Medieval Jewish Persecution in England: the Canterbury pogroms in perspective D. COHN-SHERBOK
Introduction
For over a century and a half during the medieval period Jews in England were subjected to discrimination, persecution, massacre
and eventually expulsion. In the main both Christian and Jewish historians who have written about this period have attempted to show that Jews were always in the right. The evidence against Jews,
they have argued, was invariably insufficient, and in most cases charges were preposterously absurd. The difficulty with such claims, however, is that they are essentially subjective reactions, often
made without any documentary basis. In the case of persecution in Canterbury, however, a Latin “Starrum” issued by the Jewish
community points to the fact that the Jews themselves appear to
have been partly responsible for the disaster that befell them. This particular instance thus suggests that, contrary to the claims of various historians, in certain cases Jews may have not been altogether blameless for the sufferings they endured. Whether Jews were settled in England before the Norman conquest or not, it is certain that a Jewish immigration into England took place early in the reign of William the Conqueror.‘ In the economy of Norman England Jews were well-fitted to take the place
of the middle class; due to the laws of the Church directed against usury, it was left to them to enter upon commercial undertakings such as money-lending, commercial speculation, and even ordinary commerce.2 Of necessity Jews kept themselves distinct and apart from the general community. Their appearance and gait marked
them as aliens, and none of them engaged in occupations in which they might find Christian colleagues. They took no part in the defence of the country, nor in the preservation of peace. They were excluded from the Guilds, and they had no role in local govern-