lewish History 9 Volume 13, No. 2 ~ Fall 1999 The Impact of the Crusades the Jewish-Christian Debate on Daniel J. Lasker It is well known that Jewish life in western Europe declined greatly in the Middle Ages, as relative tolerance for Jews and Judaism deteriorated into persecution, massacres, forced conversions, and eventual expulsions. Historical events, of course, do not occur in a vacuum, and, therefore, attempts have been made to explain this change for the worse in the Jewish status in Europe. Some historians have looked for a watershed event in the relations between Jews and Christians, while others have talked about gradual changes. It would seem that the Crusades could fit both explanations. The First Crusade was the occasion of the initial widespread massacres of Jews in western Europe and could be seen as a sharp break with the past. Alternately, the Crusading period lasted long enough to fit a theory of incremental transformation as well, if one wanted to see it as the context of the worsening Jewish status. A typical view of the impact of the Crusades on Jewish life is that of Salo W. Baron, who began his discussion of the "Age of Crusades" in the following manner: In many ways 1096 marked a turning point in Jewish history. The trail of blood and smoldering ruins left behind in the Jewish communities from France to Palestine, by the crusading mobs even more than by the regular armies, for the first time brought home to the Jewish people, its foes and friends, the utter instability of the Jewish position in the Western world... Alienage and insecurity, theretofore mainly theoretical concepts which affected the lives of individual Jews to but a limited extent, now became the overpowering concerns of all thinking persons on both sides) Not all historians, however, have agreed that the Crusades had a decisive impact on Jewish status in Europe. Alternate scenarios see the worsening Christian