Migration and the Emergence of the Ashkenazi Diaspora in Eastern Europe

The rise of the Ashkenazi Diaspora in Eastern Europe has traditionally been described as a result of persecution in the West, particularly at the time of the Black Death (1348–50). This narrative has recently been challenged by scholars who argued that there is no evidence of Jews migrating eastward en masse in the medieval period. This research note provides a further contribution to the ongoing discussion.  Using a set of maps, it argues (1) that there was no large-scale eastward migration caused by the persecutions of the late-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth centuries. Rather (2), Jews—just as their Christian counterparts—made use of structures of opportunity created by the spread of favourable legal conditions (such as the Magdeburg town law and Saxon common law). It shows (3) that the expulsions from German towns and territories in the long fifteenth century, by contrast, did prompt numerous Jewish individuals and families to migrate eastwards. More archival research is needed to trace the individual trajectories of this process.

The full text of the research note can be downloaded here.