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Anti-Defamation League, Ariel Toaff, „Passahfest des Blutes”, Bar-Ilan-Universität, Catholic Church, Communities, Darin, Easter, Elio Toaff, Geschichte der orientalischen Juden, Il Mulino, Israel, Italy, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, Mel Gibson, Oberrabbiner von Rom, Pasque di Sangue, Ramat Gan, Religion and Spirituality, Simeon, Simon, Simon of Trent, Simon Unverdorben, Simon von Trient, Simonino di Trento, Trent, Trento, Umbria
English: Elio Toaff with Scalfaro Italiano: Elio Toaff e Scalfaro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ariel Toaff (* 1942) ist ein italienischer Historiker und Lehrstuhlinhaber an der Bar-Ilan-Universität in Ramat Gan, Israel. Sein Fachgebiet ist die Geschichte der orientalischen Juden. Toaff ist der Sohn des emeritierten Oberrabbiners von Rom, Elio Toaff.
Toaff veröffentlichte im Februar 2007 in Italien das Buch Pasque di Sangue („Passahfest des Blutes”) im Verlag Il Mulino.
Darin versuchte er anhand von durch Folter zustande gekommenen Aussagen in Inquisitionsakten den Ritualmord von Juden an Simon von Trient im 15. Jahrhundert als möglich nachzuweisen. Eine kleine Gruppe von deutschstämmigen Juden habe aus Rache möglicherweise Ritualmorde an Christen begangen.
English: Coat of Arms of the city of Ramat Gan, Israel עברית: סמל העיר רמת גן (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Das Buch stieß bereits seit einer Vorabrezension von Sergio Luzzatto auf einhellige Ablehnung in der Mediävistik und Empörung in Israel und Italien. Kritiker bezeichnen Toaffs Thesen darin als unwissenschaftliche Rechtfertigung damals konstruierter Ritualmordlegenden. Fachhistoriker wiesen ihm schwere methodische Mängel und inhaltliche Fehlschlüsse nach. Seine Universität rügte die vorzeitige Veröffentlichung des Buches im Ausland; israelische Politiker forderten eine Bestrafung Toaffs wegen Verunglimpfung der jüdischen Religion. Auch sein Vater distanzierte sich von dem jüngsten Werk seines Sohnes.
Nach einer Woche zog der Verlag auf Verlangen Toaffs die Restauflage des Buches zurück. Er bedauerte die Veröffentlichung in Italien, bekräftigte, es habe nie jüdische Ritualmorde gegeben, kündigte eine Überarbeitung an und sagte zu, den bisherigen Erlös aus dem Buchverkauf an die Anti-Defamation League zu übergeben.
English: coat of arms of Italian region Umbria Italiano: emblema della regione Umbria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nach grundlegender Überarbeitung erschien das Buch Ende Februar 2008 in Italien neu. Toaff weist in der neuen Fassung die Behauptung, Juden hätten Christenblut verwenden können, entschieden als Legende zurück.
Publikationen (Auswahl)
- Pasque di sangue: ebrei d’Europa e omicidi rituali. 2007. ISBN 978-88-15-11516-4
- Love, work, and death: Jewish life in medieval Umbria. 1996. ISBN 1-87477-419-6
- The Jews in Umbria.3 Bände:
- The Jews in Umbria: 1245–1435. 1993. ISBN 90-04-09695-7
- The Jews in Umbria: 1435–1484. 1994. ISBN 90-04-09979-4
- The Jews in Umbria: 1484–1736. 1994. ISBN 90-04-10165-9
- The Mediterranean and the Jews: banking, finance and international trade (XVI–XVIII centuries). 1989. ISBN 965-226-099-1
- The Jews in medieval Assisi: 1305–1487; a social and economic history of a small Jewish community in Italy. 1979. ISBN 88-222-2835-9
Weblinks
- Literatur von und über Ariel Toaff im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
- Jüdischer Antisemitismus oder wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis? Deutschlandfunk vom 10. Februar 2007
Anmerkungen
- ↑ Bar-Ilan-Universität: Research Institutes and Centers
- ↑ „Ritualmord? Ariel Toaff“
- ↑ Ron Weinstein: A blood-stained version of history
- ↑ Johannes Heil (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg): „Pasque di sangue“ – Ariel Toaff und die Legende vom Ritualmord
- ↑ Israel heute, 27. Februar 2007: Gerichtsverfahren gegen Prof. Ariel Toaff
- ↑ Compass Infodienst Nr. 746
- ↑ Jerusalem Post: ‘Jews never committed ritual murders’ – 11. Februar 2007
- ↑ MKs demand the author of blood libel book be prosecuted
- ↑ Historian recants theory that Jews killed Christian child in ritual murder
Yellow badge Star of David called “Judenstern”. Part of the exhibition in the Jewish Museum Westphalia, Dorsten, Germany. The wording is the German word for Jew (Jude), written in mock-Hebrew script. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ariel Toaff is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar Ilan University. He is the son of Elio Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome.
