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Jews and Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages Judaism, from the Middle Ages to date, can be described as an ever-discriminated culture. The Jews great resilience has allowed them to endure the tremendous torments history has brought them. A characteristic that has always sustained the Jewish people is their passion to remember. They continue remembering all that has befallen them, Their [Jews] best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory. Jews in the Middle Ages, a despised people in a hostile environment, contributed intellectually and economically to society.
Jews simultaneously experienced anti-Semitism under the shadow of the omnipotent Catholic Church because of their difference in beliefs and fit as a scapegoat. The Jews of the Middle Ages were a contribution to society both intellectually and financially. Jews occupied many jobs including: doctors, translators, philosophers, theologians, and financiers, and were very successful. In the scientific world, Ibn Gabirol (Avencebrol) had great influence on Franciscan thought and his poetry is famous today. In philosophy, Maimonides (known as Rabbi Moses by Aquinas) influenced the Thomists and Dominicans. He reconciled the work of Aristotle with Jewish theology.
His importance was recognized in the Jewish Bulletin as, the most important Jew of the Millennium. (Altman-Ohr 1) Medieval Jewish physicians translated Greek medical knowledge, and money lending and merchant Jews had enough money to put up synagogues. These Jewish intellects lived comfortably with houses and lands run by slaves, and were well supplied with wine, and enjoyed other luxuries. In France and Germany, Jews seemed to posses a trade monopoly. Solomon, a Jew, was King Dagobert s merchant, and Priscus, another Jew, was King Chilperia s merchant. In fact, Jews were so predominant in France s and Germany s trade that trade ordinances were addressed, Jews and other merchants. The Jews traveled everywhere, for where trade was, there was the Jew also. (Dorset 50).
The Jews were distributed throughout the society but they were always distinguished and set apart from everyone else because of their religion. Although Jews played an important role in medieval society, their religious beliefs were much different than all the religious beliefs of the powers by which they were governed. Religion eventually made failure out of successful individuals. Judaism is a monotheistic faith describing its followers as, the chosen people. Jews claimed to be the one true faith in the midst of Medieval Europe s Catholic and Islamic nations, causing them to be outsiders. Similarly, monotheistic Catholicism and Islam believed the same about its followers, that they are the chosen people.
The problem was, Catholicism and Islam were religious ruling powers, while Judaism was not. Judaism had not been a religious ruling power since Jerusalem had fallen to the Romans and the dream of rebuilding a Jewish state began to seem it would remain a dream forever. The lack of a Jewish homeland meant that Jews were always subjects to the laws of the leading powers. This caused the Jews to be separated as outsiders because the ruling nations were never of their faith.
They were different from the normal, which as a result, kept Jews separated from society. Jews in the Middle Ages were set apart from society, usually deprecated both by rulers and the lower class. Rulers forced Jews to wear different clothes to set them apart from everybody else. The dress included a yellow patch, which was worn on the shoulder, and referred to as a badge of shame, and a special horned hat.
These emblems of Cain called for hostility from the lower class and many people began distinguishing them as the, murderers of Christ. The Jews did have some special rules issued by the pope against physical molestation, but at the same time there were rules that encouraged, social degradation. The fact that Christianity had failed to cure Europeans of their hatreds and anxieties made things worse for the Jews because they were such easy targets. In the 12 th century, Jews were introduced to the Ghetto system and isolation from the regular European environment. The Jews special isolation and separation from society made them suffer hatred and special treatment, Hatred of the Jews had always largely been a racial hatred of aliens in manners and laws. (Bury 805).
The Jew s role as the outcasts, made them perfect victims for discrimination, and they often became the scapegoat of Europe s problems. The first outbreaks of discrimination were religious fanatics, and often times supported by the Franciscans. Jewish owned stores in Europe began getting burned, and specific retailers stopped selling service to the Jews. The anti-Semitism started out slow and at first many would not take part in the racist actions. However the racism began escalating as the church gave more support to the destruction of Jews and the Crusades began.
Prior to the Crusades, anti-Semitic outbreaks were rare and sporadic, but as Catholics felt the urge, the desire, and pressure from Rome to spread their religion, the Jews became more and more at risk. The first two crusades were a warning to the Jews of the amount of horrific suffering that was to befall them. On the way to the crusades, frenzied Christians burned Jewish villages and committed many terrible acts of violence against Jews. Not only were stores destroyed, but also houses were ruined, and many valuables were stolen and destroyed.
Often times during these rampages, resilient Jews were beaten and woman raped. (Mazar 68) Furthermore, every abortion, famine, epidemic, fatal accident to a child was presumed to be the work of an evil-doer, and blamed on innocent Jews. As a result, libels began circulating throughout the Medieval Christendom containing false public statements degrading Jews. In England in 1144, Jews were accused of, thirsting for Christian blood, preferably that of young and innocent Christians. (Mazar 148). This libel is known as the blood libel, and it is concurred from the false statements: the Jews needed to torture a Christian to renew the sufferings of Jesus, the Jews needed pure blood to heal themselves or for magic spells, and they needed blood to remove blemishes on their bodies that only they suffered from. This libel became part of European culture, so in 1236, when Frederick II declared the libel was false and forbade it, there was no benefit to the Jews. Another libel of the 13 th century was the desecration of the sacrament.
