#Beilis Trial

[eretzyisrael]

International courts of the United Nations, based in Europe, are no different than the antisemitic courts in Europe's history.

Picking on Jews by biased and antisemitic courts is nothing new in modern history as one delves deeper into the way European courts, judiciaries, legal systems and tribunals handle cases of Jewish victims who are accused of so-called crimes and transgressions they did not commit. There are notorious and historic precedents of European courts using their vaunted apparatus and legerdemain to perform "conjuring tricks" to falsely accuse, prosecute and condemn Jews. For well over one hundred years courts in European countries have been shown to be the bearers of miscarriages of justice.

As examples, this was the case in the Dreyfus trial (1894) in France, the Beilus trial (1913) in Russia and the Nuremberg Laws (1935) in Germany. Now, also coming from Europe from The Hague in Holland are accusations against the Jewish state of Israel and its leaders at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and at the International Criminal Court (ICC) bringing to a global and international level the trials and accusations and antisemitism that Jews used to face in countries during modern history.

Individually and collectively Jews have frequently been falsely accused of crimes against their non-Jewish neighbors that they did not commit.

Often, the accusations by gentile nations against Jews have risen to the level of slanders and blood libels going back to the times when Christians would falsely accuse Jews of killing Christian babies and using their blood to bake Matzos for Passover. Now the two headed international judicial monster of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court are doing the same thing by accusing Israel and its leaders of things like genocide, killing Arab babies in Gaza, crimes against humanity and war crimes for the "sin" of Israel defending itself against the murderous attacks of the Arab Islamic fundamentalist Hamas terrorist organization.

Both courts, based in The Hague, The Netherlands (aka Holland), have their roots in the United Nations. The ICJ is an official organ of the United Nations and the ICC was formed by acts of the United Nations. The election of the first members of the ICJ took place in February 1946 at the First Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. The ICJ hears disputes between states.

The UN General Assembly started the Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court in 1995 and the General Assembly convened a conference in Rome in 1998 finalizing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court that was adopted at the UN General assembly by a vote of 120 to 7, with 21 countries abstaining. At the time Israel voted against the treaty. The ICC began operations in July 2002 with jurisdiction for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. (Sourced and condensed from Wikipedia).

What is interesting is that for a very long time in history most nations did not have court systems or judiciaries that actually existed or that were fair dispensers of justice. The legal systems of European countries were connected to the church, and that did not augur well for Jews either. The most notorious example is the auto-da-fé instituted by the Roman Catholic Church to investigate, prosecute, punish, torture and put to death heretics, used against the Jews of Spain before and after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. However in modern times, most notably with the establishment of the United States in 1776, its court system was made into one of three branches of government.

For most of history, most Western countries were absolute monarchies tied to their churches but as democratic rule began to seep into Western nations they established courts, judiciaries and legal systems separate from the churches to protect the various rights of their citizens against each other and against the state, or as frequently happened, to impose the laws that the state issued and promulgated.

One would think and hope that court systems in Western countries would help to protect the rights of persecuted minorities such as the Jewish People who were scattered all over Europe and quite often suffered from unfair decrees and accusations. However, as one looks at the history of Europe where the largest population of Jews lived until most Jews were murdered during the Holocaust by the Nazi masters of most of Europe during the Second World War (1939-1945), one sees that the official courts and legal systems that existed in major European countries bought into the stereotypes, prejudices and lies against Jews and prosecuted, via their courts and laws, innocent Jewish members of their societies.

Miscarriage of justice in France during the Dreyfus Case: Accusing Jews of being traitors

The following is sourced and condensed from the Wikipedia article "Dreyfus affair":

The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935) a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent, was convicted of treason for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1896, evidence came to light which identified the real culprit as a French Army Major named Esterhazy. High-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, and a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after a trial lasting only two days. The Army laid additional charges against Dreyfus, based on forged documents. Subsequently, writer Émile Zola's open letter J'Accuse...! in the newspaper L'Aurore stoked a growing movement of political support for Dreyfus, putting pressure on the government to reopen the case. In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society. The new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was pardoned and released. In 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated.

