Black Death/Digerdöden, Kristendomen vs Judendomen.

Then there is Poland. The plague went around Poland and affected Russia. There are no natural barriers that can stop the plague from spreading to Poland and later epidemics reached Poland. The king of Poland imposed rules on the borders, but if the plague was spread by rate it could not be stopped by rules: rats ignore the rules. If the plague was not spread by rats, then we have to ask how it was spread and why it did not spread to Poland. When the Black Death started in 1346 Jews had been expelled from Wales (1290), England (1290). In France Jews were expelled in 1306 and 1321 but they returned and only 1396 they were completely expelled. The expulsion affected Jews of northern and central France. Jews of Provence were expelled later, in 1430. In Germany Jews were accused of spreading the Black Death, there were local persecutions and expulsion in 1348. Expelled German Ashkenazi Jews resettled to Poland. Hungarian Jews were expelled in 1349 and they also resettled in Poland. Crimean Jews were expelled in 1350. They resettled to Lithuania. The Sephardic Jewish communities in Spain, Portugal, Provence, Sardinia and Sicily were expelled only in the end of the next century. Italian Jews were expelled in the 16th century

Jews were accused of spreading the Black Death first in Toulon, France (1348), then in Barcelona (1348), then in Erfurt, Germany (1349), Basel, Switzerland (1349), Freiburg, Aragon, Flanders and Strasbourg. The reasons for these persecutions seem to have been that Jews were less affected by the plague.

One explanation given for lower Jewish infection rate is that Jews were cleaner. They were obliged to wash hands and many washed their body weekly. The Black Death was bubonic plague and spread by fleas. Fleas are not so removed by washing hands or body weekly. The best protection at that time was from flea saunas, but plague spread even to areas where people went to saunas. The Jewish custom of washing a dead body before burial would have exposed them to fleas. These kinds of explanations are not correct. The different infection ratio of Jews and non-Jews must reflect different exposure to the bacteria. Jews and Christians had different wells. A natural conclusion at that time was that Christians got the plague from their wells. Consequently, Jews were accused of having poisoned the wells. Now we know that cholera is spread by water but plague is spread by fleas. Wells were not the source of plague. As the source of fleas was not rats, it must have been goods, like clothes, that were obtained from people, who had plague. What Jacob Frank tells in his sayings sounds very probable.


Jews of Toulon in Provence and Barcelona in Aragon would usually have been Sephardic, while in German speaking areas (Erfurt, Basel, Freiburg, Strasbourg) and in Dutch speaking Belgium (Flanders) the Jewish communities would have been Ashkenazi. The distinction between Sephardic and Ashkenazi does not seem important. What seems more relevant is that all these areas there were cabbalistic Jews. Early cabbalism has two roots: German practical cabbalism and Spanish theoretical cabbalism, meaning roughly curses and spells versus Zohar. This division is not of the type that is would separate cabbalists to two groups. There was only one group: Messianic cabbalism. Jacob Frank was a perfect representative of this group. Jews, who moved from Germany to Poland, included cabbalists. In the later centuries these German Jews expanded to the large Eastern European Ashkenazi community, and among them the cabbalistic tradition continued, and it still continues in Hasidism.

Jews in the above mentioned towns were accused of spreading the Black Death. Were they accused as believers in the established religion of Judaism, which at that time was based on the teachings in the Torah, the Prophets, the Talmud and the Tosafot, or were they accused as members of a new sect: cabbalists or zoharists, Zohar not being older than 62 years when the Black Death started. A new Messianic and occult sect is not above suspicions.

So, what is the answer to the question in the topic? King of Poland welcomed Jews when they were expelled in many countries. The Black Death omitted Poland. There may not be any connection between these two facts. As always, there is no way to prove anything in history in the same sense as what is understood as a proof in exact fields. History is a story and it is propaganda. Somebody decides that let us blame the Black Death on rats. And so it will be and questioning it is forbidden.

During the Black Death, the Kingdom of Poland was a landlocked country, largely surrounded by plague-infected areas.[4] Poland was affected by the plague. Although it lost a large number of people, in comparison to most other regions of Europe it came out relatively unscathed, only losing a quarter of its existing population compared to a much larger population decrease in the rest of Europe.[5] Though disputed, the country's lack of depopulation was largely evidenced in a 2019 study, citing the stable amount of cereal grain pollen in the region. Dr. Piotr Guzowski of the University of Bialystok noted "In the cores we have analyzed so far, no significant decreases in the share of pollen of cereals, weeds or other plants related to human activity are recorded, which means that there was no depopulation."[6]

According to the American Association for Respiratory Care, an ancient people called the Tatars, residing in the former territory of the Russian Empire employed the bubonic plague to their advantage in war. In medieval times, armies utilized enormous catapults to hurl human and animal corpses into enemy cities, spreading diseases or simply creating a distraction. The Tartar Army, at war with the city of Kaffa in the 14th century, thus catapulted dead bodies of victims of the bubonic plague in an attempt to start an outbreak in the city that they were attacking. The plague was spread by fleas called Xenopsylla cheopsis that bite the corpses then transmit the disease to humans in close proximity.

Though the image of projecting corpses over high city walls seems largely morbid, it signifies an early ability of military minds to use biology to gain an advantage in war. These tactics were significant because they also provided the ability to generate mass sicknesses among a population. This subsequently led to a great advantage in war because unhealthy people are not nearly as capable in warfare as their healthy opponents. This Tartar tactic was successful not only in its ability to sicken residents of the city, but also in its ability to wreak havoc on the city as whole.

Kazimierz was founded in the 14th century by king Casimir III (hence the name) and was, until 1795, an independent city. Jews in Poland were granted freedoms they did not enjoy in other kingdoms as early as the 13th century, and also found a safe haven from the antisemitic violence that spread throughout Europe in the wake of the Black Plague in the 14th century.