Disabilities (Jewish)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Disabilities were legal restrictions and limitations placed on Jews in the Middle Ages. They included provisions forbidding Jews to enter certain trades, to wear specific and identifying clothing such as the Jewish hat and the yellow badge, to settle in certain cities and towns or in certain parts of towns (ghettos). They also include special taxes levied on Jews, exclusion from public life, and restraints on the performance of religious ceremonies. Some contries went even further and completely expelled Jews, for example England in 1290 (readmitted in 1655) and Spain in 1492 (readmitted in 1868).

The disabilities were lifted in the late 18th and the 19th century. In 1791, Revolutionary France was the first country to abolish them altogether, followed by Prussia in 1848, the United Kingdom in 1858 (Jewish Disabilities Bill), and by all of newly united Germany in 1871.