The Dreyfus affair came to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world; it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex miscarriage of justice and antisemitism. The affair divided France into pro-republican, anticlerical Dreyfusards and pro-Army, mostly Catholic anti-Dreyfusards, embittering French politics and encouraging radicalisation. The social context was marked by the rise of nationalism and antisemitism.

Hatred of Jews was now public and violent. Jews in metropolitan France in 1895 numbered about 80,000 (40,000 in Paris alone), who were highly integrated into society; an additional 45,000 Jews lived in Algeria, a French colony. Antisemitism circulated by La Libre Parole, as well as by L'Éclair, Le Petit Journal, La Patrie, L'Intransigeant and La Croix, drew on antisemitic roots in certain Catholic circles.

Publications remarking on the Dreyfus affair often reinforced antisemitic sentiments, language and imagery. Antisemitic disturbances and riots broke out in 1898 in cities across Metropolitan France, mostly in January and February. Antisemitic riots predated the Dreyfus affair, and were almost a tradition in the East, which the Alsatian people observed upon the outbreak of any revolution in France. But the 1898 disturbances were much more widespread. There were three waves of unrest in 55 localities. These waves and other incidents totaled 69 riots or disturbances across the country. Additionally, riots took place in Algeria from 18–25 January. Demonstrators at these disturbances threw stones, chanted slogans, attacked Jewish property and sometimes Jewish people, and resisted police efforts to stop them.

The shock of the Dreyfus affair also affected the Zionist movement which found fertile ground for its emergence.

The Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl appeared profoundly moved by the Dreyfus affair, which followed his debut as a correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna and was present at the degradation of Dreyfus in 1895. The catalyst for Herzl's 'conversion' is usually seen as the Dreyfus affair, which made him realise the impossibility of Jewish existence in Europe. Before the wave of antisemitism that accompanied the degradation, Herzl was convinced of the need to resolve the "Jewish question", which became an "obsession" for him. In Der Judenstaat (State of the Jews), he considered that:

"If France – bastion of emancipation, progress and universal socialism – can get caught up in a maelstrom of antisemitism and let the Parisian crowd chant 'Kill the Jews!' Where can they be safe once again – if not in their own country? Assimilation does not solve the problem because the Gentile world will not allow it as the Dreyfus affair has so clearly demonstrated."

Herzl's shock was great, for, having lived his youth in Austria, an antisemitic country, he chose to live in France for its humanist image, which made it appear a shelter from extremist excess. He had originally been a fanatic supporter for assimilation of Jews into European Gentile society. The Dreyfus affair shook Herzl's view on the world, and he became completely enveloped in a tiny movement calling for the restoration of a Jewish State within the biblical homeland in the Land of Israel. Herzl quickly took charge in leading the movement.

In 1897 he organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel and is considered the "inventor" of Zionism as a real political movement". Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary in 1897:

"Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word – which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly – it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will recognize this."

The Dreyfus affair also marked a turning point in the lives of many Jews from Western and Central Europe, as the pogroms of 1881–1882 had done for the Jews of Eastern Europe, as many Jews had believed that they were Frenchmen first. Yet Jews, despite the state-sanctioned efforts of the emancipation movement, were never truly accepted into society and were often deemed aliens and outsiders, even when they showed extreme devotion by fighting courageously in the wars of their respective countries.

Miscarriage of justice in Russia during the Beilis Case: Accusing Jews of blood libels

The following is sourced and condensed from the Wikipedia article "Menahem Mendel Beilis":

Menahem Mendel Beilis (1874–1934) was a Russian Jew accused of ritual murder in Kiev in the Russian Empire in a notorious 1913 trial, known as the "Beilis trial" or the "Beilis affair". Although Beilis was eventually acquitted after a lengthy process, the legal process sparked international criticism of antisemitism in the Russian Empire. Beilis was an ex-soldier and the father of five children. He was employed as a superintendent at the Zaitsev brick factory in Kiev. On March 12, 1911, a 13-year-old boy named Andriy Yushchinskyi disappeared on his way to school. Eight days later, his mutilated body was discovered in a cave near the Zaitsev brick factory. Beilis was arrested on July 21, 1911, after a lamplighter testified that the boy had been kidnapped by a Jew. A report submitted to Tsar Nicholas II by the judiciary named Beilis as the murderer.

