THE GREAT RETURN PROPHECIZED

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Making an Aliyah means going up;  rising spiritually in your thinking, understanding. To Jews  it means immigrating to Israel to live. Today we really go up, starting in a Jet Plane.    Long ago people braved it in ships.

The "Great Return of Jews" refers to the biblical prophecies, particularly from Isaiah and Ezekiel, that foretold the Jewish people would be regathered from their scattered positions around the world to their ancient homeland, Israel. 

While a previous return occurred after the Babylonian captivity, many interpretations, especially in Christian and Zionist thought, see the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent mass migrations of Jews to the land as the fulfillment of these prophecies, marking the "Great Return". 

Way back in 1121, some 300 Jews went to Palestine from France and England. Life was unbearable for them in France and England. England expelled the Jews in 1290 which lasted for 365 more years till 1656. France has expelled its Jewish population multiple times, with key expulsions occurring in 1182 (under Philip Augustus), 1306 (under Philip IV), and 1394 (under Charles VI). Jews were also targeted during World War II by the Vichy regime and the German occupiers, leading to deportations to concentration and extermination camps.  

In 1267 Nahmanides and Obadiah of Bertinoro in 1488 went to Palestine and were both followed by groups of disciples;  while as a result of the Spanish expulsion in 1492 (when Columbus sailed the ocean blue), many Sephardi Jews,  including an important kabbalistic circle,  entered the country of Palestine.  In 1564 was Joseph Nasi's resettlement attempt which had brought groups from Italy.  

Finally, while in 1700, 1,500 Jews arrived from Eastern Europe in response to Rabbi Judah Hasid's call.  In the latter 18th century, there was a considerable number of both Hasidim and followers of the Vilna Gaon. Approximately 511 disciples of the Vilna Gaon, along with their families, followed him to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) in the years 1808–1810, a significant aliyah movement that took place a decade after his death. While the Gaon himself promoted immigration to Israel, it was his disciples who made the journey, fulfilling his wish and bolstering the Jewish community in what was then Ottoman Palestine.   

In the 30 years (1850-1880) preceding  the BILU (Bet Yaakov lekhu ve-nelkhah) or "Oh house of Jacob, come ye and let us go.", it is estimated that 20,000-30,000 Jews settled in Palestine.  Organized mainly and influenced by Zionism, this began in 1882. 

This was the 1st Aliyah (1882-1903) which started under the attacks of Russian pogroms and was led by the BILU (It was the first modern Zionist pioneering movement founded at Kharkov by Jewish students reacting against the wave of Russian pogroms). Several branches of BILU numbered 525 members, with only a few actually going to Palestine, for it was a risky scary move.  

The first group was made up of 15 men and women who reached the town of Jaffa in the summer of 1882 an the others, later that year.  They experienced severe hardship.  Some of them settled on the land in different colonies and others went to Jerusalem to master handicrafts.  They came with their visions of social reform.  Guess what!  It antagonized various circles of Hoveve Zion but they received support from Jehiel Michael Pines who urged them to settle the colony of Gedera by 1884.  

So, in 1882, 300 families and additional smaller groups arrived from Russia, 450 pioneers from Romania, and a few dozen from the Yemen.

There was a conference held in 1884 by Hoveve Zion to coordinate immigration which resulted in the KATTOWITZ CONFERNCE.  The Turkish authorities tried to create difficulties for them and an increasing number of AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENTS were founded  

Persecutions kept happening in Europe  in 1890 which sent thousands of Russian Jews to Palestine.  The number got smaller during the rest of the decade.  About 25,000 Jews immigrated during the 1st Aliyah, but a number subsequently also emigrated.  They had gone from cold Russia to hot hot Palestine with Turkish guards.  

The 2nd Aliyah (1904-1914) ended with WWI's beginning.  Olim from Russia kept coming, especially from Kishinev and Homel pogroms and the failure of the 1905 revolution in Russia.   Many of these newcomers were motivate by socialist idealism.  35,000-40,000 Jews entered during this period, many from eastern Europe and oriental countries.  A number left the country after a time but in 1914  the Jewish population was 90,000, falling to 50,000 by the end of World War I.  

