Martyrs and moneylenders: Retrieving the memory of Jewish women in medieval Northern France.
Item
-
Title
-
Martyrs and moneylenders: Retrieving the memory of Jewish women in medieval Northern France.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3187465
-
identifier
-
3187465
-
Creator
-
Perez, Rosa Alvarez.
-
Contributor
-
Directors: Francesca Canade Sautman | Steven F. Kruger
-
Date
-
2005
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
History, Medieval | Women's Studies | Literature, Medieval | Jewish Studies
-
Abstract
-
Although the term "invisibility" is perhaps an overused cliche in relation to women, it remains relevant in Jewish Studies where the representation of women of the past continues to be trapped in a "fictional role" in spite of the amount of work done by scholars of Judaism.;The Northern French Jewish communities were renowned, from the late tenth to the early fourteenth century, for their spiritual leaders in the fields of Talmudic studies and biblical exegesis. In a fervent religious environment the social and cultural aspects of communal life were not considered worthy of being recorded; therefore, the social impact of women's activities was historically overlooked.;The historical construction of these women navigates between two historical practices---a Christian and a Jewish one---that have commented on her since the Middle Ages, and, albeit stemming from different sources and perspectives, ended up expressing a single prevalent discourse. These practices amounted to minimizing the presence of women on a quantitative level, and on a qualitative one, to stereotyping them.;Medieval Jewish women occupied a highly ambiguous and dangerous position as vectors and brokers of exchange and conflict with the surrounding and dominant Christian communities. On the one hand, they were either idealized by Christians as tractable, convertible, and as points of entry into the larger community, making them vulnerable in the eyes of their own community, or they were brutally massacred along with men in numerous anti-Jewish riots and outbursts. On the other hand, they were seen as weak elements in need of protective seclusion, and as a category susceptible to community betrayal.;Even though scholars have assumed their lives to be conventional, there is a need for a different articulation of their portrait, one that would explore the multiple aspects of an identity simplified and formatted to comply with ideological and religious imperatives that leave other pertinent traits illegible. Women were only absent from the communal realm of Jewish life with respect to official religion. In other areas, it is possible to raise a new and challenging set of problems to be investigated.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
