When the Farhud Came to Be’eri

The Iraqi Jewish community, the oldest such community outside of Israel, has a

history spanning over 2,600 years. Hundreds of years before the 7^th century Muslim occupation, Jewish communities had existed in this region. The Jews shared the Arab culture with their Muslim and Christian neighbors, but they lived in separate communities. Jewish assimilation into Muslim society was rare.

Under centuries of Islamic rule Jews were classified as dhimmis (‘second class citizens’). The crumbling Ottoman Empire gave them more equality. By 1884, 30,000 Jews lived in Baghdad. By 1900, the number had risen to 50,000, with Jews representing over a quarter of the city’s total population.

Brittain ‘created’ Iraq after WWI (Jordan is also a similar British 'invention'.) The modern, secular and almost democratic state became independent 1932.  Iraqi Jews worked as lawyers, musicians, economists, accountants, academics, artists, and intellectuals. The fact that numerous Jews held key positions in public office, was resented by their Muslim compatriots.

In the 1940s about 135,000 Jews lived in Iraq (nearly 3 percent of the total population), with about 90,000 in Baghdad, 10,000 in Basra, and the remainder scattered throughout many small towns and villages.

In 1933, Germany acquired Iraqi Christian newspaper Al-Alam Al-Araby (The Arab World) and began publishing a serialized Arabic translation of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In 1939, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini of Jerusalem fled Palestine disguised as a woman. The Kingdom of Iraq welcomed him with gifts and money. His pro-Nazi propaganda and violent radio incitement against Jews resulted in racial Jewish laws, mass dismissal from public posts, discrimination and harassment in the streets.

On April 19, 1941, Britain declared war and tried to regain control of the region by occupying Basra. This resulted in widespread looting of many Jewish owned bazaar shops. Arab night watchmen protected Jewish possessions and many Moslems protected Jews in their homes.

During this time, four Iraqi officers, known as the “Golden Square,” carried out a coup to install Rashid A. al-Gaylani, a strident supporter of the Axis powers, as prime minister.

In the last week of May 1941, in Bagdad, Jewish homes were marked with a red palm print ("Hamsa"). They were instructed to pack suitcases and to wait to be taken to "detention camps for their own safety".  

May 30, Rabbi Sasson Khaduri, the community leader, was told that, as a ‘protective‘ measure, the Jews were to stay home for the next three days. Plans for a larger massacre failed when the self-proclaimed governor was forced to flee the country.

When the military coup failed, Gaylani fled to Berlin, where Hitler warmly received him. Radio Baghdad announced exiled members of the royal family were returning very soon. British and Transjordanian forces were surrounding the capital and it was only a matter of days before they restored law and order. The relieved Jewish community thought it was safe to celebrate Shavuot.

On June 1^st, as they left synagogue on the eve of the Shavuot festival, a crowd awaited them with batons, daggers and swords. 

Many of the Jewish houses and shops marked with the red Hamsa were ransacked and entire families were murdered by the mob. Jews trying to escape were pulled out of the vehicles and slaughtered. Synagogue windows were smashed, Torah scrolls desecrated, crazed mobs chased Jews with daggers and swords. Students and armed police joined the massacre. Survivors testified of policemen breaking into houses and slaughtering Jews, cutting off limbs and looting jewelry. Men had their genitals cut off and stuffed in their mouths. Women were raped and had their bellies slashed while still alive. Children were thrown into the river and wells. People were thrown off rooftops and the crazed mob delighted in hearing the cries of the stricken and tormented Jews. 

What became known as the Farhud pogrom lasted for two days when Iraqi troops finally restored order. Throughout the onslaught, British troops, who were on the outskirts of the city, didn’t lift a finger to help.

The highest death toll was amongst Jews living in self-segregated areas. Many of those living in mixed Muslim-Jewish neighborhoods survived because of the bravery of their Muslim neighbors who protected them. 

