ABSTRACT
Unlike contributions to this volume that discuss visual representations of Jewishness and Judaism by both Jews and non-Jews, this chapter asks a different question: How did Jews historically respond to non-Jewish-and more specifically, Christian-images? Life in late mediaeval and early modern German lands brought a great deal of insecurity to Jews. Following a number of expulsions from most major cities, many migrated to the east, particularly to Poland-Lithuania, while many others moved to the countryside where often only relatively few other Jews lived. These demographic changes meant that those early modern Jews who had remained in Germany lived in close proximity to their Christian neighbours, but also that they often had to travel quite extensively to earn a living.1 Interaction with Christians and close observations of their ways of life were unavoidable. Jews were also exposed to the same powerful visual images proclaiming the power and ubiquitousness of Christendom, manifested in splendid cathedrals, parish churches and modest wayside shrines. Jews would see frescoes of St Christopher painted on external church walls to ensure that travellers would be safe, and they would encounter local shrines devoted to the Holy Virgin. They might see a priest hurrying with the Holy Communion to a dying parishioner, be aware of processions winding their way through a village on a holy day when members of various fraternities would pray loudly and carry wooden statues of the Virgin Mary, venerated saints or the popular Palmesel on Palm Sunday.2 Each day was structured not only by the movement of the sun over the sky but also by acoustic reminders of the time: church bells would ring at certain hours to remind the faithful of the Angelus prayer, they would call the community to church, announce the consecration of the Eucharist in Catholic churches and chime three times when the community spoke the Lord’s Prayer in many Lutheran churches. Church bells would toll when somebody had died and when a dead body was brought to funeral.3 Jews could closely observe the cyclical nature of the Christian year.4 Most holidays were celebrated publicly within the local community and with many lively local customs and variations. Occasions that marked the major transitions in people’s lives such as baptism, weddings and funerals also involved whole villages or neighbourhoods and were public and highly ritualised and visualised affairs. Whereas Jews were often explicitly excluded from participating or even witnessing some of these celebrations, they could not help being aware of Christian holidays and celebrations and also knew quite a lot about
their details. The ubiquitousness of Christian images, symbols and rituals made it clearly impossible to avoid them. However, Jews were never at ease with the ostensive nature of the church. They regarded some of the most prominent Christian symbols and rituals with deep suspicion, and sometimes even fear or hatred.
