Une communauté pieuse et le doute : mourir pour la Sanctification du Nom (Qiddouch ha-Chem) en Achkenaz (Europe du Nord) et l'histoire de rabbi Amnon de Mayence - article ; n°5 ; vol.49, pg 1031-1047

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - Année 1994 - Volume 49 - Numéro 5 - Pages 1031-1047
Pious Community and Doubt : Qiddush ha-Shem (Martyrdom) in Northern European Jewry (Ashkenaz) and the Story of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz.
The self-image of the Jews of Latin Christendom was of righteous God-fearing community. That collective memory derived from ancient Palestinian traditions of the early pietists hasidim rishonim whose traditions were brought to southern Italy and then to the Rhineland and Champagne. This positive self-image is reflected among other places in ancient and early medieval narratives about Jewish martyrs. Until the First Crusade massacres in the Rhineland in 1096 martyr narratives describe great scholars In 1096 the picture changes to holy communities of the righteous In none of these narratives is there any hint that Jews are tempted by or attracted to Christianity. The story of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. from late twelfth-century Germany fictional account is the first to suggest that some Jews were attracted to Christianity and had doubts about themselves. They remembered that experience and connected it with guilt and divine judgement on the Jewish New Year. Its memory is preserved to this day in connection with the recitation of liturgical poem and the sanctus qedushah on the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement.
17 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.