• Paola Tartakoff
  • Paola Tartakoff
  • Chair and Professor of History and Jewish Studies
  • Schools: Ph.D., Columbia University, B.A., Harvard College
  • Office Address: 14 College Ave, Miller Hall 105
  • Phone Number: 848-932-1620

Research Interests

Paola Tartakoff studies the social and cultural history of Jews and Christians in medieval and early modern Europe. She is particularly interested in conversion to and from Judaism, the medieval and Spanish inquisitions, and ritual murder accusations. Her first book was based on archival research conducted in Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia. Her current work explores Western Europe and the Mediterranean more broadly.

Courses Regularly Taught

Antisemitism
European History Graduate Research Seminar
Ancient and Medieval Europe
Jewish Identities in the Medieval Mediterranean
Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain

Books

Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2020).

Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2012).

Articles

  • “Martyrdom, Conversion, and Shared Cultural Repertoires in Late Medieval Europe,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, 109.4 (2019): 500–33.
  • “From Conversion to Ritual Murder: Re-Contextualizing the Circumcision Charge,” Medieval Encounters 24 (2018): 361–89.
  • “Testing Boundaries: Jewish Conversion and Cultural Fluidity in Medieval Europe, 1200-1391,” Speculum 90 (July 2015), 728–62.
  • “Conversion and Return to Judaism and the Charge of Jewish Proselytizing in Medieval Europe, 1150-1350,” in Contesting Conversion in the Medieval World, ed. Yaniv Fox and Yosef Yisraeli (New York and London: Routledge, 2017), 177–94.
  • "Segregatory Legislation and Jewish Religious Influence on Christians in the Thirteenth Century,” in Medieval Minorities: Law and Multiconfessional Societies in the Middle Ages, ed. John Tolan, Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, Jerzy Mazur and Youna Masset, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), 265–75.
  • “Of Purity, Piety, and Plunder: Jewish Converts and Poverty in Medieval Europe,” in Converts and Conversion to and from Judaism, ed. Theodor Dunkelgrün and Pawel Maciejko (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Jewish Culture and Contexts Series), forthcoming.
  • “The Toledot Yeshu and the Jewish-Christian Controversy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon,” in Toledot Yeshu Reconsidered, ed. Peter Schaefer et al. (Berlin: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 297-309.
  • “Christian Kings and Jewish Conversion in the Medieval Crown of Aragon,” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 3 (2011): 27-39.
  • “Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, c.1300-1391,” Jewish History 24.1 (2010), 7-32.

Reviews

  • Review of Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe (Wayne State University Press, 2020), in Journal of Jewish Studies 72 (Autumn 2021), 426-28. 
  • Review of Magda Teter, Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth (Harvard, 2020), in Antisemitism Studies 5 (Fall 2021): 348-57.
  • Review of Tamar Herzig, A Convert’s Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy (Harvard, 2019), in Marginalia Review of Books, April 23, 2021 (unpaginated electronic publication). 
  • Review of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, ed. Elisheva Baumgarten, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler (Philadelphia, 2016), in Jewish History 31(2018): 353–55.
  • Review of Benjamin Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392 (New York, 2016), in The American Historical Review 123 (2018): 1008–1009.
  • Review of David Nirenberg, Neighboring Faiths. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today (Chicago, 2014), in The Association for Jewish Studies Review 40 (2016): 175-77.
  • Review of James Amelang, Parallel Histories: Muslims and Jews in Inquisitorial Spain (Louisiana State, 2013), in The Association for Jewish Studies Review 38 (2014): 463­­-66.
  • Review of Jonathan Ray, ed., The Jew in Medieval Iberia 1100-1500 (Boston, 2012), in The Medieval Review, September 2012.
  • Review of Robin Vose, Dominicans, Muslims, and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Cambridge, 2009), in Sefarad 70 (2010): 512-14.
  • Review of Nina Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, and Messianism (Notre Dame, IN, 2008), in The Medieval Review, August 2008.

Awards

  • Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem
  • European Institutes for Advanced Study (EURIAS)
  • Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, Rutgers University
  • Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Fellowship
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
  • Fulbright Scholarship to Spain
  • Richard Hofstadter Fellowship
  • Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies

Professional Affiliations

  • American Historical Association
  • Association for Jewish Studies
  • Medieval Academy of America
  • Mediterranean Seminar
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Society of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies