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This article was the subject of an educational assignment in 2013 Q1. Further details were available on the "Education Program:University of Maryland, College Park/Women in Medieval Culture and Society (Spring 2013)" page, which is now unavailable on the wiki.

Jews lived all across the medieval world. They lived in both Muslim controlled lands such as Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Spain, North Africa, as well as Christian controlled lands such as France, Germany, Italy, and England.^[1] Mark Cohen, in his book, Under Crescent and Cross, argues that Jews were more accepted and a part of the Islamic world than Jews living in Christian lands. He contends that Jews who lived in the Islamic ruled lands lived in a place that was culturally and professionally accepting towards Jews. This was mainly due to the fact that Jews were seen as a separate ethnicity (see Dhimmi). Jews were seen as a separate ethnicity due to visual cues (clothing, speech/language, calendar, religious space) and this gave Muslims the ability to tolerate them.^[2] In contrast, the Christian world was a place of persecution for the Jews and they were not seen as a separate ethnic group. Cohen even states that the excesses of persecution and violence did not have a counterpart in the Islamic world.^[3] During this time there was a conflict between Judaism’s lofty religious expectations of women and the reality of society in which these Jewish women lived; this is similar to the lives of Christian women in the same period.^[4]

Since Jews were seen as second class citizens in the Christian and Muslim world, it was even harder for Jewish women to establish their own status. Avraham Grossman argues in his book Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe that three factors affected how Jewish women were perceived by the society around them:“ the biblical and talmudic heritage; the situation in the non-Jewish society within which the Jews lived and functioned; and the economic status of the Jews, including the woman’s role in supporting the family.”^[5] Grossman uses all three factors to argue that women’s status overall during this period actually rose.^[6]

The basis for Jewish beliefs can be seen in central texts of Judaism: Talmud, Mishnah, Tanach, and responsa. These are rich sources to help in understanding what ordinary people thought and how they acted during the middle ages. From the sources we do have, we can see how Jewish women in the medieval world lived.

The synagogue was an important part of the Jewish community; it was used for more than just prayer. For the most part Jewish communities were able to govern themselves.They had their own governing council made up of lay as well as religious leaders.The council could oversee everything from the running the synagogue to reprimanding those who participated in sinful activities, such as gambling. The synagogue was the center of the Jewish community which many believe was key to its continuity in this period.^[7]

Religious developments during the medieval period included relaxation on prohibitions against teaching women Torah, and the rise of women's prayer groups.^[8] One place that women participated in Jewish practices publicly was the synagogue. Women probably learned how to read the liturgy in Hebrew.^[9] In most synagogues they were given their own section, most likely a balcony; some synagogues had a separate building.^[10] Separation from the men was created by the Rabbis in the Mishnah and the Talmud. The reasoning behind the Halacha was that a woman and her body would distract men and give them impure thoughts during prayer.^[11] Due to this rabbinical interpretation, scholars have seen the women’s role in the synagogue as limited and sometimes even non-existent. However, recent research has shown that women actually had a larger role in the synagogue and the community at large. Women usually attended synagogue, for example, on the Sabbath and the holidays.^[12] Depending on the location of the women in the synagogue, they may have followed the same service as the men or they conducted their own services. Since the synagogues were large, there would be a designated woman who would be able to follow the cantor and repeat the prayers aloud for the women.^[13] Women had always attended services on Shabbat and holidays, but beginning in the eleventh century, women became more involved in the synagogue and its rituals. Women sitting separately from the men became a norm in synagogues around the beginning of the thirteenth century.^[14] Women, however, did much more than pray in the synagogue. One of the main jobs for women was to beautify the building. There are Torah ark curtains and Torah covers that women sewed and survive today. ^[15] The synagogue was a communal place for both men and women where worship, learning and community activities occurred.

The rise and increasing popularity of Kabbalah, which emphasized the shechinah and female aspects of the divine presence and human-divine relationship, and which saw marriage as a holy covenant between partners rather than a civil contract, had great influence. Kabbalists explained the phenomenon of menstruation as expressions of the demonic or sinful character of the menstruant.^[16] These changes were accompanied by increased pietistic strictures, including greater requirements for modest dress, and greater strictures during the period of menstruation. At the same time, there was a rise in philosophical and midrashic interpretations depicting women in a negative light, emphasizing a duality between matter and spirit in which femininity was associated, negatively, with earth and matter.^[17] The gentile society was also seen as a negative influence on the Jewish community. For example, it seems that Jews would analyze the modesty of their non-Jewish neighbors before officially moving into a new community because they knew that their children would be influenced by the local gentiles.^[18]

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, women became virtually the only source of Jewish ritual and tradition in the Catholic world in a phenomenon known as crypto-Judaism. Crypto-Jewish women would slaughter their own animals and made sure to keep as many of the Jewish dietary laws and life cycle rituals as possible without raising suspicion. Occasionally, these women were prosecuted by Inquisition officials for suspicious behavior such as lighting candles to honor the Sabbath or refusing to eat pork when it was offered to them. The Inquisition targeted crypto-Jewish women at least as much as it targeted crypto-Jewish men because women were accused of perpetuating Jewish tradition while men were merely permitting their wives and daughters to organize the household in this manner.^[19]

