Language:
German
Year of publication:
1993
Titel der Quelle:
Begegnungen zwischen Christentum und Judentum
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1993) 21-39
Keywords:
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Jews Historiography
;
Jews History To 1500
;
Westphalia (Duchy)
Abstract:
Notes that there were few Jews in medieval Westphalia, and they are seldom mentioned in Westphalian chronicles of the 14th-18th centuries. Most of the chroniclers condemn the Crusader pogroms in the Rhineland. About the massacres of Jews at the time of the Black Death, however, they report the general opinion that the Jews poisoned the wells, without committing themselves to an opinion of their own. The exception is the Dominican Heinrich von Herford (d. 1370), who shows sympathy for the Jewish martyrs and expresses his disbelief in the allegation of well poisoning. He also mentions material gain as a motive of the persecution. From his description it is possible to infer that the Jews were massacred by order of the authorities rather than in a popular pogrom. Despite their noncommittal attitude to the accusation of well poisoning, most of the chroniclers - including Heinrich von Herford - believed the Jews capable of ritual murder and host desecration.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink