Dulcia of Worms: Exceptional or Commonplace? Jewish Women in Medieval Europe

Elisheva Baumgarten, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This video examines the story of one medieval Jewish woman who found her death when two Christian criminals attacked her home. It discussed her family, how we learn about this event via the writings of her husband, R. Eleazar of Worms and the deeds she is described doing during her life time. It also details some facts about Jewish life in medieval Worms. The video underlines the fact that her husband wrote about her after her death and suggests that if she hadn’t died, we would not have known that women like her existed. The video ends by suggesting that there were many more women like Dulcia in medieval Jewish society and urges its listeners to learn more about them.

Video

Primary Source Reading 

In Hebrew:


Dulcia of Worms. Published in Hebrew by A.M. Habermann, Gzerot Ashkenaz veTzarfat (Jerusalem: Tarshish: 1946), 164-168.
 

In English:
 

  • Ivan G. Marcus, “Mothers, Martyrs and Moneymakers: Some Jewish Women in Medieval
    Europe,” Conservative Judaism 38 (1986): 34–45.
  • Judith R. Baskin, “Dolce of Worms: Women Saints in Judaism,” in Women Saints in World
    Religions, ed. Arvind Sharma (Albany: State University of New York, 2000), 39–70.
  • Judith R. Baskin, “Dolce of Worms: The Lives and Deaths of an Exemplary Medieval Jewish Woman and Her Daughters,” in Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period, ed. Lawrence Fine, Princeton Readings in Religions (Princeton, N.J: Princeton Univ. Press, 2001), 429–37.

Further Reading

Discussion Questions

  1. Why do you think R. Eleazar chose to commemorate his wife using a chapter from the
    Bible? Why this specific chapter?
  2. Were there any activities Dulcia did that surprised you? Why did they surprise you? How
    could you find out if these were regular or unusual activities?
  3. Were Jewish and Christian women similar in their religious activities? Their daily lives?
  4. Compare Dulcia to her daughters based on their description by R. Eleazar.

Cite

Baumgarten, Elisheva. "Dulcia of Worms: Exceptional or Commonplace? Jewish Women in Medieval Europe," Middle Ages for Educators, January 10, 2025. Accessed [date]. https://middleagesforeducators.princeton.edu/dulcia-worms-exceptional-or-commonplace-jewish-women-medieval-europe