anti-Jewish Polemics Research Articles

Petrus Alfonsi: Dialogue against the Jews. Translated by Irven M. Resnick

Pp. xxv, 290 , Washington DC , Catholic University of America Press , 2006 , $39.95. The twelfth century was pivotal in the history of Christian-Jewish relations in western Europe. A spreading tide of Christian violence against Jews started with pogroms in Rhineland cities during the First Crusade in 1096. Subsequent atrocities included in 1144 the case of St William of Norwich, and the invention of the libel that Jews murdered Christian children. The physical attacks were paralleled by a developing intellectual assault, as Christian writers produced a series of tracts framed as dialogues between advocates of the two religions, but intended to prove the superiority of faith of the New Testament over that of the Old. One of the most potent of these works was composed about 1109 in Spain by ‘Petrus Alfonsi’, a Jew who had converted to Christianity (like so many of those who wrote and acted most forcefully against Judaism in the medieval period). Engaging the two personalities of his old and new self, in a dialogue between ‘Moses’ and ‘Petrus’, he undertakes a strong defence of his new religion and the validity of his conversion against an admittedly weak opponent. The lengthy tract is split into twelve ‘tituli’, some of them focussed on criticism of the Jews, others dealing with specific Christian doctrines which have to be defended from Jewish attack, or used to demonstrate that Judaism had been supplanted. While the tract is supposedly aimed at Jews, at times it might more realistically be seen as an attempt to convince Christians of the validity of their faith in a time of controversy – and possibly a time of contest with a strong and assertive Judaism, one not averse to producing its own anti-Christian polemic. Given its purpose, Alfonsi's tract necessarily uses the Old Testament as its main foundation to demonstrate that Christ, and Christianity, is the successor to a religion now lacking any raison d'etre. The Old Testament is mined for foreshadowings of Christ, and predictions which his incarnation and ministry had fulfilled. As a converted Jew, it is not surprising that Alfonsi should have - or proclaim - some knowledge of Hebrew. This is invoked intermittently throughout his text, perhaps most notably (but how effectively only a Hebraicist could judge) when dealing with the crux of Isaiah's precise meaning in his prophecy of the Virgin Birth. ‘Moses’ may be a weak interlocutor, but he is not totally without verbal weapons. As the questioner, he ostensibly has the upper hand, and at times does push his opponent hard – in the process providing the impetus for an even stronger rebuttal. It is scarcely surprising that he eventually admits defeat. Alfonsi has to justify Christianity against Judaism, but he must also justify himself, and his choice of Christianity to replace his former faith. Not unreasonably, ‘Moses’ asks why Christianity was preferred to Islam. Alfonsi dedicates the whole of his fifth titulus (pp.146–63) to a reply. Although he certainly denigrates Islam, he purports to act on evidence rather than mere prejudice. Unlike the caricature of Islam presented, for example, in the Song of Roland, Alfonsi's Islam is firmly textual, with the Koran being cited against itself. Alfonsi wrote his text in Latin. He knew Hebrew and maybe Arabic (given his use of the Koran); knowledge of one or more of the vernacular Spanish languages can perhaps be assumed. His engagement in an Iberia of three religions and many languages underlines a work which became a mainstay of anti-Jewish polemic in later Christian Europe, feeding into the debates until the sixteenth century. Resnick's English translation, offered as volume 8 of the Fathers of the Church Mediaeval Continuation Series, provides a clear and accessible text, usefully annotated. His introduction gives a clear summary of scholarly debates about Alfonsi's work and its transmission, and identifies its place in the Jewish-Christian controversies of the twelfth century and later. While likely to be used mainly as evidence for inter-faith relations in the twelfth century, Alfonsi's Dialogue need not be so narrowly read. It also provides valuable evidence for other contemporary intellectual concerns, in the early days of scholastic theology. Its discussions of some issues (such as the process of creation) resonate with academic debates in the contemporary schools, and the emergence of the new theological science. Its long excursus (in the first titulus) on the location of ‘west’ and ‘east’, firmly shows that medieval scientists were fully aware that the earth was not flat. With its many facets, this is a text whose availability in English must surely be welcomed.

Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages (review)

Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages, by Jonathan Elukin. Princeton University Press, 2007. 193 pp. $24.95. With Living Together, Living Apart, Jonathan Elukin sets out to address one of the most important yet least studied conundrums in the field of Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages. How, Elukin asks, did Jewish communities continue to survive in Europe despite facing what seemed to be endless persecution, violence, and expulsion? (p. 1). Arguing that the focus has for too long been on Jewish suffering at the hands of R. I. Moore's persecuting society, Elukin sets out to restore the balance, providing a survey of Jewish-Christian relations at their most peaceful and settled. In the first three chapters, Elukin searches medieval Europe from late antiquity through the thirteenth century for examples of Christian-Jewish coexistence. Chapter One, covering late antiquity through the early Middle Ages, compares the fate of Jews in 5th-century Minorca, Gregory of Tour's account of Met ovingian Gaul, Gregot y the Gteat's impressions of Italy at the turn of the 7th century, and the legislation of Visigothic Spain. Chapter Two explores how the development of separate religious and secular identities in the Carolingian empire acted as a buffer between Church-sanctioned and the everyday lives of Jews, before exploring the development of a fierce local loyalty that trumped religious difference after the breakup of a united Catolingian power. A quick look north, at the close relationship between Jews and some German rulers, concludes the chapter. Chapters Three and Four explore the High Middle Ages. The former focuses on the cultural and intellectual integration made possible by the Hebraism that swept through academic Europe during the twelfth -century renaissance, as well as the increasingly accessible experience of conversion, while the latter explores the social connections that led Christians to shelter their Jewish neighbors during times of crisis. Elukin writes for a non-specialist authence - the book is a response to questions from his undergraduate classrooms - and the work provides a good general survey of exactly how Europe's Jews survived, and indeed thrived, in between violent pogroms and persecutions. In the final two chapters, Elukin takes a more thematic approach to his subject, reassessing the impact of violence and expulsion on the attitude and outlook of Europe's medieval Jews. Elukin seeks to downplay the severity of both. The anti-Jewish polemic, including tales of ritual murder and blood libel, long held up as prime examples of medieval anti-Judaism, he claims, probably circulated only among a literate clerical elite (p. …

Odo of Tournai and the Dehumanization of Medieval Jews: A Reexamination

OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES, Odo of Tournai (d. 1113) has become better appreciated as an important thinker of the twelfth-century renaissance.1 First a prominent teacher of philosophy and science at Tournai's Notre-Dame cathedral school, Odo later withdrew to become abbot of the monastery of St. Martin of Tournai and ended his life as bishop of Cambrai. Among his many works Odo left one religious disputation: a Debate the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of Christ, the Son of God.2 Like his contemporary Anselm of Canterbury,5 Odo sought to demonstrate the rational necessity of certain Christian beliefs. Perhaps even greater consistency than Anselm, Odo's polemic introduced rational for the Incarnation, while largely eschewing traditional appeals to scriptural prooftexts.4Although a polemic, the text maintains a remarkably irenic tone, unlike so many Christian dialogues with Jews. It appears all the more as a historical account precisely because its conclusion must have been so unsatisfying to a Christian authence: rather than allowing Odo's proofs to lead him to baptism, Leo-despite his admiration for some of the arguments-continues to embrace Judaism. By genuine I do not mean that Odo's text is a transcript of a debate with Leo (although Odo gives the impression that such a debate actually occurred)5 but only that it successfully captures some of the theological issues and attitudes that separated Jews and Christians. Its conclusion, however, does reflect a historical reality: despite nearly a millennium of Christian polemics, relatively few Jews had voluntarily adopted Christianity. Does Leo's refusal to follow Odo's rational to Christian baptism come to add verisimilitude, or, as some have proposed, does the conclusion to Odo's Debate rather function as an anti-Jewish polemic that stigmatized Judaism as inherently irrational, and so exacerbated Christian anti-Judaism?6 I will review the evidence here.THE VIRGIN BIRTH, POLLUTION, AND INCARNATIONDespite a lengthy defense of the rational necessity of the Incarnation, for Odo the conditions of the God-Man's birth remained troublesome, because Leo insisted that impurity attaches itself to all childbirth - even that of Jesus. Indeed, Lev 12.2-3 describes a parturient woman as unclean for seven days following the birth of a male child and fourteen days following the birth of a female. Christian theologians typically understood that it was because of his mother's impurity that the boy's ritual circumcision had to be delayed until the eighth day. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan remarked that circumcision can be performed only when the mother of the child begins to be in pure blood, who is said to sit in unclean blood before the eighth day.7 Although Ambrose insisted that Jesus's death on the Cross rendered circumcision of the flesh unnecessary for his followers,8 the fact that the infant Jesus had been circumcised and that Mary had undergone postpartum purification (Lk 2.22ff.) remained theologically problematic.The standard medieval view held that Mary's purification in the Temple was of spiritual and not carnal significance. The twelfth-century Aelred of Rievaulx acknowledged that Mary fulfilled the purificatory rituals prescribed for a parturient; hence, Christians celebrate the Feast of the Purification of Mary (February 2). But, he insisted, Mary did not have to fulfill these rituals, since she conceived miraculously from the Holy Spirit. She was herself clean, but willed to be perceived as unclean, and chose to perform these rituals out of humility.9 His contemporaries Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), Guernc d'Igny (d. ca. 1157), and Hermanus de Runa (fi. ca. 1150) expressed substantially the same view.10Twelfth-century Christian theologians, then, argued that the miraculous character of the Virgin Birth released Mary from the requirement of ritual purification, even though she performed it. Yet medieval Jewish critics raised disturbing questions about Jesus 's parentage, rejected the miraculous character of his birth, and also suggested that in childbirth Mary suffered impurity that was transferred to her son. …

Defining the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Eunomius in the Anti-Jewish Polemic of his Cappadocian Opponents

Scholars have long recognized that the theological arguments of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa against their opponent Eunomius helped to shape the development of Christian orthodoxy, and thus Christian self-definition, in the late fourth-century Roman Empire. The cultural and theological significance of the strong anti-Judaizing rhetoric contained within these Cappadocian authors’ anti-Eunomian treatises, however, remains largely unexamined. Recent scholarship has demonstrated the critical role of anti-Judaizing rhetoric in the arguments that early Christian leaders Athanasius of Alexandria and Ephrem of Nisibis used against “Arian” Christian opponents in the middle of the fourth century, and the implications of this rhetoric for understanding early Christian-Jewish and intra-Christian relations. Scholars have yet to recognize, however, that anti-Judaizing rhetoric similarly helped to define the terms and consequences of the anti-Eunomian arguments made by Basil, Gregory, and Gregory in the decades that followed. The anti-Judaizing rhetoric of their texts attests to the continuing advantages that these leaders gained by rhetorically associating their Christian opponents with Jews. By claiming that Eunomius and his followers were too Jewish in their beliefs to be Christian, and too Christian in their behaviors to be Jewish, Basil, Gregory, and Gregory deployed anti-Judaizing rhetoric to argue that Eunomians were significantly inferior to both true Christians and Jews. The Cappadocians’ strategic comparisons with Jews and Judaism rhetorically distanced their Eunomian opponents from Christianity and thus strengthened the Cappadocians’ own claims to represent Christian orthodoxy.

A School of Christian Hebraists in Thirteenth-Century England: A Unique Hebrew-Latin-French and English Dictionary and its Sources

AbstractThis paper is a preliminary presentation of a unique Hebrew-Latin-Old French dictionary written by Christian scholars in 13th century England, to appear shortly in print. The authors of this exceptional work did not follow the patristic tradition of Christian Hebraism and did not focus on anti-Jewish polemics, but rather turned to Jewish Rabbinic and Medieval sources, such as commentaries of Rachi, the lexicon of Solomon ibn Parhon or Alpha Beta de-Ben Sira for their understanding of the Hebrew text of the Bible. Following the grammatical approach of the classical Spanish school of Hebrew grammar, this dictionary is a real 'philological' work. It stems from a Christian tradition of the use of the Hebrew Bible for correcting the Vulgate as represented by the bilingual Hebrew-Latin Bible manuscripts produced and studied in England in the late 12th and 13th centuries.

Anti-Jewish Polemic and Conversion of Jews to Anti-Chalcedonian Asceticism in the Holy Land

Anti-Jewish Polemic and Conversion of Jews to Anti-Chalcedonian Asceticism in the Holy Land

‘ You say that the Messiah has come …’: The Ceuta Disputation (1179) and its place in the Christian anti-Jewish polemics of the high middle ages

This article suggests that the ‘Disputation of Ceuta’ provides a link between the Christian anti-Jewish polemical discourse of the twelfth century, produced largely for internal consumption, and the active missionising of the thirteenth century. Having purportedly taken place in the North African port of Ceuta between a Christian merchant from Genoa and a Jew from Ceuta at the time of Almohad rule (1179), the disputation displays the signs of a major shift in the Christian contra Judaeos strategies. Unlike other twelfth-century works of this genre, which address a variety of points central to Jewish-Christian debate, the Ceuta Disputation is remarkably consistent in its emphasis on one particular issue – that of the coming of the Messiah. The messianic content of this disputation thus foreshadows the central thrust of the thirteenth-century Dominican mission to the Jews, which finds its fullest expression at the Barcelona Disputation of 1263. The article explains the prominence of this theme in the period by suggesting that the extraordinary emphasis on the Messiah in the Ceuta Disputation could be the result of the Christian protagonist's meeting with the North African Jew face-to-face and discovering that the Messianic promise was a subject of considerable interest for his opponent. More importantly, regardless of whether the discussion in Ceuta had or had not taken place, the new Christian attitude towards anti-Jewish polemics expressed in the Disputation's text was most likely inspired by real-life discussions between Jews and Christians.

After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism in the Shadow of the Holocaust (review)

Reviewed by: After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism in the Shadow of the Holocaust Joseph A. Edelheit After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism in the Shadow of the Holocaust, by Richard Harries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 239 pp. $22.00. Richard Harries provides those engaged in Jewish-Christian dialogue with a valuable example of the complex ambiguities of that dialogue in After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism in the Shadow of the Holocaust. Harries has been the Bishop of Oxford for more than 25 years and a leader of the Anglican Church's participation in Jewish-Christian dialogue including a small but intense gathering of Jewish and Christian clergy who have studied together for several years. Thus, the most significant value of Harries' text will be for those who are themselves involved in similar dialogues and study groups and are looking for confirmation and illumination of their own projects. Harries offers the rich texture and overview of his own personal learning and spiritual discernment through the dialogues. Yet, the book is difficult to label in a review as it is not theology, history, or even "religious thought." Perhaps a different subtitle would help its readers from expecting more than it offers, After the Evil: 25 Years of Uniquely British Christian and Jewish Dialogues and Healing. The degree to which these dialogues have led to healing is unfortunately unclear, because Harries does not provide us with significant clarity about the primary focus of his title, evil. Instead he spends considerable time and effort to review many classic religious texts about suffering, a common theological systemic product of evil. We learn only that the evil referenced in the title is the Holocaust/Shoah and that it is "unspeakable" and directly related to the problem of Christian anti-Judaism. I appreciated Harries' careful historical unpacking of Christianity's ongoing struggle with the anti-Jewish polemic and his unequivocal statement: "So the challenge remains: How to preach and teach a Christian faith that is recognizably at one with historic Christianity, but which is not, even implicitly, anti-Judaic?" (p. 22). The next chapter moves quickly beyond "something uniquely evil about the Shoah" (p. 25) into a review of theology about the Shoah. The next chapter reviews the problem of suffering and how both faiths deal with it theologically. This link between evil and suffering, though classic, is much more a Christian than Jewish predisposition. Since this book reviews the praxis of Jewish-Christian dialogue, including issues about Israel and her relationship with the Palestinians, the absence of this broader understanding of "evil" is critical. Harries and others engaged in these dialogues have obviously gained a great deal from each other. The value of Harries' text today cannot be minimized, especially given the increase of antisemitism among Europeans. So much has been written about these dialogues in America that this book's value as an example of English Christians is particularly informative. Given the differences [End Page 155] between the English and American interfaith projects, it would have been helpful had Harries spent some time putting his interfaith work into the context of English Jewish/Christian history and England's own battle with xenophobia during the last 25 years. Also, because there are no distinctions among Harries' Jewish dialogue partners, most readers will be unable to understand that some Jewish statements come from Orthodox rabbis and that others come from Progressive or Liberal rabbis. This is important in the same way we need to contextualize Christian statements as Lutheran, Catholic, or Methodist. Clergy often participate from within their institution's theology rather than with a personal statement. Without these defining labels the reader will find it difficult to put the statements into their broadest context. Harries offers us a congregational clergyperson's sense of immediacy rather than a repeated theological standard. "This possibility of learning from and being enriched by people of faiths other than one's own does not lead to the relativity of truth. On the contrary, dialogue and the possibility of mutual learning is based on the premises that there is a truth to be sought and entered into more deeply. We cannot approach that truth from some neutral, detached position...

Rigorismo ascético y polémica antijudía en el presbítero Eutropio (siglo V)

The fifth century presbyter Eutropius, ecclesiastical writer probably native of Hispania or Aquitaine, was a paradigmatic example of how Late Antique patristic literature linked the ascetic ideal with the anti-Jewish polemics. His spiritual interpretation of the «true circumcision> as a kind of fuga mundi demands, at the same time, an absolute repulse of the Jewish circumcision and any Judaizing influences.

Post-Shoah dialogues: re-thinking our texts together

Post-Shoah Dialogues: Re-Thinking Our Texts Together, edited by James F. Moore. Studies in the Shoah, Vol. XXV. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004. 270 pp. $35.00. It is not often that one is confronted with a text so complicated, so densely packed with challenging ideas, and so critical for truly moving Christian-Jewish dialogue to a new level of action than this book. So many words have been spoken, so many words have been written-yet the scourge of 2000 years of hatred of Jews by Christians continued unabated through to the Holocaust. Christianity after the Shoah is confronted with the idea that it may have been the catalyst that ultimately led to the Shoah through its own original core sacred texts. Jews and Judaism, after the Shoah, are confronted with the problem of what Judaism should be in light of the Shoah. We all have to do what Rabbi Irving Greenberg has suggested Jews have to do after the Shoah, which is restoring our connection to the covenant with G-d by restoring our connection to Torah. While Jews and Christians share common texts, there is nothing common about what they each do with those texts. Christians use Torah to prove the divinity of Jesus, while Jews use the texts to explore their relation to G-d and their historical and cultural memory. The common texts shared by Jews and Christians when looked at from a Jewish perspective have a very different meaning than when they are looked at from a Christian perspective. What the four authors (James Moore, Zev Garber, Henry Knight, and Steven Jacobs) argue for and demonstrate in an impressive way is a shift in interpretive response to both Jewish and Christian texts based on the Jewish rhetorical tool known as midrash. Midrash is defined by the Jewish Encyclopedia as A term occurring as early as II Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27, though perhaps not in the sense in which it came to be used later, and denoting exposition, exegesis, especially that of the Scriptures. In contradistinction to literal interpretation, subsequently called peshat (comp. Geiger's Wiss. Zeit. Jud. Theol. v. 244), the term designates an exegesis which, going more deeply than the mere literal sense, attempts to penetrate into the spirit of the Scriptures, to examine the text from all sides, and thereby to derive interpretations which are not immediately obvious. Christian reading of Torah, which has often been a one-sided search for the rhetorical evidence of Jesus' divinity when coupled with the bag and baggage of anti-Jewish polemic, has set the grounding for the 2000 years of Christian anti-Jewish action. Jewish Midrash rarely if ever includes Christian or even secular interpretations. So this book's use of midrash to explore both Jewish and Christian texts by a team of Jewish and Christian scholars is not only unique but powerful. For example, these four authors looked at Genesis 32, on Jacob wrestling with the angel, and Matthew 26 about Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane. Moore sets out in his essay the overarching approach taken by the four authors. His five chapters tackle the issues of looking at Christian tradition in a new way; antisemitism; creating an ethic of dialogue; and the genocidal mind in religion. Steven Jacobs wrote three chapters focusing on the question of how to deal with Biblical texts after the Shoah; wrestling with the images of God and the Devil; and finally, defining what the genocidal mind is in light of religious expression. Henry Knight's focus is also in three chapters which explore in great detail both Genesis 32 and Matthew 26 and how to operationalize these kinds of dialogical explorations based on texts; he also explores in a passionate essay how to deal with the idea of the Holy in light of the Shoah: his final chapter is entitled Coming to Terms with Amalek. …

Publizistik im Dienste antijudischer Polemik: Spatmittelalterliche und fruhneuzeitliche Flugschriften und Flugblatter zu Hostienschandungen (review)

Reviewed by: Publizistik im Dienste antijüdischer Polemik: Spätmittelalterliche und frühneuzeitliche Flugschriften und Flugblätter zu Hostienschändungen Dean Phillip Bell Publizistik im Dienste antijüdischer Polemik: Spätmittelalterliche und frühneuzeitliche Flugschriften und Flugblätter zu Hostienschändungen, by Christine Mittlmeier. Mikrokosmos: Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft und Bedeutungsforschung, vol. 56. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2000. 184 pp. $34.95. Originally a dissertation completed in 1997 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München under the direction of Wolfgang Harms, this slender volume offers a new approach to a much trodden theme, namely the accusations of host desecration leveled against the Jews in late medieval and early modern Germany. Mittlmeier argues that illustrated pamphlets and leaflets played not a small role in the spread of anti-Jewish polemic, indeed in the very transference of host desecration accusations into the broader public. Noting that specific themes and contexts varied widely, she examines the historical and political contexts, publishers, authors, intended audiences (the levels of readers), and the possible functions of the publications of host desecration charges in Passau (1477), Sternberg (1492), and Knobloch (1510). Throughout, Mittlmeier notes that the most important group addressed by the pamphlets was the urban middle class, and she stresses that the pamphlets had real ability to influence important political decisions and stir political debate. Mittlmeier argues that host desecration discourse and imagery could contemporize accusations of shaming and martyring Jesus and mobilize action and discourse against the Jews. Echoing the findings of recent scholars such as Hsia and Graus, she finds that often the anti-Jewish polemic of the host crime accusations played into larger power politics (i.e., anti-Jewish polemic could be a vehicle for the criticism of political leaders and institutions), particularly in contests between ecclesiastical and urban rulers and between the estates and the princes. She also asserts that charges of host desecration could serve efforts to strengthen internal Christian belief and create a broader internal Christian communal identity by positing the host as a representation of the Christian faith community, and, simultaneously, the Jews as the opponents of that collectivity. Such accusations, which tended to become removed from local contexts through publication and were molded into a sort of ethno-history that had a supra-regional and a-temporal meaning (referring to all Jews), could also serve as the basis for legitimizing the expulsion of Jews from cities or regions. Among the common themes and images Mittlmeier finds in the cases she examines are the portrayal of the Jews as God-murderers, the stubbornness and blindness of the Jews (indeed not a new theme, but one of an apologetic nature), the Jews as the embodiment of evil, and the Jews as usurers. The analysis utilizes some theoretical discussion of the pamphlets and the relation between texts and images, and suggests that in the fifteenth century there were local and regional differences in discourse and representation. One intriguing observation is that particularly since the fifteenth century there was an increase in the illustration of Jews [End Page 138] in oriental clothing, suggesting, amidst the Turkish threat, the association and conspiracy of Jews and Turks. Mittlmeier offers a very concise but useful overview of some of the secondary literature, especially regarding host desecration and the legal position of the Jews in the Middle Ages. Her methodology is well-thought out and consistently applied, but could have profitably been expanded to other cases and compared with other types of representation. Although the work adds few new observations to recent studies, it does reinforce some general conclusions, and it adds the possibility of new sources and modes of interpretation that may shed light on Jewish and Christian relations as well as general religious and political developments within Christian society in early modern Germany. Dean Phillip Bell Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies Copyright © 2003 Purdue University

Richard Wagners Das Judentum in der Musik: Eine kritische Dokumentation als Beitrag zur Geschichte Antisemitismus (review)

Frankfurt a.M.: Insel Verlag, 2000. 380 pp. DM 19.90. Richard Wagner's antisemitism is undeniable, even though many of those who admire and love his music would prefer to hide or hush up this fact. Is this antisemitism understandable in psychological terms? According to Otto Weiniger's Geschlecht und Charakter (1903), hate like love is a form of projection: Whoever hates Jewish nature hates it first of all in himself; he persecutes it in others primarily in an effort to disconnect himself from this Jewishness. In this way, for at least a while, by locating it in another human being, he believes he is free of it. According to Weiniger, this projection applies in no small measure to Wagner. It turns out that Wagner's contemporaries accused him -- particularly through caricature and satire -- of a putative racial (blutmassiges) or spiritual closeness to Jewishness. Through his Jew-hatred Wagner thus tried to ward off these accusations. Gustav Freytag in his work Der Streit um das Judentum in der Musik (1869) maintains that if one examines inner meaning of Wagner's pamphlet -- Das Judentum in der Musik -- in period from 1850 through 1869, he himself comes across as the biggest Jew. From a critical viewpoint Freytag's work is quite opposed to Wagner and far removed from any tinge of It is one of many contemporary documents -- most of which are not easily accessible -- now reprinted in Jens Malte Fischer's collection. Fischer's aim is to make a contribution to history of antisemitism. In a comprehensive and down-to-earth fashion he examines first of all sources of pamphlet. In 1850, spurred on by friend Theodor Uhlig, Wagner started a campaign directed against Meyerbeer, one which reflected current controversies. Fischer considers this an early antisemitic phase, one that still excluded a fully formed racial premise in its arguments, but one ready to utilize commonly held perceptions of Jewishness. Fischer judges anonymous first edition of Wagner's pamphlet with a notable mildness, especially because he only utilizes arguments that were widespread through political spectrum of his time. The actual fall (into racial antisemitism) Fischer notes first in Wagner's persecution mania and conspiracy phobia that characterized second edition of his anti-Jewish polemic. In 1869 this piece burst maliciously into a situation where development of Jews in Germany had been relatively peaceful. In contrast to almost ineffectual first edition, this one had disastrous consequences. …

The Virgin Mary against the Jews: Anti-Jewish Polemic in the Pilgrimage to the Schöne Maria of Regensburg, 1519-25

This paper examines the propaganda and polemic surrounding the pilgrimage to the Schone Maria of Regensburg, exploring the connections between the anti-Jewish violence that precipitated the pilgrimage and the intense devotionalism to the Virgin Mary that characterized it. Founded on the ruins of the city's Jewish synagogue in 1519, the pilgrimage to Schone Maria stands in a long line of Marian pilgrimage sites associated with anti-Jewish violence. Contemporary writings both celebrating and condemning the pilgrimage drew heavily on long-standing beliefs that demonized the Jews, suggesting a link in the popular imagination between anti-Jewish violence and Marian devotionalism. The association of the diabolic influence of the Jews over the site and the purifying revelation of the Virgin Mary's power there sheds light on popular Christian understandings of the role of the Virgin Mary in human salvation and the interaction of the divine and the profane in the creation of sacred space.

Jeremy Cohen. Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. x, 451 pp.

Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity traces the development of Jeremy Cohen's scholarship over almost two decades. Without abandoning the thesis he espoused in The Friars and the Jews (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), that is, that a paradigm shift occurred among thirteenth- century Christian mendicant theologians with respect to the role of the Jew in the divine economy, here Cohen attempts to respond to his critics with a more nuanced treatment. Living Letters of the Law examines adaptations to the “hermeneutical Jew”—the putative, ahistorical Jew created by Augustinian theology—as the cultural horizons of the medieval Latin world broadened. Cohen traces the contours of the “hermeneutical Jew” from Augustine through Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, and Agobard of Lyons before he turns to the twelfth century. Because he now finds more persuasive Amos Funkenstein's contention that twelfth-century anti-Jewish polemics signal an important shift in medieval perceptions of Judaism, here Cohen pays much more attention to twelfth-century authors (e.g. Anselm of Canterbury, Gilbert Crispin, Odo of Cambrai, Guibert of Nogent, Peter Alfonsi, Peter the Venerable, and Bernard of Clairvaux) than he had done in The Friars and the Jews , and considerably less to thirteenth-century mendicants. Indeed, Cohen explains that “reactions to my thesis on the significance of the friars [in The Friars and the Jews ] . . . quickly convinced me that a fair assessment of later medieval Christian ideas of the Jew demanded a more conscientious investigation of their antecedents. The present study constitutes my attempt to move backward . . . ” (p. 314).

HIERONYMUS UND EPIPHANIUS VON SALAMIS ÜBER DAS JUDENTUM IHRER ZEIT

AbstractCompared to other Christian authors of the late 4th, early 5th century A.D. Jerome and Epiphanius of Salamis frequently write about Jews and Judaism. And they do so in a historical and biographical context which they largely share. Their frequent use of anti-Jewish polemics, however, has earned them a certain notoriety. But, as is argued in this paper, while their attitude in this respect is, of course, deplorable, it may be less a sign of their ignorance of, and distance from, than their proximity to, the Judaism of their time. Both, Jerome and Epiphanius, draw from very early Christian sources, sources still close to their Jewish roots. They define orthodoxy and heresy in terms of religious practices, very similar to Rabbinic Judaism, they are obsessed with scriptural detail, they reject the veneration of images, and they are interested in the languages and cultures of the Bible, far more than any other of their Christian contemporaries, or, indeed, Christians of any age. Considering their influential role in the history of Christian theology it may be worth looking at some of these aspects in detail, and see how they could have contributed not so much to the exclusion as to the preservation of the Jewish heritage in Christianity.

A Dialogue of the Deaf: Hebrew Pedagogy and Anti-Jewish Polemic in Sebastian Münsters

Article A Dialogue of the Deaf: Hebrew Pedagogy and Anti-Jewish Polemic in Sebastian Münsters was published on December 1, 2000 in the journal Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History (volume 91, issue jg).

Francisco Maldonado de Silva

Francisco Maldonado de Silva est l'un des plus fameux martyrs de l'histoire des judaïsants du Nouveau Monde. La vocation de martyr est certes rare : parmi les centaines de marranes condamnés au bûcher par l'Inquisition, bien peu finalement (une demi-douzaine environ sur le continent américain) consentirent à être brûlés vivants, c'est-à-dire à mourir en proclamant leur fidélité à la loi de Moïse. La mort de Francisco Maldonado de Silva lors de l'autodafé de 1639, à Lima, eut une immense répercussion dans les milieux juifs de l'Ancien Monde : son martyre, ainsi que ceux de Isaac de Castro Tartas (transféré du Brésil) lors de l'autodafé de Lisbonne en 1646, et de Tomas Tremino de Sobremonte lors de l'autodafé de Mexico en 1649, sont presque aussitôt glorifiés par Menasseh ben Israël dans son célèbre ouvrage, Espérance d'Israël, publié en 1652 à Amsterdam. Celuici inscrit ces événements tragiques parmi les épreuves contemporaines du peuple juif, et les interprète comme autant de signes annonçant l'approche des temps messianiques.

Polémique anti-judaïque et émergence de l'Islam (7e-8e siècles)

REB 57 1999 France p. 141 Vincent Déroche, Polémique anti-judaïque et émergence de l'Islam (7e -8e s.). — In the light of the recent thesis of D. Olster, in whose opinion anti-Jewish polemics of the 7th- 8th centuries had no other goal than to reinforce the political confidence of eastern Christians in the wake of Islam, we are reminded of the religious dimension of the conflict through an assessment of the important texts.

Psalm 22's Christological Interpretive Tradition in Light of Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic

Psalm 22’s Christological Interpretive Tradition in Light of Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic1 Naomi Koltun-Fromm (bio) Psalm 22 has been central to christological readings of the Hebrew Scriptures since the gospels were written, if not before. Allusions to Psalm 22 appear in all the gospels, but they are most prominent in John. For instance, while Jesus is on the cross, the soldiers divide his clothing among themselves and cast lots for his tunic. This transpires, according to John, in order to fulfill the scripture of Psalm 22.19: “They will divide my clothing among them and for the things that I wear they will throw lots” (John 19.23–4).2 In Mark, Matthew and Luke, the onlookers, both commoners and priests, mock Jesus and challenge him to save himself perhaps reflecting the psalmist’s claim (Psalm 22.7–8) that “All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him.”3 In addition, in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew Jesus cries out the opening line of Psalm 22: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”4 Psalm 22’s tormented voice clearly speaks of the Passion to the gospel writers.5 Later Christian writers, specifically Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Aphrahat, develop the gospels’ christological interpretation of this [End Page 37] psalm. Interestingly, these writers focus not on Psalm 22.1, 7–8 or 19, as the gospels do, but on Psalm 22.17. The third part of this verse, which is often translated as “They have pierced my hands and feet,” is fundamental to these writers’ exegesis. This image of pierced limbs describes for them Jesus’ exclusive experience on the cross. Why is this seemingly appropriate image unknown to the gospel writers? Why do they dwell on the divided clothing, the mocking spectators and the cry of despair but not the pierced hands and feet? Finally, why do only several geographically and linguistically diverse exegetes concentrate on the pierced hands and feet in the centuries beginning with Justin Martyr? This paper will argue that Psalm 22.17’s exegetical development is intrinsically linked to early Jewish-Christian polemic and Christian self-identification. It is only with these three authors’6 apologetic and anti-Jewish polemical works that the image of pierced limbs appears. It is my contention that this passage’s christological interpretation is an extra-New Testament evolution and dependent on early patristic understandings of the Septuagint’s translation. It is an outcome of real, or perceived, early Jewish-Christian debates and most likely originates with Justin Martyr. This study helps illuminate the creation and dissemination of early standardized Christian exegesis for use in active and continuing anti-Jewish polemics throughout the first few centuries of the common era. In order to understand this progression it is necessary first to outline the translation problems Psalm 22.17 has caused scholars and exegetes over the years. I will then discuss Justin, Tertullian and Aphrahat’s shared exegesis of Psalm 22.17 and finally its place within early Jewish-Christian polemics. TEXT AND TRANSLATION: PSALM 22:17–18 (19) Massoretic Text: [End Page 38] 17. Because dogs are circling me; a group of evil ones surround me, [something] my hands and my feet. 18. I take count of all my bones, while they look on and stare. 19. They divide my clothes among themselves; casting lots for my garments. Targum7: 17. Because evil ones surrounded me, who are comparable to a great dog assembly closing me in, like a lion biting my hands and my feet. 18. I show all my sore bones, they stare and mock me. 19. They divide my clothing and they cast lots for them. Septuagint: 17. Because many dogs surrounded me, an assembly of evil ones beset me, they dug/gouge [at] my hands and my feet. 18. They counted all my bones and they stared and looked at me. 19. They parted my clothing among them and for my vesture they cast lots. Peshitta: 17. Because dogs surrounded me and an assembly of evil ones encircled me, they broke through/pierced...

:From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies: Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Hebrew Learning in the Seventeenth Century

This book examines how Johannes Buxtorf's works helped to transform seventeenth-century Hebrew studies from the hobby of a few experts into a recognized academic discipline. The first two chapters examine Buxtorf's career as a professor of Hebrew and as an editor and censor of Jewish books in Basel. Successive chapters analyze his anti-Jewish polemical books, grammars and lexicons, and manuals for Hebrew composition and literature, including the first bibliography devoted to Jewish books. The final chapters treat his work in biblical studies, examining his contribution to Targum and Massorah studies, and his position on the age and doctrinal authority of the Hebrew vowel points. The chapters on anti-Jewish polemics and the vowel points will interest Jewish historians and Church historians.