THE GOLDEN AGE OF ARAGONESE JEWRY was a remarkable period in medieval Jewish history. It was a period when the Jews achieved a great degree of integration in the political and economic life of a Christian country, while reaching a high level of religious and cultural productivity that made the Crown of Aragon one of the major centres of Jewish scholarship. It is enough to review the impressive list of the eminent rabbis of the period to appreciate the quality of Jewish scholarship that was achieved during one century: R. Jonah Gerondi, R. Moshe ben Nahman, R. Shelomo ben Adret, R. Aharon Ha-Levi de Na Clara, R. Yorn Tov Asibili, R. Bahye ben Asher, and R. Nissim Gerondi.

This Golden Age was one of the most exciting eras of medieval Jewish history. The political, social, and economic achievements of the Jews created tension and gaps in Jewish society. During a period of deep social dissent, we witness a bitter struggle conducted by the poor who sought ways to take part in the management of their community or, failing that, to create the appropriate institutions to resolve their problems.

The religious conflicts and polemics of these years were the outcome of intellectual and spritual maturity. The sad results of the antagonism between the religious trends cannot obscure the significance of the crisis. This religious ferment was evidence of a Jewish society that was rich, creative, exciting, and imaginative in its intellectual and spiritual scope. It exerted great influence on near and distant communities, but was equally receptive to influences from other centres. Catalan Jewry became versatile in the Judeo-Arabic tradition of Sepharad while also absorbing much of the heritage of Franco-German or AshkenaziJewry. It was in the Crown of Aragon, where bitter religious conflicts tore apart the Jews in the Maimonidean controversies and the crisis over the study of secular sciences, that the Jewish cultures of Sepharad and Ashkenaz clashed. It was primarily an inner conflict, between those who adopted many of the religious concepts of Ashkenaz, like Gerondi, Nahmanides, and Adret, and those who wanted to retain the religious and philosophical perceptions of Sepharad. Only in a community that produced intellectual giants could such significant conflicts occur. Peace and quiet are the destiny of communities whose religious and intellectual aridity condemns them to stagnation.