Re: Onward Christian Soliders

["Spirit One Email" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

A revealing book to read on this subject is "In the Year 1096" by Robert
Chazan
ISBN 0 8276 0575 7
   It chronicles the attacks of renegade Crusaders who decided that
attacking Rhineland Jews  was easier than going to Jerusalem.  Here is a
sample story:

The unrully Crusaders led by Count Emicho attacked Mainz on May 25, 1096.
The city had closed its gates and the Jews had sought shelter in the
Archbishop's fortified walls also.  They were presented with the alternative
to death--conversion.
    Many of the Jews awaited their fate of death without flinching or
fleeing.  They passivly and with love accepted upon themselves  God's
judgment.   Rabbi Isaac ben R. Moses stretched out his neck and they cut off
his head immediately.

Others chose to aid God's plan by piercing themselves with knives and the
rest stood and slaughtered each other.

Those Jews who decided not to engage in these acts fled to the Archbishop's
chambers. But these quarters were overrun by the Crusaders and they were not
spared even in this place.  They would not submit to baptism.  Sad stories
are told of Jewish mother's "sacrificing their children" before the
Crusaders arrived.

I believe I read somewhere, not going to spend all night searching for
it--that King Edward I had confiscated the property of Jews and when that
money was gone he began to take the property of other nationalities,
Italians--etc.    After that Philip the Fair did likewise.  Both were in
debt to the Templars.  These two kings owed a lot of money because of their
constant waring with each other and their neighbors.

In "Crusades" by Jones & Ereira  ISBN 0-8160-3275-0
We learn that the Jews that refused to leave Jerusalem at the approach of
the Crusaders took refuge in a synagogue.  The Crusaders burned the whole
thing down with them in it.   They also destroyed the tomb of David.  (was
this a mistake or was there some significance to this?)
Laurel


Subject: Re: Onward Christian Soliders


> 16 March 1190  The feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, Jewish communities existed
in
> England during the middle ages, but their survival was often threatened.
> King Henry II protected England's Jews, from whom he received financial
>


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