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Hannah Skoda (ed.), A Companion to Crime and Deviance in the Middle Ages, (Arc Humanitas: Leeds 2023), pp. 306-325.
on tem po rary Jews do not gen er al ly view their ances tors as crim i nals. Jew ish mem o ry, shaped by images of East ern Euro pean shtetls and the wounds of the Holo caust, con jures a past filled with meek Jews sur viv ing vile accu... more
on tem po rary Jews do not gen er al ly view their ances tors as crim i nals. Jew ish mem o ry, shaped by images of East ern Euro pean shtetls and the wounds of the Holo caust, con jures a past filled with meek Jews sur viv ing vile accu sa tions, cru saders, and expul sions. How ev er, real i ty is always messier than myth, and the most engag ing his tor i cal work demon strates that the past was as vibrant and com pli cat ed as the present, filled with much the same prag ma tism, vicious ness, and desperation. Ephraim Shoham-Steiner's Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe breaks ground in an area long over looked by most schol ars and cer tain ly the gen er al pop u lace.
Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is a topic laced by prejudice on one hand and apologetics on the other. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Jews were often portrayed as criminals driven by greed. While these accusations were, for the most... more
Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is a topic laced by prejudice on one hand and apologetics on the other. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Jews were often portrayed as criminals driven by greed. While these accusations were, for the most part, unfounded, in other cases criminal accusations against Jews were not altogether baseless. Drawing on a variety of legal, liturgical, literary, and archival sources, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner examines the reasons for the involvement in crime, the social profile of Jews who performed crimes, and the ways and mechanisms employed by the legal and communal body to deal with Jewish criminals and with crimes committed by Jews. A society's attitude toward individuals identified as criminals-by others or themselves-can serve as a window into that society's mores and provide insight into how transgressors understood themselves and society's attitudes toward them.
jewish Studies | medieval history and literature | european history Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is a topic laced by prejudice on one hand and apologetics on the other. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Jews were often portrayed as... more
jewish Studies | medieval history and literature | european history Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe is a topic laced by prejudice on one hand and apologetics on the other. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Jews were often portrayed as criminals driven by greed. While these accusations were, for the most part, unfounded, in other cases criminal accusations against Jews were not altogether baseless. Drawing on a variety of legal, liturgical, literary, and archival sources, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner examines the reasons for the involvement in crime, the social profile of Jews who performed crimes, and the ways and mechanisms employed by the legal and communal body to deal with Jewish criminals and with crimes committed by Jews. A society's attitude toward individuals identified as criminals-by others or themselves-can serve as a window into that society's mores and provide insight into how transgressors understood themselves and society's attitudes toward them. "In this meticulously argued book, Shoham-Steiner draws on a range of religious and legal sources to explore a fascinating and almost entirely neglected topic. In illuminating these darker corners of Jewish life, Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe restores medieval Jews to their full humanity, showing them to be subject to the same passions and drives as (and sometimes conspiring with) their Christian neighbors, even as they grappled with unique challenges and restrictions."-SARA LIPTON, professor of history, State University of New York at Stony Brook "This erudite study of criminal activity, undertaken within the broad context of history, culture, and mentalités, combines methodological sophistication, interdisciplinary scholarship, and highly accessible writing."
Research Interests:
Intricate Interfaith Networks: Quotidian Jewish-Christian Contacts in the Middle Ages *** Recent scholarship has shown that the denominational divide between Jews and Christians, although ever present and at times even violently so,... more
Intricate Interfaith Networks:
Quotidian Jewish-Christian Contacts in the Middle Ages
***
Recent scholarship has shown that the denominational divide between Jews and Christians, although ever present and at times even violently so, did not stop individuals and groups from forming ties and expanding them in more intricate ways than previously thought. These networks functioned with what seems to be a disregard to the denominational and religious difference. This is by no means a simple and self evident statement. The theological background regarding “other” faiths within each respective religion, strong social, religious and authoritative circles critiquing such contacts, if not discouraging them altogether, created a formidable opposition to these networks.
The articles presented in this book were presented as papers in an international workshop that took place at the Central European University in Budapest in February 2010. In it this premise was thoroughly explored across Europe in the high and later medieval period from the Iberian Peninsula to the eastern Hungarian frontier and from England to Italy. The contributors explored various angels of these phenomena through different disciplinary approaches. Ties of an economic and cultural nature are explored as well as social contacts and networks in the fields of art and the sciences, and matters of daily life.  The picture that emerges is a more nuanced and diverse then the bipolar paradigm adopted in previous scholarship.
