| Common Era |
Incidents |
| 70 |
The Romans under Titus retaliated against a Jewish uprising,
destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, enslaved many leaders and dispersed the
Jewish people. In 79 Titus succeeded Vespasian as emperor. Jews and Christians
suffered under him and emperor Domitian. |
| 88 - 97 |
Pope St. Clement blamed the Jews for Nero's persecution of the
Christians. |
| 113 - 116 |
The second Jewish revolt against Rome under emperor Trajan was
unsuccessful. |
| 135 |
The third Jewish rebellion against Rome was crushed and its
leader, Bar Kochba, whom many Jews had accepted to be the Messiah, was killed.
Rabbi Akiba was tortured and killed as well. |
| 200 |
When emperor Severus created laws forbidding heathens, under
penalty of severe punishment, to embrace Judaism, the Bishop of Alexandria,
Origen, wrote: "We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will
not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most
abominable of crimes, in forming the conspiracy against the Savior of the human
race ... Hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the
Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people [meaning the
church] was called by God to the blessed election." |
| 300 |
Eusebius, Bishop of Caesaria, claimed that Jews in every
community crucified a Christian at their Purim festival as a rejection of Jesus.
He used the charge of ritual murder made by the pagans Democritus and Apion,
which the Romans had first made against the early Christians. Eusebius made a
distinction between Hebrews who were good men in the Old Testament and Jews whom
he characterized as evil. |
| 306 |
The church Synod of Elvira (Spain) banned all community
contacts between Christians and the "evil" Hebrews and stated that
Christians could not marry Jews. |
| 324 |
When Constantine became emperor he claimed to be a Christian
and urged his subjects to convert to Christianity. He reenacted the laws of his
predecessors forbidding Jews to live in Jerusalem and to engage in any
proselytizing activity. |
| 325 |
The church Council of Nicea, called by Constantine, to settle a
theological controversy concerning the nature of Christ, continued efforts to
separate Christianity from Judaism by deciding that Easter should no longer be
determined by the Jewish Passover (pesach): "For it is unbecoming beyond
measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the
Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people..." |
| 337 |
Emperor Constantius declared: "Let my will be religion and
the law of the church!" One of his first acts was to prohibit under
punishment of death the marriage between a Jew and a Christian woman. |
| 367 - 376 |
St. Hilary of Poitiers wrote and spoke of the Jews as a
perverse people forever accursed by God. St. Ephroem refers in his hymns to
synagogues as whorehouses. |
| 379 - 395 |
Emperor Theodosius protected the Jews from the church's
persecutions of heretics. Chrysostom and Ambrose of Milan - both sainted -
wanted to include Jews in this persecution. Chrysostom: "The Jews are the
most worthless of all men... They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They
worship the devil, their religion is a sickness..." Ambrose reprimanded the
emperor for rebuilding a synagogue and offered to burn it down himself. St.
Gregory of Nyssa characterized Jews as assassins of the prophets, companions of
the devil, a race of vipers, a sanhedrin of demons, enemies of all that is
beautiful, hogs and goats in their lewd grossness."
The church Council of Laodicea forbade Christians to respect the Jewish Sabbath. |
| 395 - 408 |
Christian fanaticism was resisted by the Byzantine Emperor
Arcadius. He did not allow the destruction of synagogues. St. Epiphonius
characterized Jews as dishonest and indolent. |
| 408 - 450 |
Theodosius II forbade Jews to build new synagogues. |
| 415 |
St. Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, incited a mob against the
Jews and had them expelled. Bishop Severus burned a synagogue and incited people
to attack and harass Jews in the streets. Many Jews converted to Christianity
out of fear.
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: "The true image of the Hebrew is Judas
Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the
Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus." |
| 418 |
Bishop Severus of Majorca forced Jews to convert. Violent
street fighting broke out with a mob incited by the bishop. The synagogue was
burnt. Finally the leaders of the Jewish community gave in and 540 Jews were
converted.
St. Jerome, who had studied with Jewish scholars in Palestine and translated the
Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), wrote about the synagogue: "If you call it
a brothel, a den of vice, the Devil's refuge, Satan's fortress, a place to
deprave the soul, an abyss of every conceivable disaster or whatever you will,
you are still saying less than it deserves." |
| 489 |
A Christian mob set fire to the synagogues in Antioch and threw
the bodies of slain Jews into the fire. |
| 506 |
A Christian mob attacked and destroyed the synagogue at Daphne
near Antioch. The congregation was slaughtered. |
| 519 |
The Christian population of Ravenna attacked Jews and burnt the
synagogue. |
| 528 |
Under emperor Justinian Roman Law was systematized and codified
as Corpus Iuris Civilis also known as the Justinian Code. Church Law and
doctrine became state policy. Jews were not permitted to testify against
Christians. They could not celebrate Passover before Easter and were allowed
only a prescribed version of Scripture in their synagogues and were prohibited
to use prayers that were seen as anti-trinitarian. |
| 535 |
The church Synod of Claremont decreed that Jews could not hold
public office or have authority over Christians. |
| 538 |
Jews were (again) forbidden to have Christian servants or
slaves, which effectively excluded them from agriculture. The Third and Fourth
Councils of Orleans forbade Jews to appear in public during the Passion and
Easter periods. |
| 554 |
Bishop Avitus of Averna tried to convert the Jews with no
result. Then he incited a mob which destroyed the synagogues. The Jews had to
choose between baptism and expulsion. One Jew converted. During the procession
after his baptism a Jews sprinkled him with rancid oil. That enraged the mob and
many Jews were killed. 500 Jews allowed themselves to be baptized. The rest fled
to Marseilles. |
| 561 |
The Bishop of Uzes in France forced the Jews in his diocese to
decide between baptism and expulsion. |
| 582 |
John of Ephesus turned seven Jewish synagogues into churches.
Under king Chilperic of Merovingia all Jews in his kingdom had to choose between
conversion or having their eyes torn out. |
| 589 |
The king of Visigoth Spain, Reccared, ordered children born of
mixed marriages to be forcibly baptized. |
| 612 - 621 |
The Spanish king Sisebut severely restricted the rights of Jews
in his kingdom. They were not allowed to own or work the land or operate certain
trades. Later he issued an ultimatum to all Jews: convert or be exiled. |
| 628 - 629 |
Emperor Heraclius ordered the forced conversion of all Jews in
his empire and renewed the Hadrian and Constantine codes that barred Jews from
Jerusalem.
