Jewish migrations in medieval Europe and Jewish culture

The existence of Jewish race that has the first one-God belief in history was seen in Lands of Canaan (Kenan Lands) in the first half of 2000 B.C. The Jewish belief that shows great differences compared to the other religions in this region was exposed to compulsion and exile after Christianity had become an official religion of the Eastern Roman Empire. The destruction of Second Temple by the Eastern Roman Empire was a turning point in Jewish history, and the Jewis community spreaded through different parts of the world. Although the existence of Jews in Europe was claimed to date from 900 B.C., the first certain and acceptable information have been seen on gravestones that belonged to the third century. Various changes in socio-economic structures occured with the acceptance of Christianity as an official religion in the Medieval European states. Jewish society that was active in trade both provided interaction and contributed to Medieval European states' wealth with the taxes they had paid. Furthermore, many Jewish people gained important status in state management. This increased the hatred among Christian society against Jews. Christian society never tolerated the majority of Jews' superiority in social status. When the Jews having been sacked from many jobs and forced to pay high taxes they experienced an economic collapse. This would lead jewish community to an exile. Infact, influence of the church was so important. The church that gained the power in economy regarded the Jewish community as a rival and wanted to prevent it. For this reason they sent Jews to live in exile as identifying the reason as religion. However, the main reason wasn't religion but economy. The main reason of Jewish race that resisted to exile and compulsion in the past and have managed to endure its existence up to now was based on their consciousness of being a nation, their unique social cooperative life style and also protections of their cultural values. Yasemin Güner