Leonie Star. 2013. England's Ethnic Cleansing of the Jews.
Rutland, Suzanne D.
Leonie Star. 2013. England's Ethnic Cleansing of the Jews. Glen Waverley: Sid Harta Publishers, pp. i-xx, 341. ISBN-10: 1922086576 and ISBN-13: 9781922086570 (paperback) $AU29.95; $US 18.85.
Leonie Star's latest book, England's Ethnic Cleansing of the Jews, analyses the mediaeval history of the Jews in England, from their arrival with the Norman invasion in 1066 until their expulsion in 1290. England was the last country in Europe to accept Jews into its midst, and the first country to expel them. In all, Jews lived in England in the Middle Ages for a mere 224 years. Yet, in that short time period their experiences were a microcosm of the history of Jews in Western Europe in mediaeval times.
In mediaeval Europe, Jews were invited in because of their financial skills and they were offered charters to protect them, as long as they paid their dues to the ruler--king, prince or duke. Their leaders were highly successful, becoming very wealthy, but this led to jealously and resentment. Once the ruler had bled his Jews dry and they were no longer of use, they were expelled and forced to seek refuge elsewhere.
Leonie Star describes this process in her study of the Jews of England. The Normans encouraged Jews to settle there because of their financial skills. From the time of Henry I onwards, they were offered charters of protection, first settling in London, then Oxford and in other parts of the country. Some enjoyed outstanding success, among them Aaron of Lincoln, who lived in the twelfth century and was claimed to have become the wealthiest man in Norman England. As Star describes him: His interests were extremely wide and he dealt with people from 25 countries, taking as sureties items as diverse as corn, armour and houses. He employed agents around the country where his interests were significant. He lent money to help build nine Cistercian abbeys and assisted in the building of the Lincoln and Peterborough cathedrals. Not an unassuming man, he was known to boast that the patron saint of St Albans had been without a home until he provided him one in the great church he financed there (133-134).
When the Lincoln Cathedral was finally completed in the 1300s, it was known as the tallest building in the world, and remained so until Tudor times. Aaron's story illustrates how Jews were involved with transnationalism and even globalisation. When he died, the king, Henry II, seized all his property, and a special exchequer of Aaron was established to locate all the funds still owing to the king. A stone house, with which he is associated, known as "Jew's House", is still standing --the oldest private stone residence in England, although it is not certain that it was Aaron's house.
Yet, within less than a century of the Jews' arrival in England, anti-Jewish feelings surfaced. England was the first country where the accusation of ritual murder occurred--that Jews had to crucify a Christian child in imitation of Jesus's crucifixion at Easter time. This later developed on the continent into the blood libel. The story of William of Norwich, later known as Saint William, was the first such accusation--made in 1144, when a young boy was found dead two days before Easter and the Jews of Norwich were accused of killing him on the second day of Pesach, in imitation of the killing of Jesus. Star gives a vivid description of the accusations and the account of the affair written by Thomas of Monmouth, who "claimed that ancient Jewish law decreed that every year a Christian must be sacrificed to avenge the sufferings Jews had undergone since Christ's death, in being exiled from their country and becoming slaves in other lands (193)." She quotes from Thomas's description of the boy martyr's future: The glorious boy and martyr of Christ, William, Dying the death of time in reproach of the Lord's death, but crowned with the blood of glorious martyrdom, entered into the kingdom of glory on high to live forever. Whose soul rejoiceth blissfully in heaven among the bright hosts of the saints, and whose body by the omnipotence of the divine mercy worketh miracles upon earth ... (193-194).
For centuries afterwards William's tomb in the church in Norwich was a place of pilgrimage. There were a number of similar accusations, the worst of which was the story of Hugh of Lincoln, when the Jews of the town were again accused of carrying out a ritual murder in 1255. Those so accused were dragged out of their homes and tortured until one Jewish businessman by the name of Copin confessed and also incriminated many of the other Jews. A total of 90 Jews were arrested, with 19 of them, including Copin himself, being hung immediately.
