In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews

VI. 1096 in the History of Antisemitism

Chapter VI 1096 in the History of Antisemitism Ongoing hatred ofJews and resultant anti:Jewish persecutions have dominated Jewish historical consciousness for centuries. In traditional Christian thinking, recurrent Jewish suffering has been widely noted as well. For the Church, this suffering constituted divinely ordained punishment meted out to the Jews in response to their alleged sinfulness. Their suffering also served as an example to the world of the sin-punishment paradigm at work in history. To be sure, not all non:Jews have shared this sense ofJewish sin and divine punishment. As Jews have integrated into the Western world and as that Western world has become sensitized to the plight of many outsiders and minority insid- 128 In the Year 1()96: The First Crusade and theJeaJ5 ers, some non:Jews have become sympathetically aware of the hatred and persecution suffered byJews. Particularly in the wake of the Holocaust, the sense of unusual-perhaps unique-animosity and oppression has become strongly entrenched among both Jews and nonjews. While widely acknowledged, the seemingly ubiquitous hatred and persecution to which Jews have been subjected almost defy understanding--except for those working within a theological framework. For those approaching the issue h:om a humanistic perspective, it is possible, in specific cases, to point to factors that aroused antijewish animus and galvanized the authorities or the populace to take anti:Jewish measures . Especially in the aftermath of the Holocaust, however, the overarching questiuns have become paramount: While intergroup rivalries are a given of societal life, what has so consistently made Jews the butt of hatred and the objects of violence and oppressive restrictions? Can one discern a connecting thread linking discrete instances of anti:Jewish hostility and repression into a comprehensible pattern? Is there indeed a comprehensible pattern? Not surprisingly, a problematic phenomenon has come to be designated by an equally elusive term. "Antisemitism" has meant and continues to mean many things to many people . The term is of recent vintage, coined proudly during the closing decades of the nineteenth centUl·Y by those opposed to the Jews. It suggested a new grasp of the Jewish issue, an insight into the allegedly biological and intractable essence of the 'Je\vish problem" in European society. With the passage of time and especially in the wake of the Holocaust, a designation worn proudly by its initiators has evolved into a badge of opprobrium. Since World War II, very few people have been willing to identify themselves openly as antisemites; rather, the term has generally been fastened upon individuals and groups both as an expression of revulsion and as a weapon brandished against them. What, in fact, does the tenn designate? The restricted meaning intended by those who first called themselves antisemites -the allegation thatJews constitute a separate racial group, with identifiable genetic characteristics-has given 1096 in the History ofAntisemitism 729 way to diverse usages. Questions as to the meaning of the term abound: Does antisemitism refer~ for example, to a set of behaviors, a set of attitudes, or both? Does antisemitism refer to the totality of anti:Jewish actions and beliefs (given uncertainty on the issue of behaviors versus attitudes) or should it be restricted to certain particularly intense or irrational anti:Jewish behaviors or stereotypes? vV"hile most of us use the term unthinkingly and often in contradictory ways, serious researchers attempt to define the field of their inquiry rigorously and impose-in more-or-Iess arbitrary fashion-carefully controlled definitions. I shall, for the purposes of the following discussion, impose no rigorous definition of the term antisernitism. I shall, rather, examine the place of the attacks of 1096 in the lengthy history of physical persecution of the Jews, while paying particular attention to the place of the underlying attitudes in the long history ofanti:Jevvish thinking. In other words, antisemitism will here simply serve as a conveniently loose designation for the widest possible combination of actions and beliefs. Ultimately, readers can make up their own minds as to how they prefer to apply the vexing term to the complex realities that we shall examine. Let us begin on the behavioral leveL What place does the violence of 1096 occupy in the historic chain of antiJewish actions? The assaults of 1096 did not constitute one of the costlier persecutions in the annals of the Jewish people , in terms of immediate physical losses. The number of deaths was probably in the neighborhood...