Ritual Murder in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Beyond

Description

This innovative reassessment of ritual murder accusations brings together scholars working in history, folklore, ethnography, and literature. Favoring dynamic explanations of the mechanisms, evolution, popular appeal, and responses to the blood libel, the essays rigorously engage with the larger social and cultural worlds that made these phenomena possible. In doing so, the book helps to explain why blood libel accusations continued to spread in Europe even after modernization seemingly made them obsolete. Drawing on untapped and unconventional historical sources, the collection explores a range of intriguing topics: popular belief and scientific knowledge; the connections between antisemitism, prejudice, and violence; the rule of law versus the power of rumors; the politics of memory; and humanitarian intervention on a global scale.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Ritual Murder Accusations in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Beyond / Eugene M. Avrutin, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and Robert Weinberg
1. Imagined Crimes, Real Victims: Hermeneutical Witches and Jews in Early Modern Poland / Michael Ostling
2. The Jewish Blood Libel Legend—A Folkloristic Perspective / Haya Bar-Itzhak
3. Ritual Murder in a Russian Border Town / Eugene M. Avrutin
4. The Saratov Affair as a Critical Juncture in Ritual Murder History / Andrew C. Reed
5. The Blood Libel in Nineteenth-Century Lithuania: A Comparison of Two Cases / Darius Staliūnas
6. Yahrzeits, Condolences, and Other Close Encounters: Neighborly Relations and Ritual Murder Trials in Germany and Austria-Hungary / Hillel J. Kieval
7. Human Sacrifice in the Name of a Nation: The Religion of Common Blood / Marina Mogilner
8. The Predatory Jew and Russian Vitalism: Dostoevsky, Rozanov, and Babel / Harriet Murav
9. Connecting the Dots: Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, and the Trial of Mendel Beilis / Robert Weinberg
10. A Half-Full Cup? Transnational Responses to the Beilis Affair / Jonathan Dekel-Chen
11. Simulating Justice: The Blood Libel Case in Moscow, April 1922 / Gennady Estraikh
12. The Blood Libel and Its Wartime Permutations: Cannibalism in Soviet Lviv / Elissa Bemporad
13. Was the Doctors' Plot a Blood Libel? / Jeffrey Veidlinger
14. The Sandomierz Paintings of Ritual Murder as Lieux de mémoire / Magda Teter
List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Religious Intolerance
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• History of Europe
• Eastern
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 12 juillet 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253026576
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

RITUAL MURDER in RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, and BEYOND
RITUAL MURDER
in RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, and BEYOND
New Histories of an Old Accusation

Edited by EUGENE M. AVRUTIN, JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, and ROBERT WEINBERG
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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iupress.indiana.edu
2017 by Indiana University Press
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Avrutin, Eugene M. editor. | Dekel-Chen, Jonathan L., editor. | Weinberg, Robert, editor.
Title: Ritual murder in Russia, Eastern Europe, and beyond : new histories of an old accusation / edited by Eugene M. Avrutin, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and Robert Weinberg.
Description: Bloomington ; Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, [2017] | The collection emerged out of a conference at the University of Illinois in October 2014 -Acknowledgments. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002956 (print) | LCCN 2017006559 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253025814 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253026408 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253026576 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Blood accusation-Russia-History-Congresses. | Blood accusation-Europe, Eastern-History-Congresses. | Jews-Persecutions-Russia-History-Congresses. | Jews-Persecutions-Europe, Eastern-History-Congresses. | Antisemitism-Russia-History-Congresses. | Antisemitism-Europe, Eastern-History-Congresses. | Russia-Ethnic relations-Congresses. | Europe, Eastern-Ethnic relations-Congresses.
Classification: LCC BM585.2 .R58 2017 (print) | LCC BM585.2 (ebook) | DDC 305.892/4047-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002956
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Ritual Murder in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Beyond / E UGENE M. A VRUTIN , J ONATHAN D EKEL -C HEN, AND R OBERT W EINBERG
1 Imagined Crimes, Real Victims: Hermeneutical Witches and Jews in Early Modern Poland / M ICHAEL O STLING
2 The Jewish Blood Libel Legend: A Folkloristic Perspective / H AYA B AR -I TZHAK
3 Ritual Murder in a Russian Border Town / E UGENE M. A VRUTIN
4 The Saratov Case as a Critical Juncture in Ritual Murder History / A NDREW C. R EED
5 The Blood Libel in Nineteenth-Century Lithuania: A Comparison of Two Cases / D ARIUS S TALI NAS
6 Yahrzeits , Condolences, and Other Close Encounters: Neighborly Relations and Ritual Murder Trials in Germany and Austria-Hungary / H ILLEL J. K IEVAL
7 Human Sacrifice in the Name of a Nation: The Religion of Common Blood / M ARINA M OGILNER
8 The Predatory Jew and Russian Vitalism: Dostoevsky, Rozanov, and Babel / H ARRIET M URAV
9 Connecting the Dots: Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, and the Trial of Mendel Beilis / R OBERT W EINBERG
10 A Half-Full Cup? Transnational Responses to the Beilis Affair / J ONATHAN D EKEL -C HEN
11 Simulating Justice: The Blood Libel Case in Moscow, April 1922 / G ENNADY E STRAIKH
12 The Blood Libel and Its Wartime Permutations: Cannibalism in Soviet Lviv / E LISSA B EMPORAD
13 Was the Doctors Plot a Blood Libel? / J EFFREY V EIDLINGER
14 The Sandomierz Paintings of Ritual Murder as Lieux de m moire / M AGDA T ETER
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HE COLLECTION EMERGED out of a conference at the University of Illinois in October 2014. The editors acknowledge the generous support of the University of Illinois, the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Swarthmore College. These institutions also provided funds for the publication of this volume. At the University of Illinois, the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, College of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center provided financial and organizational resources. We would like to express our appreciation to Helmut Walser Smith of Vanderbilt University, Nadja Berkovich of the University of Arkansas, and Bruce Rosenstock and Diane Koenker of the University of Illinois for their critical commentary and participation at the conference. At Indiana University Press, the editors are grateful to Robert Sloan, Dee Mortensen, and Paige Rasmussen for their professionalism and enthusiastic interest in the project. The two peer reviewers, Glenn Dynner and Shaul Stampfer, provided insightful critical commentary. Finally, we would like to say a special thank you to Helmut Walser Smith for creating the beautiful map, Carolyn Pouncy for copy-editing the entire volume, and Dina Dineva for creating the index.
RITUAL MURDER in RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, and BEYOND
Sites of ritual murder trials. Credit : Map drawn by Helmut Walser Smith.
INTRODUCTION
Ritual Murder in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Beyond
Eugene M. Avrutin, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and Robert Weinberg
O N J UNE 10, 1636, after the end of the Shavuot celebration and on the eve of Pentecost, the butcher woman Leskowa told her neighbors that her son was missing and no doubt had been ritually murdered by Jews. Word quickly spread throughout the town of Lublin that the Jews had killed the Christian boy, drawn his blood for religious rituals, and thrown the corpse in the river. Late that evening, a mob of townsfolk broke into the Jewish quarter. As students and journeymen looted Jewish homes and shops, two Jews, Nahman and Baruch, were charged with the crime of ritual murder and locked up in a castle dungeon. Another Jew named Joseph was caught hiding out in a nearby town and was also chained up in the same prison. 1
In accordance with the inquisitorial process, a criminal code used in early modern Europe to prosecute serious crimes such as witchcraft, heresy, and murder, all three men were brought into the torture chamber for questioning and face-to-face confrontations. 2 The judge was particularly interested as to why the Jews killed the Christian boy and what they wanted to do with the blood. I don t know why [the boy died], Baruch answered the judge, and no Jew, whether [old or young], knows why. We Jews do not need Christian blood, and we do not kill any Christian children. To the question What do Jews use Christian blood for? Nahman responded, They do not need it, and you will hear nothing about this among Jews. He continued, Jews do not kill children, averring that This child perhaps drowned, but Jews had nothing to do with it. I don t know, I don t know! To the question Where did you steal the child? Joseph answered, I did not do it, never ever! I did not participate in the matter, neither with advice nor with deeds, and I left the city out of fear. To induce a confession, the executioner stretched the Jews on the rack and burned them with candles. But after four days of exhaustive interrogations, agonizing stretches of the body, and severe burns, the men stood their ground. Without a confession-what was regarded as the queen of proofs in the law-the court decided to acquit Jews of the crime. 3
Many Jews were not as lucky as Nahman, Baruch, and Joseph. In early modern Poland-Lithuania, hundreds of Jewish men and women were tried, tortured, and publicly executed for allegedly murdering Christian children for ritual purposes such as baking matzo for the Passover holiday with the blood of the victim. Originating in England with the 1144 case of William of Norwich, ritual murder trials and accusations enjoyed popular appeal in late medieval and early modern Europe. The earliest case of alleged Jewish consumption of blood took place in the Germanic town of Fulda in 1235. Fueled by an extensive Christian folklore concerning the demonic uses of Jewish magic and a judicial apparatus intent on punishing murderers of children, the belief in the tale was standardized, commercialized, and widely disseminated in chronicles, ballads, and judicial records, especially (but not exclusively) in the politically decentralized lands of the Holy Roman Empire. 4 By the middle of the sixteenth century, as new theological and legal discourses in Reformation Europe helped discredit the concept of ritual murder, the legend spread to the eastern regions of Europe, where a multitude of ethnicities and religions, including the largest communities of Jews in the world, lived side by side.
Nearly four hundred years after the criminal proceedings in Lublin, ritual murder accusations found new life in a radically different cultural, judicial, and political context. The secrecy of the torture chamber gave way to the open courtroom, where judges, lawyers, criminal investigators, medical experts, and interested observers witnessed the unfolding of the drama. Accusations of Jewish ritual murder made for sensational headlines. Journalists from Budapest to St. Petersburg fed a hungry reading public by publishing hundreds of stories of Jewish criminality in newspapers and periodicals. The circulation of the news reinforced fantasies about Jewish conspiracy. Forensic physicians and psychiatrists formally reviewed the evidence and determined the facts of the crime. Supporting their observ