Fred Rosenbaum & Rachel Biale: The Jews of the Rhineland and Alsace

These preparatory lectures for a New Lehrhaus/Tiyul Jewish Journeys September trip are open to anyone interested in the history of the region, not just trip participants.

Fred Rosenbaum will describe the millennia-long importance of the Rhine River to the economy, culture, and geopolitics of Western Europe with a focus on Frankfurt and the fraught Jewish experience in the region. The lecture will encompass medieval persecution and ghettoization, the astonishing rise of the Rothschild dynasty, the fruits of emancipation, and the destruction of German Jewry at the hands of the Nazis.

 

Rachel Biale will discuss two medieval rabbinic luminaries of the region: Rabbi Gershom ben Judah of Mainz, who, around 1000 CE, prohibited polygamy, and Rashi (1040-1105), considered the greatest commentator on the Bible and Talmud, who studied and taught in Worms. She will also discuss the aesthetic practices, gender roles, and sexuality in these medieval Ashkenazi communities.