Dr. Micha Perry
University of Haifa
Cultural History of Jewish Bilingual Deed from medieval England
April 30 2014; 12:00-14:00
Conference Room 2001 Floor 20 Eshkol Tower
During the Middle Ages Jews in England produced bilingual legal Deeds. These Deeds – now generally called Starrs after their Latin name (Starrum), following the Hebrew Shetar (שטר) – constitute of a Latin or vernacular text followed by a Hebrew one. Though these documents were extensively studied for their place in English and Jewish economic history and even for their legal and linguistic value, their place in cultural history was somewhat neglected. Following a current shift in the study of medieval, I wish to present these Starrs as symbolic objects rather than as for their content and to examine their place in the public sphere and imagination.
Dr. Micha Perry teaches medieval Jewish History at Haifa University. His Hebrew book: 'Tradition and Transformation: Knowledge Transmission among European Jews in the Middle Ages’ was published at 2010.
