JEWISH HISTORY

Question 1

What is the key takeaway of European Jewish History?

Answer 1

history of resistance by a minority against a hegemonic majority over a very long period of time. Jewish people in Europe lived lives that were separate but intertwined with Christians

Question 2

Key takeaway:

What does “history of mobility” mean?

Answer 2

Early modern Jewish history is often a history of mobility.

1.While there are several famous expulsions and displacements that loom large in early modern Jewish history,

Even if no crisis? , businessmen attended trade fairs, people moved from their parents’ homes to get married, etc

Question 3

Key Takeaway:

Jewishness is not____?

Answer 3

Jewishness is not monolithic.

1.Jews in different parts of Europe spoke different languages, had different cultural traditions, and practiced their religion in different way

Question 4

What is Talmud?

Answer 4

Collected volume of religious commentary on the Hebrew Bib

Question 5

What are Kahal/Ma’amad?

Answer 5

Jewish community council

Question 6

Is Kosher different from what Christians ate?

Answer 6

Jews generally ate the same things as their Christian neighbours in the early modern period except that Jews follow the Biblical prohibitions on certain kinds of foods

Question 7

Explain the Two major groups in Europe:

1. Sephardic
2. Ashkenazi

Answer 7

Sephardic Jews settled on the Iberian peninsula & North Africa
*Hebrew word for Spain is Sepharad
*Spoke Judeo-Spanish & Ladino

Ashkenazi Jews settled in Central and, eventually, Eastern Europe
*Hebrew word for Germany is Ashkenaz
*Spoke Judeo-German & Yiddish

Question 8

What does King Boleslaus of Poland grant? 1200s

Answer 8

d grants Jews rights and protections in Poland = Jewish migration to Eastern Europe
*Yiddish becomes inflected with Slavic languages = this is the key incident shaping the Yiddish language

Question 9

Victims of crusader pogroms are _______?

Answer 9

remembered as martyrs
*Martyrology becomes an important facet of Ashkenazi culture

Question 10

What did King Edward 1 do in 1290?

Answer 10

expelled all the Jews from England  no choice but to leave
*England as origin of the blood libel: the false accusation that Jews consume the blood of Christian children or ritually murder them
*Anti-Jewish purges re-occurred, with particularly bad looting in 1263–6

Question 11

What was a common Jewish job?

Answer 11

Jews often only found work as moneylenders; King Edward was in debt

Question 12

What is the Decree of Alhambra?

Answer 12

gave all Jews in Spain the option of either converting to Christianity or leaving the territory

Question 13

What are Crypto-Jews?

Answer 13

Jews practicing Judaism in secrecy & hunted by the Inquisition

Question 14

Why did the Netherlands allow Jewish people to stay there?

Answer 14

allowing Jews to settle there because of their shared enmity for Spain

allowed in normal neighbourhoods

Question 15

What were Jewish people not allowed in the Netherlands?

Answer 15

Jews were not allowed to marry non-Jews or say anything negative about Christianity

Question 16

By the 1550s, about 75% of the world’s Jews lived in____?

Answer 16

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Question 17

What is “THE COURT JEW”

Answer 17

Jewish banker who handled the finances of, or lent money to, royalty and nobility. In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges, including, in some cases, being granted noble status.

Traditionally money lenders

Question 18

What are factors & fixers?

Answer 18

Like a specialist consultant for luxury goods, mercs and other necessities for rulership

Question 19

What happened in the post-reformation powervaccum? (Church influence recedes)

Answer 19

Rulers make their own choice if they want / need a court jew

Question 20

How is being a “court Jew” a double edged sword?

Answer 20

: tremendous opportunity for Jews, but exposes Jews to the favour of the ruler (and the rivalry of the court)

Question 21

What does the displacement of the thirty years war cause for Jewish people?

Answer 21

pushing Jewish population westward

Question 22

What is the 1647: Khmelnitsky Uprising?

Answer 22

viewed Jewish people as agents of the wealthy

Jewish history, the Uprising is known for the atrocities against the Jews who, in their capacity as leaseholders, were seen by the peasants as their immediate oppressors and became the subject of antisemitic violence

Fled more to Germany

Question 23

What is the tension between Ashkenazim & Sephardim?

Answer 23

Ashkenazim view Sephardim as having given up their religion (bending vs. breaking)

*Sephardim fear that impoverished, superstitious Ashkenazim will make things tricky with the Dutch

Question 24

Who is Menasseh Ben Israel?

Answer 24

Junior Rabbi

Becomes painter to help his income

Printed his own writings on the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the soul = earns him fame among Christian intellectuals

Question 25

What is philosemitism?

Answer 25

Ppl who like jewish wisdom but are really two sides of same coin with anti semitism

Question 26

What is Menasseh’s english mission?

Answer 26

Attends a series of debates

Writes each of the horrible things christians said about Jewish people during the debates, then rebukes it (in a paper)

Dies thinking he failed, he actually opened a stream of Jewish migration!

Question 27

Who is Glikl?

Answer 27

Well educated (can speak Hebrew, Yiddish and German)

marries at 15

first child at 16 (has 14 children total)

Question 28

Why did Glikl write her memoirs?

Answer 28

so her children and grandchildren would have a record of their parent

started writing them in 1689 (when husband died)

Question 29

What was the later bit of Glikls life like?

Answer 29

Re-married against all inclination in 1700 to Cerf Levy
*Glikl took over Hayim’s business after he died BUT her second husband quickly ruined it after their marriage
*Glikl was too proud to accept financial assistance from her kids until her final illness c. 1712, after Cerf Levy died

Question 30

Who is Sabbatai Zevi?

Answer 30

Declares himself the messiah
(people packed up and followed him)

He violated rules of Judaism at the time: : ate pork, married a sex worker, and allowed women to preach
*“Sinful messiah” = sin as purification

Tried to convert sultan
- Sultan not into it (forces him to convert to Islam)
- They don’t do this, but he made an exception)