From the written works of Dr. David Neiman (1921-2004): The Disputation in Barcelona - 1263

In 1263 the famous "Disputation at Barcelona" took place. The instigator of this public debate was a renegade Jew who adopted the name of Pablo Christiani, in imitation of Saul of Tarsus, who, upon his conversion, became the first Christian and formulator of many of its principles. Saul changed his name to Paul when he became Christian and this Spaniard of the 13th century took the same name, calling himself Pablo Christiani, "Paul the Christian." He instigated the idea of staging a public debate and insisted that the Jews be represented by Rabbi Mosheh ben-Nachman, the leading religious and intellectual authority of the Jewish communities of Christian Spain. The disputation took place in Barcelona in the summer, between July 20th and August 10th of 1263. The rabbi declared that he would express his views freely and without restraint. King Jaime I of Aragon, who was the moderator, declared that he would guarantee Rabbi Mosheh Ben-Nachman full freedom of expression. He also warned his subjects that he would punish severely anyone or any group that would dare to attack the Jews following this debate. As a result of the king's firm control of the sitiuation, unlike many other of these staged disputations, in this case there was no spontaneous outburst of anti-Jewish violence.

The disputation was conducted in Latin and Catalan, two of the many languages in which Rabbi Mosheh Ben-Nachman was fluent. Obviously, as the Rabbi pointed out, there could be no decision as to who was right and who was wrong, since the argument rested on one's faith, and what one believed was not always subject to change by logical reasoning. There are two reports of this disputation. The Christians published their version in Latin and Rabbi Mosheh published his in Hebrew in a book he entitled Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem, "The Book of the Wars of the Lord." Nonetheless, even though the king showed the greatest respect to this saintly and learned sage, Rabbi Mosheh ben-Nachman feared for his safety because of the courage with which he had vigorously defended Judaism against his attackers. He therefore decided to leave his home and community in the Kingdom of Aragon and migrated to the Land of Israel. There, among the ruins of Jerusalem, he set up a school and a synagogue and revived Jewish life in the Holy City of Zion.

Louis IX of France and the Great Bonfire of Paris

At about the same time, once again instigated by renegade apostates, the religious orders demanded that the Talmud and all other Hebrew books of the Jews be destroyed. Because, it was falsely asserted, they were filled with insults to Christianity. In response to this demand King Louis IX of France ordered that all Jewish books, except for the Bible, be consigned to the flames. Then royal and ecclesiastical forces fanned out through the streets of Paris, rounding up all the Jewish libraries they could lay their hands on. In all, twenty-four wagonloads of manuscripts; rare, unique, irreplaceable and precious Hebrew books, including hundreds of copies of the Talmud were gathered up and transported to the Place facing the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Great Bonfire of Paris went up in flames. The middle of the 13th century saw many Jewish communities in Western Europe --the lands of Ashkenaz-- under violent attack and many on the verge of annihilation.

In addition to that monstrous deed, Louis IX, later canonized as the Patron Saint of France, vowed to lead a Crusade to drive the Moslem infidel out of the Holy Land. But before he was to set out on his holy pilgrimage he vowed to cleanse France of its "contamination." By this he meant to rid France of all its Jews. The persecutions in France only helped to stimulate and encourage similar actions on the part of the Christians in the neighboring German-speaking areas.

While these events, catastrophic to the Jews of Western Europe were going on, something totally unrelated to these events was happening in Eastern Europe that directly affected the Jewish victims of both banks of the Rhine. At the very same time --one might call it providential-- an opportunity arose that gave the driven and persecuted Jews of Western Europe an opportunity to start life anew, to strike roots in a new location under conditions which could assure them of relative safety from their oppressors.

The Conversion of the Slavic Peoples

In Eastern Europe, various tribes, speakers of Slavic languages had coalesced into two major cultural-religious-national entities. Many tribal leaders of the Western Slavs organized themselves into what came to be known as Poland. Sometime towards the end of the 10th century the Polish nobles and many of their followers were converted to Christianity by missionaries who came from the Western Christian center in Rome. At the same time, and probably within the same decade, the Slavs east of Poland were also converted to Christianity, but under the guidance and tutelage of missionaries who came from Constantinople. The newly-converted Polish Christians were provided with an alphabet to represent their spoken Slavic language, an alphabet based on the Latin with minor modifications to provide for certain Polish phonemic elements.

