The Jews of Provence and Languedoc: (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

The Hebrew edition of The Jews of Provence and Languedoc, published in 2017, was awarded the Ben Zvi Institute Prize (2018) and the Am Olam Prize of the Historical Society of Israel (2019) This exhaustive history of Provençal Jewry examines the key aspects of Jewish life in Provence—cultural, religious, political, economic, and literary—over some 1,500 years. The Jewish response to the Albigensian Crusade, the annexation of Languedoc by the Kingdom of France, and other historical events was an unprecedented cultural florescence that was to have far-reaching and enduring consequences. Crucially, it was in Provence that philosophical and scientific works were first translated from Arabic to Hebrew, allowing the Jews of Christian Europe to absorb and assimilate the achievements of the Jews of Muslim Spain. The emergence in Provence of the Maimonidean-Aristotelian philosophical school sent spiritual shock waves throughout the Jewish world, and it was also in Provence that the first esoteric teachings of kabbalah emerged. But cultural innovations went beyond the religious and philosophical: secular Hebrew poetry written by Jewish troubadors offered a glimpse of Jewish merrymaking, romanticism, and eroticism that drew criticism from the rabbis, and even allowed women’s voices to be assertively raised in the public sphere. First published in Hebrew in 2017 to scholarly acclaim, this is a seminal examination of the crucial role of the Jews of Provence in shaping medieval Jewish culture in the Mediterranean basin. Translated by Shmuel Sermoneta-Gertel.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Part I. The Jews of Provence in the Shadow of the Church 1. The Arrival of the Jews in Provence: Myth and Reality 2. The Community and Its Institutions: Society and Economy 3. Jewish Women 4. The Jews and the Cross 5. Religious Polemics and Attitudes to Christianity 6. King René and the Final Expulsion from Provence Part II. The Cultural Renaissance of the Jews of Provence 7. Torah Study and Scholarship 8. Provençal Jewish Culture 9. Judah Ibn Tibbon and Joseph Kimhi: The Translation Project 10. The Translation Project as a Cultural Renaissance 11. The Professional Discourse of Translation 12. Adab and Judah Ibn Tibbon’s Ethical Will: The Multicultural Library and Its Influence 13. The Controversy Surrounding Philosophy and Radical Allegory 14. The Kabbalistic Circles in Provence 15. Messianism, Polemics, and Political Perceptions of Redemption 16. Collective Historical Identity and Cultural Specificity Afterword Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Ram Ben-Shalom is Professor of the History of the Jewish People and head of the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is also director of the Hispania Judaica Center.

Review :
(Review of Hebrew edition) 'This impressive tome is a considerable scholarly achievement . . . Particularly praiseworthy is the fact that [Ben-Shalom] draws on a wide range of original documents in many literary genres . . . As a consequence, many developments are described in minute detail with a stunning wealth of information. For the foreseeable future, this book will be the point of departure for all research and teaching on the Jews in the Midi. . . . Ben-Shalom's vast reading and mastery of the sources proves its mettle in isolating essences in heaps of details. Future generations of historians of all sorts will be grateful to Ben-Shalom for having put at their disposal such a wealth of information, insights, and leads between two covers (albeit separated by over 800 pages!).' - Gad Freudenthal, Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism (Review of Hebrew edition, review quote translated from French) '[The book] brings together in a perhaps unique way the diverse contributions to the history of Hebrew literature and Jewish thought of the Provincia, the land of translators of Aristotelian philosophy and science as well as other Arab-Ancient sources of medicine and astronomy, but also of a Halakhic school, the historically ascribed origins of Kabbalah, Jewish troubadours and the first and lasting confrontation with the inquisition.' - Jean-Pierre Rothschild, {:: } {:: }Revue des Études Juives