The “star of david” was not an official jewish symbol until 1897. It’s also not found in any religious texts.
Before the “star of david,” Christian nations forced jews to wear the Judenhut (Jew's hat) in medieval Europe as an identifying marker.
It was quite common. 🧵👇
These are the countries and time durations jews were forced to wear these hats:
• Papal States / Church-wide decree: 1215–1798 (Fourth Lateran Council decree of 1215, enforced variably until the 18th–19th centuries)
• Holy Roman Empire (Germany & surrounding areas): ca. 1215–late 15th century (enforced locally, largely phased out by 1500)
• France: 1215–late 14th century (expulsion in 1394 effectively ended the requirement)
• England: 1215–1290 (expulsion of Jews in 1290 ended the practice)
• Spain (Crown of Castile & Aragon): ca. 1215–early 15th century (requirement dropped or replaced by the 15th century, before the 1492 expulsion)
• Portugal: ca. 1215–1497 (ended with forced conversion or expulsion in 1497)
• Italy (various city-states & kingdoms): 1215–late 18th century (e.g., Venice, Rome, Tuscany until the Napoleonic era or later)
• Poland-Lithuania: never mandatory (Jews were not required to wear the Judenhut; other markers such as badges were sometimes imposed later)
• Hungary: 1215–late 15th century (enforced sporadically, later replaced by yellow badge)
This 17th-century German broadside woodcut (ca. 1610–1620) depicts a grotesque, hook-nosed Jew wearing the mandatory pointed Judenhut while a large black cat (symbol of the devil) sits on his shoulder, portraying Jews as sorcerers in league with Satan - a common antisemitic libel of the time.