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12 - Jews and Money

The Medieval Origins of a Modern Stereotype

from Part II - Medieval Times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

By
Julie Mell
Edited by
Steven Katz
Steven Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

This chapter traces the medieval discourse on Jews as usurers from the 12th to the 16th centuries. It argues that European Jews were collectively labeled, then criminalized, as usurers because of their religious difference and not because of their highly exaggerated role as moneylenders.

Keywords

usurymoneylendingeconomicsmedieval Jewish history
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism , pp. 213 - 231
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Gamoran, H., Jewish Law in Transition: How Economic Forces Overcame the Prohibition against Lending (Cincinnati, OH, 2008). Surveys the rabbinic discussions of five types of business agreements related to usury from the Bible and Talmud to medieval and early modern rabbinic commentators.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karp, J., The Politics of Jewish Commerce: Economic Thought and Emancipation in Europe, 1638–1848 (Cambridge, 2008). Traces economic aspects of the debates over Jewish status in Western Europe from 1638 to 1848, giving attention both to Jewish and non-Jewish voices.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobrin, R., and Teller, A., eds., Purchasing Power: The Economics of Modern Jewish History (Philadelphia, 2015). A collection of articles that explore how Jews’ economic choices and practices shaped their place in the global economy of the early modern and modern world.Google Scholar
Mell, J., The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender, 2 vols. (New York, 2017–18). Traces the modern construction of the historical narrative of a Jewish economic function as moneylenders in medieval Europe, challenges it empirically with tax and loan documents from medieval England, and explores the consequences of this revision for European history more broadly.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penslar, D., Shylock’s Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe (Berkeley, CA, 2001). Tells the history of how modern Jews have perceived and responded to claims of Jews’ economic distinctiveness in commerce and credit.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, J., and Volovici, M., eds., Jews, Money, Myth (London, 2019). A collection of short scholarly essays published in conjunction with the exhibit of the same name at the Jewish Museum London in 2019. Essays cover topics related to money in Jewish tradition, moneylenders in medieval Europe, Shakespeare’s Shylock, and modern philanthropy and fortune.Google Scholar
Satlow, M., Judaism and the Economy: A Sourcebook (London, 2019). Provides ancient, medieval, and modern sources related to Jewish economic life and thought.Google Scholar
Schraer, M., A Stake in the Ground: Jews and Property Investment in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Leiden, 2019). Challenges the view of medieval Jews as primarily moneylenders and merchants by documenting Jewish property ownership in medieval Aragon.Google Scholar
Toch, M., The Economic History of European Jews: Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (Leiden, 2012). Describes the breadth and diversity of Jewish economic life from late antiquity to the central middle ages.Google Scholar
Todeschini, G., Franciscan Wealth: From Voluntary Poverty to Market Society (Saint Bonaventure, NY, 2009). Traces the development of Franciscan economic thought which led to a binary split between the Christian merchant and the Jewish usurer when the marketplace was legitimized by identification with a Christian civic common good.Google Scholar

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  • Jews and Money
  • Edited by Steven Katz, Boston University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108637725.015
Available formats
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  • Jews and Money
  • Edited by Steven Katz, Boston University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108637725.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Jews and Money
  • Edited by Steven Katz, Boston University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108637725.015
Available formats
×