The Balfour Declaration gave the impetus to the 3rd Aliyah (1919-1923) after the war. This had a youthful element that predominated with members of the HE-HALUTZ being prominent.  In 1920, free immigration was permitted to persons with means of subsistence, craftsmen, those joining their families, and Talmud students whose upkeep was assured.    In addition, a quota was fixed for immigrants whose maintenance was guaranteed by the Zionist Organization.  These regulations were modified the following year but the principle remained.  Annual immigration figures for 1920-1923 averaged 8,000 and at the end of the period the country's Jewish population was again about 90,000.  

80,000 more entered during the next period of the 4th Aliyah (1924-1931).  The largest majority came from 1924-1925.  The main source of Jews came from Poland where Jews suffered from fiscal restrictions.  Many of the newcomers were middle-class some being "capitalists", that is...owners of 500 lbs, and later 1,000 lbs. A number left, especially during the 1926 depression, but there were 190,000 Jews in Palestine in 1931.   

The 5th Aliyah that divides into two periods:

(1932-1935).  This was the beginning of the Nazi persecution,  when 144,000 immigrants of which 62,000 came in 1935, followed by economic prosperity.  During this time YOUTH ALIYAH was founded.  

(1936-1940) This coincided with Arab riots and economic depression, when Aliyah was restricted by the mandatory government of Great Britain;  first for economic and later for political reasons.  Nevertheless, in 1936 to 1938 there were 53,000 immigrants.  In 1939, the MacDonald White Paper recommended that only 75,000 more Jews be allowed admission during the next 5 years and then Aliyah would be dependent on Arab agreement.  However, 36,000 immigrants entered during the 2nd phase of the Fifth Aliyah, including 15,000 "illegal" immigrants meaning they lacked government permits in 1939-1940.

The 6th Aliyah (1941-1947) This was a period of struggle against restrictions on immigration.  Many tragic incidents were recorded  and during the latter years many intending immigrants were interned in Cyprus.  85,000 Jews arrived in this time, of whom 28,000 were "illegal immigrants." 

 There were 750,000 Jews in Israel when the state was established in 1948. Free Jewish immigration waas immediatlaey proclaimed and the period of mass Aliyiot was inauagurated.  The survivors of Nazi rule in Central Europe, the internees in Cyprus, the Jewries of countries behind the Iron Curtain, and the communities under Arab rule like Yemen, Iraq, were transferred to Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Agency's Immigration Department.  Jews have continued a steady immigration since that time again reaching large numbers in the early 1970's with my husband and I making Aliyah in 1980 with 20,428 others that year, mostly Russians  and since 1989 with mass Aliyah from the USSR, of course.  Total immigration figures for the period 1948-1990 were running from:

1948=101,819    and  1991=175,000.  Every year in-between was a 5 figured number.                          

                                             

Marco Rubio, Sec of State just gave a great speech about the Jews and their return and how they have lasted while the others who attacked and took the land have not existed till today.  It was an amazing speech !  Found on you tube.  

This was the time talked about in the Bible, the return of the Jews.  "It's a powerful reminder of the Judeo-Christian values that inspired America's Founding Fathers," he wrote, a reference to the site's biblical significance. The excavated road is believed to have been traversed by visitors to Judaism's Second Temple around the time of Jesus Christ.

The Trump administration's 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the subsequent move of the U.S. embassy to the city from Tel Aviv marked a departure from decades of American policy that Jerusalem's status should be determined through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The visit comes ahead of a meeting of world leaders at the United Nations in New York this month where Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium are expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state, which Israel rejects.

Rubio has said that move will only encourage Israel to take its own actions to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state."  He's right.  Netanyahu has said that he will not stand for a Palestinian state next door to Israel.  

Rome's EDICT OF CARACALLA in Year 212 CE and How It Affected Jews

Nadene Goldfoot                               
                                                                             

 The first record of Jews in Rome is in 161 b.c.e., when Jason b. Eleazar and Eupolemus b. Johanan are said to have gone there as envoys from Judah Maccabee. The Roman Jews are said to have been conspicuous in the mourning for Julius Caesar in 44 b.c.e. on the death of Herod in 4 b.c.e. 8,000 native Roman Jews are reported to have escorted the Jewish delegates from Judea who came to request the senate to abolish the Herodian monarchy. Two synagogues were seemingly founded by "freedmen" who had been slaves of Augustus (d. 14 c.e.) and Agrippa (d. 12 b.c.e.) respectively and bore their names. 

