Reading Jewish History in the Renaissance

Reading Jewish History in the Renaissance
Author: Nadia Zeldes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2020-10-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498573428

Using the Hebrew Book of Josippon as a prism, this study analyzes the dialogue surrounding Jewish history among Renaissance humanists. Notwithstanding its focus on the Renaissance, the author’s analysis extends to the consumption of Josippon in the High Middle Ages and into interpretations by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century humanists. With a focus on both Christian and Jewish discourse, the author examines the mythical and historical narratives that developed from Josippon.

Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution

Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution
Author: Kenneth B. Moss
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2009-10-30
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780674035102

Between 1917 and 1921, Jewish intellectuals and writers across the Russian empire pursued a “Jewish renaissance.” Here is a revisionist argument about the nature of cultural nationalism, the relationship between nationalism and socialism, and culture itself—the pivot point for the encounter between Jews and European modernity over the past century.

Jewish Renaissance and Revival in America

Jewish Renaissance and Revival in America
Author: Eitan P. Fishbane
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781611681925

An anthology that explores religious and social revival in American Judaism in the 19th century

A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain

A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain
Author: Mark D. Meyerson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2021-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400832586

This book significantly revises the conventional view that the Jewish experience in medieval Spain--over the century before the expulsion of 1492--was one of despair, persecution, and decline. Focusing on the town of Morvedre in the kingdom of Valencia, Mark Meyerson shows how and why Morvedre's Jewish community revived and flourished in the wake of the horrible violence of 1391. Drawing on a wide array of archival documentation, including Spanish Inquisition records, he argues that Morvedre saw a Jewish "renaissance." Meyerson shows how the favorable policies of kings and of town government yielded the Jewish community's demographic expansion and prosperity. Of crucial importance were new measures that ceased the oppressive taxation of the Jews and minimized their role as moneylenders. The results included a reversal of the credit relationship between Jews and Christians, a marked amelioration of Christian attitudes toward Jews, and greater economic diversification on the part of Jews. Representing a major contribution to debates over the Inquisition's origins and the expulsion of the Jews, the book also offers the first extended analysis of Jewish-converso relations at the local level, showing that Morvedre's Jews expressed their piety by assisting Valencia's conversos. Comparing Valencia with other regions of Spain and with the city-states of Renaissance Italy, it makes clear why this kingdom and the town of Morvedre were so ripe for a Jewish revival in the fifteenth century.

The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance

The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance
Author: Dana E. Katz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2008-06-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0812240855

Dana E. Katz reveals how Italian Renaissance painting became part of a policy of tolerance that deflected violence from the real world onto a symbolic world. While the rulers upheld toleration legislation governing Christian-Jewish relations, they simultaneously supported artistic commissions that perpetuated violence against Jews.

A Convert’s Tale

A Convert’s Tale
Author: Tamar Herzig
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2019-12-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674237536

Salomone da Sesso was a virtuoso goldsmith in Renaissance Italy. Brought down by a sex scandal, he saved his skin by converting to Catholicism. Tamar Herzig explores Salamone’s world—his Jewish upbringing, his craft and patrons, and homosexuality. In his struggle for rehabilitation, we see how precarious and contested was the meaning of conversion.

Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance

Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance
Author: Dr Anna Brechta Sapir Abulafia
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134990251

The twelfth century was a period of rapid change in Europe. The intellectual landscape was being transformed by new access to classical works through non-Christian sources. The Christian church was consequently trying to strengthen its control over the priesthood and laity and within the church a dramatic spiritual renewal was taking place. Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance reveals the consequences for the only remaining non-Christian minority in the heartland of Europe: the Jews. Anna Abulafia probes the anti-Jewish polemics of scholars who used the new ideas to redefine the position of the Jews within Christian society. They argued that the Jews had a different capacity for reason since they had not reached the 'right' conclusion - Christianity. They formulated a universal construct of humanity which coincided with universal Christendom, from which the Jews were excluded. Dr Abulafia shows how the Jews' exclusion from this view of society contributed to their growing marginalization from the twelfth century onwards. Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance is important reading for all students and teachers of medieval history and theology, and for all those with an interest in Jewish history.

Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy

Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy
Author: Robert Bonfil
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520073500

Structures of settlement and the economy - Trades and professions - Structures of culture and society - Education - Jewish culture, Hebraists and the role of the Kabbalah - Community institutions - Circumcision - Marriage - Death - Jews - Venice - Florence - Death rites.

The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy

The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy
Author: Joseph R. Hacker
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2011-08-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 081220509X

The rise of printing had major effects on culture and society in the early modern period, and the presence of this new technology—and the relatively rapid embrace of it among early modern Jews—certainly had an effect on many aspects of Jewish culture. One major change that print seems to have brought to the Jewish communities of Christian Europe, particularly in Italy, was greater interaction between Jews and Christians in the production and dissemination of books. Starting in the early sixteenth century, the locus of production for Jewish books in many places in Italy was in Christian-owned print shops, with Jews and Christians collaborating on the editorial and technical processes of book production. As this Jewish-Christian collaboration often took place under conditions of control by Christians (for example, the involvement of Christian typesetters and printers, expurgation and censorship of Hebrew texts, and state control of Hebrew printing), its study opens up an important set of questions about the role that Christians played in shaping Jewish culture. Presenting new research by an international group of scholars, this book represents a step toward a fuller understanding of Jewish book history. Individual essays focus on a range of issues related to the production and dissemination of Hebrew books as well as their audiences. Topics include the activities of scribes and printers, the creation of new types of literature and the transformation of canonical works in the era of print, the external and internal censorship of Hebrew books, and the reading interests of Jews. An introduction summarizes the state of scholarship in the field and offers an overview of the transition from manuscript to print in this period.