A pioneering work exploring thesocial status and daily life of medieval Jewish women.

An amazing act of historical recovery and reconstruction, Pious and Rebellious offers a comprehensive examination of Jewish women in Europe from 1000–1300. Avraham Grossman covers multiple aspects of women’s lives in medieval Jewish society, demonstrating that the High Middle Ages saw a distinct improvement in the status of Jewish women in Europe relative to their status during the Talmudic period and in Muslim countries. The heart of Grossman’s book concerns this improvement of Jewish women’s lot, and the efforts of secular and religious authorities to impede their new status. Bringing together a variety of sources including biblical, rabbinic, and popular literature, as well as love songs, folklore, gravestones, and drawings, Grossman reconstructs the previously unrecorded lives of Jewish women during the Middle Ages.

Cross-listed in the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series

Avraham Grossman is professor of Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences, and recipient of the prestigious Israel Prize and Bialik Prize for Jewish Studies.

“Grossman, the noted Israeli historian of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, has written a book unmatched in its erudition, reliability, and composition. A topic many talk about but few have the facts—Jewish women in the Middle Ages—has found its mentor."