Mordechai Ben-Porat, a Jew who later served as an Israeli government minister, described his experiences:

“We were mostly cut off from the center of the Jewish community ... It was because of one Muslim neighbor that we survived the Farhud. We had no weapons to defend ourselves and were utterly helpless. We put furniture up against the doors and windows to prevent the rioters from breaking in.... For two days, the streets flowed with blood. The cries of the Jews were heard all over the city ... and finally bodies piled up in a huge mass grave. As well as Jews being killed and wounded, many hundreds of Jewish-owned properties were destroyed with around 1,500 homes and stores broken into, ransacked, and set ablaze. Damages to property were estimated at some $3 million (US$ 51 million in 2019).

The Farhud triggered the mass emigration of Iraqi Jews. 

Through the clandestine underground immigration movement, some 120,000 people – 90 percent of Iraq's Jews were brought to the young Jewish State through Operation Ezra and Nehemiah (1950 and 1952). Today, fewer than ten Jews remain in the country.

On the eve of Yom Kippur 1946, members of the “Babylonians” – an Iraqi youth group- settled in Nahabir. 

Shortly after breaking ground, the Zionist government asked some of the “Babylonians” to return to Iraq to prepare additional young men and women to make Aliyah. Kibbutz Be’eri, established a few miles west of today’s location, was part of the “11 points plan”.

Yaakov Tzemach, member of the Baghdad HeChalutz youth movement was trained by the “Babylonians”.

Later, after joining the IDF, Yaakov was part of the Israeli army’s Nahal agricultural settlement program, which sent a group to help strengthen Kibbutz Be’eri in the early 1950s.

Every Shavuot eve, Yaakov Tzemach would tell his family and Kibbutz Be’eri members the story of the 1941 Farhud pogrom. Yaakov’s family too, survived the massacre thanks to an older Muslim woman who physically blocked the way to their house and prevented the rioters from entering.

The cooking in the Kibbutz kitchen was also influenced by the Iraqi immigrants: “Even the gefilte fish was done in Mizrahi style.” Iraqi born Avraham Dvori (Manchar) was eight years old when he arrived at the kibbutz, where everyone spoke Hebrew. “I entirely forgot the Arabic I knew from home,” he said. His family of five children and 15 grandchildren also live in Beeri. “We have members from over 30 countries of origin. Everyone is mixed with everyone - this is the Land of Israel for me. This is what gives the kibbutz a sense of warmth.”

After the Farhud, the Jewish community set up a monument in Bagdad’s Jewish cemetery to mark the location of a mass grave. 

This monument was later destroyed by the Iraqi government. 

A replica of this monument was set up nearby the Be’eri forest. 

On October 7, this forest was used by Hamas terrorists as a staging area before moving to attack Be’eri and other nearby communities.

That Simchat Torah, Yaakov’s grandson, Shachar, was part of Be’eri’s civilian emergency defense squad. He took part in a heroic and desperate defensive battle for many hours, before he was eventually killed.

Yaakov Tzemach ob”m (right), survivor of the Farhud, Shachar Tzemach ob”m (center) killed on October 7, with one of the family girls in his lap, and Doron Tzemach (left), member of Kibbutz Be’eri. From a family album.

“We made Aliyah from Iraq to Israel so that Arabs wouldn't be able to enter Jewish homes and murder us.”  

Eighty two years later, the Farhud had returned to Be’eri.

 

Monument "Prayer" in Ramat Gan in memory of the Jews who were killed in Iraq in the Pogrom "Farhud" (1941) and in the 1960s

********************************

Article research/sources:

https://blog.nli.org.il/en/farhud_beeri/?_atscid=3_2269_201328224_10387477_0_Txtz3xaxxdshdasussp&utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%20English%20Newsletter%20-%2004.07.2024

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-farhud

https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/farhud-forgotten-ordeal-iraqi-jews

https://israelforever.org/interact/blog/remember-farhud-iraq-jews/

https://honestreporting.com/farhud-massacre-ended-iraqs-2600-year-old-jewish-community/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud

 

https://youtu.be/DnXSOQqzaKA?si=re1TpIsLAngokZz5

 

Yom Kippur Deja Vu

Article circulated by email, written by Shalom Pollack, Israeli tour guide

During the "Simchat Torah" service at the "hesder yeshiva" in Hispin (on the Golan Heights) on Shabbat, October 7, I experienced something very similar fifty years ago. Call it deja vu.

