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Paola Tartakoff

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, History, Faculty Member

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Books by Paola Tartakoff

Conversion, Circumcision and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2020)

Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2012)

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS by Paola Tartakoff

“Martyrdom, Conversion, and Shared Cultural Repertoires in Late Medieval Europe,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, 109.4 (2019): 500–533

“From Conversion to Ritual Murder: Re-Contextualizing the Circumcision Charge,” Medieval Encounters 24 (2018): 361-89

"Testing Boundaries: Jewish Conversion and Cultural Fluidity in Medieval Europe," Speculum 90 (2015): 728–62

"Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Jewish History 24 (2010): 7-32

“Of Purity, Piety, and Plunder: Jewish Converts and Poverty in Medieval Europe,” in Bastards and Believers: Jewish Converts and Conversion from the Bible to the Present, ed. Theodor Dunkelgrün and Pawel Maciejko (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), 75–88.

"The Toledot Yeshu and Jewish-Christian Conflict in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," in Toledot Yeshu Revisited, ed. Peter Schäfer, Michael Meerson and Yaacov Deutsch,(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 297–309

"Segregatory Legislation and Jewish Religious Influence on Christians in the Thirteenth Century," in Medieval Minorities: Law and Multiconfessional Societies in the Middle Ages, ed. John Tolan, Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, Jerzy Mazur and Youna Masset (Brepols, 2017), 265–75

“Conversion and Return to Judaism in High and Late Medieval Europe: Christian Perceptions and Portrayals,” in Contesting Conversion in the Medieval World, ed. Yaniv Fox and Yosi Yisraeli (Routledge, 2017), 177–94.

"Christian Kings and Jewish Conversion in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 3 (2011): 27–39

Book Reviews by Paola Tartakoff

Rowan Dorin, No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (Princeton University Press, 2023), in Journal of Church and State

Magda Teter, Blood Libel (Cambridge, 2020), Scholars Forum in Antisemitism Studies.pdf

Tamar Herzig, A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Apostasy in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge, 2019) in Marginalia Review of Books

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe (Detroit, 2020), in Journal of Jewish Studies

Benjamin Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392 (New York, 2016), in The American Historical Review

Elisheva Baumgarten, Rutho Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler, eds., Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century (Philadelphia, 2016), in Jewish History

Nina Caputo, Debating Truth: The Barcelona Disputation of 1263, a Graphic History (Oxford, 2016) in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

David Nirenberg, Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today (2014), in The AJS Review

James Amelang, Parallel Histories: Muslims and Jews in Inquisitorial Spain (2013), in The AJS Review

Conversion, Circumcision and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2020)

Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2012)

“Martyrdom, Conversion, and Shared Cultural Repertoires in Late Medieval Europe,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, 109.4 (2019): 500–533

“From Conversion to Ritual Murder: Re-Contextualizing the Circumcision Charge,” Medieval Encounters 24 (2018): 361-89

"Testing Boundaries: Jewish Conversion and Cultural Fluidity in Medieval Europe," Speculum 90 (2015): 728–62

"Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Jewish History 24 (2010): 7-32

“Of Purity, Piety, and Plunder: Jewish Converts and Poverty in Medieval Europe,” in Bastards and Believers: Jewish Converts and Conversion from the Bible to the Present, ed. Theodor Dunkelgrün and Pawel Maciejko (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), 75–88.

"The Toledot Yeshu and Jewish-Christian Conflict in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," in Toledot Yeshu Revisited, ed. Peter Schäfer, Michael Meerson and Yaacov Deutsch,(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 297–309

"Segregatory Legislation and Jewish Religious Influence on Christians in the Thirteenth Century," in Medieval Minorities: Law and Multiconfessional Societies in the Middle Ages, ed. John Tolan, Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, Jerzy Mazur and Youna Masset (Brepols, 2017), 265–75

“Conversion and Return to Judaism in High and Late Medieval Europe: Christian Perceptions and Portrayals,” in Contesting Conversion in the Medieval World, ed. Yaniv Fox and Yosi Yisraeli (Routledge, 2017), 177–94.