In the year 212 in Rome, The Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin for: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in 212 CE, by the Roman 
Emperor Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship and that all free women ...in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women.  This included the Jews to a certain degree.  This was 1,808 years ago when Jews might have a lot of rights.  Then the world backslid and Jews were not an emancipated people until Emperor Napoleon came along.                                             

Emperor Caracalla (4 April 188-8 April 217)
AKA Antonius, born as Lucius Septimius Bassianus of the Severan Dynasty.
This is the period of the Christian Byzantium

The trick was to be able to be declared a free person in order to have citizenship which gave more rights.  People were either citizens or free people or slaves.  
                                                             

Emperor Herod's Days Before Caracalla was Emperor 

The main reason Caracalla passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes." However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.  Cassius was born in 163,  as Lucius Cassius Dio or Dio Cassius who was a Roman statesman and historian of Greek and Roman origin. He published 80 volumes of history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy.  
                                                       

Citizens of the Roman Empire
Roman citizenship was acquired by birth if both parents were Roman citizens (cives), although one of them, usually the mother, might be a peregrinus (“alien”) with connubium (the right to contract a Roman marriage). Otherwise, citizenship could be granted by the people, later by generals and emperors.

Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as legionaries in the Roman Army. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian Edward Gibbon, the edict came at the cost to the auxiliaries, which primarily consisted of non-citizen men.

Evidently there were Jews who were free men, traders and such.  Being Jewish anyway they came under certain restrictions.  They were affected as polygamy was ended for them this way.  They were excluded from the army.  They could not serve in public office from the 5th century onward because they were Jews.  They  couldn't offer evidence against any Christian  in the courts of law.  Roman minorities were also under their laws and were restricted people.  

Additionally, before the edict, one of the main ways to acquire Roman citizenship was to enlist in the Roman Army, the completion of service in which would give the citizenship to the discharged soldier. The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this.

In the analyses of more recent scholars, the Constitutio Antoniniana marks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in Italy narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.

• A male Roman citizen enjoyed a wide range of privileges and protections defined in detail by the Roman state. A citizen could, under certain exceptional circumstances, be deprived of his citizenship.
• Roman women had a limited form of citizenship. They were not allowed to vote or stand for civil or public office. The rich might participate in public life by funding building projects or sponsoring religious ceremonies and other events. Women had the right to own property, to engage in business, and to obtain a divorce, but their legal rights varied over time. Marriages were an important form of political alliance during the Republic.
• Client state citizens and allies (socii) of Rome could receive a limited form of Roman citizenship such as the Latin Right. Such citizens could not vote or be elected in Roman elections.
• Freedmen were former slaves who had gained their freedom. They were not automatically given citizenship and lacked some privileges such as running for executive magistracies. The children of freedmen and women were born as free citizens; for example, the father of the poet Horace was a freedman.
• Slaves were considered property and lacked legal personhood. Over time, they acquired a few protections under Roman law. Some slaves were freed by manumission for services rendered, or through a testamentary provision when their master died. Once free, they faced few barriers, beyond normal social snobbery, to participating in Roman society. The principle that a person could become a citizen by law rather than birth was enshrined in Roman mythology; when Romulus defeated the Sabines in battle, he promised the war captives that were in Rome they could become citizens.

The ancient sources portray Caracalla as a tyrant and as a cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius (c. 155 – c. 235) and Herodian (c. 170 – c. 240) present Caracalla as a soldier first and an emperor second. Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as an evil ruler, painting him as one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors.

This Edict of Caracalla  granted Jews legal equality to all other citizens, and formed the foundation of their legal status in Byzantium following the founding of Constantinople in 330. Indeed, Jews enjoyed the right to practice their faith under the rule of the Byzantines, as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus. 

For example, circumcision, which was considered mutilation and therefore punishable by death if performed on a non-Jewish child, and by exile if performed on a non-Jewish adult, was legally permitted within Jewish religious practices. Byzantine law recognized synagogues as places of worship, which could not be arbitrarily molested, Jewish courts had the force of law in civil cases, and Jews could not be forced to violate Shabbat and their festivals.
                                                     

Roman (Byzantine) Empire 271 CE

In addition to the matter of holding public office, Jews were also unequal to Christians with respect to the ownership of slaves. Restrictions on the ownership of Christian slaves by Jews were in place through the reign of many emperors, under the fear that Jews would use conversion of slaves as a means to increase their number. Additionally, this was designed to provide an incentive for non-Christian slaves to convert into Christianity, and an economic restriction on the Jews. Restrictions on slave-owning could not, however, be excessively burdensome, because slaves, although numerous, were between 10-15% of the population. Under the Theodosian Code, therefore, ownership of Christian slaves by Jews was not prohibited, although their purchase was. Thus, one who gained possession of a slave by means such as inheritance would remain his or her owner. Purchase of slaves was usually penalized by compelled sale at the original purchase price.