A half a century ago I was an "exchange " student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 

On Yom Kippur of 1973, I was lying down during the afternoon synagogue break when the most unexpected thing occurred;

I heard sirens.

After inquiring of Danny, my Israeli floor counselor, what it could possibly mean, he said "oh sheet! Dis means war man"!

After the first astonished moment I reassured myself that if those stupid Arabs really did attack us again, we would beat them as quickly as we did in the last wars. Our air force would stop them in their tracks no doubt. (Former air force chief, Ezer Weizman said that after the Six day War, the next one would be the “Six Minute" war)

I was not afraid and I was not alone in my confidence and arrogance.

 

Israel has never quite recovered from that war which we in fact almost did lose. To this day the experts are still arguing about how we were caught so off guard as to allow the Arab enemy to catch us by surprise and quickly wash over our sophisticated, impenetrable "Bar Lev" line along the Suez Canal.

Thousands of our soldiers were slaughtered. Israel was almost destroyed.

In real time, we did not know just how close we were to destruction. There was no social media at the time

 

Never again would we be so complacent or miscalculate and underestimate our enemy. 

No more surprises.

Never again

 

Israel was supposed to have learned her lesson and changed its attitude; always be prepared for a similar. Surprise, always.

 

Yesterday while praying together with the special young men of the hesder yeshiva (where they combine army service and Torah study) a young man, rifle strapped across his back, approached the Rosh yeshiva(dean) and exchanged a few words accompanied by very serious expressions. A few moments later he announced to the young congregation that all those in certain units should have their phones open and ready for instructions.

 He said, “It seems there is some tension in the south, but God willing it will all be well."

 

My thoughts were actually similar to those I had fifty years ago, almost to the day.

 

I was used to the periodic "rounds" with Hamas in Gaza.

The scenario is familiar to all by now. 

They decide when another: “round " begins. They shoot rockets at our civilians near the border. Our people hide in terror. We shoot back, making every effort not to God forbid hurt anyone until they agree to a ceasefire. 

After closing their lifeline line with Israel for a couple of days we resume the transfer of goods and money used to rebuild and restock their arsenals, for another round timed at their choosing 

 

This is the pattern ever since Israel expelled thousands of Jews from Gaza and left the entire area to the Arabs who turned it into a terror fortress. That was supposed to bring peace.

 

I remember clearly the day in the summer of 2005 (Tisha Ba'av) that the Jewish pioneers of faith and courage were dragged from their homes by the Sharon government supported by willing underlings, including the "elites' and army command. They joyously pointed to the naked emperor’s very fine clothes.

 

As the wretched Jews were dragged and shoved out of their homes onto the road of exile their neighbors in the Leftist kibbutzim along the Gaza border jeered and mocked at the misfortune of their fellow Jews.

They were different, after all.

The religious Jews that brought Jewish blessing to the biblical lands were just not their type. They were "messianic" , religious,   unashamedly patriotic.. 

They had no place in a promising new progressive post Zionist, post Jewish world. No room for obstacles to peace with our neighbors.

 Those types are, "Not my brother."

 

Yesterday, I had no idea that Israel would make the same fatal mistake as they did half a century ago.

But It happened again.

Thousands of Hamas terrorists managed to penetrate the world’s most most sophisticated defense network along the Gaza border (remember the peace border of the 2005 expulsions?)

For half a day the terrorists swarmed over  the  border unopposed, entering  at will ito an  entire string of Jewish communities facing Gaza and proceeded to murder , torture, rape and abduct thousands of  Jews.

 Never since the Holocaust have more Jews been slaughtered in one day.

 Never since the Final Solution were Jews hunted down in their homes as they quivered at the sound of their killers breaking into their hiding spots to quarry the Jews. Not until yesterday

 

Read that again.

