The Infamous Shabbos Hagadol Massacre of the Jews of York In

The infamous Shabbos HaGadol massacre of the Jews by Baruch ben Chayil Ghastly Events of 1190 The ghastly Jews were not to be further persecuted, chain of events in York in 1190, which led but once he left for the Crusades the vio- of York in 1190 was the most notorious example of y British-born chavrusa, study to the rabbis placing a cherem against lence resumed. partner, in Telshe Stone first Jews living within the walls of that city, anti-Semitism in medieval England. Malerted me to the significance became the most notorious example of Refuge in York Castle One of the Jews of the infamous 1190 York pogrom. He anti-Semitism in medieval England. By at Westminster, Benedict of York, who has something of a personal connection no means, however, was it an isolated in- had chosen baptism to escape being with the affair, or at least with a related cident. The York massacre was the climax killed, later recanted his conversion to Clifford's Tower, site of the infamous massacre event that occurred subsequently in of a tide of murderous violence that had Christianity but died of his wounds. He of the Jews of York in 1190. The daffodils modern times. swept the country in the early part of 1190, had been the York agent for a prominent have been planted as an additional As a young man from a nonobservant when ignorant mobs were incited by the Jewish banker, Aaron of Lincoln. In memorial as they appropriately family that had survived the Holocaust, he leaders of the impending Crusades to pil- March 1190, his grieving widow and chil- display six petals actually attended the University of York lage and massacre whole Jewish commu- dren were slain in their beds and his house without knowing that British rabbis had nities. Nobles envious of Jewish wealth, ransacked. Led by Richard Malebisse, a centuries before placed a cherem, a prohi- landowners who owed money to the Jews, York nobleman deeply in debt to Aaron of bition, on Jews residing in the city of York. the zealous clergy — all these conspired Lincoln, the rampaging mob then took ad- He told me how his grandmother was ap- to eradicate the Jews. vantage of a fire that had broken out else- palled to hear that he was going to York. In September 1189, thirty Jews were where in York and commenced burning “They kill Jews there, you know.” When massacred at the coronation of King Jewish homes, supposedly in retaliation. my chavrusa reassured her: “Granny, that Richard I (the Lionheart), at Westminster. The truth was that Malebisse and his co- was eight hundred years ago,” she replied, Crusaders on a rampage killed fifty-seven horts divined a golden opportunity to “Some things never change!” Jews at Bury St. Edmunds on March 18, erase their debts and their creditors in one My chavrusa once even performed 1190, just two days after the York killings. savage stroke. Picture courtesy of York Castle Area Campaign Area Castle York courtesy of Picture with the university orchestra in York Jews were slain at Lynn, at Stamford fair, York boasted one of the largest Jewish Minster, the cathedral which was the sub- and at Norwich around the same time; and communities of the period and it was a ject of a very mysterious fire early in the the Jews of Lincoln escaped only by tak- center of Torah learning, being home to morning on July 9, 1984, following re- ing refuge in a castle. some notable scholars. Afraid for their burial, the day before, of Jewish bones The coronation murders occurred after safety, the alarmed Jews gathered around which, by some accounts, could have in- two prominent Jews had arrived uninvited their leader, Yosef (Josce) of York, and cluded victims of the twelfth-century at Westminster Abbey, bringing valuable their chief rabbi and religious mentor, massacre. The interesting aspect of this gifts for the new king from the Jewish Yom Tov bar Yitzchak of Joigny, France, a fire was that the part of the cathedral that communities. An angry mob attacked liturgical poet and one of the celebrated was extensively damaged was the pre- them following a false rumor that the king Tosafists. They all took refuge in York thirteenth-century section. had ordered death to the Jews. Fleeing to Castle or the “great tower” (later named My chavrusa clearly recalls watching their stone houses for refuge, the Jews Clifford’s Tower), a wooden keep built by spectacular lightning storms light the sky were faced by the threat of the straw roofs William I in 1068, by the River Ouse. Per- above York the night before the fire. It of their dwellings being set on fire. Many mission was at first obtained from the war- was reported that the medieval cathedral of those who