The Jew in the Medieval World ─ A Source Book, 315-1791

First published in 1938, Jacob Rader Marcus's classic source book presents 137 documents that deal with individual Jews and the Jewish community during the Jewish Middle Ages. The Jew in the Medieval World is unique for its sweeping view of Jewish historical experience from late antiquity until modern times, with introductions and annotations that make those sources accessible to the general reader. For this new edition, Marc Saperstein has updated Marcus's ninety-six bibliographies, providing references to the most recent scholarly research on each topic. In his cogent introduction, Saperstein analyzes and evaluates Marcus's decision regarding periodization, organization, and inclusion. In so doing, he offers valuable insights about the implications of those decisions for our own understanding of Jewish history.

Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995), was the founder of the American Jewish Archives at the Hebrew Union College / Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he was a memeber of the faculty for more than seventy years.