View source for Rhineland massacres

{{Short description|Pogroms of 1096}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|German Crusade of 1096|German Crusade of 1197}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Rhineland massacres
| location = [[Speyer]], [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], [[Mainz]], [[Cologne]], [[Metz]], [[Trier]]
| date = 1096<br />4856 (by the [[Hebrew calendar]])
| partof = the [[First Crusade]]
| image = Massacre of Jews.jpg
| caption = Massacre of the Jews of [[Metz]] during the [[First Crusade]], by the 19th-century painter [[Auguste Migette]]
| target = [[History of the Jews in France|French]] and [[History of the Jews in Germany|German Jews]]
| victims = 2,000 Jews
| perpetrators = [[People's Crusade]]
| motive = [[Medieval antisemitism|Antisemitism]]
}}
{{Campaignbox People's Crusade}}

The '''Rhineland massacres''', also known as the '''German Crusade of 1096'''<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Routledge Atlas of Jewish History|author=Gilbert, M.|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415558105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLDnKGSJnQC|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref> or ''Gzerot Tatnó''<ref>David Nirenberg, 'The Rhineland Massacres of Jews in the First Crusade, Memories Medieval and Modern', in Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography, pp. 279–310</ref> ({{langx|he|גזרות תתנ"ו}}, "Edicts of 4856"), were a series of [[pogrom|mass murders of Jews]] perpetrated by mobs of [[French people|French]] and [[Germans|German]] [[Christians]] of the [[People's Crusade]] in the year 1096 (4856 in the [[Hebrew calendar]]). These massacres are often seen as the first in a sequence of [[antisemitism in Europe|antisemitic events in Europe]] which culminated in [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{cite book|author=David Nirenberg|editor=Gerd Althoff| others=Johannes Fried|title=Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxS6-pQZzGsC&pg=PA279 |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-78066-7|pages=279–}}</ref>

Prominent leaders of crusaders involved in the massacres included [[Peter the Hermit]] and especially [[Emicho|Count Emicho]].<ref name="google2">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sndVK_foqI4C&pg=PA55|title=European Jewry and the First Crusade|last=Chazan|first=Robert|publisher=U. of California Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0520917767|pages=55–60, 127}}</ref> As part of this persecution, the destruction of Jewish communities in [[History of the Jews in Speyer|Speyer]], [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] and [[Mainz]] was noted as the ''Hurban Shum'' (Destruction of [[Takkanot Shum|Shum]]).<ref>Shum Hebrew: שו"ם were the letters of the three towns as pronounced at the time in old French: Shaperra, Wermieza and Magenzza.</ref> These were new persecutions of the Jews in which peasant crusaders from France and Germany attacked Jewish communities. A number of historians have referred to the violence as [[pogrom]]s.<ref>Sources describing these attacks as pogroms include:
* [[Richard S. Levy]]. ''Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution'', ABC-CLIO, 2005, {{ISBN|978-1851094394}}, p. 153.
* [[Christopher Tyerman]]. ''God's War: A New History of the Crusades'', Harvard University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0674023871}}, p. 100.
* Israel Jacob Yuval. ''Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', University of California Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0520258181}}, p. 186.
* Nikolas Jaspert. ''The Crusades'', Taylor & Francis, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0415359672}}, p. 39.
* Louis Arthur Berman. ''The Akedah: The Binding of Isaac'', Jason Aronson, 1997, {{ISBN|978-1568218991}}, p. 92.
* Anna Sapir Abulafia, "Crusades", in Edward Kessler, Neil Wenborn. ''A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations'', Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0521826921}}, p. 116.
* Ian Davies. ''Teaching the Holocaust: Educational Dimensions, Principles and Practice'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0826448514}}, p. 17.
* [[Avner Falk]]. ''A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0838636602}}, p. 410.
* Hugo Slim. ''Killing Civilians: Method, Madness, and Morality in War'', Columbia University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0231700375}}, p. 47.
* [[Richard A. Fletcher]]. ''The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity'', University of California Press, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0520218598}}, p. 318.
* [[David Biale]]. ''Power & Powerlessness in Jewish History''. Random House, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0307772534}}, p. 65.
* I. S. Robinson. ''Henry IV of Germany 1056–1106'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0521545907}}, p. 318.
* Will Durant. ''The Age of Faith''. ''The Story of Civilization'' Vol. 4, Simon & Schuster, 1950, p. 391.
</ref>

==Background==
[[File:Hebrewbooks org 42621 520.jpg|thumb|''El Malé Rahamim'' – God of Mercy prayer for the murdered communities, in prayer book from the city of [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]]]]

Though no Crusades explicitly targeted Jews, the fervor for holy war sometimes turned into an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Europe, even though both ecclesiastical and secular authorities condemned it. The focus on crucifixion story and violence against enemies of the Christian faith during the Crusades, as exemplified by the preaching of [[Pope Urban II]] in 1095-96 and [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] in 1146-47, needed little misconceptions to be translated into animosity towards Jews. In parts of [[France]] and Germany, Jews were perceived just as much of an enemy as Muslims: they were held responsible for the [[crucifixion]], and they were more immediately visible than the distant Muslims.<ref>Christopher Tyerman, ''The Crusades'', p. 59</ref> Many people wondered why they should travel great distances to fight "non-believers" when there were already "non-believers" closer to home.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Jews and the Crusaders: the Hebrew chronicles of the first and second Crusades |date=1996 |publisher=KTAV Pub. House |isbn=978-0-88125-541-6 |editor-last=Eidelberg |editor-first=Shlomo |location=Hoboken, N.J |pages=22}}</ref> 

It is also likely that the crusaders were motivated by their need for money. The [[Rhineland]] communities were relatively wealthy, both due to their isolation, and because they were not restricted as Catholics were against [[moneylending]].<ref>Hans Mayer. "The Crusades" (Oxford University Press: 1988) p. 41.</ref> Many crusaders had to go into debt in order to purchase weaponry and equipment for the expedition; as the Catholic Church strictly forbade [[usury]], many crusaders inevitably found themselves indebted to Jewish moneylenders.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barzel |first=Yoram |date=April 1992 |title=Confiscation by the Ruler: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Lending in the Middle Ages |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/467242 |journal=The Journal of Law and Economics |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1086/467242 |issn=0022-2186|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stow |first=Kenneth R. |date=April 1981 |title=Papal and Royal Attitudes Toward Jewish Lending in the Thirteenth Century |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009400000593 |journal=AJS Review |volume=6 |pages=161–184 |doi=10.1017/s0364009400000593 |issn=0364-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Having armed themselves by assuming the debt, the crusaders rationalized the killing of Jews as an extension of their Catholic mission.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chazan |first=Robert |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book.67851 |title=Medieval Jewry in Northern France |date=1974 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |doi=10.1353/book.67851 |isbn=978-0-8018-1503-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rist |first=Rebecca |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717980.001.0001 |title=Popes and Jews, 1095–1291 |date=2016-01-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717980.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-871798-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chazan |first=Robert |date=1973 |title=Anti-Usury Efforts in Thirteenth Century Narbonne and the Jewish Response |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3622322 |journal=Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research |volume=41/42 |pages=45–67 |doi=10.2307/3622322 |jstor=3622322 |issn=0065-6798|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maier |first=Christoph T. |date=2023-05-27 |title=Papal crusade propaganda and attacks against Jews in France in the 1230s: a breakdown of communication? |journal=Journal of Medieval History |language=en |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=339–352 |doi=10.1080/03044181.2023.2210334 |issn=0304-4181|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Holt |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA32 |title=Religion and World Civilizations: How Faith Shaped Societies from Antiquity to the Present [3 volumes] |date=2023-06-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4408-7424-6 |language=en}}</ref>

