The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism

by Joshua Trachtenberg

Book Overview

A JPS bestseller, this is the definitive work of scholarship on the medieval conception of the Jew as devil--literally and figuratively. Through documents, analysis, and illustrations, the book exposes the full spectrum of the Jew's demonization as devil, sorcerer, and ritual murderer. The author reveals how these myths, many with origins traced to Christian Europe in the late Middle Ages, still exist in transmuted form in the modern era.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B002MZK4UC
• ISBN13: 9780827602274
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Jewish Publication Society
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Devil and The Jews: An Indispensable Guide to Understanding Modern Christian Anti-Semitism

This book, an excerpt from Dr. Trachtenberg's doctoral dissertation of Jewish life during the medieval period, is a study of the relationship of Jews and their neighbors in Western Europe. This book contains images. Images derived from posters, plates and various other materials that have depictions of Jews as swine or as billy goats (the antiquated belief that these where satan's favorite animals;) as demonic-like humans with long tails, long pointed ears, horn(s) etc. It's not for the faint of heart. This, notwithstanding, is an integral aspect in painting a picture about the various communities in which Jews were a part of, albeit never more than 2% of the population. This book focuses on what is referred to as "Modern" Christian Anti-semitism, which is an appendage of "Classical" Christian Anti-semitism, and whose beliefs primarily focus on the secular-behavioral and psychological character of the Jew from the medieval European mindset. The book delves into Catholic thoughts on Jews and commerce; Jews and their (perceived) hatred of Christian religious observances; Jews and their sorceric relationship to medicine. And, Jews and the psychological "misunderstanding" of The Law and Jesus (yeah, whatever.) I must mention that the tone of this book is neither apologetic (and why should it be?) nor is it exasperate. Drawing from an extensive bibliography, the author focuses on how the vocality of certain groups influenced the environment for ill. Explicit comments and blunt statements reveals not only a climate of distrust and hatred but also passive aggressive acts of violence. Trachtenberg tells in how it was typical for a Jewish home to be vandalized. One instance details how many families would come home to find the parchment in the "mezuzah" (an inscription of a biblical verse encased and attached to the doorway) was torn from the case or a knife stuck in the middle of it. The depths of racism even extended to miscegenation. In an attempt to relate physical relations with Jews to bestiality, a court in Oxford reprimanded a deacon in 1222 to be burned. He had renounced his Catholicism and converted to Judaism in order to marry a Jewess. According to court records, the prosecutor remarked, "Christian lawgivers should have adopted the Jewish code against sexual intercourse with beasts, and then enlarged it so as to include the Jews themselves." During deliberations, jurors debated whether "cohabitation of a Christian with a Jewess, or vice versa, constitutes sodomy." This a companion book to Jewish Magic and Superstition and was a part of Dr. Trachtenberg's doctoral dissertation. Another book that speak to this period is James Shapiro's book, Shakespeare and the Jews.

A brilliant and important book

The roots of anti-Semitism, and of many Jewish stereotypes date to the Middle Ages. This book details the birth of many of the myths and misconceptions that derived from that time. In so doing, this book also helps to explain many everyday realities about Christian belief and culture. Why does the devil have a beard and horns? This book explains it, and helps the reader to understand the chilling melding that was done of the Christian conception of the Devil and that of the Jews. This book will haunt you; but it will also open your eyes to see the world in a very different way.

Singular and exceptional work

Trachtenberg's the Devil and the Jew has only recently returned to print after decades of being unavailable. The book is so good, that it was even hard to find in libraries because it was so often stolen. Now at last it is available to the modern reader without having to resort to theft or exauting searches.In this work, the author traces the history of the christian association between the Jew and the Chritian devil from early church history, but with a particular focus on the middle ages. Many of the myths that many Jewish murders have been based on, right up to the 20th century, have their roots in this period and Tractenberg does a tremdous job exploring them. While many others have written about this topic, (Moss, Towards the Final Solution being a particularly fine example) none of the more recent works have in any way displaced Trachtenberg's careful study.This is a must for the collection of anyone intersted in this topic or anything else related to European Jewish History. Buy it now before it again goes out of print.

Definitive book on the ill-painted role Jews were given.

Though this is not a new book, it should still be much sought out for it offers readers--scholars and the general public--the opportunity to discover how the Jews in the medieval era were cast the heinous role as servants of the Devil. This study details the Anti-Semitism of that age with chilling color. I highly recommend this title.