The Blood Libel

Good Catholic children shared some fundamental certainties.

The Church was divided into the shepherds and the flock. The shepherds were devoting their lives to the flock. The shepherds were trying to protect the flock from harm. We believed that they could tell the difference between wolves and rabbits.

We believed in saints. We believed the Church had method of identifying saints.

We believed the shepherds were on our side.

Once upon a time there was a St. Simon of Trent.

The story of St. Simon of Trent went like this. Some Jews celebrated the Passover of 1475 by kidnapping a two-year old Catholic boy in the Italian town of Trentino. They drained his blood and crucified him head down. The killers were arrested, confessed and convicted.  Italian Jews protested the verdict. Pope Sixtus IV appointed a commission of six cardinals for a retrial. The verdict of guilty was upheld. The records of this retrial are still available in the Vatican.

For centuries Jews have called the charge that some Jews murdered Christians to use their blood in Jewish religious rituals “the blood libel.”

In 1965, the Roman Catholic bishops wanted to be loved by the Jewish media. The Bishop of Trent signed a decree proclaiming that the blood libel against the Jews of that city was unfounded. The cult of St. Simon was abolished. The alleged martyr’s body was removed and hidden away to stop pilgrims from visiting the grave.

Recently, Ariel Toaff, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, published BLOOD PASSOVER: European Jews and Ritual Murder.

The Jerusalem Post (February 7, 2007) reported on the scandal. Professor Toaff had found that from 1100 to about 1500 several crucifixions of Christian children happened and that Jewish merchant were running a market in human blood at the time for medical use “with rabbinic certification of the product - kosher blood.”

Jewish organization swarmed into action. Professor Toaff was forced to destroy his book and repent. You can find an English translation as a free .pdf download on the web.

When Toaff examined the trial records of the murderers of the former St. Simon of Trent he was staggered. The confessions of the murderers contained details of the crime that only the killers could know.

Toaff discovered many cases of such bloody sacrifices connected with the mutilation of children, outpouring of blood and its baking into Matzo (unleavened bread) spanning five hundred years of European history.

Toaff reports the existence a market for bloody matzo. The most costly of which was made with the blood of a Christian child. The blood had to be of a boy younger than seven years old.

Israeli professor Israel Yuval has explained that blood was a necessary ingredient for medieval Jewish magicians who wanted call down divine vengeance on non-Jews.
Two Nations in Thy Womb

Elliott Horowitz reports that some Jews whipped statues of the Virgin Mary, destroyed crucifixes, and even murdered Christians to celebrate Purim. (Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.)

Some Jews did kidnap Christian children. Some Jews did murder Christian children. Some Jews did use the blood of Christian children in rituals. The “Blood Libel” is not a libel, it is the truth.

The executions of the Jewish perpetrators were not acts of anti-Semitic bigotry. They were simply just.

For a thousand years the Catholics in Orvieto, Italy, commemorated the miracle of Trani. A Jewish woman stole a consecrated host from a church and tried to fry it. Blood flowed from the host and filled her house and she was discovered. The Roman Association of Friends of Israel demanded the abolition of the traditional procession. They got it and an apology from the Vatican. The Vatican ignored that Yuval and Horowitz, and now Toaff, have attested to host desecrations by Jews

Although little Simon of Trent was still a saint when I began my lessons in Catholicism, his murder was never mentioned. When I finished my instruction in Catholic history and theology, the murdered boy was no longer a saint. Many other things were never mentioned. The history of the Jews in Christendom since the completion of the New Testament until Vatican Two was never mentioned by any nun, priest, brother, or professor of theology. None of them mentioned the Talmud.

Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews was mentioned with pride and Pope Pius XII was defended from the charge that he did not do enough to rescue Jews. Pope John XXII was praised for his efforts to save Jews when he was a papal diplomat.

This has come to look odd now that the internet has made it possible to learn the history the Vatican had to know but did not teach.

In the year 1236, Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, approached Pope Gregory IX with a list of serious charges about the Jewish religion He told the Pope that the rabbis taught the Jews to kill Christians. Donin told the Pope the Talmud taught the Jews that they could cheat and deceive Christians whenever possible.  He told the Pope that daily prayers of the Jews cursed the Christians.

The Pope ordered an investigation. The Talmud was examined by scholars. Donin’s charges were confirmed. The Pope ordered the Talmud to be burned.

Many other Jews who converted to Christianity told the Church authorities about the contents of the Talmud and ritualized hatred of non-Jews.

Pablo Christiani, a convert who had studied the Talmud under the guidance of famous rabbis went to the Church authorities in Barcelona in 1262.

Peter Schwartz, Hans Boyd, and Paul de Santa-Maria [formerly Solomon Levi] were Jewish converts who warned the Church authorities about the Talmud in the 14th century.

In 1700, the Austrian Christian, Johann Eisenmenger, wrote Judaism Uncovered. He was well acquainted with the Talmud. He was a respected scholar who read Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. Eisenmenger wrote that the Jewish religious tradition forbids robbery, deceit, and even murder only within the Jewish community. Non-Jews were exempt from moral protection. He argued that people raised with such beliefs would be inclined to defame Christianity, as well as rob, swindle and even murder Christians.

The most famous Jewish commentator on the Talmud is Moses Maimonides. The private Jewish school that Noah Feldman attended was name after Maimonides. His writings are authoritative among the Orthodox Jews around the world. His words are part of the standard Orthodox Jewish religious services today. The Catholic Church could not have been ignorant in his case.

What did Maimonides say the Talmud teaches about the value of non-Jewish lives?

“Accordingly, if we see an idolater [non-Jew] being swept away or drowning in the river, we should not help him. If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him.”

“And this applies not to corpse uncleanness only but to any other kind of uncleanness: neither gentiles nor cattle are susceptible to any uncleanness.”

“‘If a man schemes against his fellow man and kills the man deliberately, take him away from the altar and put him to death. But a gentile is not considered a man, and even more so, a Jew is not executed for killing an unrighteous gentile.” - Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Brooklyn, New York, 1990.

St. Justin Martyr stated in 116 A. D.: “The Jews were behind all the persecutions of the Christians. They wandered through the country everywhere hating and undermining the Christian faith.”

Professor Toaff mentions that the celebrations of Jewish feast of Purim sometime included the murder of Christian child. He cites the 5th century history by Socrates Scholasticus. In 415AD the Jews living near Antioch took a Christian child and tied him to a cross and killed him.

Mohammed mentions the extermination of the Arabian Christians by a Jewish army from Yemen in the Koran. Jewish web sites describe its perpetrators as heroes.

Jews bought Christian prisoners of war from the Persians purely for the pleasure of torturing and killing them. The mass graves of the murdered Christians were recently discovered in Jerusalem. The Israelis bulldozed them.

Toaff also cites the crucifixion of a Christian during the Purim Festival of 1191 or 1192 AD by the Jews of Brie in France. King Philippe August tried the entire adult Jewish population of Brie and they were burned at the stake for their crime.

What can we learn from Professor Toaff about the Jews in Europe at the time little Simon was murdered.

Jewish moneylender and bankers were active throughout Christendom. They lent money at 40% interest to non-Jews.

Jews used their money power to bribe civil and church authorities.

Jews were frequently involved in fraudulent bankruptcies and swindles.

Jews resorted to poisoning and assassination.

Jews, especially the Ashkenazi Jews like the ones who murdered Simon were obsessed with hatred for the Christian religion and for Christians.

Jewish slave traders were permitted to transport Christian slaves across Europe and sell them to the Moslems.

Jewish slave traders kidnapped and castrated Christian boys and sold them to the Moslems.

Jews used human blood in all sorts of quack remedies, despite the Biblical prohibition, even for minor complaints.

Jewish merchants sold rabbincally certified Christian blood for religious rituals.

Jews used Christian human blood in their matzoh balls at Passover.

Jews used Christian human blood in their wine at Passover.

The blood had to be from Christian boys no more than 7 years old.

Some Christians tried to sell the blood of Christian boys to Jews, but Jews refused to buy from them because they suspected the Christians of trying pawn off animal blood as the real thing.

Professor Toaff now claims that he was wrong and that Christian boys were never murdered. The blood only came from voluntary donors. I guess he never read his book.

The Catholic Church has always had the information revealed in Professor Tuaff’s book. He found most of his information in the interrogations, witness statements, and trial records that still exist in the archives of the Catholic Church.

Jews often attack the Catholic Church as the source of anti-Semitism.

Professor Tuaff’s book shows a Church that consistently tried to deflect hostility towards the Jews.

Two hundred and ninety years after the murder of Simon of Trent, Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli, later Pope Clement XIV, was put in charge of investigating accusation of Jewish ritual infanticide by the Congregation of the Holy Office, the Inquisition.

On 19 January 1760, he reported:

“I therefore admit as true the fact of the sainted Simon, the boy of three years of age killed by Jews in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ in Trent in the year 1475 [...] I accept as true another crime, committed in the village of Rinn, diocese of Bressanone, in 1462, against the sainted Andrea, a boy barbarously killed by the Jews in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ [...] I do not, however, believe, even admitting as true the true facts of Bressanone and Trent, that one can justifiably deduce that this is a maxim, either theoretical or practical, of the Hebrew nation, since two events alone are insufficient to establish a certain and common axiom.”

I guess Cardinal Ganganelli could not find the archives.

Posted by Robert Reis on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 09:42 AM in Jewish Diaspora
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Great article, Robert. That’s probably one of the best I have read here so far. Should be interesting to see what Von has to say about it.

Posted by Scimitar on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 05:48 PM | #

I agree that was a very good log entry.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 07:51 PM | #

http://www.israelshamir.net/English/Eng11.htm

...In the beginning of the attack, he tried to brave it: “I will not give up my devotion to the truth and academic freedom even if the world crucifies me.” Toaff told Haaretz earlier this week that he stood by the contention of his book, that there is a factual basis for some of the medieval blood accusations against the Jews.

But Toaff was not made of stern stuff. Like Winston Smith, the main character of Orwell’s 1984, he broke down in a mental cellar of Jewish inquisition. He published a full apology, stopped distribution of his book, promised to submit it to Jewish censorship, and “also promised to donate all the funds forthcoming from the sale of his book to the Anti-Defamation League” of good Abe Foxman.

His last words were as touching as those of Galileo recanting his heresy: “I will never allow any Jew-hater to use me or my research as an instrument for fanning the flames, once again, of the hatred that led to the murder of millions of Jews. I extend my sincerest apologies to all those who were offended by the articles and twisted facts that were attributed to me and to my book.”

Blood Passover by Professor Toaff
QUOTE
Prof. Toaff has since partially recanted, and now maintains that:
- yes, Jews are a corrupting and disruptive element in society;
- yes, Jews lend money at 40% and seem to do little else;
- yes, Jews buy and sell justice with huge bribes;
- yes, Jews pull off all sorts of fraudulent bankruptcies and swindles;
- yes, Jews resort to poisoning and assassination when thwarted;
- yes, Jews are obsessed with hatred for Christians and the Christian religion;
- yes, Jews kidnapped and castrated Christian boys on a large scale and sold them into slavery in Islamic Spain for centuries;
- yes, Jews used [and still use?] human blood in all sorts of quack remedies, despite the Biblical prohibition, even for minor complaints;
- yes, Jews [and still use?] Christian human blood in their matzoh balls at Passover;
- yes, Jews [and still use?] Christian human blood in their wine at Passover;
- yes, the blood had to be from Christian boys no more than 7 years of age;
- yes, the blood had [has?] to be certified kosher by a rabbi;
- yes, there was [is?] a large and profitable trade in fake blood products and animal blood, which was [are?] unsuitable to the purpose;
- yes, Christians tried to sell the blood of Christian boys to Jews, but were rejected because the Jews feared it was animal blood; but no, no Christian boys were ever killed to obtain the blood. Never, never! Or hardly ever. It all came from “voluntary donors”!