Meir ben Elijah of Norwich (Hebrew:מאיר בן אליהו מנורגיץ,romanized: Meïr ben Eliyahu mi-Norgits;fl. 13th century), also known asMeir of England,[1] was a mediaeval English Jewish poet. He is acknowledged as the "chief representative of the poetic artamong the Jews of medieval England."[2]
Little is known of his life,[3] but some scholars have speculated that he was among the Jewsexpelled from England in 1290.[2] It is possible that Meir was a son ofElias Levesque.[4]
One long elegiac poem and fifteen smaller ones by him are found in aVatican manuscript, from which they were published byAbraham Berliner in 1887.[5] Among them is the liturgical poemOyevi bim’eirah tikkov ('Put a Curse on My Enemy'), decrying the persecution suffered by English Jews.[2][6][7] His work shows the influence of bothAshkenazic andSephardicpiyyutim.[8]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Jacobs, Joseph (1904)."Meïr ben Elijah of Norwich". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 436.
Jacobs, Joseph (1904)."Meïr ben Elijah of Norwich". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 436.| International | |
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