There had not been so broad a movement against Jews by Catholics since the seventh century's mass expulsions and forced conversions. While there had been a number of regional persecutions of Jews by Catholics, such as the one in [[Metz]] in 888, a plot against Jews in [[Limoges]] in 992, a wave of anti-Jewish persecution by Christian millenarian movements (which believed that Jesus was immediately to descend from Heaven) in the year 1000, and the threat of expulsion from [[Trier]] in 1066; these are all viewed "in the traditional terms of governmental outlawry rather than unbridled popular attacks."<ref name="Baron">{{Cite book| title=Social and Religious History of the Jews, Volume 4|author=Salo Wittmayer Baron|publisher=Columbia University Press| year=1957}}</ref> Also many movements against Jews (such as forced conversions by [[Robert II of France|King Robert the Pious]] of France, [[Richard II, Duke of Normandy]], and [[Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor]] around 1007–1012) had been suppressed by various popes and bishops.<ref name="Baron"/> The passions that were aroused within the Catholic community by Pope Urban II's call for the first crusade had moved the persecution of Jews into a new chapter in history where previous constraints no longer held.
[[File:Gottfried von Bouillon (Hofkirche Innsbruck) 2006 0931C.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Sixteenth-century bronze statue of [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] from the group of heroes surrounding the memorial to [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]] in the [[Hofkirche, Innsbruck]]|alt=A statue of a knight with a long beard. He is wearing a crown of thorns and elaborate armour. He has a sword in his left hand, and a shield rests against his right leg.]]

A relevant perspective on the extent of the era's antisemitism was recorded 40 years afterward by Jewish historian Solomon bar Simson. He stated that [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] swore:

{{blockquote|to go on this journey only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name 'Jew', thus assuaging his own burning wrath.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Readings in Medieval History Volume II: The Later Middle Ages, Fifth Edition|editor=Patrick J. Geary|page=364|year=2003|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press}}</ref>}}

[[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Henry IV]] (after being notified of the pledge by [[Kalonymus Ben Meshullam]], the Jewish leader in [[Mainz]]) issued an order prohibiting such an action. Godfrey claimed that he never really intended to kill Jews, but the community in Mainz and [[Cologne]] sent him a collected bribe of 500 silver [[Mark (weight)|marks]].<ref name="Golb">{{Cite book|title=The Jews in Medieval Normandy: a social and intellectual history|author=Norman Golb|year=1998|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

[[Sigebert of Gembloux]] wrote that before "a war in behalf of the Lord" could be fought, it was essential that the Jews convert; those who resisted were "deprived of their goods, massacred, and expelled from the cities."<ref name="Golb"/>

The first outbreaks of violence occurred in France. According to a contemporary chronicle of events written by an anonymous author in Mainz:

{{blockquote|There first arose the officers, nobles, and common people who were in the land of France [Sarefat] who took counsel together and plotted...to make clear the way to go toward Jerusalem.<ref name="Golb"/>}}

Richard of Poitiers wrote that Jewish persecution was widespread in France at the beginning of the expeditions to the east. The anonymous chronicler of Mainz admired the Jews:

{{blockquote|At the time, the [Jewish] communities in France heard [about these things], trembling...seized them. They wrote letters and sent messengers to all the communities around about the River Rhine, [to the effect] that they should fast...and seek mercy from Him who dwells on high, that He might save them from their hands.  When the letter reached the holy ones in the land [of the Rhine], namely the men of renown ... in Mainz, they responded [to their brethren in] France as follows: 'The communities have decreed a fast. We have done that which was ours [to do]. May the Lord save us and may He save you from all sorrow and oppression [which might come] upon you. We are in great fear.'<ref name="Golb"/>}}

In June and July 1095, Jewish communities in the Rhineland (north of the main departure areas at [[Neuss]], [[Wevelinghoven]], [[Altenahr]], [[Xanten]] and [[Moers]]) were attacked, but the leadership and membership of these crusader groups was not chronicled.<ref name="Cambridge">{{Cite book|title= Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade|page =92|author=John France |year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|orig-year= 1994}}</ref> Some Jews dispersed eastward to escape the persecution.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred|author=Robert S. Robins, Jerrold M. Post|page=168|year=1997|publisher=Yale College}}</ref>

On top of the general Catholic suspicion of Jews at the time, when the thousands of French members of the [[People's Crusade]] arrived at the Rhine, they had run out of provisions.<ref name="Dimont">{{Cite book|title=The Amazing Adventures of the Jewish People|author=Max I. Dimont|page=106|year=1984|publisher=Behrman House, Inc. |location=Springfield, NJ}}</ref> To restock their supplies, they began to plunder Jewish food and property while attempting to force them to convert to Catholicism.<ref name="Dimont"/><ref name=":0" />
[[File:Peter the Hermit - Project Gutenberg eBook 11921.jpg|thumbnail|[[Peter the Hermit]] preaching the First Crusade, as cited in the 1851 "Illustrated London Reading Book"]]

Not all crusaders who had run out of supplies resorted to murder; some, like [[Peter the Hermit]], used extortion instead. While no sources claim he preached against the Jews, he carried a letter with him from the Jews of France to the community at [[Trier]]. The letter urged them to supply provisions to Peter and his men. The ''[[Solomon bar Simson Chronicle]]'' records that they were so terrified by Peter's appearance at the gates that they readily agreed to supply his needs.<ref name="Golb"/> Whatever Peter's own position on the Jews was, men claiming to follow after him felt free to massacre Jews on their own initiative, to pillage their possessions.<ref name="Golb"/> Sometimes Jews survived by being subjected to involuntary baptism, such as in [[Regensburg]], where a crusading mob rounded up the Jewish community, forced them into the [[Danube]], and performed a mass baptism. After the crusaders had left the region, these Jews returned to practicing Judaism.<ref name="Baron"/>

According to [[David Nirenberg]],<ref name="uchicago">{{cite web|url=http://history.uchicago.edu/directory/david-nirenberg|title=David Nirenberg {{pipe}} Department of History {{pipe}} The University of Chicago|publisher=history.uchicago.edu|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref> the events of 1096 in the [[Rhineland]] "occupy a significant place in modern Jewish historiography and are often presented as the first instance of an antisemitism that would henceforth never be forgotten and whose climax was the [[Holocaust]]."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MxS6-pQZzGsC&pg=PA279 Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography, p. 279] Chapter 13, "The Rhineland Massacres of Jews in the First Crusade, Memories Medieval and Modern", by David Nirenberg</ref>

==Folkmar and Gottschalk==
[[File:Budapest Heroes square Kálmán 1.jpg|thumb|Statue of Coloman, [[Hősök tere|Heroes' Square]], [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]]]]

In the spring of 1096, a number of small bands of knights and peasants, inspired by the preaching of the Crusade, set off from various parts of France and Germany ([[Worms, Germany|Worms]] and [[Cologne]]). The crusade of the priest Folkmar, beginning in [[Saxony]], persecuted Jews in [[Magdeburg]] and later, on May 30, 1096, in [[Prague]] in [[Bohemia]]. The [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague|Catholic Bishop]] Cosmas attempted to prevent forced conversions, and the entire Catholic hierarchy in Bohemia preached against such acts.<ref name="Baron"/> Duke [[Bretislaus II, Duke of Bohemia|Bretislaus II]] was out of the country and the Catholic Church's officials' protests were unable to stop the mob of crusaders.<ref name="Baron"/>

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church as a whole condemned the persecution of the Jews in the regions affected (though their protests had little effect). Especially vocal were the parish priests (only one monk, named Gottschalk, is recorded as joining and encouraging the mob).<ref name="Baron"/> Chronicler [[Hugo of Flavigny]] recorded how these religious appeals were ignored, writing:

{{blockquote|It certainly seems amazing that on a single day in many different places, moved in unison by a violent inspiration, such massacres should have taken place, despite their widespread disapproval and their condemnation as contrary to religion. But we know that they could not have been avoided since they occurred in the face of excommunication imposed by numerous clergymen, and of the threat of punishment on the part of many princes.<ref name="Baron"/>}}

In general, the crusader mobs did not fear any retribution, as the local courts did not have the jurisdiction to pursue them past their locality nor did they have the ability to identify and prosecute individuals out of the mob.<ref name="Baron"/> The pleas of the clergy were ignored on similar grounds (no cases against individuals were brought forward for excommunication) and the mob believed that anyone preaching mercy to the Jews was doing so only because they had succumbed to Jewish bribery.<ref name="Baron"/>

Gottschalk the monk went on to lead a crusade from the [[Rhineland]] and [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]] into [[Hungary]], occasionally attacking Jewish communities along the way. In late June 1096, the crusader mob of Gottschalk was welcomed by King [[Coloman of Hungary]], but they soon began plundering the countryside and causing drunken disorder. The King then demanded they disarm. Once their weapons had been secured, the enraged Hungarians fell upon them and "the whole plain was covered with corpses and blood."<ref name="Archer">{{Cite book|title=The Crusades: The Story Of The Latin Kingdom Of Jerusalem|author=T. A. Archer|year=1894|publisher=G.P. Putnam Sons}}</ref>

The priest Folkmar and his Saxons also met a similar fate from the Hungarians when they began pillaging villages there because "sedition was incited".<ref name="Cambridge"/><ref name="Archer"/>

==Emicho==
[[Image:The Army of Priest Volkmar and Count Emicio Attacks Mersbourg.jpg|thumb|The Army of Priest Volkmar and [[Emicho|Count Emicio]] attacks Mersbourg (Wieselburg, [[Mosonmagyaróvár|Moson]]). In the battle, the Crusaders are panic-stricken when several ladders collapse under their weight.]]

The largest of these crusades, and the most involved in attacking Jews, was that led by Count [[Emicho]]. Setting off in the early summer of 1096, an army of around 10,000 men, women and children proceeded through the Rhine valley, towards the [[Main River]] and then to the [[Danube]]. Emicho was joined by [[William the Carpenter]] and [[Drogo of Nesle]], among others from the Rhineland, eastern France, Lorraine, [[Flanders]] and even England.

Holy Roman Emperor [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry IV]], absent in southern Italy, ordered the Jews to be protected when he learned of Emicho's intent. After some Jews were killed at [[Metz]] in May, [[Johann I of Kraichgau|John, Bishop of Speyer]] gave shelter to the Jewish inhabitants. Still, 12 [[Jewish community of Speyer|Jews of Speyer]] were slain by crusaders on May 3.<ref name="Golb"/> The [[Bishop of Worms]] also attempted to shelter Jews, but the crusaders broke into his episcopal palace and killed the Jews inside on May 18. At least [[Worms massacre (1096)|800 Jews were massacred in Worms]] when they refused Catholic baptism.<ref name="Golb"/><ref name="Routledge">{{Cite book|title=The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare|author=Jim Bradbury| page=182|year=2004|publisher=Routledge |location=New York}}</ref>

News of Emicho's crusade spread quickly, and he was prevented from entering [[Mainz]] on May 25 by Bishop [[Ruthard]]. Emicho also took an offering of gold raised by the Jews of Mainz in hope to gain his favor and their safety.<ref name="Golb"/> Bishop Ruthard tried to protect the Jews by hiding them in his lightly fortified palace. Nevertheless, Emicho did not prevent his followers from entering the city<ref name="Golb"/> on May 27 and a massacre followed. Many among the Christian business class (the [[Bourgeoisie|burghers]]) in Mainz, had working ties with Jews and gave them shelter from the mobs (as the burghers in Prague had done).<ref name="Baron"/> The Mainz burghers joined with the militia of the bishop and the burgrave (the town's military governor) in fighting off the first waves of crusaders. This stand had to be abandoned when crusaders continued to arrive in ever greater numbers,<ref name="Baron"/> and the militia of the bishop together with the bishop himself fled and left the Jews to be slaughtered by the crusaders.<ref>Marvin Lowenthal, The Jews of Germany (1939)</ref> Despite the example of the burghers, many ordinary citizens in Mainz and other the towns were caught up in the frenzy and joined in the persecution and pillaging.<ref name="Baron"/> Mainz was the site of the greatest violence, with at least 1,100 Jews being killed by troops under Clarambaud and Thomas.<ref name="Golb"/>  Given the choice between flight, death, and conversion, some Jews opted for a desperate fourth alternative: active martyrdom, that is, killing their family and themselves. One man, named Isaac, was forcefully converted, but wracked with guilt, later killed his family and burned himself alive in his house. Another woman, Rachel, murdered her four children with her own hands so that they would not be kidnapped and "raised in the way of error" as Christians. Chronicler Solomon bar Simpson compared Rachel to the martyrdom of the [[woman and her seven sons]] in an attempt to make sense of her desperate act.<ref name="joslyn-siemiatkoski">{{cite book |last=Joslyn-Siemiatkoski |first=Daniel  |title=Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs |year=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Mcmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-230-60279-3 |pages=126–131}}</ref>

[[Eliezer ben Nathan]], a Jewish chronicler at the times, paraphrased [[Book of Habakkuk|Habakkuk]] 1:6 and wrote of

{{blockquote|cruel foreigners, fierce and swift, Frenchmen and Germans...[who] put crosses on their clothing and were more plentiful than locusts on the face of the earth.<ref name="Golb"/>}}

On May 29 Emicho arrived at [[Cologne]], where most Jews had already left or were hiding in Christian houses. In Cologne, other smaller bands of crusaders met Emicho, and they left with quite a lot of money taken from the Jews there. Emicho continued towards Hungary, soon joined by some [[Swabia]]ns. [[Coloman of Hungary]] refused to allow them through Hungary. Count Emicho and his warriors besieged [[Mosonmagyaróvár|Moson]] (or Wieselburg), on the [[Leitha]]. This led Coloman to prepare to flee into Russia, but the morale of the crusader mob began to fail, which inspired the Hungarians, and most of the mob was slaughtered or drowned in the river. Count Emicho and a few of the leaders escaped into Italy or back to their own homes.<ref name="Archer"/> William the Carpenter and other survivors eventually joined [[Hugh I, Count of Vermandois|Hugh of Vermandois]] and the main body of crusader knights. Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV overruled Church law and permitted forcibly converted Jews to return to Judaism.<ref>{{cite book | last=Rubenstein | first=Jay | title=Armies of heaven : the first crusade and the quest for apocalypse | year=2011 | publisher=Basic Books | isbn=978-0-465-01929-8 | oclc=701015458}}</ref>{{rp|p=51}}

==Later attacks on Jews==
[[File:1099 Siege of Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|[[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)|Siege and Capture of Jerusalem]], 1099]]

Later in 1096, [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] also collected tribute from the Jews in Mainz and Cologne, and would have participated in pogroms himself if he had not been ordered by Henry IV not to do so.<ref>P. Frankopan, The First Crusade: The Call from the East (London, 2012), p. 120.</ref> [[Saint Louis University]] Professor [[Thomas F. Madden]], author of ''A Concise History of the Crusades'', claims the Jewish defenders of Jerusalem retreated to their synagogue to "prepare for death" once the Crusaders had breached the outer walls of the city during the [[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)|siege of 1099]].<ref name=hoover>[https://www.hoover.org/research/cross-purposes-crusades Cross Purposes: The Crusades] (Transcript of [[Hoover Institute]] television show).</ref> The chronicle of [[Ibn al-Qalanisi]] mentions the building was set on fire while the Jews were still inside.<ref name=gibb>[[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb|Gibb, H. A. R]]. ''The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi''. Dover Publications, 2003 ({{ISBN|0486425193}}), p. 48</ref> The Crusaders were supposedly reported as hoisting up their shields and singing "Christ We Adore Thee!" while they circled the fiery complex."<ref>Rausch, David. ''Legacy of Hatred: Why Christians Must Not Forget the Holocaust.'' Baker Pub Group, 1990 ({{ISBN|0801077583}}), p. 27</ref> However, a contemporary Jewish letter written shortly after the siege does not mention the burning synagogue. But playing on the religious schism between the two sects of Judaism,<ref>Goitein, S.D. ''A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Vol. V: The Individual: Portrait of a Mediterranean Personality of the High Middle Ages as Reflected in the Cairo Geniza.'' University of California Press, 1988 ({{ISBN|0520056477}}), p. 358</ref> Arabist [[S.D. Goitein]] speculates the reason the incident is missing from the letter is because it was written by [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite Jew]]s and the synagogue belonged to [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic Jews]].<ref>Kedar, Benjamin Z. "The Jerusalem Massacre of July 1099 in the Western Historiography of the Crusades." The Crusades. Vol. 3 (2004) ({{ISBN|075464099X}}), pp. 15–76, p. 64</ref>

Following the siege, Jews captured from the [[Dome of the Rock]], along with native Christians, were made to clean the city of the slain.<ref name=goitein>Goitein, S.D. "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders." Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952), pp. 162–177 [163]</ref> Tancred took some Jews as [[prisoners of war]] and deported them to [[Apulia]] in southern Italy. Several of these Jews did not make it to their final destination as "Many of them were [...] thrown into the sea or beheaded on the way."<ref name=goitein/> Numerous Jews and their holy books (including the [[Aleppo Codex]]) were held ransom by [[Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse|Raymond of Toulouse]].<ref>Goitein, "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders," p. 165</ref> The Karaite Jewish community of [[Ashkelon]] (Ascalon) reached out to their coreligionists in [[Alexandria]] to first pay for the holy books and then rescued pockets of Jews over several months.<ref name=goitein/> All that could be ransomed were liberated by the summer of 1100. The few who could not be rescued were either converted to Catholicism or murdered.<ref>Goitein, "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders", p.166</ref> The First Crusade ignited a long tradition of organized violence against Jews in European culture. Jewish money was also used in [[France]] for financing the [[Second Crusade]]; the Jews were also attacked in many instances, but not on the scale of the attacks of 1096. In England, the [[Third Crusade]] was the pretext for the expulsion of the Jews and the confiscation of their money. The two [[Shepherds' Crusade (1251)|Shepherds' Crusades, in 1251]] and 1320, also saw attacks on Jews in France; [[Shepherds' Crusade (1320)|the second in 1320]] also attacked and killed Jews in [[Aragon]].

==Catholic Church response==
{{Antisemitism}}
The massacre of the Rhineland Jews by the People's Crusade and other associated persecutions were condemned by the leaders and officials of the Catholic Church.<ref name="catholiceducation">{{cite web|url=http://catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0070.html|website=catholiceducation.org|title=articles/history/world/wh0070|access-date=2024-03-12}}</ref> The Church and its members had previously carried out policies to protect the presence of Jews in [[Christian culture]]. For example, the twenty-five letters regarding the Jews of [[Pope Gregory I]] from the late sixth century became the primary texts for the canons, or Church laws, which were implanted to not only regulate Jewish life in Europe but also to protect it.<ref name="Stow">{{cite book|title=Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages: Confrontation and Response|author=Stow, Kenneth|place=Aldershot|publisher=Ashgate|year=2007|isbn=978-0754659150}}</ref> These policies did have limits to them; the Jews were granted protection and the right to their faith if they did not threaten Christianity and remained entirely submissive to Christian rule. These regulations were enacted in a letter by [[Pope Alexander II]] in 1063.<ref name="R.Stow">{{cite book |last1=Stow |first1=Kenneth |editor-last=Abulafia |editor-first=David |chapter=The Church and the Jews|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History |volume=5|year=1999 |pages=204–219 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521362894.012|isbn=978-0521362894 }}</ref> Their goal was to define the place of the Jews in Christian society. The Dispar nimirum of 1060, was the late eleventh-century papal policy concerning the Jews. It rejected acts of violence and punishments of the Jews, and it enforced the idea of protecting the Jews because they were not the enemy of the Christians. This papal policy aimed at creating a balance of privilege and restrictions on Jews so that the Christians did not see their presence as a threat. Sixty years after the Dispar nimirum, inspired by the atrocities of the [[First Crusade]], the [[Sicut Judaeis]] was issued.<ref name="Stow" /> It was a more detailed and organized text of the position of the papacy concerning the treatment of Jews. This text was enacted by [[Pope Calixtus II]] in 1120. It defined the limits of the Jews' eternal servitude and continued the reinforcement of the Jews' right to their faith.

The bishops of [[Mainz]], [[Speyer]], and [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] had attempted to protect the Jews of those towns within the walls of their palaces. In 1084 [[Rüdiger Huzmann]] (1073–1090), [[bishop of Speyer]], established [[Ghetto|an area for the Jews to live]], to protect them from potential violence. Rüdiger's successor, Bishop John, continued the protection of Jews during the [[First Crusade]]. During the attack on Speyer, John saved many of the Jews, providing them protection in his castle. Bishop John had the hands of many attackers cut off.<ref name="Roth">{{cite journal|last=Roth|first= Norman|title=Bishops and Jews in the Middle Ages|journal= The Catholic Historical Review |volume= 80|issue= 1|pages=1–17|jstor= 25024201|year= 1994}}</ref> Archbishop [[Ruthard of Mainz]] tried to save the Jews by gathering them in his courtyard; this was unsuccessful as [[Emicho]] and his troops stormed the palace. Ruthard managed to save a small number of Jews by putting them on boats in the Rhine.<ref name="Roth" /> The Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann III, sent many of the Jews to outlying villages, so that they would be safe from Crusaders. The archbishop of Trier was less effective; he favored protecting the Jews from violence, but during the attack on Trier, he hid and did not take any action to help them. Some bishops, like Archbishop Hartwig of Spanheim in Magdeburg, went as far as offering the Crusaders silver to spare the Jews.<ref name="Roth" /> In 1097, [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Henry IV]] granted permission for all Jews who had been forcibly converted during the massacres to return to their Jewish faith.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reuter |first=Fritz |title=Geschichte der Stadt Worms |date=2015 |publisher=Theiss |isbn=978-3-8062-3158-8 |editor-last=Bönnen |editor-first=Gerold |edition=2., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage |location=Darmstadt |pages=669 |language=German |trans-title=History of the City of Worms |chapter=Warmaisa – das jüdische Worms: Von den Anfängen bis zum jüdischen Museum des Isidor Kiefer (1924)}}</ref>

After the First Crusade, there was a continued effort made by the popes to protect the Jews, so that violence that occurred in the Rhineland Valley would not reoccur. In 1272, [[Pope Gregory X]] stated that the Jews "are not capable of harming Christians, nor do they know how to do so."<ref name="R.Stow" /> Popes continually assured the Christian people that the Jews were not the enemy, but the [[Saracen]]s were because they opposed Christianity, and Jews would only become the enemy if they challenged the religion. Following Gregory X's lead, [[Pope Benedict XIII]] clearly stated to the Christian people how to treat the Jews. "Jews are never to be burdened beyond the limits of the present constitution. [They are not] to be molested, to be offered in their persons, or to have their goods seized... [Rather, they are to be treated] humanely and with clemency..."<ref name="R.Stow" /> Benedict enforced the privileges given to the Jews by warning the Christians that their actions toward the Jewish people must not violate those given to them by the Church.

Fifty years later, when St. [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] was urging recruitment for the [[Second Crusade]], he specifically criticized the attacks on Jews that had occurred in the First Crusade. Though Clairvaux considered the Jews to be "personae non gratae", he condemned in his letters the crusaders' attacks on the Jews and ordered protection for Jewish communities.<ref name="Stacey">Stacey, Robert C. "Crusades, Martyrdoms, and the Jews of Norman England, 1096–1190", ''Juden Und Christen Der Zeit Der Kreuzzüge'', edited by [[Alfred Haverkamp]], pp. 233–251. Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1999.</ref> There is debate on Bernard's exact motivations: he may have been disappointed that the People's Crusade devoted so much time and resources to attacking the Jews of Western Europe while contributing almost nothing to the attempt to retake the Holy Land itself, the result being that Bernard was urging the knights to maintain focus on the goal of protecting Catholic interests in the Holy Land. It is equally possible that Bernard held the belief that forcibly converting the Jews was immoral or perceived that greed motivated the original Rhineland massacre: both sentiments are echoed in the canon of [[Albert of Aachen]] in his chronicle of the First Crusade. Albert of Aachen's view was that the People's Crusaders were uncontrollable semi-Catholicized country-folk (citing the "goose incident," which Hebrew chronicles corroborate){{explain|date=March 2019}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.themedievalmagazine.com/past-issue-features/2020/5/5/the-goose-that-went-on-crusade-by-dr-kathleen-walker-meikle |title=The Goose That Went on Crusade |last=Walker-Meikle |first=Kathleen |date=5 May 2020 |website=The Medieval Magazine |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240813082038/https://www.themedievalmagazine.com/past-issue-features/2020/5/5/the-goose-that-went-on-crusade-by-dr-kathleen-walker-meikle |archive-date=2024-08-13}}</ref> who massacred hundreds of Jewish women and children and that the People's Crusaders were themselves slaughtered by Turkish forces in Asia Minor.<ref>{{cite book|last=Runciman|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Runciman|title=A History of the Crusades, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDj9sNezWzEC&pg=PA131|page=131|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0521347709}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Runciman is notoriously unreliable.|date=May 2023}}

==Jewish reactions==
[[Sigebert of Gembloux]] wrote that most of those Jews who converted before the crusader threat later returned to Judaism.<ref name="Golb" />

