European History Commons^™

Sefer Or Le-Et Erev: A History Of A Misunderstanding, Pawel Maciejko

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation explores the boundaries of the concept of the ‘Jewish book’ on the basis of Yiddish and Hebrew texts distributed by Protestant missionaries among the Jews in 18th-century East Central Europe. Such texts were not always recognised as Christian by their Jewish readers. The case in point is the brochure Or le-Et Erev circulated by the Halle Pietists. The Yiddish text does not give the name of the author or the place of publication; it does not refer explicitly to Jesus’s identity with the Jewish Messiah until the final pages; and it bases much of its argument on Jewish …

Early Modern Yiddish Readers: Immoderately Addicted To Rhyme?, Ruth Von Bernuth

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Roughly one third of Old Yiddish literature is based on traceable European literary sources, mainly German. Given how close Old Yiddish is to Early New High German, some of these Old Yiddish texts with European sources feel like mere transcriptions, others more like legitimate translations and yet others more like free adaptations. From the Yiddish reader's perspective, the texts become accessible through transcription into Hebrew characters and more accessible the more that the translator engages the text as representative Jewish reader. A large proportion of these Yiddish books with German sources are prose novels–a genre newly popular with German readers …

From Apologetics To Polemics: Isaac Orobio De Castro’S Defences Of Judaism And Their Use In The French Enlightenment, Adam Sutcliffe

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation explores the use by non-Jews in eighteenth-century France of controversialist works written primarily for manuscript circulation within the seventeenth-century Sephardic communities of the Netherlands. In response to sustained theological doubts regarding Judaism posed by Sephardim deeply conditioned by having lived as outward Catholics in the Iberian peninsula, several community leaders in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, such as the doctor and controversialist Isaac Orobio de Castro (c.1617-1687), authored trenchant attacks on Christian doctrine, in particular emphasizing the enduring validity of Jewish law and the superiority of Jewish biblical exegesis. French translations of some of these texts - which circulated in Paris …

The Power Of Texts In The Conversion Of An Old Christian Hebraist, Miriam Bodian

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Lope de Vera y Alarcón was an Old Christian Hebraist at the University of Salamanca in the late 1630s. In his professional training, he had access to texts that few people in Spain were permitted to see. His subversive reading of Erasmus and the Hebrew diary of David Reuveni, among other works, were not the only factors in his becoming a "judaizer," but by his own account they were of great importance. The texts I will present are excerpts from his Inquisition trial (1639-1644).

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Inquisition file of Lope de Vera y Alarcón (1639-1644)

Jews Under Surveillance: Censorship And Reading In Early Modern Italy, Federica Francesconi

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This talk explores how Counter-Reformation’s dynamics affected the readings of Italian Jews, after the political changes of the 1550s and the promulgation of the Index by Clement VIII in 1596 (with the ban of the Talmud). Dealing with censorship, expurgation and banning of books, in fact, Italian Jews found themselves caught up between the intricate and often conflicting positions between the Congregation of the Index and the Office of the Inquisition. Based on the analysis of both Inquisitorial sources (proceedings, guidelines and censors’ reports) and biographical accounts, I will explore how rabbis and converts, who worked as appointed censors for …

Putting Hebrew Books In Order: The First Printed Hebrew Bibliography, Avri Bar-Levav

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Siftey yeshenim (The lips of those who are asleep, Amsterdam 1680) is the first printed Hebrew bibliography. In his introduction,the author, Shabtai Meshorer Bas of Prague (1641-1718), explains why such a novel book is needed, and what are its usages for Heberw readers and writers with various interests.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Siftey yeshenim (The lips of those who are asleep, Amsterdam 1680)

The Paratexts Of Jacob Marcaria: Addressing The (Imagined) Reader In Mid-Sixteenth-Century Italy, Adam Shear

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

For a few years in the middle of the sixteenth century (1557-1564), a Hebrew press was active in Riva del Garda (Riva di Trento) under the management of Jacob Marcaria, a physician. The business arrangements of the press seem complicated and difficult to reconstruct (having only the evidence of the printed editions): Marcaria was printer for most of the books and may be considered the publisher of some; for others, he was in partnership with Rabbi Joseph Ottolenghi of nearby Cremona. The activities of Marcaria and Ottolenghi were undertaken with the permission of the Prince-Bishop of Trent, Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo …

Leon Modena's Ari Nohem Between Print And Manuscript, Yaacob Dweck

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation examines Leon Modena's critique of Kabbalah, a Hebrew treatise composed in Venice in 1639 entitled Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion). One of the primary causes of Modena's critique was the printing of kabbalistic books such as the Zohar, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, and Sefer Yetzirah. In Modena's argument, the printing of kabbalistic books in the sixteenth century had disrupted prior patterns of the transmission of kabbalistic knowledge. In particular, Modena argues that kabbalistic books had begun to be read in new ways by new audiences. Using Modena's analysis as a point of departure this presentation will focus on two questions: …

Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction To Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov, Moshe Rosman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

ABSTRACT: This presentation analyzes Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction to Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov as a key source of information on the process of formation and publication of early hasidic books and the activities of printers and aditors. It also bears on the questions of whether there existed "hasidic publishers" and how it might be possible to identify a "hasidic book".

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction to Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov: Likutei Amarim (1781)

A Publisher In Service Of His Readers: Prefaces To Amsterdam 1711 Edition Of The Tsene Rene, Shlomo Berger

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The Amsterdam 1711 edition of the Tsene Rene is a particularly interesting because it contains prefaces that include allusions to and discussions of Yiddish texts and book production, the roles of publishers and the envisaged demands of readers. It enables us to determine and evaluate the status of books with the early modern Ashkenazi culture.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Preface to the 1711 edition of Tsene Rene

Emw 2009: Reading Across Cultures: The Jewish Book And Its Readers In The Early Modern Period, Emw 2009

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The sixth Early Modern Workshop will focus on the topic of "Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period." The workshop was held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University from Sunday, August 23, 2009 and to Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The workshop opened a discussion of the culture of reading in Jewish society, as well as of the reading of Jewish books in Christian society, during a period of rapid cultural transformation. What was a "Jewish" book, one participant asked? What were the different or parallel developments within Jewish society, …

The Much Married Michael Kramer’: Evangelical Clergy And Bigamy In Ernestine Saxony, 1522-1542, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

(Review) The World Catholic Renewal 1540-1770 By R. Po-Chia Hsia, Marc R. Forster

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Jews And Ius Commune, Kenneth Stow

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

From the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, there was a gradually increasing integration of Jews into systems of ius commune, loosely, the law of the land, but actually a legal tradition based on Roman law, which subsumed local law, usually called ius proprium. The integration might be purely theoretical or in fact, as certainly occurred in the papal state and it seems elsewhere in Italy, too. This legal integration prepared the way for the major legal upheaval worked by the French Revolution. The implications are many. The details mostly unresearched. The Tractatus de Iudaeis of Giuseppe Sessa (Turin, 1713) is the …

When The Indelible Sacrament Of Baptism Met Mercantile Raison D'Etat, Benjamin Ravid

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In theory, under almost all circumstances, once a Jew had been baptized, s/he became a Christian and any relapse constituted heresy and was liable to severe punishment, often by death. However, in the mid-sixteenth century the Papacy adopted a far more lenient policy out of considerations of commercial raison d' état and invited New Christian merchants to assume Judaism in Ancona with assurance of complete freedom from any persecution. At the same time, Venice expelled all Marranos from the city and forbade them to return. The papal attitude changed with the Counter-Reformation and former New Christians who had reverted to …

Trying Issues: Polish-Lithuanian Jews Under Multiple Jurisdictions, Adam Teller

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The texts presented here highlight issues of multiple jurisdiction Jews were subjected to in early modern Poland-Lithuania

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Privilege for the Jews of Lwów (1692)
• Privilege for the Jews of the Przemyśl Region and Rus' (1660)

Under Imperial Protection? Jewish Presence On The Imperial Aulic Court In The 16th And 17th Centuries, Barbara Staudinger

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

From the middle ages on Jewish life in the holy roman empire was characterized by their egal status as servants of the imperial chamber (servi camerae, Kammerknechte). Paying taxes to the imperial chamber, the Jews stood under special protection of the Emperor. The so-called Speyrer Jew Privilege (1544) stated the legal framework of the Jewish community of the Empire, prohibiting expulsion, and „unjustified“ acusations of ritual murder and securing undisturbed religious practice, and imperial conduct and protection. But what was this privilege along with other privileges from indiviuals worth in reality? Based on two cases from the Imperial Aulic Court …

