Minhag and Migration: A Yiddish Custom Book from Venice, 1553

This presentation focuses on a Yiddish book of customs written in Venice in the mid-sixteenth century, which describes synagogue and home observances over the course of the Jewish year. Comparing MS Oxford Can. Or. 12 to the fifteenth-century Hebrew custumal it is based on (MS Frankfurt hebr. oct. 227), the presentation will discuss the efforts of Ashkenazic émigrés to northern Italy trying to preserve their identity in the face of a Jewish world suddenly become complex. This presentation is for the following text(s): Book of Customs (MS Frankfurt hebr. oct. 227) Book of Customs (MS Oxford Can. Or. 12