York - the original York - unlike New York, only has one rabbi

[yankeedoodle]

British city of York, site of a medieval pogrom, gets its first rabbi in 800 years     
https://www.jta.org/2023/08/07/global/british-city-of-york-site-of-a-medieval-pogrom-gets-its-first-rabbi-in-800-years

For the first time in 800 years, the British city of York, whose Jewish population was decimated in a medieval pogrom, will be home to a rabbi.

Rabbi Elisheva Salamo arrived in York from California last week after decades of pulpit work in the United States, Switzerland and South Africa. She will take a part-time pulpit at the York Liberal Jewish Community, which is affiliated with a denomination akin to the American Reform movement. The congregation was founded in 2014 and now has about 100 members.

Her hiring is a milestone for York, a city in northern England whose medieval Jewish community was wiped out in a pogrom in March 1190, on the Shabbat before Passover. Seeking protection from antisemitic rioters who intended to either forcibly convert the Jews to Christianity or kill them, York's Jews sought refuge in a tower in the king's castle.

Realizing they would not make it out of the tower alive as troops amassed outside, they chose to kill themselves rather than convert — a choice also made by other European Jewish communities facing antisemitic armies during the Crusades. Approximately 150 people are estimated to have died in the York pogrom. A century later, the Jews were expelled from England entirely; they were permitted to return only in 1656.

"Helping to rebuild what was once one of England's most vibrant Jewish communities is an honor and a privilege," Salamo told The Guardian.

York is not the only British town with a history of medieval antisemitism where Jewish life is being reestablished. The British town of Norwich, where the first known instance of the antisemitic blood libel took place in 1144, and which was the site of another 1190 pogrom, may become home to a Jewish heritage center.

Salamo was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and attended Reed College and Yale University, where she studied biology and cellular and molecular biology. According to her website, she is also an experienced equestrian.

She will be joining a community that has been led by volunteers in the nearly 10 years since it was founded. Salamo's first formal role will be to lead High Holiday services in September. The community hopes to fundraise in order to hire her full time, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

"With York's unique history, this is a very significant moment not just for local Jews but nationally and internationally," Ben Rich, co-founder of the York Liberal Jewish Community, told the Jewish Chronicle.

He added, "I hope that the whole Jewish community and its allies across the globe will want to help us on the next step of this incredible journey to bring Judaism back to this ancient and most beautiful of cities."

[yankeedoodle]

How amazing.  York gets its first rabbi in 800 years, and suddenly they discover that the jews have been so so important to York for 800 years.   

'Inspiring' new evidence shows how Jews thrived in York after antisemitic 1190 massacre
A trove of documents reveals how the city's Jewish residents lived and worked alongside their Christian neighbours, mostly harmoniously, in the early 1200s
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/inspiring-new-evidence-shows-how-jews-thrived-in-york-after-antisemitic-1190-massacre-6ZOpQpbyP6SMdxiwmjgcgV

A thriving Jewish community began to flourish in York less than 20 years after one of the worst antisemitic massacres of the Middle Ages took place in the city, it has emerged.

Researchers at the University of York have uncovered an "inspiring" trove of documents that suggest the city's Jewish residents lived and worked alongside their Christian neighbours in the early 1200s, mostly in harmony, and were among the most important figures in England at the time.

The tranche of information "dispels myths and challenges preconceptions" of what life was like for Jews in the years following the pogrom of 1190, when the city's entire Jewish community was besieged inside Clifford's Tower at York Castle by an antisemitic mob.

The tower was burned down by locals after fabricated stories, which came to be known as the blood libel, spread that Jews were guilty of murdering Christian children and using their blood to perform religious rituals. An estimated 150 York Jews were murdered or took their own lives rather than renounce their faith.

Now, archival evidence suggests that after the massacre, not only did some Jews return to York but the community experienced growth and prosperity too.

Using documents from the Durham Cathedral Archives, academics have created digital reconstructions of the houses where the York's most prominent Jewish citizens lived and have pinpointed the location of the the city's first synagogue.

They have also traced how leading figures from the Jewish community cooperated with the senior clergy of York Minster in purchasing the large stone building which became the city's Guildhall.

The research, part of the university's StreetLife project, is available online, where the public can view digital reconstructions of the houses where key Jewish figures lived in 1210. 

They include Leo Episcopus, his son-in-law Aaron of York and Aaron's nephew Josce le Jovene. Leo and Aaron were representatives of the Jewish community of England, and in the 1230s and 1240s the latter was thought to be the richest man in the country. Today, high-street shops including Boots, Waterstones and Next are located at the sites of these men's homes.

It is likely that Aaron co-operated with the senior clergy of York Minster on a range of civic projects, including the construction of the Five Sisters window - previously known as the Jewish Window - in the Minster itself in exchange for land extending York's Jewish cemetery.

York Synagogue warden Howard Duckworth said: "The amount of new information that has been uncovered by the team is truly inspiring...We have discovered a totally new history of Jews in York, which for many years has been overshadowed by the massacre at Clifford's Tower."

He added that walking through the city now, people were able to see York "with totally different eyes".

York recently welcomed its first resident rabbi since the expulsion of the Jews from England under King Edward I in 1290.

Rabbi Dr Elisheva Salamo, has been appointed to serve the York Liberal Jewish Community, with her first formal engagement being the community's Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in September.