The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism

"Cohen argues that it was in the thirteenth century that a fundamental shift occurred in the Christian perception of both Judaism and Jews in Western Europe, and he attributes this change to the activities of the newly-formed mendicant orders—the Dominicans and Franciscans. In order to make this case as effectively as he does, the author has to approach his problem from two different perspectives—that of the historian of the medieval church, and that of the Jewish historian. Each of these a...