Mägde, Migration und Mutterschaft
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Monika Richarz
Abstract
This article casts light on the situation of the 18th century Jewish underclass by using the example of maid servants. Serving as a maid was the most widespread occupation for Jewish women in the early modern era. Forced to migrate and to live unmarried in the house of a Schutzjude (Jew living under the protection of the authorities), maids were subjected to two rigid legal systems: the local Jewish law and the general law for menials that also applied to Christian servants. Because their families were often too poor to give them a dowry or to acquire authority protection, their chances of marriage were limited. And yet, Jewish maids had the highest number of illegitimate children, often fathered by middle-class Jews. Maids who became pregnant out of wedlock were branded as whores and dismissed. The councils of Jewish parishes were constantly involved in conflicts between parish members and migrant servants. Many maid servants tried to improve their difficult social situation by leaving Judaism.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Hans of Strasbourg - The Life and Deeds of a Jewish Convert and Impostor Revisited
- Im Auftrag des Rechts. Christliche und jüdische Regensburger Anwälte beim Innsbrucker Prozess (1516-1519)
- Mägde, Migration und Mutterschaft
- Jews and the Cholera Epidemics in Amsterdam in 1832 and 1849
- Per scientiam ad iustitiam? Werk und Wirkung von Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)
- Der Rechtshistoriker Guido Kisch als Deutscher jüdischen Glaubens
- Mit den Schlittschuhen im Gepäck nach Lima
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Hans of Strasbourg - The Life and Deeds of a Jewish Convert and Impostor Revisited
- Im Auftrag des Rechts. Christliche und jüdische Regensburger Anwälte beim Innsbrucker Prozess (1516-1519)
- Mägde, Migration und Mutterschaft
- Jews and the Cholera Epidemics in Amsterdam in 1832 and 1849
- Per scientiam ad iustitiam? Werk und Wirkung von Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)
- Der Rechtshistoriker Guido Kisch als Deutscher jüdischen Glaubens
- Mit den Schlittschuhen im Gepäck nach Lima
