Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging

truth.

But the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Over the centuries, Christians have been responsible for many crimes and evils committed

against the Jews, from malicious accusations to forced conversions to expulsions to massacres.

While the Church has been culpable for some of this violence, instigated by friars or

preachers or church leaders, there is more to the story.

For example, during the first crusade, there was a widespread outbreak of anti-Semitic massacres

when mobs in Germany attacked Jewish communities.

They were motivated by a fanaticism and the need to finance their journey to the Holy

Land.

Although the crusade had been called by the Pope, all the attacks on the Jews were condemned

by the Church hierarchy.

Some bishops offered Jews refuge in surrounding cities, others sheltered them in their own

palaces, though not always successfully.

And others bought off the marauding crusaders with silver.

After the first crusades, Pope Gregory X and Benedict XIII declared that Jews were not

enemies of Christians, and that their lives and property were to be respected.

In his preaching during the Second Crusade, Bernard of Clare Vaux explicitly condemned

the attacks on the Jews that happened during the first crusade.

Later, when the Black Death struck Europe, rumors began to circulate that the disease

was called by Jews poisoning the wells of Christians on orders from a Spanish rabbi.

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