Beyond Expulsion by Debra Kaplan

Author:Debra Kaplan [Kaplan, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Jewish
ISBN: 9780804779050
Google: LWTVuJR-hxQC
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2011-07-26T22:21:55+00:00

Seven

Constructing Jewish Memory

Self-Texts, the Reformation, and Narratives of Jewish History

The religious changes in the Christian world were not theologically relevant for Jews to the same degree that Hebraica and Judaica were critical for Protestant reformers. And yet, aside from the direct impact that the Reformation had upon those Jews living in the Empire, Jews took interest in these events, seeking to determine what the dissolution of a hitherto unified Latin Christendom meant for them. From as far away as Italy and the Ottoman Empire, Jews reported on Luther’s teachings and excitedly discussed the acts of iconoclasm that had accompanied reform in some German cities.1 Among those Jews who reflected on the meaning of these events was Josel of Rosheim, who considered the Reformation in light of the larger narrative of the precarious Jewish position in the Empire, the expulsions and restrictions faced by Jews, and the often difficult relationship between Jews and non-Jews. He discussed the Reformation and its leaders as part of his larger examination of the contemporary Jewish experience, written in Hebrew and designed for Jewish readers. The texts that he composed comprise his interpretation of the Jewish role in the world, the place of Jews in history, and the relationship between Jews and their Christian neighbors. As some of the only remaining Hebrew texts from the Jewish community in sixteenth-century Alsace that were designed for internal Jewish consumption, Josel’s writings allow us a window into his inner world. His view of Jewish history placed the Jews at the center of the historical narrative, which confirmed, in this time of religious definition, that the Jews remained the chosen people of God. An analysis of Josel’s texts in tandem with his correspondence with and about the lay and religious Narratives of Jewish History leaders of Strasbourg permits a nuanced understanding of his ideology and how he perceived the Reformation.

In addition, although the interpretive strategies Josel employed in crafting his texts drew heavily upon those used by previous Jewish authors, they were undertaken in a new genre. His texts, which reflect a mix of his ideology and a description of the events and people with whom he interacted, have been categorized as ego-documents or self-texts, texts in which an author conducted self-exploration.2 This genre, which developed among both Jewish and Christian writers during the early modern period, confirms the shared cultural space inhabited by both Jews and Christians. The memoirs of Asher of Reichshofen, composed in the following century, attest to the persistence of this genre among the Jews of seventeenth-century Alsace.

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