False claim that Jews killed Christians to use blood in ceremonies
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Statue ofSimon of Trent, an Italian child whose disappearance and death was blamed on the leaders of the city's Jewish community
Blood libels often claim that Jews require human blood for the baking ofmatzos, an unleavened flatbread which is eaten duringPassover. Earlier versions of the blood libel accused Jews of ritually re-enacting thecrucifixion.[10] The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically, blood libel claims have been made in order to account for the otherwise unexplained deaths of children. In some cases, the alleged victims ofhuman sacrifice have become venerated asChristian martyrs. Many of these – most prominentlyWilliam of Norwich (1144),Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1255), andSimon of Trent (1475) – became objects of localcults and veneration; the cult of Hugh of Lincoln gained the support ofHenry III and his sonEdward I, giving it official credibility and helping it to be particularly well remembered. Although he was never canonized, the veneration of Simon was added to theGeneral Roman Calendar. One child who was allegedly murdered by Jews,Gabriel of Białystok, was canonized by theRussian Orthodox Church.
InJewish lore, blood libels served as the impetus for the creation of theGolem of Prague byRabbiJudah Loew ben Bezalel in the 16th century.[11] The term 'blood libel' has also been used in reference to any unpleasant or damaging false accusation, and as a result, it has acquired a broader metaphoric meaning. However, this wider usage of the term remains controversial.[12][13]
History
The earliest versions of the accusations involving Jews supposedly crucifying Christian children onEaster/Passover is said to be because of a prophecy.[clarification needed] There is no reference to the use of blood in unleavened matzo bread at this time yet, which develops later as a major motivation for the crime.[14]
The blood libels emerged at a time when the church and particularly the Crusades were driving increasingly anti-Judaic discourses. These were later reinforced through the Church councilLateran IV which mandated the segregation of Christian and Jewish society, and built an apparatus of enforcement across Europe.[citation needed] At a local context, many of the English examples may have included an element of church competition for saintly cults, with the income that veneration produced.[citation needed]
Israel Yuval proposed that the blood libel may have originated in the 12th century due to Christian views on Jewish behavior during theFirst Crusade. Some Jews committed suicide and killed their own children rather than exposing them toforced conversion to Christianity. Yuval wrote that Christians may have argued that if Jews could kill their own children, they could also kill Christian children.[20][21]
Origins in England
The crucifixion of William of Norwich depicted on arood screen in Holy Trinity church,Loddon, Norfolk
In England, in 1144, the Jews ofNorwich were falsely accused ofritual murder after a boy,William of Norwich, was found dead in the woods with stab wounds. William's hagiographer,Thomas of Monmouth, falsely claimed that every year there is an international council of Jews at which they choose the country in which a child will be killed during Easter, because of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. According to Monmouth, England was chosen in 1144, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing, after which they abducted and crucified William.[22] The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of a martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church.[23]
This was followed by similar accusations inGloucester (1168),Bury St Edmunds (1181) and Bristol (1183). In 1189, the Jewish deputation attending the coronation ofRichard the Lionheart was attacked by the crowd.Massacres of Jews at London and York soon followed. In 1190, on 16 March, 150 Jews were attacked in York and then massacred when they took refuge in the royal castle, where Clifford's Tower now stands, with some committing suicide rather than being taken by the mob.[24] The remains of 17 bodies thrown in a well in Norwich between the 12th and 13th century (five that were shown by DNA testing to likely be members of a single Jewish family) were very possibly killed as part of one of thesepogroms.[25]
After the death ofLittle Saint Hugh of Lincoln, there were trials and executions of Jews.[26] The case was described byMatthew Paris and later byChaucer, and formed the basis of theSir Hugh ballads which have circulated to the present day. Its notoriety sprang from the intervention of the Crown, the first time an accusation of ritual killing had been given royal credibility.
The eight-year-old Hugh disappeared atLincoln on 31 July 1255. His body was probably discovered on 29 August, in a well. A Jew named Copin or Koppin confessed to involvement. He confessed toJohn of Lexington, a servant of the crown, and relative of the Bishop of Lincoln. He confessed that the boy had been crucified by the Jews, who had assembled at Lincoln for that purpose.King Henry III, who had reached Lincoln at the beginning of October, had Copin executed and 91 of the Jews of Lincoln seized and sent up to London, where 18 of them were executed. The rest were pardoned at the intercession of the Franciscans or Dominicans.[27]
Within a few decades, Jews would beexpelled from all of England in 1290 and not allowed to return until 1657. After the expulsion,Edward I renovated "Little Saint Hugh's" shrine and decorated it with his Royal insignia, as part of his efforts to justify his actions.[28][page needed] As Stacey notes: "A more explicit identification of the crown with the ritual crucifixion charge can hardly be imagined."[29]
Continental Europe
Simon of Trent blood libel. Illustration in Hartmann Schedel's Weltchronik, 1493
Much like the blood libel of England, the history of blood libel in continental Europe consists of unsubstantiated claims made about the corpses of Christian children. There were frequently associated supernatural events speculated about these discoveries and corpses, events which were often attributed by contemporaries to miracles.[citation needed] Also, just as in England, these accusations in continental Europe typically resulted in the execution of numerous Jews – sometimes even all, or close to all, the Jews in one town. These accusations and their effects also, in some cases, led to royal interference on behalf of the Jews.[citation needed]
Thomas of Monmouth's story of the annual Jewish meeting to decide which local community would kill a Christian child also quickly spread to the continent. An early version appears inBonum Universale de Apibus ii. 29, § 23, byThomas of Cantimpré (a monastery near Cambray). Thomas wrote, in around 1260, "It is quite certain that the Jews of every province annually decide by lot which congregation or city is to send Christian blood to the other congregations." Thomas of Cantimpré also believed that since the time when the Jews called out toPontius Pilate, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25), they have been afflicted with hemorrhages, a condition equated with male menstruation:[30]
A very learned Jew, who in our day has been converted to the (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoying the reputation of a prophet among them, toward the close of his life, made the following prediction: 'Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to which you are exposed, can only be obtained through Christian blood ("solo sanguine Christiano").' This suggestion was followed by the ever-blind and impious Jews, who instituted the custom of annually shedding Christian blood in every province, in order that they might recover from their malady.
