JCA
This seminar will examine several medieval Jewish viewpoints on black skin and race. We find a wide variety of perspectives, from critical rabbinic opinions on Black Africans to Hebrew and Yiddish stories with angelic intermediary characters with dark skin. By examining closely a sample of primary sources (in translation) from rabbinic writing, folktales, and manuscript art, we will uncover a complexity of expression on Black figures in the medieval Jewish world. Caroline Gruenbaum holds a PhD from New York University in Medieval Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies and is currently an editorial associate at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.
Caroline Gruenbaum holds a PhD from New York University in Medieval Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies and is currently an editorial associate at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization. She has taught, lectured, and published widely in the area of medieval Jewish literature and history, and her current book project is titled King Arthur's Jewish Knights: Translation and Cultural Expression in Medieval Ashkenaz.