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JewishHistoryעברית

Massacre of the Jews of Valencia

Date
9 July 1391
Location
ValenciaSpain
Then part of
Crown of Aragon
Perpetrators
  • Christian urban mob in Valencia (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
200 – 250[2]Jews killed. The Jewish Encyclopedia reports more than 200; Hasdai Crescas wrote that about 250 died sanctifying God's name. Open Iberia/América, introducing contemporary Valencian accounts, states that at least 100 were killed.
Locality

6.7% – 10% of the Jewish population of Valencia[4]

Country

0.33% – 0.93% of the Jewish population of Crown of Aragon (c. 1391)[13]

Worldwide

0.017% – 0.025% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1300)[15]

Category
Massacre, Pogrom, Forced conversion
Confidence
Medium

Summary

On 9 July 1391 (7 Av, according to Hasdai Crescas) a mob attacked the Jewish quarter of Valencia. Crescas wrote that the community had about a thousand householders, that about 250 were killed, and that most of the rest converted or fled; the Jewish Encyclopedia reports more than 200 killed and that most of the city's Jews were baptized. Contemporary Valencian accounts introduced by Open Iberia/América state that at least a hundred people were killed and most survivors forcibly converted. After the assault, Crescas wrote, no Jews remained in the kingdom of Valencia except in Morvedre (Murviedro).

Sources

  1. Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Spain (section "The Massacre of 1391"). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  2. Hasdai Crescas (letter to the Jews of Avignon, 1391), Spain, 1391, Hasdai Crescas Letter. Center for Online Judaic Studies
  3. Abigail Agresta, Accounts of the Anti-Jewish Riot in Valencia, July 1391. Open Iberia/América Teaching Anthology (2024)
  4. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 1,000,000 – 1,200,000[15]c. 1300DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 1.2 million in 1300. Botticini and Eckstein Table 9 give about 1–1.2 million for the early fourteenth century.
  • Crown of Aragon: 27,000 – 60,000[13]c. 1391Schraer gives 30,000–60,000 Jews in the Crown of Aragon; Riera, cited there, records 27,000 across 76 aljamas in 1391.
  • Valencia: 2,500 – 3,000[4]Jews in the Valencia judería in 1385–86, which Hinojosa Montalvo presents as the size of the community on the eve of the 9 July 1391 assault. His calculation from an onomastic index is 2,500 to 3,000 persons. Hasdai Crescas, writing in 1391, gives about 1,000 householders, a count of households rather than of persons.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
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  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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