The Jewish diet

Some comments by Mundill on the diet of Anglo-Jews in 13th century England, as opposed to Jews in France. Ten glasses of beer a day!

"In France, meat was commonly eaten in the form of a pastide; whilst in England, the annual gift from Richard Foliot to Hagin of Lincoln (found in the Lincoln areha) of a beast of the chase and other references to Jews enjoying hunting must have meant that hunting and eating the spoils was within the kosher laws.

Wine was of great importance to the Jews. The Eiddush after every meal was always recited over wine. It is clear that the London Jews and in particular Rabbi Elijah Menahem imported his wine from Gascony. There were Jewish vintners in Oxford and Isaac of Colchester had his awn vineyard. It seems that in France cider and liquor made from berries and cherries was not regarded as wine and could be purchased from a Gentile.Alcohol was not forbidden and the Tosafists give as an example of the partial abstinence enjoined on the Feast of the Ninth of Ab the advice that if a Jew was accustomed to drink ten glasses of beer a day, on this day he should drink only five.

Two continental Rabbis had noted with disapproval that 'It is surprising that in the land of the Isle they are lenient in the matter of drinking strong drinks of the Gentiles and along with them'. They claimed that this could lead to intermarriage but went on to add, 'But perhaps as there would be great ill-feeling if they were to refrain from this one must not be severe upon them.' Thus, the Jews' diet set them apart from their host society."

Jewish history

Some posts on Jews in Edward I's reign. I'm not too familiar with the subject, and will mostly be quoting from the late Robin Mundill's thesis on the Jewish community in England 1272-1290 (unless stated otherwise).

Some of Mundill's (edited) thoughts on contemporary attitudes towards Jews: "Joshua Trachtenberg observed in 1943 that 'the most vivid impression to be gained from a reading of medieval allusions to the Jews is of a hatred so vast and abysmal, so intense that it leaves one gasping for comprehension. What has been correctly termed 'Jew hatred' rather than anti-semitism had many aspects. In the records of chroniclers, deep odium was reflected by constant references to Jews as 'perfidious'.

The Jew was also commonly referred to as the 'Devil's disciple' and this association had not died out by Shakespeare's day. Was not Mephistophiles the Jew's master and the destruction of Christianity his mission? News of Joseph Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew, and of strange happenings inthe East reached England in 1228 when an Armenian archbishop visited St Albans. Such news only confirmed the worst suspicions of Gentiles.

Then, as news of Mongol invasions reached the west, panic broke out and the belief that the Jewish legions were at hand was rife. Was not Antichrist to be born of Jewish parents and Armageddon ushered in by the Jews? The ritual murder allegations that first manifested themselves in medieval England are symptomatic of the vast, abysmal and intense hatred that the host majority had for the Jewish minority. As well as unpopular moneylender, the Jew was sorcerer, murderer, cannibal, poisoner, blasphemer, international conspirator and Devil's disciple."