The third important restriction on Judaism—in addition to the limitations on public service and slave ownership—was that the Jewish religion, though allowed to survive, was not allowed to thrive. Theologically, the victory of Christianity could be successfully asserted by maintaining a small contingent of Jews within the empire, although allowing them to become too sizable a minority would threaten the theological monopoly of Orthodox Christianity within the Empire.

One important ramification of this policy was the prohibition on the construction of new synagogues within the Empire, though the repair of old synagogues was permitted. This prohibition was difficult to enforce, as archaeological evidence in Israel indicates that illegal synagogue construction continued throughout the sixth century. The synagogue did continue to be respected as an inviolable place of worship until the reign of Justinian.

Beginning at this time, most legislation regarding the Jews—even laws which expanded the rights which they were afforded—were "prefaced by unambiguous expressions of hatred and contempt for Judaism."

                                                      

Since the year 390 nearly all of the territory of present-day Israel came under Byzantine suzerainty. The area was divided into the following provinces: Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda and Palestina Tertia. These provinces were part of the Diocese of the East.  Palæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634–636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley and southern part of the Golan plateau, with its capital in Scythopolis (Bet Shean). The province experienced the rise of Christianity under the Byzantines, but was also a thriving center of Judaism, after the Jews had been driven out of Judea by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
                                                          

In 70 CE Rome destroyed Jerusalem while burning down the 2nd Temple.  Jews if captured, were taken as slaves.  It didn't seem to matter that there were Jews living in Rome at the same time as Roman Citizens.  They were used in all the usual manners of Roman slaves, fighting off lions in the stadiums, etc, even as army slaves.  

Resource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Antoniniana#:~:text=The%20Constitutio%20Antoniniana%20(Latin%20for,and%20that%20all%20free%20women
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla
Book:  Religous Roots of Contemporary European Identity by Bloomsburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Byzantine_Empire 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship

How Germany's Early Days Made Money Through Anti-Semitism

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Mainz, Germany today.  In 1012, the Jews were expelled but soon returned.  They received protection then from the arch-bishop when crusaders came in 1096.  Even so, hundreds were murdered.  

The Holy Roman Empire was made up of much territory.  "The largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it included the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, and numerous other territories. The precise term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century."  So it really had nothing to do with the ancient Romans who burned down the Jewish 2nd Temple and Jerusalem, but consisted of the politics that followed them in the disposition  of Rome and their pagan powers.  

                                                                                   

Kingdom of Germany, Carolingian dynasty, Conradine dynasty, Ottonian dynasty, Arnulf, Louis IV,Conrad I, Henry I, Otto I

Jews were not allowed to own land anyplace.  They were labeled as Christ Killers in the Holy Roman Empire.  Jews were not allowed to follow any profession, and about the only thing they were allowed to do was to loan money.  This was because it was considered a despicable business for the Christians, who were kept from it by their church.  Jews had been traders even when living in their holy land of Judah and many had dealt with trading on the Silk Road, taking them to far corners of the earth.  When Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, Jews were not even allowed to continue trying to live in Jerusalem or its suburbs since it was burnt down by the Romans.  They couldn't come back in and refurbish their own city.  Anyway, most were taken as slaves to Rome.  From there, some lucky ones finally made their way next door to France and then of course, Germany by the 1000's.
                                                                           

Jews of Germany and their forced clothing for identification

RASHI 

Take RASHI.  This is the famous abbreviation for Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki, son of Isaac who was born in 1040 and died in 1105.  He was a French rabbinical scholar and teacher.  He had studied in the Rhineland (Germany) but also lived in Troyes, France where he had established his own school to teach his philosophy and thoughts on Judaism.  His school received a wide reputation.  The center in the Rhineland that he lived in was in the city of Worms.  Many rabbis came to live there and to study.  The Jewish community was well established by the 11th century (1000s), so they must have arrived there in the 10th century.  Emperor Henry IV was loaned money by them.  In return, he gave them privileges most Jews did not get in 1074 and 1090 by granting them freedom in commercial dealings, security of property, and imperial protection.
                                                                           

1st Crusade: 1096-199 Attacked Jews in northern France and especially in the Rhineland in Mainz, Worms, Speyer, cologne, etc.  and then in Prague, later in Salonica causing messianic ferment.  Jerusalem was captured by them in 1099 and Jews and Karaites were massacred.  1147 was the start of the 2nd Crusade happening in France and the Rhineland started by a Monk, Rudolf.  