In medieval Europe, the much larger Christian population regarded Jews as their inferiors, but how did both Christians and Jews feel about those who were marginalized within the Ashkenazi Jewish community? In On the Margins of a Minority:... more
In medieval Europe, the much larger Christian population regarded Jews as their inferiors, but how did both Christians and Jews feel about those who were marginalized within the Ashkenazi Jewish community? In On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe, author Ephraim Shoham-Steiner explores the life and plight of three of these groups. Shoham-Steiner draws on a wide variety of late-tenth- to fifteenth-century material from both internal (Jewish) as well as external (non-Jewish) sources to reconstruct social attitudes toward these "others," including lepers, madmen, and the physically impaired. Shoham-Steiner considers how the outsiders were treated by their respective communities, while also maintaining a delicate balance with the surrounding non-Jewish community.
On the Margins of a Minority is structured in three pairs of chapters addressing each of these three marginal groups. The first pair deals with the moral attitude toward leprosy and its sufferers; the second with the manifestations of madness and its causes as seen by medieval men and women, and the effect these signs had on the treatment of the insane; the third with impaired and disabled individuals, including those with limited mobility, manual dysfunction, deafness, and blindness. Shoham-Steiner also addresses questions of the religious meaning of impairment in light of religious conceptions of the ideal body. He concludes with a bibliography of sources and studies that informed the research, including useful midrashic, exegetical, homiletic, ethical, and guidance literature, and texts from responsa and halakhic rulings.
Understanding and exploring attitudes toward groups and individuals considered "other" by mainstream society provides us with information about marginalized groups, as well as the inner social mechanisms at work in a larger society. On the Margins of a Minority will appeal to scholars of Jewish medieval history as well as readers interested in the growing field of disability studies.
The murder of Priscus the Jew seems to be one of the earliest documented episodes of murder involving Jews in the European Middle Ages. The incident, described by Gregory of Tours (Gregorius Turonensis) in his great work, Decem Libri... more
The murder of Priscus the Jew seems to be one of the earliest documented episodes of murder involving Jews in the European Middle Ages. The incident, described by Gregory of Tours (Gregorius Turonensis) in his great work, Decem Libri Historiarum (Ten Books of Histories) involves the murder of the Jew Priscus at the hands of Phatir, his former coreligionist and new convert to Christianity, which occurred in the Frankish Kingdom of Neustria in 581 or 582, during the reign of King Chilperic I. In this study, based on a close reading of the relevant texts I attempt to illuminate what this incident may teach us about Jewish social and political life in the Merovingian kingdoms. I suggest, contrary to previous scholarship that saw the theological aspects of the conversion as paramount, that the murder was the result of a competition among the elite in the court of the king and highlight what we may learn from this case about the sources of Jewish religious law and what Jews and Christians living in this time knew about them. Thus, after a careful reading of the primary source, I propose an interpretation of the circumstances that precipitated the violent act, as well as the manner in which it was recorded in the writings of Gregory of Tours.
In this chapter I take the text of a halakhic responsum that Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg addressed to his disciple R. Asher b. Yehiel of Cologne as a point of departure in an attempt to link several events that took place in Cologne in the... more
In this chapter I take the text of a halakhic responsum that Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg addressed to his disciple R. Asher b. Yehiel of Cologne as a point of departure in an attempt to link several events that took place in Cologne in the late 1260's and the 1270's.
published in: Matthias Bley NiKolas Jaspert and Stefan Koack (ed.), Discourses of Purity in Trans-cultural Perspectives (300-1600), Brill : Leiden & Boston 2015, pp. 54-74 Due to publisher restrictions you can message me and I can... more
published in: Matthias Bley NiKolas Jaspert and Stefan Koack (ed.), Discourses of Purity in Trans-cultural Perspectives (300-1600), Brill : Leiden & Boston 2015, pp. 54-74 Due to publisher restrictions you can message me and I can send you a personal copy.
a chapter from : Hannah Skoda (ed.), A COMPANION TO
CRIME AND DEVIANCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES, (Arc Humanitas: Leeds 2023), pp. 306-325
Introduction to a special volume of Jewish History about Sefer Hasidim
Among a unique collection of stories in Hebrew manuscript copied in the sixteenth century and found at the National Library of Israel (NLI) are twenty-seven hagiographic tales about the prominent Jewish pietist of Medieval Germany, Rabbi... more
Among a unique collection of stories in Hebrew manuscript copied in the sixteenth century and found at the National Library of Israel (NLI) are twenty-seven hagiographic tales about the prominent Jewish pietist of Medieval Germany, Rabbi Judah the Pious (d. 1217) and his father Rabbi Shmuel ben Kalonymus. Scholars have suggested that the entire original collection dates back to ca. 1300 and echoes the lives, concerns, and ideals of thirteenth-century Ashkenazi Jews. However, some of the hagiographic tales found in the collection seem to have been written later, appropriating the figure of the mystical Rabbi Judah and using it in stories from the fifteenth century that were set in his city, Regensburg. Told by the Jews of this city, the tales of Rabbi Judah and his magical abilities seem to have fulfilled the needs and concerns of the community in the turbulent late fifteenth century. The paper analyzes three of these stories, demonstrating how they correspond with the realities of t...
Among a unique collection of stories in Hebrew manuscript copied in the sixteenth century and found at the National Library of Israel (NLI) are twenty-seven hagiographic tales about the prominent Jewish pietist of Medieval Germany, Rabbi... more
Among a unique collection of stories in Hebrew manuscript copied in the sixteenth century and found at the National Library of Israel (NLI) are twenty-seven hagiographic tales about the prominent Jewish pietist of Medieval Germany, Rabbi Judah the Pious (d. 1217) and his father Rabbi Shmuel ben Kalonymus. Scholars have suggested that the entire original collection dates back to ca. 1300 and echoes the lives, concerns, and ideals of thirteenth-century Ashkenazi Jews. However, some of the hagiographic tales found in the collection seem to have been written later, appropriating the figure of the mystical Rabbi Judah and using it in stories from the fifteenth century that were set in his city, Regensburg. Told by the Jews of this city, the tales of Rabbi Judah and his magical abilities seem to have fulfilled the needs and concerns of the community in the turbulent late fifteenth century. The paper analyzes three of these stories, demonstrating how they correspond with the realities of this time and suggesting the possible roles the tales of Rabbi Judah and his miracles played for Regensburg Jewry as they contended with the hardships of daily life and the shadow of expulsion that loomed large over the community in this period.
"מה אתה רואה?" שואל ר' יהודה החסיד את הרב שפנה אליו לאחר שגנבים לקחו מביתו את אוצר הדוכס. הרב השיב: "'בית המדרש הגביה עצמו כל כך שאני רואה כל הבתים העומדים ברעגנשפור"ג ]...[הוא גבוה יותר מכל מגדלי העיר". במאמר זה אפרים שהם־שטיינר מנתח... more
"מה אתה רואה?" שואל ר' יהודה החסיד את הרב שפנה אליו לאחר שגנבים לקחו מביתו את אוצר הדוכס. הרב השיב: "'בית המדרש הגביה עצמו כל כך שאני רואה כל הבתים העומדים ברעגנשפור"ג ]...[הוא גבוה יותר מכל מגדלי העיר". במאמר זה אפרים שהם־שטיינר מנתח סיפור אחד מתוך אוסף סיפורי שבחים של יהדות אשכנז, שבו ר' יהודה החסיד מסייע בכוחותיו המאגיים לאדם שנקלע לצרה. עלילת הסיפור
מבטאת את ניסיונם של יהודי רגנסבורג בשלהי המאה החמש־עשרה להתמודד עם תחושת הישמטותה של אחיזתם הפיזית בעיר על רקע עלילות דם ואימת גירוש, ומשקפת את ניסיונם להיאחז בקיומם בעיר.
LAY LEADERSHIP HAS PLAYED a role in nearly every Jewish community across time; medieval Ashkenaz was no exception. By “leadership,” we mean people—usually a group but sometimes individuals—who were entitled to make decisions that... more
LAY LEADERSHIP HAS PLAYED a role in nearly every  Jewish community
across time; medieval Ashkenaz was no exception. By “leadership,”
we mean people—usually a group but sometimes individuals—who
were entitled to make decisions that influenced the lives of others
and who performed communal functions such as intercommunal arbitration, validation of legal transactions, representation of the community to outside authorities, division of taxes and financial burdens, and more. The term “lay,” in this context, refers to people who, although informed about religious norms, were not primarily known for their scholarly erudition and did not compose normative or legal
texts. In medieval times, leadership positions were mostly entrusted to the financially successful and the learned male elite. While the role of rabbinic scholars in the organization and leadership of medieval Ashkenazic communities has been thoroughly researched in the past, information regarding the lay leadership is limited and usually appears in passing in rabbinic writing. Unlike the rabbinic scholars who gradually moved from an oral to a written culture, explaining the norms of individual and communal life, lay leadership tended not to leave much of a paper trail, to the best of our knowledge. Even though written forms were accepted for many legal
procedures in the Jewish tradition, everyday leadership activities were
usually not recorded in writing and were not systematically archived until
a much later period. Yet even in communities with strong rabbinic academies and a strong rabbinic presence, a lay leadership existed, organized into a body of elect leaders, or parnasim, similar to the Christian city council. From the information available to us, this body comprised scholars and laymen alike. In this essay, we collected and analyzed evidence from Cologne, where there was no strong rabbinic academy
during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, in order to show some features that we associate with lay leadership and the differences between lay leadership and rabbinic scholars who led communities. This will be achieved by contrasting the lay leadership with the more prominent form of decision making in medieval Ashkenaz—namely, the scholarly leadership documented in halakhic literature, which is our main, and often only, source of information. Texts composed by the rabbinic elite have been scrutinized for information on those “beyond the elite,” such as women, the poor, and the sick; thus we seek to extract from rabbinic texts traces of a lay leadership, a presence that, since it did not actively contribute texts, has remain silenced behind the literate culture associated with the rabbinic academies of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz (collectively referred to by the acronym ShUM).