 

That was just Saturday, October 7, 2023, a half century after; it would never happen again.

 

This time it was far worse than the Yom Kippur debacle.

Whole families were terrorized and murdered. 

In 1973 the civilians were safe behind the lines. It was soldiers who were slaughtered and captured

Yesterday civilians were in the lines.

 

How could it have happened?

What are the possibilities?

 

One - Israel’s entire political, military and intelligence communities didn't just fail but were criminally derelict in the utmost extreme. Somehow, they were blinded and deaf.

How likely is that?

 

So, what is it?

 

The wakeup calls of Yom Kippur half a century ago clearly did not work

 

Will it work this time?

Shared with permission. 

shalompollack613@gmail, com

tour guide and author

"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"

 

Special prayer for our soldiers

SPECIAL PRAYER FOR OUR SOLDIERS

 

Oh merciful Father,

from Whom stems the source of life,

favor and grace,

have compassion upon me,

your servant

and hear my voice in prayer,

from the depths of my heart,

and let Thine ears be attentive

to the voice of my supplication.

 

Oh purify my heart,

that I may be fitted to walk

in the way of the upright,

before Thee.

Strengthen and uphold me,

weak in terrors snare.

 

Oh God,

open Thou my lips

and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.

 

Oh God,

Thou who through Thy holy Torah,

does command us to do good deeds,

to practise brotherly love,

peace and friendship

to all the peoples of the entire world;

to avoid hatred

and to love all creatures

and to help all in every possible way,

a breach and void has occurred in our days.

 

Our enemies, through their evil strength,

desire to put in darkness all the world,

to rule according to their own will,

and to destroy the foundations of civilization;

to abolish our faith in one God and His teachings.

All this, these tyrants and wicked seek to wipe out.

And they repeat again and again,

that they intend to blot out the remembrance of Israel,

and the freedoms of the democratic countries.

These wicked tyrants believe in their own might

and their own great strength.

They set themselves up as idols and gods,

and some even worship the sun,

and all deny the faith of the one God,

Who created all the world,

and Who is the father of all people.

 

And I, Thy servant,

who loves you

as a son loves his parents,

have the honor to be one of the military forces,

who have faith in You, our God,

to share the burden,

in this war against these tyrants.

 

Oh, God, our Father in heaven,

Thine is the greatness,

the power, the glory,

the victory and the majesty.

Make haste to help us.

 

Oh Lord, Our Salvation, and You, our God,

be with us, to save me

and all of my fellow men in the military forces,

from death,

from all trouble and evil occurrences,

and give us strength and might

to destroy our enemies,

who are Thy enemies too,

that these idols shall be utterly destroyed.

 

Arise Oh Lord, our God,

and scatter Thine enemies,

and cause those that hate Thee,

to flee before Thee,

and Thou shall remove

the dominion of the wicked from the earth,

so that the world may be reformed

by Thy kingdom,

and all the inhabitants of the world

shall know and understand,

that one God created us,

and all the people are the children

of One Father in heaven.

And thus may we found

a true and lasting peace.

 

Oh Father in heaven,

protect my dear ones,

and help me,

that I may be able to see them again,

and enjoy with them again

in all delight and goodness.

 

Oh God, great, mighty and revered,

in the abundance of Thy loving kindness,

grant peace, happiness, blessing,

grace, favor, and mercy,

to our ARMY Commander

and the leaders of our beloved country,

ISRAEL

and to his advisers and commanders.

Grant unto him and them

knowledge,

understanding

and discernment,

that they shall lead us in the right way,

so that we may not make any mistakes,

and not to be put to shame, nor ever confounded.

That we may attain a speedy victory and peace,

based on the ideals and principles of the prophets.

And that all shall remember our people Israel,

and recognize their right to live

and to serve God,

together with all other people,

in peace forever.

 

Oh God

send us a speedy redemption.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart,

be acceptable before Thee,

Oh Lord, My Rock and Redeemer,

Amen, V’amen.

