History Commons^™

Text To Data: Wrangling Early Modern Sources Into A Spreadsheet, Shawn Hill

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Shawn Hill discusses how to turn historical sources into data. He provides tips for preparing a spreadsheet that can be used in digital humanities.

The Expulsion Of The Jews From The State Of Milan: Same Event With Views From Different Archives, Flora Cassen

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Documents presented here come from three different sources: the archives of Milan, the archives of Simancas, and Joseph Ha-Cohen’s chronicle Emek ha-Bakha. The document from Milan, dated from 1589, is a long defense of the Jews’ right to live in Milan sent to Madrid in response to a request by Philip II of Spain who was pondering whether or not to expel the Jews. The task of writing the report of Jewish life in Milan was given to the Spanish governor of Milan, but it was a collective work put together by the Senate of Milan, based on the opinions …

Founding Documents Of The Kahal Kadosh Talmud Tora, Amsterdam, Anne Oravetz Albert

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The 1638 founding document of the Kahal Kadosh Talmud Tora of Amsterdam is well known as a “merger agreement” that brought three existing congregations together into one synagogue under one leadership council (Mahamad). It bears the signatures of 218 householding men of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish nation in Amsterdam, signifying their agreement to subject themselves to the authority of the new leadership. It is also well known that this document, along with the set of communal regulations drawn up later that year, granted nearly unfettered authority to the Mahamad. Looking at these two documents along with an …

Construction, Reconstruction And Deconstruction: Stories About Records From The Ottoman Heartlands, Shuki Ecker

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The texts were selected in light of the general question: what kind of records did Ottoman Jewish communities maintain as part of their regular communal activities. They were further chosen to reflect procedures, considerations and conflicts that accompanied record keeping and were not usually recorded in the actual records produced. In most cases the records kept by the communities before the 19th century are no longer available. While references to the existence of various records can be found in a variety of contemporary and later sources (some of which I will mention), the texts translated offer a short selection of …

Documents, Records And Early Modern Border Crossings, Debra Kaplan

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In order to cross borders in early modern Europe, travelers were expected to carry proper documentation that both identified them and permitted them entry into the region to which they intended to travel. In the Electoral Palatinate, the Jews were issued a special type of safe conduct that was tied to a flat rate tax levied on the Jews of Worms. In response, Jewish communities developed both inter- and intracommunal systems to sell, buy, and keep track of these documents. This presentation examines the safe conducts and the records and systems that developed to regulate their use.

Counting And Recording Sins, David Myers

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The documents below, from a 1635 handbook on how to confess sins, reflect the intensifying practice in early modern European Catholicism of remembering and counting offenses in preparation for attending the sacrament of penance and receiving absolution from an authorized priest. Among the originals is an example of how the “technology” was intended to work easily, almost effortlessly.

Linguistic And Formal Aspects Of Jewish Record Keeping In Italy—A Comparative Investigation, Bernard Cooperman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

There is ample evidence for a flourishing Jewish documentary consciousness in 16th-century Italy. This is clear at many different levels—from the notarial to the constitutional, from the judicial to the legislative, from the personal and mercantile to the criminal and diplomatic. Maintaining documentary archives clearly became common, indeed normative, in a wide range of communities, apparently partly in response to pressure from the outside, partly because of an increasing level of institutionalization in the growing communities themselves. What were the models and norms for Jewish documentary and archival practice? How did existing traditions of terminological, conceptual, and linguistic practices among …

Taqqanot Qandiya And The Construction Of Crete’S Jewish History, Rena N. Lauer

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

During the first half of the sixteenth century, Elijah Capsali, community leader and rabbi of the Jewish community of Candia (the capital of Venetian Crete), collected the communal ordinances and other materials (including some lists and responsa) he deemed relevant. Capsali was a self-conscious historian who also wrote Hebrew histories of the Ottoman Empire and of Venice. Nevertheless, his Cretan collection has rarely been treated in the context of Capsali’s interest in history. Rather, it has been read as a collection of almost ad-hoc legal materials. I posit that Capsali edited these texts to construct an intentional record of his …

Strategic Record Keeping And Striving For Autonomy: Was There A Jewish Community Archive In Early Modern Frankfurt?, Verena Kasper-Marienberg

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The bombardment of Frankfurt am Main by Napoleonic forces in 1796 resulted in the almost total destruction of the so-called Judengasse, a narrow lane lined with wooden houses where the Frankfurt Jews lived. This ended nearly 350 years of oppressive living conditions that segregated more than 3,000 Jewish residents of Frankfurt and their guests from their Christian neighbors. For the most part, whatever might have existed in terms of archival records of the Jewish community was also a victim of the flames. It is mostly only through the survival of non-Jewish records of or about the Jewish community that we …

Unrecorded Justice: The (Non-)Archival Practices Of Medieval Jewish Courts, Rachel Furst

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In the summer of 1298, a wave of anti-Jewish violence incited by a German nobleman named Rindfleisch swept through Franconia and the neighboring vicinities. In Würzburg, local burghers joined gangs of murderous knights to massacre nearly 900 Jews. Among the victims was Simeon ben Jacob (R. Shim’on ben R. Ya’akov), a resident of Worms who had come to Würzburg to pay and collect business debts. Following the riots, three witnesses reported that they had seen Simeon’s dead body; and on the basis of these testimonies, the Jewish court in Worms declared Simeon’s wife a widow and granted her permission to …

Volume 14: Cultures Of Record Keeping: Creation, Preservation, And Use In The Early Modern Period, Magda Teter

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The 2017 Early Modern Workshop's theme was "Cultures of Record Keeping: Creation, Preservation, and Use in the Early Modern Period." The workshop focused on the creation, preservation, organization, collection, translation, and use of records, evidence, and information. It also examined continuities and change between chronological periods --including medieval and modern, and different cultures and settings--Jewish and non-Jewish. Among themes addressed were: official record keeping, personal records, collection and organization of information.

