Aaron, Son of the Devil
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Aaron, Son of the Devil is the name given to an anti-Semitic caricature of an English Jew appearing on an Essex county document dated 1277. The document concerns fines imposed on some Jews and Christians who had pursued a doe after it had escaped from hounds near the city of Colchester, an offense against the forest laws of the time. One Jew, however, had supposedly evaded arrest and became the subject of the caricature.
The caricature is the earliest dated portrait of a Jew and shows stereotypical Jewish traits used by anti-Semites to ridicule Jews. He wears a cowl – a sign that he belonged to the professional classes and did not perform outdoor work – and the mediæval English Jewish badge (the two tablets resembling windows) is fixed on his upper garments.
[edit] References
- Joseph Jacobs, Jewish Ideals and Other Essays, Macmillan, 1896 (pp. 229-233)
- Walter Rye, History of Norfolk, 1887 (p. 52)
- J. Richard Green, Short History of the English People, 1892, Illustrated edition (i.393)
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
