The Crusades

This class covers a period of severe oppression for Ashkenazic Jewry which included the Crusades and blood libels.

During the Middle Ages, Christian mobs ravaged dozens of Jewish communities in Europe.

The 20th of Sivan commemorates a number of tragedies that befell the Jewish people over the centuries.

The Crusades set a dangerous precedent -- the rise of organized, popular, anti-Jewish uprisings.

When the crusaders captured Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Jews of Jerusalem fled into a synagogue. The crusaders then set flame to the synagogue, burning alive all the Jewish men, women, and children who had taken refuge there. All Jews were bar...

Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir Tam, known as the "Rabbenu Tam," was one of Rashi's illustrious grandsons. During the Second Crusade, on the second day of the holiday of Shavuot, the Crusaders entered his hometown of Ramerupt, and pillaged and massacred many Jews. ...

The Jewish community of Cologne, Germany, designated the 23rd of Nissan as a day of fasting and mourning to commemorate the Jews of Cologne massacred in 1147 during the Second Crusade.

During the first crusade (see "Today in Jewish History" for Iyar 8), the Jews of Cologne, Germany chose to be killed rather than convert to Christianity. This was the case, during the first crusades, for many of the Jews who were given the choice between ...

At the end of a week in which a group Jews took refuge in a local castle in Worms, Germany, the crusaders massacred them during their morning prayers. (see "Today in Jewish History" for Iyar 8.)