In the Israeli city of Acre around 500 CE, Larry the Baker left his mark. A ceramic Byzantine bread stamp has been unearthed bearing the classic Jewish seven branch Menorah and the name "Laurentius" written out in Greek letters.

In the 7th through 10th centuries, two super powers ruled Eastern Europe: Byzantium, "bulwark of Christendom in the east," and the Arab empire, but some historians name a third. Khazaria, a Jewish kingdom, played a crucial a part in the stemming of the Arab advance into Europe. (map)

One of the most important manuscripts in the Bodleian Library's Hebrew collection is the 12th century Mishneh Torah, a guide to Jewish law handwritten and signed by Hebrew scholar Maimonides. The manuscript has now been digitized and is available online.

Long a New York favorite and portable feast choice of SCA college students everywhere (hint: they can be easily smuggled out of dining halls), finding solid documentation for the bagel as a medieval foodstuff has been a challenge.

In an article for The Jerusalem Post Magazine, writer and professor of Jewish history Renee Levine Melammed explores the life of Benvenida Abravanel, a 16th century resident of Naples and Ferrara, known for her philantrophy and patronage of David Hareuveni, the 16th century messianic claimant.

In 1171, Pucellina, a Jewish moneylender with ties to Count Thibaut of Blois, France, was arrested, along with 40 other Jews, for the killing of a Christian child. Her execution by burning is now attributed to a witness' aversion to an "arrogant Jewish woman with the gall to consider Count Thibaut her patron."

Elizabeth Lapina of Durham University in Great Britain reports that she is seeking papers and proposals for the upcoming publication, The Crusades and Visual Culture. The submission deadline is December 1, 2011.

In an article for the Jerusalem Post, professor of Jewish history and dean at the Schechter Institute, Renee Levine Melamme tells the story of a family of 15th century "crypto-Jews" tried by the Spanish Inquisition in Ciudad Real.

Excavations of the 16th century Great Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania, have uncovered the site of the Aron Kodesh, or Holy Ark, along with "part of the original floor, and the top of one of the four pillars surrounding the bima."

Seventeen skeletons found in a well in Norwich, England are the suspected victims of an anti-Jewish massacre. DNA and other analysis has shown that the six adults and eleven children were part of the same family and date to the 12th or 13th century.

In celebration of Passover, Edward Rothstein of the New York Times discusses the reading of the Haggadah represented by the Washington Haggadah, a manuscript from 1478 on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through June 26, 2011. (slide show)

Central Minnesota is the home of Hill Museum at St. John's Abbey, an unlikely site for the world's largest collection of historic religious manuscripts. Ray Suarez of PBS Newshour interviews Father Columba Stewart, director of the museum. (video)

In medieval Spain Moslims, Christians and Jews lived together in relative peace. SCA members recently brought a taste of Jewish life in the Middle Ages to the Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel in Maywood, New Jersey. Susan Joy Clark of NorthJersey.com has the story.

In 2007, Rita J. King and Joshua Fouts collaborated to create Al-Andalus, a virtual Alhambra, on Second Life, in order to explore the concept of Convivencia, the "Spanish term for the harmonious 'living together' of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic caliphat." (photos)

Archaeologists have found the remains of a medieval synagogue beneath Kebabish, a fast food restaurant, in Northamptonshire, England.

A New York Times article by Matthew Fishbane tells the story of the author's trip to Kaifeng in search of remnants of of one China's medieval Jewish communities.

Two fragments of a 7th century biblical manuscript of the Song of the Sea, a triumphant hymn to the destruction of the Egyptian Army and the freeing of the Israelites, have been reunited for an exhibit at Israel's national museum.

From December 8, 2009 to May 3, 2010, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University will host Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures, "which tells the story of how Jews, Christians and Muslims have together contributed to the development of the book as an object of great cultural importance."

University of Minnesota professor Susan Noakes has received a US$70,000 grant for two years for a project entitled “Globalization of the Middle Ages.” The research will be funded by the university's Imagine Fund.

In celebration of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new Year, officials at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are displaying the Nuremberg Mahzor, a 14th century collection of "handwritten Ashkenazi, or northern European, prayers and liturgical poems." The manuscript is considered the largest surviving text of its kind with only 7 of its 528 pages missing.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient port city of Andriake in Lycia have discovered what they believe is the "first archaeological trace of Jewish culture" found in the area. They believe the temple was one of the earliest built after a 212 C.E. law allowed Jews to become Roman citizen.

Negotiations between the Spanish government and Jewish leaders concluded recently with the reburial of more than 100 medieval Jews whose final resting places were disturbed during construction of a school in Toledo, Spain.

The Levenger Company has produced a facsimile of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a 14th century Spanish prayer book and the oldest haggadah known. The original found its way to Sarajevo, and was saved by an Islamic scholar during World War II.

Maev Kennedy takes a tour around the treasures of the Black Death exhibition at The Wallace Collection, London, including a tiny perfume bottle that was owned by a victim of a superstitious anti-plague pogrom.

The Treasures of the Black Death exhibit at London's Wallace Collection showcase two hoards of medieval jewelry dating to the 14th century. The treasures were owned - and buried with - Jewish families who perished during the Black Plague. (photos)

In the village of Kfar halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, children learn about Israel of 2,000 years ago and the Hanukkah story with the help of historic re-enactors. The village also features activities for kids such as harvesting olives and making oil.

500 years after the Inquisition expelled many Moors from Spain, DNA proves that their "genetic legacy" is still strong, according to Professor Mark Jobling, of the University of Leicester.

On December 8, 2008, Sotheby's Auction House in London will be auctioning a number of western and oriental manuscripts. A catalogue of the items with closeups and descriptions is available to view online.

Detective work comes in all forms, including those willing to intensely study ancient Jewish manuscripts looking for clues to the past. This work is chronicled in the recent novel People of the Book.

Author Edward Kritzler, author of a new book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom — and Revenge has probably heard all the jokes about Jewish pirates, but he has the last laugh. Benjamin Ivry of the Jewish Daily Forward has a review.