On the Word of a Jew

<p>What if anything does religion have to do with how reliable we perceive one another to be? When and how did religious difference matter in the past when it came to trusting the word of another? In today's world we take for granted that being Jewish should not matter when it comes to acting or engaging in the public realm but this was not always the case. The essays in this volume look at how and when Jews were recognized as reliable and trustworthy in the areas of jurisprudence medicine politics academia culture business and finance. As they explore issues of trust and mistrust the authors reveal how caricatures of Jews move through religious political and legal systems. While the volume is framed as an exploration of Jewish and Christian relations it grapples with perceptions of Jews and Jewishness from the biblical period to today from the Middle East to North America and in Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. Taken together these essays reflect on the mechanics of trust and sometimes mistrust in everyday interactions involving Jews.</p>