Jacob Rader Marcus
Published: 1969
Total Pages: 532
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The history of medieval Judaism may be considered under two aspects: what the world did to the Jew and what the Jew did for himself. Both aspects are interrelated, but not necessarily dependent. Whether the world had been benign and pacific or--as it was--hostile and cruel, the Jew would still have prayed, studied, entered professions, traveled, organized communal endeavors, in a phrase, pursued the normal activities of social life. To the extent, however, that he was harassed and persecuted, the Jew responded: he defended himself and replied to his enemies. Jacob R(ader) Marcus, Professor of American Jewish History at Hebrew Union College, has gathered, edited, and introduced those documents from the medieval literature which illuminate the Jewish community in both aspects: as self-contained society (the documents relating to Jewish self-government; Jewish sectarianism, mysticism, messianism; the inner life of the Jew; the lives and works of Jewish notables--Rashi, Maimonides, Glückel of Hameln, Solomon Maimon, among others) and as society-on-sufferance in an alien world (the Jewish situation under Roman law, under Islam, under Visigoths; treatment at the hands of the feudal and monarchical societies, the Roman Catholic Church and the reformers).--Back cover.