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”
The Physician Vs. the Halakhic Man: Theory and Practice in Maimonides’s Attitude Towards Treating Gentiles
Ancient Jewish law took a strict approach to medical relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Sages forbade Jews to provide non-Jews with medical services: to treat them, circumcise them, or deliver their babies, in order to refrain from helping pagan-idolatrous society.
Sephardic Food and Identity in Medieval Spain
This talk explores what foods were recommended by Sephardic authors as part of a healthy and spiritually rewarding lifestyle, as well as how Sephardic cuisine had a prominent place in the literary and cultural imagination of medieval Christian Spaniards.
Remembering Winchester’s Medieval Jews: Compromises in Hidden Histories
The history of England’s medieval Jews is significant in its own right, and it is vital to the understanding of the political and social history of the region at the time. However, it has often been marginalised, and frequently overshadowed by other local narratives.
Enclosed Gardens Revealed: The Concept of Virginity in Medieval Jewish Culture
This talk addresses the politics of what shaped the Jewish concept of virginity in the High Middle Ages against the backdrop of Western European culture.
Jewish and Christian Co-existence in Byzantine Palestine
According to the traditional picture, the Christianization of Palestine since Constantine led to a rapid deterioration of the position of the Jews already during the Byzantine period. However, if one takes into account a wider range of sources, one discovers a quite different picture.
Beyond Honor and Shame: Rabbinic Control of Jewish Women in Medieval Egypt
This lecture explores how the Restrictions imposed on women in Mediterranean societies both past and present are often understood to reflect a gendered model of ‘honor and shame’ that conditions men’s status on their female relatives’ sexual purity.
260,000 digitized images of Jewish art and artifacts now online
The Hebrew University’s Center for Jewish Art has launched the world’s largest index of Jewish Art, a collection of more than 260,000 digitized images of Jewish objects and artifacts from all over the world.
The Medieval Magazine (Volume 3, Issue 7)
In our latest issue: Being lovesick was a real disease in the Middle Ages! Judaism, War, and Chivalry: Why is this Knight Different than Other Knights? Travel Tips: San Lorenzo’s Medici Crypt! Crusade in Europe
The Resurrection of Jesus and Human Beings in Medieval Christian and Jewish Theology and Polemical Literature
This article will first look at intra-religious discussion among medieval Christians and Jews about resurrection in general to see how they understood it theologically in their respective religious communities.
“Now if this is your wish, I cannot blame you” – asking for a divorce in 1204
All day long I have a lonely heart and am pained by our separation. I feel that pain while writing these lines. But the choice is with you; the decision is in your hand: if you wish to carry the matter through, do so; if you wish to leave things as they are, do so.
Material Culture in the Geniza Society
Miriam Frenkel examines the Cairo Geniza records as a source of Jewish life in the Middle Ages.