Clifford's Tower in York
Degrading and disparaging reactions followed an article printed in England telling the tragic story of the Jews of York HY"D, who were slaughtered over 800 years ago. Authored by Arthur McQuin who specializes in chapters of English history, it told of 150 Jews who were murdered in the Clifford Tower of York. Instead of expressing identification and empathy, many of the critics reacted with smirks and non-complimentary remarks.
The event of the York massacre is one of the darkest episodes in the annals of British Jewry of medieval times. The event, which took place in the Clifford tower in the city of York, left a deep mark on Jewish history of England and is said to be the worst act of anti-Semitic violence of that period.
Rabbi Yosef of Carters authored a dirge, kinah, which begins, "Elokim, masters aside from You, have enslaved us."
The Jewish community was renewed several years after the pogrom but dwindled to an end a hundred years later, in 1290, together with the expulsion of Jews from England, a community which was intact until the 1700's. From the time of the massacre, English Jews have committed themselves never to spend a night in York, and this practice is mentioned in many different halachic works.
One example is the halachic question asked of HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein: "There is a city in England known as York which has an ancient ban upon it that no Jew is permitted to lodge there overnight because its inhabitants murdered Jews including some of the Baalei haTosofos. I have heard that the Gateshead Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Leib Gurwitz, asked his talmidim that if they were together with him while traveling aboard a train passing through York, they should wake him up so that he would not transgress that ban. In 1978, a sign commemorating that event was posted on the Clifford Tower.
The disconcerting phenomenon of the derogatory remarks about that tragic historic event testifies to the ongoing existence of those prejudicial notions even in this digital modern world. Instead of relating seriously to a historic event and garner important lessons from it, many of the readers reacted in the most unacceptable manner, expressing disparagement of human suffering.
Experts in modern anti-Semitism point out that such reactions are not isolated, incidental expressions but part of a trend of rising hatred towards Jews aired in the public media.
