The Hebrew chronicle written by Solomon b. Samson recounts the mass conversion of the Jews of Regensburg in 1096.’ The Jews were herded and forced into the local river where a ‘sign was made over the water, the sign of a cross’ and thus they were baptized, all together in the same river. The local German rivers play another role in the accounts of the turbulent events of the Crusade persecutions. They were also the place where Jews evaded conversion, drowning themselves in water, rather than being baptized by what the chronicles’ authors call the ‘stinking waters’ of Christianity. Reading these Hebrew chronicles, one is immediately struck by the tremendous revulsion expressed toward the waters of baptism. Indeed, in his analysis of the symbolic significance of the baptismal waters for medieval Jews, Ivan Marcus has suggested that baptism by force in the local rivers was so traumatic that they instituted a ritual response during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One component of the medieval Jewish child initiation ceremony to Torah study was performed on the banks of the river, expressing Jewish aversion to baptism (see Fig. i).

Jews living in northern Europe during the High Middle Ages inhabited large urban centers and lived in close proximity to their Christian neighbors. This led to daily contact between Jews and Christians and shared realms of experience and practice. This article examines the lives of Jewish women during the High Middle Ages. Using a poem written after the death of Dulcia of Worms in the 1196, it outlines the characteristics of women’s religious and social lives during the period, and it also explores the gender understandings and conventions of Jews in medieval Europe. Comparing Jewish and Christian society, the article sets out distinctive and shared practices related to gender and religion.

Die drei jüdischen Zentren des mittleren Rheingebiets, Mainz, Worms und Speyer, sind seit dem Hochmittelalter unter dem Akronym SchUM (Schpira/Warmaisa/Magenza) bekannt. Die Ausstrahlung der SchUMStädte, die Bedeutung ihrer Gelehrten und Institutionen sowie die vielfältigen Traditionen, die sich mit ihnen verbinden, begründen den einzigartigen Rang dieser drei Gemeinden in der Kultur des deutschen und nordfranzösischen, des aschkenasischen Judentums. - - Die SchUM-Städte vertraten eine gemeinsame Position in der Auslegung der Religionsgesetze, die heute als Takkanot Schum bekannt sind. Diese Erlasse und die Talmudschulen genossen unter den Juden hohes Ansehen, - weshalb die SchUM-Städte seit Anfang des 13. Jh. eine führende Rolle in der jüdischen Kultur Europas und im Austausch mit dem Christentum übernahmen. Bedeutende Überreste der materiellen Kultur der SchUM-Gemeinden sind heute noch vorhanden: der Judenhof in Speyer mit der Mikwe, der Synagogengarten in Worms oder der "Denkmalfriedhof" in Mainz. Sie sind so wichtig, dass das Land Rheinland-Pfalz sie aufgrund ihres "außergewöhnlichen universellen Werts" in die Welterbeliste der UNESCO aufnehmen lassen möchte. - - Zur Planung und Konkretisierung dieses Vorhabens fand in Mainz eine internationale Tagung statt, bei der Experten aus verschiedenen Disziplinen aktuelle Forschungsfragen diskutierten. Geschichte und Kultur der SchUM-Gemeinden wurden hierbei im Kontext des aschkenasischen Judentums und in den Beziehungen zur christlichen Umwelt untersucht. Die Ergebnisse dieser Fachtagung werden in diesem Band vorgelegt. - - Zudem erscheint ein Reiseführer mit Ausflugszielen zu den Kulturstätten des Judentums. - - (Verlagsinformation, Tagungsprogramm)

"The Continuum Companion to Jewish Studies is a comprehensive reference guide, providing an overview of Jewish Studies as it has developed as an academic sub-discipline. This volume will survey the development and current state of research in the broad field of Jewish Studies - focusing on methodologies, current themes, and varieties of source materials available. Significantly, the volume also includes eleven essays from internationallly renowned scholars that provide an important and useful overview of Jewish history and the development of Judaism, and explore central themes in Jewish Studies that cut across historical periods and offer important opportunities to track significant developments across Jewish experiences. In addition to an annotated bibliography to help orient students and researchers, the volume includes a series of indispensable research tools, including a chronology, maps, and an extensive glossary of key terms and concepts necessary as one engages various fields within Jewish Studies. This is the essential reference guide for anyone working in this field"–

AbstractThis article discusses a story about a Jewish-Christian interaction during a drought that appears in Peter the Chanter’s Verbum abbreviatum and R. Judah the Pious’ Sefer Hasidim . I suggest that the two authors had a common source, noting that Peter’s version was earlier so that R. Judah might have based his story on an account based on Peter the Chanter’s story, whether oral or written. Analyzing the tale, the article points to narrative strategies used by both authors and to what they can tell us about Jewish and Christian knowledge of each other’s religious practice and belief in medieval Christian Europe.