Such a one (Dolce) was made during my ShUM artist residency in Worms, Germany. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz formed a unique center of Jewish life in Ashkenaz, the term used in rabbinic literature for Central and Western Europe. The acronym ShUM combines the first letters of the Hebrew names of these cities: Schpira, Warmaisa, Magenza. Together they shaped the architecture, culture, religion and legal traditions of the Jewish Diaspora in Central and Eastern Europe.

While living in Worms, I created a video based on the poetic elegy written by Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (also known as the Roke’ah) for his wife Dolce (Heb: דולצא, also Dulcia or Dulcea), who was tragically murdered in her home along with her daughters Bellette and Hannah in 1196.

Although the Roke’ah’s commemoration of Dolce is framed by male assumptions about what constitutes admirable female behavior, these texts nonetheless provide important insights into the lives of Jewish women in an era from which independent female voices have not survived.

Dolce was a skilled businesswoman, a moneylender, and the head of a large household. She was known for her needlework, had an extensive Jewish education, and led prayers for other women. She also took on community roles such as arranging marriages and preparing brides.

The elegy is an untitled piyyut by Eleazar of Worms, a for his beloved wife Dolce. Written in two-line couplets, it quotes Proverbs 31:10-31, which describes an exemplary wife, often referred to as a “woman of valor.”