WALTER JACOB

Jewish(Adret , Responsa 1, 7.10, 6.28, 12.05, IV 3.14; Asher, Responsa XXXII, 13, 15). The medieval authorities, like their Talmudic predecessors, made some distinction between relationships with Gentile men or women. Although they prohibited such relationships with both, they tended to be a little more lenient if it was between a Gentile and a Jewess, as the possible offspring of such a union would be Jewish (Rashba to Kid. 21a in Otzar Haposkim, p. 253). An anonymous Spanish rabbi commanded,“You should proclaim a ban with the sounding of a horn against anyone who would have intercourse with a Gentile woman. He that is found to have done so should be severely punished, since many children have been born to Jews by their non-Jewish maid-servants.”(Zikhron Yehudah,#91) Zakuta reported that some Jews killed during the persecution of 1391 were actually slain by their own Christian sons born to Christian women(Yohasin, ed. Filiopowski, 225a). These conditions were endemic to Spanish Jewry and continued after the expulsion in the lands to which Jews fled(David ben Zimri, Responsa 1, 48, 409, III, 443, 520). Moses of Coucy succeeded in getting a number of Spanish coreligionists(about 1236) to set aside their Christian or Moslem wives(Semag, Lo Ta-aseh 112). Loew has suggested that these marriages probably referred to concubines(Loew, Op. Cit., vol. TI, P. 176). Isaac Aramah(dkedat Yitzhak,#120, etc.) denounced irregular sexual unions in his sermons. He may have painted an excessively gloomy picture, but was certainly dealing with a real problem.

Among the Spanish authorities we should also mention Simon of Duran, who dealt with Jews who had more casual relationships with Gentile women(Radbaz , Responsa 111, 158), and Solomon Adret , who reported relationships and concubinage with Moslem Women(Responsa V,#242) with some frequency.

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