Running Sagas with No Jewish Companions or Magi
The vast majority of sagas don’t have any Jewish player characters among the core magi and companions of the game.
To some degree this makes sense. Jews made up less than 1% of the population of medieval Europe, but obviously they were an important presence. Jews in 1220 were concentrated in cities and in certain professions, such as gold smithing and money lending, though not to the same extent that they would be in later centuries.
But the average covenant is not portraying a demographically representative sample of Mythic Europe. Covenants collect the cast offs and the outsiders of medieval society. In areas of Europe with a notable Jewish population, such as the Iberian, Provencal, Normandy, Rhine, and Levant Tribunals, it would be surprising if Hermetic covenants did not interact with the Jewish community.
As such, I encourage story guides to incorporate materials from these posts as a spice to ordinary Ars Magica stories. The Jews don’t need to be at the center of the saga, but they can be present as grogs, NPCs, vis sources, and the like.
To that end, I would suggest that story guides look to introduce some light weight Judaism into their games with adventure seeds like the Blood Libel Mazzikin or Captured by the Bird Headed Jews. Introduce a Jewish grog like Josef ben Yitzhak. Utilize vis sources like the Last Drink of Purim and the Cross Dressing Jews And introduce a Jewish maga like Leah bat Yitzak.
The goal of these story resources is that they will draw the characters of the covenant into stories in their own right, not just because they are Jewish. A player who is uninterested in the details of an Egyptian Jewish wedding will none-the-less be very interested when their character’s vis source is threatened. In that way the players are drawn into the Jewish world for a story.