One person in Jewish history personally encapsulates the 17th century trend towards Biblical criticism, and the shift of population, wealth, and power from the Iberian kingdoms to Britain and the Netherlands.

In this post, we shift from the history of Ashkenazi Jewry (those descended from German-speaking lands) to Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) speaking communities. There is a tendency to associate "Ashkenazi" with communities that developed under Christian rulers, and "Sephardi" which those under Islamic rule, but as you'll see below, that it an oversimplification that isn't useful for cultural or historical analysis.

Menasheh Ben Israel was born on the Portuguese Island of Madeira in 1604 and emigrated as a child with his family, fleeing the Inquisition, to Holland.

In his 20s, he brought and managed the first Hebrew Printing Press to Amsterdam. Although Hebrew printing had begun earlier in Northern Italy, Amsterdam was to be a major center of Hebrew books throughout the early modern age. He wrote and published books in Hebrew, Spanish, and Latin. Ben Israel was influential in creating a Sephardic Jewish community of Iberian refugees who had previously been outwardly practicing Catholicism. He visited the New World Colony of Recife, but returned back to Amsterdam.

As the reformation progressed, Calvinists in particular became interested in studying the Hebrew Bible in the original language, so Hebrew printing became influential to both Jews and Christians in the region. Similarly, Menasheh maintained contacts with the Royal courts of Europe, offering to provide them with Hebrew books.

Toward the end of his life, Ben Israel requested from Cromwell to allow Jewish settlement in England. The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290. Ben Israel and a small delegation visited London in 1656-7, and secured the right to settle and pray privately for a community of Dutch Jews. Cromwell was, well, a Millenarian psycho and Ben Israel spoke to his fantasies, self righteousness, and fervor. One could draw a pretty straight line from Cromwell's conditional philosemitism to the Balfour declaration and the Christian Zionism of today.

Between 1348 and 1351 The black death caused unspeakable death and destruction to the Jewish communities of Europe. Early, a rumor spread that the plague was spread by Jews poisoning the wells of Christian towns. There are eery parallels to antisemitic canards that arose early in the spread of COVID-19.

Violent pogroms erupted across central Europe, particularly in the Rhineland. Writers of the era composed Kinot_ or songs of mourning, some explicitly about the contemporary violence, and some retelling the destruction of Jerusalem (by Babylonians and Romans), or using literary motifs from the Lamentations of Jeremiah but obviously drawing on contemporary experiences. Typically, a minor noble or Burgher (often deeply in debt to a Jewish lender) would stir up area peasants based on the rumors of well-poisoning, ritual murder, or host (communion wafer) desecration. While the Pope issued a toothless protective bull against murdering Jews, and Emperor Charles IV also attempted to protect Jews from violence, the perpetrators were absolved of any murders fairly swiftly. This has echos in the complicity of the Vatican in organizing the "rat lines" sending Nazi War criminals to South America in the years immediately following WWII.

Some historians believe that in the period of the plague the Mourner's Kaddish became a central part of Ashkenazi practice. Though some scholars trace it earlier, to the time of the crusades. It is an example of a major prayer switching significance (from glorifying Torah study to communal mourning) based on the emotional needs of the population.

We have incredible archaeological finds from the years of the black death. Jewish lenders, sensing doom, buried or walled-off valuables that they held. The Erfurt Treasure was discovered in 1998 hidden within a wall. The Colmar Treasure was found in 1863. It is important to note that during medieval times, though a few Jews in each town would have worked as money-lenders and pawnbrokers, most had more mundane occupations, and did not hold such wealth. Jewish communities were neither noble or serf, they would have worked in various crafts depending on their skills and region including wagon-building, carpentry, dyeing, food production, fabric work, etc.

By way of introduction, I think the period of the thirty years war is a particularly interesting time when we can see the beginnings of modern Jewish thought and practice in Europe. The key preliminary events here were the Spanish Expulsion of 1492, where the Jews of Andalusia/Iberia were martyred, forced to convert to Catholicism or Emigrated (Mostly to Ottoman and Muslim lands, but also the Low countries and the New World). These Jews were the ancestors of the Sepharadim, while the Jews who originated in the Rhineland and migrated generally Eastward to the Slavic and Baltic areas would become the Ashkenazim.