In some cases Jews chose to die as Jews rather than convert.<ref>{{Citation |last=Cohen |first=Jeremy |title=Sanctifying the Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade |date=2013-03-26 |work=Sanctifying the Name of God |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.9783/9780812201635/html |access-date=2024-07-21 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |language=en |doi=10.9783/9780812201635 |isbn=978-0-8122-0163-5|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Hebrew chronicles portray the Rhineland Jews as [[martyr]]s who willingly sacrificed themselves in order to honour God and to preserve their own honour (to die for ''[[Kiddush Hashem]])''.<ref>(German) {{cite journal |last=Mentgen |first=Gerd |year=1996 |title=Die Juden des Mittelrhein-Mosel-Gebietes im Hochmittelalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kreuzzugsverfolgungen |journal=Der Erste Kreuzzug 1096 und Seine Folgen, die Verfolgung der Juden Im Rheinland |publisher=[[Evangelical Church in the Rhineland]] Schriften des Archivs der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland |volume=9 |ref=37–75}}</ref> The Rhineland Jews looked to historical precedents since Biblical times to justify their actions: the honourable suicide of [[Saul]], the [[Maccabees]] revolt against [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]], the suicide pact at [[Masada]], and the [[Bar Kochba]] revolt were seen as justifiable deaths in the face of a stronger enemy.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Eva|last=Haverkamp|jstor=25653802|title= Martyrs in rivalry: the 1096 Jewish martyrs and the Thebean legion|journal=Jewish History|volume=23|issue=4|year=2009|pages=319–342|doi=10.1007/s10835-009-9091-1|s2cid=159477788}}</ref> Despite this, the suicidal and homicidal nature of the Rhineland Jews' actions largely separated the events of 1096 from previous incidents in Jewish history. While the events of [[Masada]] most closely parallel those of the Rhineland Massacres, it is important to note that the dramatic suicides of that event were often downplayed by Rabbinic scholars, even to the point of Masada's total omission from some Rabbinic histories.<ref>Chazan, Robert. ''God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First Crusade Narratives''. (Berkeley; University of California Press, 2000), p. 31.</ref> 

The Biblical moment that was most commonly evoked by chroniclers of the Rhineland Massacres was the [[Binding of Isaac]], to which several allusions appear throughout the major primary sources, the ''[[Mainz Anonymous]]'', the ''[[Solomon bar Simson Chronicle|Soloman bar Simson Chronicle]]'', and the ''[[Eliezer bar Nathan Chronicle]]'' (though allusions to this moment persist beyond these sources, and even in to more modern interpretations).<ref name="google2"/> Although it was the most common Biblical reference, the details of the Binding of Isaac presented significant dissimilarities (alongside definite parallels) that put the actions of the Rhineland Jewry at odds with the Biblical narrative. While Isaac was spared from sacrifice by divine intervention, the Jews of the Rhineland committed their ritual suicide to its end. This influenced novel interpretations of the binding of Isaac. The ''Soloman bar Simson Chronicle'' interprets the sacrifice of the Rhineland Jews as a similar, though even greater expression of righteousness and piety than that of Abraham, a theme echoed throughout other chronicles of the events. Similarly, a preexisting alternative [[Midrash]]ic reading of the Binding of Isaac claiming that Isaac truly was sacrificed gained a newfound popularity following the events of 1096.<ref name=":1">Yuval, Israel. ''Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. p. 140.</ref>

Several 20th century Jewish authors have related the events of 1096 to an underlying theme of human sacrifice.<ref name=":1" /> Historian [[Israel Yuval]] understood these choices as a manifestation of a [[Messiah in Judaism|Messianic]] theology that was uniquely tied to medieval Jews living in the midst of Latin Christendom. This theology understood the Messiah's coming as a time of vengeance against those who transgressed against God and the Jewish people, as well as a process that was sensitive to the blood of Jewish martyrs.<ref name=":1" /> Such ideas are alluded to in the ''[[Sefer Hasidim]]'', a work of the twelfth century consisting of an amalgamation of Rabbinic teachings common to the era and the centuries immediately preceding it. Additionally relevant was a medieval Ashkenazi genealogical interpretation of Christians as descendants of the Biblical [[Esau]] (referred to as [[Edom]]ites), over whom the Jews (the descendants of [[Jacob]]) would eventually succeed and gain dominion. Following from this, the events of 1096 presented an opportunity for the Rhineland Jews to ritually offer their deaths as an example of Christian transgression and spur the [[Messianic Age]] – an analysis supported by the frequent ritual tone and symbolism employed by Jewish chroniclers while describing the deaths, and their somewhat lesser interest for Jews who simply died by Christian hands directly. This included frequent descriptions of suicides occurring within synagogues (which were on occasion burning), and the shedding of blood on the [[Torah ark|Holy Ark]].<ref name=":1" /> Despite this, somewhat more ''post hoc'' explanations provided by Medieval Jewish chroniclers also existed. Most often, the homicide of the Rhineland children was explained by the adage "lest they dwell among the Gentiles; it is better that they die innocent and not guilty", meaning that it was better to kill Jewish children and prevent them from losing their religion than to allow them to die later as a non-Jew. The descriptions of Jewish parents killing their children was shocking to Christian ears, and may have served as fuel for later accusations of [[blood libel]].<ref name=":1" /> This analysis of Yuval's caused a stir among the scholarly community, and the journal [[Zion (journal)|''Zion'']] devoted a double issue to discussing Yuval's thesis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vol. נט, חוברת ב/ג, תשנ"ד / 1994 of Zion / ציון on JSTOR |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i23561984 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=www.jstor.org |language=en}}</ref> A particularly scathing response was written by [[Ezra Fleischer]], in which he examines of Yuval's claims and responds to them. The article ends with the words "It is the kind of article that would have been better if it had not been written than written, and if it had been written - it would have been better if it had not been printed, and if it had been printed - it would have been better if it had been forgotten as soon as possible".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=פליישר |first1=עזרא |last2=Fleischer |first2=Ezra |date=1994 |title=Christian-Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages Distorted / יחסי נוצרים-יהודים בימי הביניים בראי עקום |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23562697 |journal=Zion / ציון |volume=נט |issue=ב/ג |pages=267–316 |jstor=23562697 |issn=0044-4758}}</ref> Historian Jeremy Cohen disagrees with Yuval for a different reason. He argues that Yuval treats the descriptions found in the chronicles of the massacres as if they represent the views of the victims themselves. In contrast, Cohen contends - and demonstrates through an [[Intertextuality|intertextual]] literary reading - that these chronicles were written in the early 12th century by the descendants of those who survived the massacres. As such, he claims, they reflect the thoughts and perspectives of the survivors, not of those who gave their lives for ''kiddush ha-shem''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Jeremy |last2= |first2= |date=1994 |title=The 'Persecutions of 1096' — From Martyrdom to Martyrology: The Sociocultural Context of the Hebrew Crusade Chronicles |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23562695 |journal=Zion |volume=59 |issue=2\3 |pages=169–208 |issn=0044-4758}}</ref> 

