Texte

In the mid-18th century, laws and ordinances such as Emperor Joseph II’s Rescripts of Tolerance were enacted in individual territories and Jews were placed under the protection of the respective rulers.

The relationship between majorities and minorities began to change again when, after the French Revolution of 1789 and after the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806, first individual territorial and later national states were formed. This was accompanied by definitions of the „national“ or of what „constituted a nation“. These soon led to a general self-image of national and increasingly nationalistic majority societies vis-à-vis minorities. Accordingly, Jews were soon classified as „foreigners“ who did not belong to the majority society.

„Anti-Semitism“ as a political fighting term for general „hostility toward Jews“ emerged in Germany in the second half of the 19th century, when authors such as Wilhelm Marr (1819-1904) called for hatred and persecution of Jews in inflammatory writings. Soon Jews had their civil rights restricted and their dignity taken away in anti-Semitic articles and caricatures. This anti-Semitism found resonance in the German Empire, but also in France and elsewhere in Europe through inflammatory writings by the French diplomat Arthur de Gobineau, the Anglo-German writer Houston Stuart Chamberlain, by Richard Wagner or the Berlin historian Heinrich von Treitschke, etc. Not to be underestimated in their media impact were vicious caricatures such as those of the French draftsman Gustave Doré.

The „anti-Semitism“ that developed into the Holocaust in the 20th century did not end with the end of the National Socialist German Reich and the liberation of the people from the extermination camps: on the contrary, it continued and is gaining new momentum in the 21st century among right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists in Germany, Europe and North America.

The European Union (EU) opposes this inhuman ideology with its democratic and liberal stance and therefore adopted this resolution on May 15, 2016 at the proposal of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA): „Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which can be expressed as hatred towards Jews.

Anti-Semitism is directed in word or deed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, as well as against Jewish communal institutions or religious bodies. In addition, the State of Israel, understood in this context as a Jewish collective, may also be the target of such attacks.

Captions
Fig. 6 | 7: Ecclesia and Synagoga Notre-Dame de Paris, allegorical Gothic statues (Source: Statue on the west facade / Statue. Synagoga of Notre-Dame de Paris, France, Luis Miguel Bugallo
Sánches [Lmbuga]).
Fig. 8: Sculpture of the „Jew sow“ at the Wittenberg town church, here as an insult leaf, Wittenberg 1546.
(Source: broadsheet depicting the Wittenberg Judensau, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig. 9: The Wandering Eternal Jew, color woodcut after Gustave Doré, 1852 Reproduction in an exhibition at Yad Vashem, 2007 (Source: The Wandering Eternal Jew, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Exclusion of Jews can already be found in the Middle Ages: stereotypically, Jews were often described as „money-grubbing,“ „devious,“ „treacherous,“ as „well poisoners,“ „ritual murderers,“ “ profiteers,“ and depicted in pictures as „ugly,“ „unsympathetic,“ and so on. This was also the case in everyday life, for example in the business seal of an Iacobus from Bremen around 1350, where a distorted depiction of a Jew looks into the anus of a pig as an anti-Jewish invective. Such so-called „Jewish pigs“ as invective objects from this period can also be found on 36 Christian places of worship in Central Europe, such as the Wittenberg City Church (around 1310). In addition, Jews were also marked in their clothing in everyday life. This is shown until modern times by yellow Jewish hats in pictorial manuscripts, on frescoes in churches and also the regulations on the color and shape and wearing of such hats. Similarly, in the dress regulations until the 17th/18th century, the attachment of a yellow ring on the left side of the cloak was prescribed for a long time.

Across the board, the Jewish religion was represented in the juxtaposition of radiant „Ecclesia“ (for the Christian church) and depressed „Synagoga“ (for the Jewish religion) in allegorical sculptures on Romanesque or Gothic churches (e.g., Strasbourg Cathedral or Bamberg Cathedral). The aim of these depictions and the dress codes was to exclude, humiliate and offend Jews.

After the introduction of printing by Johannes Gutenberg (Mainz, around 1456), many anti-Jewish diatribes appeared in the 16th century (e.g. Martin Luther’s „Von den Jüden und jren Lügen“, Wittenberg 1543). In their function at the time, these deliberately distorted images are comparable to today’s inflammatory and hateful posts on social media.

In the relationship between Christians and Jews, periods of coexistence and exclusion alternated: on the one hand, sovereigns granted Jews a right of protection and residence, on the other hand, Jews were persecuted.

The modern development in Frankfurt am Main can serve as an example for a stronger integration of Jewish life in Germany: although the so-called „Fettmilch Rebellion“ of 1612 resulted in acts of violence against the council as well as the looting of the Judengasse, a period of mutual respect and tolerance began afterwards.

Jews were able to practice their religion, their culture, their customs and traditions in villages and towns for a long time in coexistence and side by side. For example, children of Christian denominations and Jewish religion could learn reading, writing and arithmetic together from the 17th century onwards, as in the Old School in Lorsch.

Captions
Fig. 1: Anti-Jewish object of shame of a so-called „Judensau“ at the city church in Wittenberg (around 1310).
(Source: Jewish sow at the town church in Wittenberg, Posi66, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 2: Anti-Jewish depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. Chapel of St. Catherine in Landau in the Palatinate, after 1350 (Source: Wall painting Landau, D. Krieger, via Wikipedia Commons).
Fig. 3: Depiction of a Jewish hat in the Frankfurt Jewish Ordinance (Stättigkeit 1613). The obligation to wear the hat had already been abolished around this time (Source: Judenhut, public domain, via Wikipedia Commons)
Fig. 4 | 5: Portrait of a Jew from Worms, Thesaurus Picturarum of Marcus zum Lamm (1544 – 1606), University and State Library Darmstadt, manuscript 1971, vol. 23, p. 121/122 (Source: Portrait of a Jew from Worms / Portrait of a Jew from Worms, in the public domain, via Wikipedia Commons)

They were led by a rabbi. The services were held in prayer houses, halls or synagogues. At the same time, Jewish life continued to develop depending on the territory and especially in commercial and civic cities with large congregations and participation in urban life.
In Germany and Central Europe, in art and literature, in science and music and many other fields, a cultural-historical development lasting almost 200 years got underway with the participation of many Jewish minds and personalities.

This was especially due to the influence of the Enlightenment and also made itself felt with its reference to reason, tolerance and respect in corresponding manifestations of the French Revolution in 1789 and the American Constitution in 1776.

This was also reflected in the recognition of Jewish customs such as the Jewish calendar, the Shabbat, Jewish festivals, Jewish cuisine and its dietary laws, and many others.

However, in the 19th century, despite this positive development, anti-Semitism began to spread, and on August 29, 1897, the Zionist movement was founded in Basel on the initiative of the Austro-Hungarian writer Theodor Herzl. Its goal was based on Herzl’s writing of the need to establish a Jewish state as a consequence of pogroms that had taken place again and again. Soon and long before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the first immigrations to Palestine took place and kibbutzim were established there. One of the initiators was the religious philosopher Martin Buber, who lived in Heppenheim from 1916 to 1938 and emigrated to Palestine.
In the 20th century, the anti-Jewish tone in Germany soon led from hurtful words to inflammatory propaganda, political and soon murderous attacks by National Socialist combat units and the systematic murder of 6 million Jews in the concentration camps of Nazi terror: an unprecedented breach of civilization in world history.

Captions
Fig. 9: Theodor Herzl, Der Judenstaat. The Jewish State, Attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Question, Leipzig u. Wien, 1896. (Source: Der Judenstaat, in public domain, via Wikipedia Commons).
Fig. 10: Martin Buber, philosopher (1878-1965). (Source: Martin Buber in Palestine/Israel, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig. 11: Martin Buber’s residence in Heppenheim during his professorship at the University of Frankfurt between 1916 and 1938, now a memorial, home of the Martin Buber Society and the International Council of Christians and Jews. (Source: Heppenheim: Martin Buber House, S. Zimmermann, via rhein-neckar-wiki.de)

Jews may have already existed in Roman times on the Rhine and Neckar around Ladenburg, founded in 98 AD, as soldiers or officials of the provincial administration. There is hardly any evidence of this, but at that time a „Völkermühle“ (mill of nations) as the „winepress of Europe“ probably brought together people from all directions (according to Carl Zuckmayer, „Des Teufels General“).

Around 321 Jews can be proven as inhabitants of Cologne. Emperor Constantine the Great allowed them to join the city council. An oil lamp decorated with a menorah (ca. 5th century) was excavated in Augsburg.

Jewish communities are attested in the Middle Ages at the latest in Worms (c. 960, synagogue c. 1034) and an Iudaeus for 1065 in the Lorsch Codex. Soon, however, Jews were depicted in illuminated manuscripts with the exclusionary sign of the so-called Jewish hat. In the late Middle Ages, they were even reviled with disgusting sculptures on churches, such as the so-called „Jewish sow“ in Wittenberg.
There is also evidence of pogroms against Jews after the proclamation of the First Crusade: Fueled by the crusade propaganda, namely, on May 18, 1096, more than 800 Jews were murdered in Worms, according to the report of the Jewish chronicler Salomo bar Simson of Mainz. At The infamous Count Emicho of Leiningen played a major role in this, because he participated so actively in the pogroms in Mainz, Worms and Speyer out of religious delusions and hatred of Jews that he is called the greatest enemy of the Jews in the chronicles.

Chronicles he was called the greatest enemy of the Jews. On the occasion of the Crusades in 1146, 1188 and 1196 there were again pogroms and expulsions against the Jewish community in Worms. Social crises as well as the plague raging around 1348/49 caused the coexistence of life, living and working in medieval cities to fall apart. Jewish families and communities were quickly persecuted as the alleged perpetrators of the plague or forced to live in ghettos from then on: a social exclusion that began in the 14th century and was to lead to systematic destruction by Nazi terror in the 20th century. Jewish life in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation experienced prolonged periods of coexistence with Christians, but also repeated tensions. For example, Martin Luther in his writing „Von den Jüden und jren Lügen“ (1543) called for the destruction of synagogues and houses of Jews and the expulsion of Jews. Despite recurring anti-Jewish attitudes, quite a few Jewish communities grew up after the Thirty Years‘ War, both in the expanding cities and in the countryside.

Captions
Fig. 1: Fragment of a late Roman oil lamp with depiction of the menorah, around 400 A.D., in the background a completed replica (Source: Augsburg Art Collection and Museums, Central Archaeological Depository, photographer Karin Baumann)
Fig. 2: Codex Manesse, fol. 355r, Süsskind, the Jew of Trimberg (Source: Master of the Codex Manesse (Nachtragsmaler I), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 3: Martin Luther, About Jews and their lies, Wittenberg 1543, via Wikimedia Commons
Fig. 4: Moses Mendelssohn, (1729–1786)
Fig. 5: Baruch de Spinoza, Philosopher (1632–1677)
Fig. 6: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Composer (1809–1847)
Fig. 7: Ludwig Börne, Publisher (1786–1837); Fig. 4 – 7: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lorsch pharmacopoeia of 795 and its medical-pharmaceutical content may have been disseminated via the monasteries. For this purpose, information may have been exchanged with Spain, which was still Moorish at the time. There, in Cordoba, the Jewish philosopher, jurist and physician Moshe ben Maimon or (in Greek) Moses Maimonides (born around 1135, died 1204) lived and later worked as one of the most important scholars of the Middle Ages between Orient and Occident. After the occupation of Andalusia by the Muslim Almohads, he fled to Fez (today Morocco), later arriving in Cairo via Jerusalem and Alexandria, where he worked as personal physician to the secretary of Sultan Saladin, the opponent of Frederick Barbarossa in the Third Crusade.

