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This document discusses the struggles Jews faced in the Middle Ages and Russia. It provides 3 key points: 1) In the Middle Ages, Jews were subjected to blood libels where they were falsely accused of killing Christian children for rituals. This led to massacres and torture of Jews. 2) During the Black Death plague, Jews were scapegoated and hundreds of communities were destroyed through violence. 3) In Russia, Catherine the Great established the Pale of Settlement in 1791 where over 90% of Russian Jews were restricted. Within the Pale, Jews faced double taxes and restrictions on land ownership and education. This led to mass immigration of Jews from Russia.
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- 1. appendices learn more about Israel’s story
- 3. Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story 91 Struggles of the Middle Ages B lood libel was the allegation that Jews hundreds were burned at the stake or drowned in murder non-Jews, especially Christian wells. If they didn’t “confess” voluntarily to the children, in order to obtain blood for crime, a confession was obtained through torture. the making of Matzah Passover or other rituals; most blood libels occurred close to Pass- Jews were subject to a wide range of legal disabili- over. The blood libel led to trials and massacres of ties and restrictions throughout the Middle Ages, Jews in the Middle Ages and early modern times, some of which lasted until the end of the 19th and was revived by the Nazis. The blood libel (libel century. Jews were excluded from most trades. is a false allegation) was particularly ironic given Often Jews were barred from all occupations but that a Jew may not ingest blood in any form (it’s money-lending and peddling, and even these were a violation of the Kosher laws). Tragically, Jews in forbidden at times. The number of Jews permitted every generation lost their lives due to this hor- to reside in different places was limited; they were rible lie. concentrated in ghettos and were not allowed to own land. They were subject to discriminatory As the Black Death epidemics devastated Europe taxes when entering cities or districts other than in the mid-14th century, annihilating more than their own and were forced to swear special Jewish a half the population, Jews were taken as scape- Oaths and wear yellow Stars of David to identify goats. Rumors spread that they caused the dis- themselves as Jews. ease by deliberately poisoning wells. Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed by violence; Russian Anti-Semitism C zar Catherine the Great sought to get In addition, thousands of Jews fell victim to dev- rid of Russia’s Jews, and in 1791, she astating pogroms (outbreaks of violence against established the Pale of Settlement as a Jews in Europe) in the 1870s and 1880s. The po- dumping place. More than 90 percent groms, boycotts and other anti-Semitic depreda- of Russia’s Jews were crammed into the Pale. This tions Jews faced in the Pale led to mass immigra- settlement covered the territory of present-day tion to the United States (2 million between 1881 Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belorus- and 1914). sia. Even within the Pale, Jews were discriminated against: They paid double taxes, were forbidden to lease land, run taverns or receive higher education.
- 4. 92 Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story
- 5. Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story 93
- 6. 94 Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story
- 7. Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story 95
- 8. 96 Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story
- 9. Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story 97
- 10. Israel in the Middle East Context 98 Appendices: Learn More About Israel’s Story
- 12. The Holy Land Democracy Project, a program of The Jewish Federation Community Engagement Strategic Initiative The Many Faces of Israel