Community of Donors: Jewish Charity in Germany, 1500-1800

FAIN: FT-60710-13

Debra Kaplan
Yeshiva University (New York, NY 10033-3201)

My project analyzes Jewish charity and its increasing institutionalization in the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. I use charity as a window through which to view both the financial workings and the gendered and social hierarchies in the Jewish community. I examine patterns of giving among both men and women across social classes, using quantitative data that records individual donations. In addition, I work extensively with descriptive materials such as wills, solicitations, correspondence, and custom books that detail the communal structures governing donations, the opportunities that both men and women had for donating, and the factors that motivated individuals to donate.

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