Annika Funke
Doctoral Candidate
University of Trier
Supervisor: Prof. Lukas Clemens
“In the 15th century a series of expulsions drove out the Jews from most of the free and imperial cities in the German territories. Complying with the restricting settlement policies of the surrounding small towns and villages, Jewish communities reorganized as a rural settlement network with often no more than two families living in close proximity. Religious and communal life was subject to fundamental changes. To visit communal institutions or events, to conduct business and to perform acts of political participation and representation, Jews had to travel on a daily basis. In my PhD project, I investigate the interactions of small-town Jews with civic authorities, differentiating between institutionalized diplomatic actions and the scope of individual agency.
While local spokespeople formed early political bodies led by appointed communal leaders as regional representatives, these organizations were not yet fully developed “Landjudenschaften” as known from the early modern period. Letters, court protocols and registers, as well as chancery records testify to the vital advocacy of individual Jews for their rights and needs, facing problems such as taxation, expropriation, violence and economic competition. Using these sources, I wish to illuminate new challenges of the rural lifestyle and how they induced both vivid individual political intervention and the reshaping of Jewish self-government. I concentrate on the regions of Alsace, where evidence of institutional diplomacy is especially informative, and Wetterau, where records of the county of Hess show manifold ambitions of individuals in political matters.”
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Hannah Teddy Schachter (December 12, 2021). Researcher of the Week. medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved November 2, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/rhi8