The Plague DBQ

In fact, people believed the plague was a divine punishment because of their sins and the only way to end the sickness was asking for God’s forgiveness. Rumors also placed the blame on the Jewish community, and thousands of Jews were massacred. In the end, the plague affected everyone, no matter the social class it was only a matter of time before a person was sentenced to their

Jews played a crucial role in their communities in medieval Europe so the growth in anti-sematic action can be seen as unexpected. Whilst Jews had always been considered as ‘other’ by their Christian neighbour tolerance existed. So what caused the shift to viewing Jews as traitors? The causes for anti-Semitism during the Latin Middle Ages were sudden large events, the Crusades and the Black Death, and ongoing concerns, Jew’s economic position. The primary cause was the Crusades as the First Crusade began a tradition of organised violence against the Jewish population of Europe, rationalised as an extension of the Christian mission.

In the late middle ages (between 1300-1485 AD),then a series of catastrophes happened. First Germany and other northern countries experienced crop failures from 1315 to 1317, and these resulted in extensive starvation and death. Then, in 1347, Europe was shot by one of the worst catastrophe in human history, an outbreak called the Black Death. Sometimes called simply "the Plague," the Black Death killed between 25% and 45% of the European population.

Anti-Semitism as a term to describe hatred of Jews was not used until the second half of the nineteenth century, but a bias against Jews had existed for thousands of years. This resentment of the Jews as a people can be traced back to theological roots as well as practical concerns in early Europe. The most significant and accepted origin of anti-Judaism is the death of Jesus. Jews were branded as the murderers of Christ and Jesus’ followers developed a deep hatred of them. This undertone to Christianity endured over time and became an inherent facet of the religion. Later, when Jews attempted to assimilate into European societies, they faced strong discrimination and resistance. Other citizens viewed them as economic competition. In addition, negative stereotypes evolved about the Jews in relation to their

The status of Jews in Eastern Europe was never a pleasant or hospitable one. Jews lived lives banned from certain parts of the area and within ghettos within cities. There was truly a fear of Judaism, especially that of a fake tradition of blood libel. This fear falsely declared that Jews killed Christians to use their blood in ritualistic traditions. These fears lead to many mass killing of Jews and their expulsion from major towns in 1526 (Miller 93). Many Christians justified their discrimination of Jews based on the Gospel blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus Christ.

The Blood Libel accusation was harmful to the Jews in medieval Europe because it enhanced tremendously, resulting in anti-Semitism. Jews were tormented to the point that they admitted to offensive wrongdoings. Culminating in torturing, murder, trials and expulsion of many Jews. The Christians explained it on having to do with the death of Jesus Christ. At the start of Medieval Ages, the Jews were denied many things; the military, citizenship and its rights, excluded from membership in guilds, and the professions.

Relations between the Christians and Jews of medieval Europe were always influenced by their unequal social and economic statuses and the religious competition that existed between them. While the Jews served a purpose in the Christian religion, this purpose meant that the more populous Christians that had come to dominate Europe only tolerated the Jews. No premise of equality existed, and the Jews came to depend on relationships with lower-level rulers to secure their relative safety. Rumors persisted that Jews had poisoned wells, and the Jews were often the targets of violence that the Christians seemed exceedingly willing to deliver. Overall, life was better for the Christians and worse for the Jews, although this would be of no

The plague was believed to a Jewish conspiracy to end Christendom. As the crop and water supply both had surpluses, the Jewish population was accused of poisoning the water supply. In reality, their persecution was due to a combination of religious chauvinism and economic resentment when feudal lords were indebted. Widespread massacres occurred with all Jewish men, women, and children being burned alive save for those who agreed to be

People could not find a conclusion or an answer to this issue and said that they always go to church and pray to G-d and therefore can not understand why G-D keeps punishing them. A belief started to spread that as people letting the Jews live in the same countries or areas as them, G-d is giving them a punishment. As a result, people were looking for ways to get rid of the Jews and started exiling and even murdering Jews. The Christians tried to prove that now the Jews were not dying from the plague and the Christians were still dying, though twenty percent of Jews died from the plague. To prove that this was wrong and Jews were still dying, Jews were stating that Jewish people had specific laws and customs they had to follow about sanitary issues.

Doctors, churches and government were powerless against the disease. The only way to escape the infection was to avoid contact with infected persons and contaminated objects.(paraphrase) (Therefore, some cities set up the policy to prevent strangers from entering their cities, particularly, merchants and Jews. The discrimination of Jewish population became another major problem. The people laid the blame of the plague at the feet of the Jews.)

Jews were targeted by hatred by other religious groups because of their religion. Traditional Anti-Semitism, started nearly two thousand years ago. Traditional Anti-Semitism was rooted in religion. Judaism, a monotheistic religion, led to a lifetime of exclusion for many of its followers. In the beginning, when Judaism was first developing, believing in a religion which only had one God was out of the ordinary. The other religions were all polytheistic, which made the Jewish people a target. The people of this time period didn’t like the idea of this new belief.

On the day of sabbath, Jews were stoned. Perhaps it was by the other christians? And maybe the Christians felt like the Jews have brought nothing but sorrow and depression to Europe. For example, the Christians must've thought that the Jews brought the plague with them, and later kicking them out of of all of Europe. They then drove them out of the city or locked them up. Jews have always been living in peace but are tortured in almost every nation.

This belief was due to the lack of knowledge of this disease. They believed the punishment was for the many grave sins of the time period such as: greed, blasphemy, worldliness, heresy, and fornication. As a result of this belief many Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349. This was done to purge the community of heretics.

Other religions blamed the Jews for 'Christ's' resurrection and were regarded as 'Christ killers'. As years and centuries have gone by, the Jews were still being blamed for unfortunate events that there wasn't even evidence for. Thirdly I would like to add that there had been centuries of persecution from the Nazis in particular; 1933-1939. In 1933

The Black Death took place between 1315 and 1317, this Bubonic plague killed 10 percent The Catholic church failed to explain the cause of the Black Death, many church officials refused to treat the sick; leaving dying people behind. Citizens were desperate during the disaster, some had given up on life. They began living without rules and restrictions, they abandoned themselves into sexual and alcoholic indulgences. People lost their faith in Christianity, some extremists began to blame the Jews for causing the plague. An outbreak of anti-Semitism took place during the Black Death which caused the destruction over 60 major Jewish communities by the year of 1531. The plague also gave birth to a group of extreme believers called the flagellants in Germany who whipped themselves for forgiveness from God. The Black Death damaged the reputation of the church and many people lost faith in God.