Jews in Medieval Central Europe

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the practices of the world of Jewish communities in medieval Central Europe. It compares their structures, legal frameworks, economy, rabbinic movements, intellectual life, and culture across the region, and sums up their influence on the key modern anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish views projected during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Textual sources suggest that the earliest Jewish inhabitants of medieval Central Europe were merchants. During the thirteenth century, the number of the Jewish communities in East Central Europe increased dramatically. This development was directly connected to the process of urbanization; the new towns offered opportunities for Jews to settle and earn a living. Several Central European monarchs issued letters of privilege that defined the basic legal framework of Jewish life. However, violent persecutions and expulsions reshaped the settlement structure of Jews in Austria, Moravia, and Silesia from the end of the fourteenth century on.