800-year-old medieval pottery fragments reveal Jewish dietary practices
A team of scientists have found the first evidence of a religious diet locked inside pottery fragments excavated from the early medieval Jewish community of Oxford.
Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder: A Medieval Mystery, Unravelled
Paola Tartakoff of Rutgers University discusses her new book, Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe, which explores the “Norwich Circumcision Case” from multiple perspectives.
Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe
Drawing on a variety of legal, liturgical, literary, and archival sources, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner examines the reasons for the involvement in crime, the social profile of Jews who performed crimes, and the ways and mechanisms employed by the legal and communal body to deal with Jewish criminals and with crimes committed by Jews.
A Thirteenth-Century Polymath Considers the Jews
William Chester Jordan speaking about the 13th-century polymath John of Garland and his views about the Jews.
British Library reopens with new exhibition on Hebrew Manuscripts
The British Library has reopened its galleries and other areas to the public, and has a launched a new exhibition for those interested in medieval manuscripts.
Medieval Jewish cemetery in Germany vandalized
A Jewish cemetery in the German city of Worms, which dates back to the 11th century, has been closed for several days after many of its medieval tombstones were vandalized.
Mamluks of Jewish Origin in the Mamluk Sultanate
This article surveys mamluks of Jewish origin that can be identified in Mamluk sources.
Lost Archives, Sacrosanct Wastebins and the Jewish Communities of the Medieval Islamicate World
This illustrated lecture will take account of a flood of new information these caches offer about the Jewish communities of the Middle Ages, their surprisingly broad geographic remit and the impact of mobility and distance on communal life.
Passover in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages the two holidays of Passover and Easter had become the focal point for displays of hatred and the occasion for libels against Jews.
“Making Many Books”: Books as Artefacts in the Medieval Islamicate World
This lecture discusses the material aspect of the production and consumption of books as manifested mainly in book lists from the Geniza.
Well-Poisoning Accusations in Medieval Europe: 1250-1500
During the later Middle Ages, a new idea fueled suspicion of minority groups in Europe: a belief
that they might poison wells to cause widespread illness and mortality.
Byzantine-era artefacts discovered in Israel
A set of hammer and nails dating back 1,400 years ago was discovered in northwestern Israel last month, during an archaeological dig of a Byzantine-era Jewish settlement.
Medieval Jewish treasure goes on display at the Met Cloisters
Visitors to The Met Cloisters will get to see a special exhibition for the rest of the year, as The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy has officially opened.
The Rocky Road to Assimilation: Converso-Old Christian Intermarriage in the Late 15th Century
Focusing on converso / old Christian intermarriage will I hope shed more light on the social and religious processes in the individual decision making that were involved in the gradual assimilation of a good number of converso families into old Christian society.
Why is this Knight Different than Other Knights?
Taking a look at where we else can find the Jewish community in the Middle Ages: the heart of battle.
Medieval Jews and the Cairo Geniza in the Digital Age
Recent projects to digitize the contents of the Cairo Geniza—the largest cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered—have revolutionized research in the field.
A Fruitful Partnership: Jews and the Canons of St. Kilian in Twelfth-century Würzburg
Over the course of about a century, from around 1120 to around 1220, the canons of St. Kilian, caretakers of the Neumünster church in Würzburg had frequent – one might even say constant – business dealings with the Jews of that same city.
Celebrating Hanukkah in the Middle Ages
While Purim and Hanukkah in the Middle Ages already focused attention on two stellar women of Jewish history, Esther and Judith, the mode of celebration centered on the efforts of contemporary Jewish women as well!
Pola of Rome: The Story of a Woman Jewish Scribe
Pola, who flourished in Rome at the turn of the fourteenth century, tells us three times, in three separate manuscripts, that she is the “daughter of R. Abraham the scribe.”
From Conversion to Ritual Murder: Re-Contextualizing the Circumcision Charge
This article explores what the near simultaneous development of these two intriguing and seemingly disparate narratives suggests about thirteenth-century Christian perceptions and portrayals of circumcision.
A Medieval Jewish Philosophical Prayer
Blessed by the First of the First and the Eternal of the Eternal / The Pre-eternal, Who will not disappear in the face of flowing time and ever-changing instants
Jewish people always On the Move: Jewish Travelers in the Middle Ages
The essential starting point of this study has to do mostly with movements of people in Medieval times throughout the world, but paying special attention to the particular way Jews moved from one place to another in those times.
The Rothschild Pentateuch acquired by The Getty
The J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired the Rothschild Pentateuch, a spectacular medieval Hebrew manuscript from the late thirteenth-century.
Fifth-century mosaics offer clues on life in a medieval Jewish village
“The mosaics decorating the floor of the Huqoq synagogue revolutionize our understanding of Judaism in this period”