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Blood Libels
Blood libels were first directed to Christians who were considered a threat
During the first few years of Christianity, the ruling regime was that of the Sacrum Roman Empire which felt threatened by the new cult that had strayed from Judaism. In order to hinder the spreading of this new faith and to undermine it, the Roman rulers accused the Christians of abducting Roman children and killing them for their religious rituals.
This accusation manifested itself as a proven fact in the hearts of many people throughout the Roman Empire. With the passage of time, however, as Christianity spread and became a wide-accepted faith, the accusations were directed towards the Jews.
The original blood libels against the Jews were that they allegedly slaughtered a Christian child for the festival of Passover, as a way to ridicule "the Man from Nazareth" who had been hanged on a cross. It was not, at the time, suggested that the Jews used the blood of a Christian child to bake Matzos, as many people think. This common mistake stems from the proximity of Passover to the corresponding Christian holiday.
Many priests and nuns would accuse the Jews with blood libels as a means of diverting the people from the frustration they felt towards the corrupt authorities. In their sermons, they would arouse the people's anger at the Jews which would inevitably result in pogroms where many Jews were brutally murdered.
The concept of blood libels first appeared in Josephus Flavius's book "Against Apion". In his work, Josephus Flavius relates to the accusations of the Greek writer Apion, according to whom the Jews are commanded to slaughter a Greek every year for the conduction of religious rituals in the Temple.
The first history book to report blood libels was published in Norwich, England, in 1144. The local Jews were accused of abducting a Christian child and torturing and killing him, in order to use his blood for the rituals of Passover. This accusation resulted in the burning of 300 Jews.
During the thousand years that followed, blood libels against the Jews became widespread in all of Europe. The last blood libel took place in the year of 1911 in Russia, where a Jew named Mendel Beilis was accused of murdering a Christian child. He was later acquitted of the accusation, and during the trial the myth of blood libels was shattered once and for all. Thus, with this last blood libel the era of blood libels against the Jews came to an end.