This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
holy city of Jerusalem and offered them a spir- itual reward: “Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusa- lem to liberate the Church of God, can substi- tute this journey for all penance.” Historian Bernard Hamilton said that when the pope finally finished his sermon, “the crowd shouted, ‘God wills it, God wills it!’ and surged forward to take the cross.” The pope appointed a former knight who had become a priest to lead the Crusade, but events quickly spiraled out of control. Armed with the pope’s promise of forgiveness of past sins and “sins recently committed,” nobles, knights, soldiers, farmers and housewives ral- lied to march to Jerusalem.


The Crusades Begin The first assault was called the Peasant’s Crusade because it was made by an unauthor- ized and poorly equipped army of mostly untrained peasants, including women. They were quickly defeated, and most of its mem- bers were killed or enslaved. The pope’s promise, however, was a


strong incentive. Even soldiers who had been excommunicated from the Church were wel- comed back to the fold with open arms if they made a vow to purge Jerusalem and the Mid- dle East of all infidels. They were also released from any debt they owed to Jewish people and had blanket permission from the pontiff to rob Jewish people on the journey to and from Jerusalem. Unfortunately, many of these crusaders decided to purge Europe of its own infidels by attacking any Jewish person they encountered on their journey to the Promised Land. Pastor John Hagee of Texas, who teaches extensively about the Church and Israel, writes: “On the First Crusade [there were a total of fifteen of them over a period of about five hundred years] to the Holy Land, the crusading armies left a trail of Jewish blood across Europe. Within a three-month period, twelve thou- sand Jews were slaughtered in Germany as the crusaders screamed, “The Jews have killed our Savior. They must convert or be killed.” According to Michael Brown, the leading slogan of the day throughout Europe was, “Kill a Jew and save your soul!” Pope Innocent III is considered one of


the “saviors” of the Jewish people, and he did try to stop some of the killing in later years. Yet his writings clearly indicate that he also felt the Jewish people deserved to “wander over the face of the earth, without right, except by gracious concession, without a home…as if they were beings of an inferior species.”


www.JewishVoiceToday.org


Jerusalem Captured The First Crusade successfully captured Jerusalem in the summer of 1099, but the cru- saders spent their first week in the holy city in an unholy slaughter of Jewish and Muslim citizens of Jerusalem. One historian says the men who carried the cross into Jerusalem took Holy Communion and “heartily devot- ed the day to exterminating Jewish men, women and children—killing more than ten thousand.” Is it any wonder, therefore, that spiritual darkness blanketed the Church in the medieval period and beyond when it pre- sumed to murder anyone who was identified as a Jew in the name of Christ? In 1182, France expelled Jewish people from its borders, and Austria did the same in 1421. After that they were expelled from the cities of Cologne (1424), Augsburg (1439) and Mainz (1473). Warsaw, Poland, expelled its Jewish population in 1439, followed by Sicily (1492-93). Lithuania expelled all Jew- ish people from its borders (1495), as did Portugal (1496-97) and Nuremburg (1499). These dates are important because they


indicate that most of Europe was closed to Jewish people by the time the infamous Span- ish Inquisition began in 1480. That means that Spain’s Jewish refugees simply had no place to go.


Spain Targets Its Jewish Citizens Until the savagery of the Third Reich in


the twentieth century, the Spanish Inquisition was the unrivaled pinnacle of Christian anti- Semitism in human history. Spain’s large population of Jewish people was the target of this unholy inquisition. Haman, the enemy of the Jewish popula- tion described in the book of Esther, seemed to take human form again in the person of Friar Tomas de Torquemada, the pope’s per- sonally appointed grand inquisitor. Torque- mada was also the confessor to Queen Isabel- la, and he used the full powers of the Church and the Spanish crown to hunt down and per- secute any and all Jewish people. Ultimately, he wielded so much power in Spain that even the king and queen feared his disapproval.


History of the Jews in Spain The first Jewish people to visit Spain


(called Tarshish in most instances) were pre- sumably Israelite traders who negotiated the purchase and shipment of gold and silver for the construction of Solomon’s Temple. The region later became a safe haven for Jewish exiles following the invasion of Babylon and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. Obadi-


ah the prophet referred to these exiles and mentioned another name for Spain when he prophesied:


And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. —Obadiah 1:20, emphasis added


The Doubleday Dictionary identifies


Sepharad with Spain and describes the Sephardim as “the Spanish and Portuguese Jews or their descendants.” Some historians believe these Sephardic Jews helped found the nation of Spain sometime before the birth of Christ. In any case, even more Jewish people fled to Sepharad after the destruction of Herod’s Temple in A.D. 70.


Jewish people throughout the Roman Empire suffered even more persecution than usual after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and named it the state religion. Persecution against Jewish people intensified when the increasingly influential Church fathers began to preach anti-Semitic themes in their sermons, teachings and letters. Then, in A.D. 586, a king named Reccared


converted from Arianism to Roman Catholi- cism, which was again declared the state reli- gion. Given the clearly anti-Semitic stance of the Church in that era, it was predictable that laws and decrees directed against the Jewish people would increase dramatically. During a series of Church councils, con-


vened in Spain over the next 125 years, the Jewish religion was virtually outlawed. The Church required Jews to be baptized as Chris- tians or be reduced to the status of slaves, suf- fer the confiscation of their property and see all of their children above the age of seven be placed in Christian homes.


Golden Age for Jewish People of Spain In A.D. 711, African Moors gained power


in Spain’s southern region and spread the influence of Islam. During this time, ironical- ly, the community of Spanish or Sephardic Jews enjoyed a golden age of economic, artis- tic and scientific achievement. Jewish people rose to the highest ranks of government and were honored for achievements in business, literature, the arts, the sciences and philoso- phy. In fact, many Jewish people from other Arab nations moved to Spain. Christians, who had maintained power in the North, drove the Moors out of Toledo CONTINUED ON PAGE 24


JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Jewish Voice Today | 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28