Dagobert, the Merovingian king, followed the example of Heraclius and forced the
Jews in his kingdom under the threat of death to convert to Christianity. |
| 633 |
The Third Council of Toledo decided against forcible
conversions. However, Jews who had in the past been forcibly converted were not
allowed to return to Judaism and had to separate from the Jewish communities.
Jewish children were taken from their parents and raised in monasteries. Neither
Jews nor converts to Christianity were allowed to hold public office. The
Council was chaired by Isodore, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville). |
| 638 |
The Fourth Council of Toledo decreed that Jewish children
baptized as Christians were not to be returned to their blood parents. Converts
had to be strictly supervised by church authorities. Jews hat to swear that they
had given up Jewish law and practice. Penalties ranged from flogging, loss of
limb, confiscation of property to burning at the stake.
The Bishops of Seville and Toledo, Isodore and Julian wrote polemical papers
against the Jews. |
| 638 - 642 |
Non-Catholics were expelled from Visigoth Spain. |
| 653 |
The Eighth Council of Toledo agreed with king Recceswith of
Spain who appeared before the Council, called Judaism a pollution of his country
and asked for removal of all unbelievers. Jews had to sign an oath (placitum)
that made the practice of Judaism almost impossible. Violations were punished by
burning or stoning. |
| 655 |
The Ninth Council of Toledo ordered converted Jews to spend all
Jewish and Christian holy days in the presence of a bishop. |
| 681 |
King Erwig of Spain forbade practicing Jews to enter seaports.
All Jews were ordered to be baptized. Converts hat to listen to Christian
sermons and were not allowed to follow dietary laws.
The Twelfth Council of Toledo confirmed the orders of the king and decreed to
burn the Talmud and other Jewish literature. |
| 692 |
The Trulanic Synod (Quinisext) of the Eastern empire prohibited
Christians attendance of Jewish feasts, friendly relations with Jews and
patronage of Jewish physicians. |
| 693 - 694 |
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Councils of Toledo, chaired by
king Egica and the successor of Bishop Julian, Felix, again severely restricted
the rights of Jews and charged them with undermining the church, massacre of
Catholics, plotting with the Moors and destruction of the country. Jews were
declared slaves, their property was confiscated and their children forcibly
raised in Catholic families or monasteries. |
| 722 |
Judaism was outlawed in the empire of Leo III and Jews were
forcibly baptized. Some burned to death in their synagogues. |
| 829 |
The Archbishop of Lyon, St. Agobard, wrote in his Epistles that
Jews were born slaves and that they were stealing Christian children to sell
them to the Arabs. |
| 845 |
The bishops of Lyon, Rheims, Sens and Bourges called the
Council of Meaux to renew anti-Jewish restrictions. Emperor Charles the Bald
refused to implement them in the council of Paris (846). |
| 855 |
Louis II, king of Italy, expelled the Jews effective October 1,
855.
In sermons during the Easter season the people in Beziers were encouraged to
revenge the crucifixion of Jesus. The nobility of Toulouse had for some years
the privilege of publicly boxing the ears of the president of the Jewish
community on Good Fridays. Later this was changed to an annual payment the Jews
had to make. |
| 1009 - 1012 |
As a result of the destruction by Muslims of the Holy Sepulcher
in Jerusalem Jewish communities were attacked by mobs in Orleans, Rouen, Limoges
and Rome.
Jews who refused conversion were expelled from Mainz under emperor Henry II in
the first serious persecution in Germany. |
| 1021 |
Rome was struck by an earthquake and a hurricane on Good
Friday. A number of Jews were arrested and accused of having put a nail through
a host the day before, thereby causing the natural disaster. Under torture they
confessed to host desecration and were burned to death. Host desecration became
a widespread charge. It was often made worse by rumors that the host had bled.
To the uneducated and superstitious masses it confirmed the dogma of the
Eucharist. |
| 1063 |
When soldiers on their marches attacked Jewish communities
during the war to oust the Saracen from Spain, Pope Alexander II warned the
French leaders of the armies not to harm the Jews. |
| 1078 |
Pope Gregory VII decreed that Jews could not hold office or be
superiors to Christians. In 1081 Alfonso VI of Toledo, Spain, was reprimanded by
the Pope for appointing Jews to offices of the state. Jews had to pay extra
taxes to support the church. |
| 1095 - 1096 |
Pope Urban II called for a Crusade against the Turks.
The Duke of Lorraine tried to gather an army for the Crusade. To collect money
he spread the rumor that he would kill the Jews to avenge the death of Christ.
The Jews of the Rhineland paid him 500 pieces of silver as ransom.
Emperor Henry IV ordered the knights of his empire not to attack the Jews.
Crusaders slaughtered Jews of Rouen and other cities in Lorraine. Jewish
communities in Germany supplied the army of Peter the Hermit thereby trying to
avoid the attacks of the Crusaders.
An estimated 10,000 Jews were massacred in France and Germany. Emich of
Leisinger with his band of thousands of Crusaders ignored the order of the
emperor and began a terror campaign against the Jews. In Speir he killed twelve.
The rest of the community was protected by the Bishop of Speir who punished some
of the murderers by cutting their hands off. Count Emich then moved his band to
Worms, where 500 Jews were murdered in spite of having paid protection money.
The Bishop of Worms could not protect the Jews in his diocese. The Archbishop of
Mainz (Mayence) and civil authorities gave sanctuary to Jews and closed the
gates of the city to Count Emich. His soldiers forced the gates open and killed
1,000 Jews. The Jews of Cologne had fled, only two were killed and the synagogue
was burned. When the bands moved down through the Rhine Valley an estimated
12,000 Jews were murdered in the cities along the Rhine River. Bands of troops
moved through the Moselle Valley killing Jews on their way. The Jewish community
of Treves was given protection by the Bishop under condition of conversion. Many
were baptized, others committed suicide. The Crusaders of William the Carpenter
executed others.
The knight Volkmar arrived in Hungary with 10,000 men to join the army of Peter
the Hermit. He attacked the Jewish community in Prague. Bishop Cosmos and city
leaders tried in vain to stop the slaughters. When he tried to attack the Jews
in Nitra, the Hungarians came to their defense and defeated the Crusaders.
Gottschalk, a knight in the army of Peter the Hermit, lead the section under his
command to massacre the Jewish community of Ratisbon. |
| 1099 |
The Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon conquered Jerusalem. He
massacred the Muslims and drove Jews, Rabbanites and Karaites into a synagogue
and burned them alive. |
| 1100 |
The first pogroms against the Jews in Kiev. In several riots
the mobs looted homes and plundered the Jewish section. |
| 1120 |
Pope Urban II stated that Jews should be tolerated. In his call
for the Crusade he spoke favorably about the Jews. Though the Crusades were
directed against the Muslims in the Holy Land, the gathering bands of Crusaders
marching through the country brought untold suffering to Jews who together with
Muslims were seen as the enemies of Christianity. |
| 1140 |
The Cistercian monk Rudolf enflamed people against the Jews in
France and Germany. Massacres occurred in Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Spier and
Strasbourg. The Archbishop of Mainz and Cologne urged Bernard of Clairvaux to
silence Rudolf and to order the people not to molest Jews. When this had no
effect, Bernard finally came to Germany and ordered Rudolf back into the
monastery. Though Bernard opposed the killing of Jews he also demonized them and
called for the Second Crusade. |
| 1144 |
The first recorded charge of ritual murder against Jews
occurred in Norwich, England. Jewish leaders were killed.
Peter the Venerable of Cluny tried to turn Louis VII of France against the Jews.
He wanted them to finance the Crusades. |
| 1146 |
The preaching of the monk Rudolf continued to have effect in
mob attacks, massacres and forced baptisms all over the Rhine Valley. Simon the
Pious of Treves and a Jewish woman in Speir were killed when they refused to be
baptized, in spite of attempts of civil and church authorities to protect the
Jews. |
| 1147 |
Crusaders in Germany murdered 20 Jews in Wurzburg. In Belitz
all Jews were burned. 150 Jews were murdered in Bohemia. Attacks on Jewish
communities also in France. |
| 1171 |
Charge of ritual murder in Blois, France. The entire Jewish
community of 34 men and 17 women were tortured and burned. |
| 1181 |
Ritual murder charge at Bury St. Edmund, England. 1183 the same
in Bristol. 1192 in Winchester. |
| 1188 |
When Richard I was crowned, mobs attacked the Jewish
communities in London and York. Richard punished the rioters. Jews who had been
forcibly baptized were allowed to return to their faith. |
| 1190 |
King Richard was able to protect the Jews as long as he was in
the country. When he left for a new Crusade, the assembled Crusaders in England
attacked Jewish communities. The Jewish quarters of the Port of Lynn in Norfolk
were burned and the Jews were slaughtered. Norwich Jews took refuge in the royal
castle. 1,500 Jews were murdered in York. The Jewish community at Stanford was
pillaged and those who did not reach the castle were killed. |
| 1191 |
In France the town of Bray was surrounded by king Philip. Jews
had the choice between baptism and death. The community committed suicide.
Philip burned 100. Children under 13 were spared. |
| 1194 |
The Jews of London had to pay three times the amount that
Christian citizens had to pay toward the ransom of Richard I. |
| 1195 |
A priest, Fulk of Neuilly, who wanted to reform the church,
preached all over France against usury and urged usurers to give their earnings
back to the poor. Mobs used his sermons to attack Jews, and Barons used them as
an excuse to expel Jews from their realms of authority and confiscate Jewish
property. |
| 1209 |
During the Crusade against the Albigensians (considered a
Christian heresy) 20,000 people including the Jewish community were massacred
when the city of Bezziers was stormed. |
| 1215 |
The Fourth Lateran Council, which was presided over by Pope
Innocent III, ordered Jews to wear a distinctive yellow badge in the form of a
ring. This was the first time in the West that Jews were required to distinguish
themselves from the rest of the population by their clothing. (The Code of Omar
had decreed this before in Muslim countries). Jews were not allowed to wear
their best clothes on Sunday or walk in public on special days such as Easter. |
| 1218 |
King Henry II made this Conciliar decree into a secular one and
ordered all Jews in England to wear a badge on their outer clothing at all times
to distinguish them from Christians. |
| 1222 |
During the Council of Canterbury the English bishops issued an
injunction forbidding Christians under pain of ex-communication to sell
provisions to Jews. To counteract this, the kings justician, Hubert de Burgh
issued an order forbidding the king's subjects, under pain of imprisonment, to
refuse to provide Jews with the necessities of life. |
| 1231 |
Pope Gregory IX established the Inquisition to counteract many
Christian heresies that had sprang up due to greater freedoms in the rebirth of
European countries. They challenged the authority of the Roman Church. The
Inquisition was to root out heresies before they spread to the masses. Tribunals
composed mostly of monks served as police, prosecution, judge and jury. Secular
authorities carried out the torture and burning at the stake of unrepentant
heretics, because the Inquisitors were to avoid the shedding of blood. Jews
were, of course, especially vulnerable to attacks during these purges. |
| 1232 |
Pope Gregory IX complained to the bishops in Germany that the
Jews there were treated too well. He forbade friendly relations between
Christians and Jews. |
| 1235 |
The Bishop of Lincoln stated that Jews were to be in captivity
to the princes of the earth. They have the brand of Cain and are condemned to
wander the face of the earth. But they were to have the privilege of Cain also.
They should not be killed. |
| 1236 |
Jewish communities in Anjou, Poitou, Bordeaux and Angouleme
were attacked by Crusaders. 500 Jews chose conversion and over 3,000 were
massacred. Pope Gregory IX, who originally had called the Crusade, was outraged
about this brutality and criticized the clergy for not preventing it. |
| 1239 - 1242 |
By order of Pope Gregory IX all copies of the Talmud were to be
turned over to the orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans for examination.
It seems that the papal decree was carried out only in France. Jewish books and
the Talmud were also seized in England and book burnings took place. In Paris 24
cartloads of Talmud copies were burned. Pope Innocent IV stopped the
confiscations and ordered the Talmud copies to be returned, though not without
first expunging the passages that seemed objectionable to the church. |
| 1244 |
Jews in London were accused of ritual murder and assessed a
high amount of money as punishment. |
| 1247 |
When the ritual murder charge became more widespread and caused
many atrocities, Pope Innocent IV ordered an investigation of the charge that
proved it to be an anti-Jewish invention. |
| 1255 |
The dead body of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln was discovered in a
cesspool near the house of a Jew. Under torture he confessed that Hugh had been
murdered for a ritual. King Henry III ordered his hanging after he was dragged
alive through the streets tied to a horse. 100 Jews were brought to London for
trial. 18 were hanged without trial. 79 others were convicted and hanged, 2 were
pardoned and one was acquitted. |
| 1261 - 1264 |
Canterbury students, priests and monks attacked the Jewish
quarter. Mobs sacked the Jewish section of London in 1262 and 1264. |
| 1263 |
A disputation was held at Barcelona, Spain, before King James
I, nobility, bishops and leading monks. Rabbi Moses ben Naleman had to defend
the Talmud against a converted Jew, Pablo Christiani, who tried to prove
Christianity's efficacy from the Talmud. King James ordered the Jews to erase
passages from the Talmud that were objectionable to Christians. |
| 1267 |
The Synod of Vienna decreed that Christians were forbidden to
attend Jewish ceremonies. Learned Jews were forbidden to dispute with simple
Christians. Jews had to wear horned hats, called pileum cornutum. People
actually believed that Jews had horns which they were hiding under these hats
and that they were children of the devil.
Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) said that Jews could not be treated as neighbours but
should live in perpetual servitude. |
| 1270 |
Jews were massacred in Germany: Weissenberg, Magdeburg, Sinzig,
Erfurt and other cities. In Sinzig the community was locked in the synagogue on
the Sabbath and burned alive. |
| 1272 |
The main synagogue in London was closed. The reason given was
that the chanting disturbed the devotion of the monks in the neighborhood. Jews
had to gather in private homes but even that was restricted by order of the
Bishop of London. |
| 1275 |
The Statutum Judeismo was passed in England under King Edward
I. The law forbade Jews to charge interest, restricted the areas where they
could live, ordered all Jews from the age of seven to wear the badge and
required those above the age of twelve to pay an annual poll tax at Easter. But
the law also allowed Jews, for the first time, to lease land for farming and
become merchants and artisans. |
| 1278 |
Edward I charged Jews with coin clipping. House-to-house
searches took place throughout England and 680 Jews were thrown into the Tower
of London. Many were hanged and their property seized by the crown. |
| 1280 |
In Poland civic authorities attempted to attract Jews by
establishing Jewish life on a rational basis. But the church insisted that Jews
be isolated from the rest of the population.
The Synod of Buda introduced the Jewish badge.
In Spain Jews were forced to listen to conversion sermons of the monks in their
own synagogues. Fanatical mobs attacked Jews against the orders of civic
authorities. |
| 1281 |
Most Spanish Jews were arrested in their synagogues on a
Sabbath in January, but released again on promise to pay a huge amount of ransom
money. |
| 1282 |
The Archbishop of Canterbury closed all synagogues in his
diocese. |
| 1283 - 1285 |
Ten Jews were murdered by a mob in Mainz after they had been
charged with ritual murder.
26 Jews were killed as a result of a ritual murder charge in Bacharach.
40 Jews were murdered after a ritual murder charge in Oberwellel.
In Munich 180 Jews were burned alive in the synagogue after a ritual murder
charge. |
| 1290 |
On July 18 King Edward I in Council ordered all Jews in England
under pain of death to leave the country by the first of November. |
| 1298 |
Severe persecutions took place in Franconia, Bavaria and
Austria. A German nobleman by the name of Rindfleisch (he was called the
Judenschlächter) gathered a small army and began to slaughter Jews from city to
city. In about six months he burned and massacred an estimated 100,000 Jews in
140 communities including Wurzburg, Ratisbon, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Heilbronn and
Rottingen. |
| 1306 |
Under Philip IV (le Bel) all Jews of his realm, approximately
100,000, were imprisoned on July 22. They were told to leave the country within
one month. They could only take the clothes on their backs and provisions for
one day. Their property left behind was used by Philip to replenish the royal
treasury, which had been exhausted through his feud with the Pope and his war
against the Flemish. |
| 1308 |
The Bishop of Strasbourg, John of Dirpheim, demanded the Jews
of Sulzmatt and Rufach on the charge of host desecration. They were burned
alive. |
| 1315 |
King Louis X called back the Jews who had been expelled from
France. They in turn set conditions which were met. But again they had to wear
badges. |
| 1320 |
Pope John XII ordered the Inquisition in Toulouse. There and in
Perpignon the Talmud was burned.
During the Crusade of the Shepherds 40,000 shepherds and peasants marched from
Agen to Toulouse and killed any Jew who was not willing to be baptized. In
Verdun 500 Jews had fled to a tower. When they were besieged they committed
suicide. 120 Jewish communities in southern France and northern Spain were wiped
out. |
| 1328 |
Thousands of Jews were murdered by mobs around Estella when a
monk preached inflaming anti-Jewish sermons. |
| 1338 |
Bishop John of Dirpheim caused the massacre of Jews in
Strasbourg on the anniversary of the Conversion of St. Paul. |
| 1348 |
When the plague raged in Europe Jews in Spain were charged with
planning to poison the wells of Christians. In France, Spain and Switzerland
Jews were murdered because people believed they had poisoned the wells or
intended to do so.
In September Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull declaring the Jews innocent of
the charge of causing the plague. He urged the clergy to protect the Jews and
even excommunicated murderers. But the mobs could not be stopped.
10,000 Jews were murdered by mobs in the cities bordering Germany in spite of
the royal protection given to them by King Casimir.
The mayor of Strasbourg, Conrad of Winterthur, together with other authorities
defended the Jews against mob attacks and the accusations of the bishop. The
Councils of other cities tried the same. |
| 1349 |
The Jewish community of Basle was burned to death in a
specially built structure. 2,000 Jews perished in Strasbourg. In Worms 400 Jews
were burned. In Oppenheim the Jews burned themselves in fear of torture. The
same happened in Frankfurt. In Mainz 6,000 Jews were burned to death when a mob
set fire to their houses. In Erfurt the Jewish community of 3,000 was
slaughtered and in Breslau all Jews perished. In Vienna the Jews committed
suicide on the advice of their rabbi to avoid torture. The Jewish communities of
Augsburg, Wurzburg and Munich were destroyed. Jews were expelled from Heilbronn.
The Jews of Nuremberg who had not fled were burned to death in a place that
since is known as Judenbühl. The Jews of Konigsberg were murdered. In Brussels
approximately 500 Jews died in a massacre. |
| 1354 |
12,000 Jews were murdered in Toledo |
| 1357 |
When the plague returned a second time in Franconia, the Jews
again were blamed of poisoning the wells. The plague, also called the Black
Death, killed thousands. During this time the myth of an international Jewish
conspiracy was invented that in spite of its absurdities is still believed by
many, even today! |
| 1366 - 1369 |
While the Spanish civil war raged between King Pedro and Henry
of Trastamora many Jews were killed by mercenaries employed by both sides. |
| 1384 |
The Jews in Nordlingen were attacked and massacred. |
| 1389 |
Mobs attacked and murdered thousands of Jews in Prague. |
| 1391 |
The Inquisition turned against the Jews who had converted to
Christianity. In many cases they secretly continued to practice Judaism and were
therefore considered heretics. Throughout the Inquisition an estimated number of
50,000 Jews were killed and another 160,000 forcibly baptized.
In many cities in Spain synagogues and mosques were turned into churches and
Jewish communities suffered terrible persecution. After 300 Jews were killed or
committed suicide in Barcelona, 11,000 Jews allowed themselves to be baptized. |
| 1399 |
In Posen, Poland, a rabbi and 13 elders of the Jewish community
were slowly burned to death on the charge of stabbing the host and throwing it
into a pit. Rumors had circulated that the host had bled, which, of course,
confirmed the dogma of the Eucharist. |
| 1407 |
The fiery sermons of the monk and reformer Vincent Ferrer
caused oppressive actions against the Jews of Spain and mob attacks. He is
credited with 20,000 forced baptisms in Castille and Aragon. |
| 1413 - 1415 |
Don Ferdinand of Aragon convened disputations in Tortosa. They
were supposed to make it easier for Jews to convert to Christianity. The leading
Jews of Aragon were forced to debate with a converted Jew, Geronimo de Sante Fe.
The disputations lasted for one year and nine months with negative results for
the Jewish communities. |
| 1419 |
Pope Martin V and the Spanish kings restored Jewish rights.
Synagogues and Talmud copies were returned to them. |
| 1422 |
The Crusade against the Hussites in Bohemia and Moravia caused
much harm to Jewish communities. On their march to Prague the army of the German
emperor Sigismund with Dutch mercenaries destroyed Jewish communities along the
Rhine River, in Thuringia and Bavaria, all to avenge the insulted God of the
Christians. |
| 1427 - 1429 |
A bull issued by Pope Martin V forbade sea captains to
transport Jews to the Holy Land. He also, in another bull, urged the protection
of the Jews and established community rights, among them allowing Jews to study
at universities. |
| 1431 |
A ritual murder charge led to the destruction of the southern
German Jewish communities of Ravensburg, Uberlingen and Lindau. |
| 1432 |
Jews were expelled from Saxony. |
| 1434 |
The Council of Basle, presided over by Pope Eugenius IV revoked
the freedoms Martin V had bestowed. Jews were to live in separate quarters of
the cities, attend conversion sermons and were not permitted to attend
universities. |
| 1443 |
Jews in Venice had to wear the yellow badge. |
| 1451 |
Pope Nicholas V in a bull confirmed the old exclusions of Jews
from Christian society and all honorable walks of life. John of Capistrano was
appointed by the Pope to lead the Inquisition of the Jews. In his sermons he
repeated the charges of ritual murder and host desecration which led to
persecutions in Breslau under King Ladislav of Silesia. |
| 1454 |
When the Polish army was defeated by the Teutonic Order and the
Prussians, the clergy, who had been stirred by Capistranos sermons in Poland,
blamed the royal leniency toward the Jews for the calamity. Jewish rights were
withdrawn and mobs attacked Jewish communities. |
| 1457 |
Polish troops on march to the Crusade against the Turks
attacked the Jews of Cracow and killed about 30. |
| 1492 |
All Jews were expelled from Catholic Spain. |
| 1500 - 1530 |
The Dominicans baptized many Jews. These converts, however,
were not much safer from mob attacks. Some of the converts wrote extremely
hostile anti-Jewish volumes, intending to cause damage to Jewry: Victor of
Carben 1505, John Pfefferkorn (four vitriolic pieces) 1505-09, Anthony
Margharita 1530. The Dominicans also renounced the study of the Hebrew language. |
| 1509 |
Emperor Maximilian authorized John Pfefferkorn to destroy
everything that was blasphemous or hostile to Christianity. He began in
Frankfurt, Main, where he searched Jewish homes and synagogues and confiscated
more than 1,500 manuscripts. |
| 1517 |
At the time of the Reformation the Pope issued a bull,
"Cum nimis absurdum". It is recognized as the most devastating
Christian anti-Jewish document ever written. It required Jews to wear badges of
shame, live in ghettos, and sell any property outside the ghetto walls. |
| 1521 - 1523 |
In "The Magnificat" and in his treatise "That
Jesus Christ was born a Jew," Martin Luther reacted against the harsh
treatment of Jews, hoping they would eventually convert. The Reformation
contributed to more freedom for Jews. In Protestant countries they enjoyed
greater tolerance and fewer restrictions and were able to develop a more dynamic
culture than in Catholic countries. However, Jews continued to live precarious
lives everywhere. In Catholic countries ghettoization became the norm. Jewish
culture was stifled and the new stereotype of the ghetto Jew was added to the
many already in existence. |
| 1541 |
John Eck, the Roman Catholic polemicist, wrote a treatise
against David Gans, a Jew. Gans expected Protestantism to be more tolerant of
Judaism. Eck's pamphlet, "Refutation of a Jewish Book", renews all the
ancient charges: ritual killing of infants, host desecration etc. In addition he
called Germany's Protestants "toadies and lovers of Jews." |
| 1543 |
This accusation may have contributed to Luther's change of
attitude towards the Jews. He leaked a series of tracts, entitled "On the
Jews and their lies, On Shem Hamphoras": "Their synagogues should be
set on fire... their houses should likewise be broken down and destroyed... Let
them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses, as is enjoined upon Adam's
children." He reverted to a medieval position sensing the danger of Eck's
attack against Protestantism and believing Eck's stories that the Jews killed
children for their rituals. In a tract, "On the last words of David",
he moderated his position, but followed the tradition of interpreting the Old
Testament in Christological terms. These pamphlets proved unpopular and would
have been forgotten, if the Nazis had not resurrected them in the Munich Edition
(first vol.3, 1934).
