Wurzburg, 1147, Ephraim of Bonn

Medieval W. Christendom
A Purported Jewish Murder in Wurzburg, 1147

On the twenty-second of the month of Adar, the evils ones arose against the
[Jewish] community of Wurzburg. While all the [Jewish] communities had already
retreated to the rocks and the fortresses, they had intended to sit peacefully—but instead
catastrophe. They [the Christians] raised against them [the Jews of Wurzburg] charges
that were false and fictitious, in order to assault and attack them. They [the Christians]
said- “We have discovered a Christian in the river. You have killed him and thrown him
into the river. He has thus been martyred and is performing miracles.” In this way, the
crusaders and the rabble arose, moved by no real cause, and smote them. There, a saintly
soul—Rabbi Isaac son of Rabbi Eliakim—was killed over his book; he was humble and
self-effacing, well established and pleasant. Along with him [were killed] some twenty-
one others. Along with them, a Jewish lad, a fine student—Simon ben Isaac—was
wounded twenty times. He lived subsequently about a full year. They brought his sister
into the church to baptize her, but she martyred herself and spit on the cross. They smote
her with stones and fists, for they do not bring swords into church. However, she did not
die—she fell down there among them and pretended to be dead. They continued to smite
her and to burn her in order to know whether she was dead or not. They laid her out on a
marble slab, but she did not awake or move a hand or a foot. Thus, she deceived them
until evening, until a Christian laundrywoman came and carried her home and hid her and
saved her. The rest of the Jews fled to the courtyards of their neighbors. The next day,
they fled to the fortress of Stulbach. Blessed is he who provided them a remnant.