Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews

Medieval Jewish life was shaped by regional communities whose identities were more varied than the familiar labels Ashkenaz and Sepharad might suggest. Edited by Javier Castaño, Talya Fishman and Ephraim Kanarfogel, this collection asks how Jewish communities developed a sense of regional belonging, and how that belonging changed as people moved, learned from neighbours and encountered new political borders.

The essays range from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, moving through western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and Asia Minor. They look at identities formed through local customs, scholarship, law and contact with surrounding cultures, as well as identities attributed to communities by outsiders. The familiar regional names emerge not as timeless divisions, but as the products of particular medieval histories.