Mutual perceptions and attitudes

Abstract

Medieval Jews and Christians lived in an environment where the Other mattered profoundly. That Christians were a source of concern for Jews hardly needs to be noted, let alone demonstrated. The legal and political dimensions of the Jewish condition were virtually determined by the dominant society, the social life of the minority was profoundly affected by the majority, and cultural influences were deeper and more pervasive than historians imagined less than a half-century ago. That Jews were a source of concern for Christians is more striking and, for an observer who comes to the subject with expectations formed by an abstract analysis based on the “objective” importance of Jews in medieval Christian Europe, nothing less than startling. (from Introduction)