Being Frum in Medieval Ashkenaz – By Julie Mell
Julie Mell on Elisheva Baumgarten’s Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz Long before second-wave feminism brought egalitarian practices into Judaism, medieval women were taking
... [Read More]
Medieval & Early Modern Jewish History
Representing the Jews in Medieval Iberia – By Eva Frojmovic
Eva Frojmovic on Pamela Patton’s Art of Estrangement This important book undertakes for the first time, at least in an English publication, to
... [Read More]
Displaced Anxiety: Medieval Christian Representations of the Jew and Christian Self-Reflection – By Deeana Klepper
Deeana Klepper on Sara Lipton’s Dark Mirror The past few years have seen a stunning increase in violent attacks directed against Jews and Jewish
... [Read More]
A Sociolinguistic History of the Jews – By Sarah Bunin Benor
Sarah Bunin Benor on Bernard Spolsky’s The Languages of the Jews Intellectual history. Political history. Cultural history. Economic history. There are so many lenses through
... [Read More]
The Revolutionary at the Heart of Traditional Judaism – By Daniel Davies
Daniel Davies on Moshe Halbertal’s Maimonides: Life and Thought The works and personality of Moses Maimonides are imprinted on almost all forms of
... [Read More]
Not Like the Egyptians – By Jonathan Boyarin
Jonathan Boyarin on Beth A. Berkowitz’s Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present Trigger warning: devotees of popular Kabbalah and Judaism may be distressed
... [Read More]
Writing History on the Medieval Blood Libel – By Susan Einbinder
Susan Einbinder on Hannah R. Johnson’s Blood Libel: The Ritual Murder Accusation at the Limit of Jewish History In spite of its title, the subject
... [Read More]
A Unified Reading of Maimonides’ Guide – By Dani Rabinowitz
Dani Rabinowitz on Josef Stern’s The Matter and Form of Maimonides’ Guide Moses Maimonides (1135 – 1204), born in Córdoba during the twilight
... [Read More]
Violence Preceding the Myth of Jewish Sacrilege
Joshua Teplitsky on Mitchell Merback’s Pilgrimage and Pogrom: Violence, Memory, and Visual Culture at the Host-Miracle Shrines of Germany and Austria For much
... [Read More]
Move Over, Mendelssohn – By Daniel B. Schwartz
Daniel B. Schwartz on Eliyahu Stern’s The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism Biography has long figured prominently in scholarly and
... [Read More]