Introduction to a special volume of Jewish History about Sefer Hasidim
in: Medieval Ashkenaz: Papers held at the 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies in Honor of Alfred Haverkamp, ed. by Christoph Cluse and Jörg R. Müller (Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden, A 30), (Harrassowitz Verlag), Wiesbaden, 2021,... more
in: Medieval Ashkenaz: Papers held at the 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies in Honor of Alfred Haverkamp, ed. by Christoph Cluse and Jörg R. Müller (Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden, A 30), (Harrassowitz Verlag), Wiesbaden, 2021, pp. 263-275
Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, "The Sources for Social and Institutional History", Robert Chazan (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Judaism : The Middle Ages-The Christian World (The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 6), Cambridge University... more
Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, "The Sources for Social and Institutional History", Robert Chazan (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Judaism : The Middle Ages-The Christian World (The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 6), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge UK 2018, pp. 307-334.
This article re-considers the migration of the Kalonymide family of pietists from medieval Speyer to Regensburg, suggesting a revised date for the move and an expanded interpretation of the reasons for it. Drawing on both halakhic and... more
This article re-considers the migration of the Kalonymide family of pietists from medieval Speyer to Regensburg, suggesting a revised date for the move and an expanded interpretation of the reasons for it. Drawing on both halakhic and hagiographic sources, it demonstrates a more inclusive methodology for attempting to reconstruct historical events from incomplete and even apparently conflicting sources. It attempts to show that the prominent rabbi who moved to Regensburg
in the 12th century was not Rabbi Yehudah the Pious, but his father Rabbi Shmuel, and two accounts of the migration that seem unrelated different may share a historical kernel associated with the pietistic agenda that was interpreted in radically divergent ways.

Jewish Studies Quarterly 24 (2017), pp. 234–260
DOI 10.1628/094457017X14998549543534
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המאמר עוסק בבחינה מחודשת של הגירת משפחת ר' יהודה החסיד מן העיר שפייר בחבל הריין לעיר רגנסבורג בחבל הדונאו. המאמר מציע כי ההגירה התקיימה דור אחד לפני שמקובל היה להניח שהתקיימה בימיו של ר' שמואל החסיד אביו של ר' יהודה החסיד .
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A controversy erupted in eleventh-century Cologne with the appearance of lion and serpent decorations on the windows of the local synagogue. This imagery aroused the ire of Rabbi Elyakim ben Joseph of Mainz (d. 1152), who penned a letter... more
A controversy erupted in eleventh-century Cologne with the appearance of lion and serpent decorations on the windows of the local synagogue. This imagery aroused the ire of Rabbi Elyakim ben Joseph of Mainz (d. 1152), who penned a letter in protest. This essay analyzes what the letter teaches about the Cologne synagogue decorations as well as about the dispute between R. Elyakim and the community lay leaders (parnasim) in Cologne who most probably commissioned the synagogue decorations and against whom the rabbi’s letter seems to have been directed. Through comparison with other texts, and with the aid of recent archaeological discoveries in Cologne, the identity of the historical figure who may have been the very lay leader at whose behest the lion and serpent decorations were made is tentatively suggested. This incident offers a rare view of Jewish life and leadership during this early period in Cologne, probably prior to the First Crusade, and reveals the tension between the leadership of the Cologne community and the rabbinic leadership in Mainz. This study demonstrates how a multidisciplinary approach opens up new venues for research into the society and leadership of the early Ashkenazi Jewish community.
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זמנים 118 (2012)
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המאמר עוסק בשני סיפורים על התפר שבין המרת דת והרצון להמרת דת ובין שיגעון וניסיונות אובדיים .
זמנים 102 (2008)
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published in: Matthias Bley NiKolas Jaspert and Stefan Koack (ed.), Discourses of Purity in Trans-cultural Perspectives (300-1600), Brill : Leiden & Boston 2015, pp. 54-74 Due to publisher restrictions you can message me and I can... more
published in:
Matthias Bley NiKolas Jaspert and Stefan Koack (ed.), Discourses of Purity in Trans-cultural Perspectives (300-1600), Brill : Leiden & Boston 2015,  pp. 54-74
Due to publisher restrictions you can message me and I can send you a personal copy.
