The question of the week: were the Crusades really that “bad?”
Yes, they were. The fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land was horrific, but the “warmup show” was even worse. The Crusaders marched through Europe and destroyed numerous Jewish communities. Those bloody years added several items to the ever-expanding repertoire of Jewish customs: yahrzeit (the anniversary of a death) and yizkor (memorial prayers that are said at festival services). So, let’s just say that Jews don’t need much convincing that the Crusades were, as we say, “bad for the Jews.”
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