Jews and crime in medieval europe PDF
Preview Jews and crime in medieval europe
J E W S C R I M E A N D M E D I E VA L I N E U R O P E E P H R A I M S H O H A M - S T E I N E R Praise for Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe “In Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe, Ephraim Shoham-S teiner has painstakingly gathered and incisively analyzed an impressive array of sources to treat the incidence and conceptualization of criminality within Jewish society from a variety of perspectives. Offering a series of suggestive comparisons along geographic, chronological, and societal lines, Shoham-S teiner has produced a strikingly new and fascinating work that will undoubtedly spawn additional discussion and reflection by students and scholars of medieval social and intellectual history.” — Ephraim Kanarfogel, E. Billi Ivry University Professor of Jewish History, Literature and Law, Yeshiva University “This is an eye-o pening study of the largely neglected subject of Jew- ish crime and criminals in medieval Christian Europe. For too long, apologists have ignored or denied a police blotter of cases—t hievery, fencing, assault, and murder, perpetrated by and on Jewish men and women in pre- modern Europe. Shoham- Steiner documents that Jews were more like their Christian neighbors than we thought possible, even while they struggled to rise above the moral chaos of the violent society in which they lived.” — Ivan G. Marcus, Frederick P. Rose Professor of Jewish History, and professor of history and of religious studies, Yale University “In this meticulously argued book, Shoham-S teiner draws on a range of religious and legal sources to explore a fascinating and almost entirely neglected topic. He reveals that alongside the rabbis and mar- tyrs so revered in Jewish memory, medieval Jewish communities also encompassed thieves, brawlers, murderers, and wife-b eaters. In illu- minating these darker corners of Jewish life, Jews and Crime in Medi- eval Europe restores medieval Jews to their full humanity, showing them to be subject to the same passions and drives as (and sometimes conspiring with) their Christian neighbors, even as they grappled with unique challenges and restrictions.” — Sara Lipton, professor of history, State University of New York at Stony Brook “Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is an exceptionally rich work of impeccable scholarship. With his eye on a wide range of crimes that encompassed violence, economic wrongdoings, and sexual transgres- sions, Ephraim Shoham- Steiner offers an important new perspective on medieval Jewish society. This erudite study of criminal activity, undertaken within the broad context of history, culture, and mental- ités, combines methodological sophistication, interdisciplinary schol- arship, and highly accessible writing. This work will justly appeal to a wide audience of scholars, general readers, and students.” — Jay R. Berkovitz, Distinguished Professor (Emeritus of) Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst J E W S C R I M E A N D M E D I E VA L I N E U R O P E J E W S C R I M E A N D M E D I E VA L I N E U R O P E E P H R A I M S H O H A M -S T E I N E R WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS DETROIT Copyright © 2021 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. ISBN (hardcover): 978- 0- 8143- 4559- 7 ISBN (ebook): 978- 0- 8143- 4560- 3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943887 Wayne State University Press Leonard N. Simons Building 4809 Woodward Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48201- 1309 Visit us online at wsupress .wayne .edu CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 What Is Crime? 5 Why Crime? 6 Methodology and Methodological Issues 8 Historical Context 11 The Concepts of Crime and Punishment in Medieval Europe 12 Temporal and Geographical Scope 19 The Scarcity of Historical Information 22 The History of Medieval Crime 25 The History of Jewish Medieval Crime 27 The Sources 28 The Plan of This Book 31 1. “The Thieves That Go from House to House”: Jewish Thieves in Medieval Europe 35 A Time of Great Risk, Opportunity, and Change: The Late Tenth and Early to Mid- Eleventh Century 37 A Guilty Conscience Needs No Accuser? 71 For We Can Do No Wrong: Jewish Communal Regulations on Theft 77 Stealing from Jews 81 vi Contents Using Magic to Steal 90 People of the Book: The Rough Waters and the Solemn Banks of the Stolen Hebrew Book Market 92 Battling Theft by Preaching 103 Theft within and from the Community 108 2. “Be Gone Thou Man of Blood”: Murder and Murderers in Medieval European Jewish Society 115 An Israelite and a Levi on the Edge of Tzarfat: A Case from Limoges, Late Tenth Century 120 The Status of a Murderer: What’s in a Gaze? 128 “He Who Kills in Our Times”: From the Gaonic Period to Fifteenth- Century Europe 131 Lethal Inclinations, Gentiles, and Exile: The Homilies of Rabbi Judah the Pious 136 A Murderer in Our Midst: Addressing Extreme Violence in the Community 149 3. Women and Crime 191 Methodological Problems 194 Prostitution 197 Violence in the Domestic Sphere 244 Conclusion 257 Appendix 1: “Lest She Go Astray” 265 Appendix 2: The Plundered Goods Caravan 267 Appendix 3: The Renegade Cleric 269 Appendix 4: Letter of Deliverance 271 Appendix 5: The Case from Poland 275 Appendix 6: The Manual of Penance 277 Appendix 7: A Ḥazan Who Has Killed a Soul 283 Appendix 8: A Responsum by Meir of Rothenburg 285 Appendix 9: The Death of the Wife of Milo 289 Appendix 10: A Responsum by Rabbi Haim Eliezer Or Zarua‘ 291 Appendix 11: The Case of Isaac and Sara 295 Contents vii Notes 299 Bibliography 391 Citations Index 427 General Index 431
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