בתוך: גרשון בקון ואחרים (עורכים), מחקרים בתולדות יהודי אשכנז : ספר יובל לכבוד יצחק (אריק) זימר, הוצאת אוניברסיטת בר אילן רמת גן תשס"ח (2008) , עמ' 235-251. The Leader and the Marginal Person: The Attitude of the Leadership in Medieval... more
בתוך: גרשון בקון ואחרים (עורכים), מחקרים בתולדות יהודי אשכנז : ספר יובל לכבוד יצחק (אריק) זימר, הוצאת אוניברסיטת בר אילן רמת גן תשס"ח (2008) , עמ' 235-251.
The Leader and the Marginal Person: The Attitude of the Leadership in Medieval Jewish Ashkenaz to Involuntary marginal Individuals in their Community, Gershon Bacon (et al. eds.) Studies on the History of the Jews in Ashkenaz: Presented to Eric Zimmer, Bar Ilan University Press: Ramat Gan 2008, pp. 235-251.
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" 'שמאל דוחה וימין מקרבת' : על אנשים חריגים בראי ספר חסידים", שולמית וולקוב (עורכת), מיעוטים זרים ושונים: קבוצות שוליים בהיסטוריה, מרכז זלמן שז"ר: ירושלים תש"ס, עמ' 159-133. " 'The Left (Hand) Repels while the Right Hand Draws Near' :... more
" 'שמאל דוחה וימין מקרבת' : על אנשים חריגים בראי ספר חסידים", שולמית וולקוב (עורכת), מיעוטים זרים ושונים: קבוצות שוליים בהיסטוריה, מרכז זלמן שז"ר: ירושלים תש"ס, עמ' 159-133.
" 'The Left (Hand) Repels while the Right Hand Draws Near' : The Involuntary deviants in Sefer Hasidim", Shulamit Volkov (ed.), Being Different : Minorities Aliens and Outsiders in History, The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History: Jerusalem 2000, pp. 133-159.
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state of the field of Jewish Disability Studies including a review of "On the Margins of a Minority"
AJS Review, 40(2) 2016, pp. 436–439.
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Short Book Review by Shaul Stampfer in : Religious Studies Review 42 (2016), p.123
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Journal of Jewish Identities 9 (2) July 2016 pp. 202-203
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Reviewed by Wendy J. Turner
Georgia Regents University
wturner1@gru.edu
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Speculum 90:2 (2015), 583-586
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in : Jewish Studies Quarterly 17 (2010)
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"Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe" -Book Event
The Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters
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הרצאה על שאלת הריפוי של יהודים בקברי קדושים נוצרים בימי הביניים
עם קישור לערוץ youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipqk8Ivv5MI&feature=youtu.be
Joint lecture at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.
‫מראש‬ ‫להירשם‬ ‫נא‬ ,‫חופשית‬ ‫הכניסה‬ ‫וברכות‬ ‫התכנסות‬ 16:15 ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ ‫נשיא‬ ,‫בר‬ ‫דורון‬ '‫פרופ‬ :‫היהודית‬ ‫החברה‬ ‫בשולי‬ ‫נשים‬ / ‫ראשון‬ ‫מושב‬ 16:30 ‫למזרח‬ ‫ממערב‬ ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ ,‫מלמד‬ ‫לוין‬ ‫רינה‬ '‫פרופ‬ ‫יו"ר‬ /... more
