Purely Commentary

The Catholic Church and
the Ritual Murder Libel

By Philip

SiOMOVitZ

All Zionist Groups
in Canada to Unite
Under 1 Umbrella

of W. P. Eckert, 'Il beato Simonino negli "Atti" del processo di Trento
The Catholic Church and the Ritual Murder Libel
gli Ebrei,' in `Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche,' 44, 1915, pp. 193-221.
NEW YORK (JTA) — Louis A.
An old canard often comes home to roost. The atrocious ritual It consists substantially of the articles in the collection `Juden.hass-
Pincus, Jewish Agency chairman,
murder accusation, once — in the early centuries of Christianity's Schuld der Christen?' "
What Cardinal Bea did not clarify is that Simon of Trent was a Monday warmly hailed an agree-
history — leveled also against the Christians, has been the cause
of much suffering and necessitated repudiation from the highest child, that it was a ritual murder case. It was in 1475 that an agitation ment reached by all Canadian
carried on in Trent by the Franciscan friar Bernardius of Feltre Zionist organizations last week,
religious sources. A number of Popes have condemned the libel, yet
was
in 3 creating a new "Federated Zion-
it has been repeated — not only in Russia in 1911, when Mendel and
the disappearance of a 3-year-old child, Simon, was utilized
ist Organization of Canada."
Beiliss was the victim of the trumped-up charge; or in the infamous ritual murder charge against the Jews.
Tisza-Eszlar case in 1882 in Hungary, which was fought in the courts
Seven Jews who found the body floating on the river were
This all-embracing body is to
tinder the leadership of Thomas Masaryk, who later became President arrested. A baptized Jew, Johann of Feltre, joined in leveling the false include the Zionist Organization
of the ill-fated Republic of Czechoslovakia; or the numerous other charge that Jews were using blood for their matzot on Passover. Some of Canada, Wizo-Hadassah, the
similar incidents that recurred time and again. But the repetition of Jews were coerced into making a confession. Eight were baptized and Labor Zionist Organization of
the charge was as recent as 1963 in anti-Semitic propaganda in the then executed and a trial was instituted. Pope Sixtus IV intervened, Canada, Herut, Ahdut Avoda and
suspended the trial, sent papal commissioners to Trent, and their report Mapam, and will invite the Cana-
Soviet-ruled Ukraine.
Anti-Semites in this country have resorted to this outrageous exonerated the Jews. But the Bishop of Trent had plotted to acquire dian Friends of the Hebrew Uni-
fable as recently as in 1964, when leaflets reviving the accusation were the property of the Trent Jews and he pressed the charge. Sixtus IV versity, the Jewish National Fund,
appointed several cardinals to investigate the case further, but the Histadrut Campaign, Weizmann
distributed widely in many American cities.
Condemnation of this libel in several current books, including a head of that commission was a friend of Bernardius and the Bishop Institute, Canadian Technion So.
of
Trent was exonerated. One hundred years later Pope Gregory XIII ciety and the Canadian Friends of
history of the criminal libel, a novel dealing with it, Augustin Cardinal
Bea's "The Church and the Jewish People" and a number of other canonized both the child Simon, and the fanatic Bernardius. Now, the Bar-Ilan University to affiliate.
works by Catholic scholars, points to the roles that were played by nearly 400 years later, "the cult," !as Cardinal Bea refers to the canon-
The unified Canadian Zionist
ization, has been forbidden.
several Popes in repudiating the libel.
It was before he became Pope Clement XIV that Cardinal Ganga- body, according to the agreement
Especially significant in reconstructing the effective Catholic role
in denouncing the canard is Maurice Samuel's "Blood Accusation — nelli had issued his famous encyclical in which he branded the ritual reached, "will manage all Zionist
The Strange History of the Beiliss Case" (Knopf). Samuel's is a his- murder charge against the Jews as infamous and false. Ganganelli's affairs, including public relations,
report quoted at length from the earlier encyclical condemning the education and culture, youth,
tory, and it records basic facts, pointing out at the very outset:
camps, aliya, publications, United
