(Jewish Group) The Blood Libel Accusation That Inflamed America

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

On September 22, 1928, a four-year-old girl, Barbara Griffiths, got lost in the woods around Massena, a small town in upstate New York. Hundreds of townspeople joined in the search. Hours later, someone (to this day, no one knows who) suggested that the child might have been the victim of a ritual murder committed by members of Massena’s Jewish community – and the authorities took the accusation seriously.

The so-called blood libel – the scurrilous notion that Jews used the blood of Christian children for rituals – originated in medieval Europe. But, according to Edward Berenson, a professor of history at New York University, the Massena case was unique in the United States, and therefore deeply threatening to both Jewish residents and national Jewish leaders.

Berenson says his great-grandparents, who emigrated to Massena from Eastern Europe in 1898, may have been the town’s first Jewish settlers. He himself was born there, giving him a strong emotional connection to the story. As it happens, there’s not much to the Griffiths incident: The girl was found alive, Massena’s mayor apologized to the Jewish community, and life went on. Berenson’s achievement in “The Accusation” is to contextualize the Massena blood libel in multiple provocative ways.

Berenson offers a concise history of the origins of the blood libel in Europe, as well as its modern recurrences. He surveys both anti-Semitism and anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States, noting the divisiveness of the 1928 presidential election. And he uses the social and economic history of Massena to try to fathom why this grotesque charge should have emerged there, of all places.

The idea of ritual murder, Berenson tells us, originated with the 12th-century treatise of an English monk, Thomas of Monmouth, who credited his account to the questionable testimony of a disillusioned Jew. The slur would acquire a literary patina in the 15th century in one of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

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[Gothmog]

1. Thanks for posting this

We had a couple of discussion groups on this concept at the Temple that covered much of the same ground (the local head of the ADL set up the discussion). The charge that Jews use the blood of Christian children is sickening but has been effective in the past.

I enjoy your posts.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. How a missing girl and an atmosphere of hate brought a blood libel to US shores

On Saturday, September 22, 1928, a little girl named Barbara Griffiths went missing in Massena, a small industrial town in upstate New York. The four year old showed up the next day healthy and unharmed after having gotten lost in the tall grass of farmers’ fields.

“Her clothing was somewhat torn and she was pretty tired and hungry, but otherwise none the worse for her experience,” wrote the local paper, The Observer.

However, before Barbara safely returned, an accusation was made against local Jews that they had kidnapped and killed her to harvest her blood for ritual purposes. It was a blood libel — the only known one in US history.

Within hours of Barbara’s disappearance, the authorities assumed they had a murder case on their hands and summoned members of the tiny Jewish community — including the town’s rabbi, Berel Brennglass — for interrogation.

Historian Edward Berenson has written a new book about this exceptional incident titled, “The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town.” Born in Massena into an Eastern European Jewish immigrant family two decades after it occurred, Berenson has known about blood libel since he was a child.

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[MosheFeingold]

3. There's an old joke from Poland

A young girl had been found murdered in Poland around the beginning of last century.

The Jewish community was worried, because it feared a pogrom, as Jews were often blamed for such horrid events.

The Rabbi called a meeting in the synagogue and community gathered. "I have good news, everyone!", the Rabbi intoned. "The murdered girl was Jewish!"

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. For this thread

Link to tweet

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Thanks for that.

I posted a story about this earlier this week and forgot I had posted about it (as is obvious in this thread) before. It is amazing what slips through the cracks of history and our memories.