Debra Kaplan

A groundbreaking look at the integral role of women in early modern Jewish communal lifeIn small villages, bustling cities, and crowded ghettos across early modern Europe, Jewish women were increasingly active participants in the daily life of their communities, managing homes and professions, leading institutions and sororities, and crafting objects and texts of exquisite beauty. A Woman Is Responsible for Everything marshals a dazzling array of previously untapped archival sources to tell the stories of these woman for the first time. Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach focus their lens on the kehillah, a lively and thriving form of communal life that sustained European Jews for three centuries. They paint vibrant portraits of Jewish women of all walks of life, from those who wielded their wealth and influence in and out of their communities to the poorest maidservants and vagrants, from single and married women to the widowed and divorced. We follow them into their homes and learn about the possessions they valued and used, the books they read, and the writings they composed. Speaking to us in their own voices, these women reveal tremendous economic initiative in the rural marketplace and the princely court, and they express their profound spirituality in the home as well as the synagogue. Beautifully illustrated, A Woman Is Responsible for Everything lifts the veil of silence that has obscured the lives of these women for too long, contributing a new chapter to the history of Jewish women and a new understanding of the Jewish past.

Do you and your partner fight about sex and money? Are you sexually or financially disempowered? Do you undervalue yourself or overvalue your partner? Do you want to cultivate authentic power in your relationship? If you answered yes to these questions, then this book is your guide to self-empowerment No one wants to feel powerless, and yet we are destined to feel vulnerable and powerless particularly when we are in intimate relationships. The fact that power differentials exist is not in question; how couples learns to navigate them is. In unhealthy or abusive relationships sex and money are weapons of power for ultimate control and exploitation, and power struggles about sex and money can occur even in the healthiest of relationships-it's the human condition. So how do individuals and couples learn to balance power in their relationship? The answer is different for each relationship, but all healthy relationships are built on empowered partners. Battle of the Titans: Mastering the Forces of Sex, Money, and Power in Relationships is a compelling and constructive dive into modern-day power dynamics. Framed in Greek mythology, personal narrative and therapeutic intervention, author and therapist, Debra Kaplan provides essential tools and insights to: Successfully harness authentic power. Identify exploitation and engage healthy boundaries. Clarify the underlying attachment styles in relationships that contribute to over-valuation and under-valuation of self. Create healthy sexual and financial boundaries in relationship.

A pregnant mother, a teacher who had fallen ill, a thirty-year-old homeless thief, refugees from war-torn communities, orphans, widows, the mentally disabled and domestic servants. What this diverse group of individuals-mentioned in a wide range of manuscript and print sources in German, Hebrew, and Yiddish-had in common was their appeal to early modern Jewish communities for aid. Poor relief administrators, confronted with multiple requests and a finite communal budget, were forced to decide who would receive support and how much, and who would not. Then as now, observes Debra Kaplan, public charity tells us about both donors and recipients, revealing the values, perceptions, roles in society, and the dynamics of power that existed between those who gave and those who received. In The Patrons and Their Poor, Kaplan offers the first extensive analysis of Jewish poor relief in early modern German cities and towns, focusing on three major urban Ashkenazic Jewish communities from the Western part of the Holy Roman Empire: Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbek, Frankfurt am Main, and Worms. She demonstrates how Jewish charitable institutions became increasingly formalized as Jewish authorities faced a growing number of people seeking aid amid limited resources. Kaplan explores the intersections between various sectors of the population, from wealthy patrons to the homeless and stateless poor, providing an intimate portrait of the early modern Ashkenazic community.

Beyond Expulsion is a history of Jewish-Christian interactions in early modern Strasbourg, a city from which the Jews had been expelled and banned from residence in the late fourteenth century. This study shows that the Jews who remained in the Alsatian countryside continued to maintain relationships with the city and its residents in the ensuing period. During most of the sixteenth century, Jews entered Strasbourg on a daily basis, where they participated in the city's markets, litigated in its courts, and shared their knowledge of Hebrew and Judaica with Protestant Reformers. By the end of the sixteenth century, Strasbourg became an increasingly orthodox Lutheran city, and city magistrates and religious leaders sought to curtail contact between Jews and Christians. This book unearths the active Jewish participation in early modern society, traces the impact of the Reformation on local Jews, discusses the meaning of tolerance, and describes the shifting boundaries that divided Jewish and Christian communities.