The Jewish calendar is full of anniversaries, but so is the regular calendar.
Every week marks the anniversary of events that helped shape Jewish history, whether that’s a Nobel Prize-winning discovery, a pivotal Supreme Court decision, the birth of an iconic artist, the founding of a community, or a moment that changed the course of the Jewish people.
Welcome to Unpacked’s latest series, “This Week in Jewish History.” Each week, we’ll take a look back at the stories worth remembering and why they still matter today.
Check out previous editions here.
Pope Nicholas III orders Jews to attend conversion sermons (August 4, 1278)
In 1965, the Catholic Church issued a declaration that changed the course of Jewish history and Jewish-Christian relations. In a proclamation titled “Nostra Aetate” — Latin for “in our time” or “in our age” — the Vatican reversed course on nearly 2,000 years of Jewish persecution by rejecting the idea that Jews collectively bore responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus and condemned antisemitism in all its forms.
Even in the shadow of the Holocaust, the declaration was not without its critics. Some Middle Eastern bishops worried that it would be interpreted as tacit Christian support for the State of Israel, potentially endangering Christian communities in the region. Traditionalist and conservative figures within the Church fought the declaration tooth and nail, vehemently opposed to the sudden reversal of 2,000 years of Catholic teaching. Arab governments, most notably Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, furiously lobbied against its adoption. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists rejected the proclamation altogether.
Despite that resistance, “Nostra Aetate” helped usher in six decades of interfaith dialogue and improved Catholic-Jewish relations. Today, many Christians are among the Jewish community’s most dependable allies.
But it wasn’t always so.
Most of us are familiar with the Spanish Inquisition, blood libels, accusations of deicide, Crusader massacres, and centuries of Christian incitement that fueled brutal pogroms. Yet Christian persecution of Jews in Europe had its subtler manifestations. Not every attempt to convert Jews came at a sword’s point. In many other cases – perhaps even in the majority of cases – forced conversions were not so much “forced” as they were coerced, relying on social pressure and legal penalties.
On August 4, 1278, Pope Nicholas III issued a papal bull — or a public decree, letter, or charter — known as “Vineam Sorec,” or “Vineyard of Sorek.” The decree ordered friars to preach the Gospel to Jews and called on secular authorities to attend conversionary sermons. If Jews refused to attend, they were to be reported to the papal authorities for disciplinary action.
At the time, Church doctrine explicitly forbade forcibly baptizing Jews or physically harming them. Nicholas III himself reaffirmed some of those protections. But Vineam Sorec exposed the limits of that supposed tolerance: Jews could not legally be dragged to the baptismal font, yet they could still be forced to listen as preachers denounced their religion and pressured them to abandon it.
Copies of the decree were sent to Franciscan and Dominican leaders in several regions. Secular rulers like King Edward I enthusiastically complied, subjecting their Jews to sermon after sermon on conversion to Christianity starting around 1280. However, enforcement did vary across regions, but the bull gave explicit papal approval to a practice that placed Jewish communities under intense psychological and institutional pressure.
It’s impossible to know how many Jews were pressured into converting to Christianity as a result of “Vineam Sorec.” Medieval records from the 13th century are scarce and often incomplete, and conversion could be motivated by any combination of conviction, economic hardship, social exclusion, and fear. What is clear is that the sermons failed to achieve their larger purpose: historians today believe that, for the vast majority of Jews in Europe, these sermons did little to sway them out of their Jewish convictions — a true testament to Jewish resilience.
Jewish history is a story of both tragedy and triumph. This week is no exception.
Jews in Bohemia are “rewarded” (sort of?) for their military service (August 3, 1797)
Jews haven’t always been appreciated for their outsized contributions to society. So when they are, we take note — even when such appreciation comes enveloped in a hefty dose of antisemitic discrimination.
Let’s backtrack a bit.
In 1726, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI passed the Familiants Law, a quota that heavily restricted Jewish marriage in Bohemia. The intent, of course, was to put a cap on the total Jewish population. Only a fixed number of Jewish men were legally permitted to marry and establish families. Generally, a family’s marriage permit passed to its eldest son after his father’s death, unless he relinquished the right to a younger brother.
Obtaining permission was deliberately difficult. To qualify for a marriage license, Jews had to pay exorbitant prices, ranging from 300 ($36,000 USD today) to 500 florins ($60,000 USD today). This placed legal marriage out of reach for many poor and working-class Jews.
Over time, subsequent leaders upped the quotas, restricting Jewish marriage more and more. This was a serious blow to the Jewish community, as family life is very much at the heart of Jewish culture.
The quotas, though, were not entirely successful. Many Jews cared about marrying in accordance with Jewish law more than they cared about civil marriage and gaining the state’s approval. Thus, many chose to marry under rabbinic authorities, while remaining unmarried in the eyes of the state. Thousands of children were born “illegitimately” and were given only their mother’s surname, an interesting tidbit for anyone interested in exploring their Jewish Bohemian family ancestry.
Other Jews emigrated from Bohemia and Moravia in search of places where they could marry and build families. The Jewish marriage quotas in Bohemia were not abolished until the revolutionary upheavals of 1848, marking the beginnings of Jewish emancipation in Bohemia. Full legal equality, however, would not arrive until later.
But on August 3, 1797, the Bohemian Jewish community did enjoy a small reprieve.
Nine years earlier, in 1788, Emperor Joseph II had introduced mandatory military service for Jews in the Holy Roman Empire. Although Jews were expected to perform the same dangerous duties as their Christian neighbors, they still did not enjoy the same civil rights.
Then, in 1797, authorities in Bohemia introduced a new law modifying the Familiant system known as the Judensystemalpatent, which granted certain privileges to Jewish war veterans and military volunteers. Among these “privileges” was the right to marry outside of the established quotas. Similar exemptions were extended to some Jews who supported themselves through agriculture or skilled trades.
It was a “reward” that underscored the injustice of the system itself. Jewish veterans were not being granted equal rights; they were receiving special permission to do something most of their Christian neighbors already took for granted.
This stands in stark contrast to the response to German Jewish military service during World War I. Roughly 20% of the German Jewish population fought for Germany, with 12,000 Jews dying during their service; wider German society responded by inventing the stab-in-the-back myth, which accused Jews of intentionally sabotaging Germany’s war effort. Many historians view this very conspiracy as the turning point in Hitler’s antisemitism, when he shifted from casual anti-Jewish animus to rabid, genocidal antisemitism.
Ultimately, the Judensystemalpatent didn’t mean all that much. After all, Jews had been circumventing the restrictions for decades, and the broader system of discrimination remained firmly in place.
Still, after being compelled to serve an empire that denied them basic rights, some Jewish soldiers were finally granted a modest measure of recognition—even if the “reward” was permission to marry.
Originally Published Aug 4, 2026 03:15PM EDT
