The concepts of citizenship fall back at least to Roman times. And clearly they are valid today as well. Those concepts are jus solis--you were born there, literally of the soil; and jus sanguines--your parents were citizens and you became one by birth or blood. These two standards are pretty universal. Of course, there have always been naturalizations and the Germanic peoples were granted citizenship for military service.

The rights of citizenship have often been denied or restricted. For example in the United States women were denied the vote as were blacks. However, there was never any dispute as to their nationality if they were born here. Likewise Jews took on the nationality of whatever country they were born in. Being a Jew is a religion not a nationality. There has been no Jewish nation between 63 BCE at the Roman conquest until 1948 with the formation of the state of Israel.

Of course you are correct in saying the Jews were exempt from the Usuary Laws of the Roman Catholic church. Those laws applied on Christians. Jews became very important members of mideval society because they alone could profit from lending money and the princes always needed money, then as now.

Thanks for an informative post.

Publius