The German rabbi, scholar, and religious poet Gershom ben Judah (ca. 950-1028) exerted a great influence on Jewish social institutions. He is also known as Rabbenu Gershom and Meor Ha-Golah, "Light of the Exile."

The places of the birth and death of Gershom ben Judah are not known with certainty, but he passed most of his adult life at Mainz, Germany. Gershom's importance arose from the fact that his teaching career as a rabbinical authority came just after the extinction of the rabbinical centers in Babylonia. With the consolidation of the Moslem Empire, the Babylonian scholars drifted across to Europe, bringing with them their manuscripts, their scribal tradition, their teaching, and their authority. The Palestinian centers had long ceased. As a result, central Europe and for a time Spain became the heartland of Jewish life and evolution. Later, Spain was to cease and only central European Jewry remained...