The lie known as the blood libel is the ugliest expression of antisemitism. It accuses Jews of kidnapping and murdering Christians to obtain their blood for magic, medicine, or matzoh-making. The victims—typically small boys—were not merely bled, they were ritually tortured to death in blasphemous parody of the Crucifixion. These atrocities were carried out at the command of a worldwide blood-gathering Jewish conspiracy. Not content to kill Christian children as images of Christ, some Jews even stole Hosts to torment the Eucharistic presence of Christ himself.
The origins
The terms “blood libel” and “the myth of ritual murder” are largely interchangeable. The essential element is that Jews killed Christians, especially children, for their blood. This horrendous form of Jew-hatred coalesced in the Middle Ages, the work of Catholics who claimed to be acting out of zeal for the Faith. Popes did oppose these vile accusations. For example, 1247 Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) denounced covetous elites in Germany and France for oppressing Jews: “. . . 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. . . . Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed, . . . we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner.”i
Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) had condemn the blood libel again in 1271 in response to a French incident: “Most falsely do these Christians claim that Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifice from the heart and blood of these children, since their law in this manner precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws.”ii
Despite opposition from authorities, these pernicious ideas spread like a virus across Europe, all the way to the Orthodox and Muslim East. A very conservative tally lists 100 such accusations against Jews before 1600, 53 of these in German-speaking territories.iii Incidents peaked in Poland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1913, the last European blood libel trial in (then) Kiev, Russia ended in an acquittal.
The deadly infection has persisted as a routine component of antisemitism down to modern times. It remains a deeply rooted folk belief in some Western circles and is featured in official propaganda in Islamic lands. The casualties directly caused by these bloody lies—Jews defamed, imprisoned, tortured, executed, despoiled, or exiled—number in the thousands rather than the Holocaust’s millions. Yet hatred sprung from medieval fantasies fed the Final Solution.iv
This essay will concentrate on the medieval roots of the blood libel and the myth of ritual murder. Developments during the Reformation and afterward are a story for another time.
Why the Middle Ages?
Why would the Middle Ages, an era that made so many marvelous contributions to Western Civilization, also leave this particular legacy of anti-Jewish hatred? Tensions between Christians and Jews are already evident in the New Testament. But although some Church Fathers such as St. John Chrysostom railed against Jews, none launched the blood libel. St. Augustine’s view prevailed: Jews were to be left unmolested as witnesses to the Old Testament matrix of Christianity and in anticipation of their conversion at the end of the world.
There is no one explanation of why Western attitudes towards Jews turned more hostile starting in the twelfth century, a time cultural flowering, and expressed that hostility in the enduring myth of ritual murder. Here are some that scholars have suggested. The Middle Ages saw the return of a money economy, accompanied by worries over usury. Not all Jews were moneylenders, nor all moneylenders Jews, but the leech-like stereotype fastened on Jews–permanently. When rulers, dependent on borrowed cash, demanded tolerance towards Jews, assertive local governments sometimes reacted with pogroms and expulsions to express their independence.
Religious considerations were surely more significant. Eucharistic piety was burgeoning in the High Middle Ages with Host miracles, the Feast of Corpus Christi, fasting female saints and so forth. (Yet the Council Lateran IV, which defined transubstantiation to describe the real presence of Jesus, also commanded Jews to wear identifying marks on their clothing.) Spirituality grew more emotional, emphasizing the humanity and sufferings of Christ. Devotion to the Holy Innocents grew, for they had died in place of the Infant Jesus. Passion relics were cherished and the Stations of the Cross were invented. (But fiery preaching by the new mendicant orders sometimes roused mobs to attack Jews.)
The very sublimity of the Mass as the sacrifice of God’s Body and Blood made it seem “magical” to some clouded minds. And if wicked Christians made superstitious use of stolen Hosts, what might perfidious Jews do? After all, Jewish magicians had been famous since antiquity. When Christians began projecting blasphemous fantasies of blood and death on Jews, some people found it advantageous to feed such delusions. The myth of ritual murder was slowly becoming thinkable.
Specific cases and a master narrative
Europe’s earliest case of ritual murder happened during a civil war for the throne of England. When a twelve-year-old apprentice named William died on Good Friday of 1144 in Norwich, his relatives claimed that he had been killed by Jews. Although the local sheriff declined to bring charges, his victim status earned him burial in the Cathedral Priory’s cemetery.
But his death affected the outcome for another one five years later, following the failed Second Crusade. (Like other Crusades, that one had slaughtered Jews on the way to fighting Muslims.) An impoverished Norman crusader had his rich Jewish creditor, leader of Norwich’s Jews, killed. Local Jews accused the knight, who went on trial before King Stephen. But the Bishop of Norwich, acting for the defense, argued that the murder was justifiable revenge for Jews’ earlier, unprosecuted killing of young William. Moreover, William had been ritually murdered in imitation of Christ’s death. A converted Jew turned monk claimed that this fulfilled international Jewry’s need for Christian blood, collected each year in a city chosen by lot. Unwilling to rule on either homicide, the king adjourned the trial. Neither the knight nor the Jews of Norwich were punished.
But the story did not end there. Despite a lack of interest among local townspeople, the bishop and monks of Norwich were beginning to promote William as a miracle-working martyr and potential city patron. His remains were translated to a chapel in the cathedral in 1154. His story was turned in a hagiographic epic by a monk of the Norwich priory named Thomas of Monmouth. The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, begun in 1150 and completed in 1173, presents a tender portrait of the young innocent lured to his death by crafty, murderous Jews and records miraculous healings at his shrine. Mixing fact and fancy with rhetorical flair, Thomas built on the bishop’s clever trial strategy to create “the master narrative of Jewish ritual murder.”v
News of William’s martyrdom filtered out of Norwich even before Thomas finished his Vita. Jews were accused of child-murder at Gloucester (1168), Bury St. Edmunds (1181), and Bristol (1183). In Blois, France (1171), when a Christian servant reported a Jew for killing a Christian boy, it was treated as a communal crime. Although no victim was found, more than 30 Jews, including pregnant women and infants, were locked in a building that was set on fire. In addition, three young Jews were burned publicly, a punishment previously reserved for heretics. The money and status that the impoverished Count of Blois gained by manipulating charges against Jews set an ominous precedent for other rulers.
For example, the count’s nephew, King Philip Augustus of France, used the allegation that Jews in Paris had crucified a boy to confiscate Jewish property and expel them from royal territory in 1182. Not only did Philip’s plunder buy the loyalty of his subordinates, it funded substantial infrastructure improvements to the capital, such as new city walls. Furthermore, promoting the cult of the Jew’s victim and turning former synagogues into churches enhanced the king’s reputation for piety.
Money was also a factor in the most famous English ritual murder, the case of an eight-year-old boy known as Little St. Hugh of Lincoln. In the summer of 1255, the child drowned in a cesspit by the home of a wealthy Jew named Copin (or Jopin). His body was not found until a month later, the day after the wedding of a distinguished rabbi’s daughter that had drawn leading Jews from all over England to Lincoln. The Jews panicked and tried to hide the corpse in a well, but it was soon discovered. Hugh’s grieving mother demanded justice from King Henry III, who happened to be traveling in the area.
Copin, the obvious suspect, was arrested and questioned by the Bishop of Lincoln’s brother. After a false offer of immunity if he would implicate others, Copin confessed. He spun a gruesome fable detailing the agonies inflicted on Hugh, point for point matching the Passion of Christ. (There was even a stand-in for Pontius Pilate to judge the boy.) Copin was put to death anyway, tied to a horse’s tail and dragged around the town to be hanged.
King Henry had 91 Jews arrested. Although he had sold his royal privilege of taxing Jews to his brother, Richard of Cornwall, he would still acquire the property of any Jews executed. Eighteen prisoners were hanged, two released, and the remaining 71 condemned to death after a quick trial. Friars begged the king for mercy without avail. But the king’s brother, realizing that dead Jews would not be paying him taxes, managed to get the condemned Jews set free. Even so, King Henry’s intervention signaled royal approval for the myth of ritual murder.
Although never officially canonized, Little St. Hugh was given a shrine in Lincoln Cathedral that drew pilgrims until its destruction during the Reformation. His pathetic death inspired “The Prioress’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as well as a popular English ballad “Sir Hugh, or the Jew’s daughter” collected in many variations by eighteenth and nineteenth century scholars.
Persistence of a deadly delusion
Three late medieval cases of ritual murder demonstrate persistence of the deadly delusion. The most famous of these happened in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, then ruled by the Holy Roman Empire, now Trento, Italy. Simon of Trent was only two and a half years old when he disappeared on Holy Thursday of 1475. His father accused the Jews of taking him, triggering a city-wide search. The public mood may have been affected by a Franciscan preacher’s Lenten sermons attacking Jews.
On Easter Sunday, Samuel, head of the tiny local Jewish community, reported finding Simon’s body on his property. For his honesty, he and all the other Jews were arrested and tortured into confessing that they had ritually murdered Simon for his blood. Samuel and fourteen other men were burnt at the stake. The real murderer probably was a man from Switzerland, who had framed Samuel because of a grudge but Trent’s authorities were interested only in punishing Jews.
Pope Sixtus IV intervened to release for the Jewish women. He ordered a new trial and sent an Italian bishop to preside. But the bishop of Trent obstructed this inquiry and used his Curial connections to ensure that a third trial in Rome cleared him of wrongdoing. The pope allowed that judgment to stand but pointedly did not conclude that Jews had killed Simon of Trent. He condemned ritual murder trials and reiterated papal protection for Jews. This did not prevent Simon’s story from triggering new waves of anti-Jewish violence in regions neighboring Trent. His martyrdom was celebrated in polemical poems, songs, pictures, and broadsheets. He merited coverage, complete with grisly illustration, in Hartmann Schedel’s prestigious Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Ritual murder was certified as history.
Popular piety also ignored the papal decree, abetted by the Bishop of Trent. A hundred miracles were attributed to Simon and the Holy Roman Emperor promoted his cause. The Council of Trent (1545-63) was a vector for spreading the local saint’s fame. Simon’s name entered the Roman Martyrology in 1583. Five years later, Pope Sixtus V approved his local veneration plus a plenary indulgence for pilgrims. But Truth, Daughter of Time, eventually erased Simon of Trent from the catalog of saints. In 1965, on the day that Nostra Aetate, Vatican II’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions” was published in Rome, the Bishop of Trent suppressed Simon’s cult.
Although Andreas of Rinn perished more than a decade before than Simon, his martyrdom might never have been recognized without Simon’s fame. After the corpse of three-year-old Andreas Oxner was found hanging from a tree near Innsbruck, Austria in 1462, oral tradition named Jews as little Anderl’s killers. He was reburied in the parish church and the village changed its name from Rinn to Judenstein (“Jew-stone”), in honor of the spot where he had been slain.
A century and a half later, these legends were collected and written down by an antiquarian named Hippolytus Guarinoni. A church was dedicated to Andreas in 1670, a folk festival launched, and pilgrimages begun. Pope Benedict XIV authorized a breviary entry and Mass text for Andreas (1753) then a plenary indulgence for visiting his shrine on his feast day (1754) but refused to canonize him (1755). His sad tale was even included in Deutsche Sagen by the Brothers Grimm (1816/18). The bishop of Innsbruck ordered the cult suppressed in 1984 but this was not accomplished for another ten years due to stubborn resistance by local people. Radical traditionalists still honor Anderl.
Although obscure, our final example of a ritual murder accusation did greater immediate harm to Jews than all the others mentioned previously. The legendary Holy Child of La Guardia is supposed to have been a young Christian boy kidnapped from Toledo by a group of Jews and Jewish converts (conversos) in 1489. They tormented, bled, and crucified him on Good Friday in a cave in La Guardia as part of a plot to destroy Christendom through black magic using his heart and a stolen consecrated Host. Their motive was revenge for the cruelties of the Inquisition.
But the Host glowed in one conspirator’s possession, leading to his arrest and confession after torture that exposed the others. Tomás de Torquemada, the Inquisitor General, took a personal interest in the case and appointed a special tribunal whose conclusions were reviewed by two separate juries. Testimonies of the accused, obtained through torture, coercion, and trickery, failed to agree on the name or age of the child or the site of the murder. No corpse was found nor and any missing person report. Such evidence was not even sought. Nevertheless, six conversos and three Jews were condemned to death. They were burnt in Avila on 16 November, 1491, the conversos mercifully strangled first.
Despite flaws in the judicial process, Torquemada exploited the incident to argue for the expulsion of all Jews from Spain to spare conversos the temptation to revert to their natal faith. Distress over the martyred boy’s fate helped persuade Queen Isabella of Castile to sign the decree of expulsion on 31 March, 1492. Four months later, some 80,000 Jews who refused to convert were driven from a land their people had occupied for centuries.
Many historians outside of Spain now doubt that the Holy Child of La Guardia—sometimes called Cristóbal (Christopher)—ever existed.vi Nevertheless, he became a favorite Spanish folk saint.vii A century after his alleged death, he inspired a play by Lope de Vega, Spain’s greatest dramatist, entitled El niño innocente de La Guardia (The Innocent Child of La Guardia.) An annual festival continues to celebrate his martyrdom in La Guardia and the official website of the Archdiocese of Madrid still carries a tearful account of his legend presented as factual.viii But at least a Spanish tourism site promoting Toledo posts a strong disclaimer before discussing the Child.ix
Facing ancestral sins
What has been the point of revealing these old atrocities? Jew-hating myths made in the Middle Ages have wrought immeasurable harm across the centuries. In this time of surging antisemitism, we need to face ancestral sins for the purification of communal memory, lest we repeat such wrongs in the future. In response to the Holocaust, a plaque was installed in Lincoln Cathedral where the medieval shrine of Little St. Hugh once stood. After acknowledging the falsehood of his cult, it ends with this prayer:
Lord, forgive what we have been,
amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be.x
Endnotes:
i https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08386a.htm. Retrieved 12 April, 2023.
ii Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred, p. 85.
iii R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, p. 3.
iv The notorious Nazi periodical Der Sturmer devoted an entire special issue to the blood libel in May of 1934. See http://research.calvin.edu/germanpropaganda-archive/sturmer.htm. Retrieved 10 May, 2023.
v E. M. Rose, The Murder of William of Norwich, p. 91.
vi Henry Kamen, leading contemporary historian of the Inquisition, is skeptical. See The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. Weidenfeld and Nicholson: London, 1997. P. 22. But William Thomas Walsh stoutly insists that the holy and learned Inquisitors could not have been mistaken in Characters of the Inquisition. TAN Books: Rockford IL, 1987 reprinted from P. J. Kennedy: New York, 1940, pp. 175-77.
vii His fame even reached the Spanish Netherlands, now Belgium. Sts. “Christopher,” Simon, William, and Hugh appear as crucified toddlers in a lugubrious engraving honoring child martyrs by Hieronymus Wierix of Antwerp (1610). Andreas is absent because the image predates his public cult. The image appears in Wilhelm Ziehn, Das Kreuz: Symbol, Gestalt, Bedeutung. Chr. Belser AG. Stuttgart and Zurich,1996.
viii http://oracionyliturgia.archmadrid.org/2015/09/25/el-santo-nino-de-la-guardia-martir-%E2%80%A0-1489-3-3-2-2/ Retrieved 12 May, 2023.
ixhttps://toledospain.click/the-holy-child-of-la-guardia/. Retrieved 10 April, 2023
xPhyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred, p.82.
Bibliography:
The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Ed. Alan Dundes. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism. Brookline MA: Facing History and Ourselves, 2012.
Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism. Eds. Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, Kalman Weiser. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
E. M. Rose. The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Passion of William of Norwich. Ed. And Trans. Miri Rubin. London: Penguin Books, 2014.
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“In this time of surging antisemitism…” Seriously? It is always a good thing to examine and learn from history, but the author offers no evidence for this alleged “surge in anti-semitism.” Is it real? Is it fair to ask the question? In our privileging of the victim, “victim status” itself has become a form of victimizing others. Hurling the accusation of antisemitism (along with many other epithets, such as fascism, homophobia, racism… the list is endless) has simply become a way of shouting people down. Myself, I see countless and multiplying attacks on Christians, and Catholics in particular, but I see no such evidence of increased attacks on Jewish persons or institutions. I am willing to be convinced otherwise. But I want more than the usual baseless declarations from main stream media.
Thank you. My sentiments entirely.
Canada keeps records of reported hate crimes and those against Jews have increased over the last few years and outnumber those against any other religious or national group.
The Canadian government? In Canada, it is a “hate crime” to persistently “misgender” someone. In America, to refuse to acknowledge transgenderism leads to accusations of “genocide.” Look, I think crime – real, violent crime – is on the rise everywhere. Most of our cities are or soon will be unlivable. But to leap from that to claim there is a specific and persistently antisemitic element in all this is absurd. And to deny that similar or worse attacks are happening against Christian believers and groups in America, Europe, Africa and elsewhere, is simply disingenuous. Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion in the world today, and there is no close second.
Allegations of “anti-Semitism serve to distract attention from the serious, widespread and persistent Christophobia which afflicts modern society. We should notice that the FBI has no agents in synagogues spying of Jews.
Antisemitism is a real thing in France today & it has inspired a number of French Jews to relocate to Israel, but currently it’s more related to immigration from Muslim regions. Not that antisemitism hasn’t been an issue in France previously.
Sadly, I read really disturbing antisemitic comments in conservative publications & it’s even worse on the left where antisemitism’s cloaked in antizionism.
Things have certainly improved since the blood libel days, but we have quite a ways to go. And blood libel claims were still going on in Russia into the early 20th century. You can read about the trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis in 1913.
Antisemitism is primarily a phenomenon among France’s enormous Muslim population, whereas anti-Christian vandalism and violence is increasingly mainstream.
I guess you don’t watch the news or read the papers. Further, you’re exhibiting an “us vs. them” mentality and playing the victim yourself. Shame on you.
As I was saying…
Timothy J. Williams: You are wrong. There are multiple objective studies and reports documenting the rise of antisemitism both in the USA and around the world. From the disgusting display at Charlottesville where the streets were full of people shouting antisemitic slogans, to the violent attacks on synagogues in Pittsburg, Powey, Pueblo, Jersey City, Miami Beach, Monsey and Texas (to name just a few) to the random daily attacks that happen across the USA (especially NYC) and around the world, antisemitism is on the rise. There is also an increase in antisemitic rhetoric (Kanye) and in Holocaust denial. Catholics must stand against antisemitism. We must also confront antisemitism it in our Church.
Your post seems to suggest that somehow caring about antisemitism and reporting on it takes away from persecution of Christians in other parts of the world. That of course is ridiculous as most of us can do more than one thing at a time.
Lots of info online about the rise of antisemitism…you can start here:
https://apnews.com/article/antisemitism-israel-jews-tel-aviv-us-2e13cc5732a04fa4fc2dcf091ac729dd
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61228552.amp
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/antisemitism-rise-american-jewish-groups-aim-take-stand-against-threats.amp
How about the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics: https://www.justice.gov/crs/highlights/2021-hate-crime-statistics
In March 2023, the FBI released a supplement to the 2021 Hate Crime Statistics, an annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents in the United States initially published in December 2022.
A total of 1,590 incidents related to religion were reported; the largest categories of religion included:
Anti-Jewish incidents: 51.4% of religion-related incidents
Anti-Sikh incidents: 11.6%
Anti-Islamic incidents: 9.6%
Anti-Catholic incidents: 6.1%
Anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other): 3.1%
Note that Jews account for only 2% of the US population but are the targets of 51.4% of religion-related hate crimes. Enough said.
Point taken but sadly these days I don’t give as much credence to the FBI or our Justice Dept. for this sort of information. “Hate Crimes” in themselves are a moving target & if defined by groups like the SPLC, not always legit in the first place.
According to the FBI I might associate with radical, rightwing “haters” because I attend the TLM. I’ve met exactly one elderly person at a TLM who held racist views from another era. I guarantee I could meet 10 times that many at our local hardware store.
How is perspective gained and righteousness proclaimed?
If we listen to the righteous God of the Bible (the God of Jacob) we will be invaluable students being able to teach and heal wounds, old and new.
Two Jews that became followers of the prophesied King of the Jews (Jesus Christ) were St Peter and Saint Paul. We as adherents of the Lord Jesus are to heed their words for they were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, no less!
Catholics place special regard on the name of the Apostle Peter. How then, can a man call himself a follower of Jesus Christ and despise those whom He calls “brothers”?
The above mentioned who scorn the Jews need to repent and ask themselves are they truly worshiping the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth?
Numbers 24:9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”
Psalm 50:23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
1 Samuel 2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Exodus 29:9 And you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.
Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Peace and blessings.
“The above mentioned who scorn the Jews need to repent and ask themselves are they truly worshiping the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth?” Are you addressing the Christians of the Middle Ages? That is a curious exhortation.
The Lord Jesus suffered unjustly as have Christians and Jews over the centuries and today. In the fullness of time God will make the Lord Jesus know to the Jews. In the meantime, our love of Christ should be apparent to all who would consider the Catholic Church as a portal of entry in to communion.
Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
Romans 4:11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
Matthew 25:45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Let all those in Christ be part of the solution, never part of the problem.
I do most certainly not scorn the Jews. What I do scorn however is the serious and persistent ignoring by the msm of the widespread slaughter of Christians. I found this article very interesting and informative but that does not lessen my anguish at how poorly covered the plight of Christians is in Nigeria and many Islamic countries.
You may not trust this source, but here it is: …https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165737405/antisemitism-statistics-report-2022-anti-defamation-league
There are other sources, all secular. I doubt that most Catholic or Protestant organizations have the time, money, or staffing to do the research themselves, so we must rely on these secular sources.
As a musician, I have quite a few Jewish friends, several of which I have known for years. I trust them when they tell me about incidents of anti-Semitism. I also have met people who continue to claim that Jews have all the money in this country and control our finances–this is a far cry from Jews being arrested, tortured, and executed, but it’s still anti-Semitic propaganda.
I don’t wish to be a fool and fall for hyperbole, but I do want to know the truth, and considering the long history of anti-Semitism, I don’t doubt that it is still happening in the U.S. and that I need to personaly make sure that my attitude towards all people is one of Christian love, knowing that Jesus died for ALL humans.
Amen Mrs. Sharon.
“…he repented, a broken man….Dr Toaff is the son of the Rabbi of Rome and a professor in the Jewish University of Bar Ilan, not far from Tel Aviv. He made a name for himself by his deep study of medieval Jewry. His three-volumed Love, Work, and Death (subtitled Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria) is an encyclopaedia of this admittedly narrow area. While studying his subject he discovered that the medieval Ashkenazi Jewish communities of North Italy practiced a particularly horrible form of human sacrifice. Their wizards and adepts stole and crucified Christian babies, obtained their blood and used it for magical rituals evoking the Spirit of Vengeance against the hated Goyim.” This quote came from a book review by Israel Shamir
(http://www.israelshamir.net/English/Eng11.htm).
The book exposes the general truth that much of history that we have come to know cannot be trusted. Scholars such as Toaff are often persecuted and censored for their research and conclusions. We, especially Catholics, are only supposed to know the Jewish community as victim never predator. Our collective memory, as Christians, no longer counts for anything. The ritual murder of Catholic babies is plausible, because of the long history of Jewish Christophobia. It began of course before the Crucifixion, continued after the Crucifixion with the murder of St. Stephen and thereafter the rabbis codified it in the Talmud and continues today in various guises and venues.
You know when I mentioned seeing distressing comments in conservative publications I wasn’t requesting an illustration…But this subject matter never fails to disappoint.
You have twice mentioned you have seen antisemitism in “conservative” publications. What publications exactly are you referencing? I am conservative myself and get mailings each and every day on computer and by snail mail. NEVER have I seen anything even remotely antisemitic. Further, in spite of being VERY conservative politically, I have Jewish friendships of 50 years duration, as well as jewish doctors I like and respect a great deal.In NY, according to news reports I have seen of specific crimes, most attacks on Jews have been conducted by Blacks. According to voting statistics, American Blacks vote more than 90 % democratic, which isnt conservative by a long shot.
Exactly. There is no association whatsoever between political and social conservatism and any rise in antisemitism. Where it exists, antisemitism is almost exclusively a phenomenon of the left, including the growing fascist left, and their odd companions in fascist Islam. (And no, the 200-odd people who made up the bizarre groups in Charlottesville have nothing to do with conservatism.)
You do not see antisemitism in any of the comments here for instance?
Goodness if one isn’t disturbed by the content of some of the comments that routinely emerge here when the subject of Judaism comes up I don’t know what it would take.
I’m deeply conservative & traditional myself but I find there are some troubled souls in that corner as well as on the far left.
There are 49 comments posted here. I saw ONE comment here which seemed off-kilter. Whats the ratio??? Every race and political persuasion has its nut jobs. It does NOT mean that is reflective of an entire political persuasion. Or that conservative leaders are pushing racism or ant-semitism. I am for example, very tired of hearing all kinds democrat commentators call totally everyday observations made by conservatives “racial dog whistles”. It is in fact THAT kind of baseless hate speech which has allowed the left to demonize not only Donald Trump but the 75 million of us who voted for him. Some may not like his brusk tone, but that is a far cry from his being a racist or criminal. As the communists said, keep repeating the same lie over and over and eventually it becomes the truth. I guess, THEIR kind of “truth”.
“I saw ONE comment here which seemed off-kilter.”
That’s because there were about 10-12 that we did not put through because they were so obviously anti-Semitic, nasty, and worse.
For example (actual comments):
“Jews who follow the Talmud and Cabala are traitors and Christ hating criminals who work to destroy morality and the Church in every country they take over. But you’re not allowed to name them. That’s the thought police purpose of the ADL and now CWR acting as their proxy warriors to Catholics.”
“There were no chambers and no final solution. That is Jewish propaganda, now thoroughly discredited.”
“People are waking up to the Jewish crime mafia that legally imposed abortion, pornography, no prayers in school, gay marriage, transgenderism, and did 911, the plandemic, and Ukraine, slaughters of Christians (goyim); that’s why the ADL and it’s shills like Miesel are in panic mode.”
So…there’s that.
Thank you for mentioning Dr. Toaff Ariel. I’ve just found his book online, “Blood Passover,” on Internet Archives. Click on the link here:
https://archive.org/details/toaff-ariel-blood-passover_202301/mode/2up
I’m a Filipino Catholic and have no dog in the antisemitism controversy, as I wouldn’t know how to recognize it. As far as I’m concerned, Jews are White. They look White, act White, speak White, think White, socialize with people and friends as Whites do. I simply couldn’t understand why the Nazis hate them so.
My two encounters with antisemitism (or defense against it) were found in a book and a film: Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” and the movie, “Gentleman’s Agreement,” where the Gregory Peck character initially thought exactly as I even now do: Jews look White, think White, act White, speak White, etc. The story went on to illustrate antisemitism as basically prevalent among White elites. The White elite in the movie are not identified as practicing Christians, much less Catholics. So what prompted Miss Miesel to write an article warning Catholics against antisemitism? I wonder.
With my very limited view, I can only say antisemitism is not such a big problem in society, but that’s just me. I can almost say, more racial epithets have been hurled at me for being an Asian Catholic than my Jewish friends would ever encounter.
I also seemed to have read an article in the Tradition in Action website that used exactly the same facts and data that Miss Meisel used in her article, but with a completely opposite perspective. Just shows how two can play this game.
Oh, and by the way, here’s something Miss Meisel might be interested in: A book by a Catholic priest in Russia in the 1890s, “Talmud Unmasked,” with the requisite imprimatur:
http://www.talmudunmasked.com/index.htm
For what it’s worth.
Why will Jewish activists never consider the possibility that Jews have provoked the hostility they have experienced over the centuries? In the October 1932 issue of the Dublin Review, an exchange took place between Jewish historian Cecil Roth and Catholic historian William Thomas Walsh. Roth accused Walsh of reviving anti-Semitic stereotypes in his biography of Isabella of Spain. In response, Walsh admitted that he had originally sympathized with the supposedly persecuted Jews but that his sympathy “shank considerably” as he researched this topic. He then provides convincing evidence that the Spanish Jews continually worked to destroy Spanish Christian society and even worked with the Muslims in their attempts to do so. The oppression of the lower classes by rich Jews and Conversos and their outright hatred of Spanish Christians occasionally provoked mob violence and massacres of Jews. Queen Isabella established the Spanish Inquisition to end these massacres and make sure that only those Jews and Conversos who were guilty were punished. Here is Roth’s attack which reads like a typical ADL hit piece of today. https://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/Roth_letter_to_Walsh.htm
And here is Walsh’s response which everyone should read in order to understand the tension between medieval Christians and Jews. https://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/Walsh_letter_to_Roth.htm
Some are fixated on the past. As important as history is to our understanding, personal agendas may surface which bear little resemblance to reality. It is easy to discredit anyone at any time for any reason.
Shouldn’t our goal be to show a changed life by the power of Jesus Christ?
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
VAG: How does someone provoke the Holocaust? Or the mass shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburg? Are you actually saying that the Jews deserved it?! No actual Christian can imply that people provoke their persecution and/or murder. Your comments are dangerous and stupid. All the modern Popes have been clear that antisemitism is unjust and a sin. You cannot be a Christian and antisemitic (or racist). Nor can one justify the persecution of another person or group of people. Your comments are shameful (and historically inaccurate).
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-jews-antisemitism-idUSKCN1NA1QF
People have provoked hatred and violence against themselves throughout history. This does not justify such hatred or violence, but it does place some responsibility on the hated group to remove the cause of hatred so that such violence will not happen again. I was not referring to the Holocaust, I was referring to specific incidents in fifteenth-century Spain. If you read Walsh’s article posted in my earlier comment, you will find that rich Jews and Conversos oppressed the poor and hated the Spanish Christian populace. Mobs that had legitimate grievances against them went too far and occasionally massacred these Jews and Conversos. Walsh unequivocally condemns these massacres, but he also acknowledges that they would not have occurred had Spanish Jews not hated Christians and Conversos not oppressed the poor. Queen Isabella started the Spanish Inquisition in order to punish those Jews and Conversos who were guilty so that innocent ones would not be massacred. Eventually, she expelled the Jews because it was impossible for Jews and Spaniards to get along peacefully. This does not count as persecution. There are other cases like this throughout history. Ron Unz (himself of Jewish heritage) documents them here. https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-anti-semitism-a-century-ago/
If we truly desire the good of the Jewish people, we must be honest about their errors and bad actions so that they do not provoke further hostilities against themselves. How is it good to turn a blind eye to Jewish behavior and allow them to continue the activities that so often make them disliked?
VAG: Just stop. According to many organizations Unz and his vulgar web site promotes the most disgusting antisemitic tropes (as evidenced by that clownish article you linked to). Citing Unz demonstrates how wrong and very misguided you are.
https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/california-entrepreneur-ron-unz-launches-series-rhetorical-attacks-jews
Instead of launching ad hominem attacks on Unz, maybe you could point out where he is wrong. I could launch similar attacks on the ADL if I wanted to. And you still have not refuted Walsh’s arguments in the article I posted in my first comment.
Yup. And writing about this subject on Holocaust Remembrance Day & then seeing some of the replies is a good object lesson that antisemitism never really went away. There’s still a need to make people aware & learn about history so we don’t repeat it.
This should be an article about NOT making false accusations or gaining confessions through torture.
The only increase I’ve seen of anti-Jewish sentiment is that they have set up a system that dissallows criticism using 1940 Germany as a scapegoat to cover every sin. Most of them and their Christian counterparts promote the tearing apart of children all the time. We just spent the last 3 years injecting “medicines” apparently made possible from such child sacrifices.
We cannot pretend to an innocence that is not there. Nevertheless Jewish persons should no more be a scapegoated than those falsely claimed as German socialist sympathizers. Just like nobody would believe what Fr. So&So is doing to children there is more to these stories…
Three tweaking details:
FIRST, regarding: “Like other Crusades, that one [the Second] had slaughtered Jews on the way to fighting Muslims.” The author knows that the picture is a bit mixed. Of the First Crusade, according to historians, the newest acts of persecution were less at the hands of the crusaders than the rag tag camp followers and their own charismatic leaders. Yes, discriminatory Church legislation did appear, but only later under the Third and Fourth Lateran Councils (1179 and 1215). Throughout, individual bishops often housed and protected Jews from the fury.
SECOND, regarding the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in A.D. 1492, “a land their people had occupied for centuries.”
Occupied?
As in formerly-Christian, and invaded by Islam in A.D. 711. Or, as in all of the Middle East and Turkey and North Africa, all formerly Christian, but now occupied (and as in Occupy Wall Street?). How much of the politics and fear in 1492 is explained by the (Islamic-like!) fusion of Crown and Church, and then the prospect of Muslim sleeper cells set on taking down the state? Yes, a persecution, but it’s almost as if such convoluted entanglements go back much further—as if Original Sin and its consequences are part of universal human nature and the historical human condition.
A reality and doctrine not accepted by Islam—with looming consequences today.
THIRD, regarding the money economy and Jewish money changers. The long arm of history proposes that, first, Jews were confined to money changing as an occupation not permitted to Christians (the usury thing). And second, such that, in say the past century, one reason given why Pius XI’s draft encyclical against Fascist persecution of the Jews was not published, was the lingering concern that the Jews were now a worldwide banking cabal set on taking down the Church (other more ordinary reasons are also offered). Again, from small and even archaic beginnings, things come back to haunt… .
Again, CONSIDERING all such intergenerational entanglements (every intersectionality under the sun!), it’s almost as if in a compact world the doctrine of Original Sin is more profoundly relevant than ever!
All we need now is a Synod on Synodality to redefine at least sexual morality, and then to relativize all morality (bury the moral absolutes along with Veritatis Splendor!) and all will be well!
One) I condensed too much on the association between the fervor raised to launch the Crusades and massacres of Jews. Such atrocities during the Second Crusade–condemned with little effect by St. Bernard–were relevant to the murder of the Norwich Jew. I didn’t take time to go into details of the First Crusade. Historian Jonathan Reilly-Smith points out that Peter the Hermit’s followers who marched ahead of the “official” Crusade and who slaughtered Jews in the Rhineland were not, as often depicted, a mob of peasants but were led by knights and noblemen. My point, too abruptly made, was that crusading and Jew-killing were already connected by the time of the Norwich incident.
Two) “Occupied” may carry a connotation of conquest but here it I meant “resided.” Jews lived in Spain from the time of the Romans, long before the Visigoths or Muslims invaded.
Three) Lending money breeds hostility. Italian bankers were also hated in England and France long after Jews had been expelled from those countries. The hostility just seems to attach more firmly to bankers of a certain background, which is why “International Bankers/Banksters” was Fr. Coughlin’s code for Jewish financiers.
“International banksters” is still a code word for antisemitism. I see it used on a regular basis in comments. Sadly.
Thank you so much for sharing this article. It’s really a shame we still have the same prejudices going on centuries later but at least articles like yours bring that out into the light.
The Rothschilds are mythical creatures.
The myths about the Rothschilds are mythical.
The international banksters of Fr. Couglin’s and Charles Lindbergh’s era had recently loaned lavish amounts of money to both sides during the First World War and financed the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia. A century earlier they helped underwrite Napolean. In the early 40s they were pushing hard to get the US into World War II. Their goods works have continued over the generations years through the activities of Michael Milliken, Bernie Madoff, George Soros, Sam Bankman-Fried and the Wall Street banks.
This history of victimhood of the Jews does not give them the moral justification to in turn victimize, taking away the nation and land of, the Palestinians, who are both Christians and Muslims, in Israel today.
The Lord God is the owner of the Land of Israel. He deeded it to the Jews for all time. Islam is name it and claim it. Islam is deceit as endorsed in the Koran. Would you like me to quote the verses?
Why don’t fellow Arab States not accommodate the Palestinians? There is more than enough land to go around!
I believe that God gave Israel to the Jews as a homeland also but I think the Palestinians deserve our compassion too. I go to Mass with Palestinians and they’ve had a rough time. Few Palestinian Christians remain in Israel today.
I agree that Israel’s neighbors could have been more accommodating to displaced Palestinians.
Like many other things it’s all become politicized.
Brian Young: Here, your biblical acumen becomes erroneous. The biblical Israel is not equivalent to the modern state of Israel which continues to dispossess and displace Palestinians who have been residents of the land before the establishment of the modern state. Your Christian Zionism blinds you. I now begin to doubt your biblical knowledge and understanding which you always wave and flag in here. You obviously do not know that in the NT especially in Paul, the new Israel is Jesus Christ himself and his Body, the Church.
Dear Jose:
Thank you for raising a point that needs addressing.
Biblical Israel was scattered because of unbelief and the rejection of their Messiah. God had prophesied these matters. The deed is perpetual though. The so called “Palestinians” moved in even though it was given to the Israelites by God. Yes Israel was disposed and dispersed throughout the world, yet promises remain and more prophecy is still to be fulfilled.
Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
Isaiah 10:22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
Genesis 15:18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Ezekiel 37:21 Then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.
Romans 11:1-36 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. …
Ezekiel 37:11-13 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
Isaiah 66:8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labour she brought forth her children.
Zechariah 12:2-3 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
Today we have the restored State of Israel, yet spiritual Israel is another subject. There is a good deal to be said, yet the above verses should offer some perspective.
God bless you,
Brian
Brian Young: Your biblical knowledge consisting of memorized isolated clobber verses that you throw at Catholics here is always out of context. Just because you can cite verses does not mean you’re communicating God’s revelation. Here your Christian Zionism which is common to many Evangelicals is a prime example of the misuse and abuse of the Bible. You must have been misled by false pastors like John Hagee and other dispensationalist and fundamentalist preachers who are the Christian versions of the Talibans. These verses you cite do not give the right to the modern state of Israel to displace and dispossess Palestinians who have been in the land thousands of years before 1948. Maybe unknown to Christian Zionists like you, a good number of Palestinians are Christians especially Catholics. Afterall, these Christians have chosen to remain in the land of Jesus’ birth. The biblical Israel is NOT the modern state of Israel. To underline that the Church is the new Israel (not the modern state!) here’s a verse for you to study (BTW, this clearly says the Jews are not the ‘chosen people,’ Christians are!). Addressing Christians, Peter declares: “you are a CHOSEN race, a royal priesthood, a holy NATION, God’s very own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
By a remarkable coincidence, on the same day this piece first appeared, an article was posted at another site which relates the letter Saint Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon from 816 – 840, wrote to Louis the Pious concerning Jews in his diocese. Among other matters taken up, apparently, it represents the first testimony alleging abduction of Christian children by Jewish merchants for sale into Arab Spain. Readers interested in the topic may want to check it out to get a different perspective.
Any article which starts trading on the concept of “ancestral sins” loses my vote right there. I am responsible for my own sins, period. Not anybody elses. Most certainly I have no responsibility for what happened 800 or 1000 years ago. I am a former history major. And I enjoy history of all sorts for it’s excitement and general enlightenment of a time period. But for the purposes of dredging it up to cast blame on present day LIVING folks who had nothing to do with that past, thats when I stop my support. Right now, around the word, Christians and specifically catholics, are the target of brute violence, especially in areas inhabited by large numbers of Muslims. attacks on people and on church facilities are rampant in France, murders of whole Christian towns in Nigeria, and here in the US we have seen attacks on Christian and pro-life facilities. THAT is the sort of religious attack we should be concerned about. The here and now, with an eye toward punishing and incarcerating the violent bigots who perpetrate the crimes. Its a waste of time to whine about what happened 1000 years ago when nothing can be done to change the past or punish those responsible for the atrocities. Ditto, nutty ideas like “reparations” here in the US. Force money out of citizens who have never owned slaves and give it to those who have never been slaves themselves?? Mark me down as “no thanks”. The surest way to perpetuate violence and hate is to make victims of innocent people, regardless of skin color. Feels like a really bad idea.
Learning about pogroms and terrible injustices isn’t whining. No more than learning about Christian martyrs’ suffering is whining.
We are only responsible for our own failings but being informed about historical failings helps us not to repeat those.
I think you missed my point. As I said, I enjoy history of all kinds. But articles like this are seldom done for simple information. They are written with few exceptions in order to cast blame . Interestingly I have never seen the Catholic church attempt to wrest money from those who killed its members or damaged its property. The victims of the French Revolution come to mind. And presently, California, never a slave state, is now trying to assign a value to “reparations”, which is totally absurd and apt to finally bankrupt the state. A great number of us are tired of hearing what I do indeed classify as a “whine”.
“As I said, I enjoy history of all kinds. But articles like this are seldom done for simple information. They are written with few exceptions in order to cast blame.”
Ms. Miesel is an historian, and her purpose here is to correct falsehoods that are found in certain Catholic circles. Linking it somehow to the progressive nonsense about reparations is strange.
Many of the comments here leave me wondering why so many Catholics are up in arms about historical truths. Or assume everything has a political agenda attached to it. Lord have mercy.
You go from making allegations of antisemitism against “conservative publications” (without naming any of them) to equating this with remarks made by individuals here who are equally unknown to me. What am I supposed to be “disturbed” about? That there are people in the world who do not like other people? It is impossible to engage with you on this basis.
Mr Williams, if you read my previous posts I said I have seen *comments * in conservative publications. Not articles.
Does the Catholic Church anywhere define and say that antisemitism is a sin? If so, what is the definition?
One that comes to mind (I’m sure there are some others, but don’t have time right now to look them up) is in Nostra Aetate:
Thank you, well done Carl.
Your plodding, prodding, provoker. Perhaps you inquire of the Lord, “why did you send him our way”?
Yours in Christ,
Brian
“That’s because there were about 10-12 that we did not put through because they were so obviously anti-Semitic, nasty, and worse.
For example (actual comments):
“Jews who follow the Talmud and Cabala are traitors and Christ hating criminals who work to destroy morality and the Church in every country they take over. But you’re not allowed to name them. That’s the thought police purpose of the ADL and now CWR acting as their proxy warriors to Catholics.”
“There were no chambers and no final solution. That is Jewish propaganda, now thoroughly discredited.”
“People are waking up to the Jewish crime mafia that legally imposed abortion, pornography, no prayers in school, gay marriage, transgenderism, and did 911, the plandemic, and Ukraine, slaughters of Christians (goyim); that’s why the ADL and it’s shills like Miesel are in panic mode.”
What’s hateful or antisemitic about any of this, if it’s true? Is there a Jewish mafia or not? Not all Jews are part of it, but some are. It’s not racial but theological and moral. What is the synagogue of Satan that St. Paul and St John refer to? Does the Talmud teach that Jesus is in hell and that it’s ok to lie and kill the goyim? What about the papal approved articles on the Jewish question? Are these hateful too?
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/judaism/jewrope.htm
Miss Susan,
Have you shared these thoughts with the FBI? They’ve been greatly embarrassed recently having to publicly recall their mission to infiltrate Catholic parishes to root out antisemites & racists & this might give them some much needed validation.
We were laughing about the absurdity of the FBI at our fellowship meal after the TLM but perhaps the FBI was correct all along & we’re the ones that should be making our apologies.
🙂
Setting aside the issue of ritual murder, it can certainly be said that the jews gravely err in their views. They deny the Holy and Undivided Trinity, the divinity and messiahship of our Lord, and the truth of the Gospel. This definitely influences their words and actions, which in turn influences society–and not in a good way. Every Catholic who applies faith and common sense understands this.
The question is not what the author proposes. To reveal the truth, proper ongoing investigation is necessary to reveal if the abduction and ritual killing of children has happened and if it is still happening today, at the hands of any race. The Bible gives many accounts of the horrors of demon worship and human sacrifice:
Judges 16
1 Kings 18
1 Samuel 5
Jeremiah 7:8-10
Judges 3:7
1 Kings 16:31-33
2 Chronicles 28:1-2
Numbers 25:3,5,18
Numbers 31:16
Joshua 22:17
Deuteronomy 4:3
Psalm 106:28
Hosea 9:10
The Jewish Scholar Toaff affirmed that, from his research, there *were* cases of ritual murder. Under heavy pressure and criticism, he backed down and retracted his claim, saying that he was just trying to provoke an academic discussion.
This is another classic case of shouting down and silencing legitimate research through “outrage”–when that research does not match up with an approved narrative.
I thought the article was excellent and spot-on. And I thank her for writing such a fine short history. It is hard to encapsulate such complex and difficult topics in such a short amount of words. There will be conflations and omissions. I too have had this problem in publishing on this site. But she pulls it off admirably!
William was not the first. The first reports were in Greek manuscripts, before Christ, reported by Josephus. Church fathers’ reports and local reports also exist in first millennium. William is the first local (scuttled by Jews) court case we have on record. Note also: many converted Jews admitted it as a secret or semi-secret thing. Dr Ariel Toaff, Israeli son of a Knesset rabbi, wrote that it had happened in some cases, but his book in English was retracted under fellow-Jewish pressure. Sorry.