Historians have disagreed about whether there was a halakhic justification for the mass suicide during Rhineland massacres. [[Haym Soloveitchik]] states that the issue of voluntary martyrdom to avoid committing sins in halakhic literature is highly questionable, and acorrding to that the [[Posek|Poskim]] should have determined that "all the martyrs [...] were not only not "holy," but were "self-killers," and murderers".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Soloveitchik |first=Haym |date=1987 |title=Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1486380 |journal=AJS Review |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=209 |doi=10.1017/S0364009400002014 |jstor=1486380 |issn=0364-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Later, according to Soloveitchik, the rabbis, out of respect for the victims, had to justify these horrific acts "with a few deft twists, a tenable, if not quite persuasive" of the [[Halakha]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Soloveitchik |first=Haym |date=1987 |title=Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1486380 |journal=AJS Review |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=210 |doi=10.1017/S0364009400002014 |jstor=1486380 |issn=0364-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In contrast, [[Avraham Grossman]], [[Israel Ta-Shma]] and other researchers state that the suicides acted according to the Jewish law as it was known to them. According to them, Ashkenazi [[Posek|Poskim]] attributed halakhic importance to the legends that appear in the [[Talmud]] ([[Aggadah]]), many of which involve suicides in order to avoid committing sins. Therefore, the act of suicide during the Rhineland massacres was anchored in the halakhic perception of the Ashkenazim, and they acted according to Jewish tradition, as they perceived it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grossman |first=Avraham |title=Sanctity in Life and Martyrdom |publisher=Zalman Shazar Center |year=1992 |editor-last=Gafni |editor-first=Isaiah |location=Jerusalem |pages=107–108 |language=he |trans-title= |chapter=שורשיו של קידוש השם באשכנז הקדומה (The roots of Kiddush Hashem in ancient Ashkenazi) |editor-last2=Ravitzky |editor-first2=Aviezer}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ta-Shma |first=Israel |title=Facing the Cross: The Persecutions of 1096 in History and Historiography |publisher=[[Magnes Press]] |year=2000 |editor-last=Assis |editor-first=Yom Tov |location=Jerusalem |pages=152–156 |language=he |chapter=התאבדות ורצח הזולת על קידוש השם: לשאלת מקומה של האגדה במסורת הפסיקה האשכנזית (Suicide and Murder of Others for Kiddush Hashem: On the Question of the Place of the aggadah in the Ashkenazi Psika Tradition) |editor-last2=Cohen |editor-first2=Geremi |editor-last3=Limor |editor-first3=Ora |editor-last4=Kedar |editor-first4=Aharon |editor-last5=Toch |editor-first5=Michael}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Reich |first=Eitan |title=קידוש השם: מעקידת יצחק לעקידת אשכנז |publisher=Resling |year=2018 |location=Israel |pages=177–180 |language=he |trans-title=Jewish Martyrdom: From the Binding of Isaac to Martyrdom in Medieval Germany}}</ref>  

Prior to the Crusades, the Jews were divided among three major areas which were largely independent of one another. These were the Jews living in Islamic nations (still the majority), those in the Byzantine Empire and those in the Catholic West. With the persecutions that began around 1096, a new awareness of the entire people took hold across all of these groups, reuniting the three separate strands.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Joseph|last=Hacker|title=On the Persecutions of 1096|journal=Zion|volume=31|year=1966|ref=229–231}}</ref> 

In the late 19th century, Jewish historians used the episode as a demonstration of the need for [[Zionism]] (that is, for a new Jewish state).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Althoff|first1=Gerd|last2=Fried|first2=Johannes|last3=Geary|first3=Patrick J.|title=Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxS6-pQZzGsC&pg=PA307|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge UP|pages=305–8|isbn=978-0521780667}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==

===Primary sources===

====Manuscripts====

*[[Albert of Aix]], ''Historia Hierosolymitana''
*''[[Mainz Anonymous]]''
* ''[[Solomon bar Simson Chronicle]]''
* ''[[Eliezer bar Nathan]] Chronicle''

===Primary===

*{{cite book|first=Israel W.|last=Charny|title=The Widening Circle of Genocide|year=1994|ref=64|isbn=978-1560001720|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/genocidecritical0000unse}}
*{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Chazan|title=European Jewry and the First Crusade|publisher=University of California Press|year=1987}}
*{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Chazan|title=In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews|url=https://archive.org/details/inyear1096firstc00chaz|url-access=registration|publisher=Jewish Publication Society|year=1996|isbn=978-0827606326|ref=125}}
*{{cite book|first=Jill N.|last=Claster|title=Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East, 1095–1396|year=2009|publisher=University of Toronto Press |ref=348 and 41|isbn=978-1442600607}}
*{{cite book|first=Jeremy|last=Cohen|title=Sanctifying The Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade|publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2004}}
*{{cite book|first=Shlomo|last=Eidelberg|title=The Jews and the Crusaders|year=1996|publisher=KTAV Publishing House |ref=192|isbn=978-0881255416}}
*{{cite book|first=Lawrence A.|last=Hoffman|title=Beyond the Text: A Holistic Approach to Liturgy|year=1989|publisher=Indiana University Press |ref=129|isbn=978-0253205384}}
*{{cite journal|first=David|last= Nirenberg|title=The Rhineland Massacres of Jews in the First Crusade, Memories Medieval and Modern*
|journal=Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography|url=https://www.academia.edu|ref=279-310}}
*{{cite book|first=Stefan C.|last=Reif|title=Judaism and Hebrew Prayer|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=219|isbn=978-0521483414}}
*{{cite book|first=Susan|last=Shwartz|title=Cross and Crescent|year=2002|publisher=Open Road Integrated Media, Incorporated |ref=409|isbn=978-0759212923}}
*{{cite book|first=Paola|last=Tartakoff|title=Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown|year=2012|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated |ref=107|isbn=978-0812244212}}
*{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Tyerman|author-link = Christopher Tyerman|title=The Crusades|year=2009|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company |ref=99|isbn=978-1402768910}}
*{{cite book|first1=André|last1=Vauchez|first2=Richard Barrie|last2=Dobson|first3=Michael|last3=Lapidge|title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages|volume=1|year=2000|ref=1169|isbn=978-1579582821}}

===Secondary sources===
* (Hebrew) {{Cite book|title= Facing the Cross: The Persecutions of 1096 in History and Historiography|editor1=Yom Tov Assis |editor2=Geremi Cohen |editor3=Ora Limor |editor4=Aharon Kedar |editor5=Michael Toch |place=Jerusalem|year=2000}}
* {{cite book|author=Robert Chazan|title=God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First-Crusade Narratives|url=https://archive.org/details/godhumanityhisto00robe|url-access=registration|place=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0520221277|author-link=Robert Chazan}}
* {{cite book|first=Robert|last=Chazan|title=In the Year 1096: The Jews and the First Crusade|url=https://archive.org/details/inyear1096firstc00chaz|url-access=registration|place=Philadelphia|publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America|year=1996|isbn=978-0827605756}}
* {{cite web|first=Jeremy|last=Cohen|url=http://faculty.history.umd.edu/BCooperman/Medieval/Cohenpart1.pdf|title=A 1096 Complex? Constructing the First Crusade in Jewish Historical Memory, Medieval and Modern}}
* {{cite book|first=Jeremy|last=Cohen|title=Sanctifying the Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2006}}
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Nirenberg|title=The Rhineland Massacres of Jews in the First Crusade, Memories Medieval and Modern, in Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory|publisher=Historiography|ref=279–310}}
* {{cite journal|first=Benjamin Z.|last=Kedar|jstor=20101340|title= Crusade Historians and the Massacres of 1096|journal=Jewish History|volume=12|issue=2|pages=11–31|year=1998|ref=11–31|doi=10.1007/BF02335496|s2cid=153734729}}
*{{cite book|first=Monika|last=Otter|title=Goscelin of St Bertin|year=2012|publisher=DS Brewer |ref=137|isbn=978-1843842941}}
*{{cite web|editor=Kenneth Setton|editor-link=Kenneth Setton|title=A History of the Crusades|publisher=Madison|date=1969–1989|url=http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/HistCrusades/|access-date=2004-12-21|archive-date=2003-04-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030401233647/http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/HistCrusades/|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite book|first1=André|last1=Vauchez|first2=Richard Barrie|last2=Dobson|first3=Michael|last3=Lapidge|title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages|volume=1|year=2000|ref=1169|isbn=978-1579582821}}
*{{cite book|first=Kenneth|last=Stow|title=Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages: Confrontation and Response|place= Aldershot |publisher= Ashgate|year=2007|isbn=978-0754659150}}
*{{cite journal|first=Norman|last=Roth|title=Bishops and Jews in the Middle Ages.|journal=The Catholic Historical Review|volume=80|issue=1|pages=1–17|date= January 1994|jstor=25024201}}
*{{cite book|author=Stow, Kenneth and David Abulafia|title= The New Cambridge Medieval History|pages= 204–219|place= Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=1999|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521362894.012|chapter= Ch. 8: The Church and the Jews|isbn= 978-1139055734}}
*{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Stacey|title=Chapter: Crusades, Martyrdoms, and the Jews of Norman England, 1096–1190, Juden Und Christen Der Zeit Der Kreuzzüge|pages=233–251|place=Sigmaringen|publisher=Jan Thorbecke Verlag|year=1999}}

===Journal articles===
* {{cite journal|first=Shlomo|last=Eidelberg|title=The First Crusade and the persecutions of 1096: a recollection for their 900th anniversary|journal=Medieval Ashkenazic History|year=1999|ref=29–74}}
* {{cite journal|first=Shlomo|last=Eidelberg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uiRoOkfzg94C|title=The Jews and the Crusaders: The Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades|publisher=KTAV Publishing House Inc.|year=1996|journal=History|isbn=978-0881255416}}
* {{cite journal|first=Matthew|last=Gabriele|title=Against the Enemies of Christ: The Role of Count Emicho in the Anti-Jewish Violence of the First Crusade|journal=Christian Attitudes Towards the Jews in the Middle Ages|editor=Michael Frassetto|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OiIpCRWAEwgC&pg=PA61 |isbn=978-0415978279}}
* {{cite journal|first=G.D|last=Goitein|title=Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders|journal=Journal of Jewish Studies|volume=3|issue=4|year=1952|pages=162–177, 163|doi=10.18647/97/JJS-1952}}
* (Hebrew) {{cite journal|first=Joseph|last=Hacker|title=On the Persecutions of 1096|journal=[[Zion (journal)|Zion]]|volume=31|year=1966|ref=229–231}}
* (German) {{cite journal|first=Eva|last=Haverkamp|title=Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während des Ersten Kreuzzugs [Hebrew reports on the persecution of Jews during the First Crusade]|journal=Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Hebräische Texte aus dem Mittelalterlichen Deutschland|volume=1|publisher=Hanover Hahnsche Buchhandlung|year=2005}}
* {{cite journal|first=Eva|last=Haverkamp|title=What did the Christians know? Latin reports on the persecutions of Jews in 1096|journal=The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East|year=2008|ref=59–86}}
* {{cite journal|first=Eva|last=Haverkamp|jstor=25653802|title=Martyrs in rivalry: the 1096 Jewish martyrs and the Thebean legion|journal=Jewish History|volume=23|issue=4|pages=319–342|year=2009|ref=319–342|doi=10.1007/s10835-009-9091-1|s2cid=159477788}}
*{{cite web|first=Adolf|last=Kober|title=Cologne|publisher=The Jewish Publication Society of America|place=Philadelphia|year=1940|url=http://www.msacerdoti.it/kobercologne.html}}
* {{cite journal|first=David|last=Malkiel|jstor=20101451|title= Destruction or Conversion: Intention and Reaction, Crusaders and Jews, in 1096|journal=Jewish History|volume=15|issue=3|pages=257–280|year=2001|ref=257–280|doi=10.1023/A:1014208904545|s2cid=156054316}}
* (German) {{cite journal|first=Gerd|last=Mentgen|title=Die Juden des Mittelrhein-Mosel-Gebietes im Hochmittelalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kreuzzugsverfolgungen [The Jews of the Middle Rhine Moselle area in the High Middle Ages, with special emphasis on crusade persecutions]|journal=Der Erste Kreuzzug 1096 und Seine Folgen, die Verfolgung der Juden Im Rheinland|publisher=[[Evangelical Church in the Rhineland]], Düsseldorf 1996 (Schriften des Archivs der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland|volume=9|ref=37–75}}
* {{cite journal|title=Die Juden des Mittelrhein-Mosel-Gebietes im Hochmittelalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kreuzzugsverfolgungen [The Jews of the Middle Rhine Moselle area in the High Middle Ages, with special emphasis on crusade persecutions]|journal=Monatshefte für Evangelische Kirchengeschichte des Rheinlandes|volume=44|year=1995|ref=37–75}}

==External links==
* [[Albert of Aix]] and Ekkehard of Aura: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews.html Emico and the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews].
* ''[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]]'': [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=908&letter=C The Crusades]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070403162642/http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/crusades.cfm Map and picture concerning German crusade]
* [http://jewishhistorylectures.org/2015/11/24/who-was-count-emicho-jews-and-the-first-crusade-2/ Who Was Count Emicho?] by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]]

{{Massacres of Jews}}
{{Religious persecution}}
{{Antisemitism topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Jews and Judaism}}{{Jewish history}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1096 in Europe]]
[[Category:11th-century massacres]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in France]]
[[Category:First Crusade]]
[[Category:Jewish French history]]
[[Category:Jewish German history]]
[[Category:Medieval anti-Jewish pogroms]]
[[Category:Massacres in Germany]]
[[Category:Massacres of Jews]]
[[Category:Anti-Jewish pogroms in Europe]]
[[Category:Synagogue arson]]
[[Category:Mass suicides]]
[[Category:Massacres in France]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Germany]]