Along came the 1st Crusade and life changed forever.  Jews were slaughtered in Europe by the knights who were on their way to Palestine to kill the Muslims who had taken the Holy Land.  When they got there, they slaughtered the Jews, too, since they thought them vile along with the Muslims, and they all looked alike to them.  Then both Muslim and Jew fought together against the Crusaders.  Worms was decimated during this First Crusade.                                                                                  

                                                                     

3rd Crusade was in 1189 to 1192 had wide support in England where Jews were attacked.  , especially in York in 1190.  

In Heilbronn, 200 Jews were slaughtered, among them being Johanan ben Eliakim the rabbi and Rabbi Asher, the president of the community.  The city of Ulm used to have a large Jewish community and own cemetery.  The Jews there had once enjoyed certain privileges granted by the municipal law of 1274 which was in force in Ravensburg, too.
                                                                   

In 1320 was the shepherds' Crusade with widespread attacks on the Jews in southern France and northern Spain.  They reestablished it only to see it destroyed again in 1349 during the Black Death outbreaks where they were blamed for it.  

 By the 14th century, Jews were living in Baldern, Geislingen, Goppingen, Schwabisch Hall, Rohrbach, Hohenburg, Horb, Reutlingen, Rottweil, Stuttgart, Sulm, Tubingen, Vaihingen and Wolfegg.  The counts of Wurttemberg owed money to the Jews of Colmar and Schlettstadt.  Louis IV canceled their indebtedness in 1346.  Henry VII in 1311 did the same thing to his Jewish moneylenders and so did Louis the Bavarian in 1316 in the case of the citizens of Esslingen.  In other words, these people stiffed the bank by having the head man cancel all the debts, leaving the Jews without any compensation.
                                                                           

Jewish Moneylenders as depicted in Spain in 1300s. 

Lets look at what Germany was like in those days.  It was made up of separate kingdoms.  Wurttemberg was one of them located in SW Germany.  Jews had come to live there in 6 cities:.  They came to live in Bopfingen in 1241; Ulm in 1243;  Esslingen  and Oehringen in 1253;  Calw in 1284 and Weil in 1289.  Along came the knight, Rindfleisch, a Bavarian noble,  and his followers in 1298 and Jews were not only persecuted but massacred.  Rindfleisch led his men into a series of exterminatory attacks on the Jews throughout Franconia and the surrounding regions in 1298, after a Ritual Murder accusation at Rottingen.  Jews were always accused of such things in the Christian zeal to take revenge for killing Christ, as they kept saying.  Usually they would say that someone who had been murdered had been a Jew who did it needing blood to make matzos.  Knowing nothing of facts, Jews abhor blood and have kashrut laws as to how to eat meat without the blood as blood is forbidden in Judaism.  Because of Rindfleisch, 146 Jewish communities were annihilated.  In Wurttemberg alone, he had killed Jews in Creglingen, Ellwangen, Forchtenberg, Gartach, Goglingen, Ingelfingen, Kunzelsau, Leonberg, Mockmuhl, Mergentheim, Stetten, sindringen, Sontheim, Waldenburg, weinsberg, Widdern and Weikersheim.
                                                                        

How Jews were depicted

Bavaria was another southern German state.  Jews came to live in there during the same period as Wurttemberg. from at least the 10th century.  Major Jewish communities there were in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Regensburg, Furth, Munich, Pasau and Bamberg.  Jews were excluded from Upper Bavaria in 1276 and also suffered severely in the Rindfleisch massacres of 1298..  In the city of Armleder they suffered from persecution from 1336 to 1338 and were almost exterminated at the time of the Black Death in 1348 to 1349.  They were excluded altogether from 1551 to the 18th century.  In the early 19th century under most unfavorable conditions, many Jews left to go to the United States.  After all the horror of the Holocaust from 1939 to 1945, Jews returned and in 1990, 5,600 Jews were living in Bavaria.
                                                             

King Edward I who expelled Jews from England in 1290-1655 for 365 years.  

