Dear Frank,
The question is by no means stupid (it's actually quite tricky), and
you've got me to take a closer look at the book I mentioned earlier.
Andrew Colin GOW, *The Red Jews: Antisemitism in an apocalyptic age*,
Studies in Medieval and Reformation thought, 55 (Leiden, New York,
Cologne: Brill, 1995), pp. 7-11, 66-69, 91- 92, explains red hair
as a mark of wickedness / faithlessness, but admits that 'The "Red
Jews" consistently have baffled the very few scholars who have taken
explicit note of them. No-one has ever been able to make much sense
of the name," which of course he's the one to do. He refers to Ruth
MELLINKOFF, 'Judas's Red Hair and the Jews', in *Journal of Jewish
Art*, 9 (1982):31-46, and adds that 'in Middle High German, *rot*
(red) had an important secondary meaning: duplicitous, wicked,
faithless, cunning. The name given to the language of beggars and
thieves, *Rotwelsch*, reflects the notion of falseness' (p. 67). Gow
also claims that Jews were stereotyped in manuscript illuminations as
red-haired, and states that as far as his 'research has been able to
uncover, only German-language texts use the term Red Jews' (pp. 69-
70). E.g., 'the Middle High German version of the *Passau Anonymous*
(c.1330) identifies the destroyers Gog and Magog as "Jews, who are
called the Red Jews". However, the original Latin (1260/65) contains
only the traditional story of Gog and Magog, without identifying the
destroyers with the Ten Tribes, and lacks the German appellation "Red
Jews"' (p. 75). - On the other hand, a Jewish convert to the Lutheran
faith, Friedrich Albrecht Augusti, in his *Geheimnisse der Jueden von
dem Wunder-Fluss Sambathjon ...*, published 1748, claimed that the
name derived from the Jewish view that Ten Lost Tribes (of course not
identified with Gog and Magog here) wore 'precious purple clothes'.
Gow (pp. 183-186) argues that this is merely a Jewish adaptation of
the Christian legend that was around in Germany.
Another book to have a look at (it comes in two volumes, with lots of
pictures), is Ruth MELLINKOFF's *Outcasts*, but I haven't seen it and
can't give you the bibliographical details right now. Anyway,
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Christoph
> >> Medieval-religion: 'where there are no stupid questions'
>
> George's tactful note emboldens me to repeat a question to which I
> got no answer previously: why were the Jews referred to as "Red
> Jews"?
>
> Frank Schaer
> Medieval Studies, CEU, Budapest
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