‫מראש‬ ‫להירשם‬ ‫נא‬ ,‫חופשית‬ ‫הכניסה‬ ‫וברכות‬ ‫התכנסות‬ 16:15 ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ ‫נשיא‬ ,‫בר‬ ‫דורון‬ '‫פרופ‬ :‫היהודית‬ ‫החברה‬ ‫בשולי‬ ‫נשים‬ / ‫ראשון‬ ‫מושב‬ 16:30 ‫למזרח‬ ‫ממערב‬ ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ ,‫מלמד‬ ‫לוין‬ ‫רינה‬ '‫פרופ‬ ‫יו"ר‬ / ‫בנגב‬ ‫בן-גוריון‬ ‫אוניברסיטת‬ ,‫שוהם-שטיינר‬ ‫אפרים‬ ‫ד"ר‬ ‫בנשים‬ ‫וסחר‬ ‫לזנות‬ ‫עדות‬ :"‫זונות‬ ‫מלרעות‬ ‫אפשר‬ ‫"אי‬ ‫הביניים‬ ‫ימי‬ ‫בשלהי‬ / ‫בר-אילן‬ ‫אוניברסיטת‬ ,‫קפלן‬ ‫דברה‬ ‫ד"ר‬ ‫המוקדמת‬ ‫החדשה‬ ‫בעת‬ ‫באשכנז‬ ‫ועוני‬ ‫מגדר‬ ,‫נשים‬ / ‫שכטר‬ ‫ומכון‬ ‫העברית‬ ‫ללשון‬ ‫האקדמיה‬ ,‫מלמד‬ ‫אורי‬ ‫ד"ר‬ ‫המאוחרת‬ ‫החדשה‬ ‫בעת‬ ‫תימן‬ ‫יהודיות‬ ‫בקרב‬ ‫ופריצות‬ ‫זנות‬ :‫הזנאים‬ ‫לחוק‬ ‫הזנות‬ ‫מתעשיית‬ / ‫רב-שיח‬ 17:55 ?‫בישראל‬ ‫הזנות‬ ‫בסוגיית‬ ‫מהפך‬ ‫האומנם‬ ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ ,‫שטרן‬ ‫מרגלית‬ ‫בת-שבע‬ '‫פרופ‬ ‫יו"ר‬ ‫שותפה‬ ‫ומנהלת‬ ‫חברתית‬ ‫פעילה‬ ,‫כהנא‬ ‫ניצן‬ ‫עו"ד‬ ‫ובזנות‬ ‫בנשים‬ ‫בסחר‬ ‫למאבק‬ ‫במטה‬ "‫"הארץ‬ ‫עיתון‬ ‫עיתונאית‬ ,‫לי‬ ‫ורד‬ ‫עמותת‬ ‫של‬ ‫ומנהלת‬ ‫מייסדת‬ ,‫גולדברג‬ ‫נעמה‬ "‫מנגד‬ ‫עומדות‬ ‫"לא‬ ‫קלה‬ ‫ערב‬ ‫ארוחת‬ 19:15 events @ schechter.ac.il | www.schechter.ac.il | 074-7800672 ‫ירושלים‬ ,4 ‫גרנות‬ ‫אברהם‬ ‫רחוב‬ ,‫היהדות‬ ‫למדעי‬ ‫שכטר‬ ‫מכון‬ >> ‫להרשמה‬
Research Interests:
Lecture at the Workshop in der Mittelalterlichen Jüdischen Geschichte Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
Teusday November 14th 2017.
Research Interests:
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הרצאה בערב ספר לכבוד ספרה של דברה קפלן , שטרסבורג יהודים נוצרים רפורמציה , מרכז זלמן שז"ר ירושלים 2017
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הרצאה על חיי היהודים בשטרסבורג בימי הביניים לפני גירושם בשנת 1390
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והאלהים אינה לידו : על רצח וכפרה באשכנז של ימי הביניים. בהרצאה נדון היחס הקהילתי באשכנז של ימי הביניים למי שהרגו את הנפש. עולים לדיון מקורות מוסריים והלכתיים וכן פרשת פדיון גופתו של ר' מאיר בן ברוך מרוטנבורג שנפטר ב 1293 בכלא וגופתו... more
והאלהים אינה לידו : על רצח וכפרה באשכנז של ימי הביניים.
בהרצאה נדון היחס הקהילתי באשכנז של ימי הביניים למי שהרגו את הנפש. עולים לדיון מקורות מוסריים והלכתיים וכן פרשת פדיון גופתו של ר' מאיר בן ברוך מרוטנבורג שנפטר ב 1293 בכלא וגופתו נפדתה והובאה לקבורה בשנת 1307 . אני מעלה את אפשרות שפודה הגופה הוא לא אחר מיהודי שהואשם על ידי מהר"ם ברצח בשנות השבעים של המאה ה-13 ופדה את הגופה על מנת להביאה לקבר ישראל ולהקבר לידה כסוג של סימול לכפרה
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Research Interests:
הרצאה בכנס השכונה היהודית באשכנז בימי הביניים : מבט מעמיק בטקסטים מרכז גולדשטיין גורן לחקר התפוצות באוניבריסטת תל אביב Between a Halakhic Responsum a legal ruling and the Epitaph : What May be the Untold story of the Ransoming of Rabbi... more
הרצאה בכנס השכונה היהודית באשכנז בימי הביניים : מבט מעמיק בטקסטים
מרכז גולדשטיין גורן לחקר התפוצות באוניבריסטת תל אביב
Between a Halakhic Responsum a legal ruling and the Epitaph : What May be the Untold story of the Ransoming of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg's Body (1307)
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Research Interests:
"כנס מושגי מפתח בחקר התרבות"
הכנס השנתי השני של התכנית הבינתחומית לפרשנות ותרבות באוניברסיטת בר אילן
יום ג' ה 1 לדצמבר 2015
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
As part of a session in the conference :
Beyond the Elite-From Texts to Societies in Medieval European Culture
Feb. 2015
שיחה במסגרת הקורס: "פותחים שבוע" תשע"ה - המודל המקראי ותפקידו המכונן בהיסטוריה. בשיחה נעקוב אחרי דרכי ישומו של הצו המקראי מפרשת המשפטים: "ושם אלהים אחרים לא תזכירו , לא ישמע על פיך". מן המקרא דרך עולמם של חז"ל ואל עולמם של יהודי אירופה... more
שיחה במסגרת הקורס: "פותחים שבוע" תשע"ה - המודל המקראי ותפקידו המכונן בהיסטוריה.
בשיחה נעקוב אחרי דרכי ישומו של הצו המקראי מפרשת המשפטים: "ושם אלהים אחרים לא תזכירו , לא ישמע על פיך". מן המקרא דרך עולמם של חז"ל ואל עולמם של יהודי אירופה של ימי הביניים.
עם גידולה של הנוכחות היהודית באירופה של ימי הביניים (מן המאה ה-10) העמיקו והתרחבו קשרי המסחר והכספים בין יהודים ללא יהודים. במרחב עסקי זה היתה השבועה בקדושי הנצרות ובשרידי הקדושים נפוצה ביותר בין הנוצרים ועל כן גם יהודים נדרשו לה. בהרצאה היום נעקוב אחרי המאבקים בתוככי החברה היהודית באירופה של ימי הביניים בענין זה.
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Poster with the program for the May 22nd-May 25th 2017
Research Interests:
With great sorrow we heard of the death of Prof. Elliott Horowitz. Many of the speakers and participants in our conference were colleagues and friends of Elliott's. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning at 10 am at the Givat Shaul... more
With great sorrow we heard of the death of Prof. Elliott Horowitz. Many of the speakers and participants in our conference were colleagues and friends of Elliott's. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning at 10 am at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, Beit hesped Kehillat Yerushalayim. As a result, our conference day will start at 11:30. Please see the revised schedule below. The rest of the schedule (Tuesday and Wednesday) stays as posted. REVISED CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Research Interests:
Sefer Hasidim in Context International Conference, March 19th to 22nd 2017, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem Organized by: Prof. Dr. Elisheva Baumgarten, Department of Jewish History and Department of History, The Hebrew University... more
Sefer Hasidim in Context
International Conference, March 19th to 22nd 2017, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem
Organized by:
Prof. Dr. Elisheva Baumgarten, Department of Jewish History and Department of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Hollender, Department of Jewish Studies, Goethe University, Frankfurt
Dr. Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Department of Jewish History, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva
Conference Rationale
The year 2017 marks the 800th anniversary of the death of Judah b. Samuel (known as Judah heHasid), the primary author of Sefer Hasidim (the Book of the Pious). Sefer Hasidim is an outstandingly unique text consisting of an amalgam of genres including exegesis, legal material, folk narratives, literary narratives, homiletics, ethical directives, and liturgy. Judah heHasid himself, together with his disciple Eleazar b. Judah of Worms (author of Sefer Rokeah), are accredited with the establishment  of a group known as Hasidei Ashkenaz (Rhineland Pietists) who stood out for their pious devotion and practice.
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Poster for Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (CSOC) 5th International Conference "The Agents of Conversion " May 22nd-May 25th 2017 . Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
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Conference Poster
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Research Interests:
Quotidian Jewish-Christian Contacts in the Middle Ages
Series: History of Daily Life no. 5
(Brepols Publishing) Turnhout 2016.
editor: Ephraim (Effie) Shoham-Steiner
Research Interests:
With great sorrow we heard of the death of Prof. Elliott Horowitz. Many of the speakers and participants in our conference were colleagues and friends of Elliott's. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning at 10 am at the Givat Shaul... more
With great sorrow we heard of the death of Prof. Elliott Horowitz. Many of the speakers and participants in our conference were colleagues and friends of Elliott's. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning at 10 am at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, Beit hesped Kehillat Yerushalayim. As a result, our conference day will start at 11:30. Please see the revised schedule below. The rest of the schedule (Tuesday and Wednesday) stays as posted. REVISED CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Research Interests:
An evening of lectures for the broad public about Hasidei Ashkenaz
Research Interests:
The Seminar for Abrahamic Religions at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University and the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva
Research Interests:
הכנס השנתי ה 42 של החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית באוניברסיטת בן גוריון בנגב חברי ועדת הכנס: אפרים שהם-שטיינר (יו"ר) סקוט אורי ( אונ' ת"א) מירי אליאב פלדון (אונ' ת"א) הלי זמורה (אב"ג) איריס סולימני (אונ' פתוחה) 42nd Annual conference of... more
הכנס השנתי ה 42 של החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית באוניברסיטת בן גוריון בנגב
חברי ועדת הכנס:
אפרים שהם-שטיינר (יו"ר)
סקוט אורי ( אונ' ת"א)
מירי אליאב פלדון (אונ' ת"א)
הלי זמורה (אב"ג)
איריס סולימני (אונ' פתוחה)

42nd Annual conference of the Israeli Historical Society
Law Crime and Enforcement
program committee: 
Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Chair, BGU)
Miri Eliav-Feldon ( TAU)
Iris Sulimani (Open Univerisity)
Scott Uri (TAU)
Hillay Zmora (BGU)
CFP for an International Conference at the Center for the Study of conversion and Inter-religious encounters at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Be'ersheva ISRAEL May 28-31 2018
Religious Conversion : Then and Now
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Central European University is involved in a struggle to maintain its relative autonomy and academic reputation these days. What the outcome will be, no one knows, but the volume under review reminds the scholarly community that the... more
The Central European University is involved in a struggle to maintain its relative autonomy and academic reputation these days. What the outcome will be, no one knows, but the volume under review reminds the scholarly community that the role the CEU has played for medievalists has been profound. Most of the essays in the book, the editor writes, "emanate from an intensive and fruitful workshop at the Central European University" (4). The interest and quality of the articles confirm how fruitful that workshop must have been.
