Cultures of the Jews, Volume 2: Diversities of Diaspora »

David Biale is the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis.

Scattered over much of the world throughout most of their history, are the Jews one people or many? How do they resemble and how do they differ from Jews in other places and times? What have their relationships been to the cultures of their neighbors? To address these and similar questions, some of the finest scholars of our day have contributed their insights to Cultures of the Jews, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award upon its hardcover publication in 2002.

Constructing their essays around specific cultural artifacts that were created in the period and locale under study, the contributors describe the cultural interactions among different Jews–from rabbis and scholars to non-elite groups, including women–as well as between Jews and the surrounding non-Jewish world. What they conclude is that although Jews have always had their own autonomous traditions, Jewish identity cannot be considered the fixed product of either ancient ethnic or religious origins. Rather, it has shifted and assumed new forms in response to the cultural environment in which the Jews have lived.

Diversities of Diaspora, the second volume in Cultures of the Jews, illuminates Judeo-Arabic culture in the Golden Age of Islam; Sephardic culture as it bloomed first on the Iberian Peninsula and later in Amsterdam; and the Jewish-Christian symbiosis in Ashkenazic Europe. It also discusses Jewish culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; the culture of the Italian Jews of the Renaissance period; and representations of folklore and material culture through childbirth rituals throughout the Jewish diaspora.

List of Contributors Acknowledgments

Preface: Toward a Cultural History of the Jews
by David Biale

Introduction
by David Biale

ONE:
Merchants and Intellectuals, Rabbis and Poets: Judeo-Arabic Culture in the Golden Age of Islam
by Raymond P. Scheindlin

TWO:
A Letter to a Wayward Teacher: The Transformations of Sephardic Culture in Christian Iberia
by Benjamin R. Gampel

THREE:
A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis: The Culture of Early Ashkenaz
by Ivan G.Marcus

FOUR:
Innovative Tradition: Jewish Culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
by Moshe Rosman

FIVE:
Families and Their Fortunes: The Jews of Early Modern Italy
by Elliott Horowitz

SIX:
Bom Judesmo: The Western Sephardic Diaspora
by Yosef Kaplan

SEVEN:
Childbirth and Magic: Jewish Folklore and Material Culture
by Shalom Sabar

Conclusion
by David Biale • 421

Index