MOB VIOLENCE

“On the third day, in the morning, there were rumblings as the rioters began their rampage. They broke into houses taking anything they could lay their hands on.”

A report from Southport, UK, Summer 2024? Not exactly – this report is from Mainz, Germany, Spring 1096. The First Crusade was supposed to be a call for Christians to seize the Holy Land back from the Muslims. But many Jewish communities in Germany were decimated as mobs found an outlet for their aggression as they made their way down Europe. Thousands of men, women and children lost their lives in the communities of the Rhineland. Mainz, Worms, and Speyer were ravaged over the course of a few weeks.

Most of the killing of the First Crusade took place during the spring, corresponding to the Jewish months of Nissan, Iyar and Sivan. The martyrs were commemorated in volumes known as a Memorbuch (Book of Remembrance). An anonymous author composed a communal memorial prayer, Av Harachamim, to be said in association with the recital of the names in the Memorbuch. The prayer was originally said on the Sabbaths between Pesach and Shavuot, when the massacres occurred. The prayer reflects the request to avenge the blood of those who had been killed. But as the late Chief Rabbi Hertz points out in his commentary: “Vengeance was prayed for – and left to G-d.”

As the Black Plague swept across Europe during the mid-fourteenth century, annihilating nearly half the population, Jews were often taken as a scapegoat. Many were accused of having brought about the plague and were persecuted and killed. As a result, many more names were added to the martyrs’ lists and Av Harachamim was recited on other Sabbaths as well.

Two main customs arose: to recite Av Harachamim on most Sabbaths of the year, unless it was a Shabbat of heightened festivity, or to recite it on just two Sabbaths of the year: the Shabbat before Shavuot representing the culmination of the First Crusade persecutions and the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, representing the culmination of the persecutions associated with the Black Death. It is the second custom that is practiced in the United Synagogue and today, after the personal memorial prayers, Av Harachamim (NS 426) will be said.

When reading the descriptions of these persecutions, it is clear that they came about after mobs had been allowed to run riot. What started off as isolated incidents, grew in intensity as “the power of the crowd” fuelled the violence. As we have seen on the streets of this country this past week, unless violent demonstrations are quelled, they can quickly get out of control with tragic consequences. Our heartfelt condolences are extended to the families of Bebe King, Alice Aguiar, and Elsie Stancombe. May they, together with all other innocent people who lose their lives in riots, be a source of blessing for us all.