Absent Jews

Cordelia Hess is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg and a Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Literature, History and Antiquities, Stockholm. Her publications include Social Imagery in Middle Low German: Didactical Literature and Metaphorical Representation (2013) and, as co-editor, Fear and Loathing in the North: Jews and Muslims in Medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region (2015, with Jonathan Adams).

“Based on a meticulous analysis of various primary sources, she questions the existence of an anti-Jewish policy and concludes that the low profile of Jews in official documents may not in fact point to their physical absence but rather the absence of conflict between Gentiles and Jews, as peaceful relations were less likely to be recorded than blood libel cases and pogroms… Hess’s attempt to recover Jewish experiences in light of the surviving evidence offers a useful introduction for English-speaking readers who are unfamiliar with the complexities of Prussian medieval history.” • Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

• List of Tables and Maps Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Absent Jews: The Rise of a Truism and the Loss of Some Forefathers Chapter 2. On the Frontier Chapter 3. Archives at War Chapter 4. A Ban on Jewish Settlement? Chapter 5. Absent from Akko to the Baltic Chapter 6. Also Absent: Persecutions and Blood Libel Chapter 7. Beyond the Bulwark: Traces of Jewish Life in Medieval Prussia Conclusions Bibliography Index