The accusation of ritual murder became part of the English literary tradition, due to Chaucer's graphic description in "The Prioress's Tale" of the murder of the seven-year old son of a widow by the Jews of an Asian Town. This boy was known to have a very sweet voice and, as he walked through the Jewish ghetto singing Alma redemptoris, a song of praise to Mary and Jesus, the Jews in the ghetto murdered him. According to Chaucer's story, he was then thrown into a privy, but his mother found him by singing his song, which he responded to, even though according to the story his throat had been slit (198). As Star stressed (199), this calumny was invented in England, but was then exported to the European continent.
The rapid decline of Jewish life in England began with Richard the Lionheart and the tragic attack on the Jews of York, when 150 Jews, most of its population, were massacred in 1190. The book then takes the reader through the various vicissitudes experienced by the Jews of England in the thirteenth century, before their final expulsion in 1290. Throughout the thirteenth century, the Jews were pressured by the various English kings to pay exorbitant taxes, known as tallages. The hardships that the Jews experienced in trying to meet such demands of the various monarchs are described in detail. By the reign of Edward I, they had been bled dry.
Whilst they could no longer pay the tallages, the wealthier Jews still owned substantial property, so that by expelling them and requisitioning their property, Edward was able to acquire substantial funding. In addition, the expulsion decision was supported by the English nobility, who voted in support of a subsidy of one fifteenth of the specially assessed value of all personal property of the realm to fill the royal coffers. (268). Thus came to an end the story of the Jews of England, who were not permitted to return until the middle of the seventeenth century. As Star writes, their expulsion was the first in a series of expulsions, which included France, the various Germanic kingdoms and duchies, then Spain in 1492 and finally Portugal, which was, in reality, a mass forced conversion in 1497.
Leonie Star worked on this book due to her personal conviction of the relevance of the story. She believes strongly in the importance of conveying this message of the deep roots of the anti-Jewish narrative that began in mediaeval England. She set out to write a book for the general readership, not an academic history. She has therefore sought to bring her characters to life, providing the reader with a background to their personalities as well as discussing their historic significance. She has constructed a book, combining a chronological approach together with a thematic structure. Hence, she begins with the conquest in 1066 and then provides an overview of the English kings and the evolution of the history of the Jews in England to 1290. After setting the scene and discussing the Jews of England, she has three thematic chapters that deal with their religious and secular life, their financial role and Jewish/Christian relations. She then paints a picture of their increasingly difficult situation and decline in the thirteenth century, and finally deals with the expulsion under Edward I. The book also includes a timeline at the start to help orientate the reader, to achieve her aim of bringing this vital chapter of Jewish history to a broader reading audience.
One disadvantage of Star's decision to combine both a chronological approach with a thematic one is that there is a tendency to repetition. For example Aaron of Lincoln is discussed in the chapter on religious and secular life (100) and again in the chapter dealing with Jewish finances (133-5). Such repetition detracts from the quality of the work. There are also some inaccurate statements. For example, she claims that, after the defeat of the Jews in Judea and the destruction of the Temple in 70CE, Rome "ethnically cleansed Jews from the area (78)." However, this is incorrect. Not all Jews were removed from Judea, and in fact the Judeans fairly quickly reestablished themselves in Judea and carried out a second major rebellion against the Romans, the Bar Kokhba Revolt, in 132-135 CE. This was the final Jewish attempt to defeat the Romans, but by the third century Jewish life was flourishing again in the Galilee, as seen in the stone synagogues built during that century, the completion of the Mishnah and the development of the Palestinian Talmud. The story that Jewish life came to an end in what the Romans later renamed Syria-Palestina is a widely held misconception.
Another problem for me is the use of the term "ethnic cleansing". At the start of the book, Star provides a detailed explanation of the term, and as the title of the book it certainly does add an emotive element. However, whilst Jews did see themselves as a people, "the Sons of Israel" (6 'nei Yisroel), in the mediaeval period Jews were attacked ostensibly because of their religious beliefs. They could avoid physical attack and death by converting to Christianity.
Whilst this is a book for the general reading public, Leonie Star has provided detailed endnotes, as well as a list of all cited references which testify to the broad research she has undertaken, not only reading the key secondary works dealing with England and mediaeval Jewry, but also drawing on the key primary sources which are still extant. She has obviously researched her topic carefully and therefore made a valuable contribution to this important subject area, which is not generally well known. Her book will help to create a better contextual understanding of this period, as well as providing a backdrop to the development of anti-Jewish stereotypes that led to the tragic twentieth century events of the Holocaust.
