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The Southern Israelite
Page 7
The Scarlet Trail
How the Blood Libel Began and Why Every
Anti-Semitic Movement Tries It
By FLORENCE ROTHSCHILD
During Passover festival
ichen Jews throughout the
world rejoiced and celebrated
the liberation of their en
slaved fathers through Moses,
we must also remember the
scarlet trail that runs through
our history. For many cen
turies the blood libel has been
hurled at our heads by bar
barous governments and un
civilized foes, whether in me
dieval Spain or Czarist Rus
sia or twentieth-century Je
rusalem. For many centuries
Jews have suffered torture
and even death because of
this fantastic calumny. Miss
Rothschild traces the origin
and development of the blood
libel in an article of genuine
interest tot Jews and non-
Jews alike. —The Editor
“Draw out, and take your Iambs ac-
1 <>rding to your families,” said Moses
t<> the elders of Israel, “and kill the
Passover lamb. And ye shall take a
bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood
that is in the basin, and strike the lintel
ind the two side-posts with the blood
that is in the basin.'*
This marking of the doors of the
Hebrews was intended as a sign to the
\ngel of Death, who was to stride
through the land of Egypt on that night
f the Tenth Plague and to strike dead
the lirst-lxirn of the Egyptians. The
blood of the lamb on the door-posts
and lintels would tell the dread Angel
that these were the homes of Hebrews,
win) feared the One God and whose
first-born was therefore to be spared.
And it came to pass at midnight that
the I^ord smote all the first-born in the
land of Egypt—and there was a great
t ry in Egypt.”
Little did the author of the Priestly
History, recording these events which
now lie over three thousand years be-
md us, think that some day this very
i-chal lamb which had once saved the
hildren of Israel would bring them
m rrow and torture.
1 he sacrifice of the firstling lambs
" a> an ancient pastoral rite which,
nu authorities believe, had been prac-
• ' cd by the Israelites during their
journ in Egypt, but which in that
‘teful year of the Exodus they had
cn prohibited to perform in their
' mary asembly. The purpose of the
rifice was purification and atone-
nt through the blood of the lamb—
•t unfamiliar notion among primi-
peoples. Was there not, in ancient
i!n < a similar ceremony in which
e sprinkled with the blood of the
were absolved from sin? Though
course that ritual may have come
ne Iberian Peninsula through the
ium of the eucharist (we confess
are a little hazy on the chronology
• ».
; 'Jt to continue with the evolution of
the paschal sacrifice. In only one part
of tlie world—in the bills of Samaria,
Palestine—is this ancient religious rite
still practiced in its original form; the
Samaritan practice, incidentally, makes
the sacrifice the oldest ritual that has
been observed uninterruptedly through
the ages. Among all other Jews the
sacrifice has degenerated into a mere
roasting of a lamb bone and display of
it on the Seder table. For the prophets
of Israel had convinced their people
that the Lord prefers holy living to
burnt offerings.
About nineteen hundred years ago a
Jewish leader summoned his tiny band
of disciples for a last supper. “I great
ly desire to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer,” lie told them. The
thirteen of them—the leader and bis
twelve followers—sat down at the table.
The leader “took bread, and having
given thanks, broke it and said : "This
is my body which is for your sake.
This do in memory of me. Likewise
also the cup after supper, saying; This
cup is the new covenant in my blood.
This do, as often as you drink it, in
memory of me."
No doubt this leader—whose aim it
bad been to bring bis people spiritual
consolation for the oppression they had
suffered under the Romans, and who
himself suffered crucifixion when bis
movement theratened to grow too
powerful for the welfare of Rome—
was speaking allegorically, as was bis
custom, meaning merely to exhort bis
followers to remember him and keep
the laws of their people. Hut bis cruci
fixion coincided too nearly with the
sacrifice of the paschal lamb for bis
followers, overwhelmed by sorrow, not
to draw a parallel. And as year fol
lowed year a mythical significance was
attached to that last supper and the
the incarnation of the paschal lamb,
crucifixion. That Jewish leader became
symbol of purification and absolution,
and bis death became bis vicarious sac
rifice for bis followers. His words—
"This do in memory of me”—became a
command, and the eucharist became the
central sacramental rite of the Chris
tian church.
As Christianity spread and grew
powerful .and Rome came more and
more to be its head and heart, the Jews,
homeless now, and scattered, soon
found that the story of the crucifixion
had been twisted so as to cast them
in the villainSs part. Especially after
the fall of the Roman Empire, when
they began to push northward in larger
numbers, did they learn that “it is not
good to be a Jew.” They were a stiff
necked people, and refused to acknowl
edge any divinity but the One God;
and because of this refusal they—an
unfamiliar apparition in the north of
Europe in any case--came to be regard
ed as vicious, inhuman beings, and their
repute as "Christ-killers” appeared con
firmed.
Now consider: The sacrifice of the
paschal lamb bad been an annual rite
of the ancient Hebrews; the death of
Jesus was interpreted as the sacrifice
of the paschal lamb in human incarna
tion; the Jews were "Christ-killers."
Hence, so went medieval logic, the
Jews, like a tiger that has once tasted
human blood—only, the medieval con
ception of the Jew was more terrify
ing than any tiger—now needed to sac
rifice Christian blood to their God
every year at Passover time. From
this the notion that Christian blood
was an essential ingredient of those
mysterious unleavened cakes evolved
wthout much difficulty. And the stage
was set for the blood libel—the libel of
ritual murder.
We are not going into a detailed ac
count of the innumerable accusations oi
ritual murder made against the Jews in
the course of the centuries. Suffice it
to say that the blood libel has flourish
ed in many lands and many times, that
it brought death or ruin to countless
helpless, innocent Jews. Even in our
own country, in New York state, an
attempt to revive it was made a few
years ago; but this, of course, was quick
ly quashed. In the more backward
regions of Europe, however, the accusa
tion has been cropping up even in these
supposedly enlightened times, and this
year it raised its hideous head in the
Arab press of Palestine.
An idea of the spread of this horrible
libel may be gained from a brief enum
eration of some of the most important
ritual murder accusations of the last
hundred years or so. First place must
be given to the notorious case that
brought the town of Velizh, Russia, in
to the limelight in 1823; twelve years
passed before those of the accused
Jews who survived their imprisonment
were set free at last, and before the
synagogues of the city, which had been
closed as a result of the case in 1826,,
were permitted to reopen. Another
monstrous case was that of Damascus,
Syria, in 1840, which aroused a storm
of protest throughout Europe; it was
Sir Moses Montefiore who finally
brought about the release of the vic
tims of the libel. Then there was a
notorious ritual murder accusation in
Korfu, Greece, in 1881 ; another in
Polna, Austria, in 1899, and still an
other in Konitz, Germany, in 1900; and,
most recent of all among the famous
cases, the accusation of Mendel Beilis
of ritual murder in Kiev, Russia, in
1911.
These are only a few of the more
well-known cases, and in all of these
the supposed murderers were brought
to regular trial and eventually, though
as a rule only after years of the most
terrible suffering, were acquitted. But
countless cases occurred in which an
inflamed populace did not wait for judi
cial findings, but at the first hint of a
ritual murder fell upon the Jewish quar
ter to kill and maim and plunder. For
in Eastern Europe, particularly, medie
val notions flourished in the dark bog
of popular ignorance long after they
should have been eradicated by the
light of modern knowledge, and have
not entirely disappeared even now.
But let it not be supposed that ig
norant peasants or townsmen have been
the only believers in the tragic myth
of ritual murder. True, enlightened
Christian leaders—including some popes
and kings—have fought against it in
all ages. Yet it was possible for a Czar
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