Beilis spent over two years in prison awaiting trial. Meanwhile, an antisemitic campaign was launched in the Russian press against the Jewish community, with accusations of ritual murder. They eventually found the real killers: A gang of gentile criminals - Rudzinsky, Singayevsky, Latyshev, Cheberyak.

The Beilis trial took place in Kiev from September 25 through October 28, 1913. The prosecution was composed of the government's best lawyers. Professor Sikorsky of Kiev State University (father of Igor Sikorsky), a medical psychologist, testified as an expert witness for the prosecution that in his opinion it was a case of ritual murder.

Beilis was represented by the most able attorneys of the Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev bars. Two prominent Russian professors spoke on behalf of the defense in praise of Jewish values and exposed the falsehood of the accusations, while Aleksandr Glagolev, philosopher and professor of the Kiev Theological Academy of the Orthodox Christian, affirmed that "the Law of Moses forbids spilling human blood and using any blood in general in food." The well-known and respected Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Yaakov Mazeh, delivered a long, detailed speech quoting passages from the Torah, the Talmud and many other books to conclusively debunk the testimony of the "experts" brought forth by the prosecution.

The Beilis trial was followed worldwide and the antisemitic policies of the Russian Empire were severely criticized.

Due to his great fame, Beilis could have become wealthy through commercial appearances. Spurning all such offers, he and his family left Russia for a farm purchased by Baron Rothschild in Palestine, then a province of the Ottoman Empire. Beilis had difficulty making ends meet but he remained. When friends and well-wishers pleaded with him to go to America, he would respond: “Before, in Russia, when the word ‘Palestine’ conjured up a waste and barren land, even then I chose to come here in preference to other countries. How much more, then, would I insist on staying here, after I have come to love the land!”

When Beilis's financial situation became desperate, he finally gave in. In 1921 he settled in the United States where in 1925 he self-published an account of his experiences titled The Story of My Sufferings. Originally published in Yiddish the book was later translated into English and also Russian. Beilis died in New York in 1934.

Miscarriage of justice in Germany during the Nuremberg Laws: Accusing Jews of being subhuman

The following is sourced and condensed from the Wikipedia article "Nuremberg Laws":

The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. The remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date.

Out of foreign policy concerns, prosecutions under the two laws did not commence until after the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin. After Hitler rose to power in 1933, the Nazis began to implement antisemitic policies. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April, excluded so-called non-Aryans from the legal profession, the civil service, and from teaching in secondary schools and universities. Books considered un-German, including those by Jewish authors, were destroyed in a nationwide book burning on 10 May. Jewish citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. They were actively suppressed, stripped of their citizenship and civil rights, and eventually completely removed from German society.

The Nuremberg Laws had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community. Persons convicted of violating the marriage laws were imprisoned, and (subsequent to 8 March 1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores, many of which closed due to a lack of customers. As Jews were no longer permitted to work in the civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and education, many middle-class business owners and professionals were forced to take menial employment. Emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90% of their wealth as a tax upon leaving the country. By 1938 it was almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country willing to take them. Mass deportation schemes such as the Madagascar Plan proved to be impossible for the Nazis to carry out, and starting in mid-1941, the German government started mass exterminations of European Jews.

For the most part, Germans accepted the Nuremberg Laws, partly because Nazi propaganda had successfully swayed public opinion towards the general belief that Jews were a separate race, but also because to oppose the regime meant leaving oneself open to harassment or arrest by the Gestapo. Although a stated goal of the Nazis was that all Jews should leave the country, emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90 per cent of their wealth as a tax upon leaving the country. Anyone caught transferring their money overseas was sentenced to lengthy terms in prison as "economic saboteurs". An exception was money sent to Palestine under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, whereby Jews could transfer some of their assets and emigrate to that country. Around 52,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine under the terms of this agreement between 1933 and 1939.

By the start of the Second World War in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Palestine, Great Britain, and other countries. By 1938 it was becoming almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country that would take them. After the 1936–39 Arab revolt, the British were disinclined to accept any more Jews into Palestine for fear it would further destabilise the region. Nationalistic and xenophobic people in other countries pressured their governments not to accept waves of Jewish immigrants, especially poverty-stricken ones. The Madagascar Plan, a proposed mass deportation of European Jews to Madagascar, proved to be impossible to carry out. Starting in mid-1941, the German government began resorting to mass exterminations of European Jews. The total number of Jews murdered during the resulting Holocaust is estimated at 6 million people.

Conclusion: The more things change, the more they stay the same

In the eyes of the non-Jews, the Jews can never win. This is true in all fields because antisemitism is a universal disease that will only be "cured" and eradicated with the coming of the true Jewish Messiah who will finally place the world under the banner of God, the Holy One Blessed Be He, and his Torah. No matter what they do and no matter which way they turn and no matter the places and circumstances Jews find themselves in, they are always falsely accused of things they did not do.

In the case of the non-Jewish legal systems of modern times it has been no different. In the cases of Dreyfus in France and Beilis in Russia, the legal systems of those countries nominally targeted individual Jews but the true targets were the large numbers of Jews living in Western and Eastern Europe. Dreyfus was falsely accused of being a traitor to France, of spying for Germany, while Beilis was falsely accused of murdering a Christian boy in a classical blood libel. In turn, aided by much of the local press of the time in France and Russia it riled up the masses of non-Jews to heights of antisemitism, Jew-hatred, and violence and the degradation of the Jewish minorities in those countries. This was a horrible abuse of legal systems for one purpose only: Get the Jews and hit them hard where it hurts.

Nazi Germany took this judicial tyranny against the German Jews a step further by targeting not individual Jews but rather getting at them as a collective group. With the virtual stroke of a pen the laws of Germany were sharpened into a knife aimed at all the Jews of Germany. The Nuremberg Laws were worse than the Roman Catholic Church's auto-da-fé against the Jews of Spain because in Spain a Jew could still "save" himself by claiming to be a Christian while the Jews of Germany were not afforded such a device to escape their fate as untermenschen (subhumans) that no claim of becoming a Christian would ever save them.

Now comes Jew-hatred on an international global colossal legal scale when the nations of the world, via the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, accuse the Jewish state of Israel of "genocide", "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes" in Gaza because the Israelis have the temerity to fight back against the barbarous attacks by the Arab radical Islamic fanatics of Hamas and try to root out all the terrorists in Gaza who were responsible for the massacre, murdering and wounding thousands and kidnapping hundreds of innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023.

Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin was born to Holocaust survivor parents in Israel, grew up in South Africa, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and of Teachers College–Columbia University and heads the Jewish Professionals Institute dedicated to Jewish Adult Education and Outreach – Kiruv Rechokim. He was the Director of the Belzer Chasidim's Sinai Heritage Center of Manhattan 1988. 1988–1995, a Trustee of AJOP 1994–1997 and founder of American Friends of South African Jewish Education 1995–2015. He is also a docent and tour guide at The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Downtown Manhattan, New York and the author of The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy.Contact Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin at izakrudomin@gmail.com

...

[chicago-geniza]

Ok but also a propos last post I have wanted to write a story for ages where Jewish vampires

Argue endlessly about halakha and various Talmudic ephemera, interpretive minutiae about kashrut, despite being undead and unholy;

Get into a slapstick, comedy-of-errors blood libel situation where they *did* exsanguinate a local Christian youth but *not* for *ritual* murder, just for *regular* murder, and it had nothing to do with *Judaism*, and have to extricate themselves from the madding crowd and exonerate themselves at a Beilis-esque trial;

Blood being passed off as barszcz;

Also it's in 19th-century Galicia

Alas I just don't think this flavor of supernatural satire would go over well with contemporary audiences even if they know the author is Jewish too lol

[russiancrimes]

The Beilis Trial- A Story of Antisemitism

  On March 20th 1911 the body  of a 12-year-old boy was discovered in a small cave in the Lukyanovskaya suburb of Kiev. The body had 47 stab wounds made by a stitching awl, a special tool used for making holes in thick materials, such as leather. 

