The Myth of Jewish Blood Libel
How a Medieaval Murder led to Anti-Semitism
The legend of Jewish ritual murder, or Blood Libel, is that Jews brutally murder a Christian child and use their blood to make matzah, the unleavened bread eaten during Passover.
A Mysterious Murder in 12th Century England
The first documented accusation of Blood Libel came after a young boy was murdered in Norwich in 1144. The monks who found the body of William described him to have been tortured in a similar way to Jesus Christ. A few years later, a monk, Thomas of Monmouth, began to investigate the murder. He published his unfounded accusation that the Jewish community were responsible for the death, and he tried to make William into a martyr. The publication was not widely believed at first; unfortunately this was not the case for long.
Another Murder Leads to Executions of Jews
In 1255 another young boy, Hugh was found murdered in Lincoln, England. Immediately the Jewish community was accused of Blood Libel, most likely because some of England’s most prominent Jews were in Lincoln at the time for an important wedding. A number of the Jewish community were arrested, and after apparent ‘confessions’ under torture, eighteen or nineteen were executed. This incident strengthened the credibility of the myth, and became famous as it inspired a number of ballads and poems.
Blood Libel Myths occur in Europe
The Blood Libel myth was not confined to England and a number of cases were recorded in France, Germany and Spain, in the medieval period and beyond. They led to mass expulsions of Jewish communities, widespread distrust of Jews and anti-Semitic violence.
The Damascus Blood Libel Incident, 1840
In 1840 Damascus was part of the vast Ottoman Empire and had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians and Jews. When a well known Italian Friar and his Muslim servant suddenly disappeared, suspicion immediately fell onto the Jewish community, although neither victim was a Christian child. Under torture a Jewish resident ‘confessed’ that he was involved amongst a number of others in the ritual murder. This aspect of the incident is strikingly similar to what happened in England six hundred years previously. The Jews implicated in the confession were also tortured until they admitted their involvement. As the investigation continued there were an increasing number of attacks on Jews in Damascus. With all evidence circumstantial and the death of two potential witnesses in custody, there was outrage in the Jewish communities of Western Europe and the United States.
Blood Libel Anti-Semitism in the Twentieth Century
Unfortunately despite the European outrage, the incident in Damascus was not the end of Blood Libel myths. The rumour was behind violent anti-Jewish pogroms in Kishinev, then part of Bessarabia, in 1903 and there were numerous others throughout the Russian Empire in this period.
Sources:
Dundes, A. (Ed) The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Anti-Semitic Church Fresco
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