Elisheva Baumgarten is Professor Yitzhak Becker Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and coeditor of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press..

• IntroductionChapter 1. Standing Before God: Purity and Impurity in the SynagogueChapter 2. Jewish Fasting and Atonement in a Christian ContextChapter 3. Communal Charity: Evidence from Medieval NÜrnbergChapter 4. Positive Time-Bound Commandments: Class, Gender, and TransformationChapter 5. Conspicuous in the City: Medieval Jews in Urban CentersChapter 6. Feigning Piety: Tracing Two Tales of Pious PretendersChapter 7. Practicing Piety: Social and Comparative PerspectivesAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz . . . displays an excellent use of Jewish and Christian sources, both ancient and medieval, as well as a mastery of contemporary research that deals with both Jewish and Christian European medieval communities. . . . Elisheva Baumgarten . . . provides the reader with an astute gendered analysis in her presentation of piety in the high Middle Ages."-Speculum"Baumgarten argues that as practices changed in Ashkenaz scholarly authorities reacted by seeking out the appropriate ancient texts that supported their decisions to curb or foster these practices. Her approach yields a vivid picture of this medieval Jewish community that makes a great contribution to Medieval studies. It also lends itself more readily to comparison and even understanding by those outside of Jewish studies. I encourage all those interested in high medieval culture, social history, gender, and inter-religious entanglement to read this important book."-The Medieval Review"This fascinating and persuasive book will play an important bridging role as the study of medieval Christianity focuses more on lay piety, and as medievalists seek more and more to integrate material on diverse cultures into their scholarship and teaching."-Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota"Elisheva Baumgarten assesses the presence, development, and extent of Jewish piety in northern Europe, from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Her emphasis on women's issues and the attempts to isolate the practices of the Jewish layman, rather than the rabbinic elite, are in many ways pioneering."-Ephraim Kanarfogel, Yeshiva University

Elisheva Baumgarten is Professor Yitzhak Becker Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and coeditor of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press..

• IntroductionChapter 1. Standing Before God: Purity and Impurity in the SynagogueChapter 2. Jewish Fasting and Atonement in a Christian ContextChapter 3. Communal Charity: Evidence from Medieval NÜrnbergChapter 4. Positive Time-Bound Commandments: Class, Gender, and TransformationChapter 5. Conspicuous in the City: Medieval Jews in Urban CentersChapter 6. Feigning Piety: Tracing Two Tales of Pious PretendersChapter 7. Practicing Piety: Social and Comparative PerspectivesAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz . . . displays an excellent use of Jewish and Christian sources, both ancient and medieval, as well as a mastery of contemporary research that deals with both Jewish and Christian European medieval communities. . . . Elisheva Baumgarten . . . provides the reader with an astute gendered analysis in her presentation of piety in the high Middle Ages."-Speculum"Baumgarten argues that as practices changed in Ashkenaz scholarly authorities reacted by seeking out the appropriate ancient texts that supported their decisions to curb or foster these practices. Her approach yields a vivid picture of this medieval Jewish community that makes a great contribution to Medieval studies. It also lends itself more readily to comparison and even understanding by those outside of Jewish studies. I encourage all those interested in high medieval culture, social history, gender, and inter-religious entanglement to read this important book."-The Medieval Review"This fascinating and persuasive book will play an important bridging role as the study of medieval Christianity focuses more on lay piety, and as medievalists seek more and more to integrate material on diverse cultures into their scholarship and teaching."-Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota"Elisheva Baumgarten assesses the presence, development, and extent of Jewish piety in northern Europe, from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Her emphasis on women's issues and the attempts to isolate the practices of the Jewish layman, rather than the rabbinic elite, are in many ways pioneering."-Ephraim Kanarfogel, Yeshiva University

Elisheva Baumgarten is Professor Yitzhak Becker Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and coeditor of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press..

• IntroductionChapter 1. Standing Before God: Purity and Impurity in the SynagogueChapter 2. Jewish Fasting and Atonement in a Christian ContextChapter 3. Communal Charity: Evidence from Medieval NÜrnbergChapter 4. Positive Time-Bound Commandments: Class, Gender, and TransformationChapter 5. Conspicuous in the City: Medieval Jews in Urban CentersChapter 6. Feigning Piety: Tracing Two Tales of Pious PretendersChapter 7. Practicing Piety: Social and Comparative PerspectivesAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz . . . displays an excellent use of Jewish and Christian sources, both ancient and medieval, as well as a mastery of contemporary research that deals with both Jewish and Christian European medieval communities. . . . Elisheva Baumgarten . . . provides the reader with an astute gendered analysis in her presentation of piety in the high Middle Ages."-Speculum"Baumgarten argues that as practices changed in Ashkenaz scholarly authorities reacted by seeking out the appropriate ancient texts that supported their decisions to curb or foster these practices. Her approach yields a vivid picture of this medieval Jewish community that makes a great contribution to Medieval studies. It also lends itself more readily to comparison and even understanding by those outside of Jewish studies. I encourage all those interested in high medieval culture, social history, gender, and inter-religious entanglement to read this important book."-The Medieval Review"This fascinating and persuasive book will play an important bridging role as the study of medieval Christianity focuses more on lay piety, and as medievalists seek more and more to integrate material on diverse cultures into their scholarship and teaching."-Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota"Elisheva Baumgarten assesses the presence, development, and extent of Jewish piety in northern Europe, from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Her emphasis on women's issues and the attempts to isolate the practices of the Jewish layman, rather than the rabbinic elite, are in many ways pioneering."-Ephraim Kanarfogel, Yeshiva University