Analyzing Jewish Persecution By Crusaders In1096

Christianity conflicted continuously with co-original religion Judaism on dogma,canon, even physical since its foundation. Crusaders persecuted and massacred theAshkenazic Jewry later spring and early summer in1096, should be regards as the firstmassive religious conflict between Christianity and Judaism in medieval world.Besides large-scale Jews following Muslim arrived the conquered Iberian Peninsula,only small group of them broke through the convenient transpiration of Rhine-Danube rivertrade route for doing business and usury in medieval Europe. At end of eleven century, theEuropean Christendom gradually grew more mightiness, for reoccupying the Holy Land andrecapturing the Holy Sepulcher, under Pope Urban Ⅱ’s propaganda, pilgrimage blowing upthe horn of crusade to the Islamic world in autumn of1095. During eve of the first crusade,the poor enthusiastic Christians with the leading of their local feudal lords persecuted andmassacred their gentile neighborhood-Jews, which the pope himself definitely not point to dobattle with them or Christian heresy.With Peoples Crusade and German Crusade in the First Crusade as background,German Crusade persecuted Jews of the Rhineland from May to June1096as mainline, andintegrating contemporary Jews works of three Hebrew Crusade Chronicles and contemporarysome Christian works related describing, this thesis mainly recount and analyze the event ofJewish persecution by crusaders.German Crusades persecuted Germany Jewry in Holy Roman Empire, mainly locatedin Speyer Jewish Community, Worms Jewish Community, Mainz Jewish Communality,Cologne Jewish Community and its suburb seven towns of Cologne city in Rhineland, TrierJewish Community and Metz Jewish Community in Moselle Valley as well. When these poorcrusades were arriving kingdom of Hungary, they carried small-scale persecution on somelocal Jewish people, because of stealing food and slaughtering local Hungary people, KingColoman annihilated all group of these pilgrimages. Therefore, These German Crusades HolyWar aim is only the Western European Jewish people, for they never reached the Holy Land. This event were significant and far-reaching, the opposed Jewish-Christianrelationship thoroughly changed and became more tension. The Jewish rabbinic culture centerof Western Europe was shift from Mainz Jewish Community and Cologne Jewish Communityin Rhineland to Troyer Jewish Community in North France, indirectly advanced JewishCommunities in Holy Roman Empire and Kingdom of France Jewish culture union. Theinspiring of Jewish Martyrdom during this persecution became model and example for Jewishoffspring’s. To sum up, Jewish persecution by crusades in late spring and early summer1096can be a significant watershed in Jewish history.This thesis divided into four mainly parts: Part One, Review academic trends of thisfiled; Part two, according Three Hebrew Crusade Chronicle and counterparty Christianoriginal material to recount the process of Peoples Crusade; and German Crusades persecutedJews in Rhineland Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Cologne etc, and the fate ofthese crusade; Part three, generally analyzing the reason of Jewish persecution by crusades;Part four, the impact of this event to Christianity and Judaism in medieval world.