Jews in the Renaissance: Irony of the Promised Land

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Jews in the Renaissance: Irony of the Promised Land

“The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him” (Holy Bible, Gen. 12.7). Despite God’s oath to the Jews, this Promised Land has been repeatedly offered and confiscated by Christians. The Renaissance is one period in history, though, during which Jews faced unimaginable brutality. Beginning in England, Jews throughout Europe were forced to constantly move in order to avoid persecution. However, the ways that Jews were treated in their respective countries differed sharply from the ways that they were portrayed in literature.

Jews were eventually forced to leave England in 1289, by Charles of Anjou’s Edict of Expulsion. An excerpt clearly outlines the intentions of England:

Although we enjoy much temporal profit from the aforesaid Jews, we prefer to provide for the peace of our subjects rather than to fill our coffers with the mammon of iniquity, especially since by the loss of temporal goods spiritual gains are achieved. Therefore, exhibiting zeal for the life-giving Cross, we have, for the honour of God and the peace of the aforesaid areas, expelled and ordered expelled from our aforesaid counties of Anjou and Maine all Jews, male and female, adults and young people, children and infants, of whatever sex or condition they might have been born and raised. We have expelled them from all areas of these counties not only for the present but for all times, both for our time as well as that of our successors upon whom the said counties may happen to devolve. (Mundill 300)

After weighing the monetary gains associate...

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... International Bible Society, 1984. Bible Gateway. Muskegon, MI: Gospel Communications International, 2003. 16 Mar. 2004. <http://biblegateway.com>

Mundill, Robin R. England’s Jewish Solution: Experiment and Expulsion, 1262-1290. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.

Roth, Cecil. A History of the Jews in England. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978.

Shapiro, James. Shakespeare and the Jews. New York: Columbia UP, 1996.

Yaffe, Martin D. Shylock and the Jewish Question. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

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[1] There is some disagreement about the influence of Dr. Lopez’s Jewish heritage. According to Berek, he was charged and executed because he was considered to be a traitor. Berek argues that the crime of “Jewishness” is only used when there is no other appropriate charge.

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