Primary Texts from 1000 to Modernity

In the early Middle Ages (ca. 600-1000), and with the rise of European Christendom, sporadic anti-Jewish practices occurred as Jewish legal rights dwindled. The High Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1300) was an era marked by violent outpouring of anti-Judaism, especially during the First Crusade (1096-1099), and growing restrictions upon Jewish life, worship, and employment. These included, in diverse times and places, the right to own land or to receive education for emerging professions. Accusations of host desecration, the blood libel, the poisoning of wells, and the banishment from this or that realm happened with some regularity, though not throughout the continent simultaneously. In many places Jews prospered for centuries, only to be assaulted during crises. During the Reformation period (ca. 1517 - 1648), Jews were caught between internecine Christian wars. By the 20th century, Jews had achieved some degree of freedom, though often expected by the larger society to assimilate, but racialized antisemitism had taken firm hold in the European imagination.