When Do We Start Learning?

How did they figure they could do this in the name of a Jewish carpenter and rabbi?

There is no rational or legitimate religious basis for hate-mongering or racism

On this day in 1096 – First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany.

It started with a rumor, misinformation, and outright deceit.

800 to 1,000 Jews were killed in all. Others died by suicide. Still others forcibly baptized

One of the victims was Minna of Worms, a Jewish businesswoman. She was an influential Jew, being a significant moneylender with clients and friends among the Christian nobility.

Among those who died were some who had been given sanctuary in Bishop Adalbert's palace. The Jews were in the midst of reciting the Hallel prayer for Rosh Chodesh Sivan when the marauders broke in to slaughter them.

Hallel consists of six Psalms (113–118), which are recited as a unit, on joyous occasions

The leader of these atrocities was Emicho, a count in the Rhineland whose hatred of Jews was notorious.

Of him, Mainz Anonymous said:

"He was our chief persecutor. He had no mercy on the elderly, on young men and young women, on infants or sucklings, nor on the ill. He made the people of the Lord like dust to be trampled. Their young men he put to the sword, and their pregnant women he ripped open."

This was one of a number of attacks against Jewish communities perpetrated during the First Crusade (1096–1099).

Hatred, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, racism, and religious nationalism continue in our time. You would think we would learn something, sometime.