Rabbi Aaron Dym, 1943  -  adapted by Petra 

In Memory of Esther, Margalit and Tzafuna

Today, April 28, 2020 is Yom HaZikaron‎ (lit. 'Memorial Day'), or Yom HaZikaron LeHalalei Ma'arakhot Yisrael ul'Nifge'ei Pe'ulot HaEivah‎, (lit. 'Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism').

Each year, Memorial Day is marked each year on the 4th of the Hebrew month of Iyar, always one day before Independence Day, emphasizing and symbolizing the connection between the fallen and their devotion, and with the establishment of the State of Israel. On this day, deceased fallen soldiers, members of the Israeli Police, the General Security Service, the Mossad and victims of terror are honored. Since 1860 (when Jews first began to live outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City) until today, 23,786 civilians and soldiers have perished.

When I came across the website: https://honorisraelsfallen.com I searched for someone who had fallen in 1948. Coming across the name of a young woman who had been massacred during the Hadassah Mt. Scopus convoy, I remembered a chapter in the book, Broken Silence, which I had published for two sisters: Betty Bausch and Liesje Auerbach.

Liesje was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. From the Nazi Westerbork camp she was deported to Bergen-Belsen. In July 1944 she was part of the Bergen-Belsen transport that came to British Mandate Palestine in exchange for German Templar women. In September 1944, even though she hardly spoke Hebrew, Liesje continued her nurses training in Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus hospital. This is what she wrote to her sister in the Netherlands, who survived the war in hiding:

On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was born and on the same day the neighbouring Arab nations declared war.  All hell broke loose. The ten-minute drive to the hospital on Mt. Scopus passed through the Arab quarter of Sheikh Jarrah.  Cars travelling to the hospital were often attacked by the inhabitants of the village, while the British authorities stood idly by.  After several such incidents it was decided to only travel to and from the hospital in armoured vehicles.  The arrangement made with medical personnel, which was accepted unanimously, was that each member of staff would work in the hospital for three weeks straight, and then spend a week in Jerusalem.  We continued this way for several months. 

At the end of my week off duty I tidied and cleaned my rented room and returned to the hospital for my next three-week shift. 

On Monday, 12 April 1948, it was once again time to return to Mt. Scopus.  At the pick-up point I was told that the day before mines were discovered along the route.  This had prevented the convoy from leaving Jerusalem.  As the earlier convoy was to be taken up Mt. Scopus first, we were told to come back the next day.

My friend Cyota, who recently confided to me that she was expecting a baby, was overjoyed at the chance of spending another day at home with her husband.  But I had nothing to do in my empty room, with nothing left to eat. 

I remained with those who were waiting.  One of the drivers, who knew me well (I looked after his wife when she delivered their third child) promised that if there was room in the convoy, he would make sure I got in. 

At the last moment he pushed me into a corner in the back of his truck.  It was a short ride to the top, only a few kilometers. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found myself once again safe and sound on the grounds of the hospital compound.

The next day, Tuesday April 13th, at nine in the morning, the personnel expectantly waited to be released from duty by the new shift.  But no cars arrived.  Hearing the salvo of machine guns and explosions we ran to the balconies.  The road was deserted, and columns of smoke rose in the distance.  While the convoy was attacked there was nothing we could do but pray that the British would come to their aid.  All the vehicles were burned.  Most of the people in the convoy perished - professors, doctors, nurses and many others – 78 in all.

Among the dead were three girls from my class -

 Esther, Tzafuna and Margalit. 

To this day I mourn for my friends and all the others murdered in this convoy.  May their memory be eternally blessed.

