Chapter 3 - Jews: Familiar Strangers

Summary

Chapter 3 approaches the question of urban diversity and belonging by considering the experience of a small, but distinctive group, the Jews. Through the settlement of Jews, several strands delineated in Chapter 2 are exemplified and considered: after 1000 there is notable migration from southern to northern Europe, where Jews were invited by rulers to settle and fulfil particular fiscal and commercial roles, under their protection. The concept of Jewish ‘servitude’ was useful here, as it helped define the relationship between rulers and Jewish communities under their protection. In the Iberian Peninsula, Jews were treated in this manner by Christian rulers alongside Muslims; and in central Europe they settled alongside hegemonic groups of German-speaking merchants into whose hands the kings of Poland and Hungary often entrusted urban governance. Jews were embedded in the city – protected and settled – but also retained marks of difference, in their religion, ritual language, and Jewish law courts. Sometimes they were even considered as citizens of sorts, although they could not wield judicial authority. Yet later centuries see political and commercial interests, and revivalist preachers, develop anti-Jewish narratives, negotiate expulsions, and occasionally encourage violence, like the horrific killings following the Black Death in German towns. Identity and belonging are tested in the case of Europe’s Jews.