As part of my ongoing announcement of religious observances, please note that for 2023, beginning at sunset Wednesday night July 26 and continuing through sunset on Thursday night July 27, the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av will be observed. Jewish employees and students should be accommodated for the observance of this holiday.
Tisha B'Av is the date on which both the First and Second Temples were destroyed (the Romans selected the date on purpose). It is also the date on which a string of tragedies have befallen the Jewish people.
The holiday is a major day of mourning for Orthodox and most Conservative Jews. By contrast, it is treated as a Memorial Day by Reconstructionist Jews. Finally, it is wholly opposed by many Reform Jews, and not observed on theological grounds since the founding of the state of Israel.
Traditional Jewish Views of Tisha B’Av
For Orthodox and most Conservative Jews, Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning and a total fast day (like Yom Kippur). Many Reform and Reconstructionist Jews (as explained later in this post) recognize the significance of the day, but do not generally observe it as a fast day or with the same emotion as Orthodox Jews.
For those Orthodox and Conservative Jews who observe Tisha B'Av as a fast day refrain entirely from eating, drinking, washing, using skin cream, smoking, wearing leather shoes or showing affection (kissing, hugging, etc.). For these Jews (as Chabad.Org's "What Is Tisha B'Av?" explains:
is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, on which we fast, deprive ourselves and pray. It is the culmination of the Three Weeks, a period of time during which we mark the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
The day is spent reading the Biblical Book of Lamentations and the Book of Job. For the morning part of the service, observers sit on the floor or on low benches as is customary during mourning after someone’s death in Judaism.
Tisha B’Av is one of the most somber days in the Jewish calendar. The name in Hebrew simply means the “Ninth of Av” (Av is a month in the Jewish calendar). The day, however, is the most calamitous in Jewish history, as it was the day when Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem
Tisha B'Av serves as a single day of collective mourning for all the disasters Jews have endured through the centuries. This single day is significant for an entire chronology of disasters in Jewish history that fell on the 9th of Av. These are as follows:
Tisha B'Av serves as a single day of collective mourning for all the disasters Jews have endured through the centuries. This single day is significant for an entire chronology of disasters in Jewish history that fell on the 9th of Av. These are as follows:
586 BCE Babylonia's Destruction of the First Temple
Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the First Temple -- Solomon’s Temple -- beginning the Babylonian Exile (that lasted until 537 BC).
The destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the First Temple is related in the Bible in 2 Kings 25:9-12; 2 Chronicles 36:19; and Isaiah 64:11.
Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. 2 Chronicles 36:19
The Book of Lamentations in its entirety bemoans the destruction of Jerusalem and the mass evacuation of the Jews from the Land of Israel into the Babylonian Exile. A remnant of the Jewish people remained in Jerusalem in the aftermath of Jerusalem's destruction, among them the author of the Book of Lamentations (traditionally attributed to Jeremiah). He describes his grief and the grief of the people of Israel in some of the most emotional verses of the Hebrew Bible:
70 CE Rome's Destruction of the Second Temple
My eyes fail from weeping;It is this book that Orthodox and Conservative Jews read on the night of Tisha B'Av, while seated on the floor and fasting.
I am churning within.
My heart is poured out in grief
over the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city. Lamentations 1:11
70 CE Rome's Destruction of the Second Temple
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| Sacking of the Second Temple in Jerusalem depicted on the Arch of Titus, Rome |
The Roman Emperor Titus destroyed the Second Temple (which was rebuilt in 516 BC after Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and returned the Jews to Israel). This was to put down the Jewish revolt (of which early Christianity was a part). Titus chose theTisha B'Av specifically to add impact to the destruction of the Second Temple on the same day as the first.
Following this, Rome razed Jerusalem and the Jews were not allowed to rebuild the ruins, beginning the diaspora. The sacking of the Second Temple is famously depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
All that remains of the Temple in Jerusalem today is the Kotel, the Western Wall of the wall that surrounded the original building. This remains the holiest site in Judaism. Since the 19th Century, it has been common among some non-Jews to refer to the Kotel as the Wailing Wall (in Turkish Ağlama Duvarı, in Arabic el-Mabka, in French le Mur des Lamentations and in German die Klagemauer). The term "Wailing Wall" derives from non-Jews observation of the practice of Jews praying there and, on Tisha B'Av, crying over the destruction of the Temple. Though not particularly insulting, this is not a common term used by Jews themselves who prefer the Hebrew word Kotel or, "the Western Wall" put into the vernacular.
