The Rhineland massacres of the First Crusade
Crusading bands on their way to the Holy Land massacre the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz.
- European Jewry and the First Crusade — Robert Chazan, University of California Press (1987)
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
- The Crusades: A History — Jonathan Riley-Smith, Yale University Press
In spring 1096, as the First Crusade gathered, some bands, notably one led by Count Emicho, attacked the old Jewish communities of the Rhineland, asking why they should march to fight God’s enemies abroad while leaving the “killers of Christ” at home. Local bishops sometimes tried to protect the Jews and failed. Thousands were killed in Speyer, Worms and Mainz; many others were forcibly baptised, and some families chose to die rather than convert, an act remembered as kiddush hashem, sanctifying God’s name.
- European Jewry and the First Crusade — Robert Chazan, University of California Press (1987)
- The Crusades: A History — Jonathan Riley-Smith, Yale University Press
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
- The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE–1492 CE — Simon Schama, Bodley Head (2013)
Why it matters today
The massacres became a defining memory of Ashkenazi Jewry, mourned in liturgical poems still recited on Tisha B'Av, and marked the start of centuries of violence, libels and expulsions in Christian Europe. For many Jews the word "crusade" carries this memory.