******************
Thus, last night (at the start of Memorial Day, we remembered these three women: 

The following information is from the website: www.honorisraelsfallen.com

Esther (Cyota) Appelbaum

Daughter of Tova and Yosef, was born on June 25, 1922 in the city of Khotin, in the region of Bessarabia, Romania. In her parents’ home, she was educated in a Zionist spirit and from her childhood she longed for the country. After graduating from the General Gymnasium in the city of Czernowitz, she made every effort to immigrate to Israel, and in March 1944 she left her city of residence and immigrated to Eretz Israel. She spent six months studying absorption and settlement difficulties, and finally decided to start studying at the Hadassah nursing school on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. She loved the profession she chose and after graduating she continued to work as a registered nurse at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Even after her marriage she continued to work there. With great love she offered her help to the sick, and in this work, she saw a duty of respect for herself. The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and upon the outbreak of the war the movement was allowed to mount convoys secured by the British army. 

On the morning of April 13, 1948, a convoy left for Mount Scopus, after the British promised that the road was open and safe.  The convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs hurled heavy gunfire at it. Some of the vehicles managed to get out and return, but two buses, an ambulance and an escort vehicle were ambushed. For many hours the convoy members fought and tried to prevent the Arabs from approaching the vehicles. Fire from our positions in the city and Mount Scopus, as well as armored vehicles sent to the area, failed to help the convoy. 

British military forces in the area did not intervene and did nothing to help, despite appeals to them. 

In the afternoon, the Arabs managed to set fire to two buses on their passengers, and only late in the evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles( 78 of the 112 passengers were killed and 24 injured). 

Esther was brought to rest in a mass grave in the Sanhedria cemetery in Jerusalem. 

Many of the victims had been either stripped naked, mutilated and beheaded by the Arab mobs or were too badly burned to be identified. 

Margalit Ben Shalom, the first Yemenite nurse in Hadassah, was born on June 23, 1926 in Jerusalem to Sarah and David. The father was blind, and the mother had poor eyesight.  Her parents had studied in the famous Blind Institute, where her father later taught.  They had a shop on Ben Yehuda Street where they sold handmade items made by students in the Institute.  Margalit was beautiful, full of the joy of life, and very much loved. 

Margalit attended the Hebrew Gymnasium Rehavia in Jerusalem and after finishing the seventh grade she moved to the Hadassah nursing school. In her youth she belonged to the Scouts and was a member of the Haganah. She loved the art of ballet and playing the violin.

In September 1947 Margalit began working as a registered nurse the Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem. Her patients admired her for her devoted care and her big smile that always hung on her lips as she entered the hospital rooms. When the War of Independence began, she tirelessly worked in the hospital, even gave up her vacation days for taking care of the wounded.

Margalit was murdered on April 13, 1948 in the same convoy as Esther Appelbaum. She was laid to rest in the cemetery in Sanhedria in Jerusalem.

Tzafuna (Tzipa) Ashbel

Daughter of Hannah and Dov (a professor at the Hebrew University), was born on the last day of Passover in Poland (during her mother’s visit to her parents’ home). When she was 18 months old she returned with her mother to Eretz Israel and grew up in Jerusalem. After completing her studies at Ein-Hahoresh and Ma’aleh Hahamisha, she returned to Jerusalem and entered the Hadassah Nursing School on Mount Scopus.

Tzafuna continued to work with heart and soul at the hospital as a registered nurse.

Ben Yehuda Street bombing Febr. 22, 1948 

On February 22, 1948, three British Army trucks led by an armoured car driven by Arab irregulars and British deserters exploded on Ben Yehuda Street, killing from 49 to 58 civilians and injuring from 140 to 200 people.

The building in which Tzafuna rented a room was badly damaged, but she managed to get out unhurt and began treating the wounded.

Less than two months later, Tzafuna was murdered in the Hadassah Convoy on April 13 and laid to rest in a mass grave in the Sanhedria cemetery.

  

*********************************************

Further reading:

Ben Yehuda Street bombing

Hadassah Convoy Massacre

https://honorisraelsfallen.com/fallen/appelbaum-esther-cyota/

https://honorisraelsfallen.com/fallen/ben-shalom-margalit/

https://honorisraelsfallen.com/fallen/ashbal-tzafuna-tzipa/

YouTube video about the Hadassah Convoy massacre (the upbeat music they used for this documentary is inappropriate – I think).

https://youtu.be/O8-QSt7IcXk

“Native Kindliness" and Carnival

This month, many Catholic communities around the world celebrate Carnival. The festival is seen as a harmless interlude of feasting, drinking and having fun before Lent – the 40 days reflecting the Passion of Christ, during which no meat is eaten. The word ‘Carnival’ is derived from ‘carnevale’ – to put away the meat.