1096 CE The First Crusade
The First Crusade officially began on August 15 -- Tisha B'Av-- of 1096. Although Pope Urban II called for the Crusade first at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, the papally ordained date for the commencement of troop movements was August 15, 1096 -- Tisha B'Av. While it should be noted that Jews were mass murdered by Crusaders in all nine of the Crusades (the last ending in 1272), the First Crusade was both the beginning of these attacks and one for which the Jews had no previous experience.
The stated purpose of the first Crusade was to retake access to Muslim-controlled Jerusalem. Although not directed against the Jews, the Crusade rapidly turned into a Jewish tragedy. The difficulty was that -- without Church approval in this instance -- the first Crusaders were undisciplined, largely uneducated and lacking in supplies. In the first months of the campaign as they marched toward Jerusalem, the Crusaders rampaged against the only non-Christians they could find: the Jews. One branch of the Crusaders went off course to attack the Jews of the Rhineland where over 4000 Jews were either murdered or committed suicide rather than face conversion (for example, 500 Jews in Cologne committed mass suicide at one time).
After the first Crusaders finally took Jerusalem, they gathered the majority of the Jewish community there into one of the synagogues and on July 15, 1099 set fire to it killing all of the men, women and children inside. It should be noted that the Crusaders were no less lenient with the Muslims there. It is estimated that out of a population of 70,000 at the time of the Crusader capture of Jerusalem, the population had plummeted to less than 30,000 after the conquest. Under Muslim rule, Jerusalem had practiced religious tolerance for Christians and Jews alike. Since the Crusaders did not kill the Christians living in Jerusalem, the 40,000 victims were exclusively Muslim and Jewish.
1182 CE The Frankish Expulsion of the Jews
To gain the necessary funds for the war, Philip Augustus decided to seize the money from the Jews in his lands. The Saturday following his coronation -- March 14, 1181 -- he had all the Jews of the kingdom arrested in their synagogues, and took all of their money and investments over. In April 1182, Philip Augustus signed the order of expulsion for all Jews, giving them until Tisha B'Av (July of 1182) to sell all personal property, which they were allowed to take with them. All Jewish-owned buildings, farms, vineyards, wine presses and other immovable property then transferred directly to the king.
Unlike the later English and Spanish expulsions (described below) that barred Jews for centuries, France's expulsions of the Jews were brief even if they were frequent. Philip II Augustus actually readmitted the Jews in his own reign in 1198 (although they faced an additional tax for return and received none of their confiscated property). In 1289, the Jews of the regions of Anjou, Gascony, Maine and Nevers were expelled and most came to Paris where they were first invited but then expelled in 1306 (because they were not able to pay the amount in taxation that had been anticipated). This was, incidentally, on July 22 - the day after Tisha B'Av.
The Jews were readmitted (1315) and finally expelled from France for the last time in 1394. Though not officially allowed to return, Jews came back informally (as evidenced by an edict of 1615 in the south of France that gave the death penalty to Christians for sheltering or even communicating with Jews) as well as pogroms on Jews in Provence following the edict.
The first official readmittance came in 1675. In that year, Louis XIV gave the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine (which had been acquired from Austria in 1648) a special patent allowing them the right to live there under the king's protection in return for high rates of taxation. Changing attitudes began to informally allow admittance of Jews elsewhere in France in the 1700's and the special taxation of Jews was finally eliminated in 1785. It was not until the French Revolution of 1789, though, that full emancipation and admittance of Jews in France became official.
Before the expulsion, the position of Jews in England had been deteriorating for decades. Henry III (the father of Edward I), for example, in 1218 became the first ruler to force Jews to wear yellow stars, a practice later adopted under the Nazis. Several accusations of blood libel led to executions as well as massacres at London and at York. For more on the blood libel accusations in which Jews were accused of using Christian babies' blood to make matzo, please see my post on Passover at:
http://davidvictorvector.
Because the Magna Carta explicitly excluded Jews, they had no legal protection from the monarch's whims. As a result, over the course of the 13th Century, the monarchy levied 49 major levies on the Jews. In 1275, Edward I outlawed charging interest (which Jews had been allowed to do since Christians were not allowed to charge interest to other Christians). He gave the Jews 15 years to make the transition from money lending to other fields, but at the same the guilds prevented the Jews from entering other fields, and they were barred from owning land in most cases. The final Edict of Expulsion was a culmination of Crown's money-raising acts against the Jews.
The Jews were banned from England for over 350 years. It was not until 1656 that Oliver Cromwell formally rescinded the Edict of Expulsion.
1492 CE The Spanish Expulsion of the Jews
On March 31, 1492, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon pronounced the Alhambra Decree, giving the Jews of Spain until July 31 (the eve of Tisha B'Av) to leave the country (a ban that remained in place until 1968). This was a tragedy unparalleled in European Jewish history before.
Unlike the relatively small and poorly integrated Jewish populations involved in the expulsions from France and England described above, the Jews of Iberia were among the most well-established and integrated in all of Jewish history. The Jews of Iberia were, in fact, arguably the best integrated Jewish population until present-day North America.
Jews had a presence in Iberia for at least 1700 years at the time of the Alhambra Decree. When the Romans took over Hispania (present-day Spain) from Carthage following the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), Jews were already present there. Throughout the Roman era, the Jews had interacted with the non-Jewish population. Even after the conversion of Rome to Christianity and the subsequent persecution of Jews elsewhere in the Empire, Jews in Spain remained relatively untouched for centuries, protected both by the distance from the Church hierarchy in Rome itself and from their centuries of close interaction with non-Jews there. Indeed, Jews prospered in Iberia only after the fall of Rome with the conquest of Spain by the Visigoths in the 6th century were the anti-Jewish policies of the Church (such as forced baptism of children of mixed marriages) even enforced.
Only in 653 CE did Jews in Spain meet true persecution with the Church's Eighth Council of Toledo in which Jewish rites such as Sabbath worship and circumcision were officially punishable by stoning to death. While many Jews began to leave Spain following this, their circumstances changed soon after with the Tariq ibn Ziyyad's Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 CE.
The Jews welcomed the Muslim invaders fleeing the Catholic areas (especially after those still living there were declared traitors and had their goods confiscated). Muslims had throughout their lands held Jews and Christians both to be dhimmi -- people of the Book -- with protected (if not fully equal status) to Muslims. While the Christians in the conquered lands generally chose to flee to other Christian countries, the Jews not only remained but began to pour into the Moorish-ruled areas from elsewhere in Christian Europe. Jews were allowed to worship free from persecution and -- unlike anywhere in Christendom -- were allowed to participate in any area of business they wished.
This ushered in what became known as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain, arguably the greatest flourishing of a Jewish community anywhere in Europe. For the next 400 years, Jews in Moorish Spain rose to prominence far beyond what their small numbers would suggest.
Because they were allowed (for what was essentially the first instance since ancient times) to participate in government, Jews became active in government. Several Jews held major positions throughout Islamic Spain. Indeed, four Jews rose to the position of Saragossa's Vizier (the equivalent of Prime Minister): Abu al-Fadl ibn Hasid Jekuthiel ibn Ḥasan, Samuel ha-Levi ibn Nagdela and Joseph ibn Naghrela. The Chief Physician of Granada -- Hasdai ibn Shaprut -- also served as a foreign minister. Another Jewish diplomat for Granada was Joseph ibn Migash. Also Jews such as the military leader Abu Ruiz ibn Dahri served in the Muslim armies.
Allowed as nowhere else in Europe to participate in academics, science and literature, the Jewish Golden Age in Spain produced leading figures in these areas. These included the astronomer Isaac ibn Abalia, the explorer/geographer Benjamin of Tudela. the poets Dunash ben Labrat and Solomon ibn Gabirol, the poet/philosopher Yehuda Halevi, and the philosopher, poet and linguist Rabbi Moses ibn Ezra. Moorish Spain also became the center of Jewish theological studies during this period. It was in Spain that Jewish mysticism saw its flowering with the works of the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia and the publication of the Zohar by Moses de Leon. Finally, the Golden Age of the Jews in Spain produced the greatest of all Jewish medieval scholars, Maimonides. Also known as the Rambam, Maimonides codified the Talmud, wrote the Guide for the Perplexed and arguably became the most important Jewish philosopher until modern times.
The Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain began to wane as Christian Europe began the "reconquest" or Reconquista. While the first Christian victory occurred in 722 at the Battle of Covadonga, the Jewish position under Moorish rule and the Jewish position did not begin to significantly falter until the late 10th Century. Until then, as Christians conquered various Iberian territories, the populations (Muslim and Jewish alike) had the option of moving to those lands still under Islamic rule. When Caliph Al-Hakam II Ibn Abd-ar-Rahman died in 976, though, the Granadan Caliphate began to weaken from within. Faced with internal instability and fearing the string of Christian victories, the masses in Granada (notably not the rulers or the elites) began to seek a scapegoat, and anti-Jewish activities began to grow. This culminated on December 30, 1066 when mobs overran the royal palace at Granada. They crucified the Jewish Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and on a single day killed over 4000 Jews in anti-Jewish riots. This was the first significant act of violence against Jews in the entire history of Islamic Iberia. Following this, many Jews left for North Africa and what is now Israel and even for Christian-held Toledo which had remained a Jewish center of learning. This worsened the situation of the Jews who remained who were then seen as disloyal. Still, the majority of Jews stayed in the Emirate of Granada, the last remaining Muslim nation in Iberia until its surrender in early 1492.
It is with this background that the Alhambra Edict takes on its true significance. Ironically, Queen Isabella's main financial advisor was the Jew Isaac Abrabanel. Abrabanel had offered Isabella and Ferdinand 600,000 crowns to rescind the verdict, which they almost accepted but the Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada shamed them, comparing this to Judas' betrayal of Jesus for money. The difficulty for Isabella and Ferdinand was greater than simply that of Torquemada.
The whole purpose of the Reconquista was to make all of Spain Catholic. This meant that toleration of non-Catholics would undermine the whole justification for their rule. The difficulty was that the educated elite and business leaders of the newly conquered lands were largely Jewish as the Muslim intellectual and economic leaders simply fled to other Muslim nations. As the Christian armies grew more successful in the Reconquista, the Jews there were given a choice of conversion or death. While some chose death, tens of thousands of Jews converted but the Church leaders were (justly) suspicious that such forced conversions were insincere. Additionally, the Christian rulers resented the economic power of the converted Jews prevented the new conquerors from taking the profits of the countries they had conquered.
In 1480, Isabella and Ferdinand began what was to become the Spanish Inquisition as they sought to find out "secret" Jews. This proved largely ineffective since most of the people tortured tended to confess.
Faced with the difficulty of rooting out "secret" Jews, Isabella and Ferdiand simply found it expedient to expel all Jews from the newly conquered Granada as well as any Jews remaining in Castile and Aragon. The penalty was death without trial, meaning that many new converts also chose to leave. Depending on whose estimates are used, the figures of how many Jews left the country by Tisha B'Av 1492 vary greatly ranging from a minimum of 130,000 to a maximum of 800,000. The descendants of the Iberian Jews expelled from Spain today make up the Sephardic Jewish community (Sephardi or סְפָרַדִּ) means Spanish in Hebrew.
The Alhambra Decree was formally revoked only following the Second Vatican Council in December 1968.
1914 CE Declaration of World War I
World War I was declared on July 28 -- Tisha B'Av -- of 1914. While this was more of a world tragedy than simply a Jewish tragedy, World War I has particular significance for Jews. It was the unacceptable terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the war that laid the seeds for the conspiracy theories and scapegoating of the Jews among the Nazis that ultimately led to the Holocaust.
World War I was also one of the first times in which European Jews were seen as full citizens of most of the the countries in which they lived. As a result, Jews fought in great numbers on both sides of the conflict. In all, approximately 100,000 Jews died fighting in World War I. As a side note, John McRae's famously moving poem "In Flanders Fields" opens:
1942 CE The Nazi Extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Opening of the Treblinka Extermination Camp
Tisha B’Av Among Reconstructionist and Reform Jews
My Jewish Learning, “Tisha B’Av: Communal Mourning,” http://www.
Philip II Augustus expelling the Jews from France from the Grandes Chroniques de France (1321): http://upload.
Louis XIV of France (1701) by Hyacinthe Rigaud, The Louvre, Paris, http://en.wikipedia.
Edward I, Portrait from Westminster Abbey: http://en.wikipedia.
Crusader killing Jews from French Bible ca. 1250: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/
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| The Kotel, Jerusalem |
Tradition says this is also the date on which the Romans killed the 10 martyrs (though not historically accurate necessarily, which would suggest that only 8 were). These are commemorated in a poem recited on Yom Kippur. The 10 martyrs committed no crime but were tried by Rome in a mock trial as punishment for the crimes of Joseph’s 10 brothers for selling Joseph into slavery in ancient Egypt. The martyrs were the most important rabbis of the Second Temple period and each was killed rather gruesomely. For example, the High Priest – Rabbi Yishmael – before being beheaded, had the skin of his head flayed off and stuffed while he was still alive as a gift for a Roman noblewoman who thought he was handsome. Rabbi Chananya ben Teradyon was burned alive by being wrapped in the Torah scroll which had been stuffed between his body and the parchment with wet wool so that he would not be able to die quickly. The greatest of all scholars of his day, and still a major figure in Jewish practice was Rabbi Akiva, who had iron rakes used to tear off his flesh. Rabbi Akiva is remembered for reciting the “Sh’ma” prayer about the unity of God throughout the ordeal.
135 CE The Bar Kokhba Revolt
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| Simon Bar Kokhba on the Knesset Menorah Jerusalem |
In 135 CE, Simon Bar Kokhba was captured and, on Tisha B'Av, killed ending the third and final major Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire (the Third Revolt had begun in 132 CE).
The Roman Emperor Hadrian, in putting down the uprising, was brutal. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, over 580,000 Jews were killed. In all 50 Jewish fortified cities and 985 Jewish villages were razed to the ground in what is now Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and
1096 CE The First Crusade
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| Crusaders killing Jews Illustration from a French Bible ca. 1250 |
The stated purpose of the first Crusade was to retake access to Muslim-controlled Jerusalem. Although not directed against the Jews, the Crusade rapidly turned into a Jewish tragedy. The difficulty was that -- without Church approval in this instance -- the first Crusaders were undisciplined, largely uneducated and lacking in supplies. In the first months of the campaign as they marched toward Jerusalem, the Crusaders rampaged against the only non-Christians they could find: the Jews. One branch of the Crusaders went off course to attack the Jews of the Rhineland where over 4000 Jews were either murdered or committed suicide rather than face conversion (for example, 500 Jews in Cologne committed mass suicide at one time).
After the first Crusaders finally took Jerusalem, they gathered the majority of the Jewish community there into one of the synagogues and on July 15, 1099 set fire to it killing all of the men, women and children inside. It should be noted that the Crusaders were no less lenient with the Muslims there. It is estimated that out of a population of 70,000 at the time of the Crusader capture of Jerusalem, the population had plummeted to less than 30,000 after the conquest. Under Muslim rule, Jerusalem had practiced religious tolerance for Christians and Jews alike. Since the Crusaders did not kill the Christians living in Jerusalem, the 40,000 victims were exclusively Muslim and Jewish.
1182 CE The Frankish Expulsion of the Jews
King Philip II Augustus, the last king of the Franks and the first king of modern France expelled the Jews from his territory on Tisha B'Av. Philip Augustus had come to the throne in 1181 and learned that he did not have funds enough to finance the war he was about to declare against Phillip of Alsace, Count of Flanders over the disputed territory of Vermandois.
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| Philip II Augustus expelling the Jews from France from the Grandes Chroniques de France (1321) |
It should be noted that Jews had lived in the area of what was now France for well over 1000 years. The first Jewish residents of Vienne recorded in the year 6 CE and the first major community in Lyons (then called Lugdunum) from the year 39 CE. Despite various persecutions, Jews had prospered, and the yeshiva at Troyes in Champagne became a major center of Jewish studies as the home of the period's greatest Jewish scholar Rashi (1040-1105).
Unlike the later English and Spanish expulsions (described below) that barred Jews for centuries, France's expulsions of the Jews were brief even if they were frequent. Philip II Augustus actually readmitted the Jews in his own reign in 1198 (although they faced an additional tax for return and received none of their confiscated property). In 1289, the Jews of the regions of Anjou, Gascony, Maine and Nevers were expelled and most came to Paris where they were first invited but then expelled in 1306 (because they were not able to pay the amount in taxation that had been anticipated). This was, incidentally, on July 22 - the day after Tisha B'Av.
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| Louis XIV officially readmitted the Jews to France in 1675 |
The first official readmittance came in 1675. In that year, Louis XIV gave the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine (which had been acquired from Austria in 1648) a special patent allowing them the right to live there under the king's protection in return for high rates of taxation. Changing attitudes began to informally allow admittance of Jews elsewhere in France in the 1700's and the special taxation of Jews was finally eliminated in 1785. It was not until the French Revolution of 1789, though, that full emancipation and admittance of Jews in France became official.
1290 CE England's Expulsion of the Jews
Edward I expelled the Jews from England on the Tisha B'Av in 1290 CE. Edward I was rather unusual in that, after killing 300 Jews in the Tower of London, he gave no real reason for their expulsion except for that of financial gain by taking their belongings and money. All of their property was confiscated directly by the king. Additionally, all debts owed to the Jews by others were transferred as debts to the king.
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| Edward I |
http://davidvictorvector.
Because the Magna Carta explicitly excluded Jews, they had no legal protection from the monarch's whims. As a result, over the course of the 13th Century, the monarchy levied 49 major levies on the Jews. In 1275, Edward I outlawed charging interest (which Jews had been allowed to do since Christians were not allowed to charge interest to other Christians). He gave the Jews 15 years to make the transition from money lending to other fields, but at the same the guilds prevented the Jews from entering other fields, and they were barred from owning land in most cases. The final Edict of Expulsion was a culmination of Crown's money-raising acts against the Jews.
The Jews were banned from England for over 350 years. It was not until 1656 that Oliver Cromwell formally rescinded the Edict of Expulsion.
1492 CE The Spanish Expulsion of the Jews
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| The Alhambra Edict banning Jews from Spain stayed in effect for 476 years from 1492-1968 |
Unlike the relatively small and poorly integrated Jewish populations involved in the expulsions from France and England described above, the Jews of Iberia were among the most well-established and integrated in all of Jewish history. The Jews of Iberia were, in fact, arguably the best integrated Jewish population until present-day North America.
Jews had a presence in Iberia for at least 1700 years at the time of the Alhambra Decree. When the Romans took over Hispania (present-day Spain) from Carthage following the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), Jews were already present there. Throughout the Roman era, the Jews had interacted with the non-Jewish population. Even after the conversion of Rome to Christianity and the subsequent persecution of Jews elsewhere in the Empire, Jews in Spain remained relatively untouched for centuries, protected both by the distance from the Church hierarchy in Rome itself and from their centuries of close interaction with non-Jews there. Indeed, Jews prospered in Iberia only after the fall of Rome with the conquest of Spain by the Visigoths in the 6th century were the anti-Jewish policies of the Church (such as forced baptism of children of mixed marriages) even enforced.
Only in 653 CE did Jews in Spain meet true persecution with the Church's Eighth Council of Toledo in which Jewish rites such as Sabbath worship and circumcision were officially punishable by stoning to death. While many Jews began to leave Spain following this, their circumstances changed soon after with the Tariq ibn Ziyyad's Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 CE.
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| Muslim holdings (in green) in Iberia ca. 1000 |
This ushered in what became known as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain, arguably the greatest flourishing of a Jewish community anywhere in Europe. For the next 400 years, Jews in Moorish Spain rose to prominence far beyond what their small numbers would suggest.
Because they were allowed (for what was essentially the first instance since ancient times) to participate in government, Jews became active in government. Several Jews held major positions throughout Islamic Spain. Indeed, four Jews rose to the position of Saragossa's Vizier (the equivalent of Prime Minister): Abu al-Fadl ibn Hasid Jekuthiel ibn Ḥasan, Samuel ha-Levi ibn Nagdela and Joseph ibn Naghrela. The Chief Physician of Granada -- Hasdai ibn Shaprut -- also served as a foreign minister. Another Jewish diplomat for Granada was Joseph ibn Migash. Also Jews such as the military leader Abu Ruiz ibn Dahri served in the Muslim armies.
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| Maimonides |
The Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain began to wane as Christian Europe began the "reconquest" or Reconquista. While the first Christian victory occurred in 722 at the Battle of Covadonga, the Jewish position under Moorish rule and the Jewish position did not begin to significantly falter until the late 10th Century. Until then, as Christians conquered various Iberian territories, the populations (Muslim and Jewish alike) had the option of moving to those lands still under Islamic rule. When Caliph Al-Hakam II Ibn Abd-ar-Rahman died in 976, though, the Granadan Caliphate began to weaken from within. Faced with internal instability and fearing the string of Christian victories, the masses in Granada (notably not the rulers or the elites) began to seek a scapegoat, and anti-Jewish activities began to grow. This culminated on December 30, 1066 when mobs overran the royal palace at Granada. They crucified the Jewish Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and on a single day killed over 4000 Jews in anti-Jewish riots. This was the first significant act of violence against Jews in the entire history of Islamic Iberia. Following this, many Jews left for North Africa and what is now Israel and even for Christian-held Toledo which had remained a Jewish center of learning. This worsened the situation of the Jews who remained who were then seen as disloyal. Still, the majority of Jews stayed in the Emirate of Granada, the last remaining Muslim nation in Iberia until its surrender in early 1492.
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| Isaac Abrabanel |
The whole purpose of the Reconquista was to make all of Spain Catholic. This meant that toleration of non-Catholics would undermine the whole justification for their rule. The difficulty was that the educated elite and business leaders of the newly conquered lands were largely Jewish as the Muslim intellectual and economic leaders simply fled to other Muslim nations. As the Christian armies grew more successful in the Reconquista, the Jews there were given a choice of conversion or death. While some chose death, tens of thousands of Jews converted but the Church leaders were (justly) suspicious that such forced conversions were insincere. Additionally, the Christian rulers resented the economic power of the converted Jews prevented the new conquerors from taking the profits of the countries they had conquered.
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| The Inquisition began in 1480 using torture to uncover "secret" Jews among converts |
Faced with the difficulty of rooting out "secret" Jews, Isabella and Ferdiand simply found it expedient to expel all Jews from the newly conquered Granada as well as any Jews remaining in Castile and Aragon. The penalty was death without trial, meaning that many new converts also chose to leave. Depending on whose estimates are used, the figures of how many Jews left the country by Tisha B'Av 1492 vary greatly ranging from a minimum of 130,000 to a maximum of 800,000. The descendants of the Iberian Jews expelled from Spain today make up the Sephardic Jewish community (Sephardi or סְפָרַדִּ) means Spanish in Hebrew.
The Alhambra Decree was formally revoked only following the Second Vatican Council in December 1968.
1914 CE Declaration of World War I
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| Essex Farm Cemetery, Ypres (Ieper), Belgium Burial site of "In Flanders Fields" poet John McRae. In the three battles fought at Ypres, 1/2 million soldiers were killed or wounded |
World War I was also one of the first times in which European Jews were seen as full citizens of most of the the countries in which they lived. As a result, Jews fought in great numbers on both sides of the conflict. In all, approximately 100,000 Jews died fighting in World War I. As a side note, John McRae's famously moving poem "In Flanders Fields" opens:
In Flanders fields the poppies blowIronically, World War I was the first time that large numbers of British and Commonwealth graves officially included Jewish markings on the gravestones.
Between the crosses, row on row,
1942 CE The Nazi Extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Opening of the Treblinka Extermination Camp
In the middle of World War II, the Nazis selected the eve of Tisha B'Av -- July 23, 1942 -- to begin sending Jews to Treblinka, the first extermination camp, Treblinka served as a sort of pilot program for later camps, so this represents the beginning of the worst disaster in all of Jewish history.
This was the same date that the extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began. There is some evidence to suggest that the selection of the date was deliberately set for Tisha B'Av.
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| Warsaw Ghetto surrender, 1942 |
This was the same date that the extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began. There is some evidence to suggest that the selection of the date was deliberately set for Tisha B'Av.
1994 CE The Bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center
On July 18 -- Tisha B'Av -- of 1994, terrorists blew up the Jewish Community Center or Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina killing 85 Jews and injuring over 300 others. This was the largest terrorist attack in Argentine history and remains a major political issue in its handling to this day.
Argentina is significant in having the largest Jewish community in Latin America. In fact,Argentina has the 6th largest Jewish population worldwide and with 230,000 of those living in the capital, Buenos Aires is the 15th largest Jewish city in the world.
The initial investigation was poorly handled, which remains a major issue currently in Argentine politics. In 2005, then President Nestor Kirchner called the handling of the bombing "a national disgrace" and in 2006 Argentina formally indicated the complicity of Iran and Hezbollah in the bombing.
In her November 2010 speech to the UN General Assembly, then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner publicly attacked Iran for its role in the bombing. In March 2012, former President Carlos Menem was formally required to go to trial for possible cover-ups of those complicit in the bombing.
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| AMIA bombing, Buenos Aires |
Argentina is significant in having the largest Jewish community in Latin America. In fact,Argentina has the 6th largest Jewish population worldwide and with 230,000 of those living in the capital, Buenos Aires is the 15th largest Jewish city in the world.
The initial investigation was poorly handled, which remains a major issue currently in Argentine politics. In 2005, then President Nestor Kirchner called the handling of the bombing "a national disgrace" and in 2006 Argentina formally indicated the complicity of Iran and Hezbollah in the bombing.
In her November 2010 speech to the UN General Assembly, then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner publicly attacked Iran for its role in the bombing. In March 2012, former President Carlos Menem was formally required to go to trial for possible cover-ups of those complicit in the bombing.
Tisha B’Av Among Reconstructionist and Reform Jews
It should be noted that not all Jews observe Tisha B’Av as a day of mourning. Reconstructionist Jews have transformed the observance of Tisha B’Av to a Memorial Day. Among most Reform and some Conservative Jews, Tisha B’Av should not be celebrated on religious grounds. These Jews believe that, following the creation of the state of Israel, the mourning for Tisha B’Av is inappropriate. While such views should be recognized, it is important to realize that all Orthodox, most Conservative, and some Reform Jews, do not agree with this practice. For them, this is a solemn fast day of mourning.
Reconstructionist Jewish Views of Tisha B’Av
Reconstructionist Jews observe Tisha B’Av as a Memorial Day rather than as a day of mourning. This is explained by Reconstructionist Rabbi Lewis Eron explains:
Our people have returned to our ancient homeland and rebuilt our towns and cities. We are no longer powerless. Our world has changed and our needs have changed. To speak to us today, Tisha b'Av can not longer be the day on which we remember all the evil that has happened to us. It needs to become the day on which we understand that despite our setbacks, our struggles, our real loses and deep suffering, we, the Jewish people, have overcome the obstacles fate has set before us. Our existence today is a triumph of our people's spirit.
Rabbi Eron's comments may not represent that of all Reconstructionist Jews, but can be seen as representative having appeared on the main website of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College of the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement.
Reform Jewish Views of Tisha B’Av
Many Reform Jews reject the concept of mourning the destruction of the Temple on philosophical grounds. As Rabbi Daniel Syme explains:
Tishah B'Av by attending services and reading from Lamentations, Jeremiah and Job.To the early Reform Jews, mourning the destruction of the Temple in such elaborate fashion did not seem meaningful, especially since Reform Judaism did not idealize the rebuilding of the Temple. In recent times, Tishah B'Av observance has become a day to reflect on the moments of suffering in our heritage and those moments of suffering still occurring in our contemporary world. Today, many Reform Jews observe
Rabbi Syme's comments may not represent that of all Reform Jews, but can be seen as representative having appeared in the main Internet publication of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Concluding Comments
This overview is meant only to be informational. This in no way intends to put forth that one view of the observance (or non-observance) of Tisha B’Av is better than another.
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Also, despite the sobering nature of this description, I still hope you find this worthwhile.
Want to Learn More?
Aish.com, “What Happened on the Ninth of Av?” http://www.aish.com/h/
Arutz Sheva, “Tisha B'Av: Mourning Destruction but Hoping for Redemption,” http://www.
Rabbi Lewis Eron (July 29, 2009), Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, “Tisha B'Av recalls the miracle of spiritual survival,” Jewish Community Voice, http://jrf.org/showdt&
Judaism 101, “Tisha B’Av,” http://www.jewfaq.org/
Caryn Meltz, About.com: Judaism, “Tisha B’Av – A Taboo Day,” , http://judaism.about.
My Jewish Learning, “Tisha B’Av: Communal Mourning,” http://www.
Ohr Somaych, “Av, The Month of Tragedies,” http://ohr.edu/
Orthodox Union, “Tisha B’Av,” http://www.ou.org/
Rabbi Daniel Syme (July 5, 2013), “Tisha B’Av: A Day of Reflection," ReformJudaism.org, https://reformjudaism.org/blog/tishah-bav-day-reflection
"Vital Statistics: Metropolitan Areas With The Largest Jewish Population Worldwide 2021)," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/largest-jewish-populated-metropolitan-areas-worldwide
"What Is Tisha B'Av?" (2022), Chabad.org, https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144575/jewish/What-Is-Tisha-BAv.htm
Clip Art Sources
Opening clip art image: Ohr.edu: http://ohr.edu/special/9av/
Destruction of the Temple: http://www.nyissues.
Sacking of the Second Temple in Jerusalem on the Arch of Titus, Rome: My own personal photo
The Kotel, Jerusalem: My own personal photo.
Bar Kokhba on the Knesset Menorah: http://upload.
Philip II Augustus expelling the Jews from France from the Grandes Chroniques de France (1321): http://upload.
Louis XIV of France (1701) by Hyacinthe Rigaud, The Louvre, Paris, http://en.wikipedia.
Edward I, Portrait from Westminster Abbey: http://en.wikipedia.
Alhambra Edict: http://upload.
Muslim holdings (in green) in Iberia ca. 1000: http://orias.berkeley.
Maimonides: http://www.
Isaac Abrabanel: http://
Inquisition torturers and victim: http://static.ddmcdn.
Essex Farm Cemetery, Ypres/Ieper: My own personal photograph.
The Warsaw Ghetto surrender photograph is one of the most famous from World War II. It was taken by SS officer Jürgen Stroop who included it in his official report to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
AMIA bombing, Buenos Aires: http://www.tbam.org/
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