Seforimchatter A Woman Is Responsible for Everything: Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe (with Prof. Elisheva Carlebach & Prof. Debra Kaplan)
6 snips
Dec 7, 2025 Meet Debra Kaplan, a historian of German Jewry, and Elisheva Carlebach, a Columbia professor of Jewish history. They trace how records, print, and objects reveal women's lives in 1500–1800 Europe. Short stories and microbiographies illuminate synagogue attendance, economic work, communal roles like mikveh and charity, and the archives that let scholars recover ordinary and remarkable women.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Objects And Images Enrich Lives
- Visual and material culture (illustrated prayerbooks, drawings by Christian Hebraists, pots, hats, textiles) help reconstruct women's dress and household practice.
- Objects like named challah pots link individuals across records, confirming literacy and identities.
Bella Perlehefter's Traced Life
- Elisheva Carlebach recounts Bella Perlehefter, a Prague woman whose letters and manuscript allow reconstruction of her life and grief.
- Bella ran businesses, wrote for others, joined the Hever Kadisha, and sought to memorialize her seven deceased children.
Reconstructing Yitta The Maidservant
- Debra Kaplan describes Yitta, a maidservant found via wills and burial records across Altona and Fredericia.
- Cross-referencing pinсasim, burial registers, and court files let them map Yitta's employers, family ties, and final bequests.
