I have not read Ivanhoe, I have read Edward Eager going on and on (and bloody on) about Ivanhoe in the kids' books in which kids go into books, but, given what little I know, does the portrayal of Ruquel and the vague Orientalism of the Judaism have anything to do with Ivanhoe?
Lee in general definitely has something to do with Melmoth the Wanderer, a book I really need to finish reading one of these days. That one has a very long sequence in which a guy who has had Terrible Things Happen To Him In A Convent Because Catholics Bad (to be fair, they are really well-written and interesting terrible things) tells his life story to the Wandering Jew, who lives in this weird little cavern under Paris full of manuscripts. He spends his time writing down the life stories of ghosts so they can move on, and attempting to dodge anti-Semitic persecution by never, ever leaving the house. Yes, I know that's not a very Wandering Jew. One gets the impression he picks up and moves to a new cavern every few hundred years and that is sufficient.
Anyway, that portrayal is both relatively sympathetic (Melmoth has such an anti-Catholic boner that anyone the Catholics don't like is automatically assumed to have good points) and very weirdly Orientalist. I think it may be the ur-Jewish-Angelic-Doctor portrayal, though God knows I bounced really, really hard off The Monk so IDK what even goes on in that.
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Lee in general definitely has something to do with Melmoth the Wanderer, a book I really need to finish reading one of these days. That one has a very long sequence in which a guy who has had Terrible Things Happen To Him In A Convent Because Catholics Bad (to be fair, they are really well-written and interesting terrible things) tells his life story to the Wandering Jew, who lives in this weird little cavern under Paris full of manuscripts. He spends his time writing down the life stories of ghosts so they can move on, and attempting to dodge anti-Semitic persecution by never, ever leaving the house. Yes, I know that's not a very Wandering Jew. One gets the impression he picks up and moves to a new cavern every few hundred years and that is sufficient.
Anyway, that portrayal is both relatively sympathetic (Melmoth has such an anti-Catholic boner that anyone the Catholics don't like is automatically assumed to have good points) and very weirdly Orientalist. I think it may be the ur-Jewish-Angelic-Doctor portrayal, though God knows I bounced really, really hard off The Monk so IDK what even goes on in that.