In the High and Late Middle Ages, after the plague pogroms that raged throughout Europe and later after the Inquisition and expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews and their families had moved mainly to Eastern Europe. They met, as for example in Eastern Poland, communities settled since the 13th century or founded so-called shtetl. Thus, a long tradition of a rather conservative-orthodox Judaism developed in Eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, the shtetls were also subject to changing political conditions, when, depending on the political power, mutual tolerance and acceptance alternated with exclusion and threat. Through the nationalism and anti-Semitism of the 19th/20th century, Jewish life in Eastern Europe was first oppressed, then persecuted, and finally almost completely extinguished by the German Reich. The persecutions and the poor social and economic situation led in the 19th century to extensive emigration to the „New World“, where in the United States of America a liberal Judaism developed alongside Orthodox Judaism.

Captions
Fig. 4: Moshe ben Maimon. (Source: Graphic of Maimonides, with his statement of Blackstone’s Ratio, Kaz Vorpal, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 5: Former synagogue of Starejsoli, a shtetl in present-day Poland (Source: Stara Sól, synagoga, Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

Jewish life existed long before Christian centuries and was early characterized by migration and exile, when the 12 sons of Jacob, later called Yisrael, first went to Egypt, were enslaved there and under Moses‘ leadership managed to escape from Egypt.
According to tradition, the „Babylonian Captivity“ to Mesopotamian Babylon (today Iraq) followed 400 years later. Further migrations subsequently led to the so-called Diaspora (Greek), the geographical dispersion of the Jewish people in the Mediterranean region and in Asia: first after the conquests of Alexander the Great and then after the transformation of Judea into a Roman province in the 1st century AD, when Roman troops under Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.

This event was a deep cut in Jewish history and found its way into the collective memory of mankind until later times.

The conquest of Jerusalem and the resulting disintegration of the Jewish people in Palestine led to an even greater emigration to various regions of the world at that time, with repercussions up to our time. Thus, from then on, this diaspora was to run like a thread through the history of Jewish life in families and communities across all provinces of the Roman Empire, but also to Persia, Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) and Egypt. This was especially true after the collapse of the Roman Empire with the abdication of the last emperor During the great migrations that followed, new power structures of European proportions arose in the early medieval kingdom and empire of Charlemagne, with corresponding opportunities for exchange.

It can be assumed that the resumption of ancient traditions („Carolingian Renaissance“) promoted by Charlemagne included, for example, works of Mediterranean physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen, but also works of Arab and Jewish physicians in medicine and pharmacy.

Captions
Fig. 1: Relief of a menorah on the triumphal arch erected for Titus in Rome (Source: Wall relief sur arc de Titus illustrant la menorah du Temple de Jérusalem prise en l’an 70, Hanna Kim, via alamyimages.fr)
Fig. 2: Colored woodcut of a stylized city of Jerusalem with fictitious fire sites in the 1493 World Chronicle by Nuremberg physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (Source: Woodcut of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans from Schedel’s World Chronicle, sheet 63v/64r, public domain, Wikipedia Commons).
Fig. 3: The Roman Empire in its geographical dimensions in antiquity and late antiquity (Source: Empire romain en + 150, ColdEel, Wikimedia Commons).

An important religious and social symbol of Judaism is the mezuzah (Hebrew for doorpost) with blessings for the house and its inhabitants. Texts from the Torah are attached to doorposts in small capsules, touched with the fingers by devout residents and visitors, and the fingers are then brought to the mouth as a kiss (the so-called mezuzah kiss).

But also the Shabbat with its strict holiday rest, the cemetery culture and the wearing of head coverings (headscarf or kippa) in the synagogue and in public belong to religious symbolic acts.

In Jewish life, religious festivals (with associated food, fruit and baked goods) such as the New Year in September, the Feast of Tabernacles in October or the Feast of Atonement Yom Kippur have high symbolic value. Matzos, as unleavened flatbread, also play an important role in the Jewish diet. This must be kosher according to more or less strict regulations (marking by kosher stamp).

With all these symbols and rites, religious regulations and customs have developed into traditions over the centuries.

Captions:
Fig. 5 | 6: The bronze menorah stands in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem and was created by Benno Elkan, who lived and worked artistically as a sculptor in Alsbach an der Bergstraße from 1911 to 1919. (Source: Benno Elkan, Tamar Hayardeni, via Wikipedia Commons | Seven-branched candelabrum in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, 29 individual pieces, bronze, 4.75m x 3.65m, 1949-1956, Wk-Nr. 320, Proesi, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 7: Mezuzah. (Source: zeevveez from Jerusalem, Israel, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 8: The Jewish cemetery in Alsbach-Hähnlein is one of the oldest and largest in southern Hesse with 2128 gravestones preserved (1615-1948). (Source: The Jewish cemetery in Alsbach-Hähnlein, Germany, Thomas Pusch, via Wikimedia Commons)
Fig. 9: Kippa (Source: Image from Freepik)
Fig. 10: Kippa (Source: Image from Pixabay)
Fig. 11: Kosher stamp (source: stamp potwierdzający koszerność, Auschwitz Jewish Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig. 12: Matzo (source: Shmura Matzo, Yoninah, via Wikimedia Commons).

In the Hebrew term yehudi, the term means the settlement area of the tribe of Judah and made its way via ioudaios (Greek) or iudaeus (Latin) to the German term Jude, Judaism.

Judaism, also Jewishness, refers to both the religion and the cultures and traditions that have been cultivated for thousands of years.
Like Christianity and Islam, the Jewish religion belongs to the monotheistic religions that go back to Abraham as the „one God doctrine“. It has its basis in the five books proclaimed by Moses on Mount Sinai, the Torah, and the rabbinical writings interpreting them.

In different interpretations of the Torah, the approximately 15 million Jews worldwide are essentially divided in their religious orientation between:

• Ashkenazi Jews with roots in Germany or France prior to their emigration to Eastern Europe and later to the United States,
• Sephardic Jews with ancestors in Spain and Portugal before they had to flee from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and settled in the Mediterranean region and the Ottoman Empire (here in Palestine) as well as in Central and Western Europe,
• Mizrachi Jews in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and South Asia,
• Yemenite Jews, who were isolated from the rest of the Jews for a long time and thus partly practiced their own customs, and
• Tzabar, the Jews born in the Land of Israel.

Further differentiation occurs according to interpretation of texts, traditions, and ways of life into Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism.

An important symbol for the Jewish religion and for today’s state of Israel is the „Star of David“ named after David, King of Judah around 1000 BC.

Another religious as well as state symbol is the seven-branched candelabrum, the menorah, found in every Jewish home. The best known menorah is probably in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem.

Captions
Fig. 1: Jewish territories and dominions around 1000 BC (Source: Israel surrounding territories 830 B.C., Partynia, via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig. 2: Moses‘ Annunciation was the subject of artistic debate in later centuries, here by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1659 (Gemäldegalerie Berlin). It shows Moses destroying the Tablets of the Law following the Israelites‘ worship of the Golden Calf (Source: Moses with the Tablets of the Law, Rembrandt (1606-1669), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
Fig. 3: Torah scroll from the synagogue from Groß-Umstadt in the Hessenpark (Source: Torah scroll from the synagogue from Groß-Umstadt in the Hessenpark, Bodow, via Wikipedia Commons)
Fig. 4: Star of David (Source: The Star of David, symbol of the Jewish faith and Jewish people, Zscout370, via Wikipedia Commons).

