1000-1100: The Crusades

The Jewish presence in the Land of Israel continued into the 11th century. An eleventh-century document from the Cairo Genizah describes the Jewish ritual of visiting the Temple Mount and reciting specific prayers at each of its gates. In 1039, Jews gathered at the Mount of Olives for Hoshanah Rabbah prayers. A synagogue on the Temple Mount was in use until the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099.

The Crusades were a harsh blow to the Jewish community in medieval western Christendom as well as the community in the Land of Israel.

When Pope Urban II preached the crusade in Clermont in late 1095, he surely never mentioned the Jews, nor did he anticipate any anti-Jewish implication in his message. In fact, the major baronial armies that formed the core of the crusading force and that secured the remarkable Christian victory in Jerusalem in 1099 show no sign of anti-Jewish animus and were not implicated in the anti-Jewish violence. However, the exhilarating papal call resonated widely in Christian society, energizing more than the military elites. Popular preachers absorbed the papal message and spread it among the lower classes. In the process, new themes and hues were added, not the least of which involved Jews. In this popular view, the careful distinctions of the Church leadership as to the target of the new undertaking and as to the proper Christian stance toward Judaism and the Jews were obscured. A simpler and more radical call was created, urging that—given a new engagement with enemies of Christendom—the Muslim far-off enemy was in fact less heinous than the nearby Jewish enemy. Whereas the former merely denied Jesus, the latter had been responsible for his crucifixion. This unwarranted, but potent extension of the crusading enterprise served as the foundation for the limited but radical assaults on Rhineland Jewry in 1096.

1. 11th Century Jewish Temple
2. 11th Century The Temple Mount
3. 1000 The Temple Mount
4. 1010 Temple Mount Synagogue
5. 1015 Christian Churches/ Synagogues
6. 1039 Sukkot & Hoshanah Rabbah
7. 1047 Synagogue & Churches
8. 1050 Yeshiva/ Discovery of The Temple
9. 1096 Crusaders & the Jews of Europe
10. July 15, 1099 Synagogue on Temple Mount Destroyed
11. 1099 Crusader Massacre of Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem
12. July 15th, 1099 Muslims Account / Murder of Jews in Synagogues on Temple Mount
13. 1099 Siege and Capture of Jerusalem
14. 1100 Distribution of Jewish Population in Israel