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A medieval massacre nearly wiped out the Jews of York, England. New research shows how the community recovered.
(JTA) — Earlier this month, the small Jewish community in the British city of York celebrated the arrival of a new rabbi, its first since the city’s Jewish community was nearly wiped out in a pogrom in 1190.
Or so they thought.
Just weeks after the new rabbi, Elisheva Salamo, arrived in the city, a team of researchers has discovered that Jews in York rebuilt their community in the decades after the pogrom — though they still faced antisemitism in the years leading up to the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290.
In findings published this week, a team of researchers from the University of York have found the location of the city’s first synagogue, and discovered how, in the years after 1190, leading figures from the Jewish community cooperated with local church leadership in purchasing a stone building that became the city’s Guildhall, which functioned at the time as a civic center.
“The amount of new information that has been uncovered by the team is truly inspiring,” Howard Duckworth, warden of the York Synagogue, said in a statement. “We have discovered a totally new history of Jews in York, which for many years has been overshadowed by the massacre at Clifford’s Tower. This research is so much more, a real history anyone can relate to. When you walk through York now, you see York with totally different eyes.”
The researchers were part of a project called StreetLife York, which hopes to “revitalise and diversify” the city’s main street, called Coney Street, in part by learning about its more than 1,000-year history. The researchers focused on Jews who lived on Coney Street during the 1200s.
“The massacre of York’s Jews in 1190 has overshadowed the fact that from the 1210s onwards there was once more a thriving Jewish community living and working in the city in mostly harmonious relations with their Christian neighbours,” read an announcement from the university. It added that “the chief Jewish citizens of the city were also some of the most important figures in England.”
In the 1190 massacre, which occurred on the Shabbat before Passover, the Jews of York sought refuge in a tower in the king’s castle as antisemitic rioters intended to forcibly convert them to Christianity or kill them. The city’s Jews chose to kill themselves rather than convert, and approximately 150 people are estimated to have died in the pogrom.
Basing their designs on surviving medieval houses in York, the researchers digitally reconstructed the homes of prominent Jewish leaders of York following the massacre — including an uncle-and-nephew pair, Leo Episcopus and Aaron of York; Aaron’s wife Henna, and his nephew Josce le Jovene. The researchers also found the exact locations of homes of the two leading members of the Jewish community that existed prior to the pogrom in 1190.
They also found that the community’s first synagogue was located on the back plot of Aaron of York’s house. Leo and Aaron served as representatives of the whole Jewish community of England, and for a time, Aaron was considered the richest man in the country.
The digital reconstruction found that although the synagogue was close to a church, there was no evidence of direct conflict between the two religious communities. But the synagogue, and others in the country, did face discrimination from the king. A 1253 royal statute proclaimed, “In their synagogues the Jews should all subdue their voices when performing their ritual offices, so that Christians shall not hear them.”
Jews were persecuted in other ways as well. In 1279, Josce le Jovene, a moneylender, and his son who was also named Aaron, were “hanged for felony,” though their crimes were not specified, according to researchers.
“During this period hundreds of Jews were being rounded up and apprehended at the Tower of London on the charge of ‘coin clipping’ — namely trimming bits of silver from coins to create new money,” the research project says. “While some Jews managed to escape by paying hefty fines or converting to Christianity, many faced severe sentences, including death.”
In 1290, Jews were expelled from England entirely. They were not permitted to return to England until 1656.
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The post A medieval massacre nearly wiped out the Jews of York, England. New research shows how the community recovered. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.