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University of California Press

About the Book

One of the unanticipated results of the First Crusade in 1095 was a series of violent assaults on major Jewish communities in the Rhineland. Robert Chazan offers the first detailed analysis of these events, illuminating the attitudes that triggered the assaults as well as the beliefs that informed Jewish reactions to them.


One of the unanticipated results of the First Crusade in 1095 was a series of violent assaults on major Jewish communities in the Rhineland. Robert Chazan offers the first detailed analysis of these events, illuminating the attitudes that triggered the as

About the Author

Robert Chazan is Scheuer Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

I. The Background

The Awakening of Northern Europe
The Growth and Development of Northern European Jewry
Christian-Jewish Relations

II. The Sources and Their Reliability

The Christian Sources
The Jewish Sources
III. The Violence of 1096
Varieties of Violence
The Devastating Assaults: A Closer Look

IV. The Patterns of Response

Preserving Jewish Lives
Conversion or Martyrdom
v. Subsequent Jewish Reactions
The Return to Normalcy
Memorialization, Rationalization, and Explanation

VI. The Church, the Jews, and the Later Crusades

Assertion of Effective Control over Crusading
Related Economic Issues

VII. Glances Backward and Forward

Reflections of the Late Eleventh Century
1096 as a Watershed
1096 as a "Portent of Things to Come"
New-Style Persecution and New-Style Martyrdom

Appendix
Abbreviations
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index