Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990 TAG: 9003162760
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: YORK, ENGLAND LENGTH: Medium
It is sometimes called "The English Masada," this most infamous incident of Jew-hatred in British history.
Like the Jews who killed themselves on the desert fortress of Masada rather than fall slaves to Rome, the memory of York Jewry's fate has survived through the ages, still strong enough eight centuries later to draw several hundred Jews and a handful of Christians to a memorial service Thursday at the place where it happened.
Thus opened a four-day program of lectures, concerts and exhibitions organized by Jewish and Christian groups and the city of York to commemorate the slaughter of March 16, 1190.
No one knows exactly how many died, but historians believe the death toll was about 150.
Anti-Jewish feeling grew in England with the religious fervor of the Crusades, the attempt by European Christians to win control of the Holy Land from the Moslems.
Egged on by the local noblemen who thought they could clear their debts to Jewish moneylenders by killing them, a mob set out to hunt down the Jews.
The Jews fled to a castle, where they were entitled to royal protection. The mob surrounded the fortress. The constable went out of the castle, perhaps to reason with the crowd.
When he returned, the frightened Jews would not let him back in. He called in the sheriff, who ordered the door broken down.
The mob read this to mean royal assent to a pogrom, while the Jews assumed all hope was lost.
Rabbi Yomtob of Joigny turned to his people and, according to William's account, told them: "We ought to prefer a glorious death to an infamous life . . . for if we should fall into the hands of the enemy, we should die according to their pleasure and amidst their mockery. Therefore, let us willingly and devoutly, with our own hands, render up to Him that life which the Creator gave to us . . . "
First to act was a man named Josce, who killed his wife and children. Yomtob then killed him. Then each head of family killed his loved ones, and was in turn killed by Yomtob. Yomtob died last.
Those who chose not to die accepted the mob's offer of life if they accepted baptism. But when they came out, they too were killed.
Finally, the mob broke into York Minster, where the documents of their debts were kept, and burned the papers in the vestry.
Although the monarch of the time, King Richard the Lion-Heart, was furious and sent a senior official to mete out punishment, the perpetrators were never caught. And although Jews continued to live in York, many came to believe it was an accursed city. Today fewer than two dozen Jews live in York.
by CNB