In small villages, bustling cities, and crowded ghettos across early modern Europe, Jewish women were increasingly active participants in the daily life of their communities, managing homes and professions, leading institutions and sororities, and crafting objects and texts of exquisite beauty. A Woman Is Responsible for Everything marshals a dazzling array of previously untapped archival sources to tell the stories of these woman for the first time.
Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach focus their lens on the kehillah, a lively and thriving form of communal life that sustained European Jews for three centuries. They paint vibrant portraits of Jewish women of all walks of life, from those who wielded their wealth and influence in and out of their communities to the poorest maidservants and vagrants, from single and married women to the widowed and divorced. We follow them into their homes and learn about the possessions they valued and used, the books they read, and the writings they composed. Speaking to us in their own voices, these women reveal tremendous economic initiative in the rural marketplace and the princely court, and they express their profound spirituality in the home as well as the synagogue.
Beautifully illustrated, A Woman Is Responsible for Everything lifts the veil of silence that has obscured the lives of these women for too long, contributing a new chapter to the history of Jewish women and a new understanding of the Jewish past.
Debra Kaplan is the Samuel Braun Chair for the History of the Jews in Germany at Bar-Ilan University. Her books include The Patrons and Their Poor: Jewish Community and Public Charity in Early Modern Germany. Elisheva Carlebach is the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society at Columbia University. Her books include Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe.
“How to recover the lives of those who left no written record has been a challenge for historians. In this book, Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach confront it by vividly recounting the lives of ordinary Jewish women, who left little of their own to posterity but whose traces are found buried in the archives. We see these women in cities and villages, in positions where few expected them to be, playing vital roles in their communities, homes, and businesses. Kaplan and Carlebach demonstrate the power of the archives, which, despite their shortcomings, are still able to help us reconstruct compelling stories, shed new light on established ideas, and challenge the most deeply rooted stereotypes.”—Magda Teter, author of Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism
“This is one of the best books I have read on Jewish women since the field emerged as a vital area of inquiry. Drawing on meticulous research and an extraordinary range of archival and material sources—and writing with elegance and clarity—Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach offer a history of Jewish women that not only deepens our understanding of the early modern period but also equips us to rewrite that history in a more inclusive way. They have produced a work that will become a foundational resource for all who study early modern European Jewish history and beyond.”—Elisheva Baumgarten, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“This is a superbly researched, erudite, and extremely well written book about the lives of Jewish women in early modern Ashkenaz. Immensely impressive.”—Yair Mintzker, author of The Many Deaths of Jew Süss: The Notorious Trial and Execution of an Eighteenth-Century Court Jew
“A Woman Is Responsible for Everything offers a uniquely compelling perspective on Jewish Ashkenazi women during the early modern period. This is a wonderful book.”—Federica Francesconi, author of Invisible Enlighteners: The Jewish Merchants of Modena, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation
