Names, Identifications, and Social Change Naming Practices and the (Re-)Shaping of Identities and Relationships within German Jewish Communities in the Late Middle Ages Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie vorgelegt von Assaf Lilach an der Geisteswissenschaftliche Sektion Fachbereich Geschichte und Soziologie Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 20.5.2016 1. Referentin: Gabriela Signori 2. Referent: Gadi Algazi Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-1plrkukyymzk21 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6 1. NAMING PRACTICES AND THE DEMARCATION OF SOCIAL BOUNDARIES 9 1.1. NAMES AND IDENTITIES IN THE SCHOLARLY LITERATURE 10 1.3. ASHKENAZI NAMES IN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL DISCUSSIONS 16 1.4. ACCULTURATION, SELF-DISTINCTION, AND JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS 19 1.5. CULTURE AND RELIGION 24 1.6. NAMES, KINSHIP, AND GENDER 26 1.7. OUTLINE 28 2. NAMING AND IDENTIFYING PERSONS: PRACTICES, NORMS, AND RABBINIC REGULATION 31 2.1. GIVING NAMES TO NEWBORNS: PROCEDURES AND MEANING 32 2.1.1. MALE SACRED NAMES AND THE CIRCUMCISION RITUAL 32 2.1.2. THE HOLLEKREISCH AND OTHER GIVEN NAMES 37 2.2. PERSONAL NAMES AND MAGICAL BELIEFS 39 2.2.1. NAME SHARING 40 2.2.2. THE APOTROPAIC POWER OF NAME CHANGE 43 2.3. WHO IS WHO? NAMES IN JEWISH LEGAL CONTEXT 44 2.3.1. NAMES – CHANGED BUT NOT ABANDONED 45 2.3.2. ON THE CROSSROAD BETWEEN CULTURES 47 3. THE LANGUAGE OF NAMES: SHAPING GROUP IDENTIFICATIONS 52 3.1. SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY 57 3.2. NAMES AND JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS 60 3.2.1. THE EARLY ASHKENAZI NAME TREASURE 60 3.2.2. EXPANSION OF THE JEWISH NAME REPERTOIRE 62 2 3.2.3. NEW VERNACULAR NAMES 65 3.2.4. RELIGIOUS MESSAGES ENCODED THROUGH NAMES 68 3.2.5. USING NAMES IN DAILY INTERACTIONS 81 3.2.6. JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN NAMING TRENDS COMPARED 83 3.2.7. GIVEN NAMES AS RELIGIOUS MARKERS 88 3.3. NAMING AND GENDER RELATIONS 91 3.3.1. SEMANTICAL CONTENTS AND FEMININE IMAGES 93 3.3.3. GENDERING THE NAME THROUGH FORM 100 4. NAMING IN FAMILY CONTEXT 105 4.1. RE-EXAMINING NAMING PRACTICES IN ASHKENAZI FAMILIES 105 4.2. NAME SHARING AND SOCIAL STRATEGIES 112 4.2.1. THE CIRCULATION OF NAMES AND OTHER FAMILY GOODS 115 4.2.2 CASE STUDY I: THE FAMILY OF SMOE IN AUGSBURG 124 4.2.3. CASE STUDY II: THE FAMILY OF MAYR IN NUREMBERG 132 4.3. RESIDENCE PATTERNS AND WOMEN’S ROLES WITHIN THE FAMILY 146 4.3.1. EVIDENCE ON UXORILOCALITY WITHIN THE RESPONSA LITERATURE 149 4.3.2. PREMARITAL ARRANGEMENTS AND EXCHANGE 150 4.3.3. PERSONAL DESIGNATIONS AS INDICATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 154 4.4. NAME SHARING AMONG COLLATERAL KIN 164 4.4.1. THE FAMILY OF SELIGMAN OF COBURG: CASE STUDY I 170 4.4.2. MAHARIL AND HIS FAMILY: CASE STUDY II 174 RE-DEFINING KIN RELATIONSHIPS IN MEDIEVAL ASHKENAZ 182 5. DESIGNATING JEWS IN MEDIEVAL SOURCES 183 5.1. THE TRADITIONAL JEWISH MODEL 184 5.2. THE NUREMBERG MEMORBUCH 186 3 5.3. THE JUDENSCHREINBUCH FROM COLOGNE: THE ROLE OF KIN RELATIONS IN PERSONAL DESIGNATIONS 189 5.3.1. DESIGNATING MEN 191 5.3.2. DESIGNATING WOMEN 192 5.4. THE BÜRGERBÜCHER FROM NUREMBERG 195 5.4.1. SIGNIFYING JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN CITIZENS 197 5.5. DESIGNATING PERSONS THROUGH KIN RELATIONS IN THE JUDENZINSBÜCHER 201 5.5.1. GENDER-BASED PATTERNS 202 5.5.2. WHO BELONGS TO WHOM? DESIGNATING KIN GROUPS 205 CHANGING NAMING PATTERNS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS IN LATE MEDIEVAL ASHKENAZI COMMUNITIES 210 BIBLIOGRAPHY 217 Tables of figures TABLE 1: NAME MATERIALS FROM THE MEMORBUCH 58 TABLE 2: THE FEMALE NAME REPERTOIRE 63 TABLE 3: THE MALE NAME REPERTOIRE 64 TABLE 4: LEADING FEMALE NAMES (IN %) 69 TABLE 5: COMMON BIBLICAL FEMALE NAMES 1096-1349 70 TABLE 6: COMMON HEBREW MALE NAMES 1096-1349 77 TABLE 7: FEMALE NAMES FROM ROTHENBURG 85 TABLE 8: MALE NAMES FROM ROTHENBURG 85 TABLE 9: FEMALE NAMES FROM WÜRZBURG 86 TABLE 10: MALE NAMES FROM WÜRZBURG 86 TABLE 11: DESIGNATIONS OF JEWISH CITIZENS 1321-1359 200 FIGURE 1: NON-HEBREW NAMES IN THE MEMORBUCH 65 4 FIGURE 2: THE FEMALE NAME REPERTOIRE 1298-1326 (IN NUMBERS) 66 FIGURE 3: THE FAMILY OF DOLCE OF HEILBRONN 109 FIGURE 4: THE FAMILY OF BELA OF WORMS 110 FIGURE 5: THE FAMILY TREE OF SMOE FROM AUGSBURG 131 FIGURE 6: THE FAMILY TREE OF MAYR VON INGOLSTADT 134 FIGURE 7: THE CHILDREN OF PESSLEIN 138 FIGURE 8: THE SACK FAMILY 140 FIGURE 9: THE MAYR FAMILY 145 FIGURE 10:THE FAMILY OF PESSLEIN 167 FIGURE 11: THE FAMILY TREE OF SELIGMAN OF COBURG 173 FIGURE 12: MAHARIL'S FAMILY 179 FIGURE 13: DESIGNATIONS OF MEN IN THE JUDENSCHREINBUCH 191 FIGURE 14: DESIGNATION OF WOMEN IN THE JUDENCSHREINBUCH 193 FIGURE 15: ONOMASTIC COMPONENTS IN THE NEW CITIZENS’ LISTS 198 FIGURE 16: MALE DESIGNATIONS IN THE BÜRGERBÜCHER 199 FIGURE 17: ONOMASTIC COMPONENTS ZB I (IN %) 202 FIGURE 18: ONOMASTIC COMPONENTS ZB II (IN %) 204 5 Acknowledgments Ich komme zurück zum Brunnen noch hängt an der Kette der Eimer Ich tauche ihn in die Tiefe hole ihn hoch trinke Erinnerung über den Himmel gebeugt Der Brunnen III, Rose Ausländer Time has its own pace. Some Times take longer than others, they linger, make themselves comfortable and perhaps even forget themselves. This has been a long journey, full of unexpected turns, starting in Constance, going through Zurich and ending in Jerusalem. Even if at times it was lonely, I was never alone in this journey, always accompanied by dear persons, generous, supportive, caring and insightful. This dissertation started as a project within the Exzellenz Cluster at the Universität Konstanz and I am grateful for its funding, support and for the opportunity to cast light on darker corners of medieval Ashkenazi history. For offering this challenging project and for making it all possible, I would like to thank my advisor Gabriela Signori from the Universität Konstanz. Her support, advice, and enthusiasm led me throughout the first years in the German-speaking academia. My greatest debt is to my advisor and my teacher Gadi Algazi from the Tel-Aviv University whose inexhaustible support and constant belief in me led me through the maze that is called dissertation. He read every version of the dissertation with great care and love and always made me see things in a new light. I am mostly grateful to 6 him for being there whenever hardship reared its head, always ready to offer excellent advice, practical tools, and a kind word. This helped me to carry on, even when the finish line seemed very distant. During the first years of the research, spent in Constance, I was fortunate to become part of an extraordinary company of intelligent and encouraging colleagues. For long conversations, insightful thoughts and long lasting friendship I would like to thank Enrique Corredera Nilsson, Karin Czaja, Johannes M. Geisthardt, Kathrin Stutz Kweseleit, Christof Rolker, and Christian Seebacher. My gratitude is extended also to my friend Andreas Frick. Special thanks to Dorothea Weltecke from the Universität Konstanz (now Goethe Universität, Frankfurt a.M.) for reading the dissertation and for ongoing encouragement and friendship. The years I spent in Zurich were especially formative and there did the serious writing of the dissertation begin. I am in debt to Simon Teuscher from the Universität Zürich for his vigorous interest in my work and his extraordinary support – both as an excellent social historian and as a good friend. As in Constance, also in Zurich I was lucky to be surrounded by engaged and gifted young researchers who became good friends. I am grateful especially to Peter Dürmüller, Nanina Egli, Julia Heinemann, Tobias Hodel, and Isabelle Schürch, for every advice, encouraging talk, good dinner and support they gave me. During my time in Zurich we had as a special scholar guest Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezaq from NYU. I would like to thank her for intensive conversations on parts of my dissertation and for her kind interest in my work. In every step of academic and personal life, I’ve had the good fortune to have on my side a few particularly sharp-minded, enthusiastic and loving friends from my alma mater, The Tel-Aviv University, who read many different versions of the dissertation 7 and were always prepared for a good discussion with helpful advices – and there were many. Special thanks to Moshe Grimberg and Ayelet Even-Ezra. To my closest, Maayan Liebrecht, I’m deeply grateful for reading everything I’ve written, for giving useful comments on the text and discussing the work in process throughout the years. I thank her for always being there for me. More than anything, I am in debt to my loving, warm and unusually supportive family for always taking part and standing behind me in what seemed many times as an odyssey. I am grateful to all of them: My dearest mother Tamar Levi, my father Nissim Assaf and my stepmother Hava Assaf, my sisters – Mali, Sissy, Meital and Michal, and my brothers Udi and Barak, Yariv Ze’evi and Eran Bushari, to my beloved niece Ronny Ze’evi and all my nieces and nephews, and to my aunt Alisa Bouzaglo. They all inspired me to dive deeper into family histories and social networks far in time and place. And to my partner and my soul mate, Jostein Mølbach, I thank for reading the dissertation and for arriving together with me at the finish line. I dedicate this work to my family, the ASSAF/LEVI family. 8 1.