During the medieval era, ignorance about the mechanism of the plague condemned tens of millions of Europeans, Africans, and Asians to death from a largely preventable infection. The lack of scientific knowledge also fanned the flames of anti-Semitism and consigned Jews to man-made fates arguably worse than the disease itself. Theories abounded as to the source of the pestilence. Punishment for corporeal or theological sins was a perennial explanation, as were the evil eye and the “miasma” (poisoned, if colorless, air). But by far the most pernicious theory held that Hebrews were poisoning
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