Description
In this discussion we explore an aspect of space that is often overlooked in studies of Jewish life in the early modern period: the interactions between Jews and the natural world. Our session will focus around Jewish engagement with rivers, and how waterways shaped the spatial dimensions of daily life. In European settlements across the continent rivers bisect cities and towns, and were arteries of commerce, trade, and travel. Waterways also connected settlements, were a site of contact for non-elite Jews, and, as a force of nature, impacted the lives of Jewish and Christian neighbors. Rivers could be used as a resource for cleanliness and hygiene, but they also posed danger to residents during periods of excessive rain and flooding. The various rivers that we will discuss were both within and beyond human civilization. They were also a subject of legal conundra. Our discussion will revolve around three sources from Central Europe that examine the ways in which thinking with rivers can lead us to explore not only the human-made spaces of a landscape, but also the natural elements at their outer limits. Each source is from a different genre, yet each one highlights how a consideration of rivers enriches our understandings of Jewish and Christian spaces. One, drawn from custom literature, explores the topography of flooding and the experiences of rising water levels; another, drawn from the archives of Prague, explores class and religion from the perspective of state administration, and a third, from halakhic literature, demonstrates how rivers connected and divided urban and rural communities. Each source sheds light on an aspect of the experience of environment and the role of space in Jewish life, and together offer a portrait of the place of water as a zone of physical and cultural interaction.
Start Date
15-8-2018 12:30 PM
End Date
15-8-2018 2:00 PM
Included in
Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Social History Commons
Fluid Boundaries: Rivers and the Jewish Communities of Early Modern Ashkenaz
In this discussion we explore an aspect of space that is often overlooked in studies of Jewish life in the early modern period: the interactions between Jews and the natural world. Our session will focus around Jewish engagement with rivers, and how waterways shaped the spatial dimensions of daily life. In European settlements across the continent rivers bisect cities and towns, and were arteries of commerce, trade, and travel. Waterways also connected settlements, were a site of contact for non-elite Jews, and, as a force of nature, impacted the lives of Jewish and Christian neighbors. Rivers could be used as a resource for cleanliness and hygiene, but they also posed danger to residents during periods of excessive rain and flooding. The various rivers that we will discuss were both within and beyond human civilization. They were also a subject of legal conundra. Our discussion will revolve around three sources from Central Europe that examine the ways in which thinking with rivers can lead us to explore not only the human-made spaces of a landscape, but also the natural elements at their outer limits. Each source is from a different genre, yet each one highlights how a consideration of rivers enriches our understandings of Jewish and Christian spaces. One, drawn from custom literature, explores the topography of flooding and the experiences of rising water levels; another, drawn from the archives of Prague, explores class and religion from the perspective of state administration, and a third, from halakhic literature, demonstrates how rivers connected and divided urban and rural communities. Each source sheds light on an aspect of the experience of environment and the role of space in Jewish life, and together offer a portrait of the place of water as a zone of physical and cultural interaction.
