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The Black Death

Persecution of the Jews

As ever in Europe, when a crisis arose, the Jews were easy targets of blame. They were not the only group accused of poisoning water or practising witchcraft and hence bringing on the plague, but they suffered the anger of mob violence over a wide area.

There were massacres, especially in the cities along the Rhine River, and many more cases of the Jews being expelled from the town. On one day in Strassbourg in 1349, nearly 200 Jews were burned to death by an angry mob.

These actions were outbursts of popular anger and fear, not the instigation of the Church or even of the civil authorities. Pope Clement VI issued two bulls in the summer of 1348 forbidding the plunder and slaughter of the Jews. He pointed out that Jews were suffering as severely as Christians. Yet in September 1348, Zurich closed its gates to the Jews.

A few towns actually protected their Jews, with the city authorities or the bishop coming to their defense. But the Jews were being expelled generally from western Europe during the 14th century, and they were tolerated in Poland and Lithuania. So when the persecutions associated with the Black Death arose, some Jews simply migrated eastward and did not return.