Creator Bio
Qalonymos ben Judah
12th Century
Qalonymos ben Judah, sometimes known as “the younger,” was a scion of the Qalonymos family, perhaps the most prominent German Jewish family of his day. He was a paytan (liturgical poet) active in Mainz, Germany, in the middle and latter parts of the twelfth century.
Content by Qalonymos ben Judah
Primary Source
The beautiful one who dwells within
This excerpt comes from a kinah (lament) for the 1096 massacres of Jews in the Rhineland and describes the murder of children at the hands of their mother.
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If only my whole head could be water
This poem integrates accounts of the persecutions, forced conversions, and murders of the First Crusade into the tradition of laments for the Jerusalem Temple.