Thomas added that the Jews had misunderstood the words of their prophet, who by his expression "solo sanguine Christiano" had meant not the blood of any Christian, but that of Jesus – the only true remedy for all physical and spiritual suffering. Thomas did not mention the name of the "very learned" proselyte, but it may have beenNicholas Donin ofLa Rochelle, who, in 1240, had a disputation on theTalmud withYechiel of Paris, and who in 1242 caused the burning of numerous Talmudic manuscripts in Paris. It is known that Thomas was personally acquainted with Nicholas. Nicholas Donin and another Jewish convert, Theobald of Cambridge, are greatly credited with the adoption and the belief of the blood libel myth in Europe.[31]
The first known case outside England was inBlois, France, in 1171. This was the site of a blood libel accusation against the town's entire Jewish community that led to around 31–33 Jews (with 17 women making up this total[32])[33][34] being burned to death[35] on 29 May of that year, or the 20th of Sivan of 4931.[33] The blood libel revolved around R. Isaac, a Jew whom a Christian servant reported had deposited a murdered Christian in theLoire.[36] The child's body was never found. The count had about 40 adult Blois Jews arrested and they were eventually to be burned. The surviving members of the Blois Jewish community, as well as surviving holy texts, were ransomed. As a result of this case, the Jews garnered new promises from the king. The burned bodies of the sentenced Jews were supposedly maintained unblemished through the burning, a claim which is a well-known miracle, martyr myth for both Jews and Christians.[36] There is significant primary source material from this case including a letter revealing moves for Jewish protection withKing Louis VII.[37] Responding to the mass execution, theTwentieth of Sivan was declared a fast day byRabbenu Tam.[32] In this case in Blois, there was not yet the myth proclaimed that Jews needed the blood of Christians.[32]
Painting of Werner of Oberwesel as a martyr
In 1235, after the dead bodies of five boys were found on Christmas Day inFulda, the inhabitants of the town claimed the Jews had killed them to consume their blood, and burned 34 Jews to death with the help of Crusaders assembled at the time. Even though emperorFrederick II cleared the Jews of any wrongdoing after an investigation, blood libel accusations persisted in Germany.[38][39] AtPforzheim,Baden, in 1267, a woman supposedly sold a girl to Jews who, according to the myth, then cut her open and dumped her in theEnz River, where boatmen found her; the girl cried for vengeance, and then died. The body was said to have bled as the Jews were brought to it. The woman and the Jews allegedly confessed and were subsequently killed.[40] That a judicial execution was summarily committed in consequence of the accusation is evident from the manner in which theNuremberg "Memorbuch" and the synagogal poems refer to the incident.[41]
In 1270, atWeissenburg, ofAlsace,[42] a supposed miracle alone decided the charge against the Jews. A child's body had shown up in theLauter River; it was claimed that Jews had cut into the child to acquire his blood, and that the child continued bleeding for five days.[42]
At Oberwesel, near Easter of 1287,[43] alleged miracles again constituted the only evidence against the Jews. In this case, it was claimed that the corpse of the 16-year-oldWerner of Oberwesel (also referred to as "Good Werner") landed atBacharach and the body performed miracles, particularly medicinal miracles.[44] Light was also said to have been emitted by the body.[45] Reportedly, the child was hung upside down, forced to throw up the host and was cut open.[44] In consequence, the Jews of Oberwesel and many other adjacent localities were severely persecuted during the years 1286–89. The Jews of Oberwesel were particularly targeted because there were no Jews remaining in Bacharach following a 1283 pogrom. Additionally, there were pogroms following this case as well at and around Oberwesel.[46]Rudolph of Habsburg, to whom the Jews had appealed for protection, in order to manage the miracle story, had the archbishop of Mainz declare great wrong had been done to the Jew. This apparent declaration was very limited in effectiveness.[46]
A statement was made, in theChronicle ofKonrad Justinger of 1423, that atBern in 1293[47] or 1294 the Jews tortured and murdered a boy called Rudolph (sometimes also referred to as Ruff, or Ruof). The body was reportedly found by the house of Jöly, a Jew. The Jewish community was then implicated. The penalties imposed upon the Jews included torture, execution, expulsion, and steep financial fines. Justinger argued Jews were out to harm Christianity.[47] The historical impossibility[clarification needed] of this widely credited story was demonstrated by Jakob Stammler, pastor of Bern, in 1888.[48]
There have been several explanations put forth as to why these blood libel accusations were made and perpetuated. For example, it has been argued Thomas of Monmouth's account and other similar false accusations, as well as their perpetuation, largely had to do with the economic and political interests of leaders perpetuating these myths.[49] The use of blood and other human products for medicinal or magical purposes was an established concept in medieval Europe.[50] As such illegal ways of accessing these item were ascribed (in 1507) by Franciscans to Dominicans, by others to sorcerers and devil worshippers as well as Jews.[50]
Renaissance and Baroque
From an 18th-century etching from Brückenturm.Above: The murdered body of Simon of Trent.Below: The "Judensau"
In 1475, Simon of Trent, aged two, disappeared and his father alleged that he had been kidnapped and murdered by the local Jewish community. Fifteen local Jews were sentenced to death and burned. Simon was regarded locally as a saint, although he was never canonised by the church of Rome. He was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1965 byPope Paul VI.[citation needed]
In 1490, a four-year-old Christian boy named Christopher of Toledo, also known as Christopher of La Guardia or "theHoly Child of La Guardia", was supposedly murdered by two Jews and threeconversos (converts to Christianity). In total, eight men were executed. It is now believed[51] that this case was constructed by theSpanish Inquisition to facilitate theexpulsion of Jews from Spain.
In 1494 a case atTrnava, Slovakia, the impossibleforced confessions from women and children shows that the accused preferred death as a means of escape from the torture, and admitted everything that was asked of them. They even said that Jewish men menstruated and practiced the drinking of Christian blood as a remedy.[52]
AtPezinok, Slovakia in 1529, it was charged that a nine-year-old boy had been bled to death, suffering cruel torture; thirty Jews confessed to the crime and were publicly burned. The true facts of the case were disclosed later when the child was found alive in Vienna. He had been taken there by the accuser, Count Wolf of Bazin, as a means of ridding himself of his Jewish creditors at Bazin.[53][54]
InRinn, nearInnsbruck, a boy namedAndreas Oxner (also known as Anderl von Rinn) was said to have been bought by Jewish merchants and cruelly murdered by them in a forest near the city, his blood being carefully collected in vessels. The accusation of drawing off the blood (without murder) was not made until the beginning of the 17th century when the cult was founded. The older inscription in the church of Rinn, dating from 1575, is distorted by fabulous embellishments – for example, that the money paid for the boy to his godfather turned into leaves, and that a lily blossomed upon his grave. The cult continued until officially prohibited in 1994, by the Bishop of Innsbruck.[55]
On 17 January 1670,Raphael Levy, a member of the Jewish community ofMetz, was executed on charges of the ritual murder of a peasant child who had gone missing in the woods outside the village ofGlatigny on 25 September 1669, the eve ofRosh Hashanah.[56]
Sandomierz, a city inPoland, has been the venue of a number of blood libel cases, leading to the torture and execution of several people.[57] One such case from 1698 involved Małgorzata, a dead two-year-old Christian girl whose corpse was deposited in a church mortuary by her mother, and the Jew she accused under torture, Aleksander Berek.[57] Both the mother and Berek were executed.[57] Other cases are known from earlier dates, and in 1710 another one followed: the body of a boy, Jerzy Krasnowski, was found, a local rabbi was accused of killing him, with the result that the rabbi along with several other Jews died in prison during the proceeding, and three more Jews were sentenced and executed.[57]
Fresco in St Paul's Church inSandomierz, Poland, depicting blood libel
19th century
One of the child-saints in the Russian Orthodox Church is the six-year-old boy Gavriil Belostoksky from the villageZverki. According to the legend supported by the church, the boy was kidnapped from his home during the holiday ofPassover while his parents were away. Shutko, who was a Jew fromBiałystok, was accused of bringing the boy to Białystok, piercing him with sharp objects and draining his blood for nine days, then bringing the body back to Zverki and dumping it at a local field. A cult developed, and the boy was canonized in 1820. His relics are still the object of pilgrimage. OnAll Saints Day, 27 July 1997, the Belarusian state TV showed a film alleging the story is true.[58] The revival of the cult inBelarus was cited as a dangerous expression of antisemitism in international reports on human rights and religious freedoms[59][60][61][62][63] which were passed to theUNHCR.[64]
1823–35Velizh blood libel: After a Christian child was found murdered outside of this small Russian town in 1823, accusations by a drunk prostitute led to the imprisonment of many local Jews. Some were not released until 1835.[65]
1840Damascus affair: In February, at Damascus, a Catholic monk named Father Thomas and his servant disappeared. The accusation of ritual murder was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus.
1840Rhodes blood libel: The Jews ofRhodes, under theOttoman Empire, were accused of murdering aGreek Christian boy. The libel was supported by the local governor and the European consuls posted to Rhodes. Several Jews were arrested and tortured, and the entire Jewish quarter was blockaded for twelve days. An investigation carried out by the central Ottoman government found the Jews to be innocent.
In 1844,David Paul Drach, the son of the Head Rabbi ofParis and a convert to Christianity, wrote in his bookDe L'harmonie Entre L'eglise et la Synagogue, that a Catholic priest in Damascus had been ritually killed and the murder covered up by powerful Jews in Europe; referring to the 1840 Damascus affair [See above]
In 1851–53, a case of blood libel took place inSurami,Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire): seven Jewish men, all versed in religious matters, were falsely accused of the murder of a Christian (Georgian) boy for ritual purposes. Local investigators pressed the case for three years before theGoverning Senate in St Petersburg, the Russian Empire's highest judicial organ, convicted and exiled the accused to remote provinces.[66] Soviet, Israeli and Georgian scholars agree that the Russian imperial state, especiallyViceroy Mikhail Vorontsov, was heavily involved, even manipulated the case to ensure a conviction.[67][66][68] This conviction greatly influenced the Kutaisi case (1878–80, see below).[69]
In theLombardo-Venetian Kingdom inBadia, in theProvince of Rovigo on June 25, 1855, a 21-year-old peasant woman fromMasi, Giuditta Castilliero, returned after eight days missing and claimed she escaped from a ritual murder. She showed wounds on her arms as evidence of bloodletting, giving evidence to her story of blood libel. She testified that a fellow townsman, Caliman Ravenna, was one of the parties responsible. Ravenna was a wealthy merchant, entrepreneur, district tax collector, moneylender and member of the elite in Badia. He was taken into custody on a charge of public violence, and rumours concerning the matter spread throughout the region. The case was moved to the Court of Rovigo. There, the magistrate and other criminal authorities rapidly reviewed the case and immediately arrested the alleged perpetrator. On July 9, Giuditta Castilliero was arrested for a theft inLegnago that took place during the days she had been reportedly missing. This contradicted her testimony, and Caliman Ravenna was released on July 14 and welcomed back into his community. Castilliero was charged with slander, a more serious crime than theft, and was sentenced to six years of hard labour. It was believed she had been put up to make the accusation by a criminal network, personal enemies of Ravella.[7][70]
In March 1879, nine Jewish men from the village ofSachkhere were brought toKutaisi,Georgia to stand trial for the alleged kidnapping and murder of a Christian girl.[69] The case attracted a great deal of attention in the Russian Empire (of which Georgia was then a part): "While periodicals as diverse in tendency asHerald of Europe andSaint Petersburg Notices expressed their amazement that medieval prejudice should have found a place in the modern judiciary of a civilized state,New Times hinted darkly of strange Jewish sects with unknown practices."[71] The trial ended in acquittal, and the orientalistDaniel Chwolson published a refutation of the blood libel.
1882Tiszaeszlár blood libel: The Jews of the village ofTiszaeszlár, Hungary were accused of the ritual murder of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi. The case was one of the main causes of the rise of antisemitism in the country. The accused persons were eventually acquitted.
In 1899,Hilsner Affair: Leopold Hilsner, aCzech Jewish vagabond, was accused of murdering a nineteen-year-old Christian woman, Anežka Hrůzová, with a slash to the throat. Despite the absurdity of the charge and the relatively progressive nature of society inAustria-Hungary, Hilsner was convicted and sentenced to death. He was later convicted of an additional unsolved murder, also involving a Christian woman. In 1901, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.Tomáš Masaryk, a prominent Austro-Czech philosophy professor and future president ofCzechoslovakia, spearheaded Hilsner's defense. He was later blamed by Czech media because of this. In March 1918, Hilsner was pardoned by Austrian emperorCharles I. He was never exonerated, and the true guilty parties were never found.[citation needed]
Victims of theKishinev Pogrom of 1903, caused by a blood libel
The 1903Kishinev pogrom, an anti-Jewish revolt, started when an anti-Semitic newspaper wrote that a Christian Russian boy, Mikhail Rybachenko, was found murdered in the town ofDubossary, alleging that the Jews killed him in order to use the blood in preparation of matzo. Around 49 Jews were killed and hundreds were wounded, with over 700 houses being looted and destroyed.[72]
In the1910 Shiraz blood libel, the Jews ofShiraz,Iran, were falsely accused of murdering a Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged; the pogrom left 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured.[73]
Antisemitic flier inKyiv in the 1910s with a picture of the dead Yushchinskyi, issued some time during the trial of Beilis, that read: "Christians, take care of your children!!! It will be the Jews' Passover on 17 March."
InKyiv, a Jewish factory manager,Menahem Mendel Beilis, was accused of murdering 13-year-old Andriy Yushchinskyi, a Christian child, and using his blood to make matzos. He was acquitted by an all-Christian jury after a sensational trial in 1913.[74][page needed][better source needed]
Jews were frequently accused of the ritual murder of Christians for their blood inDer Stürmer, an antisemitic newspaper which was published inNazi Germany. The infamous May 1934 issue of the paper was later banned by the Nazi authorities, because it went so far as to compare alleged Jewish ritual murder with the Christianrite ofcommunion.[76]
In 1938 the British fascist politician and veterinarianArnold Leese published an antisemitic booklet in defense of the Blood Libel which he titledMy Irrelevant Defence: Meditations inside Gaol and Out on Jewish Ritual Murder.
The1944–1946 Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, which according to some estimates killed as many as 1000–2000 Jews (237 documented cases),[78] involved, among other elements, accusations of blood libel, especially in the case of the1946 Kielce pogrom.
King Faisal ofSaudi Arabia (r. 1964–1975) made accusations against Parisian Jews that took the form of a blood libel.[79]
The Matzah of Zion was written by theSyrian Defense Minister,Mustafa Tlass in 1986. The book concentrates on two issues: renewed ritual murder accusations against the Jews in theDamascus affair of 1840, andThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[80] The book was cited at aUnited Nations conference in 1991 by a Syrian delegate. On 21 October 2002, the London-based Arabic paperAl-Hayat reported that the bookThe Matzah of Zion was undergoing its eighth reprinting and it was also being translated into English, French and Italian.[citation needed] Egyptian filmmaker Munir Radhi has announced plans to adapt the book into a film.[81]
In 2003, a private Syrian film company created a 29-part television seriesAsh-Shatat ("The Diaspora"). This series originally aired inLebanon in late 2003 and it was subsequently broadcast byAl-Manar, a satellite television network owned byHezbollah. This TV series, based on the antisemitic forgeryThe Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, shows the Jewish people engaging in a conspiracy to rule the world, and it also presents Jews as people who murder the children of Christians, drain their blood and use it to bakematzah.[82]
In early January 2005, some 20 members of the RussianState Duma publicly made a blood libel accusation against the Jewish people. They approached the Prosecutor General's Office and demanded that Russia "ban all Jewish organizations." They accused all Jewish groups of being extremist, "anti-Christian and inhumane, and even accused them of practices that include ritual murders." Alluding to previous antisemitic Russian court decrees that accused the Jews of ritual murder, they wrote that "Many facts of such religious extremism were proven in courts." The accusation included traditionalantisemitic canards, such as the claim that "the whole democratic world today is under the financial and political control of international Jewry. And we do not want our Russia to be among such unfree countries". This demand was published as an open letter to the prosecutor general, inRus Pravoslavnaya (Русь православная, "Orthodox Russia"), a national-conservative newspaper. This group consisted of members of the ultra-nationalistLiberal Democrats, theCommunist faction, and the nationalistMotherland party, with some 500 supporters. The mentioned document is known as "The Letter of Five Hundred" ("Письмо пятисот").[83][84] Their supporters included editors of nationalist newspapers as well as journalists. By the end of the month, this group was strongly criticized, and it retracted its demand in response.
At the end of April 2005, five boys, ages 9 to 12, inKrasnoyarsk (Russia) disappeared. In May 2005, their burnt bodies were found in the city sewage. The crime was not disclosed, and in August 2007 the investigation was extended until 18 November 2007.[85] Some Russian nationalist groups claimed that the children were murdered by a Jewish sect with a ritual purpose.[86][87] Nationalist M. Nazarov, one of the authors of "The Letter of Five Hundred" alleges "the existence of a 'Hasidic sect', whose members kill children before Passover to collect their blood", using the Beilis case mentioned above as evidence. M.Nazarov also alleges that "the ritual murder requires throwing the body away rather than its concealing". "The Union of the Russian People" demanded officials thoroughly investigate the Jews, not stopping at the search in synagogues,Matzah bakeries and their offices.[86]
During a speech in 2007,Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of theIslamic Movement in Israel, referred to Jews in Europe having in the past used children's blood to bake holy bread. "We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month ofRamadan with children's blood", he said. "Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread."[88]
In the 2000s, a team of Polish anthropologists and sociologists investigated the currency of the blood libel myth inSandomierz where a painting depicting the blood libel adorns the Cathedral, and Orthodox faithful in villages nearBialystok, and they discovered that these beliefs persist among some Catholic and Orthodox Christians.[89][90][91] The fact that local Jews were saved by orders from the bishop, who saw them hide in the very same cathedral during theHolocaust, gave rise to hopes of transforming Sandomierz into a symbol of hope for the checkered historicalPolish-Jewish relations.[57]
In an address that aired onAl-Aqsa TV, aHamas run TV station inGaza, on 31 March 2010, Salah Eldeen Sultan (Arabic: صلاح الدين سلطان), founder of the American Center for Islamic Research inColumbus, Ohio, theIslamic American University inSouthfield, Michigan, and the Sultan Publishing Co.[92] and described in 2005 as "one of America's most noted Muslim scholars", alleged that Jews kidnap Christians and others in order to slaughter them and use their blood for making matzos. Sultan, who is currently a lecturer on Muslim jurisprudence atCairo University stated that: "The Zionists kidnap several non-Muslims [sic] – Christians and others... this happened in a Jewish neighborhood in Damascus. They killed the French doctor, Toma, who used to treat the Jews and others for free, in order to spread Christianity. Even though he was their friend and they benefited from him the most, they took him on one of these holidays and slaughtered him, along with the nurse. Then they kneaded the matzos with the blood of Dr. Toma and his nurse. They do this every year. The world must know these facts about the Zionist entity and its terrible corrupt creed. The world should know this." (Translation by theMiddle East Media Research Institute)[93][94][95][96][97]
During an interview which aired onRotana Khalijiya TV on 13 August 2012, Saudi Cleric Salman Al-Odeh stated (as translated byMEMRI) that "It is well known that the Jews celebrate several holidays, one of which is the Passover, or the Matzos Holiday. I read once about a doctor who was working in a laboratory. This doctor lived with a Jewish family. One day, they said to him: 'We want blood. Get us some human blood.' He was confused. He didn't know what this was all about. Of course, he couldn't betray his work ethics in such a way, but he began inquiring, and he found that they were making matzos with human blood." Al-Odeh also stated that "[Jews] eat it, believing that this brings them close to their false god,Yahweh" and that "They would lure a child in order to sacrifice him in the religious rite that they perform during that holiday."[98][99]
In April 2013, the Palestinian non-profit organization MIFTAH, founded byHanan Ashrawi apologized for publishing an article which criticized US PresidentBarack Obama for holding aPassover Seder in theWhite House by saying "Does Obama, in fact, know the relationship, for example, between 'Passover' and 'Christian blood'...?! Or 'Passover' and 'Jewish blood rituals?!' Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe is real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover." MIFTAH's apology expressed its "sincerest regret".[100]
In an interview which aired onAl-Hafez TV on 12 May 2013, Khaled Al-Zaafrani of the Egyptian Justice and Progress Party, stated (as translated byMEMRI): "It's well known that during the Passover, they [the Jews] make matzos called the 'Blood of Zion.' They take a Christian child, slit his throat and slaughter him. Then they take his blood and make their [matzos]. This is a very important rite for the Jews, which they never forgo... They slice it and fight over who gets to eat Christian blood." In the same interview, Al-Zaafrani stated that "The French kings and the Russian czars discovered this in the Jewish quarters. All the massacring of Jews that occurred in those countries were because they discovered that the Jews had kidnapped and slaughtered children, in order to make the Passover matzos."[101][102][103]
In an interview which aired on theAl-Quds TV channel on 28 July 2014 (as translated byMEMRI),Osama Hamdan, the top representative ofHamas inLebanon, stated that "we all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos. This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact, acknowledged by their own books and by historical evidence."[104] In a subsequent interview with CNN'sWolf Blitzer, Hamdan defended his comments, stating that he "has Jewish friends".[105]
In a sermon broadcast on the officialJordanian TV channel on 22 August 2014, Sheik Bassam Ammoush, a former Minister of Administrative Development who was appointed to Jordan'sHouse of Senate ("Majlis al-Aayan") in 2011, stated (as translated byMEMRI): "In [theGaza Strip] we are dealing with the enemies ofAllah, who believe that the matzos that they bake on their holidays must be kneaded with blood. When the Jews were in thediaspora, they would murder children in England, in Europe, and in America. They would slaughter them and use their blood to make their matzos... They believe that they areGod's chosen people. They believe that the killing of any human being is a form of worship and a means to draw near their god."[106]
In April 27, 2019, John Earnest enteredPoway synagogue inPoway, California and fatally shot one woman and injured three other people, including the synagogue'srabbi. In themanifesto that is attributed to him, he wrote that he was avenging the martyrdom ofSimon of Trent: "You are not forgotten Simon of Trent, the horror that you and countless children have endured at the hands of the Jews will never be forgiven".[111]
In March 2020, Italian painter Giovanni Gasparro unveiled a painting of the martyrdom ofSimon of Trent, titled "Martirio di San Simonino da Trento (Simone Unverdorben), per omicidio rituale ebraico (The Martyrdom of St. Simon of Trento in accordance with Jewish ritual murder)". The painting was condemned by the Italian Jewish community and theSimon Wiesenthal Center, among others.[112][113]
TheQAnon conspiracy theory has been accused of advancing blood libel tropes through its belief that Hollywood elitesare harvesting adrenochrome from children throughSatanic ritual abuse in order to becomeimmortal.[114] In February 2022, a sculpture of Simon of Trent depicting the blood libel was used to promote the adrenochrome-harvesting conspiracy theory.[115]
Views of the Catholic Church
The attitude of theCatholic Church towards these accusations and the cults venerating children supposedly killed by Jews has varied over time. ThePapacy generally opposed them, although it had problems in enforcing its opposition.
In 1911, theDictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique, an important French Catholic encyclopedia, published an analysis of the blood libel accusations.[116] This may be taken as being broadly representative of educated Catholic opinion in continental Europe at that time. The article noted that the popes had generally refrained from endorsing the blood libel, and it concluded that the accusations were unproven in a general sense, but it left open the possibility that some Jews had committed ritual murders of Christians. Other contemporary Catholic sources (notably theJesuit periodicalLa Civiltà Cattolica) promoted the blood libel as truth.[117]
Today, the accusations are rarer in Catholic circles. WhileSimon of Trent's local status as a saint was removed in 1965, several towns in Spain still commemorate the blood libel.[118]
Papal pronouncements
Pope Innocent IV took action against the blood libel: "5 July 1247 Mandate to the prelates of Germany and France to annul all measures adopted against the Jews on account of the ritual murder libel, and to prevent the accusation of Arabs on similar charges" (The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents: 492–1404; Simonsohn, Shlomo, pp. 188–189, 193–195, 208). In 1247, he wrote also that "Certain of the clergy, and princes, nobles and great lords of your cities and dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property, and appropriating it themselves;... they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy...In their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to the Jews. And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions without any formal accusation, without confession, and without legal trial and conviction, contrary to the privileges granted to them by the Apostolic See... Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed,... we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."[119]
Pope Gregory X (1271–1276) issued a letter which criticized the practice of blood libels and forbade arrests and persecution of Jews based on a blood libel,... unless — which we do not believe — they be caught in the commission of the crime.[120]
Pope Benedict XIV wrote the bullBeatus Andreas (22 February 1755) in response to an application for the formalcanonization of the 15th-centuryAndreas Oxner, afolk saint alleged to have been murdered by Jews "out of hatred for the Christian faith". Benedict did not dispute the claim that Jews murdered Christian children, and in anticipating that further cases on this basis would be brought appears to have accepted it as accurate, but decreed that in such cases beatification or canonization would be inappropriate.[121]
In 1840, following the Western outrage arising from theDamascus affair, British politician and leader of the British Jewish community, SirMoses Montefiore, backed by other influential westerners including Britain'sLord Palmerston and Damascus consulCharles Henry Churchill,[123] the French lawyerAdolphe Crémieux, Austrian consul Giovanni Gasparo Merlato, Danish missionaryJohn Nicolayson,[123] and Solomon Munk, persuaded SultanAbdulmejid I inConstantinople, to issue a firman on 6 November 1840 intended to halt the spread of blood libel accusations in the Ottoman Empire. The edict declared that blood libel accusations were aslander against Jews and they would be prohibited throughout the Ottoman Empire, and read in part:
... and for the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth...
In the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th century, there were many instances of the blood libel in Ottoman lands,[124] such as the 1881Fornaraki affair. However the libel almost always came from the Christian community, sometimes with the connivance of Greek or French diplomats.[124] The Jews could usually count on the goodwill of the Ottoman authorities and increasingly on the support of British,Prussian and Austrian representatives.[124]
In the1910 Shiraz blood libel, the Jews ofShiraz,Iran, were falsely accused of murdering a Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the pogrom leaving 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured.[125]
In 1983,Mustafa Tlass, theSyrian Minister of Defense, wrote and publishedThe Matzah of Zion, which is a treatment of the Damascus affair of 1840 that repeats the ancient "blood libel", thatJews use the blood of murdered non-Jews in religious rituals such as baking Matza bread.[126] In this book, he argues that the true religious beliefs of Jews are "black hatred against all humans and religions", and no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty withIsrael.[127] Tlass re-printed the book several times. Following the book's publication, Tlass toldDer Spiegel, that this accusation against Jews was valid and he also claimed that his book is "an historical study ... based on documents from France, Vienna and theAmerican University in Beirut."[127][128]
In 2003, the Egyptian newspaperAl-Ahram published a series of articles byOsama El-Baz, a senior advisor to the then Egyptian PresidentHosni Mubarak. Among other things, Osama El-Baz explained the origins of the blood libel against the Jews. He said thatArabs andMuslims have never been antisemitic, as a group, but he accepted the fact that a few Arab writers and media figures attack Jews "on the basis of theracist fallacies and myths that originated inEurope". He urged people not to succumb to "myths" such as the blood libel.[129]
Nevertheless, on many occasions in modern times, blood libel stories have appeared in the state-sponsored media of a number of Arab and Muslim nations, as well as on their television shows and websites, and books which allege instances of Jewish blood libels are not uncommon there.[130]The blood libel was featured in a scene in the SyrianTV seriesAsh-Shatat, shown in 2003.[131][132]
In 2007, Lebanese poet Marwan Chamoun, in an interview aired onTélé Liban, referred to the "... slaughter of the priest Tomaso de Camangiano ... in 1840... in the presence of two rabbis in the heart of Damascus, in the home of a close friend of this priest, Daud Al-Harari, the head of the Jewish community ofDamascus. After he was slaughtered, his blood was collected, and the two rabbis took it."[133] A novel,Death of a Monk, based on the Damascus affair, was published in 2004.[134]
^Turvey, Brent E.Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual murder made against one or more persons, typically of the Jewish faith".
^abChanes, Jerome A.Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2004, pp. 34–45. "Among the most serious of these [anti-Jewish] manifestations, which reverberate to the present day, were those of the libels: the leveling of charges against Jews, particularly the blood libel and the libel of desecrating the host."
^Goldish, Matt.Jewish Questions: Responsa on Sephardic Life in the Early Modern Period, Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 8. "In the period from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, Jews were regularly charged with blood libel or ritual murder – that Jews kidnapped and murdered non-Jews as part of a Jewish religious ritual."
