History and Hate: The Dimensions of Anti-Semitism

Robert Chazan's "Medieval Anti-Semitism": A Note on the Impact of Theology

Robert Chazan's "Medieval Anti-Semitism": ANote on the ImpactofTheology JeremvCohen Robert Chazan has presented a succinct tripartite model to explain the etiology and character of medieval anti-Semitism. His thesis is "that [1] the particular constellations ofa given majority society, [2] the living patterns of a specific Jewish minority. and [3] usuaUyan inherited legacy ofstereotypes combine[d] to create ever-changing manifestations ofanti-Jewish thinking and behavior ." 'This formulation presents an approach to medieval Jewish history that recognizes that anti-Semitism was never a simple phenomenon; it derived from a multitude of interdependent components ofmedieval civilization. And should such an impression sound truistic it can hardly be overstated, given the great number ofwriters who have attempted to account for Christian anti-Judaism in the Middle Ages from a narrow, parochial standpoint -whether that ofthe social, economic. political,orcultural historian. It is hoped that such a broad and balanced perspective will provide the basis for a fruitful revisionist inspection of all extant evidence of medieval anti-Judaism, an undertaking in which Professor Chazan has already begun to play a leading role. 'This is not the appropriate p1ace for me to attempt any such review of specific historical events, but I would like to reflect briefly on several of the issues raised in this insightful synthesis. First, although Professor Chazan has confined his attention to 67 Ashkenazic Jewry, one cannot overlook the Iberian contributions to the development of anti-Semitism. As a crossroads ofJewish, Christian, and Muslim civilizations, medieval Spain occupied an admittedly unique station in the history of medieval Europe; it therefore defies generalization. Yet the anti-Jewish legislation of the Catholic Visigoths, the Singular phenomenon ofMarranism, and the zealous persecutions ofthe Spanish Inquisition all testify to a hatred ofJews that even conversion to Christianity failed to mitigate--exceptional for the Middle Ages, to be sure, but a significant precedent for the racial anti-Semitism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On a more general note. Professor Chazan has defined his subject as the legacy of medieval anti-Semitism in the Weltanschauung of modem Western civilization-the popular anti-Jewish stereotypes of the European Middle Ages insofar as they ultimately contributed tomore recent Gentile perceptionsof the Jew. From such a developmental perspective, I would incline to argue that the ideational component in his explanatory model warrantsgreater emphasis than that allotted to it. I grant that the precise time, place, and intensity ofan instance ofmedieval antiSemitism resulted directly from the particular characteristics of the Gentile and Jewish communities involved in the interaction. With the possible, partial exception of the stereotypical usurer, however, I believe that the substance-that is, the accusations, the beliefs, the value judgments-ofmost medieval anti-Jewish expression derived from the teachings of Christian theology above all else. Theology afforded theencounter betweenmedieval Jew and Gentile its uniqueness. No other period in our history knew such an extensive rule of a single religious establishment, especially one in whose overall world view the Jews and Judaism figured so importantly. A few examples should illustrate my point. From the earliest generations of the Catholic Church, Christian clergymen deemed it a religious duty to polemicize against the Jews. Where the latter posed little or no immediate threat to the Church, or even in the complete absence ofJews, 68 Jeremy Cohen the AdversusJudaeos tradition continued to flourish; for the logic of early Christian hW:ory dictated the affinnation ofChristianity in tenus ofthe negation ofJudaism. In a word, thespecific theological asswnptions of the two faiths were mutually exclusive. As John Chrysostom, one ofthe most revered fathers ofthe Church, instructed his parish in fourth-century Antioch; Where C-'hrist-killersgather, the cross is ridiculed, God blasphemed , the father unacknowle