"Christian Kings and Jewish Conversion in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 3 (2011): 27–39

Rowan Dorin, No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (Princeton University Press, 2023), in Journal of Church and State

Magda Teter, Blood Libel (Cambridge, 2020), Scholars Forum in Antisemitism Studies.pdf

Tamar Herzig, A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Apostasy in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge, 2019) in Marginalia Review of Books

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe (Detroit, 2020), in Journal of Jewish Studies

Benjamin Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392 (New York, 2016), in The American Historical Review

Elisheva Baumgarten, Rutho Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler, eds., Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century (Philadelphia, 2016), in Jewish History

Nina Caputo, Debating Truth: The Barcelona Disputation of 1263, a Graphic History (Oxford, 2016) in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

David Nirenberg, Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today (2014), in The AJS Review

James Amelang, Parallel Histories: Muslims and Jews in Inquisitorial Spain (2013), in The AJS Review

Jonathan Ray, ed., The Jew in Medieval Iberia, 1100-1500 (2012), in The Medieval Review

Robin Vose, Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (2009), in Sefarad

Nina Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community and Messianism (2008), in The Medieval Review

Rebecca Winer, Jewish History

Ryan Szpiech, The Journal of Religion

Tom Barton, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Alexandra Guerson de Oliveira, H-Net

Hussein Fancy, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

Brian Catlos, The Catholic Historical Review

Douglas Kierdorf, Medieval Encounters

Irven Resnick in Jewish History

Yosi Yisraeli in Medieval Encounters

Linda Stone in Journal of Jewish Studies

Hannah Johnson in Speculum

Sarah Ifft Decker in Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures

Katherine Aron-Beller in Antisemitism Studies

by Paola Tartakoff and Katherine Aron-Beller

Hannah Teddy Schachter in Francia Recensio

In her second book »Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe«, Paola Tartak... more In her second book »Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe«, Paola Tartakoff delves deeper into the social and cultural history of conversion among Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages. The point of departure framing her monograph is an unusual case from the 1230s, in which various Jews of Norwich were charged with seizing and circumcising a 5-yearold Christian boy. Surviving exclusively in Christian sources, this case has long been characterized among modern scholars as an invented Christian narrative from a patchwork of anti-Jewish topoi. Tartakoff's book argues, however, that there is more to this story: While the Norwich case was indeed informed by broader Christian ideas about Jews as agents of Christian conversion to Judaism, it was equally informed by contemporary Jewish practices. Contextualizing the Norwich case amidst the broader ideologies and social realities behind conversion to Judaism, this book offers a study of the medieval idea that Jews zealously sought to draw Christians to Judaism.

Thomas Izbicki in Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures

David Sclar in Jewish Book Council

New York State Bar Association Training. Confronting Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges and Historical Insights

New York United Court System Diversity and Inclusion Program: Antisemitism Today and its Roots

Tauber Colloquium at Brandeis University: Mendicant Jewish Converts and Miracle Stories in the Medieval Pyrenees

Dorot Foundation: Antisemitism in the Middle Ages

https://dorot.trumba.com/Antisemitism-Series-Part-3-Antisemitism-in-the-Middle-Ages/E167606305

Museum of Jewish Heritage. The Crusades in the History of Antisemitism

https://mjhnyc.org/events/crusades/

Hadar Halakhah Intensive. Conversion and Mitzvot

Tel Aviv University. Childbirth, Conversion, and Preaching

Birth, Blackness, and Baptism: A Story's Journey Across the Pyrenees. UCLA conference on Ethno-Religious Interaction in Premodern Iberia

The Status of Converts in Jewish Communities and Jewish Thought from Biblical Times to Contemporary Israel, Jerusalem May 11-13, 2022

Antisemitism: Past and Still Present. Weill Cornell Medicine

Where Past Meets Present: A Conversation on the Roots of Antisemitism with Laura Leibman and Mara Benjamin. Mount Holyoke

Facing Hate. Antisemitism, Race, and White Supremacy. Conversation with Anthony Appiah and Paola Tartakoff. Facing History Webinar

Belonging: Jews, Christians and Civic Identity in Medieval Europe. Jerusalem 3-5 Jan 2022

by Paola Tartakoff and Tzafrir Barzilay

Teaching About Antisemitism. AJS Public Program. 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZqLrGIoB7s

The Deep Roots of Modern Anti-Judaism: Conversation with David Nirenberg and Paola Tartakoff. American University Fall 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXQPaw5s6E8&list=PLH1gjskVWCFhrtCaq8SucZM1-Lna9G35x&index=9

"Brothers from Afar" Ephraim Kanarfogel book event at the Center for the Study of Conversion at Ben Gurion University

zoom.us/my/csocbgu The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (CSoC) i... more

Frankel Center: Sephardic Identities

Beyond the Elite Considering Things: Jewish Material Culture in Context

by Eyal Levinson, Paola Tartakoff, David Shyovitz, Sarah-Grace Heller, and Tanja Potthoff

ERC Material Culture Conference