It was during the Middle Ages (1066 – 1485) that the Catholic Church, unable to suppress the often immoral Carnival parades and masquerades, decided to adapt it to its own traditions.  

The Carnival in Venice, famous for its masks, was first mentioned in 1268. While the Italian Catholics looked forward to their merry Carnival, the Jewish communities dreaded it.

Living in the Papal States meant that the Jews, a minority of 15,000 living amongst an Italian population of 11,000,000, were also subjected to the Pope’s political, commercial and social rulings. Compared to other countries in Europe, the Papal States never slaughtered its Jews, but they didn’t like the fact that not far from Rome’s Vatican, lived a very stubborn community of Jewish non-believers.

A large number of poor, Greek-speaking Jews already lived in Rome during the Roman Republic (509 – 27 B.C). They established synagogues, and from archeological finds we know their tombstones were decorated with the menorah – seven branched candelabra.

Proselytizing, pre-Christian Rome saw many converts to Judaism, while others believed in the Jewish God and adopted Jewish practices.

In 313 A.D. Constantine I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. By calling Jews “Christ killers” and issuing the first anti-Jewish edicts, life changed drastically for the Italian Jewish community.

Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) (590-604) was seen as the natural protector of the Roman population (including the Jews) at that time. By offering material advantages and condemning forced baptisms, he hoped to win the Jews for Christianity.

In 1215, harsher measures were enforced through Pope Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Council. “We decree that Jews of both sexes in every Christian province at all times shall be distinguished in the eyes of the public from other peoples by the character of their dress.”

Jews were excluded from public office, and forced to wear yellow badges on their clothes, and a pointed or funnel shaped hat. Up until that time, it was common for medieval society to wear ‘social status’ badges. 

Guild members were revered, while lepers, reformed heretics and prostitutes were ostracized by their specific colors. Unwilling to be labeled as outcasts, by receiving bribes the kings granted the Jews temporary “exemptions”. However, when the king needed money, they had to pay additional sums.

Wearing the cone-shaped pointed hat at first was the European Jews’ own choice. But when it became compulsory, Jews became outcasts.

Between 1305-1378, the period known as the “Babylonian Captivity”, Popes resided in Avignon (France). Italy’s Papal States however remained under Papal control.

During the Renaissance (1400 – 1700), which began in Italy, the Pope became Italy’s secular (albeit often contested) ruler as well as the head of the Church.

It was Pope Paul II (1464-1471) who introduced footraces to the Roman Carnival. The 1^st “Race of the Jews” took place on February 9, 1466. All over Italy the Jews had to participate in the Carnival races, and at first liked the activity where boys, old men, buffaloes, and they themselves had to run on different days. Florence knew a ‘Golden Age’ (1464 – 1492) with peaceful coexistence and interactions between Christians and Jews.  In 1488 the first complete Hebrew Bible was printed in Soncino.

During the late 15^th century however, the status of Italy’s Jews had reverted to ‘nobodies’, with local rulers confiscating their belongings and taxing them at will.  The Italian population stood at 12,000,000, with 80,000 Jews.

Before the Reformation began, known for her vicious persecutions, the Jewish communities enjoyed a ‘peaceful’ period, in which Rabbis were able to teach Hebrew and Kabbalah. Their exegesis, cultivated throughout the centuries, equipped the Jews against Catholicism.

Even though Pope Leo X (1513-1521) employed Jewish physicians and artists at his court, he also condoned humiliating practices during Carnival. A Jew was marched through the city, mounted backwards on a donkey while holding the animal’s tail in his hand. The jeering crowds loved this parody of a Rabbi’s burial. 

The Reformation (1500 – 1599) enforced book censorship, and Pope Julius III, believing the Talmud hostile to Christianity, demanded many to be publicly burned.