Evasion As A Legal Tactic: The 1616 Amsterdam Regulations Concerning The Jews, Miriam Bodian

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Early modern rulers (or ruling bodies) who chose to readmit Jews in places where they had long been banned were faced with theological dilemmas and practical problems. Although it is true that the principle of freedom of conscience was gaining increasing acceptance, its adherents were rarely clear about whether it could be applied to non-Christians. And while the economic interests of rulers favored the settlement of Jews in their lands, the opposition of guilds and clergy could not be ignored. In these circumstances, a rather striking policy of evasion was adopted - in France, in the Netherlands, and in England. …

The Herem As The Source Of Authority Of The Lay Governing Council, Anne Oravetz Albert

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

A treatise on the herem composed by Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, the head rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam. Specifically, this pamphlet defends the authority of the lay leadership council to do so, arguing against unnamed members of the community who are causing scandal by denying that authority.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Exhortation to those who fear the Lord, not to fall into sin due to lack of understanding of the precepts of his Holy Law by Isaac Aboab de Fonseca (1679/80)

Challenging Herem In Hamburg, 1732, David Horowitz

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

These documents represent one of the earliest calls for state intervention by the Hamburg authorities into the internal decisions of the bet din. The bed din of the Triple Community of Hamburg-Altona-Wandsbek compelled Joseph Jonas, a resident of Hamburg, to divorce his wife after she was suspected of adultery. When he refused, the chief rabbi and kahal put him and his wife in the ban (herem). Jonas turned to the Hamburg Senate for assistance in reversing the decision and removing himself from the ban. The documents comprise letters from Jonas and the Hamburg kahal in defense of their respective positions …

Takkanot Kahal And The Origin Of Communal Structures In A Franconian Village Community In The 17th Century, Stefan Litt

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Takkanot Kahal are clearly a phenomenon of early modern Jewry in Europe. Throughout the Ashkenazi world there were four common ways to enact them. By elaborating takkanot, Jewish leaders copied the Gentile custom of creating legal digests in that time, thus adapting the communities to the administrative structures of the early modern state. The short statutes of the community in Ühlfeld, dating fromm 1688, are a rare example for takkanot enacted in an early stage of the local Jewish history. The text clearly shows the efforts of the author, R. Asher Enslen of Schnaittach, to strenghten the ties in the …

Expanding Legal Horizons?, Edward Fram

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Legal change was not only a result needs to adapt the law to new situations but could be stimulated by new information. New sources were not always accepted and this presentation will attempt to locate the point in time in which acceptance of a large number of new sources took place in the eastern European community of the early modern age.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Shulhan `arukh, Yoreh De'ah 19.1 (1567)
• Siftei Kohen-The Priest's Lips on Yoreh De'ah 19.1 (1647)
• Turei Zahab-The Golden Columns on Yoreh De'ah 19.1 (1646)

Religion And Culture In Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800 (Book Review), John B. Roney

History Faculty Publications

Book review by John B. Roney.

Greyerz, Kaspar von. Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

9780195327656; 9780195327663 (pbk.)

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 8: Religious Life At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 8.

Written documents indicate that the Jesuit priests settled among neighboring Native American groups and were successful at creating some converts at the St. Joseph mission.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 7: Public Archaeology At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 7.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project practices community service learning.

One of the main goals of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project is to incorporate the local community in all aspects of the archaeological enterprise in the investigation.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 3: Change And Continuity At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 3.

At Fort St. Joseph, evidence points to many instances of cross-cultural exchange between the French fort inhabitants and neighboring Native American groups such as the Potawatomi, Miami and Sauk.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 5: Project History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 5.

Investigations at the long lost fort were begun in 1998 by WMU archaeologists.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 1: What Is Archaeology?, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 1.

What is Archaeology and Historical Archaeology?

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 2: Fort History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 2.

The French established Fort St. Joseph in 1691 in present day Niles.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 4: Commercial Activities At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 4.

Fort St. Joseph was an important link in the chain of frontier outposts that marked the far reaches of New France and facilitated the fur trade between the French and Native Americans in the Western Great Lakes region.