Marks of Distinction

"This is a learned and significant study that will have a material impact on scholarly discourse regarding a topic of great significance."—AJS Review

"Both medieval and modern historians long have debated the issue of the similarities and dissimilarities between anti-Semitism in the medieval and modern (especially post-1870) world Now Resnick revisits this issue, very intelligently and with impressive erudition, showing that medieval beliefs—like the idea that Jewish men menstruated, that Jews gave off a special smell, and that Jews had a sallow, unhealthy complexion—had a more influential resonance in creating and sustaining the gulf between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages than heretofore has been perceived. In sum, a very good book."—Choice

"Marks of Distinction is a thought-provoking book offering an abundance of fascinating textual and visual sources. One of its most valuable features is that it presents the Christian concepts and interpretations of biblical laws and customs along with their Jewish counterparts."—Zsófia Buda, Journal of Jewish Studies

"Irven Resnick enters into this debate with this thoroughly researched and fascinating study Marks of Distinction offers a window into a wide array of medieval theories authors used to justify their contempt of Jews, lepers, and other outcasts, and this digs deep into the sometimes repulsive but endlessly fascinating underbelly of the medieval imagination."—Frans van Liere, Calvin College

"Irven Resnick's study offers an intriguing contribution to the history of Western Christian anti-Semitism This book is a useful resource not only for medievalists, but also for a broader audience interested in the long history of anti-Semitism."—Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"With palpable erudition, Irven Resnick has highlighted the extensive reflections by Christian thinkers in the high Middle Ages on Jewish physicality."—Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations