History of the Jewish Community Term Paper

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("Golden Age of Jewish Culture" 2005) The Jewish community faced a second and harsher wave of prosecution at the end of the Muslim rule in Spain when, as a result of the Inquisition, sevaral hundred thousand Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal; most of them fled to the Balkan peninsula under Ottoman Empire.

Money Lending Jews and Isolated Existence

The Jewish communities that settled in various parts of Europe usually kept to themselves (or were forced to do so by others). Most Jews became merchants and money lenders since Usury was declared illegal by the Church for Christians. Although many Jews prospered in this way, their isolated existence and money-lending role made them easy targets as scapegoats for misfortune of others.

Prosecution During Crusades

Although the Christian crusades in the Middle Ages were primarily directed against their arch enemies -- the Muslims, they frequently degenerated into massacres of an easier target -- the Jewish communities in Europe. For example, during the First Crusade in 1096 AD, the German crusaders on their way to the East, turned on the flourishing Jewish communities on the Rhine and the Danube and utterly destroyed them. Similarly, in the Second Crusade (1147) large numbers of Jews in France were subjected to massacres.

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("Jews in the Middle Ages" 2005)

Later Middle Ages

Persecution of the Jews became an established feature of European life during the latter part of the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, a belief surfaced among the Christians that Jews engaged in the ritual murder of Christian children. When the Lombard merchants from northern Italy developed banking activities in the 13th century, the position of Jews as money-lenders began to decline; they were now considered dispensible and the result was their mass expulsion from England in 1290 and from France in 1306. During the Plague in 1348-49, a rumour spread that the widespread disease was the result of deliberate poisoning of wells by the Jews. It prompted another viciuos reaction against the Jewish community and thousands were burnt in city after city throughout Europe. ("History of the Jews" n.d.).....

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