Jewish—non-Jewish Relations – Between Exclusion and Embrace

Jews have always lived in close proximity with other ethnic and religious groups. By studying the relations between Jews and non-Jews from different perspectives, we can learn a lot about members of majority and minority cultures engaged with each other on a day-to-day level.

Studying the relations between Jews and non-Jews has many methodological challenges. It is by definition interdisciplinary and has a broad scope. It can be a difficult field to teach because of a lack of accessible material available. 

This project aims to provide an innovative teaching resource to enable and foster the teaching of Jewish—non-Jewish Relations at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It brings together primary sources from all periods of history in their original languages along with English translations, introductions, and commentaries on each source, written by experts in the fields, and also offers suggestions for classroom discussion and further reading.

The primary sources include legends, letters, reports, music, film, and other genres. They address sometimes difficult or delicate issues, in the understanding that apologetics have no place in serious academic engagement. They provide often surprising, and sometimes rather amusing, insights into how Jews and non-Jews regarded themselves and each other.

We hope that you find this collection of texts and commentaries useful. Please feel free to contact us with feedback on the usability of the site. It will help us understand how the site is used and how we can improve it. Email us at:jnjr@ed.ac.uk