The missionaries who converted the Slavs of the East, the Bulgarians and those nations who came to be known as Russians and Little Russians, later called Ukrainians, provided their new converts with an alphabet based on the Greek of the Eastern Roman-Byzantine civilization. This Old Slavonic-Ukrainian-Russian alphabet came to be called the Cyrillic script, after St. Cyril, one of the two brother missionaries who brought the Greek alphabet to their new converts and modified it for the use of the Eastern Slavic language.

In the course of time the Polish Christians were tied ever closer to Latin Rome and the Eastern Slavs were more intimately bound to the Byzantine influence of Constantinople. Thus, when the Great Schism occurred in 1054, resulting in the mutual excommunications of the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Poland remained within the Roman Catholic communion while Russia adhered to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. This division of faith-based identities had ramifications for centuries to come, down to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and the violent breakup of Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century.

After the Polish Kingdom was established, the barons proceeded to expand their control over a vast territory. In the course of time, by the end of the 12th century, the Kingdom of Poland controlled all the lands from Lithuania on the shores of the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea shores of Ukraina. These Polish barons, having extensive landholdings and large estates were not quite prepared to manage the affairs of their newly-conquered empire. The complexities of managing the exploitation of their natural resources, the marketing of their products, and the general organization of their economy compelled them to look for assistance from external sources. They realized they would have to look beyond the boundaries of their own lands to secure the help of people with commercial expertise, with the ability to organize and manage large estates and raise their raw economy to a profitable basis. This led them to the flourishing, commercially successful German cities of the Hanseatic League.

The German merchants, evaluating the possibilities for profits in the Polish Kingdom, and actutely aware of the fact that they were essential for the success of this venture, drove a hard bargain. The negotiations between the Polish barons and the German merchant princes led to the Treaty of Marburg. This agreement granted the Germans many advantages, including exemptions from taxes and tolls, and other benefits. One of the most important elements in this Marburgian arrangement was the fact that the Germans were not subject to Polish law, but could adjudicate matters in German courts and, if necessary, appeal to courts in Germany itself. Nonethless, for a while the arrangement proved to be mutually advantageous as the Polish economy began to grow under the management and direction of the German merchants.

But the arrrangement was not of long duration. The Poles realized, soon after the German managers arrived in the cities of Poland and started to conduct their business, that they were going to lose control of their own country. The Germans were assertive, bold, enterprising, essentially aggressive, and conducted their business affairs in a manner that revealed their intention to dominate the country as well as its commercial development. So the Poles called an end to the agreement and ordered the Germans to terminate their business deals and to leave the country as soon as they could pack up their goods and get out.
The question that confronted the Poles then was, "What shall we do now ?" The answer to that question was not long in coming. The idea for a solution to their problem had been adumbrated for some time and the suggestion was made that they consider inviting the Jews of Western Europe to come to Poland and to undertake the business of business. The observation was also made that the Jews, in building up the economic prosperity of Poland would not, could not take over control of the country as the Germans had attempted to do. The barons sent a delegation to the cities of the Rhineland and presented their proposal to the Jews. An invitation would be issued to the Jews of Western Europe to come to Poland and settle in her cities, to take over control of the economy of the countrry, to exploit its resources and to create an economic prosperity that would be shared by the Jews and the rulers of Poland.

The Jewish response was tentative. They claimed that it would not make sense for the Jews to accept an invitation to a country that had adopted Roman Catholic Christianity, when they were enduring persecution and brutal attacks in the name of the Catholic faith. If the Polish barons and their king were sincere in wanting the Jews to join them in the process of building their economy, there would have to be guarantees of protection for the Jewish communities against the potential attacks that might result form the inherent hostility of the Church and its adherents and the excessive zeal of the passionate preachers of the religious orders. Moreover --and this they considered of equal importance-- the Jews would have to be assured of total internal autonomy within their religious-cultural-national community. These demands were presented to a council of the rulers of Poland and it was agreed that a treaty should be drawn up which would be signed by the king and presented to the Jews. This treaty would incorporate all the points which the Jews deemed essential to assure them internal autonomy and protection against the anti-Jewish excesses of zealous Christians.

About Dr. Neiman:

Dr. David Neiman (1921-2004) was the first Jewish scholar appointed to teach Religion at Boston College, one of America's leading Catholic Universities. He served as Professor in the Department of Theology for a quarter of a century. While there he was also invited to teach at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. After retiring from Boston College, Dr.Neiman moved to Los Angeles, where he taught at Loyola Marymount University, St. John' s Seminary in Camarillo and the University of Judaism in Bel Air.