Sunday, November 30, 2014
Why Jews Were Invited to Germany and The Crusaders
Nadene Goldfoot
Mainz, Germany
My interest in Germany goes back to Worms, Germany because I have found that we have chromosome matches that lead to our origins connecting with Rabbi Wertheimer of Worms, and the Rabbi of Worms, which all leads to being connected to RASHI, and his oral history of coming from King David, which many rabbis have stated. Also, our surname, Goldfoot, was once Goldfus; a German Yiddish name.
The first Jewish settlement in Germany was in 321 in Cologne which is along the Rhine River. It is assumed that Jews lived in Speyer in Late Antiquity. The state and church administration in the Migration Period collapsed and the urban Roman lifestyle declined. It is assumed that Jewish communities also dispersed then. They resettled in the Rhine area coming from southern France where Roman life had more or less remained intact.
Jewish merchants traveled a lot and would have had their families living in Rhenish towns (towns along the Rhineland). 906 for Mainz, and 960 in Worms. Records of Jews in Speyer appeared in the 1070's. They were members of the famous Kalonymos family of Mainz that we Goldfoots are found to be connected . They had migrated 100 years earlier to Germany from Italy. Other Mainz Jews also probably moved to Speyer.
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Pogroms that started in 1084 caused Jews to flee from Mainz and Worms to Speyer. The pogroms were started by the crusades who took refuge with their relatives in Speyer. They may have gone there by the instigation of bishop Rudiger Huzmann (1073-1090) of Speyer, who invited more Jews to live in his town by the approval of emperor Henry IV. The settlement he offered was the first documented ghetto
Why did he ask Jews to come live in Speyer? Jews had an important role in the money and trade businesses, especially with distant regions. Money lenders were needed on a large scale for the construction of the cathedral they were building. The deliberate settlement of Jews was seen as a measure for business development. Jews were the pioneers of urban development in Germany.
When Germans turned against the Jews and their trade restricted, this led to economic disadvantages and loss of revenues for the cities which is why bishops, lords and kings usually tried to restrain the anti-Semitic fevor of the lower clergy and the public. They had induced Jews to come by granting them privileges and protection and at the same time were safeguarding their own revenues and protection fees.
The matters were made with Judah ben Kalonymus, David ben Meshullam, and Moses ben Ghutiel (Jekuthiel) and were extended to all the Jews of the empire.
2 charters of 1084 and 1090 started what was called THE GOLDEN ERA in Speyer.
The period of when Jews left Judah and got to Europe is what I have been interested in. At first, Germany seemed to offer the Jews their greatest opportunity. The local archbishop invited Jews to settle in Speyer "to increase the honor of the town a thousandfold." So, in 1084, the first Jewish community in Speyer was started. The emperor approved of this, and as late 1090 he granted the Jews a charter which guaranteed freedom of travel, the right to own property, permission to deal with lawsuits between Jews in their own courts, and protection against the forcible conversion of their children to Christianity.
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Jews would not have had these rights under ordinary circumstances. The royal decree offered real safety for the present, and the hope of better conditions in the future. But after only 6 years, the hopes of all medieval Jews were destroyed. They became targets for attack and persecution which continued for centuries in the name of the CHURCH OF ROME. The sudden change came with the First Crusade.
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This was said to be a fight to move the Muslims out of the Holy Land from their control. Pope Urbana II thought it a chance to show his leadership over the Christians in Europe. To nobles, it was a time for adventure, booty and conquest. The merchants of Italy wanted to reopen trade routes in the Near East blocked by Muslims.
The 1st Crusaders left in 1096. They went through the Rhineland and came to communities of Jews and cried "Infidels!. They saw Jews as murderers of their Lord and they attacked the Jews in town after town. They went through Cologne, Speyer, Worms, Mainz...leaving behind charred ruins and bodies of some 5,000 massacred men, women and children.
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Speyer Jews were among the first to be hit but got off lightly compared to the Jews in Worms and Mainz who were attacked a few days later. In May 1096 on the Sabbath, everyone attacked the Jews in Speyer. They killed 11 Jews, but bishop John came with his troops and saved them from their hands. The bishop had the rioters punished severely and the Jews stayed in his palace until the rage of the mob had subsided. The Jews wound up paying him for saving them, of course. Then the bishop of Speyer (Johann vom Kraichgau I 1090-1104 prevented massacres and expulsions that happened in other cities of the Rhineland so that he saved himself and the town their revenues. 800 Jews died in the pogroms of Worms and 1,000 died in Mainz.
They captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099 and the soldiers then rampaged and destroyed the city, raped the women and slaughtered all in sight. All the Jews had been crowded into the main synagogue and the building was set on fire. They were all burned alive.
The Crusaders held Jerusalem for over 100 years and in 1187 it was recaptured by the Egyptian Sultan Saladin. Saladin was the sultan that Moses Maimonides, the physician lived with and worked for.
This called for other Crusades who were weaker and in 1291, the last Christian troops were expelled from the Holy Land.
However, back in England in 1144, the terrible "Blood Libel" was invented; a false charge that murder of Christians was part of Jewish law and ritual and that Christian blood was used in making Passover matzah.
The 2nd Crusade was in 1146 when laymen and members of the clergy took part with outbursts of violence against Jews. Minna was a Jewish victim of this pogrom whose ears and tongue were cut off because she refused to submit to baptism.
The 3rd Crusade started in February 1195 and all the Jews of Speyer were being persecuted during which 9 Jews were killed. On February 13th, the daughter of Rabbi Isaak ben Ascher Haleve the Younger (1130) was accused of ritual murder (blood libel), killed and hung up in the market square for 3 days. Haleve was killed when he tried to recover his daughter's body from the mob. Many Jews had gone to the high balcony of the synagogue for help until 2 Jews paid a ransom for them all. They fled and their homes were plundered and burned and the synagogue was destroyed. When the Emperor Henry VI returned, the guilty had to pay damages to him and to the Jews.
Riots happened in Speyer in 1282 when Herbord Ohm accused the Jews of murdering his grandson. Property was taken from the Jews and put in the royal treasury. This was it. The Jews had had enough so decided to return to Judah. Their property was confiscated. Rudolph issued another order for more taxes on June 24, 1291 and required the Jews of Speyer to maintain the newly established Fort and garrison of Landau.
Easter of 1343 was when the body of a Christian, Ludwig, was found and Jews were tortured and burned at the stake. Speyer confiscated the homes of Jews for the benefit of the city on March 11, 1344.
A great plague of 1348/49 wasn't bad enough to stop pogroms through France and Germany against Jews, especially in the Rhineland. On January 22, 1349, Speyer's Jews were totally wiped out. Many were burned in their homes like Rabbi Eliakim. Others converted or fled to Heidelberg or Sinzheim. Burned corpses were gathered up into empty winecasks and rolled into the Rhine River. Property and the cemetery were taken from the Jews.
. It must have rebuilt throughout the ages, for the community was totally wiped out in 1940 during the Holocaust of WWII.
"The anti-Jewish attitudes were taught by the Christian Church and helped to create a European society in which the Holocaust was possible." Some of the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis came directly from the laws of the medieval Church.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Speyer
My People, Abba Eban's History of the Jews Volume I by David Bamberger pages 126-127
Mainz, Germany
My interest in Germany goes back to Worms, Germany because I have found that we have chromosome matches that lead to our origins connecting with Rabbi Wertheimer of Worms, and the Rabbi of Worms, which all leads to being connected to RASHI, and his oral history of coming from King David, which many rabbis have stated. Also, our surname, Goldfoot, was once Goldfus; a German Yiddish name.
Speyer, Germany: The Jewish community of Speyer
consisted of 300 to 400 people Their synagogue, including a mikveh, was finished and consecrated on September 21, 1104, 11 years after the pogrom of 1096. By the 16th century it was no longer used.
The first Jewish settlement in Germany was in 321 in Cologne which is along the Rhine River. It is assumed that Jews lived in Speyer in Late Antiquity. The state and church administration in the Migration Period collapsed and the urban Roman lifestyle declined. It is assumed that Jewish communities also dispersed then. They resettled in the Rhine area coming from southern France where Roman life had more or less remained intact.
Jewish merchants traveled a lot and would have had their families living in Rhenish towns (towns along the Rhineland). 906 for Mainz, and 960 in Worms. Records of Jews in Speyer appeared in the 1070's. They were members of the famous Kalonymos family of Mainz that we Goldfoots are found to be connected . They had migrated 100 years earlier to Germany from Italy. Other Mainz Jews also probably moved to Speyer.
Why did he ask Jews to come live in Speyer? Jews had an important role in the money and trade businesses, especially with distant regions. Money lenders were needed on a large scale for the construction of the cathedral they were building. The deliberate settlement of Jews was seen as a measure for business development. Jews were the pioneers of urban development in Germany.
