The significance of religion for the development of modern racist antisemitism is a much debated topic in the study of Jewish-Christian relations. This book, the first study on antisemitism in nineteenth-century Sweden, provides new insights into the debate from the specific case of a country in which religious homogeneity was the considered ideal long into the modern era. Between 1800 and 1900, approximately 150 books and pamphlets were printed in Sweden on the subject of Judaism and Jews. About one third comprised of translations mostly from German, but to a lesser extent also from French and English. Two thirds were Swedish originals, covering all genres and topics, but with a majority on religious topics: conversion, supersessionism, and accusations of deicide and bloodlust. The latter stem from the vastly popular medieval legends of Ahasverus, Pilate, and Judas which were printed in only slightly adapted forms and accompanied by medieval texts connecting these apocryphal figures to contemporary Jews, ascribing them a physical, essential, and biological coherence and continuity - a specific Jewish temporality shaped in medieval passion piety, which remained functional and intelligible in the modern period. Relying on medieval models and their combination of religious and racist imagery, nineteenth-century debates were informed by a comprehensive and mostly negative "knowledge" about Jews.

This book presents the most recent scholarship on the sixteenth-century convert Johannes Pfefferkorn and his context. Pfefferkorn is the most (in)famous of the converts from Judaism who wrote descriptions of Jewish ceremonial life and shaped both Christian ideas about Judaism and the course of anti-Jewish polemics in the early modern period. Rather than just rehearsing the better-known aspects of Pfefferkorn's life and the controversy with Johannes Reuchlin, this volume re-evaluates the motives behind his activities and writings as well as his role and success in the context of Dominican anti-Jewish polemics and Imperial German politics. Furthermore, it discusses other converts, who similarly "revealed the secrets of the Jews", and contains detailed studies of the campaigns against the Talmud and other Jewish books as well as the diffusion of Pfefferkorn's books and other anti-Jewish writings throughout early modern Europe. Revealing the Secrets of the Jews thus presents new perspectives on Jewish-Christian relations, the study of religion and Christian Hebraism, and the history of anthropology and ethnography.

Due to the scarcity of sources regarding actual Jewish and Muslim communities and settlements, there has until now been little work on either the perception of or encounters with Muslims and Jews in medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region. The volume provides the reader with the possibility to appreciate and understand the complexity of Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the medieval North. The contributions cover topics such as cultural and economic exchange between Christians and members of other religions; evidence of actual Jews and Muslims in the Baltic Rim; images and stereotypes of the Other. The volume thus presents a previously neglected field of research that will help nuance the overall picture of interreligious relations in medieval Europe.

Is research on antisemitism even necessary in countries with a relatively small Jewish population? Absolutely, as this volume shows. Compared to other countries, research on antisemitism in the Nordic countries (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is marginalized at an institutional and staffing level, especially as far as antisemitism beyond German fascism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust is concerned. Furthermore, compared to scholarship on other prejudices and minority groups, issues concerning Jews and anti-Jewish stereotypes remain relatively underresearched in Scandinavia - even though antisemitic stereotypes have been present and flourishing in the North ever since the arrival of Christianity, and long before the arrival of the first Jewish communities. This volume aims to help bring the study of antisemitism to the fore, from the medieval period to the present day. Contributors from all the Nordic countries describe the status of as well as the challenges and desiderata for the study of antisemitism in their respective countries.

This book presents a fresh approach to the question of the historical continuities and discontinuities of Jew-hatred, juxtaposing chapters dealing with the same phenomenon - one in the pre-modern, one in the modern period. How do the circumstances of interreligious violence differ in pre-Reformation Europe, the modern Muslim world, and the modern Western world? In addition to the diachronic comparison, most chapters deal with the significance of religion for the formation of anti-Jewish stereotypes. The direct dialogue of small-scale studies bridging the chronological gap brings out important nuances: anti-Zionist texts appropriating medieval ritual murder accusations; modern-day pogroms triggered by contemporary events but fuelled by medieval prejudices; and contemporary stickers drawing upon long-inherited knowledge about what a "Jew" looks like. These interconnections, however, differ from the often-assumed straightforward continuities between medieval and modern anti-Jewish hatred. The book brings together many of the most distinguished scholars of this field, creating a unique dialogue between historical periods and academic disciplines.

For nearly a century, it has been a commonplace of Central European history that there were no Jews in medieval Prussia-the result, supposedly, of the ruling Teutonic Order's attempts to create a purely Christian crusader's state. In this groundbreaking historical investigation, however, medievalist Cordelia Hess demonstrates the very weak foundations upon which that assumption rests. In exacting detail, she traces this narrative to the work of a single, minor Nazi-era historian, revealing it to be ideologically compromised work that badly mishandles its evidence. By combining new medieval scholarship with a biographical and historiographical exploration grounded in the 20th century, The Absent Jews spans remote eras while offering a fascinating account of the construction of historical knowledge.

This book presents a fresh approach to the question of the historical continuities and discontinuities of Jew-hatred, juxtaposing chapters dealing with the same phenomenon - one in the pre-modern, one in the modern period. How do the circumstances of interreligious violence differ in pre-Reformation Europe, the modern Muslim world, and the modern Western world? In addition to the diachronic comparison, most chapters deal with the significance of religion for the formation of anti-Jewish stereotypes. The direct dialogue of small-scale studies bridging the chronological gap brings out important nuances: anti-Zionist texts appropriating medieval ritual murder accusations; modern-day pogroms triggered by contemporary events but fuelled by medieval prejudices; and contemporary stickers drawing upon long-inherited knowledge about what a "Jew" looks like. These interconnections, however, differ from the often-assumed straightforward continuities between medieval and modern anti-Jewish hatred. The book brings together many of the most distinguished scholars of this field, creating a unique dialogue between historical periods and academic disciplines.

"Die vorliegende Studie verdient hohe Anerkennung. Sie ist uberaus innovativ, obwohl sie in methodischer Hinsicht gewisse Zweifel weckt. Die Verfasserin offenbart eine tiefgehende Vertrautheit mit der aktuellen Forschung, was insbesondere das hagiographische Schrifttum und dessen Quellenkritik angeht (auch wenn dabei die neuesten Erkenntnisse der franzosischen Geschichtsschreibung nur ungenugend berucksichtigt werden). Die Verfasserin legt ferner erkenntnistheoretische Reife und Originalitat bei der Suche nach einer neuen Formel fur die Kritik und Interpretation mittelalterlicher Quellen an den Tag. Sie enthullt auf breiter Ebene interessante Einzelaspekte des religiosen Lebens in den Ostseelandern und weist dabei auch auf die Aktivitaten der Geistlichkeit bei der Gestaltung einer einheitlichen Kultlandschaft hin. Naturlich ware die Betrachtungsweise der Verfasserin bei einer naheren Untersuchung der personellen Verbindungen zwischen Preussen und Skandinavien letztlich eine andere gewesen. Nichtsdestotrotz bildet die Arbeit von Cordelia Hess einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur Erhellung eines gesamteuropaischen Phanomens, das sich erst in der Neuzeit herausgebildet hat, namlich die weitgehende konfessionelle Homogenisierung des Ostseeraums infolge der Reformation. Aber ist es uberhaupt denkbar, dass die Ursachen dieses Phanomens im Spatmittelalter zu suchen sind? Zum Beispiel Ende des 14. bzw. im 15. Jahrhundert, als die Kirche in Skandinavien und Preussen derart enge Bindungen an Rom und die dort residierenden Papsten aufrechterhielt?" "Die gut geschriebene Arbeit stellt durch fundierte Analyse der hagiographischen Schriften der drei Heiligen einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Konstruktion mittelalterlicher Heiligkeitsideale dar und bietet interessante Ansatze zu weiteren Forschungen." Jens E. Olesen in: Baltische Studien. Pommersches Jahrbuch fur Landesgeschichte, Band 96 (2010), S. 149-150 "Erstmals werden hier Verhaltnis, Unterschiede und Zensur dieser beiden Quellengruppen - Kanonisationsakten und hagiographische Texte - systematisch analysiert und auch Ruckschlusse auf das Verstandnis von Geschlechterrollen gezogen. ...] es sei nachdrucklich auf den Anhang verwiesen, der neben den ublichen Verzeichnissen auch das Leben der Heiligen im Uberblick zusammenfasst." Michaela Wirsing in: Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, 59 (2011) 5, S. 469-471 " Es geht] Hess nicht so sehr um Kanonisationsprozesse, wie sie gemeinhin definiert werden, als vielmehr um die Metamorphose und Selektion, die bestimmte Inhalte der Hagiographie, das heisst biographische Akzente und Wunder, auf dem Weg von den ersten Aufzeichnungen in die Akten und in weitere Derivate durchliefen. Diese Stufen in lateinischen wie volkssprachlichen Texten werden eingehend analysiert und vergleichen, Grunde fur Einbeziehung und Ausblendung von Aspekten erortert und in Bezug zu relevanten Personengruppen gestellt sowie die Uberlieferungszusammenhange erlautert. Darin liegt der Wert dieser Studie. ] Wertvoll ist die Arbeit zudem wegen der Berucksichtigung auch der skandinavischen Literatur." Ofried Krafft in: sehepunkte, Ausgabe 9 (2009), Nr. 9 "La pertinence des resultats de travail de C.H. depasse donc largement le cadre spatio-temporel de son etude et sa lecture pourra s'averer fructueuse pour l'ensemble des chercheurs specialistes d'histoire ecclesiastique et d'hagiographie medievale." Adrien Queret-Podesta in: Revue de l'Institut Francais d'Histoire en Allemagne, Nr. 1 (2009)"