Blood accusation

From JudaismWiki

BLOOD ACCUSATION. The false charge that Jews use Gentile blood in connection with holiday rituals, particularly on Passover. This falsehood has been hurled at Jews in various places since the 12th century. Though popes, Christian scholars, and judges have denounced the suggestion of such an act, about 200 cases of this accusation exist on record. Often, Jews were tortured to make them “confess their guilt.” As late as the 19th century, 39 such cases occurred in Europe and in the Near East. One of the most notorious cases of blood libel was the Beilis case in 1911. In 1928, this accusation turned up in the U.S., when a Christian child disappeared in Massena, N.Y. Some officials asked the rabbi whether ritual slaying was part of the Yom Kippur observance. This case so shocked the nation that the organization later to be known as the National Conference of Christians and Jews issued a statement declaring, “There is no custom… among Jews anywhere… which calls for the use of human blood.” The Nazis tried to give the charge additional circulation, but in recent times it has died out. What makes the accusation especially absurd is the fact that the Bible (Lev. 17:10, Deut. 12:16, 1 Sam. 14:32-34) expressly forbids the consumption of blood, and the Dietary Laws are replete with rules about the scrupulous removal of blood from meat.