In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany

This is the first comprehensive account of Jewish-Gentile relations in central Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, with particular emphasis on cultural, economic, social, and political issues, and incorporating much new research. Individually, the essays probe the central questions of Jewish development within the territorial states, secular and clerical, and in both rural and urban environments. The authors grapple with such relevant issues as cultural identity, representation, toleration, and minority/majority relations.

"Here we have the ideal introduction to the scholarly debates that have been transforming the field....Any library acquiring the best work on early modern Europe should have this book." Religious Studies Review"In and Out of the Ghetto succeeds admirably as a Zwischenbilanz, a report on the state of research in German Jewish history of the early modern period. Its contributors use a variety of methods in their attempt to reconstruct Jewish life and experience from the perspective of intellectual, social, and political history. The book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the topic and contains many suggestions for future research. The book's interdisciplinary character makes it particularly useful for integrating the Jeish experience into the overall history of early modern Germany." Stephen G. Burnett, Sixteenth Century Journal"...to stimulate further inquiry seems to be the general purpose of this volume....Students of Jewish or German history in the early modern period will find much to recommend this volume. It offers a varity of approaches that range from traditional studies of political, social, and economic structures to postmodern analyses of textx and dialects....it renders, faithfully the contradictions and conundrums that beset Jewish-Gentile relations, the knowledge of which is the best antidote to the recurrent fascination of ahistorical over-simplification." Thomas Max Safley, Renaissance Quarterly"This impressive volume, another in the valuable series sponsored in recent years by the German Historical Institute in Washington, is the result of a 1991 conference the editors organized through the Clark Library at UCLA." Amy Nelson Burnett, Central European History

The essays examine the role of economics, politics, social organization, language, and religion in the relations between Jews and non-Jews in central Europe from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. The authors grapple with such relevant issues as cultural identity, representation, toleration, and minority-majority relations. Individually, the essays probe the central questions of Jewish social, economic, and cultural development within the territorial states, secular and clerical, and in both rural and urban environments. Collectively, they focus more attention on the period before the emancipation of the nineteenth century and the destruction of German Jewry in the middle of the twentieth, emphasizing both continuities and discontinuities in the history of Jews in Germany.

Introduction R. Po-Chia Hsia; Opening essay Jacob Katz; Part I. Jewish Cultural Identity and the Price of Exclusiveness: The Legacy of the Middle Ages: 1. The Jewish quarters in German towns during the late Middle Ages Alfred Haverkamp; 2. Organizational forms of Jewish popular culture since the Middle Ages Christoph Daxelmüller; 3. Criminality and punishment of the Jews in the early modern period Otto Ulbricht; 4. Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Roman Empire - a comment Theodore K. Rabb; Part II. The Social and Economic Structure of German Jewry from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century: 5. Aspects of stratification of early modern German Jewry: population history and village Jews Michael Toch; 6. The economic activity of the Jews in early modern times Stefi Jersch-Wenzel; 7. Comparative perspectives on economy and society - a comment Gershon David Hundert; Part III. Jewish-Gentile Contacts and Relations in the Pre-Emancipation Period: 8. Languages in contact: the case of Rotwelsch and the two Yiddisches Paul Wexler; 9. Meeting on the road: encounters between German Jews and Christians on the margins of society Yacov Guggenheim; 10. Contacts at the bedside: Jewish physicians and their Christian patients Robert Jütte; 11. Contacts and relations in the pre-emancipation period - a comment Deborah Hertz; Part IV. Representations of German Jewry: Images, Prejudices, and Ideas: 12. The usurious Jew: economic structure and religious representations in an anti-semitic discourse R. Po-Chia Hsia; 13. Imagining the Jew: the late medieval eucharistic discourse Miri Rubin; 14. Representations of German Jewry - a comment Carlo Ginzburg; Part V. The Pattern of Authority and the Limits of Toleration: The Case of German Jewry: 15. German territorial princes and the Jews Rotraud Ries; 16. Jews in ecclesiastical territories of the Holy Roman Empire J. Friedrich Battenberg; 17. Jews in the imperial cities: a political perspective Christopher R. Friedrichs; 18. Germans with a difference? The Holy Roman Empire's Jews during the early modern era - a comment Thomas A. Brady, Jr; Part VI. In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany: 19. Germany and its Jews: a changing relationship (1500-1800) Jonathan I. Israel; 20. The Jewish minority and the Christian majority in early modern central Europe Hartmut Lehmann; 21. Germans and Jews in late medieval and early modern Germany Richard H. Popkin; 22. Jewish identity in a world of corporations and estates Mack Walker.