Jews During the Crusades

 When the crusades are mentioned, it is usually viewed as a war between Muslims and Christians for Jerusalem. While this may be true and that there was much blood shed from both sides, oftentimes it is forgotten how the Jews faced during these crusades, especially the first crusade. Chapter 13 of “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths,” depicts how the Christian Crusaders had not only been ruthlessly killing Muslims in the crusades but also Jews. The first Christian Crusaders left for Jerusalem in spring of 1096 and on their way they took many detours and killed many Jews (Armstrong 272). In that spring “a band of German Crusaders massacred the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz along with Rhine” (Armstrong 272). Many of the crusaders wanted to punish the Jews who they felt were responsible for Jesus’ death. Even though Muslims had control over Jerusalem, the Christian’s did not necessarily hate them as the Muslims were an unknown in their lives but they did hold hate for the Jews that they held responsible for Jesus’ death (Armstrong 272). Anti-Semitism soon became a widespread ideal in Europe due to the Crusades.

In 1099, the Christian Crusaders finally gained control of Jerusalem and once they gained control they began to slaughter the city’s inhabitants. Not did they kill the Muslims in the city but they also ruthlessly killed the Jews too (Armstrong 274). They wanted to rid the city of the Jewish “vermin” (Armstrong 275). They ran all the Muslims and Jews out of Jerusalem and barred them from returning. These Crusades had shown just how little the Christians thought of the Jews. The Crusades is mostly looked at from the point of view of Muslim versus Christian but Armstrong does a strong work of showing just how seriously affected the Jews were as well. The Jews had gotten caught between a battle of two large forces and had no way to defend themselves and thus were killed and ran out from the city. Control of the city would continue to go back and forth between the Christians and Muslims and the Jews would continue to be caught in the middle of this blood shed.