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

Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1080–1350: A Sourcebook takes the reader through a fascinating journey in time, a unique excursion into the vibrant Jewish communities that were once an integral part of northern European urban centers. Who were these Jews? How did they dress? How did they socialize within their households and with their Christian neighbors? What languages did they speak, what kind of rituals did they perform, and what type of food did they eat? What music did they listen to and what were the stories and legends they heard or read?

This volume of collected sources, translated from the original in Hebrew, Latin, and various medieval vernaculars into English, was prepared by the Beyond the Elite: Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Europe research team, seeking to give a voice to ordinary Jews—women, men, and children—who lived, worked, and loved in medieval northern Europe. Through the lens of dozens of primary sources, it presents aspects of Jewish daily life during this period. The volume offers its readers a sense of the spaces frequented by the Jews of Ashkenaz, their daily practices and rituals, and how they thought about their lives. There are sources that discuss culinary preferences or details of intimate sexual relations, while others deal with clothes, objects, or communal buildings. Some documents testify to how Jews observed Sabbaths and holidays, and held weddings and funerals, celebrated births, and other life cycle events. Others focus on the relationships with Christian neighbors, local authorities, and the Church. Still others offer details regarding daily economic activities, professions, and trade. All these different perspectives together provide answers to questions regarding medieval daily life directly from the words of the Jews themselves, albeit through the filters of translation and editing.

The majority of Ashkenazi Jews lived in relatively small urban communities, which often included dozens of families, with the larger ones comprising hundreds of individuals. While overall the Jews numbered 1 to 5 percent of the northern European population (as far as the limited demographic information available allows us to estimate), in many of the towns of the period they were a significant minority. In each town they tended to live close to each other, often in the center of the city near the palace of the local ruler who often protected them. In some towns there were streets, usually those on which the local synagogue, the mikveh, and other communal buildings stood, which were named Judengasse ("Jews' street," German) or Rue des juifs ("the Jews' street," French). During this period Jews were not usually forced to live in walled-off areas (that were later to be called ghettoes), so Jews and Christians encountered one another in close quarters freely and traversed the urban space as they wished. In this environment, in which Jews and Christians were neighbors, acquaintances, and business partners, some even formed close friendships. They surely knew each other well and sometimes shared political interests and cultural ideas. At the same time, relations were not always amicable, and theological and social tensions were ever present. Violence at the hands of their Christian neighbors was a recurring threat for medieval Jews. These complex relationships between Jews and Christians shaped medieval urban daily life.

The historical study of daily life—the quotidian practices, norms, and beliefs of people of past generations—has become an increasing focus of research over the past three decades. This volume seeks to contribute to this historiographical endeavor, as it provides a glimpse into the life of the Jews of northern Europe in the medieval period by presenting primary sources: documents, literature, and visual material created by the people who lived there. These paint a complex picture of the everyday experience of these Jews, and can serve as a pedagogical tool as well as a fascinating read.

Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1080-1350

Edited by Tzafrir Barzilay, Eyal Levinson, and Elisheva Baumgarten

ISBN 978-1-58044-478-1 (paperback), 978-1-58044-479-8 (hardback), 978-1-58044-480-4 (PDF) © 2022