IMC 2019 Sessions

Recent research has shown that there is more evidence for Jewish craftspeople in medieval Europe than it had been previously assumed. Jews worked in different professions-not only within their community-and with a wide range of materials: kosher parchment sheets were needed to create Torah scrolls and codices for the synagogue service, shofarot were made from ram's horns and goldsmiths handled such precious materials as gold, silver or pearls. The sessions will focus on a number of topics from an interdisciplinary approach and discuss questions dealing with legal conditions, ritual requirements and interactions with the Christian environment. Methodology from the disciplines of art history, history, archaeology and applied natural sciences will be employed to gain new insight into the roles of Jewish craftspeople, their objects, their techniques, and materials used.

Recent research has shown that there is more evidence for Jewish craftspeople in medieval Europe than it had been previously assumed. Jews worked in different professions -not only within their community -and with a wide range of materials: kosher parchment sheets were needed to create Torah scrolls and codices for the synagogue service, shofarot were made from ram's horns and goldsmiths handled such precious materials as gold, silver or pearls. The sessions will focus on a number of topics from an interdisciplinary approach and discuss questions dealing with legal conditions, ritual requirements and interactions with the Christian environment. Methodology from the disciplines of art history, history, archaeology and applied natural sciences will be employed to gain new insight into the roles of Jewish craftspeople, their objects, their techniques, and materials used.

The Jewish Craft Guilds and Apprenticeships in Krakow in the 17th and 18th Centuries, 2022

There is evidence of associations of Jewish craftsmen and merchants in Krakow from the end of the 15th century. By the beginning of the 17th century, these associations had become better established in an attempt to improve their members' economic status. They were organised after the pattern of Christian guilds with which they competed, establishing work practices and standards, and providing for the training of apprentices and other workers. The rules of the Jewish guilds achieved recognition by both the religious and secular leadership of the Jewish community, whilst at the same time being subject to their influence and, in some instances, control. Information relating to the Jewish craft guilds of Krakow is important because it opens a window on the working lives of ordinary people, both men and women, as opposed to the economic and social elite which are generally the focus of historical study. Using this information, we are able to learn something about the working lives and practices of groups such as barber-surgeons, butchers, pedlars, and tailors.

Recent research has shown that there is more evidence for Jewish craftspeople in medieval Europe than it had been previously assumed. Jews worked in different professions -not only within their community -and with a wide range of materials: kosher parchment sheets were needed to create Torah scrolls and codices for the synagogue service, shofarot were made from ram's horns and goldsmiths handled such precious materials as gold, silver or pearls. The sessions will focus on a number of topics from an interdisciplinary approach and discuss questions dealing with legal conditions, ritual requirements and interactions with the Christian environment. Methodology from the disciplines of art history, history, archaeology and applied natural sciences will be employed to gain new insight into the roles of Jewish craftspeople, their objects, their techniques, and materials used.

Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe 1080-1350: A Sourcebook, 2022

Designed to introduce students to the everyday lives of the Jews who lived in the German Empire, northern France, and England from the 11th to the mid-14th centuries, the volume consists of translations of primary sources written by or about medieval Jews. Each source is accompanied by an introduction that provides historical context. Through the sources, students can become familiar with the spaces that Jews frequented, their daily practices and rituals, and their thinking. The subject matter ranges from culinary preferences and even details of sexual lives, to garments, objects, and communal buildings. The documents testify to how Jews enacted their Sabbath and holidays, celebrated their weddings, births and other lifecycle events, and mourned their dead. Some of the sources focus on the relationships they had with their Christian neighbors, the local authorities, and the Church, while others shed light on their economic activities and professions. With introduction by Tzafrir Barzilay, Eyal Levinson and Elisheva Baumgarten. Entries by the editors and also by Neta Bodner, Adi Namia-Cohen, Nureet Dermer, Aviya Doron, Miri Fenton, Etelle Kalaora, Albert Kohn, Andreas Lehnertz, Hannah Teddy Schachter, Amit Shafran.

Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art, 2013

Ritual Objects in Ritual Contexts (Erfurter Schriften zur Jüdischen Geschichte 6), hg. von Claudia D. Bergmann und Maria Stürzebecher, Jena/Quedlinburg 2020, S. 110-117, 2020

In and Out, Between and Beyond, 2021

This book, produced for the exhibition In and Out, Between and Beyond, presents the scholarly work of a group of historians who study the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in dialogue with the work of contemporary Israeli artists. This is one of the culminating projects of the European Research Council-funded research group Beyond the Elite: Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Europe. Since the inception of the project (fall 2016), the team has worked to construct a history which includes those who were not part of the learned elite as well as those who were learned, about whom we know more. The research team trained its sights on everyday moments, investigating daily routines and the ways medieval Jews understood their lives amidst their host cultures. At the heart of this work is the complexity of the circumstances in which medieval Jews lived: the integration of Ashkenazic Jews within their Christian surroundings, alongside their maintenance of a distinct religious identity. To complement the medieval study underlying this endeavor, the exhibit’s curator, Dr. Ido Noy, orchestrated a fruitful exchange between the research team and seven Israeli artists, who then produced contemporary expressions of the historic ideas under discussion. This book, mirroring the structure of the exhibit, is comprised of sixteen articles. Each one is built around a primary source from a particular literary genre. The colorful catalogue at the end of the volume documents the objects created especially for the exhibition that was displayed physically at the gallery on the Mount Scopus campus of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and can still be viewed virtually.