http://www.medieval-ashkenaz.org/quellen/1273-1347/nm01/einleitung.html#c605https://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/digitallibrary/moreshet_bareshet/mahzor-nuremberg/pages/about-mahzor-nuremberg.aspx

NORDHAUSEN, city in Thuringia, Germany.

The earliest documentary evidence for the presence of Jews in

Nordhausen dates from 1290, and by 1300 a Jewish community

had come into being. Shortly thereafter a Judenstrasse, mikveh,

and synagogue were established. A Jewish well is noted in records

dating from 1322, and a cemetery is mentioned in 1334.

During the course of a disturbance in 1324, the community's

synagogue was destroyed. The Jews of the period made their

living primarily through moneylending, and their sound economic

position brought more Jewish immigrants into the city. In 1333 the

municipal council agreed to the adjudication of all disputes

between Jews by the rabbinic court.

During the course of the Black Death persecutions of 1349,

however, a number of Jews suffered martyrdom. (A legendary

account published in a Worms prayer book indicates that the

entire Jewish community went dancing to its death, willingly

submitting to the funeral pyre.)

The synagogue of Nordhausen, probably in the 1920s.

Courtesy of: Town Archive of Nordhausen.

4 from a total of 12 photos posted on the Yad Vashem website about the Jewish community of Nordhausen, Germany

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/de/exhibitions/through-the-lens/28-july-1943.asp

In the holy community of Nordhausen, they asked the burghers to permit them to prepare themselves for martyrdom: permission having been given…they joyfully arrayed themselves in their prayer shawls and shrouds, both men and women….They took each other by the hand, both men and women, and danced and leapt with their whole strength before God….Singing and dancing they entered the grave, and when all had entered, R. Meir jumped out and walked around to make certain that none had stayed outside…They set fire to the scaffolding; they died all of them together and not a cry was heard.

( ק וורמיישא"מנהגים דק Sefer Minhagim of Worms)

Leonard B. Glick, Abraham’s Heirs: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe

The truth of the dictum that the present shapes the past is nowhere more

evident than in the effects of World War II on historical writing about European

minorities.

David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages

Jews of England, France, Italy and Germany were deeply integrated into the

rhythms of their local worlds. They faced many of the same challenges and

uncertainties as their Christian neighbors. They navigated a world of unexpected

violence but recurring stability, ad hoc policies of repression and toleration. All of

this suggests that Jewish-Christian relations were dynamic and cannot be

understood only in terms of persecution. Jewish-Christian interaction in medieval

Europe created if not a history of toleration then habits of tolerance.

Jonathan Elukin, Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages

1. Anti-Jewish prejudice as a by-product of anti-Muslim

fervor.

2. The ascent and rhetoric of the Mendicant orders.

3. An evolving economy drives increasing rivalry, bringing

heightened suspicion and animus directed toward Jews as

“purveyors of modernity.”

4. The rise of “a persecuting society.”

5. Local context is the most salient, with violence utilized as

a “ritual” of boundary making.

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Erfurt, Germany

Geneva→

ºErfurt

Chillon castle on Lake Geneva

The Confession of Agimet of Geneva

The year of our Lord 1348, October 20

On Friday, the 10th of the month of October, at Châtel…Agimet the Jew, who lived at Geneva and had been arrested at Châtel, was there put to the torture a little. He confessed in the presence of a great many trustworthy persons, to the following:

“I was being sent to Venice to buy silk. Rabbi Peyret sent for me before I left and said: We have been informed that you are going to Venice to buy silk and other wares. Here I am giving you a little package of half a span in size which contains some prepared poison and venom in a thin, sewed leather-bag. Distribute it among the wells, cisterns, and springs about Venice and the other places to which you go, in order to poison the people who use the water of those wells.”

He further confessed that he took this package full of poison and carried it with him to Venice, and when he came there he threw and scattered a portion of it into the well, the only cistern of sweet water in the city. He also said that Rabbi Peyret promised to give him whatever he wanted for his troubles in this business.

Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, (New York: JPS, 1938), 43-48

https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00000-A-00007-00002-00888/1

The Jewish Community of Erfurt

https://juedisches-leben.erfurt.de/jl/en/index.html

Jews burned alive for the alleged host desecration in Deggendorf, Bavaria, in 1338, and in Sternberg, Mecklenburg, 1492; a woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

• Petitioning God, via amulets and/or words

• Pointing to the Heavens

• Shaming and Self-blame

• Scapegoating and Violence (prompted by panic,

or for political/economic purposes)

• Renunciation or self-indulgence

• Acceptance or Defiance of authority

A cross designed to protect against the plague (Courtesy Museum of Archeology Herne)

From Shaar HaYichudim (“The Gate of Unifications”) by the Safed Kabbalist Hayyim ben Joseph Vital (1542-1620) The Hebrew title appearing at the top reads

“This amulet is for plague from the holy ARI, may his memory be blessed to the world to come.”

The “holy ARI” is a reference to Isaac ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi (1534-1572)

National Library of Israel, Jerusalem

https://blog.nli.org.il/en/djm_plague/

The fund AND I SHALL REMOVE THE ILLNESS FROM

YOUR MIDST (Ex. 23:25), secures a historic

judgment from our master Teacher, the joy of

Torah, the Gaon and rabbi of Life [Chaim]

Kanievsky, may be vouchsafed a good & long

life, Amen: “Measure for Measure” tells us

that that a donor will merit not to fall ill

with CORONA, nor shall there be any

afflicted in his household.

https://www.kupat.org.il/Project/246

GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco de 1746 – 1828

A Procession ofFlagellants1812-14

Museo de la Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid

The Corona Plague

“Measure for Measure” is

not annulled

If one does not speak[frivolously],one

shall not be afflicted

One should speak neither slander nor

gossip

It is now prohibitedfor persons to be nearone another!

Principals canceling

Torah study in Israel

invite the greatest

danger

It is the Holy One’s

entreaty during this time

of plague not to stop

gatherings for the study of

Torah, for such study

constitutes Messianic

footsteps [Ps. 89.51]

presaging the coming of

the Messiah

Haredi Jews observing physical distancing guidelines

Israeli police arresting Haredi Jews who had gathered for prayerbut had rebuffed governmental physical distancing guidelines

Carlsbad Police break up large beach party amid COVID-19 ban on gatherings

State Capitol protest, Lansing, Michigan

In the 1660s, Glikl’s four-year-old daughter, Tsipor, displayed symptoms of plague during the family’s visit to Hannover for the festival of Sukkot. Left with no choice but isolation, they sent their daughter (along with a trusted caretaker who bore the task of tending and the risk of exposure to the sick) to a village on the outskirts of town for the duration of the holiday. Glikl recorded that when her husband traveled with a small cohort to deliver festival food to his quarantined daughter and her escort

the young girl was filled with joy and wanted to run to her father, as any child would. Reb Lipman, my brother-in-law, shouted out to them to hold the girl, that the old man should come get the food. They had to restrain my husband too, as with a rope, to keep him from approaching the dear child. Now both he and the little girl were wailing, because my husband, of blessed memory, could see that she was safe and sound, thank God, but he was not permitted to go to her.

Chava Turniansky, Glikl: Memoirs 1691-1719, trans. Sara Friedman (Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2019), 112.)