Information on pre-Zionist militant Judaism?

May 12, 2006 9:24 AM

Where do I look for information on Jewish violence? Does Judaism have much violence in its history? I'm specifically looking for information on pre-Zionist Jewish militance, if such existed. Were there any major battles or wars involving Jews before the twentieth century?
posted by goo to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

In all seriousness, if you want to read about violent Jews prior to the 20th Century, look no further than the Old Testament. You haven't seen many Philistines around lately, have you?
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:28 AM on May 12, 2006

Response by poster: Heh. I thought of that. I should clarify - between the old testament and the twentieth century.
posted by goo at 9:31 AM on May 12, 2006

Are you kidding me? The Jews have been around for thousands of years. They have had wars with the Greeks, the Romans and many other ruling civilizations. Some of these wars may be included in Josephus (I'm not 100% sure that it does as I have not read the whole thing but it seems like a place to start. Every library has it so check it out before you buy it). He is considered pretty reliable as a historian and he basically wrote about everything that was happening at the time (Roman Period). As Faint of Butt said, you can look in the Old Testament or the Prophets (Joshua waged war to conquer the land of Israel etc.) and find some stuff there. Hope this helps.
posted by D Wiz at 9:38 AM on May 12, 2006

Zealot
n 1: a member of an ancient Jewish sect in Judea in the first
century who fought to the death against the Romans and
who killed or persecuted Jews who collaborated with the
Romans
2: a fervent and even militant proponent of something [syn: {partisan},
{drumbeater}]


The modern English word for "crazy religious fighter" comes from crazy religious Jewish fighters. Does that answer your question?
posted by jellicle at 9:40 AM on May 12, 2006

Do a search on Masada (D WIz references Jospehus above which I believe is a major source of information). Israeli soldiers still swear an oath there that "Masada shall not fall again." It just falls into your post-old testament timeline as it happened in the first century.

Also, how about the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto against the Nazis? Another pretty good example.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 9:48 AM on May 12, 2006

The holiday of Hannukah commemorates post-Old Testament battles between religious Jews and the secularist (and eventually outright anti-Jewish) Syrian monarchy from 175-165 BC. Wikipedia has the story.
posted by Asparagirl at 10:15 AM on May 12, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks all. The question arose as I was thinking of the effects of violence on different groups of people, and realised I know zip about violence in Jewish history (before the twentieth century, which is very well documented). I'll take a look at all of the suggestions.
posted by goo at 10:44 AM on May 12, 2006

The Jews living on the island of Rhodes (off the coast of Turkey) were instrumental in fighting off the attacks of the Ottoman ruler Mehmed II in 1480. He attacked from the north, which meant the Jewish quarter/ghetto of the city took the direct hit and were the front line. Rhodes was at the time under the control of the Knights Hospitaller (a.k.a. the Knights of St. John), and the island rallied and fought off the invasion. Both Jewish men and women were officially commended for doing their part in (bloodily) fighting off the Muslim Turks.

However, about twenty years later, a new Knight was the governor of the island, and despite past good relations between the Knights and the Jews, he one day suddenly decreed that all Jews must convert to Christianity or be killed. Many Jewish children on the island were taken from their parents to be raised in Christian homes. Some of them were children and grandchildren of people who had fled the Inquisition to find safety on Rhodes, so this was especially upsetting that their supposed safe haven island was no longer safe.

So about another twenty years pass, during which time an entire generation of kids is growing up as forcible converts, and then in 1522, the Turks attacked again, and the Jewish quarter/ghetto was again on the front lines. But this time, the local Jews (most forced to live as Christians) didn't mount their impressive defense, and instead secretly collaborated with the Turks and helped them wrest control of the island from the Knights. If I'm remembering my history correctly, the Knights even caught this one guy, one of the Jewish kids who had been forced to convert, about to shoot an arrow over the ramparts with a note tied to it giving away city plans.

The Turks, under Suleiman the Magnificent, did sweep in with a huge army and take over the island, but as a recognition that they could not have done it without the local Jews' help, they instituted some unusual decrees. (Unusual, because as a conquering force, they really didn't need to be making any concessions to the locals.) All Jews would forever live in their homes on the island rent-free. They could choose to practice whatever religion they liked. they also had relative autonomy. There were some other unusual decrees and conditions too, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

Thanks to the Turks' new control over Rhodes, they were able to parlay that strategic location into a base for launching operations all around the Mediterranean and Europe, including conquering Romania and Hungary and attacking Vienna, as well as other expansion of what came to be the Ottoman Empire.

Books to check out about the story: Marc Angel's The Jews of Rhodes: The History of a Sephardic Community and Abraham (Avram) Galante's "Histoire des Juifs de Rhodes, Chio, Cos, etc".

(And the tri-religious tri-ethnic island, about 1/3 Sephardic-Jewish, 1/3 Greek-Christian, and 1/3 Turkish-Muslim, lived happily ever after--well, pretty good by the worldwide standards of the day--for the next 400 years.)
posted by Asparagirl at 10:52 AM on May 12, 2006 [4 favorites]

There are lots of references noted in answers here but be aware that history as we know it today is not the same as history as it is "recorded" in the bible or in other places. The sense of objectivity in history develops much later on. Even the "histories" Shakespeare used for his history plays are not objective (and are called Chronicles). This is not of course to deny that Masada etc did not take place but rather that numbers often given for battles etc are often questionable.
posted by Postroad at 12:28 PM on May 12, 2006

There's some a nice article here about Jewish Polish history in the 1700's. The Jews played a part in the fight for Polish independence during the partitions.
posted by ciaron at 2:55 PM on May 12, 2006

Great book on (incredibly violent) Jewish gangsters in early 20th century New York City: "Tough Jews," by Rich Cohen.
posted by enrevanche at 3:00 PM on May 12, 2006

Along those same lines, "King of the Jews" chronicles -- with a super long view -- the rise of a particular Jewish gangster, starting from his ancestory in pre-biblical times.
posted by ph00dz at 5:06 PM on May 12, 2006

I know you said pre-20th century, but I can't resist mentioning the Purple Gang. I grew up on stories of their violence and cruelty during Prohibition (and all my family's stories end with, "but, of course, we weren't part of that...).
posted by QIbHom at 11:24 AM on May 13, 2006