The Emergence of Jewish thought in the Enlightenment

Authors Avatar

Eric Vallee

7-30-03

Jewish history 2

The Emergence of Jewish thought in the Enlightenment

The years during the Enlightenment were very crucial in the development of the culture of the Jewish people in Europe. This movement of the 18th century that called for critical examination of previously unchallenged doctrines and beliefs, that would help to open the minds of many different people. Modernism was becoming the norm, while traditional ways of doing things were left to a select few.

        The Jewish as a community have  been treated like outcasts for thousands of years; outsiders in their own home and communities. The Jews were forced to establish Ghetto style living. They lived in confined areas with constant ridicule; harassment and sometimes pogroms would break out. They were segregated to certain jobs; they could only be  craftsmen, moneylenders, or some sort of merchant. The governments in Europe passed Edicts declaring their Job status, where they could live, political status, and how much money people had to pay them back on loans. Some leading officials would pass doctrines stating that the governments automatically possessed their property and money, because the treasury was getting low or something on that track. This would also put such officials in good standing with the Christian Church. The people of that time must have felt so violated and uneasy. One day they could be free and the next they could be owned by the state or thrown out of the country like what Isabelle and her husband did in 1492 in Spain. “The real motive was the religious zeal of the Church, the Queen, and the masses. The official reason for driving out the Jews was that they encouraged the marranos to persist in their Jewishness and thus would not allow them to become good Christians.” (Marcus, 59)

        

The fight for equality in the Enlightenment against the Gentiles was met with many hardships. Their religion was looked at with fright and ignorance. When people are scared of something they tend to lash out at it. The Christian Europeans launched crusades against the Jews, having massacres of Jewish towns throughout Europe. Cologne, Mayence, Worms, and Speyer were just some of the towns that faced these acts of violence during the crusades.

        Solomon Bar Samson in 1140 CE wrote about some of the horrific events against the Jews. The slaughter and suicide of the Jews in the palace with all the horror and hysteria are graphically described by Solomon. “As soon as the enemy came into the courtyard they found some of the very pious there with our brilliant master, Isaac ben Moses. He stretched out his neck, and this head they cut off first... the enemy showered stones and arrows upon them, but they did not care to flee; and the foe killed all of those whom they found there.”(Marcus, 130)

Join now!

        In France in 1180 Phillip Augustus imprisoned all the Jews in his lands and released them only after a heavy ransom was paid. Then the next year he nullified all their loans made to Christians,  taking a comfortable twenty- percent for himself. Then in 1182 he confiscated all their lands and buildings and then drove them out of France. Then about seven years later he readmitted the Jews into France and carefully regulated their banking business so as to reserve profits for himself through a variety of taxes and duties. This was not only done in France but all ...

This is a preview of the whole essay