Cause of Jews Living in Germany

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

                                            Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire in 306

Emperor Constantine (ca A.D. 280– 337) reigned over a major transition in the Roman Empire—and much more. His rulings against Jews, acceptance of Christianity and his establishment of an eastern capital city, which would later bear his name, mark his rule as a significant pivot point between ancient history and the Middle Ages.

 In Rome, Jewish communities thrived economically. Jews became a significant part of the Roman Empire's population in the first century CE, with some estimates as high as 7 million people; however, this estimation has been questioned.

By the year of 321 CE, which was 1,703 years ago, Jews were known to be living in Cologne, Germany.  They had moved there from Rome where they were taken as slaves in the year 70 CE.  In Cologne, they  had  an organized Jewish community with rabbis and elders.  Emperor Constantine, who loved his own religious beliefs in the Roman gods, was encouraged by his mother, Helena, to hold a gathering of leaders where he issued regulations about Judaism.  He and others believed Jews to be competitors of their new religion, Christianity,  a following of Jesus, and the meeting would also decide certain beliefs that they would adhere to.  

This Jewish diaspora had migrated to Rome and to the territories of Roman Europe from the land of Israel, Anatolia, Babylon and Alexandria in response to economic hardship and incessant warfare over the land of Israel between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE.  This brought in the Romans occupying Jerusalem about a hundred years before 70 CE when they burned the city down, looted and killed after a very long period of starving the Jewish population, then taking them as slaves.  

            Image of Joshua from the 3rd-century wall paintings at the synagogue of Dura-Europos

Constantine also began to claim land in Israel for use by the Christian Church.  During a visit by his mother in 326 to 327, she identified places where key events may have taken place in Jesus’ life; Constantine went on build churches at those locations.

Following an enquiry from Cologne, the Roman Emperor Constantine passed a far-reaching law in AD 321 under which Jews were permitted to hold offices in both the Roman Curia and the city administration. This decree is the earliest surviving documentary evidence of the presence of Jews north of the Alps.  When Constantine the Great came to power in 306, he worked to stop the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. However, this led to a large split in the treatment of Christians and Jews.

Jews living in the Roman Empire were legally obliged to pay the Fiscus Judaicus tax since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE. This tax continued during Constantine's reign and some historians credit the emperor Julian with abolishing this in 362.

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great_and_Judaism

https://miqua.lvr.de/media/miqua/presse/publikationen/321_broschuere/2022-09-23_321-Broschuere_ENGL_BF.pdf

https://miqua.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/321-broschure-english_gesamt.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Roman_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great