Juden in der Stadt (review)

T H E JE W I S H Q UA R T E R LY R E V I E W, Vol. 94, No. 3 (Summer 2004) 549–551 FRITZ MAYRHOFER AND FERDINAND OPLL, eds. Juden in der Stadt. Beitra ̈ge zur Geschichte der Städte Mitteleuropas 15. Linz: Österreichisches Arbeitskreises für Stadtgeschichtsforschung, 1999. Pp. xii Ⳮ 420. This collection marks a major step in writing an urban history of the Jews and makes a significant contribution to many areas in Jewish history. The articles concentrate a great deal of information that is difficult or even impossible to otherwise locate. Perhaps more important for many readers are the innovative approaches of many of the articles. Numerous aspects of Jewish life can be viewed as urban culture. Therefore, applying insights from geography, especially urban geography, can bring to attention phenomena that would otherwise go unnoticed. Patterns of settlement in a community, the significance of spatial factors, the impact of concentration , the degree of cohabitation with other population groups, and many other factors as well all merit consideration. The book opens with a short review by Johannes Reiss of the history of the Jews in Burgenland, a region known for its seven major Jewish communities. The papers in this volume were presented at a conference in Eisenstadt (one of the seven communities) and the choice of this paper as first in the volume probably reflects that geographic fact. It is followed by Friedrich Lotter’s sixty-page survey of Jewish communities and of issues related to communal continuity in Western Europe. Focusing on what are now Spain, France, and Italy, and the author discusses both problems of sources and methodological problems in general. His citations refer to a wealth of sources and serve as a bibliographical guide to the field. Much has already been written about these communities, but this article offers important updated material. Markus Wenninger contributes an article on the topography of the medieval Jewish quarter in medieval German cities. Richly illustrated with maps, plans, and drawings , it demonstrates the richness of available materials and points out the great variety of patterns of urban Jewish settlement. Ernest Voltmer’s stimulating study of medieval Jewish communities in the Rhein region deals with both the specifics of various communities and the basic characteristics of the place of Jews in the general urban context. Voltmer concentrates on political and ideological elements. His article is followed by The Jewish Quarterly Review (Summer 2004) Copyright 䉷 2004 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved. 550 JQR 94:3 (2004) Klaus Lothman’s consideration of issues concerning relations between Jews and burgers, especially the place (or absence) of Jews in the urban political frameworks and their political status. Diethard Schmid describes the medieval Jewish quarter in Regensburg on the basis of recent excavations in the city that support claims for early Jewish settlement there and the Jews’ important role in the city. Karl F. Rudolf’s study of Jews in medieval Spanish cities balances the studies of German Jewry. Rudolf considers quantitative measures and structural characteristics and analyzes a numbers of cases of ‘‘Jewish quarters.’’ In her study of the Jewish quarter in urban planning in East Galicia (Poland) in the first half of the nineteenth century, Halyna Petryschyn deals with what are by now familiar issues in a very different geographic and temporal context, tracing the history of Jewish settlement in this region. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the growth of Jewish communities led to geographic and structural changes; the development of Jewish neighborhoods and quarters was one expression of this phenomenon. Petryschyn’s article is richly illustrated with plans and quantitative data. Friedrich Battenberg’s study of Court Jews in the noble seats of power illuminates our understanding of the phenomenon of Court Jews as well as their impact on patterns of Jewish settlement. By examining the careers of Court Jews, the author illustrates the complex issues of court-city relations. This examination of an elite phenomenon is balanced by a broad study of urbanization of German Jewry in the nineteenth century by Monika Richarz. Her article is marked by an interest in both the quantitative aspects and personal dynamics...