Jewish women were also apart of the social phenomenon of martyrdom of the First Crusade. Most of the violence from the First Crusade towards Jews was due to the People’s Crusade. Inspired by the Pope’s call, Christians in Roven, Trier, Metz, Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Prague, and Bohemia, among others, massacred thousands of Jews. The local governments did not, at first, sanction the mass murder of Jews as part of the fervor of the Crusades. However, popular anxiety overcame many towns and villages and lead towards the local government’s support of killing Jews.^[20] Although many Jews did convert, many rather chose to die. Through the sources, such as chronicles and poems, we see that Jewish women were often martyred with their families.^[21] In contrast, most Christian women martyrs were members of a convent or religious order when they were martyred (See Women and Hagiography in Medieval Christianity for more information).^[22]

Marriage, Domestic Violence and Divorce are all topics discussed by Jewish sages of the Medieval world. Marriage is an important institution in Judaism (see Marriage in Judaism). The sages of this period discussed this topic at length.

Rabbeinu Gershom instituted a rabbinic decree (Takkanah) prohibiting polygamy among Ashkenazic Jews.^[23] The rabbis instituted legal methods to enable women to petition a rabbinical court to compel a divorce. Maimonides ruled that a woman who found her husband "repugnant" could compel a divorce, "because she is not like a captive, to be subjected to intercourse with one who is hateful to her."^[24][25] Divorce for Christian women was technically not an option. By the tenth century, Christianity considered marriage a sacrament and could not be dissolved (see Divorce in Medieval Europe).

The rabbis also instituted and tightened prohibitions on domestic violence. Rabbi Peretz ben Elijah ruled, "The cry of the daughters of our people has been heard concerning the sons of Israel who raise their hands to strike their wives. Yet who has given a husband the authority to beat his wife?"^[26]Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg ruled that "For it is the way of the Gentiles to behave thus, but Heaven forbid that any Jew should do so. And one who beats his wife is to be excommunicated and banned and beaten."^[27] Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg also ruled that a battered wife could petition a rabbinical court to compel a husband to grant a divorce, with a monetary fine owed her on top of the regular ketubah money. ^[28] These rulings occurred in the midst of societies where wife-beating was legally sanctioned and routine.^[29]

Jewish women had a limited education. They were taught to read, write, run a household. They were also given some education in religious law that was essential to their daily lives, such as keeping kosher.^[30] Both Christian and Jewish girls were educated in the home. Although Christian girls may have had a male or female tutor, most Jewish girls had a female tutor.^[31] Higher learning was uncommon for both Christian and Jewish women. Christian women could enter a convent in order to achieve a higher education (See Female Education in the Medieval Period for more information).^[32] There are more sources of education for Jewish women living in Muslim controlled lands. Middle Eastern Jewry, on the other hand, had an abundance of female literates. The Cairo Geniza is filled with correspondences written (sometimes dictated) between family members and spouses. Many of these letters are pious and poetic and express a desire to be in closer or more frequent contact with a loved one that is far enough away to only be reached by written correspondence. There are also records of wills and other personal legal documents as well as written petitions to officials in cases of spouse spousal abuse or other conflicts between family members written or dictated by women.^[33]

Many women gained enough education to help their husbands out in business or even hold their own. Just like Christian women who ran their own business, Jewish women were engaged in their own occupations as well as helping their husbands. Jewish women seem to have lent money to Christian women throughout Europe.^[34] Women were also copyists, midwifes, spinners and weavers.^[35][36]

Adelman, Howard. "Italian Jewish Women at Prayer." Judaism in Practice: from the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period. Ed. Lawrence Fine. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2001. 52-60. ISBN 9780691057873

Baskin, Judith R. "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages." Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. Ed. Judith R. Baskin. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. 94-114.ISBN 0814320929

Baskin, Judith R. (Spring 1991). "Some Parallels in the Education of Medieval Jewish and Christian Women". Jewish History. 5 (1): 41–51. doi:10.1007/BF01679792. JSTOR 20101094. Retrieved 21 November 2011.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Biale, Rachel (1995). Women and Jewish Law: The Essential Texts, Their History, and Their Relevance for Today. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 0805210490.

Cohen, Mark R. (2008). Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691139319.

Grossman, Avraham. Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe. Translated from the Hebrew by Jonathan Chapman. Waltham, Mass: Brandeis University Press, 2004. ISBN 1584653922

Marcus, Ivan G (Spring 1986). "Mothers, Martyrs, and Moneymakers: Some Jewish Women in Medieval Europe". Conservative Judaism. 38 (3): 34–45.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Melammed, Renee Levine. "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies." Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009.105-111.ISBN 9780814732199

Steinberg, Theodore L. (2008). Jews and Judaism in the Middle Ages. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0275985882.

Taitz, Emily (2003). The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.-1900 C.E. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 0827607520. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)