Jewish ghettos in Europe in the context of "European Jews"

Antisemitism, the prejudice or discrimination against Jews, has had a long history since the ancient times. While antisemitism had already been prevalent in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, its institutionalization in European Christianity after the destruction of the ancient Jewish cultural center in Jerusalem caused two millennia of segregation, expulsions, persecutions, pogroms, genocides of Jews, which culminated in the 20th-century Holocaust in Nazi German-occupied European states, where 67% of all European Jews were murdered.

Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It included efforts within the community to integrate into their societies as citizens. It occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century.

Jewish emancipation followed after the Age of Enlightenment and the concurrent Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. Various nations repealed or superseded previous discriminatory laws applied specifically against Jews where they resided. Before the emancipation, most Jews were isolated in residential areas from the rest of the society; emancipation was a major goal of European Jews of that time, who worked within their communities to achieve integration in the majority societies and broader education. Many became active politically and culturally within wider European civil society as Jews gained full citizenship. They immigrated to countries offering better social and economic opportunities, such as the United Kingdom and the Americas. Some European Jews turned to socialism, Zionism, or both.

Pope Eugene IV (Latin: Eugenius IV; Italian: Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and a nephew of Pope Gregory XII. In 1431, he was elected pope.

His tenure was marked by conflict: first with the Colonna, relatives of his predecessor Pope Martin V; and later with the Conciliar movement. In 1434, after a complaint by bishop of the Canary Islands Fernando Calvetos, Eugene IV issued the bull "Creator Omnium", rescinding any recognition of Portugal's right to conquer the islands, and rescinding any right to Christianize their native populations. Eugene also resisted slavery: he excommunicated anyone who had enslaved newly-converted Christians, such penalty to remain in place until the enslaved were restored to their liberty and possessions. Eugene initially sought to protect the Jews, and was quite active against a rampant societal anti-semitism—he issued decrees protecting their rights, opposing forced baptisms, and permitting wider economic activity. In 1442, however, he promulgated the bull Dudum ad nostram audientiam, which was later used as the legal basis for the creation of Jewish ghettos in Europe. In 1443, Eugene decided to take a neutral position on territorial disputes between Castile and Portugal and regarding rights claimed along the coast of Africa.

Jewish disabilities were legal restrictions, limitations and obligations placed on European Jews in the Middle Ages. In Europe, the disabilities imposed on Jews included provisions requiring Jews to wear specific and identifying clothing such as the Jewish hat and the yellow badge, paying special taxes, swearing special oaths, living in certain neighbourhoods, and forbidding Jews to enter certain trades. In Sweden, for example, Jews were forbidden to sell new pieces of clothing. Disabilities also included special taxes levied on Jews, exclusion from public life, restraints on the performance of religious ceremonies, and linguistic censorship. Some countries went even further and outright expelled Jews, for example England in 1290 (Jews were readmitted in 1655) and Spain in 1492 (readmitted in 1868).

The disabilities began to be lifted with Jewish emancipation in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In 1791, Revolutionary France was the first country to abolish disabilities altogether, followed by Hungary in 1840 and Prussia in 1848. Hungary enacted the full emancipation on 29 July 1849. Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom was achieved in 1858 after an almost 30-year struggle championed by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid with the ability of Jews to sit in parliament with the passing of the Jews Relief Act 1858. The newly united German Empire abolished Jewish disabilities in Germany in 1871.The first Jewish settlers in North America arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1654. They were forbidden to hold public office, open a retail shop, or establish a synagogue. When the colony was seized by the British in 1664 Jewish rights remained unchanged, but by 1671 Asser Levy was the first Jew to serve on a jury in North America.

The first laws to emancipate Jews in France were enacted during the French Revolution, establishing French Jews as citizens equal to other Frenchmen. In countries that Napoleon Bonaparte's ensuing Consulate and French Empire conquered during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon emancipated the Jews and introduced other ideas of liberty. Napoleon overrode old laws restricting Jews to ghettos and forcing them to wear badges identifying them as Jewish. In Malta, Napoleon ended the enslavement of Jews and permitted the construction of synagogues. He also lifted laws across Europe that limited Jews' rights to property, worship, and certain occupations. In anticipation of a victory in the Holy Land that failed to come about, he wrote a proclamation published in April 1799 for a Jewish homeland there.

In an effort to promote Jewish integration into French society, however, Napoleon also implemented several policies that eroded Jewish separateness. He restricted the practice of Jews lending money in the 1806 Decree on Jews and Usury, restricted the regions to which Jews were allowed to migrate, and required Jews to adopt formal names. He also implemented a series of consistories, which served as an effective channel utilised by the French government to regulate Jewish religious life.

In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter (also known as jewry, juiverie, Judengasse, Jewynstreet, Jewtown, Judería or proto-ghetto) is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were often the outgrowths of segregated ghettos instituted by the surrounding Christian or Muslim authorities. A Yiddish term for a Jewish quarter or neighborhood is "Di yiddishe gas" (Yiddish: די ייִדישע גאַס ), or "The Jewish quarter." While in Ladino, they are known as maalé yahudí, meaning "The Jewish quarter".

Many European and Near Eastern cities once had a historical Jewish quarter and some still have it. The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BC. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.

The Frankfurter Judengasse (lit. "Jews' Lane") was the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt and one of the earliest ghettos in Germany. It existed from 1462 until 1811 and was home to Germany's largest Jewish community in early modern times.

At the end of the 19th century, most of the buildings in the Judengasse were demolished. The area suffered major destruction during World War II and reconstruction left no visible signs of the ghetto in today's townscape of Frankfurt.

The papal bull Dudum ad nostram audientiam was promulgated by Eugene IV on August 8, 1442. It advocated the complete social separation of Jews and Christians and created a legal basis for the creation of Jewish ghettos in Europe. The later papal bull Cum nimis absurdum built on Dudum ad nostram audientiam to create the Jewish ghetto of Rome in the Papal States.