Picking up the pieces: Modelling the fragmentary evidence of jewish resilience in the German Kingdom during the second half of the 14th century

Abstract

On the face of it, the history the Jewish minority in later medieval Ashkenaz appears to be a historical case very well-suited to an analysis in terms of ‘resilience’ (cf. Clemens and Cluse 2018). While previous research has focused on the causes and effects of a series of persecutions and other anti-Jewish measures and events intensifying in the last third of the thirteenth century (surveyed in Toch 2003; Müller2004), it is well worth asking why not everything broke down. In fact, things not even broke down completely after the calamitous events of 1348 - 1350 (Haverkamp 1981; Graus 1994).