New Book: Ram Ben-Shalom, “The Jews of Provence and Languedoc”

Read now Ram Ben-Shalom’s The Jews of Provence and Languedoc (Liverpool University Press, 2024). The publisher writes: “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.”


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Andreas Lehnertz (September 10, 2024). New Book: Ram Ben-Shalom, “The Jews of Provence and Languedoc” medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved April 21, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/129pd


About Andreas Lehnertz

As Juniorpofessor of medieval history with a specialization in Jewish history at the University of Trier, Andreas Lehnertz studies the social, cultural, and religious history of Europe. His academic pursuits focus on the nuanced dynamics of everyday Christian-Jewish relations, the study of marginal Hebrew and Yiddish deeds, the study of Jewish and general sealing practices, and the in-depth study of Jewish craftspeople. He wrote a book on "Jewish Seals in the Medieval German Empire: The Authentication and Self-Representation of Jewish Men and Women". His expertise has been further honed through his roles as a postdoctoral fellow in the ERC project "Beyond the Elite - Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Europe" at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and as a member of the Martin Buber Society in the Humanities and Social Sciences, also at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Currently he writes a book that about "Jewish Craftspeople in Medieval Germany". Through his research and publications, he aims to make a meaningful contribution to the academic discourse surrounding medieval history and to provide valuable insights into the rich tapestry of European history during this pivotal period.