Blood libel

[[File:Ritualmord-Legende.jpg|thumb|right|250px|1493 illustration accusing Jews of killing {{wpl|Simon of Trent||.}}]]
{{Antisemitism}}The '''blood libel''' is an old [[antisemitism|anti-Semitic]] trope that claims that [[Jews]] use the blood of [[Christian]] (or, sometimes, [[Muslim]]) children to make their [[Passover]] matzo. While generally discarded in modern times in favor of "[[International Jewish Conspiracy|Jews rule the world]]" [[conspiracy theories]], the blood libel is still propagated in some Islamic countries and is occasionally still believed even by [[West]]ern anti-Semites. The consequence of the blood libel [[myth]] could be in fact bloody for Jewish populations, as they could result in a [[pogrom]].

Blood libels against non-Jews have also been known to occur. Early Christians were frequently libeled as practitioners of [[cannibalism]].<ref>[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/251710/pdf Eating People: Accusations of Cannibalism Against Christians in the Second Century], Andrew McGowan</ref>

== History ==
In [[folklore]], precursors of the tale appear very early. In 63 BCE, the Roman historian {{wpl|Sallust}} repeats a tale that the Roman politician {{wpl|Catiline}} and his followers practiced a ritual involving [[human sacrifice]] and ritual cannibalism. The idea was to bind the conspirators more closely together by performing acts together which defied all proprieties, and thus tightening the conspiracy's hold on its participants. Then, as now, Sallust attributes the tale only to rumor (''fama'') and will not vouch for its truth.<ref>Sallust, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0123%3Achapter%3D14 ''De coniuratione Catalinæ''], ch. XIV.</ref>  

Several centuries later. Christian apologists like {{wpl|Minucius Felix}} and [[Tertullian]] report that similar tales were circulated about Christians, and the doctrines about how the [[Eucharist]] involved eating "flesh" and drinking "blood" were taken literally by anti-Christian rumors. Later [[urban legend]]s like Lights Out<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lights-out/ Flashing Headlights Gang Initiation], [[snopes.com]]</ref> attribute ritual murders to marginalized people, in that case [[African American]]s. In each such retelling, a marginalized group felt to be dangerous and insurgent outsiders — Catiline's conspirators, Christians, Jews, African Americans — is accused of unspeakable acts for 'spiritual' reasons or to bind participants closer to the group's secret and illicit purposes.<ref>See also [[Skull and Bones]].</ref>  

This incredible [[canard]] began in the first century when it was claimed — [[PIDOOMA|without proof]] — that the Jews carried out [[human sacrifice]] in the temple (the [[Bible]] and Jewish oral traditions make it pretty clear that the acceptable [[animal]]s were certain [[bird]]s, [[Fun:You have two cows|cattle]], and [[goat]]s). The first occurrence of the idea in Western [[Europe]] was the supposed [[murder]] in 1144 of William of Norwich in [[England]], in which Jews were accused of torturing and killing a boy to re-enact Christ's crucifixion, and the bizarre hoax eventually spread to France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. This, and many other forms of [[antisemitism]], would eventually result in the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290.<ref>[https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2022/02/16/england-and-the-jews-before-shakespeare/ England and the Jews, before Shakespeare] by Geraldine Heng (February 16, 2022) ''The Shakespeare Globe Trust''</ref> 

The most famous blood libel is known as the Damascus blood libel of 1840.<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4862-damascus-affair DAMASCUS AFFAIR]</ref> The notoriety generated by this case was so widespread that [[Martin Van Buren]] wrote a letter of protest on behalf of the [[United States]] to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] officials running [[Syria]] at the time.

==Specific cases==
Although there have been many cases of blood libel, some are more infamous — and in some ways, more significant — than others.
[[File:Death of William of Norwich.jpg|thumb|200px|left|15th century depiction of the murder of William of Norwich from a church in Norfolk.]]

===William of Norwich (England, 1144)===
On 22 March 1144 (Gregorian calendar: 29 March), two days before [[Easter|Good Friday]], 12-year-old William disappeared from the town of Norwich. On Saturday, his body was found in Thorpe Wood outside of town. The boy was believed to have been [[torture]]d. There was not enough evidence to identify a killer, so the local sheriff made no arrests. The men of the town blamed the local small community of Jews, whom they tried to [[lynch mob|lynch]]. The local sheriff was forced to intervene on the Jews' behalf. This was the earliest known blood libel in [[English]] history. Over the next 25 years, a local [[monk]] wrote a seven-volume tome titled ''The Life and Miracles of William of Norwich'' in an effort to get the boy [[Saint|canonized]]. (Other locals hoped he would be canonized because it would draw pilgrims to the town.)  He never was, but that didn't stop many anti-Semites from calling him "Saint William of Norwich". His feast day is March 26, but his [[cult]] and his feast are officially suppressed.

===Hugh of Lincoln (England, 1255)===
[[File:Legend of the Jew calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood.png|thumb|right|300px|Illustration of a Jew summoning [[Satan]] from a pot of blood.]]
On 31 July 1255 (Gregorian calendar: 7 August), a young boy named Hugh, who seems to have been the illegitimate son of a woman named Beatrice, disappeared in the town of Lincoln. His body was found about a month later in the well of a Jew who has been identified by the names Copin, Kopin, Jopin, and Joscefin. A [[priest]] who was present when the body was found offered Copin clemency if he confessed and implicated other Jews.<ref>Jacobs, Joseph. [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7921-hugh-of-lincoln "Hugh of Lincoln"], JewishEncyclopedia.com</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100204102425/http://www.webhistoryofengland.com/?p=641 "Jewish Blood Libel: Persecution & Greed in Medieval England"], WebHistoryOfEngland.com.</ref> Wikipedia claims that Copin was tortured into confessing.<ref>{{wpa|Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln}}</ref>  Either way, Copin did confess to crucifying the boy and implicated other local Jews in the murder. Unfortunately for Copin and successive generations of [[British]] Jews, these events occurred at the worst possible time.  

Under English law of the time, the [[monarch]] could claim all English Jews as property of the crown. This allowed the monarch to [[tax]] Jews at a higher rate than English Christians. Earlier that year, King Henry III had sold his rights to English Jewry to his younger brother, Richard Earl of Cornwall. However, the king could still claim the property of any Jew who was guilty of a felony. In September, Henry arrived in Lincoln and revoked Copin's clemency. He then had Copin tied to a horse and dragged around the town, after which Copin was summarily hanged. Afterwards, eighteen other Jews were hanged in Lincoln,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=bEwfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA515&lpg=PA515&dq=hugh+of+lincoln+copin+tortured&source=bl&ots=EyycrU8cna&sig=mJB1kRkbgQjvCExh0JGrndg02Ug&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VCH0Tt-mDKf8iQLH69GyDg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=hugh%20of%20lincoln%20copin%20tortured&f=false ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' (online edition) entry on Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln]</ref> while another 90 to 100 were taken to the Tower of [[London]], where about 20 more were executed and their properties were claimed by the crown. Richard, who would be elected King of [[Germany]] (aka, "King of the Romans") the following year,<ref>{{wpa|Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall}}</ref> exercised his right as their "owner" and pardoned the rest.

The exact year of the boy's canonization is not easily found. It's possible that, like William of Norwich, his "canonization" as a [[martyr]] was actually a local [[tradition]] and not an official investiture by the pope. His cult and feast day, July 27, are also suppressed.

Claims were made that while the boy was interred at his local church in Lincoln, many [[miracle]]s occurred. Others claimed that he was thrown into Copin's well<ref group=note>Which would be an illogical action by Copin, since a dead body would poison the water in his well.</ref> because [[God]] would not allow the boy's body to remain covered by the earth. (Alleged miracles are the most important factor for fast-tracking somebody to sainthood.) His body was exhumed and reinterred at Lincoln Cathedral. [[Irony|Ironically]], this cathedral was an indirect reason why the boy is called "''Little'' Saint Hugh of Lincoln." In 1185, the cathedral was badly damaged by an earthquake. Efforts by the local archbishop, Hugh of Lincoln, quickly reenergized the construction of the cathedral. The elder Saint Hugh of Lincoln was canonized by Pope Honorius III in 1220.

Legitimate or not, the sainthood of Little Hugh led to centuries of blood libels in the Lincoln area and elsewhere in England. In 1955, the [[Church of England]] placed a plaque over his shrine decrying the centuries of anti-semitism that resulted from his death.
{{cquote|By the remains of the shrine of "Little St. Hugh"<br>Trumped up stories of "ritual murders" of Christian boys by<br>Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the<br>Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many<br>innocent Jews their lives.  Lincoln had its own legend, and the<br>alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255.<br><br>Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom,<br>and so we pray:<br><br>Lord, forgive what we have been,<br>amend what we are,<br>and direct what we shall be.''|||Text of the plaque}}

Today, [[police]] detectives would probably look to Beatrice and possibly her friends as the chief suspects, as she was the one who found her son in the well (after allegedly receiving a tip from Hugh's friends), and then led the priest and others there. Conspiracy theorists would probably wonder if King Henry III had somebody kill the boy so that the ensuing blood libels would allow him to reclaim English Jews as his "property" from Richard.

Little Saint Hugh has been referenced many times in English popular [[culture]]. One of the earliest references was in "The Prioress's Tale" in ''The Canterbury Tales'', written about a century after the Jews were officially expelled from in England in 1290. There would not be another Jewish community established in England until 1656 during the rule of Oliver Cromwell.

==Theology==
The whole idea is theologically [[bullshit|nonsense]], as [[kosher|kashrut]] strictly forbids the consumption of blood in any form. Furthermore, kashrut limits acceptable [[mammals]] to even-toed ungulates that chew cud, which humans are not. The only Jewish ritual that involves blood is [[circumcision]], because obviously people tend to bleed when parts of their bodies are cut. Judaism also opposes [[human sacrifice]] and murder in general; this was restated by [[Maimonides]], for instance.

==Today==
While it is perhaps possible to understand how super-[[superstitious]] people living in the 12th century might have fallen prey to this ridiculous libel, what is not so easy to understand is how (supposedly) educated people in the 21st century can believe it. Some Jewish groups contend that the [[meme]] does show up in different forms. For example, a poster protesting [[Israel]]i policies once used "canned baby meat" with a "made in Israel" label.

It is perhaps a measure of the ridiculousness of this belief that [[Metapedia]] — that home of [[homophobia]], [[racism]], and [[denialism]] — believes it. It also continues to persist in the [[Arab]] world, as evidenced by the popularity of ''Matzo of Zion'', a book upholding the truthfulness of a Syrian blood libel from the 19th century.<ref>Alan Dundes.  ''[http://books.google.co.il/books?id=bJDLrLlWg18C&pg=PA215&lpg=PA215&dq=Mustafa+tlass+blood+libel&source=bl&ots=WxtuEl59hQ&sig=UYr28MgPocCTzv_9UajihUhKbm0&hl=iw&sa=X&ei=m3wiUq_FHoeTtQbQg4GwAw&ved=0CHUQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Mustafa%20tlass%20blood%20libel&f=false The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore]''.  University of Wisconsin Press.</ref>

In July 2009, another meme related to blood libel went viral after five [[New Jersey]] rabbis were among 44 suspects arrested for money laundering.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/23/new.jersey.arrests/ "Mayors, rabbis arrested in corruption probe"], CNN website, 23 July 2009, accessed 13 April 2010.</ref> Anti-Semites began claiming that the rabbis were really indicted for trafficking human body parts on the black market.

In 2011, [[Sarah Palin]] referred to criticism of [[conservative]]s on their failure to accept [[gun control]] as "blood libel," even when no one was being accused of eating babies.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110113142912/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/11/democrats-single-sharron-angle-calling-limits-speech/ Mentioned alll over but this Fox story is about her saying it, not the (entirely predictable) response]</ref> Making this instance several orders of magnitude more heinous was that it came in the wake of the [[Jared Loughner|attempted assassination]] of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — who is Jewish.

It was of course inevitable that when changing times moved the "Evil Foreign Religion" stigma from Judaism to [[Islam]], the Blood Libel would eventually follow. In late 2013, a Turkish-German orthodox nun came forward with the claim that Muslims were killing Christians in [[Syria]] and selling their blood so other Muslims could wash their hands in infidel blood.<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/nun-slain-christians-blood-drained-and-sold/ Nun:Slain Christians' blood drained and sold], [[WND]]</ref>

[[QAnon]], a right-wing conspiracy theory originating in 2017 and claiming that US President Donald Trump is secretly working to take down a centuries-old, global, [[Satanic panic|Satan-worshipping]], child sex trafficking cabal of liberal politicians, pop culture celebrities, and rich people, also contains elements of blood libel. The cabal's activities are claimed to involve sacrificing children to harvest [[adrenochrome]], a metabolite of epinephrine, from their blood and use it as either a euphoria-inducing drug or a youth-restoring potion; and while Jews are not exclusively implicated, the cabal members are said to include common targets of antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Rothschilds. It seems, therefore, to be an amalgam of the blood libel and "Jews control everything" conspiracy myths, with "liberals" substituted for "Jews". In reality, adrenochrome can be produced by oxidizing adrenaline; the myth that "there’s only one source for this stuff — the adrenaline gland from a living human body" was made up by [[Hunter S. Thompson]] in ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-zuckerberg-orgy-island/ Did Mark Zuckerberg Post About Orgies on Little St. James Island?], Dan Evon, Snopes, 27 July 2021</ref><ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/mark-zuckerberg-s-photo-of-his-family-pet-becomes-target-of-anti-israel-slander-1.10009752 Mark Zuckerberg's Photo of His Family Pet Becomes Target of anti-Israel Slander], Haaretz, July 18, 2021</ref>

However, this concept has been abused by [[Zionism|Zionists]] to shut down criticism of Israel. For instance, if you accuse Israel of committing genocide or point out that Israel kills a disproportionate amount of [[Palestine|Palestinian]] children (which is well documented)<ref>[https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2025/09/26/infanticide-in-the-name-of-proportionality-gaza-as-a-world-order-problem/ Infanticide in the Name of Proportionality: Gaza as a World Order Problem], Luigi Daniele, ''Georgetown Journal of International Affairs'' 26 September 2025</ref> Zionists will dismiss these claims as "blood libel" and thus "antisemitism".<ref>[http://worldjewishcongress.org/en/conspiracy-myths/accusing-israel-of-genocide Accusing Israel of Genocide], ''World Jewish Congress''</ref>

==See also==
*[[Ariel Toaff]], a notorious antisemitic crank who wrote a book espousing the blood libel myth
*[[Moloch]], child-eating god/demon mentioned in the Hebrew Bible

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Antisemitism]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Scapegoating]]

Categories: Antisemitism, Folklore, Pseudohistory, Scapegoating