Pogroms
Random attacks on Jews, their homes, businesses or places of worship is usually described as pogrom (from the Russian word meaning wanton destruction).
This term gained currency in the late 19th century Tsarist Russia in connection with persecution of Jews. Through history there have been numerous anti-Semitic riots and massacres - in Medieval England, France, Spain, Bohemia, Venice, and the German Lands amongst other places. The Khmelnitsky pogroms in today’s Ukraine and Poland in 1648 constituted the worst massacre of Jews before the Holocaust. The pogroms in Tsarist Russia were different from medieval pogroms in that they were initiated by politicians keen to exploit popular resentment against the Jews. The pogroms in Russia from the 1880s up until the First World War led to mass emigration of Jews to West Europe and North America.