ABSTRACT
The second half of the Middle Ages, extending from about 1000 through circa 1500, constitutes a major period in the development of anti-Jewish imagery and actions, but there has been only limited recognition of the innovativeness of this period in this regard. Identifying the innovations of this period is critically important for understanding the overall history of antisemitism and especially modern antisemitism. By the year 1000, the Western world had become overwhelmingly committed to monotheism, in its Christian and Muslim forms. During the first half of the Middle Ages, Jewish life in both western and eastern Christendom was likewise relatively quiescent. In both Roman Catholic Europe and the Byzantine Empire, Jews were a small but ancient and well-established minority element in society. Medieval western Christendom created a set of anti-Jewish images that did incalculable damage to immediate and subsequent Jewish life.
