Jewish Chronicle of the Crusades

In the spring of 1096, bands of crusaders, on their way through Germany to the Holy Land, killed thousands of Jews in the larger towns such as Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. In May, 1096, a band of “Popular Crusade” crusaders led by Emico, a German noble, forced its way into the city of Mainz and finally into the archbishop’s palace where the Jews had taken refuge. The slaughter and suicide of the Jews in this palace are graphically described in the following selection from a Hebrew historical account by Solomon bar Samson - of whom we know very little - who wrote in about 1140. (The basic account is supported by other sources, both Christian and Jewish.) Questions: According to this account, what was the crusaders’ justification for killing Jews? How can you explain the contradiction between their behavior and Church doctrine? If you had been the archbishop, would you have tried to explain the Church’s position to these crusaders? And finally, from another angle: What does this account reveal about Jewish attitudes to the Christian world by 1140?

Soloman bar Samson’s Account of the Crusaders in Mainz, May 27, 1096

On the third of [the Hebrew month of] Sivan.... [Tuesday, May 27], at noon, Emico the wicked, the enemy of the Jews, came with his whole army against the city gate, and the citizens opened it up for him. Then the enemies of the Lord said to each other: “Look! They have opened up the gate for us. Now let us avenge the blood of 'the hanged one' [Jesus].”

The children of the holy covenant who were there, martyrs who feared the Most High, although they saw the great multitude, an army numerous as the sand on the shore of the sea, still clung to their Creator. Then young and old donned their armor and girded on their weapons. At their head was Rabbi Kalonymus ben Meshullam, the leader of the community…Then came the gangs and bands [of crusaders], sweeping through like a flood until Mainz was filled from end to end.

The foe Emico proclaimed in the hearing of the community that the enemy [i.e., the Jews] be driven from the city and be put to flight. Panic was great in the town. Each Jew in the inner court of the bishop girded on his weapons, and all moved towards the palace gate to fight the crusaders and the citizens…but the enemy overcame them and took the gate.

The hand of the Lord was heavy against His people. All the Gentiles were gathered together against the Jews in the courtyard to blot out their name, and the strength of our people weakened when they saw the wicked Edomites [i.e., Christians] overpowering them. The bishop's men, who had promised to help them, were the very first to flee, thus delivering the Jews into the hands of the enemy. They were indeed a poor support; even the bishop himself fled from his church for it was thought to kill him also because he had spoken good things of the Jews....

When the children of the covenant saw that the heavenly decree of death had been issued and that the enemy had conquered them and had entered the courtyard, then all of them -old men and young, virgins and children, servants and maids - cried out together to their Father in heaven and, weeping for themselves and for their lives, accepted as just the sentence of God. One to another they said: "Let us be strong and let us bear the yoke of the holy religion, for only in this world can the enemy kill us - and the easiest of the four deaths is by the sword. But we, our souls in paradise, shall continue to live eternally, in the great shining reflection [of the divine glory]." [In Jewish law the four death penalties were stoning, burning, beheading by sword, and strangulation.]

With a whole heart and with a willing soul they then spoke: "After all it is not right to criticize the acts of God, blessed be He and blessed be His name, who has given to us His Torah and a command to put ourselves to death, to kill ourselves for the unity of His holy name. Happy are we if we do His will. Happy is anyone who is killed or slaughtered, who dies for the unity of His name so that he is ready to enter the World to Come, to dwell in the heavenly camp with the righteous - with Rabbi Akiba and his companions, the pillars of the universe, who were killed for His names sake. [The Romans martyred Akiba during the Bar Kokba revolt, about 135 CE] Not only this; but he exchanges the world of darkness for the world of light, the world of trouble for the world of joy, and the world that passes away for the world that lasts for all eternity." Then all of them, to a man, cried out with a loud voice: "Now we must delay no longer, for the enemy are already upon us. Let us hasten and offer ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord. Let him who has a knife examine it that it not be nicked, and let him come and slaughter us for the sanctification of the Only One, the Everlasting, and then let him cut his own throat or plunge the knife into his own body." [A nick in the slaughterer's knife would make it ritually unfit.]

As soon as the enemy came into the courtyard they found some of the very pious there with our brilliant master, Isaac ben Moses. He stretched out his neck, and his head they cut off first. The others, wrapped by their fringed prayer shawls, sat by themselves in the courtyard, eager to do the will of their Creator. They did not care to flee into the chamber to save themselves for this temporal life, but out of love they received upon themselves the sentence of God. The enemy showered stones and arrows upon them, but they did not care to flee, and [Esther 9:5] "with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter, and destruction" the foe killed all of those whom they found there. When those in the chambers saw the deed of these righteous ones, how the enemy had already come upon them, they then cried out, all of them: "There is nothing better than for us to offer our lives as a sacrifice."

The women there girded their loins with strength and slew their sons and their daughters and then themselves. Many men, too, plucked up courage and killed their wives, their sons, their infants. The tender and delicate mother slaughtered the babe she had played with, all of them, men and women arose and slaughtered one another. The maidens and the young brides and grooms looked out of the Windows and in a loud voice cried: "Look and see, O our God, what we do for the sanctification of Thy great name in order not to exchange you for a hanged and crucified one...."

Thus were the precious children of Zion, the Jews of Mainz, tried with ten trials like Abraham, our father, and like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah [who were thrown into a fiery furnace, Daniel 3:21]. They tied their sons as Abraham tied Isaac his son, and they received upon themselves with a willing soul the yoke of the fear of God, the King of the Kings of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, rather than deny and exchange the religion of our King for [Isaiah 14: 19] “an abhorred offshoot [i.e., Jesus]....” They stretched out their necks to the slaughter and they delivered their pure souls to their Father in heaven. Righteous and pious women bared their throats to each other, offering to be sacrificed for the unity of the Name. A father turning to his son or brother, a brother to his sister, a woman to her son or daughter neighbor to a neighbor or a friend, a groom to a bride, a fiancé to fiancee, would kill and would be killed, and blood touched blood. …

For the sake of Isaac who was ready to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah, the world shook, as it is said [Isaiah 33:7]: "Behold their valiant ones cry without; [the angels of peace weep bitterly]" and [Jeremiah 4.28] "the heavens grow dark." Yet see what these martyrs did! Why did the heavens not grow dark and the stars not withdraw their brightness? Why did not the moon and the sun grow dark in their heavens when on one day, on the third of Sivan, on a Tuesday, eleven hundred souls were killed and slaughtered, among them so many infants and sucklings who had not transgressed nor sinned, so many poor, innocent souls?

Wilt Thou, despite this, still restrain Thyself, O Lord? For thy sake it was that these numberless souls were killed. Avenge quickly the blood of Thy servants which was spilt in our days and in our sight. Amen.

[From Jacob Rader Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, with minor modifications.]

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