A Presentation of Jews in the Renaissance:

I have always been interested and passionate about the struggles of other people throughout history. For my research topic this semester, I delved deeper into something that has been present all through the years—anti-Semitism. Over the past months I have paid close attention to and explored the anti-Semitic focuses on many of the works of the Renaissance.
My academic career has been riddled with discovering instances in which the Jewish people are looked down on or persecuted. I am endlessly fascinated by how the Jews constantly strive to live their lives apart from the meaningless hate others may feel for them. I also found the fact that Jews came across as harmful, humorous, or toxic to nearly every culture since they first came to be as a group to be extremely interesting. History has seen them morph from acknowledged and learned (but never more than "just Jews") scholars, wearing their required gold circle badge, to just jokes of the day--never really human.

Today we still see examples of the Jews being set up to portray the old stereotypes. In the television show Family Guy, for instance, the only Jewish couple, Peter and Lois Griffin’s friends Mort and Muriel Goldman, own their own store and pharmacy. They are shown to have flaming red and curly hair, thick glasses, crooked teeth, and are known for their whiny neuroticism that has become a very “Jewish” character trait over the years—especially with the recent comedic style and success of the great Woody Allen.

With the illustrations and examples in literature to support my point, it is easy to see how the Renaissance was filled with anti-Semitism. Throughout the world and throughout time, they have been a people to bear the burden of the scapegoat. A hatred for the Jews is apparent in each work they are included in within the period of the Renaissance. This was my focus for a research topic and will continue to intrigue me. The way I see it, we must all educate ourselves on each version of the past so as to not recreate problems or keep others feeling oppressed or unusual.

Anti-Semitism in Literature and Art III

"Simon of Trent Blood Libel":
"Blood Libel" is a term used to describe a false accusation that Jews sacrifice Christian children for a number of reasons. It was a common belief in the Renaissance that Jews would bleed children they had kidnapped and use the blood for
their ritulas or even to cook and bake with. This woodcut depicts the death of Simon of Trent among nine Jews. Several are still wearing their red hats from the day being that Jews were forced to wear in public by pain of the death penalty. All are noticeably wearing the required gold badges of the Jews, also. Their faces are menacingly calm as they take care with their prize--making the offenders even more frightful.

"Judensau":
A religious and institutional form of Renaissance artwork, Judensau portrays Jews going against religious laws that one must not pig, much less touch a pig. Judensau shows Jews in obscene activities with pigs. Jews in the drawings, woodcuts, and scultptures are fornicating with and performing sexual acts on a sow. The Devil is also present in many of the examples that I found, encouraging and pushing the tongues of grown Jewish men to the anuses of the pigs. Even Jewish children and women were included in some. One depicted a Jewish woman having sex with a goat in the background while the men and a child suckled from and fondled a pig in the presence of the Devil. Not only is this offensive to the beliefs of the Jewish people, but it also implies that they are more susceptible to the ways of the Devil.

Anti-Semitism in Literature and Art II

Boaisuau's "Jew by Well":
This woodcut is famous for its shock value and presentation of Jews being direct threats to Chritians everywhere. The Jew, appearing to be a priest, holds a vessel of his victim's blood while conjuring a devil out of a well outside a town, right in the open. A blatant mockery of the use of a crucifix, the woodcut takes advantage of the threatening and unpredictable side of the Jewish stereotype. Not only were they a comical people to the Renaissance reader and audience, they were also seen as extremely dangerous.


"Christ Drives the Usurers out of the Temple" by Lucas Cranach the Elder:
This woodcut takes an entirely different approach to anti-semitic stereotypes. At least today, one does not typically imagine Christ to be one to drive anyone or anything away with a whip. However, this depiction shows an aggressive and abusive Jesus Christ. The Jewish people he is whipping are falling and stampeding each other to escape his blows, scattering like roaches almost. The Jews are portrayed as pests to be shooed away, even bringing the evil out of Christ himself.

Anti-Semitism in Literature and Art

Shylock:
Shylock, from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", is an example of the economic roles Jews were thought to play in the time of the Renaissance. A moneylender, a famously "Jewish" profession still today, Shylock is depicted as an enemy of the people no matter what. He is a stingy Jew for being a moneylender, and even more so for demanding his side of the bargain when things fall through. Some readers have interpreted the play as contrasting the mercy of the Christians to the vengefulness of Jews, being that they were thought to have been born without the ability or grace to comprehend mercy.

Barabbas:
Barabbas is the main character and villain to Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta". A notoriously rotten man in fictional literature, Barabbas shows only hints of humanity when he protests the unfairness of the governor's edict. The Jewish population of Malta is made to pay for the debts of the island (something not so far fetched) and Barabbas is shown to speak up not because he is compassionate, but that he is greedy. His numerous asides reveal how cunning and dangerous he truly is. Barabbas surpasses any Jew in literature that I could find of the Renaissance both in his fury and greed, as well as his brutality, even towards his beloved daughter. Jews were seen in the time to be sub-human, and this is evident when reading "The Jew of Malta".

Anti-Semitism in the Renaissance Research Bibliography

Berek, Peter. "The Jew as Renaissance man" The Free Library. 22 March 1998. 19 April 2009.

Boaistuau. “Legend of the Jew Calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood”. Woodcut. Wikipedia:The Free Encyclopedia. 9 April 2009. 20 April 2009.

Biberman, Matthew. “Masculinity, Anti-Semitism, and Early Modern English Literature”. Ashgate Publishing.

Cranach the Elder, Lucas. “Christ drives the Usurers out of the Temple”. Woodcut. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 9 April 2009. 20 April 2009.

Felsenstein, Frank. “Anti-Semitic Stereotypes”. JHU Press.

Isserhoff, Ami. “Judensau”. The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel. 2005-2009. 9 April 2009.

Isserhoff, Ami. “Simon of Trent Blood Libel”. The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel. 2009. 9 April 2009.

Luther, Martin. “On the Jews and Their Lies”. Book Cover. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 9 April 2009. 20 April 2009.

“Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies (1543)”. The Jewish Virtual Library: A Division of The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2009. 9 April 2009.

Paulraj, R. Michael. “Forced Expulsion of European Jews”. Suite101.com. 3 July 2007. 9 April 2009.

Rogers, Jami. “Shylock and History”. PBS: Masterpiece Theatre: The Merchant of Venice. 9 April 2009.

White, R.S. “Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature”. Cambridge University Press. 1996. 9 April 2009.

witches in the Renaissance

I have always been fascinated by the monsters of all times. Though I sometimes get overexcited when talking about how far some of different times took stories and accusations, I can still appreciate the fear they must of felt towards change of any kind.

I know I can sound like a broken record, as most of the women in our class have come to point out about ourselves, but I feel as though many of these monsters were created to keep the women of the period timid, silent, and virtually powerless. The concept of witches, for instance, is an excellent example of these oppressors using the one thing the women had power over during that time against them. The home and household was the birthplace of the witch. Cooking utensils, tools like brooms, and even pets were completely demonized and thought to be used for evil. Anything that was available to a woman while she was cooped up in her house was something she could arm herself with. Again, we return to the power struggle of the society of the time, as well as an abuse of the lack of privacy and protection.

I think it is scary to think that literally anyone during the time could point their finger and cry "witch". After being accused one was pretty much a "dead man walking"--even confessing to fictional crimes or just being a witch wasn't even enough to save oneself sometimes.

I find it terrifying to imagine myself in the shoes of one of those convicted. The frenzy carried the focus from the real issue, which tends to happen throughout history, and instilled more fear into the desperate hearts of the poor people, ever afraid of change, throughout the Renaissance.

Roaring Girl

I really enjoyed Middleton and Dekker's The Roaring Girl. I loved how it toyed with the ideas of women's liberation and some kind of recognition of same sex orientation far before the western world had ever heard of such a thing. The piece was groundbreaking, I thought.

The fictional character, Moll, being based on a real woman in history was also something I found amazing. I think she was seen as scandalous and bawdy merely because she was so outspoken in her disdain and disapproval of the ways in which women were meant to live.

This is one of my favorite depictions of Moll, the roaring girl. Rhine Maiden poses as the very sexualized version of an outspoken and loud leading lady. Not the typical manly Moll we get the sense of in the original text, but a beautiful and interesting portrayal.

As aforementioned in my blog on homosexuality and same sex relationships in the Renaissance, I think the issue was not about the actual orientation or sexual acts, but about the woman gaining independence. Enpowered by the new fashion of wearing men's clothing, women began traveling in mobs to go on outtings, like the theatre for instance (Staub). The taking on of men's clothing displayed a masculine power. Now the women were not only rulers of the "home domain", but they were also owners of themselves. They could pretend to be men through their clothes and in sexual ways--men began to feel that they were losing all power. With dressing how they liked and banding together in ways new to the English society, figures like Moll became humorous. When you want to take power from something, you laugh at it, humiliate and demean it.

However, Moll never seizes to amaze and never gives into the degradation. My favorite speech of hers is located in 3.1.73-113. Moll takes up for all that feel the pressure from a patriarchal and dangerous society, saying that we are born of our surroundings and we all suffer: "Fish that must needs bite or themselves be bitten, such hungry things as these may soon be took with a worm fast'ned on a golden hook."