Aaron, Son of the Devil

"Aaron, Son of the Devil"

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 offence 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.^[1] He wears the medieval English Jewish badge (the two tablets resembling windows) on his upper garments.^[2]

References

1. Jacobs, Joseph; Wolf, Lucien (2012-09-20). Catalogue of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, Royal Albert Hall, London, 1887. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-108-05504-8.
2. Jacobs, Joseph. ""AARON, SON OF THE DEVIL":". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 February 2016.

• Joseph Jacobs, Jewish Ideals and Other Essays, Macmillan, 1896 (pp. 229–233)
• Walter Rye, History of Norfolk, 1887 (p. 52)
• J. Richard Green, A Short History of the English People, 1892, Illustrated edition (i.393)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Aaron, Son of the Devil". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.