British city of York, site of a medieval pogrom, gets its first rabbi in 800 years

(JTA) — For the primary time in 800 years, the British metropolis of York, whose Jewish inhabitants was decimated in a medieval pogrom, will likely be residence to a rabbi.

Rabbi Elisheva Salamo arrived in York from California final week after many years of pulpit work in america, Switzerland and South Africa. She is going to take a part-time pulpit on the York Liberal Jewish Group, which is affiliated with a denomination akin to the American Reform motion. The congregation was based in 2014 and now has about 100 members.

Her hiring is a milestone for York, a metropolis in northern England whose medieval Jewish group was worn out in a pogrom in March 1190, on the Shabbat earlier than Passover. In search of safety from antisemitic rioters who supposed to both forcibly convert the Jews to Christianity or kill them, York’s Jews sought refuge in a tower within the king’s fort. 

Realizing they might not make it out of the tower alive as troops amassed exterior, they selected to kill themselves quite than convert — a alternative additionally made by different European Jewish communities dealing with antisemitic armies through the Crusades. Roughly 150 individuals are estimated to have died within the York pogrom. A century later, the Jews have been expelled from England fully; they have been permitted to return solely in 1656.

“Serving to to rebuild what was as soon as one in every of England’s most vibrant Jewish communities is an honor and a privilege,” Salamo advised The Guardian.

York shouldn’t be the one British city with a historical past of medieval antisemitism the place Jewish life is being reestablished. The British city of Norwich, the place the primary identified occasion of the antisemitic blood libel came about in 1144, and which was the positioning of one other 1190 pogrom, could turn into residence to a Jewish heritage heart.

Salamo was ordained on the Reconstructionist Rabbinical School and attended Reed School and Yale College, the place she studied biology and mobile and molecular biology. In line with her web site, she can also be an skilled equestrian.

She will likely be becoming a member of a group that has been led by volunteers within the practically 10 years because it was based. Salamo’s first formal function will likely be to steer Excessive Vacation companies in September. The group hopes to fundraise as a way to rent her full time, in keeping with the Jewish Chronicle.

“With York’s distinctive historical past, it is a very important second not only for native Jews however nationally and internationally,” Ben Wealthy, co-founder of the York Liberal Jewish Group, advised the Jewish Chronicle.

He added, “I hope that the entire Jewish group and its allies throughout the globe will need to assist us on the subsequent step of this unbelievable journey to convey Judaism again to this historical and most stunning of cities.”