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Jews

European Jews led an uneasy life during the Renaissance. Religious and cultural barriers—and often physical and legal ones as well—stood between them and their Christian neighbors. Authorities in various places made Jews live in specific areas, forced them to convert to Christianity, or drove them out of cities and nations. Nevertheless, Jews made significant contributions to Renaissance life and culture.

JEWISH RELIGIOUS LIFE

Contact with Christians influenced the Jewish religion during the Renaissance. Rabbis, who had traditionally served as experts in Jewish law, began to take on roles like those of priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Similarly, synagogues ceased to be solely places of prayer and developed into centers of social life.

During the 1500s and 1600s the confraternity movement began to spread among Jews in Italy. Confraternities were groups of laypeople* who gathered together for religious, social, and charitable purposes. The oldest Jewish confraternity in Italy was the burial society known as the Gemilut Hasadim. This group originally served to prepare bodies for the grave and to bury the dead. By the mid-1500s, however, its focus had shifted to preparing the soul before death. If a member was ill for three days, officials of the confraternity would visit him and encourage him to confess his sins to God. This new concern with confession reflects a similar trend among Catholics in the mid-1500s.

Another key influence on Jewish religious life at this time was a messianic movement that began in the late 1400s. The central belief of this movement was that the end of the world was at hand. Messianic Jews believed that a Messiah, a hero sent by God, would soon arrive on earth to punish the Gentiles (non-Jews), restore the dead to life, and establish a perfect kingdom of peace and prosperity, free from evil.

Messianic ideas often grew out of the Kabbalah, a mystical* Jewish religious system that involves reading encoded messages in the Hebrew Scriptures. The ideas of Kabbalah influenced messianic figures such as Shelomo Molcho, a Portuguese New Christian (a descendant of Jews who had become Christians). Although Molcho later converted to Judaism, Christian ideas of the Messiah may have shaped his beliefs. Molcho had several divine visions that he published in a book in 1529. Over the next two years he correctly predicted a flood of the Tiber River in Italy and an earthquake in Portugal. Molcho even met with Pope Clement VII. However, he was eventually burned at the stake after refusing to return to Christianity. Molcho became a legendary religious figure among later generations of Jews.

Renaissance Jews also differed among themselves in religious beliefs and practices. In northern Italy, for example, Jewish women took great care to perform the ritual bath required after their menstrual periods. However, Jews in this region paid little attention to the traditional prohibition against drinking wine made by Gentiles. In southern Italy, by contrast, Jews cared less about the ritual bath but took great pains to avoid Gentile wine. Many factors contributed to local differences of this kind. In eastern regions, for instance, coffee had long made it possible for people to stay up for the midnight ceremony called Tikkun Hazot. The ritual did not become popular in Italy, however, until coffee arrived there in the late 1600s.

JEWS IN RENAISSANCE SOCIETY

The position of Jews in Renaissance society was full of contradictions. Christian society discriminated against them, yet it could not manage without them, as they filled vital roles in the economy. The church tried to persuade—or force—them to convert to Christianity, yet those who did so were often suspected of being false to their adopted church. Many Jews gained influence at the courts of Christian leaders, but these powerful Jews tended to become targets of resentment. Even within the Jewish community, social roles were often unclear.

Jewish Communities in Italy. Jewish communities in medieval* and Renaissance Europe had their own distinct character. Many were very small, containing only one or two families. Even where larger numbers of Jews lived together in one place, they never really controlled their own government. Kings, nobles, popes, and town councils interfered constantly in the affairs of the Jews.

The oldest Jewish community in Europe was in Rome, which had been home to Jews since ancient times. In other Italian cities, Jewish settlements did not form until the mid to late 1500s. By 1600, almost 60 percent of Italy's Jews lived in the Papal States*, mostly in the cities of Rome, Ancona, and Ferrara.

Outside of Italy, Jews faced immense difficulties in establishing their own communities. None existed in France or England. In Germany, Christians frequently attacked Jewish settlements or forced their residents to flee. Jews in the Netherlands lived under cover as Christians until the 1600s, when they began to form openly Jewish communities. Spain, Naples, and Sicily drove all Jews out of their territories in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Portugal forced its Jews to convert to Christianity in 1497.

