7 Iyar 5058 – April 20 1298
Röttingen
The Rintfleisch massacres began, instigated by either an impoverished knight or more likely a butcher (rindfleisch means “beef” in German), though the term may also refer to his heinous behavior. Having accused the Jews of desecrating the Eucharist, and claiming a God-given mandate to avenge the sacrilege, he burned Röttingen’s Jews to death. Rintfleisch and his bloodthirsty mob then destroyed over 146 other Jewish communities in Franconia, Bavaria, and Austria. Many laments were composed in memory of the more than four thousand Jews killed in these riots, and the fast of 20 Sivan – instituted 130 years earlier, after a massacre in Blois – was reinstated.