"The Blood Accusation, as it is called, the accusation that the charge by Pope Innocent IV, as well as earlier pontiffs. Ganganelli had Israel Appeal and budgets." Pre-
Jewish religion calls for the periodic ritualistic consumption of the refused to accept the testimony of converted Jews who had testified ceding the agreement, Pincus met
blood of a Christian, was born in the Middle Ages, at about the time against their former co-religionists, and his report declared: "In these with the Canadian Zionist leaders
of the First Crusade; it was a revival, with certain changes, of the neophytes from Judaism there is wont to occur a certain transport
Jerusalem, Brus-
accusation leveled at the early Christians by the Romans. Young against their own nation, by reason of which they not seldom go several times in
sels, New York and Montreal,
William of Norwich (d. 1144) was the first victim to be claimed by beyond the limits of truth."
where
negotiations
were success-
The ritual murder charge has caused so much suffering in Jewish
the legend; after him, like a pestilence that had lain dormant for a
Ha'Am (Asher Gins- fully completed.
thousand years, it kept on reappearing here and there across the ranks that the famous Jewish philosopher Ahad
centuries. It was denounced by four popes as a sinful slander; not one berg), in his essay, "Some Consolation," in which he dealt with anti-
In his statement, Pincus stressed
pope, even among those whose attitude toward the Jews was the Semitic humiliations leveled against the Jews, concluded as follows: that "the Canadian Zionists, by
"
'But'
—
you
ask
—
'is
it
possible
that
everybody
can
be
wrong,
harshest, ever endorsed it. Nevertheless the Blood Accusation persisted
this exercise in statesmanship,
down into modern times, and nearly every recurrence was attended by and the Jews right?'
have demonstrated their overrid-
"Yes,
it
is
possible:
the
blood
accusation
proves
it
possible.
Here,
the threat or perpetration of massacre and pillage."
ing awareness that a unified Zion-
you
see,
the
Jews
are
right
and
perfectly
innocent.
A
Jew
and
blood
—
The four Popes listed by Samuel are: Innocent IV, 1247; Gregory
ism has a key role to perform in
could
there
be
a
more
complete
contradiction?
And
yet
..
."
X, 1272- Martin V, 1422, and Paul III, 1457. One of the strongest con-
our times."
1966,
JTA,
Inc.)
(Copyright,
demnations, in 1758, was that of Cardinal Ganganelli, who later became
Pope Clement XIV.
There is an interesting reconstruction of the role of the Popes in
the especially noteworthy new novel by Bernard Malamud, "The
Fixer" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), whose counterpart of Mendel
Beiliss, Yakov Bok, a simple man who is not even an observant Jew,
lima. Israel acts as a grown
actions underscore the basic dif-
By SAUL CARSON
refuses to be intimidated into "confessing" the ritual murder charge.
ficulty underlying the Arab-Israel adult. Recently, when the United
JTA Correspondent in the UN
As in Samuel's history, it becomes clear in "The Fixer" that not all
Nations Correspondents Associa-
(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)
conflicts.
Russians are bigots, that there were among them men of conscience who
tion held its traditional, annual
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.—It is
Refusal to sit in the same TV
protested against the injustice in that horrible case that was concocted
dinner to salute the UN Secre-
against Beiliss, as a weapon against all Jews, by the Russian author- well known that, for many years studio with an Israeli, to share a
tary-General and Assembly
ities. It is the Investigating Magistrate Bibikov who saw through the now, Israel has told the world, microphone or face a camera to-
plot, who discovered the true murderers of the young Russian boy, here at the UN and elsewhere, gether with one, is supposed by the president, the Israelia delega-
tion was represented at the for-
whose death was unjustly charged to Yakov. Bibikov, who subsequently that it is ready to sit down and Arabs to be proof that they do not
mal event. This year's Assemb-
was murdered by the Czar's lieutenants who were determined to con- talk to the hostile Arab states any recognize Israel's existence. But
ly head, as it is well known, is
