ABSTRACT
One of the most recent areas to receive sustained consideration in early modern Jewish history has been the field of cultural history and cultural studies. This has been most clear in shorter studies of Jewish rituals and practices, in the arts, and in microhistories focused on individuals and small communities and their interactions with non-Jewish society. The concept of culture, of course, received important attention as early as the early twentieth century. The great scholar of the "civilizing process," Norbert Elias, was careful to distinguish between "civilization" and "culture." The Jewish community of Frankfurt developed into one of the largest and most important in the Holy Roman Empire. Its growth closely paralleled the economic development of the city from the end of the Middle Ages into the middle of the seventeenth century. Conflict within the communities frequently involved restrictions on business or settlement, taxation, lay leadership, and rabbinic authority.
