Less anti-Semitism in Middle Ages

[Melvin Loh]

What type of POD would've been required for there to have been less anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, esp during the time of the Black Death ? I remember reading a book on the Plague when I was in Brisbane airport which speculated thathad the Jewish elders been more transparent re their actions within the synagogues, and not appeared to be undertaking activities which Gentiles might've speculated to be mystical, then the Jewish pops of Western and central Europe might've been spared the scapegoating and gury of mobs accusing the Jews of poisoning wells during the Plague yrs. Could there have been any other major factors ?

[MerryPrankster]

No usury laws and thus no Jews-get-stuck-with-banking-and-other-money-related-things. The nobles won't owe them money (in many cases, the nobles stirred up trouble to get debts owed to Jews canceled) and they won't be tarred by the lower classes as tax collectors and exploitive business-folks (that's one reason why anti-Semitism in Ukraine was so strong--when the Poles ruled Ukraine, they employed Jews as tax collectors).

Someone commented in the "Alternate Stereotypes" thread that if it wasn't for the usury laws, people would stereotype Jews as exotic rural denizens, which is mild compared to OTL.

[Dunash]

If a kinder face had been shown to the Jews they would have assimilated and disappeared from history. When the walls of the Ghetto first came down in 18th century Germany, within a generation 50% of German Jewry had apostacised or married gentiles eg Mendelsohn's own daughters. Intermarriage in the USA among Jews is now 70%. Hostility, antisemitism and anti-zionism from the gentiles, since the days of Abraham, is the only reason why there are still Jews after 4,000 years, as foretold in the Bible.

[carlton_bach]

I'd think this is mostlöy a theological matter, at heart. None of the lwas limiting the Jews in their professions, careers, and lives would have come about if the Christian churches had not developed the doctrine that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus and therefore were destined to suffer a penalty analogous to that of Cain. The idea started very early in the Roman Empire (mostly, it seems, for the Christians to be able to claim not to be anti-Roman), but it wasn't carried into practice generally till around AD 1000.

If Christianity had found a doctrinal formula closer to that of Islam (ie the Jews are in possession of a lesser degree of truth and must be tolerated and protected) the position of the Jewish population could have become very different. An Arian rather than Athanasian Christianity would have had it easier, but I don't think anything that dramatic is necessary. Given such a change - perhaps at the insistence of Frankish kings, or even the heritage of a revered church teacher - medieval Jews would have suffered fewer limitations, would not have been expelled from France or England, would have been allowed to settle wherever they chose, had a greater freedom of choice of profession, and very likely would have interacted more readily with their Christian neighbours. It is very likely that this was the state of affairs until around AD 800, so a continuation is not all that unimaginable.

I don't think Judaism would disappear as a faith - it didn't in the context of a far more tolerant and welcoming Islamic society until the last 50 years, and then for very different reasons - but it would have to deal with different challenges. cross-conversion would be more of a drain if Christianity were more welcoming, and everyday contact with Christians on the job would create more familiarity and probably undermine religious ritual and dietary law. On the other hand, early bishops of the church often complained that their sheep were going to the synagogues because the sermons were better, and even started keeping the Sabbath...

[Derek Jackson]

I think that the POD needed would be for Christianity to have been slower in colaberating with the Roman empire

[Adam Parsons]

This may not work, but after the Diaspora of 70 AD, why not have a greater majority of Jews migrate south and east, into Africa and India? Somewhat of a cheat, but it could work.

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

The Arabs conquer Constantinople and overrun Europe.

[Valamyr]

Hm, a large cause was that the catholic church forbid profit margins over 4% while jews were free to get monopolies over critical ressources and charge fortunes for them, as their religion didnt see a problem there.

Its the basics of what made the jews richer than everyone, and thus more educated, etc.

Change that, and most likely youll end anti-semitism at its core.

[basileus]

In my monster timeline I'm slowly working on (still blocked at Italy in 1494...), there's a Judeo-Christian kingdom in Numidia (OTL Algeria), the kingdom of Cabilia founded in 858 by Salomon bar Yehuda. Well, my Christian "Maghreb" (which will never be called so, but something like Greater Berberia or Greater Zenetia) would be strongly influenced by the Jews and will become their main refuge against hardline Catholic persecution in Spain and Portugal. For unknown reasons, my Christian Berebers will only seldom move against the Jews, mostly tolerating them as a very useful source of commerce and culture. This will obviously make them clash with the Papacy, and go Protestant in an own Agostinian way in the 16th century (still I haven't fully explore the details, but there's the idea and a skeleton timeline about).

[Kuralyov]

Just a thought: Since they're antagonized by the Pope, why not have the (or at least, a) Reformation start there? Or even just split from the Catholic Church, a la Eastern Orthodoxy...maybe an African Orthodox Church?

[basileus]

Closer ties with the West prevent mass conversion to Byzantine Othodoxy, thugh for a couple centuries Numidia and Punia (read Algeria and Tunisia) give suzerainity to Byzantium for protection against the fanatic Spaniards and the Papacy. Byzantium is not surely friendly towards Jews even in my TL, but political interest brings to a strange Orthodox-Protestant alliance after the Reformation (Russia keeps distant from this, it's still recoverig after the Mongols and will later become Byzantium's public enemy #1).