April 20: 13th-Century Anti-Semitism

Twenty-one Jews in Rottingen, Germany, were killed by anti-Semitic mobs on this date in 1298 after a local nobleman named Rindfleish, said to be in debt to a Jewish money-lender, spread rumors about Jews “desecrating the host.” The rioting spread in subsequent months to a total of 146 towns in the region, with tens of thousands of Jews murdered, including nearly the entire Jewish communities of Würzburg and Nuremberg and half of the 500 Jews of Rottenburg. The context for these “Rindfleish persecutions” was a German civil war that ended with Albert I on the throne as Holy Roman Emperor, a stern ruler who nevertheless protected both serfs and Jews.

“The massacres followed a series of blood libels in Mainz (1281, 1283), Munich (1285), and Oberwesel (1287). In Munich, Jews were burned alive in 1290. Likewise, there was an accusation of desecration of the host in Paris in 1290.” —Ami Isseroff