Jews In The Middle Ages Essay, Research Paper

Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. The guilds of the Middle Ages in Europe were thoroughly Christian in character and the Jew had no place in them. Since few Jews in Ashkenaz practiced crafts, they did not organize their own guilds, while the Jewish merchants were restricted in their professions and arranged their affairs through the general communal regulations, In the Byzantine Empire. in the 12th century, an authorization was granted to jewish craftsmen by Manttel 1(1 143- 1180) to establish guilds in their towns. In Sicily there were Jewish guilds of silk weavers, dyers, and carpenters during the 12th to 15th centuries. In 1541 the tailors guild of Rome reached an agreement with the Christian guild of the city. In Christian Spain the occupations of the Jews were highly diversified and many engaged in crafts. They established associations t*avtirct) active in the economic, social, and religious spheres. Solomon b. Abraham *Adret clearly formulated the legal character of the guilds: every company which has a common interest is to he regarded as a town apart . .this was customary in all the holy communities and no one ever raised any doubts as to this (Rashha, Resp.. vol. 4, no. 185). The responsa of 1