Southern France at Bialik
Mosad Bialik has just published two books on the Jewish communities of Southern France. One is the pinkas of the Jewish community in Carpentras, from the 18th century. It is one of the rich ironies of Jewish history that, after 1497, the only Jews living openly in Western Europe (west of Italy, that is) were the Jews living in the Papal States.
By that time, the Jewish communities of the area lacked the vitality and creativity they were known for in earlier times. But they did preserve their liturgical tradition, which contains many indigenous piyyutim. Those piyyutim are the subject of a major new study by Binyamin Bar-Tikvah, who previously published a monograph on the work of one of those medieval poets, Isaac ha-Seniri.
By that time, the Jewish communities of the area lacked the vitality and creativity they were known for in earlier times. But they did preserve their liturgical tradition, which contains many indigenous piyyutim. Those piyyutim are the subject of a major new study by Binyamin Bar-Tikvah, who previously published a monograph on the work of one of those medieval poets, Isaac ha-Seniri.
posted by manuscriptboy | 8:31 AM
4 Comments:
> It is one of the rich ironies of Jewish history that, after 1497, the only Jews living openly in Western Europe (west of Italy, that is) were the Jews living in the Papal States.
Not sure I understand this sentence. Jews have lived in Alsace for hundreds of years, for instance. Maybe not in the big cities like Strasbourg, but all the small villages had their Jewish community.
I should have said 'the only communities of Jews'. As Simon Schwarzfuchs writes (Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin, London 1979, p. 1-2): There had been a Jewish community in Alsace since the early Middle Ages. Many were put to death during the Black Death of 1349. It would seem that their number remained fairly small until the second half of the seventeenth century... The Jewish population in any one such area might often consist of no more than a single family'.
I never knew England and Holland were Papal states.
Former Roomate
Thanks for the links.
Any clue why Bialik lists it under Holocaust literature?
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