French Jew Exonerated 350 Years After Blood Libel
A French Jew who was wrongly executed for blood libel almost 350 years ago has been exonerated of the crime and declared a martyr.
Raphael Levy was burned at the stake in 1670 after being accused of killing a three-year-old Christian and using their blood for religious rituals.
But on Sunday, more than three centuries after his death, officials in Glatigny, Moselle, dedicated a plaque to the man’s memory, describing him as a ‘martyr accused of a crime he did not commit.’
The ceremony in France was attended by more than 100 people, including the president of the Consistoire – the French Jewish community’s organization responsible for religious services, the Times of Israel reports.
Speaking at the event, the mayor of Glatigny, Victor Stallone said: ‘Today we are back to square one, we are reconciled, we resume normal relations with the Jewish community. ‘Glatigny was cursed since that time because of a principled prohibition decided upon by the Jewish community.’
The village was considered cursed after the incident in 1670, with Jewish travellers prohibited from spending the night there in its wake.
Blood libel allegations originate in the Middle Ages when Jews were falsely accused of murdering children for ritual purposes.
They were largely spread to justify violence against Jews, and often used to explain mysterious deaths of children.
The first known accusation of blood libel was in England in the 12th century, when a child called William of Norwich was found dead with what looked like horn piercings in his head.
Centuries later, the Nazis often spread propaganda alleging ritual murder at the hands of Jews to justify their violent behaviour towards them.
Nobody
So glad that got cleared up.
Not Enough
This is meaningless. They should pay reparations.
Milhouse
To whom should they pay? And why should they pay anything? What do they have to do with this crime?
Andrea Schonberger
This is supposed to make us thrilled to the bone?
Annon
Yes, because it’s a Kiddush Hashem.
fcd
#4,
I think this is just a matter of exoneration.
Listen to http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/livingtorah/player_cdo/aid/942194/jewish/Wolf-Wolf.htm
the Rebbe was exonerating her neshama.
Finally someone speaks up
And what about libels about Jews who supposedly became Christians? This slander has been going on well up into the 20th century, and well across Europe.
Libels aren’t limited to 14th century Spanish Jewry. False accusations litter our people to this day.
The guy with a brain
unless you go back in time and exonerate all the jews wrongfully accused and murdered for no reason other than people hating jews than it would seem as if the rest are guilty, the bigger question is what do we gain by his plaque 350 years later ?
We gain
by uncovering the covering up by those who claim that “Hitler is long gone and that we are now modern and that we should stop blaming “the holocaust” and we should stop this passed down ancient believe that the ‘goyim’ are ‘bad’ since today there really aren’t’ any true “goyim” left, since we are all educated and modern”
Publicity of this “plaque” exposes the hidden agenda of those who question what do we gain by bringing up ancient antisemitism, and of the claim that antisemitism was as ancient as 350 years ago
The hidden agenda tells us that we are modern and there no real difference between a Jew and a Goy, or between Palestine and Israel, and that we are all “equal.”
better than the alternative
Anytime there is publicity on the horrific history of how Jews were treated is helpful. Though there is way more exoneration to do, worldwide, any validation we Jews get, of what the world did to us over the centuries, is very, very important!
The world needs to be educated and/or reminded that the history of the oppression of Jews did not begin and end with the Holocaust. You might be surprised at how many goyim (and even frei Yidden) think this is the case.
Validation of the Jews’ historic experiences sure does beat the alternative!
The Huguenots
l can tell you its true. My Mishpacha comes from a long line of Jewish French Huguenots dating to over 400 years ago. Moshiach Saved Us. PTL!
Forgive my question, but....
The Huguenots were not Jews; the Huguenots were a group of Protestants, that is, a sect of Christianity.
So how were they “Jewish French Huguenots”? Isn’t that like saying “Jewish Italian Catholics” or “Jewish Scottish Presbyterians”?
Silly French
None of them know what they’re saying
Moshe Benhamou
Typically french! How about of the 6 millions jews kiiled during the 2nd war world, those killed in all the progroms fron the 17th centuray?