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Selected works of three Marrano poets, together with translations into English and explanatory notes, are presented in this volume. In a general introduction the editor explains the historical and literary background of their works and examines the interrelationship between the Jewish and Christian cultural elements.
The story of the Marranos (the Jewish converts to Christianity in Spain and Portugal) has long been a source of fascination for Jews interested in their heritage and for all those concerned with the struggle for freedom of conscience against authoritarianism. This book presents selected works of three Marrano poets, together with translations into English and explanatory notes. Each of the poets is introduced with a biography and brief critical assessment. The general introduction provides the historical and literary background of their works and examines the inter-relationship between the Jewish and Christian cultural elements.
This is a translation of a Spanish poem by Joao Pinto Delgado (c. 1585-1653) that is based on the biblical book of Esther. His choice of subject here was not accidental; the murderous persecution of the biblical Jews by the Persian King Haman stands as an obvious analogue to their sufferings at the hands of the Inquisition. Today, it also resonates with the events of the Holocaust. At the same time, this virtually unknown work is an elegant piece of Renaissance writing that bears stylistic and thematic affinities to important poems of the English Renaissance, such as those of Spenser, Sidney, and Marlowe. Slavitt's skillful translation approximates the rhyme scheme of the original and wonderfully evokes the lavishness and sensuousness of Pinto Delgado's suave descriptions. Also included in this volume is a translation of Pinto Delgados shorter poem In Praise of the Lord.
What role has Jewish intellectual culture played in the development of modern Romance literature? Susanne Zepp seeks to answer this question through an examination of five influential early modern texts written between 1499 and 1627: Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina, Leone Ebreo's Dialoghi d'amore, the anonymous tale Lazarillo de Tormes (the first picaresque novel), Montaigne's Essais, and the poetical renditions of the Bible by João Pinto Delgado. Forced to straddle two cultures and religions, these Iberian conversos (Jews who converted to Catholicism) prefigured the subjectivity which would come to characterize modernity. As "New Christians" in an intolerant world, these thinkers worked w...
From the sixteenth century on, hundreds of Portuguese New Christians began to flow to Venice and Livorno in Italy, and to Amsterdam and Hamburg in northwest Europe. In those cities and later in London, Bordeaux, and Bayonne as well, Iberian conversos established their own Jewish communities, openly adhering to Judaism. Despite the features these communities shared with other confessional groups in exile, what set them apart was very significant. In contrast to other European confessional communities, whose religious affiliation was uninterrupted, the Western Sephardic Jews came to Judaism after a separation of generations from the religion of their ancestors. In this edited volume, several experts in the field detail the religious and cultural changes that occurred in the Early Modern Western Sephardic communities. "Highly recommended for all academic and Jewish libraries." - David B Levy, Touro College, NYC, in: Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews 1.2 (2019)
For Signs and for Seasons is a natural sequel to its companion volumes, Holidays, History and Halakhah, In Those Days, At This Time and Sanctified Seasons. Like those earlier books, this volume brings together a diverse collection of essays related to the cycle of Jewish holy days. Each chapter illustrates in a different way the interplay between the received teachings of the Torah and the vital impact of interpretations by diverse types of personalities, ideologies, historical events and communal dynamics. The articles are written from a sympathetic, but non-dogmatic perspective by an expert in the academic study of the Jewish religion. They were originally published as newspaper columns, and are designed to entertain as much as to educate the intelligent non-specialist.