tried to escape were den, who complied because the Jews were was struck by lightning and it took more butchered, although several committed under the direct protection of the king, but than 120 firefighters to bring the blaze suicide rather than face the other alterna- this dignitary soon left the scene to com- under control. Only many years later, tive of forced baptism. After twenty-four plain to the Sheriff of York, John Marshall, when he was living in Israel as an obser- hours of rioting, the king stepped in to stop that the Jews had “cheated him.” vant Jew, did my chavrusa hear the full the disorder and had three of the instiga- When the warden tried to re-enter the story of the events leading up to this dra- tors hanged. After all, Jews were useful to tower together with the county militia, matic finale of an almost eight-hundred- the crown not only for taxes, but as mon- who had orders to evict the Jews from year saga. eylenders. King Richard decreed that the their refuge, he was refused admission for 26 8 Elul 5767 8.22.07 27 fear of the mob now gathered around the nizations. The Castle Area Campaign has tower walls. The siege continued for sev- also been active in maintaining the site eral days while preparations were being and plaque. A field of daffodils (consid- made to storm the castle and force the ered an appropriate flower because the Jews out. The besiegers were incited by a petals take the form of a six-pointed star) vociferous monk who celebrated mass was planted in 1993 as a memorial to what each morning in front of the tower, they describe as a “potent reminder of reli- dressed in white robes. A stone fell (or gious and racial intolerance — an educa- was thrown) from the tower, killing him, tive force in an unstable world.” and whipping the mob into a renewed Despite conciliatory gestures such as frenzy. If the Jews left the tower they the one recorded above, York remains a faced certain death, or at the very least, city that most Jews avoid. It is said that de- forced baptism. vout Jews who happen to travel by train It was now March 16, 1190 (7 Nisan through the city even desist from eating 4950), erev Shabbos HaGadol, and the their sandwiches. The latest available pop- Jews were running short of food and Tayl courtesy Dave Picture ulation figures show only 191 Jews living The York massacre water. in York, out of a total population of was the climax of a 181,094, about one-tenth of one percent! The Only Way Out When the besieg- It is somewhat ironic and perhaps even tide of murderous ing throng set the citadel on fire, the ven- significant to note that the world’s largest erable Rabbi Yom Tov of Joigny con- concentration of Jews in a single city to- violence that had cluded that the only solution was for the day exists in the city of New York. Jews inside to take their own lives to swept the country in avoid the greater sin of forced baptism. Laying the York Bones to Rest The According to one account, Josce of York chain of events which led to the eventual the early part of 1190, began the sad self-immolation when he laying to rest of the bones of Jews from slew his own beloved wife, Hannah, and medieval York reads something like a when ignorant mobs Jewbury Street today in what is described by the photographer as "… a deeply bestselling thriller. A full account was their two children, with his shechitah, rit- unloved part of the city, crossed by a busy road." The lamp-post bears the road sign were incited by the ual slaughter, knife. He was then himself "Jewbury" with Sainsbury's car park across the road, site of the crypt containing the published in the chareidi online magazine stabbed to death by Rabbi Yom Tov. (An- bones of York medieval Jews dug up during construction work Dei’ah VeDibur on October 8, 2003 (12 leaders of the other rendering has Josce as the last to die Tishrei 5764). The writer, Rabbi Dov Eli- before the venerable rabbi.) The father of ach, obtained his story from the Gateshead impending Crusades each family was given the overwhelming they left the castle at daybreak on March between 1190 and 1194. Between 1245 The next purportedly avreich, Rabbi Yisroel Chaim Levine. responsibility of killing the women and 17, they were immediately killed. One and 1265, the castle was again rebuilt and In brief, the story goes that in 1984, to pillage and children of his household before himself narrative records that most of the bodies of raised to its present height and is still ex- connected event, a Rabbi Levine, on his way back to being killed by Rabbi Yom Tov, who, fi- dead Jews were burned in the fire that en- tant as the stone castle, Clifford’s Tower.

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