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Last update - 19:54 11/02/2007
Bar-Ilan to order professor to explain research behind blood libel book
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Bar-Ilan University on Sunday said it would order Professor Ariel Toaff to explain the research behind his new book about the centuries-old charge that Jews killed Christians in ritual murder.

University historian Toaff has raised a storm by alleging in his book book that some blood libels - accusations that Jews killed Christians in ritual murders to add their blood to matza and wine on Passover - may be based on real ceremonies in which the blood of Christians was actually used.

The university said in a statement that "Bar-Ilan University - its officers and researchers - have condemned, and condemn, any attempt to justify the awful blood libels against Jews."
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The university said that as soon as Toaff returned from a trip abroad it would ask him for explanations regarding his research, adding "until then... we should refrain from relying on baseless reports that have been denied by Prof. Toaff himself and which, apparently, lack any connection to the research itself."

"Pasque di Sangue" was just released in Italy. It shocked the country's small Jewish community - in part because he is the son of Elio Toaff, the chief rabbi who welcomed Pope John Paul II to Rome's synagogue two decades ago in a historic visit that helped ease Catholic-Jewish relations after centuries of tensions.

The author, who is considered an international expert on Italian Jewry, delves into allegations that resulted in torture, show trials and executions, periodically devastating Europe's Jewish communities.

Historians have long dismissed the allegations as racism, but blood libel stories remain popular in anti-Semitic literature.

Jewish and Catholic scholars have denounced Toaff's work, saying he simply reinterpreted known documents - and has given credence to confessions extracted under torture.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Toaff responded angrily to his critics, saying, "My research shows that in the Middle Ages, a group of fundamentalist Jews did not respect the biblical prohibition and used blood for healing. It is just one group of Jews, who belonged to the communities that suffered the severest persecution during the Crusades. From this trauma came a passion for revenge that in some cases led to responses, among them ritual murder of Christian children."

Italian rabbis issued a statement recalling that Jewish law has always banned ingesting blood or using it for rituals.

Toaff's 91-year-old father said he was looking forward to reading his son's book and examining the documents, but stressed that according to the Torah and tradition, the consumption of animal blood was strictly prohibited, not to mention that of humans.

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Toaff said, "There is no proof that Jews committed such an act." But he added that the confessions do hold some truth - as when the accused recount anti-Christian liturgies that were mainly used on Passover, when the Israelites' liberation from ancient Egypt became a metaphor for Judaism's hope for redemption from its suffering at the hands of Christians.

"These liturgical formulas in Hebrew cannot be projections of the judges who could not know these prayers, which didn't belong to Italian rites but to the Ashkenazi tradition," he said.

The 65-year-old Toaff, a rabbi who holds dual Italian and Israeli citizenship, said, "I wanted to see how the Jews felt in this climate of hatred."

Monsignor Iginio Rogger, a church historian who in the 1960s led the investigation into the murder of a 2-year-old Simon of Trento, for which 16 Jews were hanged, said many scholars have concurred that the confessions were completely unreliable.

"I wouldn't want to be in [Toaff's] shoes, answering for this to historians who have seriously documented this case," he said. "The judges used horrible tortures, to the point where the accused pleaded: 'Tell us what you want us to say.'"

Hebrew University historian Professor Israel J. Yuval, a blood-libel expert, said, "From the information I have received, Professor Toaff's interpretation sounds trumped-up."

The Anti-Defamation League chairman, Abe Foxman, said, "It's hard for me to believe that someone, especially an Israeli historian, would legitimize the baseless claims of the blood libels."

Bar-Ilan University spokesman, Shmulik Algrabli, said, "Professor Toaff is one of the greatest scholars in his field, and we have confidence in his scientific method. The contentions of the study will be clarified when the author returns to Israel."


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  1.   Let us face it, it is not Kosher 03:17  |  Mark Lincoln 11/02/07
  2.   I`ll bet Foxman had a cat 03:52  |  hollingsworth 11/02/07
  3.   blood Libel 03:53  |  Naim S. Mahlab 11/02/07
  4.   What some academicians will do to get famous 04:11  |  Ofer 11/02/07
  5.   Blood is not kosher in Matza or out of Matza 04:18  |  Ofer 11/02/07
  6.   How is this "fundamentalist"? Not at all. 04:19  |  McQueen 11/02/07
  7.   How Can He Be Called A Historian 04:35  |  Dr. Barry 11/02/07
  8.   NOW let us see How Worlds AnitSemites React!! 04:50  |  Me 11/02/07
  9.   Fire Him and anyone else who endorses him 04:52  |  Mordechai 11/02/07
  10.   mark lincoln # 1 04:52  |  dubious 11/02/07
  11.   What`s next ? 05:04  |  Bernard Warner 11/02/07
  12.   Blood story 05:08  |  Herb Brodsky 11/02/07
  13.   Stupid story 05:25  |  Avrum 11/02/07
  14.   Ariel Toaff`s Shameless Self-Promotion 05:26  |  CHGODMK 11/02/07
  15.   just what the Dr ordered 05:27  |  art 11/02/07
  16.   HOLLINGSWORTH"In an interview Friday with The Associated Press,- 05:29  |  PETER SM 11/02/07
  17.   Toaff`s `Blood Libel` 05:30  |  Ellen Kay 11/02/07
  18.   Myths, Myths, Myths 05:38  |  Tony Anthony 11/02/07
  19.   Lunatic Fringe 05:40  |  Harold F 11/02/07
  20.   # 7 hmmmm...you may be onto something! 05:42  |  eric 11/02/07
  21.   Remove his Academic Standing 05:52  |  Mike 11/02/07
  22.   who cares? 05:59  |  nathan 11/02/07
  23.   So called Jew?!? 06:14  |  Yael 11/02/07
  24.   Why is haaretz giving the book publicity??? 06:25  |  s.n. 11/02/07
  25.   Ever hear of Kashrut? Making up bizarre lies when truth not work 06:34  |  David 11/02/07
  26.   Jewish and Catholic scholars have denounced Toaff`s work. 06:43  |  Vittorio 11/02/07
  27.   What a moron!! 06:48  |  Jo 11/02/07
  28.   Comme on guys you won`t apologise for ... 06:57  |  infidel 11/02/07
  29.   Well, the settlers do it in the West Bank and in 07:08  |  Palestinian 11/02/07
  30.   Irrelevant 07:10  |  Cat 11/02/07
  31.   pogroms! 07:14  |  serge 11/02/07
  32.   Oy Vey every Anti-Semitic group has found another expert to .. 07:29  |  Tom 11/02/07
  33.   No justification 07:45  |  Harold 11/02/07
  34.   Follow The Money 08:00  |  Frank 11/02/07
  35.   Hollingsworth - does Israeli citizenship give credibility? #2 08:06  |  William 11/02/07
  36.   Confessions under torture? Sure he`s not Arab? 08:07  |  David Teich 11/02/07
  37.   Just another SELF HATING UNCLE TOM JEW.... what else is new... 08:16  |  amir 11/02/07
  38.   Torture # 35 09:10  |  Harold 11/02/07
  39.   Eternal lusts for blood 09:16  |  Brigitte Meier 11/02/07
  40.   Remember Nitel night! 09:28  |  Angel 11/02/07
  41.   To the "palestinian" 09:38  |  Tali 11/02/07
  42.   Christian blood - mmm mmm good! 09:48  |  Ishmael 11/02/07
  43.   The sun circles the Earth 09:49  |  Galileo 11/02/07
  44.   He Is Like Neturei Karta 09:53  |  M. Duvduvani 11/02/07
  45.   PALESTINIAN(aka?) "Irrefutable proofs" Present them! 09:58  |  PETER SM 11/02/07
  46.   What an idiot 10:01  |  myxamatosis 11/02/07
  47.   david teich # 35 10:07  |  dubious 11/02/07
  48.   GIVE Toaff his day in court.Let him prtesent his"evidence" 10:10  |  p 11/02/07
  49.   GIVE Toaff his day in court.Let him present his"evidence" 10:11  |  PETER SM 11/02/07
  50.   David Teich 10:23  |  Walid 11/02/07
  51.   Bar-Ilan historian`s allegations on blood libels spark outrage 10:46  |  Lelaido Chaim Lopez 11/02/07
  52.   SOUNDS MORE LIKE BLACK MAGIC THAN JEWISH 10:46  |  paul harris 11/02/07
  53.   Sign petition to have Bar Ilan fire this idiot 10:47  |  Joel 11/02/07
  54.   #50 lopez 11:07  |  gabriela 11/02/07
  55.   Those who argue it`s imposible on account of scriptures.... 11:09  |  zmogus 11/02/07
  56.   Have you guys in the Middle East really no other problems.....?? 11:14  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/02/07
  57.   Whoa , huh , humm !, Bkhe Khe hei hei hei ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 11:31  |  Joseph E . 11/02/07
  58.   PUT THE FATHER AND SON IN BEYT MESHUGAIM 11:32  |  DR MANUCH 11/02/07
  59.   Revisionism gone insane 11:36  |  Joe 11/02/07
  60.   A real money maker in many languages 11:39  |  Sherlock Holmes 11/02/07
  61.   "PALESTINIAN"More Taqiyya,more aliases,no evidence 11:41  |  PETER SM 11/02/07
  62.   Arabic and Farsi translations? 11:43  |  Ben Azai 11/02/07
  63.   HOMICIDE bombers and Islamists anounce that they drink blood 11:45  |  PETER SM 11/02/07
  64.   let us assume that it is true 11:54  |  flashman 11/02/07
  65.   #13,CHGODMK. You say Bar Ilan...? 12:13  |  zmogus 11/02/07
  66.   Tali vs. "palestinian" 12:23  |  Anat 11/02/07
  67.   Walid is telling us to "debate" nonsensical statements 12:28  |  Anat 11/02/07
  68.   Madness 12:30  |  Vitaly 11/02/07
  69.   zmogus -- at least 14 of mine were not-premeditated 12:34  |  bbl 11/02/07
  70.   hollingsworth: "This is just too good!" 12:57  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 11/02/07
  71.   Typical Jewish reaction 12:59  |  El_Justiciero