• From 1933 In many cases persecution and, as far as possible, exile all over the world.
• September 15, 1935: The National Socialists pass the „Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor“ and the Nuremberg Laws in Nuremberg. In addition to their well-known ideological positions, they thus now also create the legal conditions for the intensified persecution and imprisonment of Jewish fellow citizens, culminating in the Holocaust.
• November 9, 1938 November pogroms: synagogues and Jewish prayer rooms in Germany and Austria are burned down, Jewish businesses destroyed.
• January 20, 1942: The „Wannsee Conference“ decides on the complete annihilation of Jews, Jewry and Jewish life and the procedures for mass killing.
• January 27, 1945: Three months before the surrender of the German Reich, Soviet soldiers liberate the prisoners in the Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. The world learns comprehensively of the mass murder.
• November 20, 1945: Start of the Nuremberg Main War Crimes Trial and of war crimes trials until April 17, 1949: Some of the perpetrators of Nazi terror are held accountable and sentenced before an international court.
• May 14, 1948: Foundation of the State of Israel.
• July 19, 1950: Foundation of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, after Jewish life in Germany began to develop again, first hesitantly and then gradually, after the end of World War II.
• April 11 – December 15, 1961: The trial of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann before the Jerusalem District Court presents the murder in the concentration camps to the world public as a breach of civilization of unprecedented magnitude.
• December 20, 1963 – August 19, 1965: In the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, almost 20 years after the end of the war, crimes against humanity are prosecuted in a German court and the perpetrators are convicted.
• June 1982: The Center for Research on Anti-Semitism (ZfA) is founded at the Technical University of Berlin.
• From 1991: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Eastern European Jews came to Germany.
• October 9, 2019: Right-wing extremist terrorist attack on the synagogue in Halle/Saale.
• December 21, 2020: The perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison followed by preventive detention.

• 3761 B.C. Beginning of the Jewish calendar, which was adopted by the Jewish physician and philosopher Moshe ben Maimon (Greek: Maimonides) from Cordoba (12th century), following the story of creation in the Bible.
• Before 1000 BC. The Israelites migrate to Egypt, are enslaved and flee Egypt. Moses proclaims God’s commandments on Mount Sinai.
• 6th century BC. Babylonian captivity in Mesopotamia (today Iraq).
• ca. 7 to 4 B.C. Birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
• 70 AD. Destruction of Jerusalem by Roman troops under Titus, scattering of the Jewish people in all regions of the world at that time: beginning of the Diaspora with persecutions by the respective majority society.
• ca. 4th c. – 15th c. Jews and Jewish life settle in Europe.
• 1095 The first crusade to reconquer Jerusalem from the Muslims triggers pogroms against Jews in Europe.
  pogroms against Jews on the Rhine. Later, anti-Jewish invective sculptures are placed on Christian places of worship.
• 1348 The plague in Europe is accompanied by pogroms against Jews.
• 1492 As a result of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews are expelled from Spain and Portugal and settle in the Ottoman Empire and Palestine.
• 16th/17th c. Reformation and Wars of Religion: Jews become the target of insults, expulsion and persecution.
• 17th/18th c. Age of Enlightenment: Jews and Jewish life, with their communities and synagogues, become part of society as a whole and contribute significantly to cultural and scientific development in Germany and Europe through art, music, literature, philosophy and science.
• 19th century. Emergence of a new anti-Semitism in the German Empire, France and England through anti-Jewish writings.
• August 29, 1897 Founding of the Zionist movement with the aim of establishing a Jewish state by Theodor Herzl and other initiators, including the religious philosopher Martin Buber, who later lived in Heppenheim (1916 to 1938). First immigrations and settlements of kibbutzim in Palestine.
• From 1918 Increased anti-Semitic actions after World War I, intensified in the Weimar Republic by increasing National Socialist agitation.
• January 30, 1933 By the National Socialists, terrorist expulsion of Jews from professions, deprivation of livelihoods through robbery, destruction and fiscal harassment.