These kingdoms did not always get along with each other.  On the night of April 19, 1316, the Bavarian party of Ulm brought in their Bavarian troops into the city of Ulm.  Ulm today is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at almost 120,000 (2015), forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions as a former Free Imperial City.  Free for who?  .Rumor was that a Jew helped them to sneak in.  The Austrian party, the majority, appeared  and drove out the Bavarians.  To remember the event of the Jewish treachery, the church instituted a mass, but this horrible exercise  ended  finally  6 years later.
                                                                       

     

Then the Bavarians gained possession of Ulm.  New persecutions of Jews broke out with the Jews now being charged with being the enemies of the Christians and with stealing and desecrating the host.  The host is the bread and wine used in their mass which is part of their Eucharist, and the bread represents Christ's body.  The knights almost annihilated the community of Esslingen in 1334.  Two years later, more knights persecuted the Jews in Hohenburg, Landenbach, Mergentheim, Weikersheim and Widdern.  The end of 1348 was even worse when the plague and the German ganaticism caused destruction on the Jewish communities of Baldern, bopfingen, ellwangen, Esslingen, Goppingen, Geislingen, Schwabisch Hall, Heilbronn, Hohebach, Horb, Krailsheim, Mengen, Mergentheim, Nagold, Oehringen, Ravensburg, Reutlingen, Rottweil, Stuttgart, Sulgen, Sulm, Ulm Vaihingen, Waldenburg, Weilderstadt, and Widdern.

This is how the kingdoms prospered on the lives of Jews.  The Jews of Ulm, for example, had to pay for protection with large sums to the municipal council, to the citizens, and to the counts of Helfenstein.  The money taken from the Jews became a bone of contention among the German cities, the emperor and the counts.  They all wanted money from Jews.  These inter-Gentile arguments led to renewed plundering of the Jews.

 The Jews by this time had some friends in high places, however, and some counts and rulers united against the plunderers.  Then the big man himself, the emperor, demanded his share in their plunder in 1374 and he was ignored.
                                                                       

Emperor and King of Bohemia Charles IV/Wenceslaus

 That caused the emperor to make war on these cities, and so he confiscated their possessions and compelled them to pay high taxes.  He was Charles IV (Czech: Karel IV., German: Karl IV., Latin: Carolus IV; 14 May 1316 – 29 November 1378), born Wenceslaus, who was the second King of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first King of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor.  The city of Ulm couldn't raise the exorbitant sums demanded by the emperor, so the Jews came forward to help them out.  One of the Jews that helped was Sacklin, son in law of Moses of Ehlingen, who was a citizen of Ulm.  The emperor declared the Jews to be under the ban in order to exact money from the few wealthy ones still living in the city.  They had to pay large sums to have the edict  revoked.

By 1385, the federation of cities declared void all promissory notes held by the Jews within its jurisdiction.  In some cases the city released the Christian debtors from paying interest on their loans while in other cases it annulled part of the debt.  In 1387 the federation issued a decree that no German or Italian merchant could have money transactions with Jews.  Emperor Wenceslaus then canceled in 1390 all debts owing to the Jews, and demanded that the citizens owning money  pay him instead!

Their excuse in treating Jews so horribly was that they said that Jews, both their body and souls,  were the property of the emperor so he could do with them as he pleased.  He therefore said that the usury of the Jews had become intolerable.  The counts of Wurttemberg felt differently.  They permitted the Jews to live in Stuttgart in 1434; Kirchheim in 1435; Tubingen in 1459; Cannstadt and Goppingen in 1462, but on definitely stated conditions and of course, upon payment of large large taxes for protection.  They couldn't let the cash cow slip through their fingers, could they.  Count Ulrich  (1433-1480) was commissioned by the emperor to protect the Jews, but at the same time to rigorously suppress their usury.  The fines imposed were to be sent to the imperial treasury, another way of milking the Jews out of the money.  So, money flowed into the coffers of the count AND of the emperor.

Again in 1498 Jews were expulsed from the land.  Count Eberhard im Bart (1459-1496) was pronounced an enemy of the Jews.  He forced Jews out from Tubingen in 1477; and again in 1495-3 years after the Spanish edict of 1492, he decreed they were to be expelled from his lands.  He followed it up with his decree of June 14, 1498 and the Jews of Ulm who happened to be wealthy and educated, had to leave by August 6th of 1498.  The Jews could not take any property with them, and the emperor demanded that the people of Ulm had to mention him in their prayers because he had delivered them  from the Jews.

