mean that their position was very secure; usually it was not, but depended on the protectìon of kings, noblemen, the clergy, etc. There were no Jewish armies in the Middle Ages, and if the Jews were the usual target of popular fury, it may have been because they were the weakest and most unprotected sector of these privileged strata; and after the Crusades, perhaps the only one of these sectors which was in everyday contact with the peasants and urban poor. According to Abram Leon's theory, the decadence of western Euro- pean Jewries (except for the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communi- ties) was in a very advanced stage just before the French Revolutìon; therefore the Jews whom enlightened gentlemen like Voltaire came across were mainly archaic remnants of a long-gone medieval world. However, the enlighteners also shared some prejudices which belong to the'European Christian tradition, even if they themselves were fierce anti-clericalicists.7 These prejudices form the 'money-grabbing, parasitic,. obscurantist' stereotype, which was reinforced by their occasional acquaintances with such real Jews. This myth about the 'wandering evil Jew' is nothing more than one of the ideological elements common to most political movements in agrarian societies, consisting in 'idealising the native peasant so as to oppose him as a prototype to the corrupt urban dweller and to the foreigner, especially to the Jew'. 8 These myths originated in the anta- gonism felt by agrarian societies towards any occupation (merchants, bureaucrats, skilled artisans) which was not directly related to agrículture. Such antagonism has always been expressed through moral condemnations. It is by no means a recent phenomenon, and can be 103
mean that their position was very secure; usually it was not, but depended on the protectìon of kings, noblemen, the clergy, etc. There were no Jewish armies in the Middle Ages, and if the Jews were the usual target of popular fury, it may have been because they were the weakest and most unprotected sector of these privileged strata; and after the Crusades, perhaps the only one of these sectors which was in everyday contact with the peasants and urban poor. According to Abram Leon's theory, the decadence of western Euro- pean Jewries (except for the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communi- ties) was in a very advanced stage just before the French Revolutìon; therefore the Jews whom enlightened gentlemen like Voltaire came across were mainly archaic remnants of a long-gone medieval world. However, the enlighteners also shared some prejudices which belong to the'European Christian tradition, even if they themselves were fierce anti-clericalicists.7 These prejudices form the 'money-grabbing, parasitic,. obscurantist' stereotype, which was reinforced by their occasional acquaintances with such real Jews. This myth about the 'wandering evil Jew' is nothing more than one of the ideological elements common to most political movements in agrarian societies, consisting in 'idealising the native peasant so as to oppose him as a prototype to the corrupt urban dweller and to the foreigner, especially to the Jew'. 8 These myths originated in the anta- gonism felt by agrarian societies towards any occupation (merchants, bureaucrats, skilled artisans) which was not directly related to agrículture. Such antagonism has always been expressed through moral condemnations. It is by no means a recent phenomenon, and can be 103