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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

22 Friday, November 11, 1918

Medieval English Masada Marked

HARVEY
BLOOM

By MAURICE
SAMUELSON

LONDON (JTA) — The
most notorious massacre of
Jews in medieval England
was commemorated Oct. 31
in York at a service at-
tended by the Archbishop of
York and the British Chief
Rabbi.
A commemorative plaque
was unveiled at Clifford's
Tower, where in 1190 about
150 Jews committed mass
suicide rather than be
caught by a mob, which had
already murdered several
Jews in their houses.
The service was arranged
by the Jewish Historical
Society of England to honor
the memory of the victims
and to strengthen Jewish-
Christian reconciliation at
a time of renewed anti-
Semitism.
The incident at York was
the climax of a wave of
anti-Jewish outbreaks
which swept England at the
beginning of the Third
Crusade, led by Richard the
Lion Hearted, King of Eng-
land. The York pogrom
began with the murder of a
Jewish family; the rest of
the community then took
refuge in the Royal Castle.
On suspecting that the
Castle governor was pre-
paring to hand them over
to the mob, the Jews re-
fused to admit him and he
called in the local
sheriff's troops to force
an entry for him. The
Jews resisted, but seeing
the position was hbpe-
less, their leaders, Josce
of York and Rabbi Yom-
tob de Joigny, said they
should kill one another
rather than surrender.
All but a handful took
part in the mass suicide.
The others surrendered
after agreeing to embrace
Christianity, but were
themselves killed on leav-
ing the castle. Although the
community was revived a

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few years later, it never re-
gained its former pre-
eminence.
News of the massacre
shocked Jews throughout
Europe, evoking a number
of elegies. One, by Rabbi --
Joseph of Chartres, con-
tains the lines: "In place of
their herds they offered up
their children, and they
slaughtered their first
strength before their eyes."
The death of Yomtob de
Joigny was especially tragic
as he himself, 20 years ear-

Tier, had composed an elegy
about Jews massacred in
Blois, France. He had been
brought over to England
from France to join other
leading scholars at York,
where there was an impor-
tant Jewish academy.
He was the author of
"Omnam Ken," one of the
poems in the Ashkenazi
eve of atonement prayer
book.
According to the famous
historian, the late Dr. Cecil
Roth, rabbinical scholar-

ship in England had pre-
voiusly been developing to a
marked extent. But the
massacre in York on March
16, 1190, was a blow from
which English Jewry never
wholly recovered.
Exactly a century later,
in 1290, the Jews were ex-
pelled from England where
their position had become
untenable. It was not until
1656, three-and-a-half cen-,
turies later, that Cromwe
re-admitted them, tlus
ginning the present Jewis
community.

Presidents, Prizes and Authors

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)

Everyone seems to be
running these days. It is
said that more than 20 mill-
ion people are now jogging.
Not so many are running
for President, but it is still a
good way off until 1980. As
any American can be Presi-
dent, there are some 200
million potential candi-
dates. The only American
who positively declined the
job was General Sherman.
He said, "If nominated, I
will not accept, if elected, I
will not serve."
Then there is the case of
Henry Clay who said he
would rather be right than
President, but he sure tried
a lot to be President.
A leading Jewish publica-
tion seems to be strongly
backing Patrick Moynihan
for the Democratic nomina-
tion in 1980. He is undoub-
tedly a man of considerable
abilities; he has been pro-
Israel and he is Irish. Jews
seem to like Irish candi-
dates. They took a leading
part in the unsuccessful
race of Al Smith and also
were very active in behalf of
John F. Kennedy.
• You never hear of a
Jew being mentioned for
the presidential office.
Some years back Ber-
nard Baruch was spoken
of and Louis D. Brandeis
, was sometimes men-
tioned for the office, but
no more; yet never before
were there so many Jews
in a Presidential Cabinet.
The Secretary of Defense
and the Secretary of the
Treasury both are of
Jewish origin.
Some of the Israelis might
make a good showing if they
could run. Golda Meir, I
think, could gather quite a
flow of votes, if she could
run from her old home in
Milwaukee, where she lived
before she went to Israel.
Menahem Begin and Moshe
Dayan also, I think, have
that quality which draws
votes, but they would qual-
ify here only if Israel were
annexed to the United
States as the 51st state.
Well, if we haven't much
chance for the Presidency,
we are in much better luck
in winning Nobel Prizes.
Last year several of the
Nobel Prizes, in science, in
economics and in literature
went to Jews and this year,
the Yiddish novelist, Singer
has won the literature prize.
Will a Jew win the prize
in literature next year and
if so, who? Perhaps Charles

Angoff. Like Singer, he is
the author of many highly
praised stories of Jewish
life. Angoff first came into
prominence some 30 years,
ago as the right hand of the
fainous H.L. Mencken who
dominated the American
literary scene at the time.
Another man to watch
is Amos Oz of Israel. His
stories have been trans-
lated to 17 languages. He
lives on a kibutz near
Jerusalem and teaches
literature. The highbrow
weekly, The New Repub-
lic, recently published an
interview with him in
which he discussed
among other things his
working habits and that
_of other writers. Accord-
ing to him, Thomas Mann
did all his writing before
breakfast; he hated to sit
down to write but his wife
wouldn't give him break-
fast until he completed a
certain number of pages.
The Israeli writer Shmuel
Agnon did all of his writing
standing up and the Hebrew
writer Joseph Brenner
wrote lying on the floor.
Mark Twain did his writing
in bed.
Oz says his method is
more like sculpture. He gets
out a big bulk — writes
some 2,000 pages, working

4114

almost continuously. Then
he slows down as he starts to
chisel the manuscript.
Well, if he writes, a lot, his
name Oz is wonderously
short. With a name like that
we don't see how he can es-
cape winning the Nobel
prize.

ASV,
.

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