Privacy in Jewish Sources

Abstract

The article introduces key concepts related to research into the historical notions of privacy, provides a brief historiographical overview, and discusses methodological tools that allow the researcher to examine privacy in primary sources. The second part discusses examples of the Jewish lived experience in the early modern period that were not only shaped by Jewish legal discourses but by the specific living conditions of an ethno-religious minority. The article offers some suggestions as to how privacy could have been understood in early modern Jewish communities and how individuals may have negotiated it in regards to the concepts of home, intimacy, gender, and notions of secrecy. * This article has been written within the framework of IDUB – Initiative for Excellence – Research University at the University of Łódź.