The Plague DBQ

Relations between the Christians and Jews of medieval Europe were always influenced by their unequal social and economic statuses and the religious competition that existed between them. While the Jews served a purpose in the Christian religion, this purpose meant that the more populous Christians that had come to dominate Europe only tolerated the Jews. No premise of equality existed, and the Jews came to depend on relationships with lower-level rulers to secure their relative safety. Rumors persisted that Jews had poisoned wells, and the Jews were often the targets of violence that the Christians seemed exceedingly willing to deliver. Overall, life was better for the Christians and worse for the Jews, although this would be of no

In the late middle ages (between 1300-1485 AD),then a series of catastrophes happened. First Germany and other northern countries experienced crop failures from 1315 to 1317, and these resulted in extensive starvation and death. Then, in 1347, Europe was shot by one of the worst catastrophe in human history, an outbreak called the Black Death. Sometimes called simply "the Plague," the Black Death killed between 25% and 45% of the European population.

In fact, people believed the plague was a divine punishment because of their sins and the only way to end the sickness was asking for God’s forgiveness. Rumors also placed the blame on the Jewish community, and thousands of Jews were massacred. In the end, the plague affected everyone, no matter the social class it was only a matter of time before a person was sentenced to their

Doctors, churches and government were powerless against the disease. The only way to escape the infection was to avoid contact with infected persons and contaminated objects.(paraphrase) (Therefore, some cities set up the policy to prevent strangers from entering their cities, particularly, merchants and Jews. The discrimination of Jewish population became another major problem. The people laid the blame of the plague at the feet of the Jews.)

People could not find a conclusion or an answer to this issue and said that they always go to church and pray to G-d and therefore can not understand why G-D keeps punishing them. A belief started to spread that as people letting the Jews live in the same countries or areas as them, G-d is giving them a punishment. As a result, people were looking for ways to get rid of the Jews and started exiling and even murdering Jews. The Christians tried to prove that now the Jews were not dying from the plague and the Christians were still dying, though twenty percent of Jews died from the plague. To prove that this was wrong and Jews were still dying, Jews were stating that Jewish people had specific laws and customs they had to follow about sanitary issues.

On the day of sabbath, Jews were stoned. Perhaps it was by the other christians? And maybe the Christians felt like the Jews have brought nothing but sorrow and depression to Europe. For example, the Christians must've thought that the Jews brought the plague with them, and later kicking them out of of all of Europe. They then drove them out of the city or locked them up. Jews have always been living in peace but are tortured in almost every nation.

The plague was believed to a Jewish conspiracy to end Christendom. As the crop and water supply both had surpluses, the Jewish population was accused of poisoning the water supply. In reality, their persecution was due to a combination of religious chauvinism and economic resentment when feudal lords were indebted. Widespread massacres occurred with all Jewish men, women, and children being burned alive save for those who agreed to be

This belief was due to the lack of knowledge of this disease. They believed the punishment was for the many grave sins of the time period such as: greed, blasphemy, worldliness, heresy, and fornication. As a result of this belief many Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349. This was done to purge the community of heretics.

This caused people to panic and they of course had to find someone to blame for this devastating event. Even the belief in witchcraft was brought into the matter. “People called the Flagellants believed that the plague was the judgement of God on sinful mankind.” These people traveled the country flogging people to rid themselves of their sins. Another religion that was brought into this was Judaism and they were blamed for “inciting God’s wrath.” With this, rumors about the Jews were spread, they were imprisoned, and it even went as far as burning them.

The status of Jews in Eastern Europe was never a pleasant or hospitable one. Jews lived lives banned from certain parts of the area and within ghettos within cities. There was truly a fear of Judaism, especially that of a fake tradition of blood libel. This fear falsely declared that Jews killed Christians to use their blood in ritualistic traditions. These fears lead to many mass killing of Jews and their expulsion from major towns in 1526 (Miller 93). Many Christians justified their discrimination of Jews based on the Gospel blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus Christ.

In the book The Holocaust edited by Simone Gigliotti and Berel Lang the Jewish people were accused of having killed God. “Jews had rejected Christ. They had not only rejected him, but they had killed him, and since Christ was God, they had killed God” (Lewis, 33). Many people all over Europe had drawn passages from the Bible to support this theory. There exist passages in the Gospel according to Mathew that put the blame for killing God in the hands of the Jewish people. The Christian belief in Jewish Decide brought on negative feelings towards all Jewish

People in this time didn’t know what to believe when this disaster struck. The Plague was an unseen killer which changed the 14th century in many ways. Nobody in this time knew how to handle a Plaque on this scale. That is why many people were quick to point fingers after their loved ones had died. In this day-and-age the Jews were considered to be sided with the Devil. The Jews took the blame for almost everything in the European societies. The Medieval Christians believed the Jews were the cause of all the ills in this world. Religion was crucial in the Middle Ages and the Christians believed the Jews were trying to eliminate Christianity all together. This constant feud caused everyone to blame their problems on the Jew’s, no matter how trivial or preposterous the issue.

As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “In Jewish history there are no coincidences.” The term the “Holocaust” has a very specific meaning to most people today. It refers to the genocide of innocent Jews due to prejudice views of Hitler during World War II. The mass killings of these Jews were tremendously awful. People are quick to blame the death of these innocent Jews on Hitler, which is ultimately true, but this was not the first time Jews had gone through similar injustices. In fact, Cruelty toward the Jewish people began in the middle ages with discrimination and mild massacres. They have been highly mistreated and no one really talks about early views on Jewish people. Although Hitler’s cause of hatred could have originated from somewhere very different, the people that lived during the middle ages main cause of hatred toward Jews is drawn from religious points of view. So, the very familiar Holocaust, popularly known as the Jewish annihilation during Hitler's reign, was not the first genocide of Jewish people. Rather, the Jewish people have been persecuted on various occasions, the first being during the middle ages.

The Lateran and Subsequent church segregated the dangerous jews to the vulnerable Christians, prohibiting Jews from appearing in public during the holy week. Unable to hide, the jews would be caught, confess and burnt alive. Considering the Christians still accused the Jews, it led to an outbreak of anti- Semitism, and a huge massacre in Worms, Triers, and Metz. Forthwith the Pagans disliking the Jewish religion, the accusation

The Black Death took place between 1315 and 1317, this Bubonic plague killed 10 percent The Catholic church failed to explain the cause of the Black Death, many church officials refused to treat the sick; leaving dying people behind. Citizens were desperate during the disaster, some had given up on life. They began living without rules and restrictions, they abandoned themselves into sexual and alcoholic indulgences. People lost their faith in Christianity, some extremists began to blame the Jews for causing the plague. An outbreak of anti-Semitism took place during the Black Death which caused the destruction over 60 major Jewish communities by the year of 1531. The plague also gave birth to a group of extreme believers called the flagellants in Germany who whipped themselves for forgiveness from God. The Black Death damaged the reputation of the church and many people lost faith in God.