Josce of York (Latin: Joceus; died 1190) was the leader of the Jewish community in York, England, [1] and the leading figure in the York pogrom of 1190. He committed suicide along with nearly the entire Jewish community, rather than face death or conversion at the hands of an angry mob. [2]
Josce is mentioned in the earliest surviving English shetar (receipt for debt repayment), of 1176. [3] : 58 He was one of those who attended the coronation of Richard I, doubtless as the representative of the York congregation, and escaped the London massacre. [3] : 101 On his return to York, where he had a house which rivaled a citadel in the scale and magnificence of its construction, he was attacked by the mob, and with his wife and children joined other fugitives who sought refuge in Clifford's Tower. When the decision was reached to put one another to death rather than fall into the hands of the enemy, Josce was the first to act, slaying his wife, Anna, and his children; he himself was slain last by Yom-Tov of Joigny. [3] : 127
It is likely that the noted Aaron of York or Aaron fil Josce, the financier and chief rabbi of England was Josce's son. [4]
It is probable that Josce and Samuel Hoppecole held the land in London on which the chief synagogue was built. [3] : 234
Sabbatai Zevi, also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, and Sabetay Sevi in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna. A kabbalist of Romaniote or Sephardic origin, Zevi, who was active throughout the Ottoman Empire, claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently were to be known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews.
York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruined keep of the medieval Norman castle is commonly referred to as Clifford's Tower. Built originally on the orders of William I to dominate the former Viking city of Jórvík, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences. After a major explosion in 1684 rendered the remaining military defences uninhabitable, York Castle continued to be used as a jail and prison until 1929.
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William the Conqueror. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the Roman period, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290. After the expulsion, there was no overt Jewish community until the rule of Oliver Cromwell. While Cromwell never officially readmitted Jews to the Commonwealth of England, a small colony of Sephardic Jews living in London was identified in 1656 and allowed to remain.
In the early modern period, a court Jew, or court factor, was a Jewish banker who handled the finances of, or lent money to, European, mainly German, royalty and nobility. In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges, including in some cases being granted noble status.
Jewish writers in England during the pre-expulsion period of the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries produced different kinds of writing in Hebrew. Many were Tosafists; others wrote legal material, and some wrote liturgical poetry and literary texts.
It is believed that the first Jews in England arrived during the Norman Conquest of the country by William the Conqueror in 1066. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. They suffered massacres in 1189–90. In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England by the Edict of Expulsion.
The Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade of 1096 or Gzerot Tatnó, were a series of mass murders of Jews perpetrated by mobs of French and German Christians of the People's Crusade in the year 1096, or 4856 according to the Hebrew calendar. These massacres are often seen as the first in a sequence of antisemitic events in Europe which culminated in the Holocaust.
Aaron of Canterbury was an English rabbi and halakhic exegete, mentioned in Minhat Yehudah by Judah ben Eliezer on Deuteronomy xxvi.2, in association with Rashi and Rabbi Jacob of Orleans, and thus, seemingly, of the twelfth century. But a passage in the Close Roll of 1242 refers the decision in a divorce case to three "magistri," Mosse of London, Aaron of Canterbury, and Jacob of Oxford, and makes it probable that the Aaron mentioned in "Minhat Yehudah" was of the thirteenth century and acted as an ecclesiastical assessor, or dayyan, in London about 1242. If so, his name was Aaron fil Samson.
Jacob of London was the first known Presbyter Judaeorum of the Jews of England; appointed to that position by King John in 1199, who also gave him a safe-conduct. He appears to have died in 1217, when Josce of London is mentioned as his successor. He is possibly identical with the rabbi Jacob of London who translated the whole Haggadah into the vernacular so that women and children could understand it.
Elias of London also known as Elijah ben Moses or Elias le Evesque, was Presbyter Judaeorum in 13th-century England.
Aaron of York or Aaron fil Josce was a Jewish financier and chief rabbi of England. He was born in York before 1190 and died after 1253. He was probably the son of Josce of York, the leading figure in the York pogrom of 1190.
The Presbyter Judaeorum was the chief official of the Jews of England prior to the Edict of Expulsion. The office appears to have been for life, though in two or three instances the incumbent either resigned or was dismissed. Prynne argues that the Presbyter Judaeorum was merely a secular officer in the Exchequer of the Jews to keep the rolls of control, whereas Tovey argues that the use of "sacerdos" and "pontifex" as synonymous of the office shows its ecclesiastical character.
This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions which were undertaken in order to combat or relieve the effects of antisemitism, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
Yom Tovof Joigny, also denoted of York was a French-born rabbi and liturgical poet of the medieval era who lived in York, and died in the massacre of the Jews of York in 1190. A Hebrew language hymn attributed to him, transliterated "Omnam Kayn" or "Omnam Ken" is still recited in Eastern Ashkenazi synagogues each year on the evening of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. He was a student of Rabbeinu Tam.
Ephraim of Bonn (1132–1196), also known as Ephraim ben Jacob, was a rabbi and writer, known for documenting the massacre of the Jews in the city of York in 1190.
The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven or sixty-nine Jews on 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of Mandatory Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The event also left scores seriously wounded or maimed. Jewish homes were pillaged and synagogues were ransacked. Some of the 435 Jews who survived were hidden by local Arab families, although the extent of this phenomenon is debated. Soon after, all Hebron's Jews were evacuated by the British authorities. Many returned in 1931, but almost all were evacuated at the outbreak of the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The massacre formed part of the 1929 Palestine riots, in which a total of 133 Jews and 110 Arabs were killed, the majority of the latter by British police and military, and brought the centuries-old Jewish presence in Hebron to an end.
Josce of London was an English Jew and the Presbyter Judaeorum, or Chief Rabbi, of the Jews of England from 1217 to 1237.
Benedict of York was a moneylender and a leading member of the 12th century Jewish community in York, England. Benedict was considered the second greatest moneylender in York after Josce of York. Benedict acquired several lands as a result of his activities and debts to him were still being honoured a decade after his death.
An archa or arca was a mediaeval document repository, such as a chest, associated with the financial records of Jews in England at the time.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Joseph Jacobs (1901–1906). "Joceus (Joce) of York". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.