The impact of the Crusades on the Jewish-Christian debate

Abstract

It is well known that Jewish life in western Europe declined greatly in the Middle Ages, as relative tolerance for Jews and Judaism deteriorated into persecution, massacres, forced conversions, and eventual expulsions. Historical events, of course, do not occur in a vacuum, and, therefore, attempts have been made to explain this change for the worse in the Jewish status in Europe. Some historians have looked for a watershed event in the relations between Jews and Christians, while others have talked about gradual changes. It would seem that the Crusades could fit both explanations. The First Crusade was the occasion of the initial widespread massacres of Jews in western Europe and could be seen as a sharp break with the past. Alternately, the Crusading period lasted long enough to fit a theory of incremental transformation as well, if one wanted to see it as the context of the worsening Jewish status. A typical view of the impact of the Crusades on Jewish life is that of Salo W. Baron, who began his discussion of the "Age of Crusades" in the following manner: