CHAPTER XVII

OTHER CASES WORTHY OF CREDENCE

THIS book is not intended to be an exhaustive history of Jewish Ritual Murder. In previous chapters I have described the cases which occurred before the Expulsion of the Jews from England, and also the cases which appear to me to be historical events admitting of no reasonable doubt as to their correct interpretation as Jewish Ritual Murders.

In this chapter, I am listing a number of reported cases of Ritual Murder which, whilst being in my opinion worthy of credence, are not supported by the same detail or authority that constitute authenticity.

There are many discoveries of bodies of children, thought to have been ritually murdered by Jews, which are not mentioned in this list, and since the Sultan issued his firman in 1840 denying that Ritual Murder existed among the Jews, it is not surprising that many of these cases happened in territories under Turkish rule.

The following reports of alleged Ritual Murder appear to me worthy of record:

A.D. 419. Socrates (Hist. Eccles., Lib. VII, Chap. XVI) gives an account of a case at Inmestar, a town between Chalcis and Antioch.

The Syrian Posidonius (135-51 B.C.), and the first century Greeks Apollonius Molon and Apion had previously reported that it was a Jewish custom to sacrifice annually a Greek boy, specially fattened for the occasion. The probable reason for the Ritual Murder accusation being made against Christians themselves in the early years of the Religion was that many of these Christians were of Jewish origin.

1285. Munich. Illustrated in Bavaria Sancta.

1270. Wissembourg. Monniot quotes on p. 148 of his Le Crime Rituel chez les Juifs a letter dated 19th November, 1913, from the cure of the town, in which the details of this case are quoted from the Alsatian historian Hertzog, who says the victim's tomb was for many years in the church.

1283. Mayence.

1303. Weissensee (Thuringia).

1305. Prague. The mob took the law into its own hands in a case of alleged crucifixion of a Christian at Passover.

1331. Lieberlingen. Child's body found in well with wounds indicating that it had been sacrificed by Jews. The judges of the place had a number of Jews burned.

1345. Munich. Illustrated in Bavaria Sancta.

1347. Cologne. The sacrificial knife in this case is preserved at the Church of St. Sigbert.

1401. Diessenhofen.

1407. Cracow. A Polish priest, Budek, charged the Jews with murdering a boy at Easter.

1429. Ravensbourg.

1435. Palma.

1470. Endingen, Baden. Jews burned for killing eight years previously four Christians ritually.

1529. Posing, Hungary. Child murdered for its blood. Many Jews burned after confession by torture of some.

1598. Podolia. Jews tried and condemned, after a rabbi had confessed to killing four-year-old Albert at Passover and bleeding him.

1764. Orcuta, Hungary. Boy found dead, covered with wounds suggestive of Ritual Murder.

1791. Tasnad, Hungary. Jews condemned for murdering and bleeding a boy, on the evidence of the small son of one of them aged five years. Accused received the royal pardon.

1797. Galatz, Rumania. About this time "The Ritual Murder accusation became epidemic" (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905, Vol. X, p. 513)

1812. Corfu. Three Jews were condemned for the murder of a Christian child. Monniot (Le Crime Rituel chez les Juifs) says the archives of the island report this case.

1847. Mount Lebanon. Mentioned by Sir Richard Burton in The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam, 1898, p. 128.

1935. Afghanistan. The White Russian paper Nasch Put of Harbin, 7th October, reports a case in Afghanistan where a Mahommedan child was robbed and riddled with stabs by Jews, the Court verdict being that this was done for ritual purposes.

I repeat that there are many other cases of Ritual Murder accusations not mentioned in this book; they are omitted because I have insufficient detail concerning them.