Even more than in our previous topic--history of emotions/emotions in history--there is such an abundance of work on records, and record keeping in non-Jewish historiography, but exceedingly little on …

Religious Archives And The Postmodern Perspective, Molly Malone

Graduate Student Symposium

What is postmodernism? How can this perspective be used to analyze religious archives, records and archivists in the United States during the 21st century? What can other countries, such as Italy and Russia, reveal about the socio-political conditions surrounding religion and its archival record? And how can these situations be compared to the United States?

These are the main questions I address in my research on religious archival records. Religions have always supported long traditions of record keeping, some dating all the way back to ancient times. My purpose is to understand the postmodern perspective on religion and critique Enlightenment …

The Edict Of Milan And The Early Roots Of Christianity In The Roman Empire, Christopher J. Chow

Young Historians Conference

With the Christian religion becoming so widely accepted and dominant today in the Western world, it is easy to forget the journey that the religion went through to reach its current state. It was once a heavily persecuted religion, yet it took the Roman Empire by storm and became the backbone to the Catholic Church. Christianity's spread was no accident. This paper will examine some of the factors regarding Christianity's early roots to identify what led up to its success in a heavily dominated Pagan culture.

The Influence Of Hellenism On The Literary Style Of 1 And 2 Maccabees, Dimitra S. Fellman

Young Historians Conference

The Jewish people living within Hellenistic Greece experienced great freedoms, and many assimilated into the non-Jewish societies around them. Yet, under the Seleucid King Antiochus IV in the 2nd century BCE, the Jewish people experienced oppression and persecution, which has been chronicled in the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. At a glance, these books appear opposed to the blending of Hellenistic culture and society into surrounding Jewish communities, but a deeper analysis of both texts reveals that the authors depended on Hellenistic constructs to effectively tell their story. This paper explores the degree to which the authors of 1 …

An Examination Of Franz Edmund Creffield And The Holy Rollers, 1900-1907, Sophie Koh

Young Historians Conference

This paper outlines the story of a religious cult from Corvallis referred to as the “Holy Rollers” and led by Franz Edmund Creffield. I researched the causes for his followers’ behavior from 1900 to 1907, relating the investigation to the press, people, and social roles surrounding the sect. Because his following was dominantly female, hysteria was the popular argument during the early twentieth century. To explore these claims, I researched the possibility of insanity in these women and why they may have agreed to all of Creffield’s ridiculous demands, as well as why the public responded the way they did.

Cultural Bias In The European Translations Of Thomas More's Utopia, Alisa M. Folen

Young Historians Conference

Throughout history, the translators of Thomas More’s Utopia have altered the text to align with their religious, political, or national beliefs. This paper explores how cultural bias influenced the translations and paratexts of Utopia using examples from England, Germany, and Poland from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century. It examines the similarities and differences between the original text and the translated text by considering the social, political, and economic context of both. This paper demonstrates how Utopia is a powerful unit of analysis to study European cultures during the modern age.

A Nation Within A Nation: Tolerance Within The Dutch Identity, Madlyn Kaufman

Georgia College Student Research Events

When looking at a country like the Netherlands there is one characteristic that sets it apart from all other countries of Europe. The extent in which tolerance is displayed, or lack thereof, has shaped its history and people within ways that shows a unique identity. This oral presentation will take an in depth look at the kinds of tolerance being practiced within the Netherlands focusing on the Jewish population from the 17th century to World War II. The research that was conducted for this presentation is a method that incorporates at home study of the 17th Century Dutch Jews and …

Distinguishing Marks: The Politics Of The First Great Awakening, Amy C. Searl

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Few people spend much time thinking about the revivals of the 1700s on the American continent. Most Christians who do probably see the evangelical movement from about 1730 through the 1740s as a clear outpouring of God’s Spirit. In the heat of the moment, though, not all were convinced that the revivals were from God. The First Great Awakening challenged the traditional theology in the colonies, pushing boundaries and forcing churches to wrestle with new issues. The revivals started in local areas, but soon spread throughout the colonies. Without a doubt, the Great Awakening permanently altered the face of religion …

P28. Canadian Jewish Women And Girls On The Homefront, 1939-1945, Jennifer Shaw

Western Research Forum

Background: The following presentation explores the roles and experiences of Canadian Jewish women on the Canadian homefront during World War Two. Despite knowing much about the lives of women in this time period in general, we do not know much about the experiences of particular groups, and how they differed from the majority of women.

Methods: Using first-hand accounts gathered from Canadian Jewish women, as well as archival materials, this presentation explores the different ways Jewish women and girls participated in the war effort and experienced the war years.

Results: While acknowledging that some of their experiences …

An Oral History Of Italian American Identity & Perception During The First Half Of The 20th Century, Joshua A. Hoxmeier

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

This paper will detail the experiences, perceptions, and memories of working and middle class Italian American men during the first half of the twentieth century and examine the differences between how the two World Wars and their aftermaths shaped the ethnic identity of these men. By looking at Italian American World War II veterans, I conclude the notion that Italian American inclusion was achieved through the First World War and the nationalism of the 1920s, especially the restriction of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, is not fully representative of both the realities and perceptions of a sizable number of …