The Lisbon Massacre of 1506 and the Royal Image in the Shebet Yehudah
by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi
Jews in exile have often struggled for the protection of the highest governmental power, whether king, emperor, caliph, or pope, because they learned early that their safety could not be entrusted to the goodwill of their gentile neighbors or the local authorities. Alexandrian Jews in the Hellenistic period relied on Imperial Rome instead of their native Alexandria, and Jews in medieval Europe sought ties with the Carolingian emperors, circumventing all inferior feudal relationships. In all such cases of vertical alliances Jews have both gained and lost. In this landmark study, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi presents the Lisbon Massacre as one chapter in the history of alliances between Jews and the powers that have ruled over them. Through an exploration of Jewish attitudes and their consequences at this important juncture in Jewish history, he uncovers the “myth of the royal alliance” in the thought of Ibn Verga and others. He offers a fresh review of available data on the course of the pogrom and relates it to the Shebet Yehudah. Two appendices include the German account of the massacre, based on three printed editions (two of them previously unknown), and the major documentary sources, giving historians access to key primary materials as well as Yerushalmi’s analysis. Even the modern era did not fundamentally change these dynamics. Hannah Arendt emphasized the extent to which Jews have allied themselves to the modern nation-state and have become vulnerable when other groups oppose that nation-state. Modern Jews have frequently clung to an uncritical faith in the state’s protection, even when that faith bears no correspondence to reality.
- By (author) Yosef H Yerushalmi
Other Titles in this Series
Modalities in Medieval Jewish Law for Public Order and Safety
Hebrew Union College Annual Supplements 6
Volume 6
Similar Books
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Lobbying for Equality
Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Equality during the French Revolution
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Tradition, Interpretation, and Change
Developments in the Liturgy of Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenaz
Judaïsme ancien – Ancient Judaism, 13, 2025
Daniel Boyarin et la notion de judaïsme dans l’histoire / Daniel Boyarin and the Notion of Judaism in History (Judaism: The Genealogy of the Modern Notion)
Christlich-jüdische Beziehungen in Aschkenas während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts
Neue Einsichten in die vielfältige Quellenüberlieferung
Das Weisheitsbuch Ben Sira / Jesus Sirach
Synopse der hebräischen, griechischen, lateinischen und syrischen Texttraditionen mit deutscher Übersetzung
Der anwesende Abwesende
Das Verhältnis Judentum-Christentum in Schulbuch und Unterricht der Fächer Religion und Ethik
Essen
Ethische Perspektiven zum Speisen in Antike und Gegenwart. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik XV
