PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS Pogrom in Salonika Greece Jews were harshly persecuted, denied entrance into certain professions, prohibited from owning land, forced to pay extra taxes and excluded from the normal education system. They were gradually expelled from Europe: from England in 1290, from France in 1306 and from Spain and Portugal in 1492. They were also expelled from Hungary in 1376, from Sicily in the 15th century, from Bavaria in 1470, from Bohemia in 1542, and suffered pogroms in Russia in 1881, 1891, 1897 and 1903. The Jews lived in constant threat of violence. They were persecuted in Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades. The Black Death of 1348 was blamed on them. Cannibalism was regarded with such horror that only werewolves, witches, vampires and Jews were deemed capable of it. Martin Luther was one of many zealous anti-Semites. According to a 16th century British medical historian the Russian cure for drunkenness consisted in taking a piece of pork, putting it secretly into a jews bed for 9 days and then giving it to the drunkard in pulverized form. They had a reputation for drinking less than the Catholics. In the early 16th century, anti-Semitism was at its peak in Europe. In 1517 Jews in Venice were confined to neighborhoods around the cannon foundry, or ghetto . The word ghetto came from this move. In other places Jews were forced to wear special clothes or badges. Through it all the Jews kept their culture and communities alive in their synagogues and schools, with the help of their rabbis, and for the part steadfastly refused to assimilate. The German-Israeli scholar Gershom Scholem wrote: the Jews “have had a relationship with Europe only to the degree that Europe has acted upon us as a destructive stimulation.”
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 22:28:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015