How did the Renaissance affect the Jews (and vice versa)?
v Classicism (study of ancient Greek and Roman texts)
¨ Jews often provided the texts that classicists studied- Jewish scholars and translators
¨ Hebrew
Ø In the Northern Renaissance, many people wanted to learn Hebrew to study the original texts
Ø Elijah del Medigo worked for Lorenzo de Medici
Taught Greek and Aristotle
Also taught Hebrew to Pico della Mirandola
Ø Often one reason Christians studied Hebrew was to convert Jews
Reuchlin
¶ Studied Hebrew in the hopes of being able to convert Jews to Christianity
¶ Also considered a friend of the Jews because he defended them learning Talmud. He even debated against Pfefferkorn, a felloe Christian, defending the Talmud because he thought the Talmud would help Jews become Christians
v Minor Jewish contributions
¨ Astronomers and map makers
Ø Levi ben Gersho- astronomer known for his astronomical tables
Ø Abraham Zacuto- made Columbus’ maps
¨ Writers
Ø Don Judah Abrabanel- Dialogues on Love
Jewish philosophy
Love holds the universe together- HaShem’s love
¨ Abraham Colorni
Ø Military engineer
Ø Invented an early machine gun
Ø Mathematician
Ø Magician
Ø Closest you can get to a Renaissance man
¨ Jews did not really have much impact on the Renaissance
v Most Jews, like most poor people, were relatively unaffected by the Renaissance
3/11/11
v Some rich Jews were affected
¨ Rapaport family
Ø Coat of arms- individualism
v Renaissance popes
¨ Uninterested in religion
¨ These “bad” popes were less interested in forcing religious conformity, which is better for the Jews because they tended to leave the Jews alone
¨ Pope Alexander VI welcomed the exiles from Spain
Ø As more and more refugees came to Rome, the Jews living there were becoming hostile because it was becoming too expensive
Ø The Pope called in some heads of the Jews and yelled at them for not treating their fellow Jews well. He fined them, took half the money for himself and gave half the money to the refugees
How did the Reformation affect the Jews?
v Martin Luther
¨ Attacked the Catholic Church for corruption, failing to follow the bible, trying to grab too much power, etc.
¨ Early attitude towards the Jews
Ø The Jews were right to reject a corrupt Church
Ø Be nice and the Jews will accept Lutheran teachings
¨ Very few Jews accepted Lutheranism- why?
Ø Jewish problem with the Catholic Church was not its corruption- Jews just didn’t believe Jesus was G-d, and Luther did not change that
¨ Later Luther
Ø Extremely anti-Semitic and hostile towards Jews
Ø His remarks towards how to deal with the Jews were copied by Hitler (except Hitler added mass murder to the equation)
Judaism banned
Shuls burned
Jews ostracized from business and travel
Property confiscated
Put into stables and forced labor
Jews should be expelled from the land
¨ Future
Ø For 500 years, Lutheran pastors are preaching these terrible acts against the Jews, so when Hitler proposed it, it was acceptable to good pious Lutherans
3/14/11
v John Calvin
¨ Predestination à no point to forced conversions
¨ Calvin did not allow Jews into Geneva because he considered them a bad influence on his “godly” society
¨ However, in the long run Calvinism was good for the Jews
Ø The advent of many Protestant faiths broke down the religious unity of Europe and led to tolerance
The Dutch Calvinists were the 1st to really tolerate Jews
¶ If everyone should read the Bible à tolerance of different opinions
¶ Economic- needed to borrow money for their businesses to flourish
No comments:
Post a Comment