SECTION I – PART 1 THE ORIGINS & HISTORY OF ASHKENAZIC JEWRY
UNIT 1 – HOW THE JEWS GOT TO CENTRAL & SOUTHERN EUROPE
1.1 EARLY JEWISH SETTLEMENT
Jewish settlement in Western Europe dates back to antiquity. Legend even tells of Jewish communities in France and Germany as far back as the time of Ezra’s return with Babylonian Jews to Jerusalem. At any rate, by the time of the Roman Empire, Jewish merchants and suppliers accompanied the Roman legions on their journeys of conquest through France and Germany. Many settled in those communities, where their descendants would become the nucleus of the settlements destined to dominate Jewish life in the early Middle Ages. They did not assimilate into the pagan society of the Roman world, and were certainly not tempted to imitate the ways of their primitive, barbaric, tribal neighbors. In addition, though they stayed apart from European life, they generally were not mistreated under Roman rule, and this enabled them to develop their own religious and social infrastructure. They also maintained contact with the Babylonian center of Jewish life, supporting its great yeshivas and submitting to the authority of the Geonim. If Jewish life until the sixth century in Western Europe was not idyllic, it was not uncomfortable either.
1.2 THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. THE RISE OF THE CHURCH
All of this changed in the fifth century with the fall of the Roman Empire and the Christianization of Western Europe. The Church, its early popes and spiritual fathers, were bitterly anti-Jewish. The preaching’s of the Church regarding Jews were vitriolic and poisonous. Before the rise of Islam, the church viewed the Jewish people as the only obstacle to Christian hegemony in the world. Jewish refusal to conform to the beliefs of the majority brought the Church frustration, which it vented wildly and viciously against the Jewish people. Thus, almost fifteen centuries ago, the seeds of violent anti-Semitism were planted deep in the soil of Europe. Since this hatred was not only socially acceptable but religiously worthy, a bloody litany of pain accompanied the Jews throughout their European experience.
1.3 MOSLEMS VS CHRISTIANS. HOW IT AFFECTED THE JEWS
In the eighth century, the Moslem conquest of Europe was stopped by the Battle of Tours in 732, and though this may have relieved the direct Moslem pressure on Europe, Christian Europe nevertheless found itself hemmed in by its Arab adversary. The Arab world was more technologically skilled, economically developed and educationally advanced. Worse, it controlled all the trade routes, land and sea, to the East. Spices, precious metals, silks and fine cloth all had to be brought to Europe from the East, and the Moslems had a stranglehold on this trade. In the early Middle Ages, Christian Europe did not yet dare to attempt the conquest of the East by force of arms. Thus, the enmity of Christianity to Jewry was forced to soften, on the surface at least, since Jews were able to penetrate the Arab world and serve as the conduit for bringing Eastern goods to Western Europe.TheJewish “network” throughouttheworldwasofgreatadvantage. “So long as Isaac of York trusted his brother