Elisheva Carlebach and Debra Kaplan, “Matrons, Murderesses and Maidservants: New Voices of Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe”

This year, Fordham’s Center for Jewish Studies brings programs touching on a theme of disagreement in Jewish history. This lecture is part of the series.

In small villages, bustling cities, and crowded ghettos across early modern Europe, Jewish women were increasingly active participants in the daily life of their communities, managing homes and professions, leading institutions and sororities, and crafting objects and texts of exquisite beauty.

Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach will explore the kehillah, a lively and thriving form of communal life that sustained European Jews for three centuries, and retrieve vibrant portraits of Jewish women of all walks of life and their place within their homes, their community, and the marketplace.

Elisheva Carlebach is the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society at Columbia University. Her books include Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe.

Debra Kaplan is the Samuel Braun Chair for the History of the Jews in Germany at Bar-Ilan University. Her books include Beyond Expulsion: Jews, Christians and Reformation Strasbourg and The Patrons and Their Poor: Jewish Community and Public Charity in Early Modern Germany.