Jewish ROles in Medieval Europe Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many disputes as to when exactly the Jewish people and their roles in medieval civilization became apparent to the Christian and Islam peoples of the time. Various time periods are claimed by various different authors, however in this particular case I have utilized the historical writings of Louis Finkelstein. In one of his many books, we find that his perception of Jews in this time are from about 1000 AD to 1603AD. These dates seem to encompass the entire Middle Ages much better than some of the other speculations made by various other Jewish authors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many events were taking shape towards the end of the first century, and this is where Finkelstein finds it necessary to mark the start of the Jewish people in the so-called Dark Ages. In the year 1000, Jews were spread across the world in large and small communities from Spain and North Africa, all the way to the Byzantine Empire, which is now in modern day Turkey. Finkelstein particularly chooses this date to being with however, because of the establishing of the courts in this time period. Furthermore, this is where we now see Jews being forced to convert to Christianity or be killed. We see a great upsurge in the so-called need to reform all other religions until they are under Christianity, and Jews were the focus of much of this persecution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is not right to say that all Jewish people of this time were being persecuted...