Meir ben Elijah of Norwich (Hebrew: מאיר בן אליהו מנורגיץ, romanized: Meïr ben Eliyahu mi-Norgits; fl. 13th century), also known as Meir of England,[1] was a mediaeval English Jewish poet. He is acknowledged as the "chief representative of the poetic art among the Jews of medieval England."[2]
Little is known of his life,[3] but some scholars have speculated that he was among the Jews expelled from England in 1290.[2] It is possible that Meir was a son of Elias Levesque.[4]
One long elegiac poem and fifteen smaller ones by him are found in a Vatican manuscript, from which they were published by Abraham Berliner in 1887.[5] Among them is the liturgical poem Oyevi 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 both Ashkenazic and Sephardic piyyutim.[8]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jacobs, Joseph (1904). "Meïr ben Elijah of Norwich". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 436.
Jacobs, Joseph (1904). "Meïr ben Elijah of Norwich". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 436.
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