          

Ghetto Nuova, Venice, today

  In 1516 the Jews of Venice, since 1290 under payment of taxes allowed to work there, were threatened with expulsion. In the end they could remain, but confined to “Ghetto Nuova”, a small dirty island. Getto (Italian) means ‘casting’; geto (Venetian) means ‘foundry’.

Pope Paul IV’s bull of 1555, entitled “Cum nimis absurdum”, begins thus: “Since it is absurd and utterly inappropriate that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery….”

His renewed anti-Jewish measures forced men to wear the ‘Judenhut’ and females a

yellow, sometimes red ring-shaped piece of fabric. 

Rome Jewish Ghetto

Rome’s Jewish community of 3,000 was forced into a “Jew’s enclosure”, a Ghetto measuring about 8 acres, whose gates were closed at night. 

On Shabbat, adults were forced to attend Catholic sermons, meant to convert them to Christianity. Similar laws were issued throughout Italy, creating many hardships. Jews were enticed to convert to Catholicism by promises of being able to chose their career (possibly a high position in the Vatican), receive a generous pension and the right to move out of the Ghetto. Unmarried female converts received ample dowries and Christian husbands. However, to the chagrin of the Catholic clergy, converts were few.

Catholic sources state that most edicts, e.g. the “Cum nimis absurdum” represented the prejudices and ill-will of the individual pontiff; prominent priests using Paul’s Epistles and the Gospels as Biblical justification to persecute “unbelievers”, not only persecuted Jews, but also heretics, like Wycliffe and Hus.

While some popes alleviated the enactments of their predecessors, others, like Pope Pius V (1566-1572) repealed all concessions - e.g. again “Shabbas Goys” were prohibited to kindle the fires of the Jews on the Sabbath and in 1570 another Ghetto was established in Florence.

It was in 1584 that Gregory XIII decreed that each Saturday, 155 Jews over the age of 12 had to listen to a Dominican friar preaching about their theological errors. A heavy fine had to be paid if the required number didn’t show up. Some of the Jews attended the compulsory services with cotton-stuffed ears. A hired bailiff, patrolling the church, whacked sleeping Jews with a stick.

It is during Gregory XIII’s pontificate that for the first time we read about ‘the old custom’ – the “Race of the Jews”. Because old men were being found more amusing, age limitations had been removed. In the course of time, with the deterioration of the general atmosphere, these races changed into humiliating abuses, sometimes even ending in death. In preparation for the race, and to give the jeering crowd more to laugh about, Jewish men had been imprisoned and fattened. Spurred on by mounted soldiers behind them, the Jewish men (wearing only a loin-cloth) had to run through jeering crowds who pelted them with mud, eggs, vegetables and dead cats. Often the race had to be repeated, on the pretext that there had been some slight irregularity.  

It was only in 1668 that Pope Clement IX, for the sake of public order, not humanity, abolished the “Race of the Jews”. Instead, representatives of the Jewish community on the first day of the Carnival had to pay a special tax of 300 scudi. In addition to that, before the eyes of the jeering public, these Jewish men, dressed in short breeches and floating capes, had to pay homage to the city’s ‘conservatori’.

And then, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the boisterous revelers returned to being pious Catholics. They wore funeral black, abstained from eating meat, didn’t attend festivities and meditated on Christ’s sacrifice for them.

“Even when Jewish misery had touched its depths, Italy was still Italy, and Italians were still Italians, with all the native kindliness of their people.” 

Cecil Roth – “The History of the Jews of Italy”

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Unfortunately, anti-semitism continues to rear it's ugly head. 

Aalst, Belgium 2019; Marburg, Germany 1936

This article, written by Petra van der Zande, was published in the Jerusalem Post Christian Edition of March 2009, titled: "Carnival, Lent and the 'Race of the Jews'. " 

https://jewishcurrents.org/january-23-the-race-of-the-jews/

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-pope-stops-rome-s-sadistic-jews-race-1.5365882