Some famous men at the time of the Reformation who were sympathetic towards Jews
were John Brenz (1499 - 1570), the Swabian Reformer and the theologians Andrew
Osiander (1498 - 1552) and Matthias Flacius (1520 - 1575). |
| 1554 |
In Geneva Theodore Beza published a book on "Why heretics
should be punished by the magistrates." This was a rejoinder to Sebastian
Castellio's eloquent plea for religious freedom. Castellio had been removed from
Geneva by the Reformer John Calvin because he doubted that the Songs of Songs
belonged into the Scriptures. |
| 1580 - 1620 |
The Republic of the Seven Netherlands (Holland) became very
tolerant of Jews. It became a haven for Jews fleeing the Inquisition. There
Castellio's arguments for religious freedom won out over the influence of Beza. |
| 1582 |
When the Netherlands came under the rule of Cahrles V of Spain,
the Jews were expelled.
In the "Scots Confession" ch.18 Reformer John Knox upheld the original
Calvinist tenet of intolerance, distinguishing "the Harlot" (Rome) and
"the filthy synagogues" from "the true Kirk". |
| 1622 |
King Christian IV of Denmark and others invited Jews to reside
in their lands, when the Thirty Year War raged in central Europe. |
| 1646 - 1647 |
"The Westminster Confession", by act of the Scottish
parliament, superseded the Scots Confession, defining the church in universal
terms with no anti-Roman or antisemitic defamations in its chapter on the
church. |
| 1648 - 1649 |
During the rebellion of the Cossacks and Russian peasants in
Poland, Ukraine, White Russia and Lithuania the most cruel tortures were
invented for the Jews. Thousands died under prolonged brutality. Children were
not spared. There are reports of rapes and gruesome slaughters, of people being
slowly killed with spears, of women being slit open and live cats sewed up in
them...
The city of Hamburg expelled its Jews. |
| 1654 |
On September 22 Peter Stuyvesant sent an anti-Semitic letter
home from the Colonies in the New World to the West India Company, which
indicates that the Jews here were in trouble too. The Puritans in New England
saw Jews as challenge to Christian evangelism. |
| 1656 |
Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to resettle in England, supposedly
as reward for Jewish "Intelligencers" (old English for
"spies") which are said to have enabled Cromwell to avert the
projected invasion of England planned at Brussels early in 1656 between Charles
II. and the Spanish government. |
| 1718 |
Charles XIII of Sweden opened the country to Jewish
immigration. However, economic and travel restrictions were imposed. |
| 1744 |
Jews were expelled from Bohemia and 1745 from Moravia under
Empress Maria Theresa. |
| 1753 |
Under the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna about 35,000 Jews were
expelled from Russia. |
| 1768 |
Russia's expansion and the defeat of Poland confronted the
Russians with large established Jewish communities, who had previously not been
under their rule. Czarina Catherine II, the Great, established a territory, the
so-called Pale of Settlement. It was to prevent the Jewish population from
influencing Russian society and to be a buffer between Russia and its western
neighbours. Jews needed special permits to travel outside the Pale. Persecutions
of Jews continued violently in Poland, Lithuania and Russia, were Jews had fled
from Crusaders and the Inquisition in western Europe. |
| 1791 |
Jews were given citizenship in France. The age of the
Enlightenment (or reason) produced a rationalism that was applied to social and
economic issues.
The narrowing sense of nationhood brought trouble to the Jews again, because
they were living across many nations. |
| 1796 |
The Netherlands granted Jews full equality and citizenship. |
| 1808 - 1810 |
Czar Alexander I wanted to integrate Jews into Russian society
and ordered them to leave the villages were they resided. An estimated 500,000
Jews left the countryside and flooded into the cities, were thousands starved,
froze to death or died of decease. Fear of an epidemic brought about the
cancellation of the law. |
| 1814 - 1820 |
Jews in Denmark were granted almost complete emancipation.
German cities still regularly expelled Jews: Lübeck, Bremen, Würzburg and many
towns in Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria. The so-called HEP! HEP! riots (a
Crusader's shout: Hierosolyma est Perdita - Jerusalem is lost) took place in
Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Beyreuth, Karlsruhe, Dusseldorf, Heidelberg, Wurzburg and
even in Copenhagen. |
| 1821 |
Thousands of Jews fled Greece after anti-Jewish riots. |
| 1844 |
Karl Marx (a Jew) published his treatise "On the Jewish
Question", Zur Judenfrage, repeating the old stereotypes Christans had
used. |
| 1845 |
The French socialist, Alphonse Toussenel, published his
anti-Semitic attack "The Jews, King of the Time", Les Juifs Rois de
l'epoque. |
| 1848 |
The revolution brought the emancipation of the Jews, but
already in 1851 the constitutions of Prussia and Austria included again
anti-Jewish restrictions. |
| 1850 |
Riot against Jews in New York City led by three Irish
policemen. |
| 1855 |
Comte de Gobineau published his "Essay on the Inequality
of the Human Races", Essai sur l'ineqalite des races humaines.
