Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe

by Robert Chazan

This book reevaluates the prevailing notion that Jews in medieval Christian Europe lived under an appalling regime of ecclesiastical limitation, governmental exploitation and expropriation, and unceasing popular violence. Robert Chazan argues that, while Jewish life in medieval Western Christendom was indeed beset with grave difficulties, it was nevertheless an environment rich in opportunities; the Jews of medieval Europe overcame obstacles, grew in number, explored innovative economic options, and fashioned enduring new forms of Jewish living. His research also provides a reconsideration of the legacy of medieval Jewish life, which is often depicted as equally destructive and projected as the underpinning of the twentieth-century catastrophes of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Dr. Chazan’s research proves that, although Jewish life in the medieval West laid the foundation for much Jewish suffering in the post-medieval world, it also stimulated considerable Jewish ingenuity, which lies at the root of impressive Jewish successes in the modern West.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

292 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2010

About the author

Robert Chazan is Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

Reviews

[Maja - BibliophiliaDK ✨]

When reading this book it becomes very, very obvious that Robert Chazan set out to change the readers' view of Jewish life in the Christian Medieval Europe from a life of persecution, blood and terror to a life of protection, unity and status. That's all this book tries to do. But to me it didn't do that well. I was frustrated by Chazans neverending reference to himself and other books he has written. 5 out of 10 times he himself was his proof. But that is a very dangerous thing to do - for once your can claim that just because you say something twice it suddenly becomes true, and secondly where does it end? If he refers to another one of his books as the source of his information, you have to go to that book to find out where he got his information from then, but what happens then if you guided further back to yet another one of his books? And in that book to a fourth of his books? You get a big, crappy circle of unanswered questions. As you can probably tell I was immensely bothered by this. Another thing that bothered me were the constant repetitions. It litteraly felt like I was reading the same page 250 times. It lacked evolvement and direction, though it did have a clear, one-sided goal. And lastly I felt it lacked the answer to one great question you can't help but ask, "If Jewish in medieval Europe life wasn't as bad as we thought, then where did our misguided vision come from? Why do we think that Jews suffered horribly if they really didn't at all? What let to that conclusion?" I was not at all impressed with this book.

[Jonathan]

I should first of all admit that this wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted to read a good overview of the history of the Jews in the Middle Ages, but I suppose I should have read the reviews. This work is a rather stodgily-written argument that Jewish life in medieval Christian Europe was not the vale of tears that so many historians have portrayed it to be. While it is hard to disagree with the basic premise that the Jews of that era expanded geographically and increased demographically, and that the spiritual and intellectual life of those Jewish communities flourished, one wonders if the Rhineland victims of the Crusader massacres or those expelled from England and France would have agreed with Professor Chazan's thesis. Chazan has the annoying habit of repeating himself throughout the text, and one of his favorite authors that he commonly sites is himself, which is a weakness in my eyes. Still, all in all, the book is worth reading to get this point of view, which certainly has some historical validity. It shouldn't be the first book one reads on European medieval Jewish history, but it could be the second.

[P. Es]

jewish/rabbinic-based self segregation (Nu 23:9, Deut 12:30) p.196

rarity of violence historically vs in memory p.151-,168,171-,191

converts to Christianity not inherently ignorant p.208-

talmudic Babylon lacked persecution p.142

economic roles, no compulsion to take on usury p.117-122,223

supposed inferiority p.235

Medieval J antagonism NOT inherently via persecution p.218-

[Eden P]

I expected more about intellectual and artistic development and achievement.