Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The topic in 2008 was "Law: Continuity and Change in the Early Modern Period." The transformations in the legal sphere are among the many crucial changes that mark the early modern period. The participants examined presented texts through both an historical and a jurisprudential lens; they questioned issues of communal self-governance, and the relationship of Jews to the laws and courts of the lands in which they lived, and engaged in an interdisciplinary dialogue about how law evolves, and how it affects and is affected by historical developments. The keynote speaker, Professor Richard Ross (University of Illinois) and Professor Susanne Stone (Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law) guided historians who are not always attuned to methodologies of legal theories in exploring new ways of examining legal sources. The 2008 workshop attempted to understand better what types of legal developments are characteristic of the early modern period. As in previous workshops, topics were considered from a multi-regional perspective. Edward Fram focused on the role of print in the popularization and codification of Jewish law; Yaron Ben Naeh presented text of Jewish cases in Ottoman courts; Adam Teller discussed legal status of Jews and Jewish courts in Poland-Lithuania; Benjamin Ravid highlighted the nexus between baptism and charters for Jews and Marranos in Venice; Barbara Staudinger presented texts of Jews in imperial courts in the Holy Roman Empire; David Horowitz and Ann Oravetz discussed questions of the herem in Hamburg and Amsterdam respectively; Miriam Bodian focused on Amsterdam Regulations of 1616 concerning the Jews, and Kenneth Stow explored questions of common law (ius commune). Additional sources included here are, Stefan Litt’s transcription and translation of the takkanot (community ordinances) of the community in Ühlfeld, dating from 1688; and Elimelech Westerich’s presentation of the question of divorce in Jewish law.

Sponsors

• Yeshiva University
• Wesleyan University’s Jewish and Israel Studies Certificate programs, the Office of Academic Affairs and the Academic Deans, Center for Faculty Career Development; Information Technology Services Department
• University of Maryland’s Louis L. Kaplan Chair of Jewish History at the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies.
• The Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Cardozo School of Law