The Black Death and the Persecution of the Jews

Fourteenth Century Europe was, at first, a feudalist society based on trade but what

brought the upper castes prosperity was also the perfect mode of transport for an epidemic that

would soon affect most of the world. The Black Death otherwise called the bubonic plague was

responsible for the death of almost half of Europe’s population, between 1347 and 1353. 1 While

the real culprits of the propagation were mainly rats and other vermin, the majority of

Christendom held the Jews responsible. The combination of the growing debt Christians owed,

the already present antisemitism, and the fear they faced in regard to the plague led to the perfect

storm in which Jewish people got hit the hardest. This led to the mass persecution of European

Jews that took place during this period.

As mass hysteria spread through Europe so did the need to find someone to blame and

Jews being a minority were the perfect target. Christians were truly convinced that Jews were

contaminating the wells in towns where Christians lived for the purpose of poisoning and killing

them. Elitest Jewish families studied the Kabbalah, a type of theosophy only followed and

understood by a chosen few, which had a very mysterious and almost mystical aspect to it 2. This

led to an association between witchcraft and the Kabbalah which enforced the idea that the Jews

were meddling in nefarious practices. Torture followed by forced confessions were used as

concrete proof that Jews had poisoned water sources with the goal of destroying Christendom in

mind.

1
Snowden, Frank M. Epidemics and Society. (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2020), p.38.

2
Cantor, Norman F. In The Wake of The Plague. (New York: Simon & Schuster
Paperbacks,2002), p.151.
1
 Another factor that pushed antisemitism to the forefront was debt. Many Jewish

individuals worked as moneylenders because it was one of the only professional sectors

permitted by the government for them to work in. Jews weren’t forced to follow the Churches’

regulations and restrictions, they were therefore generally less likely to forgive the debt and

expected the payment that they were owed when it was due 3. This phenomenon caused a lot of

tension between the two groups. The church also resented the growing numbers of Jews because

it took away money that other practitioners would have been obligated to pay. Massacring the

Jews was very financially advantageous because those indebted to them would no longer have to

pay and lots of land holdings would now be open.

What started as tension and resentment turned into the persecution and massacre of the

Jewish people in Europe during the fourteenth century. City and religious officials would use

forced confessions as proof that Jews were poisoning Christians and therefore attempted and

partially succeeded in erasing their presence by being burnt alive. An example of this tragedy is

the case of Strasbourg where approximately nine hundred Jews were led to immolation in their

own cemetery. Christian communities would then pillage through the affairs of the dead

including rummaging through synagogues, which reinforces the principle that economic factors

motivated4. They would also burn any and all religious texts they could find in an attempt to

destroy the influence and presence of the Jewish religion5.

3
Giblin, James Cross. When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS. (New

York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), p.38

4
Cantor, In The Wake of The Plague. p.157
5
Samuel K. Cohn, “The Black Death and the Burning of Jews.” Past & Present, no. 196,

2007, pp. 3–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096679. Accessed 25 Oct. 2022.

2
 While many Jews were assaulted and murdered, others decided that they would rather

independently control the way they died. With this way of thinking in mind, many of them

committed suicide generally by conflagration because there was a lesser risk of the plague

propagating. In fact, in the German city of Esslingen, those who were part of the Jewish

ethnoreligious group locked themselves in the synagogue and set themselves ablaze 6. This

unfortunately was not the only case of mass suicide but was a very common act.

The Black Death was a fatal and catastrophic epidemic that hit Europe and Asia during

the fourteenth century and would leave a stain on its population, economy, and culture for a very

long time. A wave of antisemitism grew in strength and the persecution of Jews was very

common due to the fact that they were blamed for the bubonic plague. Many Christians thought

that they had poisoned potable water sources and this idea was emphasized by those indebted to

the Jews. A large fraction of European Jews was then set on fire and killed, while others took

their lives into their own hands and committed suicide.

Bibliography

Cantor, Norman F. In The Wake of The Plague. New York: Simon & Schuster

Paperbacks, 2002

6
Cantor, In The Wake of The Plague. p.156
3
 Cohn, Samuel K. “The Black Death and the Burning of Jews.” Past & Present, no. 196,

2007, pp. 3–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096679. Accessed 25 Oct.

2022.

Giblin, James Cross. When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS. New York

HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.

Nohl, Johannes. The Black Death. Translated by C. H. Clarke. Yardley: Westholme

Publishing, 2006.

Slack, Paul. Plague: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press,

2012

Snowden, Frank M. Epidemics and Society. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.

4
5