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Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History
"Early Modern Jewry" boldly offers a new history of the early modern Jewish experience. From Krakow and Venice to Amsterdam and Smyrna, David Ruderman examines the historical and cultural factors unique to Jewish communities throughout Europe, and how these distinctions played out amidst the rest of society. Looking at how Jewish settlements in the early modern period were linked to one another in fascinating ways, he shows how Jews were communicating with each other and were more aware of their economic, social, and religious connections than ever before.
Ruderman explores five crucial and powerful characteristics uniting Jewish communities: a mobility leading to enhanced contacts between Jews of differing backgrounds, traditions, and languages, as well as between Jews and non-Jews; a heightened sense of communal cohesion throughout all Jewish settlements that revealed the rising power of lay oligarchies; a knowledge explosion brought about by the printing press, the growing interest in Jewish books by Christian readers, an expanded curriculum of Jewish learning, and the entrance of Jewish elites into universities; a crisis of rabbinic authority expressed through active messianism, mystical prophecy, radical enthusiasm, and heresy; and the blurring of religious identities, impacting such groups as conversos, Sabbateans, individual converts to Christianity, and Christian Hebraists.
In describing an early modern Jewish culture, "Early Modern Jewry" reconstructs a distinct epoch in history and provides essential background for understanding the modern Jewish experience.
Ruderman explores five crucial and powerful characteristics uniting Jewish communities: a mobility leading to enhanced contacts between Jews of differing backgrounds, traditions, and languages, as well as between Jews and non-Jews; a heightened sense of communal cohesion throughout all Jewish settlements that revealed the rising power of lay oligarchies; a knowledge explosion brought about by the printing press, the growing interest in Jewish books by Christian readers, an expanded curriculum of Jewish learning, and the entrance of Jewish elites into universities; a crisis of rabbinic authority expressed through active messianism, mystical prophecy, radical enthusiasm, and heresy; and the blurring of religious identities, impacting such groups as conversos, Sabbateans, individual converts to Christianity, and Christian Hebraists.
In describing an early modern Jewish culture, "Early Modern Jewry" reconstructs a distinct epoch in history and provides essential background for understanding the modern Jewish experience.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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90 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 12, 2022
Yahudilerin farklı bölgelerdeki yapılanmaları iç dinamikleri vs. anlatılmış.
Fazla detaylı ve kapsamlı bir kitap ve özellikle yahudi tarihini araştıran inceleyen bir tarih bölümü öğrencisinin okumasında fayda var lakin kitabı seneler önce öylesine alan birisi olarak almasam da olurmuş :D çokça sıkıldım çünk.
Fazla detaylı ve kapsamlı bir kitap ve özellikle yahudi tarihini araştıran inceleyen bir tarih bölümü öğrencisinin okumasında fayda var lakin kitabı seneler önce öylesine alan birisi olarak almasam da olurmuş :D çokça sıkıldım çünk.
November 11, 2020
As one who was not very familiars with this material, i found it a fascinating and engrossing study of a period ill defined but critical to the developments in the the world after 1800.
June 28, 2024
Yahudi tarihini ve dinini yakından tanımak için güzel bir kitap.
October 5, 2014
Good for reading in shul on high holidays, although it did put me to sleep a couple of times.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews