Jewish Acculturation Research Articles

A Proper Diet: Medicine and History in Crescas Caslari's "Esther"

A pair of early-fourteenth-century texts by a Jewish physician offers an unusual glimpse of Jewish acculturation in medieval Provence. Their fate, moreover, illustrates the complexity of Jewish identity and memory, built on scaffolding assembled and reassembled over years of dislocation. Composed around 1327 in Avignon, Crescas Caslari's two verse narratives recount the biblical story of Esther. One version, in rhymed couplets, is the vernacular used by Provençal Jews, and the other version is in Hebrew. The Romance version survives in two incomplete fragments, enough to demonstrate a lively adaptation of romance narrative conventions and a sure literary hand. Except as a curiosity, it very quickly faded from sight. The Hebrew version, albeit complete, has had only a slightly securer footing in history. One manuscript copy, dated 1402 and now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, survives in an anthology of Purim parodies and hymns copied in a Provençal hand; another, now in the British Library, is preserved in an eighteenth-century festival prayer book of the Avignon rite. A printed version containing some striking variants appeared in Salonika, on the press of Isaac Jehun, in 1853.

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe. Ivan Marcus

<i>Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe</i>. Ivan Marcus

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe.Ivan G. Marcus

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsRituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe. Ivan G. Marcus Michael GoodichMichael Goodich Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 73, Number 1Jan., 1998 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2886929 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1998 The Medieval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval EuropeMarcusIvan G. Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe Yale University PressNew Haven/London, 1996, ix-x, 191, £16.95

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval EuropeMarcusIvan G. <i>Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe</i> Yale University PressNew Haven/London, 1996, ix-x, 191, £16.95

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of childhood: Jewish acculturation in medieval Europe

Rituals of childhood: Jewish acculturation in medieval Europe

Reviews

Thinking about thinking about the Holocaust James R. Watson, Between Auschwitz and Tradition: Postmodern Reflections on the Task of Thinking. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1994 (Value Inquiry Book Series, 6). xiv+220pp. Notes. Bibl. Ind. $44. The ultimate safe haven Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. xxxviii+369pp. Notes. Bibl. Ind. £17.95. Muslim insiders and outsiders Philip Lewis, Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Identity among British Muslims: Bradford in the 1990s. London: I. B. Tauris, 1994. 250pp. Notes. Gloss. Ind. £11.95 pbk. Syed Z. Abedin and Ziauddin Sardar (eds.), Muslim Minorities in the West. London: Grey Seal Books, 1995 (Studies of Muslim Minorities). x+212pp. Ind. £25.00 Nietzsche and the Nazi spin doctors Weaver Santaniello, Nietzsche, God and the Jews: His Critique of Judeo‐Christianity in Relation to the Nazi Myth. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994. xvi+232pp. Notes. Bibl. Ind. $17.95. Race relations and asylum Satnam Virdee, Racial Violence and Harassment. London: Policy Studies Institute, 1995. 63pp. Bibl. Conor Foley and Sue Shutter, The Last Resort: Violations of Human Rights against Refugees and Asylum‐seekers. London: Liberty, 1995 (Human Rights Convention, Report 9). 71pp. Notes. £4.00. Medieval rites de passage Ivan G. Marcus, Rituals of Childhood. Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996. xii+191pp. Notes. Ind. Bibl. £16.95. White ‘civilization’ and its discontents Gerhard Schutte, What Racists Believe. Race Relations in South Africa and the United States Today. Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage, 1995 (Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations). xiv+379pp. Bibl. Ind. £19.95 (pbk.).

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Rabbis and Lawyers: The Journey from Torah to Constitution.

Auerbach examines the special contributions of rabbis and lawyers to American Jewish acculturation. Based on extensive reading and research in American and Israeli archives, his analysis of how lawyers displaced rabbis as community leaders at the beginning of this century illuminates a decisive moment in American Jewish history.

The Future of the Jewish Family: Personal and Communal Responsibility

There have been those who are predicting the demise of the Jewish family and the Jewish community based upon current demographic data.1 Others believe in their continuity based upon their resiliency and accommodation to changing conditions in society.2. At this stage of Jewish acculturation, both positions may be true. The future may be dire, but the present reflects the struggle to persist and maintain Jewish communal life, despite its buffeting by the winds of assimilation and social change.