The second major innovation was of course the printing press. Hebrew printing began in the late 1400s in Italy and radically changed the dynamics of studying sacred text.

The 1600s will bring us such fascinating characters in the Jewish world as Baruch Spinoza, Moshe Isserles, Shabbtai Tzvi, and Menashe ben Israel. And Jewish cultural centers will begin in the former backwaters of Lithuania and Poland.

My notes on Martin Luther (Ep 1.)

At about 80 minutes in, Matt makes reference to Luther's recalcitrance on what initially was a sort of philosemitism. Indeed in "That Christ was born a Jew" Luther appears to welcome Jewish converts into his new purified Christianity.

Towards the end of his life though, and the publication of "The Jews and Their Lies." Its clear than any semblance of openness and decency that Luther had towards Jews as a people was simply based on the assumption that they would quickly convert to Christianity in large number.

Some Historians (I have an essay by Hayim Greenberg to this effect) lay the cultural responsibility for Naziism squarely on Luther, with his synthesis of Religious and Political power combined with a more modern strain of antisemitism.

A real banger from Blowback's Noah Kulwin.

"Do not use participation in the slave trade as an excuse for whitewashing Jews, unless you are willing to do the same to Arabs and Native Americans. Otherwise, it is nothing more than discrimination. And discrimination against Jews has a name: antisemitism."

Good slop this week. Lots of talk about Representations of Jewish masculinity

a secret-Jew tricked his captors into allowing him to celebrate the holiday, imprisoned by the Inquisition in 1600s Mexico.

While I'm skeptical of the emphasis on haplotypes, I think it's really interesting how remains have been identified as belonging to Jewish people from a historical event, as well as dating the genetic "bottleneck" that occured.

"According to the Talmud, at the World-to-Come Diaspora Jews will roll through tunnels to be resurrected at Mount Olive."

Under the words "Emma Earns Her Punishment," this cartoon shows Goldman being led into prison by a police officer. The figure at the right is labeled a "sweat-shop boss," and the paper at Goldman's feet reads: "Lecture: How to protect from too many children." The caption at the bottom has the sweat-shop boss saying: "Hear this scandal! I need kids to work and she preaches against children! To prison with her!"

Interesting discussion from a text-based, Orthodox perspective, ranging from “Flags rule” to “Flags are idolatry.”

Saturday Night the holiday of Shavuot begins. It celebrates early agricultural produce, and the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. It occurs after a counting of 7 weeks (Sheva is the word for 7, and Shavuot is Weeks) following Passover.

The holiday has several observances: Staying up late learning and studying, eating dairy foods, making cringeworthy jokes about lactose intolerance, reading the book of Ruth (which has special significance for Jews by choice). In the 19th century, the Reform movement replaced the Bar Mitzvah at age 13 with confirmation at 16, and confirmations were often celebrated on this holiday as well.

Rather than reply to a banned poster about anti-Palestinian violence at the "Flag March", I'll just point out that "Jerusalem Day" is a political holiday attempting to masquerade as a religious one. It over-emphasizes the role of religious sites (The Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Khalil/Hebron) in what was a war of territorial expansion by the secular zionist government.

"Jerusalem Day" ostensibly celebrates the "unification" of Jerusalem. While this did allow Jewish worship and tourism in the old city, it also began the colonial project in the West Bank, Golan, Sinai and Gaza. For the most part, Jerusalem Day isn't celebrated by Jewish communities in the diaspora.

I picked up a previously loved copy of The Holy Scriptures today because I want to know what the big deal is. For some reason I was expecting it to be a lot smaller. Before diving into all 1624 pages, I was wondering if there's a recommended approach to reading the text in full. Is there a particular order to chapters/books that's better, or some stuff that can be skipped or skimmed over? Are there any particularly spicy bits I should focus on?

Oscar Isaac. Adam Driver. Jason Biggs. Dee Snyder.

One large, one adult, one fail, and one who does not know how to avoid bad takes.

The bird's head Haggadah is the oldest (ca. 1300) surviving Ashkenazi manuscript for leading the Passover Seder. Many theories for the symbolism of the illustrations.