^Blood Accusation inJewish Encyclopedia. (Richard Gottheil, Hermann L. Strack, Joseph Jacobs). Accessed 31 October 2018. Note that the version of the Jewish Encyclopedia here quoted misspells the nameDamocritus asDemocritus, the name of an unrelated philosopher.
^Louis H. Feldman,Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993. pp. 126–127.
^Feldman, Louis H.Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, Brill, 1996, p. 293.
^Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by Israel J. Yuval; translated by Barbara Harshav and Jonathan Chipman,University of California Press, 2006
^Albert Ehrman, "The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel," Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Spring 1976): 86
^Albert Ehrman, "The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel," Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Spring 1976): 88.
^abcAlbert Ehrman, "The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel,"Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Spring 1976): 85.
^abSusan L. Einbinder "Pucellina of Blois: Romantic Myths and Narrative Conventions,"Jewish History, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 1998): 29
^"Middle Ages".Blood Libel. Retrieved25 February 2023.
^Steven K. Baum, "When Fairy Tales Kill,"Journal for the Study of Antisemitism, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2009): 190–191.
^Siegmund Salfeld,Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches (1898), pp. 15, 128–130
^ab"Blood Libel".zionism-israel.com. Retrieved19 January 2025.
^Jörg R. Müller, "Ereẓ gezerah – 'Land of Persecution': Pogroms against the Jews in the regnum Teutonicum from c. 1280 to 1350," The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries): Proceedings of the International Symposium, ed. Christoph Cluse (20–25 October 2002): 249.
^abAriel Toaff, Blood Passover, trans. Gian Marco Lucchese and Pietro Gianetti (AAARG, 2007): 64.
^Jörg R. Müller, "Ereẓ gezerah – 'Land of Persecution': Pogroms against the Jews in the regnum Teutonicum from c. 1280 to 1350," The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries): Proceedings of the International Symposium, ed. Christoph Cluse (20–25 October 2002): 249–250.
^abJörg R. Müller, "Ereẓ gezerah – 'Land of Persecution': Pogroms against the Jews in the regnum Teutonicum from c. 1280 to 1350," The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries): Proceedings of the International Symposium, ed. Christoph Cluse (20–25 October 2002): 250.
^abAlbert Winkler, "The Approach of the Black Death in Switzerland and the Persecution of Jews, 1348–1349," Swiss American Historical Society Review, Vol. 43, No. 3 (2007): 14.
^Jeffrey Cohen, Review of The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe, by E.M. Rose Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Winter 2017): 410.
^abJoshua Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism. (Vardo Books, 2001): 141–143.
^Reston, James: "Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the defeat of the Moors", p. 207. Doubleday, 2005.ISBN0-385-50848-4
^Is the New in the Post-Soviet Space Only the Forgotten Old? by Leonid Stonov, International Director of Bureau for the Human Rights and Law-Observance in the Former Soviet Union, the President of the American Association of Jews from the former USSR
^Shukian, M. P. (1940). "Pravovoe polozhenie evreev Gruzii v XIX stoletii".Trudy Istoriko-etnograficheskogo Muzeia Evreev Gruzii.1:73–74.
^Mamistvalishvili, El'dar (2014).Gruzinskie evrei (s epokhi antichnosti do 1921g.) [Georgian Jews: from antiquity to the year 1921]. Tbilisi: D. Baazov Museum of history of Jews in Georgia. pp. 210–215.ISBN9789941918964.OCLC928754220.
^Marina Caffiero,Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome, translated byLydia G. Cochrane (University of California Press, 2012), pp. 34–36.
^abLewis, Donald (2014).The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury And Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 380.ISBN9781107631960.
^abcLewis, Bernard (1984).The Jews of Islam. Princeton University Press. pp. 158–159.
In 1986, the Defense Minister ofSyriaMustafa Tlass authored the bookThe Matzah of Zion. The book renews the anti-Jewish ritual murder accusations of 1840Damascus affair and alleges thatThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a factual document. (Frankel, Jonathan.The Damascus Affair: "Ritual Murder", Politics, and the Jews in 1840, pp. 418, 421. Cambridge University Press, 1997.ISBN978-0-521-48396-4)
In 2001 anEgyptian film company produced and aired a film titledHorseman Without a Horse, partly based on Tlass's book.
The Syrian TV seriesAsh-Shatat ("The Diaspora") depicts Jews engaging in a conspiracy to rule the world, murder Christian children, and use their blood to bakematzah.
Stacey, Robert (2001). "Anti-Semitism and the Medieval English State". In Maddicott, J. R.; Pallister, D. M. (eds.).The Medieval State: Essays Presented to James Campbell. London: The Hambledon Press. pp. 163–177. Retrieved5 August 2025.
O'Brien, Darren (2011)The Pinnacle of Hatred: The Blood Libel and the Jews. Jerusalem: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University Magnes Press.ISBN978-9654934770
Johnson, Hannah (9 July 2012).Blood Libel: The Ritual Murder Accusation at the Limit of Jewish History. University of Michigan Press.ISBN978-0472118359.
External links
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. William of Norwich".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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