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A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences II*

Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

Doron Mendels

Department of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

The article deals with the consequences of the split Diaspora that was described in Part I of this study (published in JSP 16.2 [2007]: 91-137). This second part demonstrates that the gap between western Jews and eastern ones continued and even widened in the early Middle Ages. The Jews in the west either converted to Christianity or remained biblical Jews. The latter were more agreeable to the Christian environment in Latin Europe, but at the moment the Rabbinic Law and lore started to arrive in Europe, the friction between Christians and Jews increased dramatically. Also, this study shows that the Jews living in the Byzantine Empire underwent the same processes that were experienced by their brethren in Latin Europe due to lack of communication with Rabbinic Judaism. In both Greek and Latin Europe, the Rabbinic revolution arrived circa the ninth century. This article also discusses various reactions to the earlier part of the study and thus add some useful information, clarify and strengthen some of their arguments in part I.

Key Words: Vernacular • anti-Semitism • nationalism • genizah • Christian laws • Jewish epigraphy • Jewish symbols (iconography) • Rabbinic Judaism • Middle Ages • Toledo • Justinian • Agobard • western and eastern Judaism

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