The Black Death and the Burning of Jews

• Published in: Past & present 2007-08, Vol.196 (1), p.3-36
• Main Author: Cohn, Samuel K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-Semitism; Antisemitism; Artisans; Christianity; Cities; Cultural history; Europe; European studies; Historical Development; Historiography; History; History and sciences of religions; Israel; Jewish history; Jewish people; Jewish peoples; Jewish persecution; Jews; Massacres; Mediaeval judaism (9th to 18th century); Middle Ages; Peasant class; Plague; Pogroms; Political Violence; Punishment; Religious history; Social history
• ISSN: 0031-2746; 1477-464X
• DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gtm005

Cohn investigates the sources of the 1348-51 persecution in the context of popular rebellion in Europe during the later Middle Ages and compares the Black Death massacres with those later in the century, arguing that the two differed in the social composition of perpetrators and victims and in their underlying psychological causes. Such comparisons show that transhistorical explanations of violence towards Jews--even ones that argue for fundamental changes in anti-Semitism with the birth of Christianity, the later Christianization of Europe in the fourth century, or the rise of a more aggressive Church and states in the twelfth century--fail to do justice to the sources or account for the vagaries of history. External events such as the unprecedented mortalities of the Black Death could rapidly transform the face of hatred, and afterwards, within a generation or less, the perpetuators and motives for violence could shift fundamentally yet again.