ABSTRACT
The sources in this section track the Jewish shift in economic position from the medieval period to the modern period. Whereas in the Middle Ages Jewish economic life was tightly limited, particularly in Christian lands, beginning in the eighteenth century Jews were increasingly allowed to participate, and often began to thrive, in the larger economy. Increased Jewish participation in the economy went hand in hand with increased Jewish assimilation, particularly in the United States. Some of our sources thus combine discussion of economic issues with political ones, on the one hand by asserting that Jewish economic values are compatible with, or even superior to, those of the wider community (e.g., C3 , C4 , C11 , C16 ) while, on the other hand, by romanticizing past conditions of poverty, warning an increasingly assimilated Jewish community that they risk losing their souls ( C9 , C19 ). Nearly all the sources demonstrate some awareness of and response to increasing Jewish wealth even in the face of continuing Jewish poverty.
