Why Jews plead to preserve the tower

the city's anti-semitic past to discover why Clifford's Tower has such significance.

A BAYING mob whipped up to fever pitch by Richard Malebisse led to the death of 150 Jews on March 16, 1190 at the wooden tower where Clifford's Tower now proudly stands. And 800 years on Jews are fighting a new battle to preserve this memory.

A plaque, partly in Hebrew, partly in English, and some early-flowering daffodils are the only reminders of the atrocities faced by a race who were later to contribute to the building of the Minster before being expelled from the country in 1290.

The site of Clifford's Tower, the keep of York's medieval castle, still bears witness to the most horrifying event in the history of English Jewry.

On the night of 16 March 1190, the feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, the small Jewish community of York was gathered together for protection inside the tower.

Rather than perish at the hands of the violent mob that awaited them outside, many of the Jews took their own lives; others died in the fires they had lit, and those who finally surrendered were massacred.

This appalling event has become the most notorious example of anti-semitism in medieval England. But it was by no means an isolated incident, rather the culmination of a tide of violent feeling which swept the country in the early part of 1190.

The timber keep of York Castle was badly damaged in the massacre. Between 1190 and 1194, it was repaired at great expense and the mound was raised to its present height.

The stone tower visible today was built in the mid-thirteenth century, but during an excavation in 1902-03 a number of charred timbers were found some 12 feet (3.7m) below the surface of the mound.

This may be the most tangible reminder of the flames lit by the York Jews in their darkest hour and is, perhaps, the most enduring of all memorials to the tragic night of March 16, 1190.

At a reconciliation ceremony in 1990 attended by the Chief Rabbi and ancestors of Richard Malebisse among others, York's past sins were forgiven and the stigma attached to York was symbolically lifted.

No more would devout Jews avoid the East Coast Main Line for fear of their train stopping in York and no more would rabbis refuse to spend a night in the city. Well that was the intention.

Despite the symbolism of that event there is still a stigma attached to York and this isn't helped by what York's few Jewish residents see as a "lack of respect for our history".

The row over the Coppergate Riverside scheme has come under close scrutiny from America and closer to home.

Vikki Helperin, of the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, says she fears the historic importance of Clifford's Tower could be buried and forgotten amid the crowded shops and "indifferent" shoppers. "Wouldn't it be more fitting that a park be built surrounding the tower, so that York residents and tourists might be able to visit the site and contemplate the historicity of the structure in the context of modern society's values?" she asked in a letter to the Evening Press.

But outrage doesn't just centre around Clifford's Tower. Admittedly Sainsbury's have now promised to clean up the plaque commemorating the cemetery, containing 500 bodies, but why was a car-park allowed to be built there in the first place?

"I am sure if there was a medieval catholic cemetery this wouldn't have been allowed to take place at all," says Pauline Kollantai, a lecturer in theology and the college of Ripon and York St John and a Jew.

What wouldn't have been allowed to take place is the relocation of the graves of up to 500 Jews to build a supermarket car park. "It is a disgrace, this should never have been allowed to happen at all, but the fact that it did and this hidden plaque is all there is to show for it is a disgrace," she adds. "We are not accusing the city of being anti-semitic, but there is an enormous disregard and lack of respect for the history for the Jewish people here. It is disappointing in such a historically active city."

Pauline and others discovered what there is and isn't left of Jewish history while taking a Jewish Heritage walk organised by Yorkwalk - and on European Jewish Heritage day too.

This attentive group of Jews from South Africa, Russia and Fishergate learnt that their people, forced to die at each other hands in the 12th century and expelled in the 13th, played an important role in the city from the time of William The Conqueror.

Jews, as every anti-semitic stereotype will demonstrate, were of vast wealth and as a result acted as money-lenders to all who needed them and but paid big taxes too. Even after the massacre Jews still paid for the Five Sisters window in the north transept of York Minster - the very place that the angry mob had gone to burn the records of debt they owed to the recently-killed creditors.

The guide on the walk, retired immigration officer and keen historian Julian Cripps, kept the group interested with fascinating historical facts and anecdotes. But one thing he couldn't do was provide us with much to look at.

Jewbury, the area once rich with Jewish folk, is no more and we had to force aside the bushes before we could see the commemorative plaque to Jews at Sainbury's. There was no trace of the medieval synagogue in Aldwark nor the Petergate synagogue, active until as recently as 1975.

Admittedly there is a plaque at Clifford's Tower, even though the daffodils planted to spring up in time for the March anniversary of the slaughter were not on display when we visited.

"It is such a shame that the rich Jewish history of the city is not more clearly visible," says Julian Cripps.

"And it is not just Jewish history, there are other aspects of the city's past that are not being treated how one would like them to be. Perhaps the authorities should worry less about the rates and more about our city.

"This city has so much to offer historically already, but I feel there is so much more we could do."

Fortunately for Jews everywhere, the chief executive of the York Tourism Bureau agrees. Gillian Cruddas admitted York was missing an opportunity by not making more of its Jewish heritage and has even appealed for anyone with information about the history to come forward so it can be included in fact sheets.

Yes, all the ghost tours and walking tours mention the massacre, but Jews don't think this is enough. If scruffy plaques on revered cemeteries and shopping centres by sites of massacres are all York can do for the Jews, then its population of around a dozen will not grow.

And, more importantly for the city, the millions of Jews worldwide who regularly visit memorials in other cities and other nations, will not be spending their dollars and shekels here.

PICTURE: Clifford's Tower where threatened Jews killed each other rather than suffer at the hands of anti-semitic Yorkies.