Jews in Basileria

The history of the Jews in Basileria dates to the early founding of the city of Basilerium; currently, approximately two million Basilerian citizens identify as Jewish, amounting to roughly three percent of the population. As an ethnocultural and religious minority, the Jews in Basileria have often faced varying types and degrees of discrimination; on the other hand, many Jewish Basilerians throughout history have held positions of high esteem and power in society. Political, spiritual and and convenience concerns typically led to Jewish communities adopting segregated living arrangements from their non-Jewish neighbors; even in modernity, "Jewish Quarters" exist in many cities and towns as holdovers from this era.

Jewish people in Basileria were granted full civil rights in 1883, following the establishment of formal relations with Belhavia, the world's only majority-Jewish nation. Since that time, trends have been toward greater assimilation and tolerance between Jewish and Christian communities in the Empire, though issues of social inequality and discrimination are still reported.

History

Early Period

The origin of Jewish communities in Basileria is uncertain; the historian Linus recorded in 278 AD that Jews were among those who journeyed with Saint Peter on The Great Journey and subsequently settled in hinterlands of the Romulan Empire which make up present-day Basileria. Other classical historians opined that Judaism was spread as a consequence of missionary activity of Christianity; early missionaries, it was argued, provided local tribes with stories of the Old Testament and Mosaic Law, to which they became attached. This "autocephalous Jews" theory has been debunked by modern historiography, which holds that Judaism was likely spread through trade contacts from Tarsas via Romulan ports, and likely became rooted to Basilerium shortly after its founding in the late 4th century AD. Early records do not indicate that these Jewish communities faced any significant discrimination; on the contrary, they were often presented favorably compared to the pagan tribes surrounding the city, with which Basilerium was often at war. The Emperor Leontius (406-433) employed a Jew named Avram ben Avram as his court astronomer, physician and alchemist; Avram's writings are among the earliest surviving records of Basileria and greatly influenced science in the country. Leontius' own favor influenced early policy toward the Jews; he described them as "brothers of the Great Book," and commanded that Jews in the country be afforded respect and basic rights. This would remain more or less the status quo throughout the remainder of the first millennium AD.

Middle Ages

As Christianity began to consolidate its hold within the Empire, opinion shifted gradually against the Jewish community; the earliest discriminatory law, forbidding Jews possession of any weapon other than a dagger, dates to 1087. Outbreaks of plague in 1103, 1138 and 1216 were blamed upon the Jewish communities, who were observed to be less-impacted, and pogroms followed in Timisoara, Arad and Basilerium; an edict in 1244 expelled Jews from the capital city, though it was repealed by 1257 due to its economic damages. Throughout this period, Jews became established as artisans and moneylenders; A Jewish jeweler named Samuel served as Court Jeweler from 1255-1263, and designed some of the oldest surviving crown jewels. As a whole, however, the Jewish community experienced significant discrimination from secular authorities; the building of new synagogues was forbidden in 1303, Jews were restricted in what trades they could enter from 1314, and from joining the military from 1325. From 1403, a punitive tax modeled upon the Islamic concept of jizya was instituted upon the Jews, officially to compensate Jewish accumulation of wealth against the tithes paid by Christian citizens. This came to take on features designed to discriminate and humiliate the Jewish populations of the major cities, particularly Arad where Jews had been heavily discriminated against. As narrated by historian Liviu Dimitrescu:

In Arad the Mayor has passed a decree that Jews must sew bells within their clothing, that all may hear their presence; on the day of taxation there comes forth a great commotion as the Jews of the great city come forth from their quarter to the town square, where the magistrates are seated at high tables. At once the required amount is dispensed, with much weeping and gnashing of teeth from the women and the little ones; the men, for their part, are stoic as their beards are shorn, resolved to give the men of the Crown no satisfaction in their suffering.

These practices were at times condemned by the Church, and in 1433 a decree by Emperor Leo V forbid the infliction of "undue burden and humiliating practice" upon Jews paying their tax, but this appears to have been largely unenforced. The end of the High Middle Ages did see a curtailment of some of the more odious restrictions against Jews, however; for example, the burning of Jews for witchcraft was banned in 1485, on the grounds that witchcraft did not exist.