Research Interests:
Inglorious Jewish medieval
bastards have their day
Nureet Dermer. 2019. “Book Review: Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, ed. Intricate Interfaith Networks in the Middle Ages: Quotidian Jewish-Christian Contacts.” Chidushim, 21, Pp. 154-162.
Research Interests:
On January 24 2022, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University began its spring slate of events with the inaugural Yerushalmi Lecture on History and Narrative. Professor Ephraim Shoham-Steiner opened up the unique... more
On January 24 2022, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University began its spring slate of events with the inaugural Yerushalmi Lecture on History and Narrative. Professor Ephraim Shoham-Steiner opened up the unique aspects of a medieval Jewish community and its people based on a variety of archeological as well as literary sources. Over the past century, and particularly in recent years, archeological projects have yielded a treasure trove of material artifacts that yield rich new insights into the Jewish community in the German city of Cologne. By incorporating the material finds of archaeologists into his scholarship, Professor Shoham-Steiner methodologically extends the work of the late Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, who grappled with the complexities of the relationship between history, historiography, and memory. In one of his most memorable contributions to this discussion, his brief book Zakhor (1982), Yerushalmi argued that the primary pre-modern Jewish vessels for memory of the past were liturgical and ritual. It was only from the sixteenth century that history writing, he argued, began playing a more significant role in remembering the Jewish past. One of the media that Yerushalmi passed over in his analysis was the role of archeology and the emergence of Jewish material artifacts from the past, especially during the twentieth century. In this lecture Professor Shoham Steiner addresses that lacuna with fascinating examples from medieval Cologne that make its medieval Jews spring to life.
Research Interests:
A discussion between Prof. Nina Rowe (Fordham University) and Prof. Ephraim Shoham-Steiner ( Ben Gurion University of the Negev) about Prof. Rowe's new book.
Matti Friedmann Medieval Jewish Society Wasn’t so Law-Abiding and Chaste After All » Mosaic Sept.
On the very odd Jewish inscription unearthed in Cologne in 2011 that may suggest that Jews in this time were comfortable using Hebrew in prayer as well as in everyday life
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
על הכתובת המשונה : "זה החלון להוציא צואה דרך שם" שהתגלתה בחפירות הרובע היהודי בקלן
תרבות וספרות "הארץ" 22.10.2012
Research Interests:
מיהו אלכנסדר זסקינ,ד הנדיב שפדה את עצמותמהר"ם מרוטנבורג לאחר מותו , ושקבור לצדו? עיון בתשובות  המהר"ם מעלה אפשרות מפתיעה בנוגע לזהותו של הנדיב
Research Interests:
Article in Ha'aretz Daily newspaper by Ofer Aderet Jan. 3rd 2020
מאמר המבקש להצביע על נסיבות הפקתו של "מחזור אמסטרדם" שהופק בעיר קלן בגרמניה בשנות ה-70 של המאה ה-13. המאמר מסביר את התתנגדות של גורמים רבניין למחזור ולאיורים שבו וכנראה גם לבימה ולעיטוריה התלת מימדיים ומציע גם לזהות את פטרונו של המחזור... more
מאמר המבקש להצביע על נסיבות הפקתו של "מחזור אמסטרדם" שהופק בעיר קלן בגרמניה בשנות ה-70 של המאה ה-13. המאמר מסביר את התתנגדות של גורמים רבניין למחזור ולאיורים שבו וכנראה גם לבימה ולעיטוריה התלת מימדיים ומציע גם לזהות את פטרונו של המחזור הנדיב יהודה בן שמואל ( Lyvermann von Dueren)