ABSTRACT
Persistent rumors in the late middle ages and early modern period claim that Jews engage in anti-Christian rituals on the night of Christmas, uttering blasphemies and teaching their children the “true” story of Jesus known as Toledot Yeshu. Those rumors reflect a broader discourse on Jewish emotions, bound to Christian ideas about Jews and Judaism. But they also open a window onto the Jews’ “hidden transcript,” the inconspicuous strategies through which Jews sought to preserve their identity in a Christian world, and were also thus formed as a distinct emotional community.
