Scattered among the Nations : Documents Affecting Jewish History, 49 to 1975

The historical documents in this important collection cover a time span of almost two thousand years, beginning in the early Christian era and concluding in the latter half of the twentieth century. They consist, for the most part, of laws, commentaries, and observations written by religious and secular Christian leaders. The forces both reflected in and put into motion by these writings have had a major impact on Jewish lives over the last two millennia. In a very real way, modern Jewish life is still shaped by them.Scattered Among the Nations is a sourcebook and text for one aspect of Jewish history: Christian-Jewish relations. In a sense it presents the equivalent of a diplomatic history, with the exception that the nation in question - the Jewish people - had no territory of its own, had no officially recognized ambassadors, could offer little or no protection to its "nationals," and had no army to pursue its goals. The Jews, for most of the time period in this book, lived entirely within the boundaries of other countries.The specific documents appearing in this collection were selected because each deals with a major event or turning point in Jewish history. Together they show an evolving relationship between Christians and Jews from the viewpoint of the Christian participants, whose words speak for themselves.The editor has provided introductions and notes intended to put the documents into than historical context and to explain how these writings affected Jewish life. The book's overall organization is chronological and according to topic, with the materials arranged by country of origin.The documents in this volume were originally written in Greek, Latin, French, German, Spanish, English, Polish, Russian, and Italian. The English translations come from over fifty different sources, compiled and translated by both Christian and Jewish historians.