This book challenges the standard conception of the Middle Ages as a time of persecution for Jews. Jonathan Elukin traces the experience of Jews in Europe from late antiquity through the Renaissance and Reformation, revealing how the pluralism of medieval society allowed Jews to feel part of their local communities despite recurrent expressions of hatred against them.

Elukin shows that Jews and Christians coexisted more or less peacefully for much of the Middle Ages, and that the violence directed at Jews was largely isolated and did not undermine their participation in the daily rhythms of European society. The extraordinary picture that emerges is one of Jews living comfortably among their Christian neighbors, working with Christians, and occasionally cultivating lasting friendships even as Christian culture often demonized Jews.

As Elukin makes clear, the expulsions of Jews from England, France, Spain, and elsewhere were not the inevitable culmination of persecution, but arose from the religious and political expediencies of particular rulers. He demonstrates that the history of successful Jewish-Christian interaction in the Middle Ages in fact laid the social foundations that gave rise to the Jewish communities of modern Europe.

Elukin compels us to rethink our assumptions about this fascinating period in history, offering us a new lens through which to appreciate the rich complexities of the Jewish experience in medieval Christendom.

Jonathan Elukin is Associate Professor of History at Trinity College.

Reviews:

"Challenges the standard view that this was a dark period for Jews."--Sheldon Kirshner, Canadian Jewish News

"Elukin argues that Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages were not limited to persecution and violence, isolation and exclusion. Rather, he asserts that a degree of fluidity existed between Christians and Jews that allowed for 'normal' relations between them....This book will serve as a useful supplement for undergraduate and graduate courses on the Middle Ages."--J. Haus, Choice

"Instead of emphasizing the conflicts between Christians and Jews, Elukin shows how deeply interconnected the two groups were in their everyday lives...Elukin...makes use of cutting-edge scholarship on medieval Europe to clarify the differing circumstances that controlled Jewish lives...As a lucid, up-to-date survey of Christian-Jewish relations in the pre-modern period, it is helpful and thought-provoking."--Jewish Book World

Endorsements:

"This book offers a much-needed corrective to nearly every treatment of medieval European Jewish history. Instead of an emphasis on persecution and different theories about its sources in church or state policies or in popular anti-Semitism leading to the expulsions of 1290, 1306, and 1492, Elukin proposes a paradigm shift that stresses the everyday convivencia of Jews and Christians who lived side by side most of the time. This book seeks to overturn a dominant view about Christian persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages, reinforced for over fifty years by the Holocaust."--Ivan G. Marcus, Yale University