History of the Jews in Europe
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The history of the Jews in Europe spans a period of over two thousand years. Some Jews, a Judaean Israelite tribe from the Levant, migrated to Europe just before the rise of the Roman Empire. A notable early event in the history of the Jews in the Roman Empire was Pompey's conquest of the East beginning in 63 BCE, although Alexandrian Jews had migrated to Rome before this event.
The pre-World War II Jewish population of Europe is estimated to have been close to 9 million, or 57% of Jews worldwide. Around 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, which was followed by the emigration of much of the surviving population.
The Jewish population of Europe in 2010 was estimated to be approximately 1.4 million (0.2% of European population) or 10% of the world's Jewish population. In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
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History
The earliest recorded evidence (outside of the Mediterranean world) shows that Jews were settled in Europe in towns north of the Loire or in southern Gaul during the fifth and sixth centuries.
Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
The Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain refers to a period of history during the Muslim rule of Iberia in which Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural and economic life blossomed. This "Golden Age" is variously dated from the 8th to 12th centuries.
Al-Andalus was a key center of Jewish life during the Middle Ages, producing important scholars and one of the most stable and wealthy Jewish communities. A number of famous Jewish philosophers and scholars flourished during this time, most notably Maimonides.
Spanish Inquisition
See main article: Spanish Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabel II.
The Inquisition, as an ecclesiastical tribunal, had jurisdiction only over baptized Christians. However, since Jews (in 1492) and Muslim Moors (in 1502) had been banished from Spain, jurisdiction of the Inquisition during a large part of its history extended in practice to all royal subjects. The Inquisition worked in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts known as conversos or marranos.
World War II and the Holocaust
The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστον (holókauston): holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt"), also known as Ha-Shoah (Template:Lang-he), Churben (Template:Lang-yi), is the term generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.
