Jewish Communities within Christian Society in the Middle Ages (up to 1096)

This course will provide a study of Jewish history in Christian Europe from the 10^th to the 12^th centuries, in medieval northern France, England and Germany. We will extensively examine the theological background of Diaspora Jewry and Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era; the Jewish migration to northern France, Germany and England; the establishment of Jewish communities in these areas; and the ways in which the Jewish population earned its livelihood.  We will expand our examination in the 11^th century, investigating the cultural developments in both the Jewish and Christian worlds that reached a climax at the end of the century with the First Crusade to the Holy Land and the havoc wrought on German Jewry in 1096.