This libel was due to the 1215 declaration of transubstantiation. The Jews were accused of paying great sums of money to wicked Christians, so the Christians would bring them holy bread that they could profane in their houses, or synagogues. The reason behind the libel is that Jews admitted transubstantiation, for there is no other reason Jews would risk their lives in order to eat an ordinary piece of unleavened bread. One libel blaming the Jews for the plague by poisoning the wells, expressed the Christian view of Jews as Christian haters. Fleas aboard rat-infested ships had actually brought the plague, but as usual in medieval times, the Jews were to blame.
Regardless of their stupidity and invalidity, these libels had great effects on Europeans views of Jews and their treatment of Jewish people. The libels caused the suffering of multitudes as well as distorted the perception of Jews in the Christian mind. Due to the blood libel, Jews were tortured and many died at the stake. Whole communities were slaughtered in frenzy.
The desecration of the sacrament caused riots and great suffering as well. However, it was the plague libel that caused the most horrific damage, the extermination of hundreds of communities. These libels would not have been accepted, except for medieval Europe was a place where the majority viewed the minority as distorted by their very existence. Each libel added more detail and substance to this concept.
Unfortunately libels were only one aspect to the hate Jews felt in the Middle Ages. Anti-Semitism was felt in many other extreme forms in the Middle Ages. From the ecclesiastical and secular aspects of society Jews suffered violence and general mistreatment. Intense Jewish suffering began in France and Rhineland, where entire communities were killed, and synagogues were burned while Jews were inside singing songs. Jews suspected of crimes for which they were usually innocent resorted to suicide, instead of being found guilty and killed. Life was so horrible, married couples killed each other, and mothers killed their children.
Jews felt the pressure of anti-Semitism and its toll was abundant. There was a magnitude of conscious suffering by Jewish martyrs that is only comparable to the suffering experienced during Nazi Germany. The suffering experienced by the Jews was increased by their expulsion from many European kingdoms, which forced them to leave, convert, or die in attempt to create national uniformity. In 1290, Jews were driven out of Europe under the rule of King Edward the 1 st. Philip the Fair expelled them from France less then twenty years later, in 1306, and then in 1395, the Jews were expelled from Lithuania. In 1492, the Spanish Inquisition began, and under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism, leave the country, or die.
Five years later, in 1497, they were expelled from Portugal. The Jews had done nothing for the treatment they received. Many Jews converted, and these apostates lived without any of the harassment they had previously suffered. By the end of the 15 th century, the Jews had been banished from most of Europe. Those who did not leave mostly died in martyrdom or were slaughtered in numbers. The only refuge that Jews found was in the loosely constructed territories of Poland and the Ottoman Empire.
Nowhere in Europe could the Jews live comfortably. Jewish suffering was abundant in the Middle Ages and if not for such discrimination, Jews would have contributed more to society and employed a better future. The Jews had great thinkers in the Middle Ages, they connected Muslim and Christian worlds and resurrected much of Greek teachings. Jews had influenced thought all around them, but continually all their efforts were hindered. It is difficult to help the same people in society who take your money, won t give you jobs, make false stories concerning your people, kill your friends, and blame you for all evil.
If not for this rain cloud above them, Jews could have traded more, held more jobs, and worked together with the Christian minds of the times. The immense suffering of centuries to come might have been lessened or even stopped. The Jews endured and as a people did nothing but survive and remember. The Jews were a people whose lives were shaped by their surrounding rulers, attitude of their neighbors, and economic opportunities offered to a minority. They were separated by the nations, and physically abused for no reason. If the Medieval church had not been the ruling power, the Jews would have avoided an uncountable amount of suffering that followed them through the millennium.
There was no reason for so much suffering, for Judaism is a belief that does not hurt anyone, A Jew without Jews, without Judaism, without Zionism, without Jewishness, without a temple or an army or even a pistol, a Jew clearly without a home, just the object itself, like a glass or an apple, harmless. Bibliography Altman-Ohr, Andy. Jew of the Millennium. Jewish Bulletin December 199 Anti-Jewish Myths.
Http: //. friends- partners. org / partners /beyond-the-pale / english / 09. html (11 / 23 / 99). Bible, David.
Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History. New York: Schocken Books, 1986. Bury, J. B. The Cambridge Medieval History.
London: University Press, 1964. Dorset, Phillip. Everyday Life in the Medieval Times. New York: Ballintine Books, 1990. Editors of the Israeli Publishing Institute. The International Hebrew Heritage Library.
Vols 1 &# 038; 2, Miami: International Book Corporation, 1969. Expulsions and the Black Death. Http: //. friends- partners. org / partners /beyond-the-pale / english / 16. html (11 / 23 / 99).
Heer, Friedrich. The Medieval World. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1961. Marcus, Jacob. The Jew in the Medieval World. New York: Harper Torch books, 1938.
Mazar, Noah. Medieval Life. New York: Random House Publishing, 1989. Roth, Cecil. A History of the Jews. New York: Schocken Books, 1970.
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