Soussen, Claire <br/><br/>
The “Untouchable Jew” in the Mediterranean Region in the Late Middle Ages: the Posterity and Validity of a Concept 

 -  2017.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Forty years after the initial formulation of the theory, this paper attempts to examine the notion that Jews were considered untouchable in some Mediterranean countries at the end of the Middle Ages. Some municipal authorities issued edicts forbidding Jews to touch the products at the market, revealing the hardening of their condition. Today, when we look at the Hebrew, Latin and vernacular documents, we see that it is important to underline the attitude of the Jewish authorities towards the Christians and the converts, showing the same fear or distrust as the Christians’ attitude towards the Jews. The Jews being untouchable is a matter of religion and anthropology, but also of economics and politics.