History Commons^™

“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article describes and analyzes a rare manuscript bearing the lead title Ta‘alumot Hokhmah and purchased at auction in 2013. The document was composed by many hands and in many lands, largely in Portuguese and Dutch, with significant portions in French and Italian, and a smattering of Spanish, English, German, and Yiddish. Most manifestly, it is a receipt book, a compendium of medical, culinary, and housekeeping recipes, sometimes mingled with kabbalistic directives; it also incorporates memoirs and biographical annotations. The multiple layers of text collectively represent the transmission of knowledge within a single family and mark the major transitions that …

“Atlantic Jewish History: A Conceptual Reorientation”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This chapter explores the radical implications of an Atlantic perspective on American Jewish history, based on an analysis of select primary sources from The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica, housed at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Such an Atlantic perspective allows us to revise the national interpretation of “American” Jewish history, commonly taken to mean the United States, reminding us of its plural hemispheric meaning (Americas) and allowing us to envision an Atlantic Jewish world connecting four continents: Europe, Africa, South and North America. Adopting a chronological-thematic approach, this chapter identifies three key areas for analysis: …

Stosunki Chrześcijańsko-Żydowskie W History, Pamięci I Sztuce: Europejski Kontekst Dzieł W Katedrze Sandomierskiej [Jewish-Christian Relations In History, Memory, And Art: European Context For The Paintings In The Sandomierz Cathedral], Magda Teter, Urszula Stępień

Magda Teter

[Polish] Obraz Infanticidium wiszący na zachodniej ścianie katedry sandomierskiej i ukazujący sceny rzekomego morderstwa dzieci chrześcijańskich przez Żydów był często przedstawiany w izolacji jako przykład antysemityzmu polskiego oraz stosunków pomiędzy Żydami a Kościołem katolickim. Stał się więc ten obraz swego rodzaju „miejscem pamięci” (lieu de mémoire), w którym „skrystalizowana” została także pamięć stosunków chrześcijańsko-żydowskich w Polsce, oraz tym samy źródłem napięć i protestów. Bogato ilustrowana książka pod redakcją Magdy Teter i Urszuli Stępień ma na celu przedstawienie wstępnego zarysu, ułatwiającego zrozumienie sandomierskich obrazów w ich szerszym kontekście artystycznym, historycznym, i historiograficznym, na tle wydarzeń zarówno europejskich, jak i lokalnych.

[English] …

The San Nicandresi Jews: A Brief Bibliographic And Photographic Essay, Michael C. Vocino

michael c vocino

Brief bibliographic, photographic essay on the conversion story of the Southern Italian Jews known as the Jews of San Nicandro.

Sinners On Trial: Jews And Sacrilege After The Reformation, Magda Teter

Magda Teter

My book, Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the Reformation tells a story of the process of affirmation of Catholic dogmas after the Reformation, not necessarily though religious education and propaganda but through the application of criminal law, and the courts' treatment of "the sacred" and, thus, also of the "sacrilege."

"Sinners on Trial" combines political, legal, and cultural historical approaches. In Poland, the contest over the sacredness of the Eucharist, a major Catholic dogma challenged by the Reformation, became manifest in lay courts' adjudication of crimes against property and religious symbols, especially those linked to the Eucharistic rituals. …

Out Of The (Historiographic) Ghetto: Jews And The Reformation, Magda Teter, Debra Kaplan

Magda Teter

Existing historiography has created a historiographic ghetto, seldom considering Jewish sources and Jews as relevant to the larger narrative of European history. This has created two parallel, often disconnected areas of study, “European history” and “Jewish history.” Archival materials from across Europe strongly show that Jews and Christians resided side by side and interacted on a daily basis in early modern Europe. Reformation Strasbourg and post-Reformation Poland, two geographically and demographically diverse cases offer new insights about the past by including sources about Jews. In Reformation Strasbourg, cross-confessional collaboration was more frequent than previously imagined, as leaders of different Christian …

We Speak And Write This Language Against Our Will’: Jews, Hispanics, And The Dilemma Of Ladino-Speaking Sephardim In Early 20th Century New York", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur