Antisemitism in a City Without Jews: Crime,Print and a Used-Clothes Dealer in Early Modern Paris

Seventeenth-century Paris had not had a Jewish community for centuries, yet Parisians created and circulated textual, and occasionally visual, anti-Jewish representations. Parisians made these concrete by projecting them onto a group of Christians, the used-garment dealers. Parisians were able to avoid questioning their society’s moral and Christian identity by associating theft, deceit and murder with the supposedly non-Christian dealers. The article examines the historical background to this, analyzes the representations and, through one dealer and her family, suggests their social and legal impact. This contributes to our understanding of early modern anti-Jewish representations, views of crime, identity and marginalization.