Jews also had problems forming true communities because they lacked a sense of political organization. Jews conceived of the community as a court of law headed by a scholar. However, from the 1100s on, they debated the question of who had the right to participate in making the law. Some scholars believed the entire community should discuss and decide on laws, while others thought elected representatives should perform this function. Some argued that everyone in the community had to agree to a law, while others claimed the majority should rule. Jewish legal scholars never clearly settled these issues. The decisions of communal councils were often disputed or challenged by members of the community who did not accept the council's right to rule.

Jews also disagreed over whether religious or secular* figures should make the laws. Jewish law, or halakah, did not distinguish between religious and secular realms. It gave rabbis the job of interpreting the law. In Italy, however, the leaders of Jewish communities tended to be secular figures. Few rabbis ever achieved positions of political power. Synagogues, which were places of religion, served as the centers of Jewish social and political life. However, fraternal groups such as the Gemilut Hasadim—which were mostly secular—controlled many social functions and jealously guarded their power in these spheres.

Outsiders had as much difficulty as the Jews themselves in defining the nature of the Jewish community. They did not seem to know for sure whether Jewish communities had any authority over their own affairs or were simply cultural groups. In most places, Jews existed within the legal framework of the larger society. The Jews of Rome, for example, had received a set of legal privileges from the pope that allowed them to collect taxes and to be treated as citizens of Rome. Although this status placed Jews under the protection of Roman law, it also required all Jewish institutions to meet the strict legal standards of Christian Rome.

Jews at Court. In the late 1500s, Jews began to play an important role in the courts of Europe. As rulers started to form more absolutist* states, they sought to build strong centralized armies and governing bodies. This task required large sums of money, and rulers turned to private business owners to assist them.

Jewish traders were ideally suited to fill this need. Their connections in international trade enabled them to supply food, clothing, and weapons for soldiers. They could also provide luxury items, such as jewels, for the court. In addition, rulers often employed Jews to mint coins, collect taxes, and even conduct secret diplomatic missions. After the THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618–1648), court Jews played a vital role in most of the small states that made up the Holy Roman Empire*. As outsiders who possessed great political influence, court Jews often faced resentment and anti-Semitism*. Despite this opposition, they remained key figures in European state government until the early 1800s.

Jews and the Catholic Church. During the Middle Ages, Catholic authorities had allowed Jews to live among Christians if they accepted some limits on their activities. This approach changed during the Renaissance. Christian leaders and legal scholars adopted policies that separated Jews from Christians physically, or else forced them to abandon Judaism.

The first signs of these new policies appeared just before 1500, as Spain drove all Jews out of its territories and Portugal forced its Jews to convert. However, these forced conversions failed to satisfy government and church officials, who believed that the converts were practicing Judaism in secret. This suspicion led authorities in Spain and Portugal to establish inquisitions, special courts to investigate charges of heresy*—which focused mostly on New Christians.

Another source of friction between Jews and Catholics was usury, the practice of lending money and charging interest. The church banned this practice among Christians but allowed it among Jews. In the 1500s, members of the Franciscan religious order began preaching against usury and other "polluting" activities by Jews. People began to call loudly for the separation of Jews and Christians. Some Christians made wild accusations against Jews, including a charge that Jews in the north Italian city of Trent had killed a Christian child and used his blood in their rituals. This claim led to the destruction of Trent's Jewish community in 1475 and sparked violence in other Italian cities.

Although the Catholic Church wished to convert Jews, church leaders could not agree on the best way to achieve that goal. Some favored a moderate approach that emphasized persuasive preaching. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order, adopted this approach and set out ground rules for successful conversions. Others suggested that imposing financial penalties on Jews would force them to convert. Still others argued for compelling Jews to live in specific neighborhoods, or ghettos, to keep them from "infecting" the Christian community. This separation made it easier to restrict Jewish activities.

One of the most shocking episodes of this time occurred in the Italian city of Ancona, part of the Papal States. The city contained a community of New Christians who had fled Portugal and returned to Judaism. In 1534 Pope Paul III gave them permission to live openly in Ancona as Jews. However, Pope Paul IV reversed this policy, and in 1556 the Roman Inquisition burned 25 Jews at the stake. Many Italian Jews did convert to Christianity as a result of this terror, and many Jews in smaller communities fled to Jewish settlements in larger towns and cities.

In the end, practical considerations prevented Christians from completely excluding Jews from society. As late as the 1570s, cities in northern Italy were offering contracts to Jewish bankers and lenders to encourage them to settle there. In Rome, shutting down Jewish social and cultural life would have bankrupted many Jews and greatly burdened the papal* treasury. The popes gradually reduced the pressure on Jews to convert, and relations between the Catholic Church and Jewish communities returned to their former state.

The Role of Women. Like their Christian counterparts, Jewish women lived in a male-centered society that placed heavy restrictions on their lives. However, Jewish law gave Jewish women rights that many Christian women lacked. They could own property, sign contracts, and represent themselves in court. These legal and financial privileges gave them a measure of influence in community affairs.

Some Jewish women in Italy managed to obtain training as scribes* and printers, and a few gained a measure of fame as writers. Others took part with rabbis in discussions of Jewish law and participated in healing and birthing practices. One unnamed Jewish woman in Italy expressed pride in her womanhood by saying a prayer of thanks each day that God "had made me a woman and not a man." Her phrasing reversed the traditional words of the blessing in which a man expresses his gratitude for not being born a woman.

Among Jews who had converted (at least outwardly) to Christianity, a few women accumulated considerable wealth and power as the heads of their families. Benvenida Abravanel, a Portuguese New Christian, ran a loan-banking business in Italy and served Florence's powerful MEDICI family. In 1533, when Holy Roman Emperor CHARLES V sought to expel all Jews from Naples, she played a key role in convincing him to put off the plan for eight more years.

Another New Christian, Doña Gracia Nasi, managed her family's extensive financial and cultural affairs after the deaths of her husband and his brother. Fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition, Nasi traveled across Europe to the Ottoman Empire*. There she became one of several Jewish women to gain influence at the court of the Ottoman sultan. She set up her own court and a yeshiva, or Jewish religious school. In 1555, when the pope allowed 25 New Christians to be burned to death in the city of Ancona, Nasi organized a boycott against the city.

Most Jewish women, however, did not hold this kind of power. Rabbis tended to oppose educating women beyond what was necessary to run a household. When a Jewish woman achieved unusual success, it often led to protest from the men in the community. Jewish women were even criticized for being too religious. One rabbi argued that women who devoted themselves excessively to God ignored their chief duty to their husbands and families. Rabbis further supported the power of Jewish men within the home by making it extremely difficult for wives to leave unhappy or even abusive marriages.

JEWS AND RENAISSANCE CULTURE

Jews made significant contributions to scholarship and the arts during the Renaissance. However, their achievements in these areas clearly reflected the influence of the Christian and secular culture that surrounded them.

The Visual Arts. Jewish art in the Renaissance was largely limited to religious objects, such as texts and decorations for the synagogue. Many scholars argue that the Jews never focused on the visual arts because of their strict interpretation of the Second Commandment, which forbade them to make "graven images." The robust visual culture of Renaissance Italy made Italian Jews more inclined to be flexible about this rule. Even so, art never occupied a prominent place in Jewish society, and no individual Jewish artist achieved great fame. Scholars can only positively identify a few pieces as the work of Jewish artists. In addition, some of the most noted Jewish artists converted to Christianity to receive commissions and public recognition.

Manuscript illumination* was probably the most popular form of art among Italian Jews in the 1300s and 1400s. The earliest illuminated Hebrew texts are Bibles from the late 1200s, which feature decorations in the margins. In the 1300s scenes of Jewish daily life began to appear in treatises* on Jewish law. These painted scenes, called miniatures, became even more elaborate in the 1400s. One manuscript from around 1470 features two full-page pictures based on the final chapters of the biblical story of Job. The figure of Job himself may have been modeled on the patron* who sponsored the work.

Even after the development of printing, Jewish artists continued to produce illuminated manuscripts. These included new types of documents such as Esther scrolls, used to celebrate the holiday of Purim, and marriage contracts, called ketubbot. These large scrolls featured biblical scenes and symbolic images. Jewish families competed to produce elaborate ketubbot, hiring the best craftsmen available to create the colorful drawings.

Artistic production thrived in Jewish ghettos. Their physical separation and their status as outcasts from Christian society led Jews to produce art as a way of reinforcing their cultural identity. One major symbol of Jewish culture was the synagogue itself. Most of these buildings were plain on the outside, but their interiors followed the splendid architectural styles of the time. Synagogues typically featured highly decorated ritual objects such as the ark, or cabinet, for the Torah scrolls and the bimah, the platform from which the Torah was read. The Torah scrolls themselves often had a "dressing" of expensive cloth, and the ark might feature a curtain embroidered with biblical scenes and symbols.

Music. Before the Renaissance, Jews had little music aside from the prayers chanted in synagogues. Many rabbis preached that all Jews should be in perpetual mourning for the destruction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. They condemned secular music, musical instruments, and the use of music as a source of entertainment. They did not look on synagogue chants as music, but as a form of recitation. The traditional melodies of these chants, supposedly given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai, were considered sacred and unchangeable. The Hebrew language also made the development of written music difficult because it read from right to left. A workable system of notes for Jewish "art music" for two or more voices did not appear until the 1620s.

One form of traditional Jewish music, the hymn, did exist during the Middle Ages. Unlike prayer chants, hymns were melodic and generally had a fixed rhythm. Composing new melodies for hymns was a common practice. A Jewish text from the 1200s urged readers to "seek for melodies and when you pray employ a melody which will be beautiful and soft in your eyes." Synagogues typically employed a cantor to sing hymns during services. As cantors grew in importance, synagogues introduced new songs to allow them to display their skills. In the 1500s, some synagogues began hiring assistant singers to support the cantor—generally a boy with a high voice and an adult bass. The three-part harmonies these singers produced marked the beginnings of Jewish art music.

During the Renaissance, music became more popular among Jews as a means of celebrating joyous events, such as weddings and certain holidays. At the same time, many Jewish musicians found work in European courts, where they learned the latest styles of Christian music. Although most rabbis tended to discourage the imitation of Christian ways, a few began taking a looser approach to music, introducing multipart singing into the synagogue. Some Jews justified their interest in art music by comparing it to the glorious music performed in the ancient Temple.

The first art music by Jewish composers appeared in Italy in the late 1500s before spreading to Amsterdam and southern France. Few works still remain, and most collections by Jewish composers of the time are incomplete. The best-known early Jewish composer was Salamone Rossi, who is credited with writing the first secular Jewish art music songs. He is the only Jewish Renaissance composer whose complete works have survived. Rossi also composed the only known works of Jewish instrumental music from the period.

Printing. The development of printing had a great impact on Jewish life. Printed books led to the appearance of new types of writing, reading, and learning. Printers developed a Hebrew typeface soon after the invention of the printing press, and by 1500 some 200 works had been printed in Hebrew.

Italy was the center of Hebrew publishing in the 1500s. Daniel Bomberg, Italy's leading printer of Hebrew books, set up a press in Venice in 1516. His designs for Hebrew books set the standard that is still in use today. In the 1540s other Jewish printers appeared in Italy, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire. By the 1600s, however, the center of Hebrew printing had moved to Amsterdam.

Christians played a significant role in early Hebrew printing. The Christian printers who invested in Hebrew presses were attracted mainly by profit, but they also had intellectual and theological* interests in Jewish texts. They often employed Jews or Jewish converts as editors and proofreaders, and their workshops became meeting places for humanist* Jews and Christians.

The books published by early Hebrew presses reshaped many aspects of Jewish social life. The most common Hebrew texts in print included prayer books, legal codes, and treatises on the Talmud (the scholarly commentary on Jewish law). Such works helped lay the foundation for a unified legal system in the Jewish world. Books of Jewish customs also helped form a common vision of Jewish life and tradition.

Hebrew presses also printed versions of major Jewish religious texts, such as the Talmud and the Zohar, the central work of the Kabbalah. Before printing, knowledge of the Kabbalah had been guarded and limited to a select group of individuals. Printing made this secret knowledge available to a much wider audience. As a result, the Kabbalah assumed a much more important role in the spiritual life of Jewish communities. Printed editions of the Talmud mainly affected scholars, giving them a standard version of the text to study.

Christian authorities in many places exercised control over Hebrew printing. Their chief goal was to prevent blasphemy* and anti-Christian statements in Jewish literature. In the 1550s the pope ordered the burning of copies of the Talmud as part of his struggle against heresy in print. The church later changed its policy to checking the content of books before their publication.

Scholarship. Like Jewish art and music, Jewish scholarship reflected the influence of the surrounding Christian culture. During the Middle Ages, some Jewish philosophers had engaged in debate with Christian thinkers, while others feared that such discussions would weaken Jewish identity. The humanist movement of the Renaissance increased the contact between Jewish and Christian scholars. Christian humanists sought out Jewish teachers to help them understand the truth of the Hebrew Scriptures. These Jewish scholars not only taught their Christian students Hebrew but also tried to convince them that the Bible contained all forms of human and divine knowledge. They argued for the superiority of the Jewish culture, claiming that even the ancient Greek philosophers would have drawn ideas from the Bible or from discussions with Jewish prophets. This view appealed to humanists, who had a keen interest in discovering the original sources of human wisdom.

Both Jewish and Christian scholars of the Middle Ages had based much of their thinking on the ideas of the Greek philosopher ARISTOTLE. Many Renaissance humanists, however, focused more on the teachings of PLATO. Jewish scholars tried to use Plato's ideas to reinterpret Jewish writings such as the Kabbalah. They aimed to show that the Jewish intellectual tradition was far more ancient than that of the Christian world. Some Jewish scholars, however, condemned these efforts to spread knowledge of the Kabbalah among Christians.

Another strong Jewish intellectual tradition was based on the writings of the Muslim scholar Ibn Rushd, or Averroes (1126–1198). Averroes's comments on the works of Aristotle had influenced thinkers throughout the Middle Ages. Jewish scholar Elijah Delmedigo made Averroes's ideas the focus of a belief system based on reason, as opposed to the mysticism of the Kabbalah. Another follower of Averroes, Judah Messer Leon, attempted to read the Hebrew Scriptures as a literary text, using the rules of rhetoric* laid down by Aristotle. His work reflected an ongoing debate in the Jewish community about the value of rhetoric in teaching.

Yohanan Alemanno of Florence attempted to merge the Hebrew Scriptures and the Kabbalah into a complete system of thought. Studying under Christian humanist Marsilio FICINO, he became convinced that the ideas of Plato could link the Bible and the Kabbalah with the reason of Western thought. His work reflected Ficino's idea of cosmic love as the force that had created all things and that connected all parts of the living world. Jewish scholar Judah Abranavel (also known as Leone Ebreo) picked up on these ideas, suggesting that the Kabbalah carried an ancient wisdom that could shed light even on the pagan* myths of ancient Greece and Rome. Such ideas had little lasting effect on the Jewish community, but they did influence later philosophers such as Giordano BRUNO and Benedict de Spinoza.

(See also Anti-Semitism; Bible; Books and Manuscripts; Confraternities; Conversos; Ghetto; Illumination; Inquisition; Jewish Languages and Literature; Music, Vocal; Philosophy; Printing and Publishing; Religious Thought.)

* laypeople

those who are not members of the clergy

* mystical

based on a belief in the idea of a direct, personal union with the divine

* medieval

referring to the Middle Ages, a period that began around A.D. 400 and ended around 1400 in Italy and 1500 in the rest of Europe

* Papal States

lands in central Italy under the authority of the pope

* secular

nonreligious; connected with everyday life

* absolutist

refers to complete control by a single ruler

* Holy Roman Empire

political body in central Europe composed of several states; existed until 1806

* anti-Semitism

prejudice against Jews

* heresy

belief that is contrary to the doctrine of an established church

* papal

referring to the office and authority of the pope

* scribe

person who copies manuscripts

* Ottoman Empire

Islamic empire founded by Ottoman Turks in the 1300s that reached the height of its power in the 1500s; it eventually included large areas of eastern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa

* illumination

hand-painted color decorations and illustrations on the pages of a manuscript

* treatise

long, detailed essay

* patron

supporter or financial sponsor of an artist or writer

Birth of the Ghetto

The modern word ghetto refers to a minority neighborhood within a city. During the Renaissance, it identified the districts in European cities set aside for Jews. The first city to establish a ghetto was Venice, which had been home to Jewish communities during the Middle Ages. In 1516, the city's leaders forced all Jewish residents to live in the section of town known as the Ghetto Nuovo. They could work outside the ghetto during the day, but they had to return to the ghetto at night. The use of the word ghetto to refer to a Jewish neighborhood later spread to other parts of Europe.

As Seen by Christians

Works by Christian artists provide some insight into the way Renaissance Christians viewed their Jewish neighbors. German art often featured anti-Semitic images. Many northern artists portrayed hated biblical figures, such as Cain and Judas, with exaggerated racial features. Italian works, by contrast, seldom showed Jews in any special way. As a result, it is difficult to identify Jewish figures in Italian paintings. However, in the few known Italian portraits of Jews from this period, the subjects often bear the round yellow badges that many Italian states required Jews to wear.

* theological

relating to theology, the study of the nature of God and of religion

* humanist

referring to a Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living

* blasphemy

act of insulting or failing to show respect for God and for holy things

* rhetoric

speaking or writing effectively

* pagan

referring to ancient religions that worshiped many gods, or more generally, to any non-Christian religion