vict the condemned Jewish itinerant fixer of things, managed to see time, anywhere, and without any on this correspondent's desk is a
a Moslem whose country does
Yakov in his jail cell. He had come to give 'him some courage, to preconditions. It is known just as fat book of United Nations treaties
not recognize Israel, Abdul Rah-
assure him that he would do his utmost to prove his innocence, and he well that the Arabs have consist including four armistice agree-
man Pazhwak, of Afghanistan.
told Yakov Bok that the prosecutor who was drumrning up the case ently refused to engage even in a ments signed under UN auspices
II
As president of the Assembly,
"tends to believe what those around him believe," that "he is not a preliminary dialogue with Israel. ! in
1949 by Israel, Egypt, Jordan,
Recently, the general press "dis- Syria and Lebanon. Did those facts
Pazhwak went recently one step
fool." that (Pages 171-172):
beyond the customary snub of
"He knows our history and is quite familiar with the law though covered" these facts.
constitute recognition that there
Israel by inviting among the
not greatly responsive to its spirit. He surely knows that Alexander I,
One of the television networks- was an Israel? Under the United
in 1817, and Nicholas I, in 1835, by official ukase prohibited blood CBS-TV--scheduled a program on Nations Truce Supervision Organi-
guests to a press luncheon three
libels against Jews living on Russian soil, although it is quite true which the Israeli and Jordanian
Jewish correspondents who rep-
zation,
there
are
four
Mixed
Ar-
that these libels have been revived within the last generation to pro- ambassadors to the United Na-
mistice Commissions — one for resent the Israeli and American
voke pogroms for political purposes. I do not have to tell you there tions would be interviewed. The
Jewish press. But that's as far
has been a disappointing retreat of progress in recent times, whatever Israeli, Ambassador Michael S. each of the four Arab signatories as even he would go.
—each
with
a
UN
military
ob-
it is we call progress, especially disappointing because of the little Comay, was willing to submit to
Most delegates at the United Na-
we have had since the Emancipation. There's something cursed, it a joint interview with the Jordan- server as chairrrian. When those
alternately laugh and show
seems to me, about a country where men have owned men as property ian envoy, Ambassador Muham- MACs meet, there are two Israelis tions
anger with the Arab attitude to-
The stink of that corruption never escaped the soul, and it is the mad H. El-Farra. But the latter. and two Arabs at the table under
Is-
stink of future evil. Still, the original decrees have not withdrawn and as Mr. Comay pointed out on the the UN man's chairmanship. Is ward Comay and the other Co-
raeli diplomats here. When
are therefore the law. If Grubeshov (the prosecutor) has at all looked air, was either "unwilling or un- that recognition for Israel?
One of the tiresome moves per- may referred on the air to El-Fa-
into this subject, as I have recently, he will also know, for instance,
that certain Roman Catholic Popes, including an Innocent, a Paul, a able" to face the cameras from petually pushed here by the Arabs ra's refusal to share the studio
Gregory. and a Clement, whose numerical designations I have for- the same table and in the same is insistence that the UN Palestine with him, he kept a straight face.
gotten, issued certain interdictions against this accusation. I believe one room where the Israeli had been Conciliation Commission imple- Sometimes, a straight face is more
of them called it 'a baseless and wicked invention.' Interestingly, I placed for the interview.
ment the purposes for which it had difficult to maintain—but it's his
Later, there were photographs been set up in 1948. But when the job not to show anger either with
learned that this very same blood accusation made against the Jews
was used by pagans of the first century to justify the oppression and showing Comay in a side room all i pcc consults Israel and the Arab stupidity or diatribe.
slaughter of the early Christians. They too were called 'blood drinkers,' by himself, watching El-Farra's states, it can never bring an Is-
The act put on by these people is
for reasons you would understand if you knew the Catholic mass. The interview on a CBS monitor raeli and an Arab together at the not just a show of insecurity in
