Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the “golden age” present in Polish and Jewish historiographies. It demonstrates that though the idea of the “golden age” was embraced by both Polish Christian and Jewish historians, they never applied it to Jewish-Christian relations. This paper looks at the myths of the golden age and the age of decline in both historiographies by juxtaposing them with archival documents that complicate both the idea of the “zenith” or “golden age” of the 16th century and that of the decline and crisis of the 17th century.

Highlights

  • It was only with Salo Baron‟s groundbreaking essay “Ghetto and Emancipation” that some of these earlier assumptions about Jewish history in Christian Europe began to break down

  • “Golden age” meant different things to different generations of scholars and readers, and historically Jewish-Christian relations were as complicated as any area of historical study

  • While western Jewish historiography denied the possibility of a “golden age” for Jews in Christian Europe, let along Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish historiography of eastern Europe and Poland did adopt the idea of a “golden age.”

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Summary

Introduction

It was only with Salo Baron‟s groundbreaking essay “Ghetto and Emancipation” that some of these earlier assumptions about Jewish history in Christian Europe began to break down.

Results
Conclusion

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