BEDROOMS
Inc.
Detroit's Only Exclusive
Bedroom Store
TW 1-1720
5802 E. 8 Mile
Netx to Sofas, Inc.
Woodward and Vernor
WO 1-3017
Detroit
A Happy and Healthy Passover
TED STONE
AUTO CITY
CHEMICAL CO.
836-3883
16515 Plymouth
By HOWARD AMES
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Passover, the holiday of free-
dom, recalls to many Jews the fact
that the joyous season bears with
it also memories of some of the
most horrible atrocities suffered
by the Jews around the world for
many, many years. Those horrors
resulted from the blood libel, the
ritual murder charges leveled
against Jews, usually linked with
Passover.
As far back as Josephus, Jews
were accused of this horrible deed.
In the time of Josephus, a Greek
would be the victim of the Jews'
alleged sacrifical practices against
human beings, although the Greeks
mentioned no blood. The canard
lived on. The early Christians
themselves had been accused sim-
ilarly. But when Christianity triu-
mphed, they were the people who
spread and perpetuated the libel.
One count by a scholar shows that,
between 1144 and 1940, there had
been at least 151 blood libels
Sincere Holiday Greetings
ACKERMAN'S BOWLING BALL
SALES AND SERVICE
Brunswick Equipment
New Balls Expertly Fitted by Cass Gryegier — No waiting
Bags — Shoes — Shirts — Balls Plugged and Rebored in 24 Hours
Open Weekdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
UN 4-7939
17377 Livernois
Holiday Greetings
BERMAN'S CHOP HOUSE
1431 TIMES SQUARE
Ben Gottloeb and Sam Davis
Holiday Greetings
THE WALTER CARROLL COMPANY
Painters - Decorators Since 1907
VI 3-1400
110 N. Waterman
.1•0 OEM Mao IIMM
MIN MO AM. • .■• NNE NOM
•IMM.
I
Passover Greetings
CURNOW MORTGAGE CORP.
UN 4-3210
14711 W. 8 Mile Road
L
'IMMO =ID MIND MOD
— — —
Holiday Greetings
EAGLE CLEANING CO.
Wall Washing — Carpet Cleaning
Window Cleaning
7735 Fenkell
864-2340
Season's Greetings
W. D. GALE, INC.
Electrical Contracting
7145 Tireman
TExas 4-2300
Happy Holiday Greetings
GREENE'S HAMBURGERS
Specializing in Carry-Out Service - Open 24 Hours
13545 W. 7 MILE, corner Schaefer
10001 W. McN ICHOLS
24155 ORCHARD LAKE RD.
DI 1-4717
UN 1-0188
GR 4-7980
Holiday Greetings to Our Friends and Customers
HERZBERG & KEYSTONE
Manufacturers of Fine Furs
19179 Livernois
44 Friday, April 1, 1966
—
r
The Enduring Challenge of Passover
Happy Passover
UN 1-5441
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
spread against the Jews—in virt-
ually every country in Europe, in
the Midle East, and even in the
United States. As a result of most
of these charges, many hundreds,
at times, thousands of Jews were
tortured, murdered, expelled from
their homes.
There were sometimes "con-
fessions"—usually by old Jews
who had been tortured and who
had later repudiated their "con-
fessions." But some of the most
respectable Christians , from
popes to lay scholars, have re-
pudiated the charges. Neverthe-
less, they persisted.
The case of Simon of Trent
may illustrate how such a libel
developed and what had followed.
Simon was a 3-year-old boy in the
Italian city of Trent (also known
as Trentino). In the year 1475,
shortly before Passover, he dis-
appeared from his home. A Fran-
ciscan monk, who had criticized
sharply the cordial relations in
the community between Jews and
Christians, had predicted that the
Jews would commit a ritual mur-
der. Sure enough, little Simon's
body was found in a river. Jews
were arrested in wholesale lots.
A Jew who had converted to Christ-
ianity, and was serving a prison
sentence for a routine crime, ob-
tained his freedom from jail by
accusing the Jewish community of
the murder of Simon. Imprisoned
Jews were tortured, an 80-year-old
Jew "confessed," several Jews
were beheaded, and the anti-Sem-
itic persecutions became so severe
that the issue reached Pope Greg-
ory XIII. The pontiff ordered Jew-
ish property in Trent confiscated,
the Franciscan monk and the dead
child were delcared saints, a
chapel in honor of 'Saint Simon"
was erected in Trentino's Church
of St. Peter.