blood mystique arose in a belief of primitive people that there is a screen. The program, "Face the same table. That failure is cer- their own position. It is a fact of
miraculous power in blood. It is, of course, a most dramatic substance Nation," put Comay on the air tainly much more important than international importance loaded
first—sequestering the Jordanian a television program.
in color and composition."
with international implications.
Yakov thereupon posed a question, why the priest who was used in another side room where he had
The game that makes believe The Arab-Israeli situation has
by the authorities to press the libel against him "says yes." Investigat- neither monitor screen nor even
that Israel does not exist goes three alternatives—talk, fight or
ing Magistrate Bibikov replied: "Father Anastasy is a charlatan. He an aural outlet, so that he could
still further. Most of the time, it continuance of the uneasy status
has written a stupid anti-Semitic brochure in Latin which brought him neither see nor hear the Israeli
involves also the Moslem states quo. Israel has made its stand
to the attention of the United Nobility, who have urged him to testify and thus get the jump by a re- here, the latter acting on the crystal clear. The rest, as proven
against you. Around him much of the pogrom agitation is centered ..." buttal to the Israeli's remarks.
assumption that they must, thus, by the relatively insignificant TV
To the credit of the Catholic Church dignitaries, there has been
This time, the newspaper photos
support their Arab fellow-Mus- program, is up to the Arabs.
recorded, on the day of the promulgation of the historic Declaration on
pointed up the Arab stance. Ac-
the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, the correction
tually, it was not the first time
of a grave error in the notorious case of Simon of Trent. In "The
the Arab delegates around here
Church and the Jewish People" (Harper & Row), Augustin Cardinal
have played this game—a game
Bea writes:
NEW YORK (JTA)—Senator Jacob K. Javits,
that, at best, is merely silly.
"The Church finds no difficulty — in proven cases — in acknowl-
Several weeks earlier, another the Republican who is the senior U. S. Senator
edging that one of its meMbers, or some particular or local church, has
television network tried to stage representing New York State, projected himself
erred. A somewhat sensational incident of this kind has recently
a joint interview with Comay Sunday as entitled to be nominated in 1968 as "at
occurred in the suppression of the cult paid for centuries to Blessed
and Syria's Ambassador George least" the Republican candidate for the vice presi-
Little Simon of Trent. This man was honored as a martyr who was
J. Tomeh. The latter also was dencyy.
In several appearances on television, and in
killed by the Jews , in hatred of the faith. When, however, recent
"unwilling or unable" to share
critical researches revealed certain contradictions in the acts of the
off-the-air interviews, Javits, who has been men-
proceedings with Comay.
tioned as the possible GOP running mate to Michi-
process which, at least, raised doubts as to the fact of his murder
Terming these actions as merely
by the Jews, the ecclesiastical authorities did not hesitate to acknowl- silly
gan's Governor George Romney, pointed out that
is,
edge the error and to forbid the cult in question." An appended note
of course, gross under- he has been the Republican Party's ideologist for
statement.
If
grown
people
—
or
20
years and that he has
to this by Cardinal Bea states:
proved himself as qualified
Javits
"It is significant that the decree bears the date Oct. 28, 1965, the governments calling themselves k by showing he is "responsible and farsighted."
mature
—
want
to
act
foolishly,
n I don't
"I think," he said, "I am entitled to national consideration.
day of the promulgation of the Declaration. It was based on the work
that is entirely their business. But want to minimize it at all. I think I am entitled to a national Positicli
this
is
not
mere
childishness.
The
by
what
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
2 Friday, December 16, 1966
I have done."

Silly Arab Game of Not Talking to Israelis

Sen. Javits Wants Vice Presidency

—