Why were Jewish communities persecuted in Austria during the Black Death?

During the Black Death, which reached Austria in 1349, Jewish communities across Europe faced intense persecution and violence because they were baselessly blamed for the spread of the pandemic.12

This period saw a surge in antisemitism as desperate populations sought scapegoats for the catastrophic loss of life caused by the plague. Driven by this prejudice, mobs carried out violent pogroms, resulting in the mass killing of Jewish people, who were often burned at the stake. It is a fundamental moral principle that such acts of violence and the scapegoating of marginalized groups are abhorrent and unjustifiable. These atrocities were part of a broader pattern of medieval antisemitism, which often combined religious prejudice with economic resentment, leading to the systemic exclusion and forced expulsion of Jewish populations from various regions throughout the Middle Ages.123