When Germans turned against the Jews and their trade restricted, this led to economic disadvantages and loss of revenues for the cities which is why bishops, lords and kings usually tried to restrain the anti-Semitic fevor of the lower clergy and the public. They had induced Jews to come by granting them privileges and protection and at the same time were safeguarding their own revenues and protection fees.
The matters were made with Judah ben Kalonymus, David ben Meshullam, and Moses ben Ghutiel (Jekuthiel) and were extended to all the Jews of the empire.
2 charters of 1084 and 1090 started what was called THE GOLDEN ERA in Speyer.
The period of when Jews left Judah and got to Europe is what I have been interested in. At first, Germany seemed to offer the Jews their greatest opportunity. The local archbishop invited Jews to settle in Speyer "to increase the honor of the town a thousandfold." So, in 1084, the first Jewish community in Speyer was started. The emperor approved of this, and as late 1090 he granted the Jews a charter which guaranteed freedom of travel, the right to own property, permission to deal with lawsuits between Jews in their own courts, and protection against the forcible conversion of their children to Christianity.
The 1st Crusaders left in 1096. They went through the Rhineland and came to communities of Jews and cried "Infidels!. They saw Jews as murderers of their Lord and they attacked the Jews in town after town. They went through Cologne, Speyer, Worms, Mainz...leaving behind charred ruins and bodies of some 5,000 massacred men, women and children.
They captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099 and the soldiers then rampaged and destroyed the city, raped the women and slaughtered all in sight. All the Jews had been crowded into the main synagogue and the building was set on fire. They were all burned alive.
The Crusaders held Jerusalem for over 100 years and in 1187 it was recaptured by the Egyptian Sultan Saladin. Saladin was the sultan that Moses Maimonides, the physician lived with and worked for.
This called for other Crusades who were weaker and in 1291, the last Christian troops were expelled from the Holy Land.
However, back in England in 1144, the terrible "Blood Libel" was invented; a false charge that murder of Christians was part of Jewish law and ritual and that Christian blood was used in making Passover matzah.
The 2nd Crusade was in 1146 when laymen and members of the clergy took part with outbursts of violence against Jews. Minna was a Jewish victim of this pogrom whose ears and tongue were cut off because she refused to submit to baptism.
The 3rd Crusade started in February 1195 and all the Jews of Speyer were being persecuted during which 9 Jews were killed. On February 13th, the daughter of Rabbi Isaak ben Ascher Haleve the Younger (1130) was accused of ritual murder (blood libel), killed and hung up in the market square for 3 days. Haleve was killed when he tried to recover his daughter's body from the mob. Many Jews had gone to the high balcony of the synagogue for help until 2 Jews paid a ransom for them all. They fled and their homes were plundered and burned and the synagogue was destroyed. When the Emperor Henry VI returned, the guilty had to pay damages to him and to the Jews.
Riots happened in Speyer in 1282 when Herbord Ohm accused the Jews of murdering his grandson. Property was taken from the Jews and put in the royal treasury. This was it. The Jews had had enough so decided to return to Judah. Their property was confiscated. Rudolph issued another order for more taxes on June 24, 1291 and required the Jews of Speyer to maintain the newly established Fort and garrison of Landau.
Easter of 1343 was when the body of a Christian, Ludwig, was found and Jews were tortured and burned at the stake. Speyer confiscated the homes of Jews for the benefit of the city on March 11, 1344.
A great plague of 1348/49 wasn't bad enough to stop pogroms through France and Germany against Jews, especially in the Rhineland. On January 22, 1349, Speyer's Jews were totally wiped out. Many were burned in their homes like Rabbi Eliakim. Others converted or fled to Heidelberg or Sinzheim. Burned corpses were gathered up into empty winecasks and rolled into the Rhine River. Property and the cemetery were taken from the Jews.
. It must have rebuilt throughout the ages, for the community was totally wiped out in 1940 during the Holocaust of WWII.
"The anti-Jewish attitudes were taught by the Christian Church and helped to create a European society in which the Holocaust was possible." Some of the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis came directly from the laws of the medieval Church.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Speyer
My People, Abba Eban's History of the Jews Volume I by David Bamberger pages 126-127
Labels: Abraham's Children, Catholic laws, Cologne, Crusades, Germany, Jewish communities, Kalonymos family, Mainz, pogroms, Rhineland, Speyer, Worms
