Massacre at York, 1190

The Jews of Europe possessed some of the most sophisticated banking and financial knowledge of the time.  Jewish and Islamic bankers invented many concepts that were the forerunners of modern banking practices including things such as accounts, checks, collateral and lines of credit.  They had contacts throughout Europe and the Mediterranean world.  Despite this valuable resource, or maybe because of it, they were subjected to systematic restrictions and violent massacres.  The most dangerous times to be a Jew in Europe, ironically, were before, during and after Crusades, when Christian religious fervor was high.

Such was the case of England's Jews in 1189, when Richard I came to the throne.  Jewish communities thrived in large cities such as London and York.  Wealthy Jewish bankers did business with nobles and the royal family.  They were expected to pay taxes and render homage, but during Richard's coronation ceremony, Jewish bankers and businessmen who came to pay their respects to the new King were stripped of their gifts and clothing and expelled.  Prior to his coronation, Richard had taken the Crusading vow and would need the funding and credit of his Jewish subjects.  Yet in the aftermath of his coronation riots broke out in London.  The Jewish quarter was sacked and several Jewish men, women and children were killed.  To his credit, Richard condemned the violence and ordered the perpetrators punished.  Rounding up the guilty and bringing them to justice was another matter.  Only a few were tried or executed for these murders.  Following this incident, riots broke out in other cities with Jewish quarters.

Richard left for the Holy Land soon after his crowning but the violence against England's Jewish population continued.  In Lincoln, in 1190, Jewish inhabitants of the City sought refuge in the Castle and were able to fend off the mobs.  Jews in York wouldn't be so lucky.  On the night of March 16-17, 1190, as the Jews celebrated Passover, men gathered in York preparing to join the King on Crusade.  Rioting against the Jews began and their leader, Josce, sought refuge for his people within the walls of Clifford's Tower of York Castle, which was partially constructed of wood.  The mob surrounded the Castle, demanding that the Jews within forsake their religion and be baptized as Christians.  Fearing that the mob would penetrate the Castle, the Jews decided on a plan straight out of their historical identity. 

Their leader, Rabbi Yomtov of Joigney, told the people that they should kill themselves rather than face the mob or give up their beliefs.  Josce began by killing his own wife and children.  He was then killed by Yomtov.  Other men followed suite, killing first their families and then themselves.  Finally, Yomtov set fire to the wooden keep of Clifford's Tower, dying in the flames along with those who hadn't yet committed suicide.  Fire, whether self-inflicted by desperate Jewish communities or by mobs seeking their destruction, became a common theme in these pogroms.  A chronicler of the time, Richard of Devizes, writing in 1192, used the Greek term Holocausta to describe these instances, giving rise to the modern term and its more tragic meaning.