Nurit Greenger
They say the more things change, the more they stay the same; blood libel is one of those 'things'.
blood libel,
which is also accusation, is in fact false accusation
or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use
their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.
Historically, these claims—alongside those of well poisoning and
desecration—have been a major theme in European
persecution of Jews.
One
such notorious blood libel took place in Kiev, in the Russian Empire;
it is a case that went on trial in 1913 and became known as the Beilis
Trial or the
Beilis Affair. A Ukrainian Jew named Menahem Mendel Beilis was accused
of murder for the purpose of a religious ritual of a 13-year-old
Ukrainian boy and the case sparked an international outrage.
The process of Beilis'
arrest, incarceration and trial sparked international criticism of the
Russian Empire anti-Semitic policies and the disturbing story was the
basis for Bernard Malamud's novel The Fixer, which won both the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Award.
In
1911, Menahem Mendel Beilis, a father of five children, not in
particularly an observant Jew, who worked regularly on the Sabbath and
at least
during some of the Jewish Holidays, was employed as a superintendent at
the Zaitsev brick factory in Kiev.
Beilis
with his family
On
March 12, 1911, Andrei Yushchinsky, a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy
disappeared on his way to school. Eight days later his mutilated body
was discovered
in a cave near the Zaitsev brick factory where Beilis worked. On July
21, 1911, after a lamplighter testified that the boy had been kidnapped
by a Jew, Beilis was arrested. A judiciary was formed and they submitted
a report to the Tsar accusing Beilis as the
murderer of Yushchinsky.
Beilis Arrested
Beilis
spent more than two years in prison just awaiting trial. In the
meantime, his case created a perfect opportunity to launch a vicious
anti-Semitic
campaign in the Russian press against the Jewish community, accusing ALL
the Jews of the blood libel and ritual murder. One Jew was accused and
the entire Jewish community became guilty by osmosis.
The
Beilis trial took place in Kiev from September 25 through October 28,
1913. The prosecution was composed of the government's best lawyers and
a medical psychologist who testified, as an expert witness for the
prosecution, that in his opinion the case was a ritual murder.
Beilis
was represented by the most able counsels of the Moscow, St.
Petersburg, and Kiev bars. During the trial Rabbi Yakov Mazeh, the
well-known
and most respected Rabbi of Moscow, delivered a long, detailed speech
quoting passages from the Torah, the Talmud and many other books to
conclusively debunk the testimony of the prosecution's "experts".
Rabbi
Yakov Mazeh, expert for defence
Ironically,
Beilis had a strong alibi that resulted from his habit of working on
the Sabbath. His "victim" was abducted on a Saturday morning while
Beilis was at work, as confirmed by his Gentile co-workers in their
trial testimony. Receipt slips for the shipment of bricks, signed by
Beilis that morning, were produced in evidence. The prosecution, not to
lose face, was forced to argue that Beilis could
have ducked out for a few minutes, kidnapped Yushchinsky, killed him and
then returned to work.
The
trial started to fall apart when the lamplighter, on whose testimony
the indictment of Beilis heavily rested, confessed that he had been
"confused"
by the secret police who questioned him.
The
prosecution witness, the Catholic priest Justinas Pranaitis, presented
as a religious expert in Judaic rituals and known for his anti-Semitic
1892 work Talmud Unmasked testified that the murder of Yushchinsky was a
religious ritual, blood libel, a hoax believed by many Russians at the
time. But Pranaitis'
credibility
rapidly evaporated when the defense demonstrated his ignorance of some
simple Talmudic concepts and definitions, to the point when he clearly
became confused and couldn't even intelligibly answer some of the
questions asked by Beilis' lawyer.
The
prosecution's case was further undermined after it had spent a great
deal of effort to link the 13 wounds which was discovered on a part of
the
murdered boy's body with the importance of the number thirteen in
"Jewish ritual," only to have it revealed later that there were actually
14 wounds on that part of the body of the murdered child.
With
a the chief prosecutor anti-Semitic statements at the closing address,
with the 12 Christian jurors of which seven were members of the
notorious
Union of the Russian People, after several days deliberation the jury
acquitted Beilis.
When
Beilis went on trial, rabbis from around the world, including the
Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson got involved to give
of their wisdom
to disprove the false
accusations. Their fear was that such trial will bring a wave of
anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews all over the world. They saw the
blood
libel of one Jew as the blood libel of the entire Jewish nation.
There
is Jewish saying that if a one Jew saves the life of another Jew it is
as if he/she have saved the entire [Jewish] world. We can also say if
one Jew is falsely accused it is as if the entire Jewish nation is
falsely accused.
And that brings me to why I told the story above, which some people may say, 'but it
is a 100 year old story'. The reason is that the Beilis' false blood libel accusation continues today.
If
in the time of Beilis individual Jews were accused of blood libel,
which often followed by their murder and the punishment of the entire
local
Jewish community and beyond, today Israel and the six million Jews
living there are the target of blood libel. Israel's enemies, mainly the
Moslem Arab countries and Arabs calling themselves Palestinians are
working hard and around the clock to find any reason
to accuse Israel of blood libel.
After
the establishment of the state of Israel, which took place three years
after WWII and the Holocaust ended, for a while Anti-Semitism went
dormant.
But in the 21st
century the anti-Semitism disease so many non-Jews and even some Jews
suffer from has reared its ugly head and is spreading in a worrisome
speed.
Anti-Semitism
is alive and well in the world and the one that is on an ongoing blood
libel trial and a target is the Jewish state, Israel. The state is
harassed,
bullied by other nations, the UN and NGOs, it is falsely accused of
being an apartheid state, an occupier, a human rights violator, and when
dealing with the international arena other countries, the UN and the
media hold Israel to a standard like no other country
is held to. But whereby in the Beilis' trial the international Jewish
community got together to defend and fight for his innocence, which was
to prove the innocence of every Jew, today we do not see the
international Jewish community act the same. In fact some
of the Jewish organizations, such as J Street, bash and act as an
undermining force of the Jewish state.
So
remember, as in the Beilis' case, you accuse one Jew, you accuse the
entire Jewish nation; today, you accuse, bash, mistreat and subvert
Israel
you are doing that to the entire Jewish nation and if you are a Jew and
you are engaged in such practice, you are going against your own one
self. I wonder why!?
To: Nurit
Blood libel is alive and well in the 21st
century
---
The Collective Blood Libel Against the Jews
Nurit
Greenger | May 23, 2013
They
say the more things change, the more they stay the same; blood libel is one of
those 'things'.
blood
libel, which is also accusation, is in fact false accusation or
claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their
blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically,
these claims—alongside those of well poisoning and desecration—have been a
major theme in European persecution of Jews.
One
such notorious blood libel took place in Kiev, in the Russian Empire; it is a case
that went on trial in 1913 and became known as the Beilis Trial or the Beilis
Affair. A Ukrainian Jew named Menahem Mendel Beilis was accused of murder for
the purpose of a religious ritual of a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy and the case
sparked an international outrage.
The process of Beilis' arrest, incarceration and trial sparked international
criticism of the Russian Empire anti-Semitic policies and the disturbing story
was the basis for Bernard Malamud's novel The Fixer, which won both the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Award.
In 1911, Menahem Mendel Beilis, a
father of five children, not in particularly an observant Jew, who worked
regularly on the Sabbath and at least during some of the Jewish Holidays, was employed
as a superintendent at the Zaitsev brick factory in Kiev.
On March 12, 1911, Andrei
Yushchinsky, a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy disappeared on his way to school.
Eight days later his mutilated body was discovered in a cave near the Zaitsev
brick factory where Beilis worked. On July 21, 1911, after a lamplighter
testified that the boy had been kidnapped by a Jew, Beilis was arrested. A judiciary
was formed and they submitted a report to the Tsar accusing Beilis as the
murderer of Yushchinsky.
Beilis spent more than two years in
prison just awaiting trial. In the meantime, his case created a perfect
opportunity to launch a vicious anti-Semitic campaign in the Russian press
against the Jewish community, accusing ALL the Jews of the blood libel and
ritual murder. One Jew was accused and the entire Jewish community became
guilty by osmosis.
The Beilis trial took place in Kiev
from September 25 through October 28, 1913. The prosecution was composed of the
government's best lawyers and a medical psychologist who testified, as an expert
witness for the prosecution, that in his opinion the case was a ritual murder.
