Description
Book SynopsisHow are martyrs made, and how do the memories of martyrs express, nourish, and mold the ideals of the community? Sanctifying the Name of God wrestles with these questions against the background of the massacres of Jews in the Rhineland during the outbreak of the First Crusade. Marking the first extensive wave of anti-Jewish violence in medieval Christian Europe, these Persecutions of 1096 exerted a profound influence on the course of European Jewish history.
When the crusaders demanded that Jews choose between Christianity and death, many opted for baptism. Many others, however, chose to die as Jews rather than to live as Christians, and of these, many actually inflicted death upon themselves and their loved ones. Stories of their self-sacrifice ushered the Jewish ideal of martyrdom—kiddush ha-Shem, the sanctification of God''s holy name—into a new phase, conditioning the collective memory and mindset of Ashkenazic Jewry for centuries to come, during the Hol
Trade Review
"A major contribution to the study of medieval Jewish history." * Robert Chazan, New York University *
"This is an important book, beautifully written and cogently argued. Some of Cohen's readings are daring indeed and will surely arouse dissent. Long live debate!" * American Historical Review *
"The sufferings of the Rhineland Jews in 1096 were commemorated in three Hebrew narratives, which Professor Jeremy Cohen reexamines in this beautifully written book. . . . The cumulative effect of Cohen's analysis is overwhelming." * Catholic Historical Review *
"The slaughter of the Jews in the Rhineland in 1096 is one of the better-known events of the First Crusade. Cohen analyzes the texts of the Jewish accounts of these massacres in light of the martyrdom tradition of Masada, well-known at that time, and the contemporary Christian cult of self-sacrifice. . . . Recommended." * Choice *
"Cohen's fresh reading of the chronicles opens up a new vista to these complicated sources." * Journal of Jewish Studies *
"This is a beautifully written and thought-out work that raises valuable questions and draws unprecedented attention to important features of these texts; it is sure to provoke fruitful discussion" * Journal of Religion *
Table of Contents
Preface
List of Abbreviations for Primary Sources
Introduction: The Persecutions of 1096
PART I. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
1. To Sanctify the Name of God
2. The First Crusade and Its Historians
3. Points of Departure
PART II. MARTYRS OF 1096
4. Last Supper at Xanten
5. Master Isaac the Parnas
6. Mistress Rachel of Mainz
7. Kalonymos in Limbo
8. The Rape of Sarit
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Index
