WI: Higher Jewish Presence in the Holy Land During the Crusades?

I was watching the movie Kingdom of Heaven when a thought struck me. What if there were more Jews in the area? Would the Crusaders and Arabs have to deal with a Hebrew army as well? Or, would there even be a Crusade? Your thoughts, please.
 
There's a good chance the crusaders wouldn't initially know the difference or care. Keep in mind that any Jewish population in the medieval Levant would have lived under either Muslim dynasties, in which case they'd have been under dhimma and not have borne arms, or under Byzantine and allied Christian rulers, in which case they'd have been subject to the restrictions of the Roman law and also not have borne arms. A Jewish state would be extremely far-fetched. Thus, the most likely outcome is that initially, they are treated as suspect and unnecessary by their Muslim rulers and as infidels by the Crusaders. Later on, the lords of Outremer will treat them much like any other population group, slotting them into the social pyramid somewhere around the level of most inoffensive locals, below local Christians, maybe above Muslims or about equal. Lots of Crusaders came from areas with established Jewish populations and wouldn't have had any great issues with the idea. But the function of cultural interpreter and go-between here could be better served by Syriac Christians, so they'll not be as useful.
 
Crusades

This would possibly be reasons for a revolt. They would be another population that would be hostile to rule by western Roman Catholics. The crusaders never identified with the Syrian Christians, and a larger Jewish population would have made the situation much worse.
 

Keenir

Banned
I was watching the movie Kingdom of Heaven when a thought struck me. What if there were more Jews in the area? Would the Crusaders and Arabs have to deal with a Hebrew army as well? Or, would there even be a Crusade? Your thoughts, please.

there might be a higher Jewish presence in the area, if the Kingdom of Khazaria had sent out a crusade to the Holy Land a century or two earlier than they did in OTL (in the late 1100s / early 1200s or so)

the geopolitics of that would've been....interesting.
 
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