When did Jews first arrive in Europe?
Q: When did Jews first arrive in Europe?
A: Jews have lived in Europe for thousands of years, since the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.
Q: What event caused a large influx of Jewish people to Europe?
A: After the Roman-Jewish wars in the first and second centuries and the destruction of the Temple, Jews were expelled from Palestine, which greatly increased their numbers in Europe (and North Africa and Asia).
Q: How did Christian anti-Semitism affect Jews during the Middle Ages?
A: In the Middle Ages, with the spread of Christianity and Christian anti-Semitism, conditions were generally bad for Jews. They were forbidden from integrating (mingling) with Christians, working most jobs and were often secluded to particular parts of cities, called ghettos.
Q: How did Poland protect its Jewish population?
A: Poland's king declared the Statute of Kalisz to protect them. For example, Christians could not testify against Jews for committing crimes which commonly had led to unjust accusations and punishments.
Q: How did France respond to its Jewish population after the French Revolution?
A: After the French Revolution, France introduced secular laws aimed at abolishing religion in the public sphere and assimilating Jews by treating them more openly as citizens and members of society who could believe whatever they wanted privately.
Q: What was Hitler's policy towards European Jewry before World War II?
A: Before World War II began Adolf Hitler supported emigration of European Jewry to other countries such as Palestine or America but eventually adopted a policy of mass murder known as The Holocaust where all Jews under German control would be sent eastward or worked to death.
Q:What is today's Jewish population like compared to before World War II?
A:Today there are still significant communities left comparable to before WWII in France, United Kingdom , Russia however many countries lost most if not all their Jewish populations due Nazi Germany's occupation during WWII such as Poland where only 3 000 remain today out of 3 million before WWII .