Beilis was represented by the most
able counsels of the Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev bars. During the trial Rabbi
Mazeh, the well-known and most respected Rabbi of Moscow, delivered a long,
detailed speech quoting passages from the Torah, the Talmud and many other
books to conclusively debunk the testimony of the prosecution's
"experts".
Ironically, Beilis had a strong
alibi that resulted from his habit of working on the Sabbath. His
"victim" was abducted on a Saturday morning while Beilis was at work,
as confirmed by his Gentile co-workers in their trial testimony. Receipt slips
for the shipment of bricks, signed by Beilis that morning, were produced in
evidence. The prosecution, not to lose face, was forced to argue that Beilis
could have ducked out for a few minutes, kidnapped Yushchinsky, killed him and then
returned to work.
The trial started to fall apart when
the lamplighter, on whose testimony the indictment of Beilis heavily rested,
confessed that he had been "confused" by the secret police who
questioned him.
The prosecution witness, the Catholic priest Justinas
Pranaitis, presented as a religious expert in Judaic rituals and known for his
anti-Semitic 1892 work Talmud Unmasked testified that the murder of Yushchinsky
was a religious ritual, blood libel, a hoax believed by many Russians at the
time. But Pranaitis' credibility rapidly
evaporated when the defense demonstrated his ignorance of some simple Talmudic
concepts and definitions, to the point when he clearly became confused and
couldn't even intelligibly answer some of the questions asked by Beilis'
lawyer.
The prosecution's case was further undermined after it had spent a great
deal of effort to link the 13 wounds which was discovered on a part of the
murdered boy's body with the importance of the number thirteen in "Jewish
ritual," only to have it revealed later that there were actually 14 wounds
on that part of the body of the murdered child.
With a the chief prosecutor anti-Semitic statements at the closing address,
with the 12 Christian jurors of which seven were members of the notorious Union
of the Russian People, after several days deliberation the jury acquitted
Beilis.
When
Beilis went on trial, rabbis from around the world, including the Chabad Lubavitcher
Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson got involved to give of their wisdom to disprove
the false accusations. Their fear was that
such trial will bring a wave of anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews all over
the world. They saw the blood libel of one Jew as the blood libel of the entire
Jewish nation.
There is Jewish saying that if a one
Jew saves the life of another Jew it is as if he/she have saved the entire [Jewish]
world. We can also say if one Jew is falsely accused it is as if the entire
Jewish nation is falsely accused.
And that brings me to why I told the
story above, which some people may say, 'but it is a 100 year old story'. The reason is that
the Beilis' false blood libel accusation continues today.
If in the time of Beilis individual
Jews were accused of blood libel, which often followed by their murder and the
punishment of the entire local Jewish community and beyond, today Israel and
the six million Jews living there are the target of blood libel. Israel's
enemies, mainly the Moslem Arab countries and Arabs calling themselves
Palestinians are working hard and around the clock to find any reason to accuse
Israel of blood libel.
After the establishment of the state
of Israel, which took place three years after WWII and the Holocaust ended, for
a while Anti-Semitism went dormant. But
in the 21st century the anti-Semitism disease so many non-Jews and
even some Jews suffer from has reared its ugly head and is spreading in a
worrisome speed.
Anti-Semitism
is alive and well in the world and the one that is on an ongoing blood libel trial
and a target is the Jewish state, Israel. The state is harassed, bullied by
other nations, the UN and NGOs, it is falsely accused of being an apartheid
state, an occupier, a human rights violator, and when dealing with the
international arena other countries, the UN and the media hold Israel to a
standard like no other country is held to. But whereby in the Beilis' trial the
international Jewish community got together to defend and fight for his innocence,
which was to prove the innocence of every Jew, today we do not see the international
Jewish community act the same. In fact some of the Jewish organizations, such
as J Street, bash and act as an undermining force of the Jewish state.
So remember, as in the Beilis' case,
you accuse one Jew, you accuse the entire Jewish nation; today, you accuse,
bash, mistreat and subvert Israel you are doing that to the entire Jewish
nation and if you are a Jew and you are engaged in such practice, you are going
against your own one self. I wonder why!?
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menahem_Mendel_Beilis
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