Introduction R. Po-Chia Hsia; Opening essay Jacob Katz; Part I. Jewish Cultural Identity and the Price of Exclusiveness: The Legacy of the Middle Ages: 1. The Jewish quarters in German towns during the late Middle Ages Alfred Haverkamp; 2. Organisational forms of Jewish popular culture since the Middle Ages Christoph Daxelmüller; 3. Criminality and punishment of the Jews in the early modern period Otto Ulbricht; 4. Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Roman Empire - a comment Theodore K. Rabb; Part II. The Social and Economic Structure of German Jewry from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century: 5. Aspects of stratification of early modern German Jewry: population history and village Jews Michael Toch; 6. The economic activity of the Jews in early modern times Stefi Jersch-Wenzel; 7. Comparative perspectives on economy and society - a comment Gershon David Hundert; Part III. Jewish-Gentile Contacts and Relations in the Pre-Emancipation Period: 8. Languages in contact: the case of Rotwelsch and the two Yiddisches Paul Wexler; 9. Meeting on the road: encounters between German Jews and Christians on the margins of society Yacov Guggenheim; 10. Contacts at the bedside: Jewish physicians and their Christian patients Robert Jütte; 11. Contacts and relations in the pre-emancipation period - a comment Deborah Hertz; Part IV. Representations of German Jewry: Images, Prejudices, and Ideas: 12. The usurious Jew: economic structure and religious representations in an anti Semitic discourse R. Po-Chia Hsia; 13. Imagining the Jew: the late medieval eucharistic discourse Miri Rubin; 14. Representations of German Jewry - a comment Carlo Ginzburg; Part V. The Pattern of Authority and the Limits of Toleration: The Case of German Jewry: 15. German territorial princes and the Jews Rotraud Ries; 16. Jews in ecclesiastical territories of the Holy Roman Empire J. Friedrich Battenberg; 17. Jews in the imperial cities: a political perspective Christopher R. Friedrichs; 18. Germans with a difference? The Holy Roman Empire's Jews during the early modern era - a comment Thomas A. Brady, Jr; Part VI. In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany: 19. Germany and its Jews: a changing relationship (1500-1800) Jonathan I. Israel; 20. The Jewish minority and the Christian majority in early modern central Europe Hartmut Lehmann; 21. Germans and Jews in late medieval and early modern Germany Richard H. Popkin; 22. Jewish identity in a world of corporations and estates Mack Walker.