Jewish Women in Medieval England

Adrienne Williams Boyarin, University of Victoria

This video provides a context for understanding Jewish life in medieval England, and examines the lives of several Jewish women living there in the thirteenth century. Documents prepared for English administration on behalf of the crown provide glimpses into the activities of these women, many of whom were successful and active members of their communities.

Video

Further Reading

  • Elisheva Baumgarten, Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022).
  • Emma Cavell, “The Measure of Her Actions: A Quantitative Assessment of Anglo-Jewish Women’s Litigation at the Exchequer of the Jews, 1219–81,” in Law and History Review 39, no. 1 (2021), pp. 135–72.
  • Sarah Ifft Decker, Jewish Women in the Medieval World: 500–1500 CE (Routledge, 2022).
  • Medieval Anglo-Jewish Women, 1154–1307, Edition 0.8, edited by Adrienne Williams Boyarin (University of Victoria, 2024), at https://majw.uvic.ca.

Discussion Questions

  1. What surprises you most about the lives and careers of the medieval Anglo-Jewish women you encountered in this video?
  2. Jewish women in medieval England ran businesses, served Christian clientele, had Christian servants, and lived in mixed neighborhoods. What do these facts suggest about their cultural identity? For instance, what languages might they have used?
  3. Can the plentiful legal records maintained by the English Crown give us a full picture of medieval Anglo-Jewish women? Why or why not?
  4. Beyond what can be gleaned from surviving records, what daily interactions might you imagine for medieval Anglo-Jewish women?

Boyarin, Adrienne Williams. "Jewish Women in Medieval England," Middle Ages for Educators, December 21, 2024. Accessed [date]. https://middleagesforeducators.princeton.edu/jewish-women-medieval-england