Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe by Derek Penslar instant download

Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe by Derek Penslar instant download

The moneylender Shylock, Shakespeare’s most notorious
creation, represents the totality of Jewish otherness in Christian Europe.
His livelihood is a synecdoche, representing the inseparability of Jewish
religious, social, and economic distinctiveness. Throughout much of Eu-
ropean history, Jews concentrated in certain occupations and displayed
particular  characteristics in  the practice of  their  livelihoods and the
spending of their earnings. Gentile perceptions of Jewish economic dif-
ference were usually hostile, at  times admiring, but always influential in
the  shaping of government policies toward Jews and social interaction
between Jews and Gentiles.
This book 1s about how Jews in modern Europe perceived and ac-
counted for  their economic difference. It  examines Jewish responses to
Gentile critiques of  Jewish economic behavior and, more broadly, Jew-
ish thinking about the relationship between Judaism and economic prac-
tice.