Modern antisemitism has used this heavily. |
| 1868 |
Hermann Gödsche published his novel "Biarritz" under
the pseudonum of Sir John Ratcliffe. A chapter entitled "In the Jewish
Cemetery in Prague" he descibed a secret midnight meeting of
representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel receiving directions from the Devil
how to dominate the world. In 1872 only this chapter was reprinted as a pamphlet
in St. Petersburg, Russia, with a statement saying that although the story was
fiction, it was based on fact. The pamphlet was reprinted later in Moscow,
Odessa and Prague. |
| 1869 |
Jews received equal citizen status in Germany. |
| 1870 |
The Ghetto in Rome was formally abolished - against the wishes
of Pope Pius IX - and Jews became equal citizens in the kingdom of Italy. |
| 1871 |
Father August Rohling of Prague published his pamphlet
"The Talmud Jew", Der Talmudjude. It was a vicious antisemitic
attack widely circulated among Catholics. |
| 1873 |
Wilhelm Marr published his pamphlet "Jewry's Victory over
Teutonism", Der Sieg des Judentums über das Germanentum. Here the
term 'antisemitism' was used for the first time. |
| 1875 |
Bismarck's Kulturkampf against the Catholics in Germany was
interpreted by Catholics as being influenced by Jewish capital as revenge for
the Roman persecution of the Jews. |
| 1878 |
Adolph Stoecker, the founder of the Christian Socialist Workers
Party in Germany, was committed to antisemitism.
More than 100,000 Rumanian Jews immigrated to the United States to avoid
starvation because of discriminatory laws in their country. |
| 1879 |
Professor Heinrich von Treitschke at the University of Berlin
made himself a name in the world not only as a historian but also as a modern
antisemite. In a collection of essays, "A Word about our Jewry", Ein
Wort über unser Judentum, he stated, for example, that antisemitism is
"a natural reaction of the German national feeling against a foreign
element which had usurped too large a place in our life." |
| 1881 |
A petition with 250,000 signatures was submitted to Bismarck by
the Berlin Movement calling for severe restrictions on Jewish life in Germany.
The first of many severe pogroms against the Jews were initiated by the Sacred
League in Russia, consisting of 300 army officers. The pogroms caused one of the
major emigrations in Jewish history.
Eugen Duhring published his "The Jewish Question as a Problem of Race,
Custom and Culture," Die Judenfrage als Rassen-, Sitten- und
Kulturfrage: "The origin of the general contempt felt for the Jewish
race lies in its absolute inferiority in all intellectual fields. Jews show a
lack of scientific spirit, a feeble grasp of philosophy, an inability to create
in mathematics, art, and even music. Fidelity and reverence with respect to
anything great and noble are alien to them. Therefore, the race is inferior and
depraved... The duty of the Nordic peoples is to exterminate such parasitic
races as we exterminate snakes and beasts of prey."
Berlin Movement rallies ended in riots of bands moving through streets shouting
"Juden raus!", attacking Jews or "Jewish-looking" people,
smashing windows of Jewish businesses. |
| 1882 |
Father E. A. Chabauty published "The Jews our
Master", Les Juifs, nos maitres!, about Christian nations being
attacked by a Jewish conspiracy. |
| 1886 |
The German Antisemitic Alliance was formed by rightwing
parties.
Edouard-Adolphe Drumont published his "The Jews of France", La
France Juive, a violently antisemitic work widely circulated. |
| 1887 |
Otto Boeckel, one of the leaders of the German Antisemitic
Alliance was elected to the German Reichstag in Berlin.
Karl Lüger, a leftist politician, made his antisemitism public. He became a
major leader of Austrian antisemitism. In Mein Kampf Hitler attributes his
antisemitism to Lüger's influence. |
| 1889 |
Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg who had been a leader in the
Berlin Movement founded the German Social Antisemitc Party, Deutsch-Soziale
Antisemitische Partei, in Bochum, Westpahlia.
The first antisemitic newspaper in Hungary appeared in Pressburg. |
| 1890 and after |
Four million Jews fled to Western Europe and America due to
persecutions in Eastern Europe. But here too - in the Land of the Free - Jews
were restricted and suffered the old accusations.
Zionism developed in Europe.
Hermann Ahlwardt published his "The Aryan Peoples' Battle of Despair
Against Jewry", Der Verzweiflungskampf der Arischen Völker mit dem
Judentum, depicting Jewry as an octopus controlling every sector of the
German nation.
Antisemitic parties gained five seats in the German Reichstag. |
| 1892 |
Edouard Drumont founded the French newspaper La Libre Parole to
popularize his antisemitism. |
| 1893 |
Antisemitic parties won sixteen seats in the German Reichstag.
Theodor Fritsch published his "Antisemitism Chatechism" in Germany. |
| 1894 |
The trial and court-martial of the French officer Alfred
Dreyfus (a Jew) for treason was later proven to have been caused by high-ranking
antisemitic army officers and people in the war ministry who forged documents.
The Dreyfus Affair caused antisemitic riots in France. |
| 1899 |
Houston Stewart Chamberlain published his work "The
Foundations of the Nineteenth Century". He carried Gobineau's racial theory
to its logical conclusion proclaiming Germans as the master race and urging a
crusade against all Jews. |
| 1900 - 1910 |
Hundreds of pogroms against the Jews were initiated and
supported by the Czar's Black Hundreds in Russia and Ukraine.
A short version of the "Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion" was published by Pavolackai Krushevan in his newspaper
Znamya in St. Petersburg. The acceptance of this forgery by the Czar's secret
police even by Christians here and later in other countries proved how Christian
anti-Judaism had predispositioned the people to believe the weirdest antisemitic
propaganda. S. A. Nilus published the whole text of the Protocols in the third
edition of his book, "The Great in the Small", in St. Petersburg. G.
