The Effect of The Crusades on The Jews
by Before the Crusades there were Jewish communities throughout Europe and the Middle East. Some of these communities were quite large and had survived over many centuries. The Jewish communities were an easy and attractive target for any Crusader looking for infidels to attack and riches to loot.
The Jews found themselves in a very difficult position between the two religions at war. The treatment of the Jews by the Crusaders in both Europe and the Middle East was an atrocious episode in the chronicle of the Crusades. Jews were always distrusted and scorned but this turned into widespread persecution and slaughter. As many of the Crusaders travelled to the Holy Land, they left behind them hundreds of Jewish dead. Jews lost their homes, families, property and lives in the anti-Semitic feeling among the Christians.
The first well documented pogroms or riots took place during the Crusades. Various popes officially forbid violence but the knights who went on the Crusades were mostly uncontrolled marauders. They set out with the aim, not of protecting the Christians in the East as they were officially supposed to be, but to plunder and loot what they could find. When Jerusalem was conquered a horrific pogrom took place with all the Jews expelled or murdered.
The Summer of 1096
Jews were seen to be as much an enemy as the Muslims as they were thought to be responsible for the crucifixion. The Crusaders didn’t even wait until they got to the East before they started massacring Jews. The First Crusade began in 1095. Guibert of Nogent (1053 to 1124) wrote that the Crusaders of Rouen declared, “we desire to combat the enemies of God in the East, but we have under our eyes the Jews, a race more inimical to God than all others…” The crusaders in Lorraine massacred any Jews who refused to be baptised. In Germany, the warnings of French Jews were ignored and the crusaders, urged by Peter the Hermit and other preachers, began to murder and plunder throughout the Rhine valley. Peter, himself, only demanded contributions from the Jews to get money and supplies for his troops.
The French and German lords who led the various bands were Guillaume le Charpentier, Thomas de Feria and especially Emicho von Leiringern. Emicho travelled down the Rhine systematically massacring Jews with an army of 10,000 men women and children. Occasionally, before he put a Jew to death, Emicho ransomed them in order to “protect” them. To show he was a religious man, he would offer them the choice of baptism or death.
On 3 May 1096, thanks to the intervention of Bishop John, who forced Emicho’s men to disperse, “only” eleven Jews are reported to have been killed in Speyer. Two weeks later, the majority of the Jews were murdered at Wurms, despite the shelter and protection give to them by Bishop Adalbert when they sought refuge in his palace or remained in their homes. The burghers of the city had promised to help them but on May 18th those who had remained at home were massacred first. On May 25th, those who had been protected by Adalbert were killed by the bishop for refusing to accept Christianity. At least 800 Jews were massacred in Wurms
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