How were Jewish people treated in England and Europe in the past centuries?

Answer 1

Answer 1

The question is much too broad. Try asking about a specific country or century.

There were places and periods of prosperity, and there were times and periods (often in the same places) of attacks, blood-libels, pogroms, massacres, expulsions, the Crusades, and the Holocaust.

Answer 2

Before answering, it is important to note how overly broad and general this question is. People have written books on Jewish history that within them cover just a few days (like books on the Six-Day War), so writing about two millennia of Jewish History would be next to impossible. However, I will attempt an extremely broad coverage of different events using numbers sequentially and letters regionally. (i.e. 1A and 1B both happen at the same time but in different places and 1B and 2B happen in the same place but 1B happened before 2B.)

Regions: A = Western Europe, B = Germany and North Central Europe, C = Eastern Europe.

1A) As the Roman Empire disintegrates, the Medieval Christian states begin to impose harsh laws on the Jews but allow them to practice Judaism openly if they follow these rules. Typically the community would be allowed to live in one neighborhood, called a "ghetto" (after the Venetian neighborhood so designated), under the stewardship of a Kahal (or Jewish Board of Directors). However, the cities allowing Jews to set up these types of neighborhoods were few and far between, leading many Jews to emigrate out of Western Europe and further east to find sanctuary. In addition, Jews were banned from many occupations which lead them into very specialized fields. Anti-Semitism was pervasive and common which lead to numerous pogroms and religiously incited massacres. Judaism was also defined religiously at this point, which meant that a Jew could convert to Christianity and become just as accepted to them as native-born Christians. Rabbis in these Kahals correspond with their counterparts in the Arab World.

1BC) Jews begin to arrive in these regions due to more fluid borders and less stringent obligations. The Jews moving to Central and Eastern Europe (most often from Western Europe) are typically poorer than those who remained in the Western European cities. Anti-Semitism was still pervasive, but Jewish communities could usually avoid the major cities and instead live as farmers.

2A) Western Europe became more and more Anti-Semitic. Beginning with the Expulsions from Spain and Portugal, Western Europe begins to formalize the Jewish-Race concept wherein there is something wrong with the Jew that makes him unfit for European civilization (converting to Christianity will not fix him). Jews have minimal involvement in France and slowly begin to return to the United Kingdom (they were expelled in 1290). Western European Jews tried to challenge convention, but were much less successful than their German and Dutch brethren. In the 1700s and 1800s, the Jews of the United Kingdom began to gain more rights and political freedoms.

2B) The German Jewish community really begins to develop and urbanize during this period, becoming much more similar to the Western European communities than the Eastern European communities. They deal with many of the same problems and restrictions that Western European Jews do, but a more tolerant atmosphere in Germany lends itself to the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah), in which Jews begin to join the Modern European discussions on Rights and Freedoms. German Jews begin to assert that they can be European citizens without giving up their religious background. By the mid-1800s, German Jews have founded what are now known as the Conservative, Reform, and Secular Movements in Judaism. In the Netherlands, the Jewish community was able to openly practice without discrimination, making Amsterdam a haven for many Jews fleeing Western Europe. As a result of Amsterdam's freer intermingling, Jews there were also able to participate in the wider phenomenon of Modernization.

2C) The Eastern Jewish community, although poor and much maligned by their Christian neighbors begins to become the largest center of Jewish population (with numbers roughly equivalent to every other Jewish community combined). Unburdened with the in-city laws and restricted territories (they lived outside of the city limits and were farmers as opposed to tradesmen), they began to spread. However, the Eastern European Jewish community began to come under direct fire from European imperial governments seeking to ethnically cleanse themselves of Jews. Anti-Semitism becomes much more entrenched and institutionalized as the countries of Eastern Europe begin to modernize. The 1700s sees the rise of the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic and Mitnaged Movements, which showcase Jewish spirituality by interpreting the Jewish tradition in interaction with modernity, holistically, and scholastically respectively.

3AB) The Modern European states began to integrate Jews more fully in society after the Napoleonic era. This meant that Jews were able to fight in European armies and live wherever they wished. However, there was huge backlash. Anti-Semitism manifested in new pseudo-scientific forms which explained that Jews were deficient and this is what led to their differences and impossibility of being proper Europeans. This sentiment explains the rise of Zionism as a way for the Jews to create a state that would cater to their interest away from European questions over the possibility of Jewish integration. The Anti-Semitism expressed in modern Western and Central Europe was directly responsible for the Holocaust which effectively exterminated the majority of the Jewish population in all European countries except the United Kingdom (for obvious reasons).

3C) Eastern European Judaism did not change much other than the fact the Mitnaged and Hasidic movements merged together to form the modern Haredi (ultra-orthodox) community. Eastern European Jewry lost the large majority of its Jewish population in the Holocaust.