Butmi published his version of the Protocols, "The Enemies of the Human
Race", in St. Petersburg (four editions in two years).(See also 1917 and
1937). |
| 1911 |
Werner Sombart published his book, "The Jew and Modern
Capitalism". He claimed that Judaism and capitalism are practically
synonymous. He stated: "Intellectual interests and intellectual skill are
more strongly developed in him [the Jew] than physical (manual) powers. (Compare
1881 where Duhring had stated the exact opposite). |
| 1914 |
Anti-Jewish laws were abolished so that Jews could fight for
Holy Mother Russia in WW I. |
| 1915 |
Grand Duke Sergei, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies
decreed the relocation of all Jews from the Pale fearing they would side with
the Germans. 600,000 were forcibly transported to the interior of Russia. About
100,000 of them died from exposure and starvation. |
| 1918 - 1920 |
Up to 200,000 Jews suffered violent death during Russia's
fratricidal civil war and the Russo-Polish war in 1920. It was mainly in
Ukraine, but there was also mass murder of Jews in Minsk, Pinsk and Vilna by the
Polish army (documented by the US government) and in Yekaterinburg, Siberia. In
July 1919 over 2,000 Jews were slaughtered by the "White" army under
Admiral Kolchak. Jews were accused by the Bolshewiks of being capitalists and
opposed to them, and by Whites to be Reds and Communists. They suffered more by
the Whites, though, who made no difference between them and the Reds. Lenin
outlawed pogroms, but the better treatment Jews received from the Reds gave
Whites more "proof" that Jews were communists. Terrible tortures and
slaughters of Jews happened in Ukraine under General Denikin whose White army in
South Russia was armed and financed mainly by the Allies, chiefly the British.
In the Balfour Declaration the British Foreign Secretary declared Palestine to
be the "national home" for the Jews. The Arab nations protested.
The "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion"
was first published in England.
In riots in Berlin and Munich Jews were blamed for Germany losing the war. |
| 1920 - 1921 |
Gottfried zer Beek (Ludwig Müller)
published the Protocols in German. It reached six editions. Müller's version
became the official version of the Nazis in 1929. The Protocols were also
published in France, the United States and Poland.
The "Return to Normalcy" revived the Ku Klux Klan in the United States
and restrictions of all sorts were imposed on people of "Hebrew
descent".
Hitler made his first important speech against the Jews on Aug. 13, urging to
take away all their rights.
Approximately 1,450,000 Jews had immigrated to the United States over a period
of about 30 years. To stem the immigration President Harding and the Congress
rewrote the laws limiting immigration by nationality per year to three percent
of the number of people of that nationality already in the U.S. as of the 1910
census. Another severe restriction of immigration was legislated in 1924. |
| 1925 |
Hitler published his Mein Kampf: "If, with the help of his
Marxist creed, the Jew is victorious over the other peoples of the world, his
crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity...Today I believe that I am acting
in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against
the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." |
| 1926 - 1933 |
Pogroms continued in the USSR, Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Greece
and Mexico. In Germany Jewish cemeteries and synagogues were desecrated. |
| 1933 |
Hitler came to power in Germany. Jews were barred from civil
service, legal professions and universities, were not allowed to teach in
schools and could not be editors of newspapers. |
| 1934 |
Anti-Jewish groups formed throughout Canada. Antisemitism was
blatent in many magazines and newspapers. |
| 1935 |
Jews lost their citizenship in Germany. |
| 1936 |
Palestinians rebelled against Zionism and the British decision
to offer the Jews Arab lands. By 1939 half a million Jews were settled in
Palestine. The British tried to block the flow of immigration and to deal with
Jewish paramilitary organizations.
In the Stalin purges in the USSR many Jews lost their lives.
Cardinal Hloud, the Primate of Poland, in a pastoral letter urged Catholics to
boycott Jewish businesses. |
| 1937 |
The Concentration Camps of Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald und
Lichtenburg were established in Germany.
All Jewish teachers lost their jobs in Italy. Jewish children were segregated.
The Protocols were published in Italian and widely
circulated. |
| 1938 |
During the night of November 9-10 some 7,000 Jewish shops and
businesses were looted, most synagogues burned and 91 Jews killed in Germany.
About 30,000 richer Jews were taken to concentration camps. Later most of them
were freed and given emigration papers after all their possessions had been
confiscated. A few hundred-thousand Jews were able to emigrate from Germany,
Austria, Bohemia and Moravia by turning all they had over to the Nazis. Jews
were barred from public life, from schools and universities. They had to wear
yellow badges in the form of the Star of David on their clothing at all times.
They were accused of every evil under the sun and always in fear of being beaten
up or even killed on the streets. |
| 1939 - 1941 |
The beginning of WW II brought a change from emigration
policies to extermination. Thousands of Jews were rounded up by the SS
(Einsatzkommandos) behind the advancing German front and shot or brought to
Concentration Camps in Poland. The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) rounded up
Jews, Gipsys, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, homosexuals and others and put
them into camps. |
| 1942 |
On Jan. 20 a conference of sixteen high-ranking Nazi officials
in Berlin-Wannsee planned the "final solution", the complete
extermination of European Jewry. |
| 1942 - 1945 |
Almost six million Jews, among them about one million children,
were killed in special extermination camps, all situated in Poland, which was
occupied by the German army. The most prominent of these camps was Auschwitz.
"Holocaust" is a biblical term which means burnt offering. The Jewish
people refer to this most devastating event in their history as the Sho'ah.
Many churches in Germany supported Hitler as a national hero. Some resisted him.
But Christianity as a whole failed miserably in resisting the evil done to the
Jews and other minorities. And when Jewish refugees knocked on the doors of the
nations opposed to the Nazis, they were rejected. All over the western world the
churches were rather silent when the Jews needed help and were eventually
slaughtered. The Holocaust is, therefore, also the culmination of the Christian
anti-Judaism of the centuries. Their own anti-Jewish teaching paralyzed
Christians to act appropriately, when secular, pagan and anti-Christian forces
took over the language of the anti-Judaism of the Christian Church and brought
it to its deadly conclusion.
In the beginning was the anti-Judaic word - in the end the Final Solution.
See also: Paul E. Grosser and Edwin G. Halperin, Anti-Semitism: The
Causes and Effects of a Prejudice. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1979 (1976) /
Don Mills, Ontario: George J. McLeod Ltd. and bibliography. |
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