Well, unfortunately during the Medieval era they sometimes didn’t live longer, because observant Jews were an easily identified and insular minority that rarely received any protection from the authoritarian institutions of the time. Certain high-income professions, such as moneylending, were rarely open to anyone but Jews, and that didn’t help their position either.
Lord Malegant! Lord Malegant! Everyone in the village is dying of ratitis and spattergroit, except the Jewish moneylenders you owe ten golden ducats! Father Unction says the Jews are sorcerous christ-killers and we should burn them at the stake, then God will love us again and stop the plague! What should we do, milord?
It got so out of hand that in 1348 the Pope officially forbade wholesale slaughter of Jews, although perhaps only because he was running out of people to borrow money from. A couple of Eastern European Christian princes (in Poland I think? maybe Latvia.) distinguished themselves during the period by providing shelter to the Jews, and thousands of them fled Western Europe with nothing but what they could carry on their persons.
