jewish Quarters in German Towns during the Late Middle Ages	13	(16)
Alfred Haverkamp
Organizational Forms of Jewish Popular Culture since the Middle Ages	29	(20)
Christoph Daxelmuller
Criminality and Punishment of the Jews in the Early Modern Period	49	(22)
Otto Ulbricht
Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Roman Empire - A Comment	71	(6)
Theodore K. Rabb
PART II THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF GERMAN JEWRY FROM THE FIFTEENTH THROUGH THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
Aspects of Stratification of Early Modern German Jewry: Population History and Village Jews	77	(14)
Michael Toch
Jewish Economic Activity in Early Modern Times	91	(12)
Stefi Jersch-Wenzel
Comparative Perspectives on Economy and Society: The Jews of the Polish Commonwealth - A Comment	103	(6)
Gershon David Hundert
PART III JEWISH-GENTILE CONTACTS AND RELATIONS IN THE PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIOD
Languages in Contact: The Case of Rotwelsch and the Two ``Yiddishes''	109	(16)
Paul Wexler
Meeting on the Road: Encounters between German Jews and Christians on the Margins of Society	125	(12)
Yacov Guggenheim
Contacts at the Bedside: Jewish Physicians and Their Christian Patients	137	(14)
Robert Jutte
Contacts and Relations in the Pre-Emancipation Period - A Comment	151	(10)
Deborah Hertz
PART IV REPRESENTATIONS OF GERMAN JEWRY: IMAGES, PREJUDICES, AND IDEAS
The Usurious Jew: Economic Structure and Religious Representations in an Anti-Semitic Discourse	161	(16)
R. Po-chia Hsia
Imagining the Jew: The Late Medieval Eucharistic Discourse	177	(32)
Miri Rubin
Representations of German Jewry: Images, Prejudices, Ideas - A Comment	209	(6)
Carlo Ginzburg
PART V THE PATTERN OF AUTHORITY AND THE LIMITS OF TOLERATION: THE CASE OF GERMAN JEWRY
German Territorial Princes and the Jews	215	(32)
Rotraud Ries
Jews in Ecclesiastical Territories of the Holy Roman Empire	247	(28)
J. Friedrich Battenberg
Jews in the Imperial Cities: A Political Perspective	275	(14)
Christopher R. Friedrichs
Germans with a Difference? The Jews of the Holy Roman Empire during the Early Modern Era - A Comment	289	(6)
Thomas A. Brady, Jr.
PART VI THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON GERMAN-JEWISH HSITORY
Germany and Its Jews: A Changing Relationship (1300-1800)	295	(10)
Jonathan I. Israel
The Jewish Minority and the Christian Majority in Early Modern Central Europe	305	(6)
Hartmut Lehmann
The Jews of the Netherlands in the Early Modern Period	311	(6)
Richard H. Popkin
Jewish Identity in a World of Corporations and Estates	317	(4)
Mack Walker
Index	321