Among his works are The Jews in Medieval Assisi 1305-1487: A social and economic history of a small Jewish community (1979), Il vino e la carne. Una comunità ebraica nel Medioevo (‘Wine and Meat. A Jewish Community in the Middle Ages’, 1989), Mostri giudei. L’immaginario ebraico dal Medioevo alla prima età moderna (“Jewish Monsters. The Jewish Imaginary from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era”, 1996) and Mangiare alla giudia. La cucina ebraica in Italia dal Rinascimento all’età moderna (‘Eating Jewish style. Jewish Cooking in Italy from the Renaissance to the Modern Age’, 2000).
Passovers of Blood: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders
Diamond Exchange District, with the Moshe Aviv Tower at far-right (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Toaff’s most recent book, Pasque di sangue. Ebrei d’Europa e omicidi rituali (“Passovers of Blood: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders”), was published in February 2007. The book analyzes the cultural and historical background to a notorious medieval trial regarding accusations of the ritual murder of a child by some Jews for the purposes of Passover, accusations which the consensus of scholarship has dismissed as a blood libel against Jews. The book sparked intense controversy, including calls for him to resign from or be fired from his professorship, the questioning of his research, historical method(s), and motives as they relate to his writing of the book, threats to his life, and demands that he be prosecuted.
Boycott Israel-poster (Photo credit: Creap)
Toaff promised not to give in to pressure and defend his work “even if crucified”,, but he did pull his book from circulation. He clarified that in regard to the specific trial, dealing with Jews accused of killing Simon of Trent for ritual purposes at Passover, there was no relationship whatsoever between the so-called ‘ritual of blood’ and ritual infanticide. He denied that the Jews implicated were in any way involved in the murder. On February 14, 2007, Toaff said in a statement that he ordered the Italian publisher of his book to freeze distribution of his book so that he can “re-edit the passages which comprised the basis of the distortions and falsehoods that have been published in the media.” A second edition of the book appeared in February, 2008. In an afterword to this edition in defence of his book, Toaff responded to his critics. To forestall possible misinterpretations, he said that the idea that Jews practiced ritual murder a slanderous stereotype, and that ritual homicide or infanticide was a myth. That said, the possibility existed that:
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‘certain criminal acts, disguised as crude rituals, were indeed committed by extremist groups or by individuals demented by religious mania and blinded by desire for revenge against those considered responsible for their people’s sorrows and tragedies.’
In this Rosh Hashana greeting card from the early 1900s, Russian Jews, packs in hand, gaze at the American relatives beckoning them to the United States. Over two million Jews fled the pogroms of the Russian Empire to the safety of the U.S. from 1881-1924. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The evidence supporting this hypothesis draws on confessions extracted under torture. His book examines the strong documentary evidence in medieval medical handbooks that dried human blood, traded by both Jewish and Christian merchants, was thought to be medicinally efficacious. Under the stress of forced conversions, expulsions and massacres, Toaff thinks it possible that in certain Ashkenazi groups dried human blood came to play a magical role in calling down God’s vengeance on Christians, the historic persecutors of the Jews, and that this reaction may have affected certain forms of ritual practice among a restricted number of Ashkenazi Jews during Passover.
See also
References
- ^ S.Buttaroni, S. Musial (eds.) Ritual Murder Legend in European History, Krakow, Nuremberg, Frankfort, 2003 p.12 reads:’It is important to state from the very beginning that Jewish ritual murder never took place. Today proving such theories wrong is not the goal of scientific research’. Cited Toaff, Pasque di sangue 2007 p.225 n.2
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Rome (Photo credit: Oggie Dog)
^ Adi Schwartz, Toaff fights for his good name, in Haaretz, 1 March 2007.
- ^ Biale, David (2007). Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians. Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. xi. ISBN 978-0-520-25304-9.
- ^ Ofri Ilani, MKs seek to try Prof. Toaff over claims in blood libel book.’ in Haaretz, February 2007.
- ^ Ofri Ilani,, ‘Bar-Ilan professor who claimed Jews used Christian blood in Passover ceremonies defends his book: ‘I will fight for my truth, even if I am crucified’.’ in Haaretz, 12 February 2007
- ^ Adi Schwartz ‘Historian recants theory that Jews killed Christian child in ritual murder,’ in Haaretz, 24 February 2008.
- ^ Matthew Wagner and AP, ‘Blood libel’ author halts press in The Jerusalem Post Feb. 14, 2007
- ^ Gabriel Sanders,Scholar Pulls Book Revisiting Blood Libel – Says Press Distorted His Work, Pledges Proceeds to ADL in The Forward, February 16, 2007
- ^ Ariel Toaff, ‘Trials and Historial Methodology: In Defence of Pasque di sangue,’ p.2
- ^ Ariel Toaff, Ebraismo Virtuale,Rizzoli, 2008 pp.101-105.
Studies
- Sabina Loriga, “The Controversies over the Publication of Ariel Toaff’s “Bloody Passovers”,” Journal of The Historical Society, 8,4 (2008), 469-502.
External links
- Commentary by Johannes Heil of the University of Heidelberg
- Commentary on Toaff’s Book on Blood Libel (Haaretz)
- Article on Toaff and the Jewish-Italian Community (Haaretz)
- A blood-stained version of history (Haaretz)
- Toaff fights for his good name (Haaretz)
- MKs demand the author of blood libel book be prosecuted (Haaretz)
- Professor’s Claim Of Truth To ‘Blood Libel’ Plays Into Hands Of Anti-Semites — from the ADL
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