The Jews living in Ravensburg was a bad one, also.  A blood accusation was brought against them caused Emperor Sigismund to burn some Jews at the stake and to expel others in 1438.  Then years later in 1448 they were again admitted in and then expelled again in 1490.  Jews living in Heilbronn by 1414 were expelled by 1469.  7 years later the city council insisted on a general expulsion even though there was an imperial order to protect the Jews.  Jews were expelled from cities scattered among the villages and then often they would return to the urban communities.

Jews therefore were living in Gmund and Reutlingen in 1433;  in Brackenheim  and Nersheim in 1434;  in in Giengen in 1486;  and in Lauterburg, Pflaumloch and Uzmemmingen in 1491.

Between the late 1400s to 1806, no Jews lived in Ulm again.  Individual Jews were permitted to enter Ulm on a temporary basis, and the citizens were warned against having any business transactions with them.

When Wurttemberg (part of the German Federal Republic today)  became a dukedom, the treatment of the Jews was the same.  All money transactions with them were forbidden.  These ordinances were renewed and enforced.
                                                                 

Yoseph ben Gershom Loanz aka JOSEL OF ROSHEIM 1480-1554,
German communal leader and writer.
elected in 1510 by the Alsatian communities as their rep for the German Jewry
before the secular authorities, had to intercede in time of danger.  In 1532 he tried to
stem the dangerous activities of Solomon Molcho.  In 1543 he defended the Jews against the attacks of LUTHER.  

 Not even Josel of Rosheim, a great Jewish advocate for his people,  could travel through the country.  Strict ordinances were issued regarding the Jewish commercial and religious status.  In 1536 Jews traveling through the country were under great stresses and attacks, and no attention was paid to the repeated imperial edicts for their protection.  Josel was able to regulate the convoy charges of traveling Jews, but Duke Christoph, who gave him the agreement, was so much of an enemy to the Jews that in the Reichstag of Augsburg in 1559, he advocated their expulsion from Germany.

Frederick I (1593-1608) faced the most violent opposition against establishing a Jewish mercantile association under the direction of Abraham Calorno and Maggino Gabrieli but failed miserably.  It never came about.

Eberhard Ludwig reigned (1677-1733) who had a good attitude towards Jews.  He permitted them to go to the fairs in 1706 and to trade in horses in 1707.  The Countess of Wurben got free trade for the Jews of Freudenthal in 1728 and for those of Gochsheim in 1729.
                                                                   

Joseph ben Issachar Susskind or Joseph Suss Oppenheimer

         Under Carl Alexander (1733-1737) Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1698-1738) was appointed a privy factor, and so a financial councilor to the duke, and through his influence, several Jews were permitted to live in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg.  Oppenheimer tried to consolidate the duchy's finances and free its ruler from dependence on grants from the estates.  His modern financial methods aroused much opposition and when the duke died, he was accused of embezzling state finances.

Oppenheimer's subserviency to the duke caused him the enmity of the people.  When the duke died in 1737, he was in trouble.  He was disgraced and executed in 1738 by hanging in Stuttgart, accused instead of having sexual relations with Christian women, something strictly against the law.    He refused to save his own life by accepting baptism to Christianity.  .   The next year, all Jews were mercilessly expelled but soon permitted to return. Jews had been there since 1521 and then expelled by law and came and resettled again at the end of the 1600s.   However, they were severely restricted in their Judaism as well as in their business.  People were warned against from having any dealings with them concerning money.  Court factors were treated more leniently, and important government contracts were given to them in 1759, 1761, 1764 in spite of objections from the masses.  it took until 1864 that Jews of Wurttemberg received equal rights with gentiles.  In 1933, there were 10,023 Jews living in Wurttemberg and then, the Holocaust starting strongly by 1939.  By 1990 there were only a few hundred Jews there.

Karl Eugen, Ludwig (1793-1795) and Friedricfh (1795-1797) treated Jews considerately.  These rulers were the last of the line of Catholic dukes.  Under the succeeding Protestant regime, a new era dawned for the Jews of Wurttemberg, and all of Germany.

Resource: Jewish Encyclopedia on Wurttemberg by Isidore Singer and Theodor Kroner
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist_in_the_Catholic_Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire