The York Massacre

[Music] i'm here in york it's in the north of england it's in yorkshire it's an incredible city to be in it's got remnants from viking times from roman times from medieval times from victorian elizabethan times obviously all the way up until today it's also a place where one of the darkest most horrifying moments in anglo jewish history took place [Music] in 1190 after having run from their home country of israel to other places around the middle east then eventually going through europe they ended up in france where during the crusades and the norman invasion the jews were invited to come into england to take on a job the christian people were not allowed to have which was money lenders because christians weren't allowed to charge interest to each other [Music] a noteworthy element of york jewish history is that this road we're on used to be the market for everybody however it wasn't seen as being the right thing to have the jews doing trade amongst the rest of the people so as a result they were given their own section which is just behind me to be their marketplace and if you look on the top corner over here there's a sign that says jubbergate jobbergate simply translates in old english as jabber jew gate road behind me was jew road when the jews came over here as money lenders they actually became quite successful as a matter of fact it's suspected that a jewish member of the york community may well have been the most successful man in all of england at the time they lived in fairly discreet houses but they had an interesting difference to the rest of the york community [Music] now we're here at norman house norman house is thought to be one of the oldest known residences actually in york it's made of stone there's also a possibility that it's actually a jewish built house and the question is why could it be jewish well years ago because the jews are being persecuted from place to place to place and then they came over here as money lenders they had to keep their riches safe whether it was their riches or the money they were lending out and you can see over here there's a clear divide from one floor to the floor below the reason that was safer is because there were no real banks back then so as a result they had to keep the money that they were lending in and letting out safe there's also another sad reason that these houses are made from stone it's as follows it's simple had they been made from wood they would have burnt many times over [Music] now what happened is there was one man in particular in 1190 he had a tremendous amount of money his name was richard malbus we'll never know exactly how much he owed but what we do know is he didn't want to pay it back as the crusades were going on he took advantage of the situation on what was called shabbat haggard all in 1190 which is translated to great shabbat right before passover incited the mob he used a weapon which has been used for hundreds of years beforehand the blood libels the blood libels are simple you accuse the jewish community of using non-jewish blood often children's blood to bake the traditional unleavened bread matzah for the essential part of the passover service the jews expected this because unfortunately after hundreds of years of persecution they knew that eventually the day would come again so they planned with the mob rising against them they did something that the mob didn't know about what malvis didn't know about which is a long time beforehand they hatched an escape plan the escape plan was pretty simple get out as fast as possible run down the main road which runs all the way across york city center they had a place they were going to hide in a place they could take refuge so in the middle of the night the jews did something they had done for decades for hundreds of years beforehand they ran [Music] mob was chasing them they ran as fast as they possibly could leaving the houses in the dead of night they headed to the main road over here which leads from one side of york all the way to the other and if you look towards the end of their destination there's a hidden point a building that never used to be there right at the end as a secret behind it a secret that the jews hoped would save their lives [Music] when the jews arrived at the tower they ran up the steep hill as fast as possible malbec arrived with the mob and they were screaming for blood malbus gave the community an ultimatum he said come out and confess which simply meant convert or die we don't know how long they discussed it or if they discussed it at all but we know the most horrifying decision was made soon after which was they would rather die than they would come out and convert to a religion that was not theirs people must have watched and listen as they screamed and took each other's lives going from the children upwards until there was nobody left except a couple of people who decided that they would come out they left and unfortunately the people who said they were willing to convert didn't make it until the next day when the mob executed them it really is the darkest day in york's jewish history and unquestionably it is part of the jewish history we recall this once a year during kinos it's estimated that 150 jews were killed in that massacre the entire population of york and tragically things only got worse for the jews in britain soon after resentment grew hatred grew and to make sure that the jews could be identified the british community did something which was all too familiar to the jewish community just a few hundred years later they made every jew wear a symbol to identify that they were jewish something which became seen again when the nazis the germans made the jews do the same thing across europe before rounding them up and executing them it's unquestionably one of the darkest days in britain's jewish history and jewish history in general anti-semitism was without doubt a stain on the world and we remember it today the 150 people who were killed every time we look over we see clifford's tower after the massacre that happened in the tower there was one thing that was left over from the jewish community simple money whoever could get to that money first got to it and did whatever they could with there's another twist about what happened with it and it can be seen right in the center of york if we take a look over here [Music] there was a man called the israel levine from denmark who was living in gateshead with his wife and child his parents came to visit him and as they were going to leave he escorted them using the commandment the mitzvah of keyword aber aim honoring your mother and father and escorted them to the biggest train station nearby which was york to put them on their way to manchester airport [Music] after saying goodbye to his parents over the train station his royal levine went for a walk he walked around the york city walls to see what was left of the jewish community which was the cemetery timing was important unbeknownst to israel he got here and there's a construction site going on the construction workers were calling out there's another one there's another one and there's another one they were talking about human skulls and bones they were bringing up the remains of the jewish community the manchester hybrid khadijah the burial society and the gateshead community got involved the construction site was shut down the research was done and it turned out it was in fact the community on july 8th of 1984 the bodies were re-buried right here again it should be noted that the ancient street sign still exists and this road to this day is still called jewberry what happened on the night of july 8th is very interesting around about the same time that they reburied the bodies there was a commemorative service here at the foot of the tower it was run by the chief rabbi of england at the time rabbi lord jacobits and my grandfather diane joseph apfel the head of the leads based in the jewish courts they laid the plaque to commemorate the murdered of the night of 1190 [Music] i'm here outside york minster it's an ancient church one of the largest churches in all of europe it's also important to the story the night that they murdered all the jews in clifford's tower richard malbus the one who organized the mob he took the ledgers of the money he owed as well as other people who owed money to the jews they brought them to the minister and to hide the crime that they committed they burnt the ledgers another interesting fact about the minster on july 8th 1984 the day they re-varied the bodies of the jewish community a lightning strike came out and struck the minster almost destroying it it could be divine providence it could be happenstance all i know is it sends a shiver down your spine there's a famous saying in the jewish world today after the holocaust which is never forget you can use what's terrible that's happened to you to say it's a lesson and we can make sure that the world doesn't do it again one of the things that should be pointed out is still here in york there's a church right behind me only a stone's throw away from the york minster right above the entrance to the door there's a plaque an engraving and it goes as follows on the left side is the jewish side and on the right side is the christian side on the left on the top we can see the jewish side the man has his eyes blindfolded as in he's blind to the truth his staff is broken meaning he has no right to leadership and the ten commandments are turned upside down to simply point out that the commandments were given to the jews and they could not understand them on the top on the right side you can see the christian side with the staff long strong and unbroken the goblet and the crown of leadership to show that they were given the truth and therefore they could lead on the bottom left is the jewish people living their lives of sin and therefore being cast out of heaven and on the bottom right there is the christian person being let in eagerly by the angel regarding never forget an unfortunate truth exists about this engraving the massacre at york happened in 1190 this church and this engraving was only put here a couple hundred years ago there's a very famous line in shakespeare's a merchant of venice there's a a jewish man who lends money and he's seen as the villain of the entire play and one point when he's being insulted he simply turns around and says prick us do we not bleed his point was simple jewish blood is just as red as everybody else's blood and everybody else's blood is just as red as the jews anti-semitism has been a horrible reality of jewish history and it's gone on from country to country continent to continent we still experience it today in the rise of anti-semitism across britain across america and across europe at large one of the most important things we have from anti-semitism is in theory we're supposed to learn from it and learn never to do it again to anybody else [Music] you