Book of Remembrance: Account of a Crazed Jew

And it came to pass, in the year 4946 from the creation [1186], on the 7th of Adar I, on a Monday, the wrath of the Lord afflicted His people, by means of a crazy Jew who attacked a young non-Jewish girl in the city of Neuss and slaughtered her in public display. When the uncircumcised saw this, they first killed him, and then they killed six other Jews, and they laid their hands upon the spoil in their homes [see Esther 9:15–16]. They seized them and brought them out of the city, to torture them with wagon wheels. They then pulled them up and positioned them on the ground, as a scorn and reproach to Israel. Subsequently, five days later, on the 12th of the month, on the day of rest, they were allowed no rest; rather, they grabbed hold of the mother of the crazy man and her brother. The mother sanctified and unified the Name of God, and they buried her alive, while they contorted and twisted her brother and placed him together with the righteous ones outside the city. They also forcibly converted one Jewish woman and the pious lady’s three daughters, immersing them in the waters of bitterness that causes the curse (Numbers 5:18). As for the Jews who remained alive, the archbishop fined them 150 florins, and the archbishop and the ministers also fined the other Jews who were in all the rest of the region [see Esther 9:16], expropriating a great fortune from them. After that, the communities paid the archbishop money, and he granted them permission to take the pious ones down from the wheels, on the night of the 17th of the month of Adar II. They took them down in stealth, to below the city of Zenta, where they buried them alongside the graves of the righteous ones who were buried there during the persecutions of 4856 [1096 CE]. And the Jewish woman who was forcibly converted returned to her faith before Purim.

These are the names of the righteous ones who were killed in sanctification of the Name of God in Neuss:

• R. Isaac Ḥazan ben R. Gedaliah,

• R. Samuel ben R. Nathan, and his son, R. Nathan,

• R. Isaac ben R. Samson, who greatly unified the Name,

• R. Samuel ben R. Natronai, and

• Barukh ben R. Joseph.

The Lord is a God of vengeance (Psalms 94:1); He will execute vengeance for them speedily—Amen.

Blessed be the God of Israel, who redeemed my soul from trials and humiliation. For I used to live in Neuss, but three days before the evil occurred, I moved to Cologne. However, I forfeited much of my wealth; may my Creator make good my loss—Amen.

Ephraim ben Jacob Yelibah.

Ephraim ben Jacob. We also instituted penitential poems and confessions marking this event.