Early History of the Ashkenazim

This past Sunday, I shared with the students the early history of the Ashkenazim, the large group of Jews who have lived in western, northern, and eastern Europe. They took their name from "Ashkenaz," which was described in the Bible as being a land in the distant north. We are currently studying the eastern European edot (Poland and Russia), and the rich and vibrant Yiddish culture which they developed. We began our historic exploration of this group by going back 2,000 years, to when Jewish slaves taken by the Romans to Italy following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., formed the first Jewish community on the European continent. We also learned about the origins of Christianity, to understand how the earliest Nazarenes (as Christians were originally referred to, and still are in Hebrew) separated themselves from traditional Jews by refusing to follow Jewish rituals, since they believed the Messiah had come and there was no reason to continue these rituals. A great rift began to grow between the two religions during the first century C.E., with the Christians unable to accept the fact that traditional Jews refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, while traditional Jews became convinced that the Christians were ready to undermine the way of life Jews had developed over the preceding centuries, at times fighting to the death for their beliefs. We then took a close look at the relationship between the Christians and Jews in Europe, during the Dark and Middle Ages (ca. 500-1400), when Jews were the only non-Christian inhabitants of most of Europe. We learned how Jews were shut out of the guilds and not allowed to own land. They were only allowed to reside in areas where they had been invited by charter to settle. Since they were only allowed to work as moneylenders, and because the uneducated Christian peasants blamed them for the death of Jesus, they were forced to live behind walls built to protect them from the "insolent populace"(words used by Bishop Rudigar of Speyer in 1084, when he invited them to settle, "in order to increase the economy of the land."

We learned how in 1095-1096, Pope Urban VI called for a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Muslims, promising immediate salvation of the soul to any lord or knight who died fighting for the Church. When peasants heard about Urban's promise, they banded together and joined the Crusade, eager to leave their poor farms to seek adventure and spoils. This was not the Crusade that Pope Urban had wanted. The peasants had no idea where the Holy Land was or who their enemies were supposed to be. But there was one enemy they knew well in their own lands - the Jews. When faced with the choice of dying or converting to Christianity, thousands of Jews preferred to die "Al Kiddush Ha'Shem" (as martyrs) rather than convert. Still, the Jewish communities of the Rhineland region recovered.

But in 1347, the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) spread through Europe, killing 24 million people (1/3 of Europe's population back then), and it was the Jews who were blamed. They were accused of poisoning the wells.  This time, there was no refuge in any land in western Europe for them. Thankfully, the Plague didn't touch eastern Europe, which was still a frontier of thick forests, for the most part. Polish princes, who had invited Jews to settle on their lands (to "increase their economy") back in the 12th century, now re-issued their invitations, and this time the majority of Ashkenazim accepted their invitation. It was in the lands of eastern Europe that the Yiddish culture truly flourished, and great centers of Jewish learning developed.

We covered all this history in just half an hour, thanks to the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program, which helped bring the history and culture to life for the students. At the very end of the lesson, I shared with them a wonderful multimedia presentation from the Heritage program, which shared the history of the Yiddish language, and gave the class the opportunity not just to listen to how Yiddish sounds, but to "feel the roll of the language on their tongues" as we read Yiddish phrases out loud.  Try out some Yiddish yourself in the Origins of Yiddish section of the website.

During the weekday sessions, I divided each class into 8 groups, each of which was assigned to create a poster depicting one of the six days of Creation, Shabbat, or one of the Shabbat Seder (welcoming Shabbat) rituals.  One group each week day session also worked on decorating a large fish which will be used during the Yiddish skit part of our family Shabbat Seder. As always, I put out lots of materials for the students to use, gave them a few directions, then stood back and watched the creation process. It never ceases to amaze me how children can look at a huge, blank piece of posterboard, and, without any hesitation, plan and execute an amazing work of art. We'll be using these posters during our Shabbat Seder, not just to decorate the walls, but to share the meaning of Shabbat and the rituals which developed to welcome it each Friday evening.

Preparing the "Shabbat, A Day of Rest" poster

Decorating one side of the "groysse" (large) fish for the Yiddish skit

One side of the groysse fish

Preparing the "Sabbath Meal" poster in foreground, with other groups busy at work in background

Preparing the "Second Day of Creation" poster

Working together to design the "Fifth Day of Creation" poster

Hard to tell at this stage, but this will become an impressive poster depicting the "Ha'Motzi" blessing over the Challah

On the fourth day of Creation the sun and moon and stars came into being - and they're about to be "re-created" here

Everyone is involved in this "creation" process