The irony of the Simon affair
is this: last year, the Bishop of
Trent "demartyrized" Simon,
finding that the entire affair—
which cost scores of Jewish lives
—had been a hoax. It turned out
that, for some reason, Simon
had never been officially made
a saint anyway. But his role of
"Martyr" was removed from his
name. The action regarding
Simon was the first concrete
measure taken by the Catholic
Church after Pope Paul VI offi-
cially decreed that the Jews are
no longer considered to have
been collectively guilty of killing
Jesus.
There is the case of Mendel
Bells, a Jewish worker in a brick
kiln in Kiev. He was arrested in
1911 on a charge that he had killed
a 12-year-old Christian boy for
ritual purposes. The real reason
for the Czarist government's need
of a libel against Jews was that the
Duma, the Russian national legis-
lature, was considering some legis-
lation to ease the persecutions
against Russian Jews. So the Beilis
case developed.
High Russian police officials
submitted reports showing that
the boy had been murdered by a
band of crooks because he had
"squealed" against them. The Kiev
chief of secret police was sent to
prison for daring to offer such a
report. As far as the Czarist gov-
ernment was concerned, Beilis was
guilty and—with him—the Jews
were guilty of practicing ritual
murder. After a sensational trial.
which attracted world-side atten-
tion, Beilis was declared not guilty,
but the court ruled that there had,
indeed, been a ritual murder. A
short time later, a woman mem-
ber of a band of criminals con-
fessed that the gang had killed
the boy. (Bails went to Palestine,
later to the United States, modest-
ly refused to discuss the case. He
died in 1934 at Saratoga Springs,
N.Y.).
In 1928, at Messena, N.Y., a
Christian child had disappeared
on the eve of Yom Kippur. The
town's chief of police brought in
the local rabbi and quizzed him
about the alleged Jewish practice
of ritual murder. The case col-
lapsed, but there was severe criti-
cism against the Massena city
officials. An organization called the
Permanent Commission on Better
Understanding Between Christians
and Jews in America issued a
strong statement denouncing the
"abhorrant fiction" of ritual mur-
der by Jews anywhere and assert-
ing that "there is no custom, cere-
mony of ritual among Jews any-
where, and nothing in their tradi-
tion of literature, which calls for
the use of human blood for any
purpose."
Throughout history, the horrend-
ous canard has arisen, time and
again.
This year, when the door of my
house is opened to let the hungry
come in to share "the bread of
affliction" during the seder — and
when the door is ajar so that
Elijah the Prophet may come in
and drink the biggest wine goblet
dry—I shall shudder again. I try
not to scare my young grandchild-
ren. But I do tell them about my
years as a child on the night of
Passover. They should know. They
must.
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Happy Passover To All
Our Friends and Customers
CAESAR'S PIZZERIA
Carry Out Service
16918 W. Seven Mile
838-8073
Passover Greetings
COBURN STUDIO
INTERIOR DECORATORS
Draperies—Furniture
Re-Upholstering—Slip Covers
3143 W. McNichols Road
UN 1-7100
Sincere Best Wishes
On the Passover
LLOYD'S
HARDWARE and PATIO
FURNITURE
15410-30 Fenkell at Greenfield
VE 6-3070
Lloyd Weingarden
Passover Greetings
INTERNATIONAL METAL PRODUCTS CORP.
Coils, Strips, Sheets — Galvanized, Electrolytic
10621 Capital
Oak Park
LI 8-8111
Happy Passover
SAUL KATZ CONSTRUCTION CO.
625 Lafayette Bldg.
Happy Passover
To The Jewish Community
LAND 0' LAKES CREAMERIES, INC.
9140 Roselawn
TE 4-1400
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Happy Passover
ROBERT LAURIE
Wholesale Beef and Boneless Cuts
2852 Eighteenth St.
9435 Copland
VI 2-0590 — TA 5-7580
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Best Wishes to Our Friends
for a Happy Passover
LORI LYNN HAIR FASHIONS
Coloring - Permanents - Tinting - Hair Styling
Air Conditioned
13334 W. McNichols
UN 2-9828
A Happy Passover To All Our Customers and Friends
MR. MARIO'S HAIR FASHIONS
MARIO and DAVID
19031 Livernois
1
UN 3-6873
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Holiday Greetings
BASIC READY MIX
Southfield, Mich.
21400 W. 8 Mile Rd.
444-1177
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Seasons Greetings
SQUARE DEAL HEATING
& COOLING, INC.
Heating, Cooling and Wiring Contractors
10163 Gratiot
WA 1-2345
(