ORB --Judaism

ORB Online Encyclopedia
The Jewish Community

Conclusion and Sources
Elka Klein

The Jewish community remained central to the organization of Jewish life in Europe until the Emancipation. Neither modern nation states nor the Jews who sought citizenship in them desired the autonomous status which the Jews of the Middle Ages worked so hard to preserve. The durability of the institution can be attributed in part to its flexibility. Based on a combination of talmudic precedent and practical needs, it grew and developed in response to the particular needs of each community. In the later middle ages, efforts would be made to create intercommunal organizations, with varying degrees of success, but the basic kernel remained the local community. We have only been able to skim the surface of a few of the most important issues faced by medieval Jewish communities, in very general terms. There remains much that we do not know about particular communities, about the earlier stages of development, and about the interaction of tradition with local circumstances. Nevertheless, understanding the medieval Jewish community still remains for us the first step in understanding the medieval Jewish experience.

Sources
Efforts were made to cite primarily English language sources in this article. Some works in Hebrew have English titles; in such cases, the English title is given with the notation [Hebrew]. Citations from the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and the Talmud were my own translations; for the convenience of the general reader, generally available translations of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud are indicated below.

Agus, Irving. The Heroic Age of Franco-German Jewry. New York, 1969.

________. Urban Civilization in Pre-crusade Europe. New York, 1965.

________. Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg: His Life and Works as Sources for the Religious, Legal and Social History of the Jews of Germany in the Thirteenth Century. New York, 1947; reprinted 1970.

Adret, Solomon b. Abraham, She'elot u'Teshuvot, vols ii, iii, v (Leghorn 1657, 1778, 1825).

Albeck, Shalom. "The Principles of Government in the Jewish Communities of Spain until the Thirteenth Century" [Hebrew]. Zion, xxv (1960), 85-121.

Assis, Yom Tov. The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry: Community and Society in the Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1997.

________. Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327: Money and Power. Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1997.

Babylonian Talmud. General editor I. Epstein. London: Soncino Press, 1935.

Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1961.

________. "The Origins of the Organisation of the Jewish Community in the Middle Ages [Hebrew]." Zion xvi (1950):1-41. Reprinted in Studies in the History of the Jewish People [Hebrew], 60-101. Jerusalem, 1985.

Baron, Salo W. The Jewish Community. 3 vols. New York, 1948.

Bazak, Jacob, comp. & ed. Jewish Law and Jewish Life: Selected Rabbinic Responsa. Translated and edited by Stephen M. Passamaneck. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1979.

Berner, Leila. On the Western Shores: The Jews of Barcelona During the Reign of Jaume I, 'el Conqueridor,' 1213-1276. Ph. D. Diss. UCLA, 1986.

Blidstein, Gerald J. "Individual and Community in the Middle Ages: Halakhic Theory." In Kinship and Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and Its Contemporary Uses, ed. Daniel Judah Elazar, 215-50. Washington, 1983.

Cohn, Haim Hermann. "Herem." Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972 edn. 8:344-55.

Elon, Menahem. Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principles. Translated by Bernard Auerbach and Melvin J. Sykes. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994; originally published in Hebrew as Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri, 1988.

Epstein, Isidore. The "responsa" of Rabbi Solomon Adreth of Barcelona 1235-1310 as a Source of the History of Spain. Original Work published London, 1925. In Studies in the Communal Life of the Jews of Spain: As Reflected in the Responsa of Rabbi Solomon B. Adreth and R. Simon B. Zemach Duran. New York: Hermon Press, 1968.

Finkelstein, Louis. Jewish Self-government in the Middle Ages. New York: Philipp Feldheim, Inc., 1964.

Klein, Elka Beth. "Power and Patrimony: The Jewish Community of Barcelona, 1050-1250." Ph. D. Diss. Harvard University, 1996.

Meir b. Barukh of Rothenberg, She'elot u-Teshuvot. Prague, 1608; reprinted Budapest, 1895.

The Mishnah. Trans. Herbert Danby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.

Neuman, Abraham A. The Jews in Spain: Their Social, Political, and Cultural Life During the Middle Ages. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1942.

Regne, Jean. History of the Jews of Aragon: Regesta and Documents, 1213-1327. Edited by Yom Tov Assis and Adam Gruzman. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1978. Originally published Revue des Etudes Juives, lx (1910) and following vols.

Stow, Kenneth. "The Medieval Jewish Community Was Not a Corporation." [Hebrew]. In Priesthood and Monarchy: Studies in the Historical Relationships of Religion and State, edited by Isaiah Gafni and Gabriel Motzkin, 141-48. Jerusalem, 1987.

________. Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Taitz, Emily. The Jews of Medieval France: The Community of Champagne. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Back to The Jewish Community: Introduction Parameters of Communal Autonomy Modern Scholarship Major Issues

Copyright (C) 1998, Elka Klein. This file may be copied on the condition that the entire contents, including the header and this copyright notice, remain intact.