New Publication: ‘Perception and Awareness: Artefacts and Imageries in Medieval European Jewish Cultures’

Edited by Katrin Kogman-Appel, Elisheva Baumgarten, Elisabeth Hollender, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner

What did the world look like for Jews living in medieval Europe? How did they perceive and make use of the elements of their daily life, from items on the street to religious iconography within holy spaces — in particular synagogues and at the exterior of churches — and profane elements from the home? And how did they experience the visual and material cultures of their non-Jewish neighbours?

These questions form the core of this volume, which explores pre-modern Jewish approaches to images and material objects from a variety of perspectives. From clothing to manuscripts, and from lighting devices to the understanding of the invisible, the chapters gathered together in this multifaceted volume combine analyses of images and artefacts together with in-depth analyses of texts to offer fresh insights into the visual cultures that informed the world of European Jews in the Middle Ages.

Editor Biographies:

• Elisheva Baumgarten is a social historian of the Jews of medieval northern Europe at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Elisabeth Hollender is a Professor of Jewish Studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt specializing in medieval Jewish religious culture.
• Katrin Kogman-Appel is a Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Münster with an expertise on medieval Jewish visual culture.
• Ephraim Shoham-Steiner is a historian specializing in the History of Jews in Medieval Europe at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva

Find out more about the book here.