The Lives of Ordinary, and Extraordinary, European Jewish Women

Between roughly 1500 and 1800, organized and state-sanctioned Jewish communities (k’hilot) kept careful records (pinkasim) of the proceedings of their rabbinic courts (batei din) and also the activities of such functionaries as mohels and midwives. Using these documents, along with personal letters, inscriptions on tombstones, ledgers of Jewish businesses, and much else, Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach were able to produce a detailed history of the everyday lives of European Jewish women during this era, focusing not just on distinguished figures, like the first female author of a book of musar (moral improvement), but also ordinary ones. They discuss their discoveries with Nachi Weinstein. (Audio, 58 minutes.)