The call for the First Crusade touches off the Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade of 1096, the persecutions of 1096 or Gezeroth Tatenu.

Prominent leaders of crusaders involved in the massacres include Peter the Hermit and especially Count Emicho.

As part of this persecution, the destruction of Jewish communities in Speyer, Worms and Mainz are noted as the "Hurban Shum" (Destruction of Shum).

These sre new persecutions of the Jews in which peasant crusaders from France and Germany attack Jewish communities.

A number of historians refer to the anti-Jewish events as "pogroms".