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This course examines Jewish cultures across the major centres of the diaspora – Ashkenaz (northern Europe), Sepharad (Iberia), and the Islamic Mediterranean – from approximately 900 to 1500 CE. Through six thematic units spanning ritual practice, social marginality, religious crises, intellectual life, and material culture, students will explore how medieval Jewish identity was constituted, maintained, and contested.
Each unit pairs primary sources with recent scholarship, asking how medieval Jews understood themselves, how they were perceived by their neighbours, and how Jewish communities defined the boundaries of belonging. The course aims to capture the internal diversity of medieval Jewish experience by focusing on those groups often underrepresented or problematised in normative rabbinic sources: women, children, converts, and people on the margins of the community. A unit on visual and material culture adds another layer of evidence and trains students to interpret illuminated manuscripts as historical sources. While acknowledging the role of violence and persecution in shaping medieval Jewish history, the course emphasises that Jewish identity was constructed in continuous dialogue – sometimes collaborative, sometimes hostile – with the surrounding Christian and Muslim worlds. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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Attendance Policy Regular attendance is essential for this discussion-based seminar. You may miss up to two sessions without explanation. If you must miss three or more sessions, you should:
Students who miss more than four sessions or who fail to communicate about absences will not be permitted to take the final exam. If circumstances require extended absence, please contact me to discuss options. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (03.02.2026)
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The following works form the foundation of the course. Students are not expected to read all of these books. Specific chapters and excerpts will be assigned for each session. A detailed reading list (approximately 30-40 pages per session) will be provided in the full syllabus on Moodle at the start of the term. Barzilay, Tzafrir. Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022. Barzilay, Tzafrir, Eyal Levinson, and Elisheva Baumgarten, eds. Jewish Everyday Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1080-1350: A Sourcebook. Kalamazoo (Mich.): Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2022. Baumgarten, Elisheva. Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe. Princeton, N.J. ; London: Princeton University Press, 2004. ———. Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Chazan, Robert. European Jewry and the First Crusade. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. ———, ed. The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 6: The Middle Ages: The Christian World. Vol. 6. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Cohen, Jeremy. Sanctifying the Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Cohen, Mark R. Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt. Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. Epstein, Marc Michael. The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2011. Lieberman, Phillip I., ed. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Volume 5: Jews in the Medieval Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Marcus, Ivan G. Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Marcus, Jacob Rader, and Marc Saperstein. The Jews in Christian Europe: A Source Book, 315-1791. Pittsburgh: Hebrew Union College Press; University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015. Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1996. Shoham-Steiner, Ephraim. Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2021. ———. On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe. Translated by Haim Watzman. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014. Stern, Gregg. Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture: Jewish Interpretation and Controversy in Medieval Languedoc. New York: Routledge, 2009. Stillman, Norman A. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979. Yuval, Israel Jacob. Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Translated by Barbara Harshav and Jonathan Chipman. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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Assessment Structure The assessment consists of two components, each worth 50% of the final grade: 1. Mid-Semester Source Analysis (due 15 April)
2. Final Oral Exam (exam period, 25 May–30 June)
Further instructions on both the mid-semester analysis and the outline for the oral exam will be included in the course syllabus on Moodle at the start of the term. This course uses the Czech numerical grading scale:
Your final grade is calculated as the average of your two assessment components. When averages fall on 0.5 boundaries (e.g., 1.5 or 2.5), I round in your favour. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (03.02.2026)
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Course Themes 1. Medieval Jewish Communities: Sources and Institutions A detailed session-by-session schedule will be provided in the full syllabus on Moodle. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (03.02.2026)
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After completing the course, students will be able to: - Outline major developments in medieval Jewish history. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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The course is open to MA students and BA students in their final year. No special language skills beyond English are required. General awareness of Jewish history and Judaism is helpful, but not mandatory. Poslední úprava: Žonca Milan, PhDr., Ph.D. (03.02.2026)
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