Why Jews Migrated to Germany Long Ago and Later Left

 Nadene Goldfoot

             

Depiction of German Jew of long ago, forced to dress like this.

    "The Jewish hat, also known as the Jewish cap, Judenhut (German) ("horned skullcap"), was a cone-shaped pointed hat, often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe. Initially worn by choice (I question that), its wearing was enforced in some places in Europe after the 1215 Fourth Council of the Lateran for adult male Jews to wear while outside a ghetto to distinguish them from others."  it was their badge of shame, like wearing the star of David during WWII. .

  Like the Phrygian cap that it often resembles, the hat may have originated in pre-Islamic Persia, as a similar hat was worn by Babylonian Jews.

We have to go back to Roman days to find out that there were Jewish soldiers in the Roman garrisons of Germany.  The Romans had taken Jews alive in 70 CE as slaves and may have used them as fodder in their army.  We believe this from archeological finds that demonstrate their presence.

By 1096, the German Crusade massacred Jews in European towns.  The Jewish community in Jerusalem was massacred by the Crusaders by 1099. 

However, by 321 CE, Roman Emperor Constantine issued regulations which indicate the existence of an organized Jewish community with rabbis and elders at Cologne.  It's probable that Jews were settled elsewhere on the Rhineland at that time.  They enjoyed some civil liberties, but were restricted regarding the dissemination of their culture, the keeping of non-Jewish slaves, and the holding of office under the government. They were considered more as 2nd class citizens, just as they were in Arab states.  Being Jewish made you different to others.  

In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Carolingian royal house  adopted a pro-Jewish policy!  They encouraged the settlement of Jews in its dominions because they needed them to develop trade.  New Jewish communities began to be created in the principal commercial centers.

By the 9th century, Jews were living in Augsburg and Metz.

In the 10th century, Jews were living in Worms, Mainz, Magdeburg, Ratisbon, etc.  The dense settlement was in the Rhineland that took in Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne, etc.

By the 11th century, this is where an intense intellectual life developed under Franco-Jewish influence.  Conditions were generally not unfavorable, though the persecution recorded in 1012 was probably not unique.          

                                Anti-Semitic Acts Started

 However, in 1096, the Crusaders massacred the Jews throughout the Rhineland and the adjacent areas.  The moral atmosphere changed, and at all times of unrest or excitement in Germany, the Jews were attacked.  

The religious fervor against Jews caused Europe to react along against Jews which drove Jews out of trading and forced them increasingly into the profession of moneylending.  

The uptake on this was that as they were driven out of one area, another could receive them.  Germany figures preeminently in Jewish history as the land of martyrdom where expulsion was resorted to only locally and sporadically in order to complete the work of extermination.  This is when Jews moved into Eastern Europe's countries of Poland, Lithuania, etc. Jews were living in Poland from the 9th century on.  The 1st Jew could have been from the West like Germany,, Bohemia, et, or the South such as the kingdom of Kiev or the Byzantine Empire.  They must have been reinforced by the Khazar elements.  They no doubt were traders who in the Dark Ages helped to open up the area to civilizing influences.  The first Polish charter for Jews was granted in 905.  

In 1298, massacres of Jews happened, inspired by a knight named RINDFLEISCH, called the Rindfleisch Massacres.  The attacks took place on the Jews throughout Franconia and the surrounding regions after a Ritual Murder accusation at Rottingen..  They were instigated and led by this Bavarian noble, Rindfleisch.  146 communities were annihilated.                                    

Massacres of Jews happened again in 1336 at the time of the Black Death where Jews were accused of deliberately propagating.  People acted against Jews with complete barbarism.  Ove 350 localities of Jews suffered, and over 200 Jewish communities were utterly wiped out.                                     

By the 14th century in the 2nd half of it, the Jewish survivors were kept perpetually impoverished by cancelling debts due to them.  Those were the businessmen who suffered.  The Jewish intellectual life kept going in Germany throughout the Middle Ages by centering mainly on talmudic study.  Lithuania was home to Jews in 1495, after the 1492 expulsion of Jews in Spain.  Karaites were already there by 1321 with a community established by 1398.  

Toward the close of the Middle Ages most of the larger German cities banished the Jews after the beginning of the 16th century.  The only communities of importance left were Frankfort-on-Main and Worms.                             

As European commerce grew in the late Middle Ages, some Jews became prominent in trade, banking, and moneylending, and Jews’ economic and cultural successes tended to arouse the envy of the populace. This economic resentment, allied with traditional religious prejudice, prompted the forced expulsion of Jews from several countries and regions, including England (1290), France (14th century), Germany (1350s), Portugal (1496), Provence (1512), and the Papal States (1569). Intensifying persecution in Spain culminated in 1492 in the forced expulsion of that country’s large and long-established Jewish population. Only Jews who had converted to Christianity were allowed to remain, and those suspected of continuing to practice Judaism faced persecution in the Spanish Inquisition. As a result of these mass expulsions, the centres of Jewish life shifted from western Europe and Germany to Turkey and then to Poland and Russia.                           

The Protestant Reformation seemed to offer some amelioration in the Jewish position, but Luther ultimately reverted to the traditional German anti-Semitic standard.  

          pictured is Rabbi Wertheimer , a Court Jew

The 17th century saw after the 30 Years War the creation of many competitive states emerging.  Many hired Jews as factors, military purveyors, financial advisers, etc. and gave them privileged positions as Court Jews.  Of course they attracted other Jews and communities were formed.  The Jews of Hamburg were important after a Marrano colony was established there (Spanish hidden Jews) .  A few of our ancestors were court Jews Wertheimer, above  being one.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-clothing-in-the-middle-ages/