  The boy’s name was Andrei Yushchinsky, and what should have been a thorough criminal investigation uncovering local gang activities, turned into a shameful prosecution of Menahem Mendel Beilis, an innocent Jewish man, fueled by the antisemitic movement and political instability of the Russian Empire at the time.

  Let us set the stage for this story, by diving into some important historical events, which facilitated the social unrest in the nation. 

  Firstly, “Krepostnoe Pravo” was the ownership or serfdom of peasants, which existed in the Empire since 14 hundreds, the times of Kievan Rus`. Unlike slavery in the West, serfdom meant that the people were attached to a certain piece of land, and could only be sold along with that land. Attempts to abolish it began in 1790s, but it took a lot of efforts and enlightenment to finally get rid of the inhumane rule in 1861 by Tsar Alexander II.

(Tsar Alexander Nikolaevich II. Years of reign 1855-1881)

  While it is fair to mention, that a lot of nobility were supportive of the reform, we cannot ignore the resistance from others, far less enthusiastic dwellers of the wealthy social layers. 

  Another important factor in the game were the religious and cultural differences with the Jewish people, whose population increased tremendously after Russian Empire acquired new territories through the division of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Jewish community constantly faced hardships and discrimination. “Pogroms”, the ultra-violent attacks on whole Jewish neighborhoods were terrible massacres, with no prosecution. 

  Finally, the growing revolutionary movement created secret societies and terrorist groups, who either supported the monarchy or wished to overturn it, both in their own violent ways.

  This dangerous cocktail would be the cause of many sad and unfair acts against innocent people, and it would play the main role in the Beilis Trial.

  Let us return to the sad story of the 12-year-old Andrei, who grew up without much affection or care from his single mother. His neighbours & classmates would often see him wonder the streets alone in the late hours. Despite the obvious neglect, he was considered a smart & well-behaved child, perhaps a little quiet and distant at times. He studied in the Theological School at St. Sophia Cathedral, hoping to become a priest which was his chance to escape his miserable life.

(The only photos that exist of Andrei, are those from his funeral)

  When Andrei’s body was discovered, he had been missing for 8 days. Inspection indicated that the boy was not murdered in the cave, and numerous stab wounds were sustained after he was already dead. The main cause of death was a blunt head trauma. It seemed the piercing wounds had exsanguinated his body and a wave of dark rumours swept through the nation, theorizing a “ritual killing” or a “blood libel”, which according to some old-wives tale was a Jewish tradition. The situation, being as volatile as it was, did not need much to spark up a public outrage. Antisemitic tendencies were further fueled by the investigation receiving anonymous letters, blaming the Jewish community for the murder. 

  Even though no hard evidence indicting Jewish involvement was found, the society’s demand for justice against the non-Christians was forcing the police and court to dig for “the truth”, even if it meant fabricating it. The far-right nationalist groups began protests, using Andrei as a martyr icon. New pogroms were planned to avenge the boy, who could never had imagined such attention during his lifetime.

(The cave where Andrei’s body was discovered)

  Because the cave where Andrei’s body was discovered happened to be conveniently located near a brick factory run by a couple of wealthy Jews, the fingers were quickly pointed at them. The role of the scape goat had befallen Menahem Mendel Beilis, superintendent of the factory. The “evidence” and witness statements presented to the investigation did not make sense and showed all signs of being tempered with.

(Menahem Mendel Beilis  on the day of apprehension )

  Luckily, in the police force there were some capable of disconnecting themselves from the antisemitic propaganda and taking an unbiased look at the crime.

  The main suspicion was the inconsistencies in the statements of one witness- Vera Cheberiak, who was one of the first to blame the Jews. Her son Zhenya happened to be Andrei’s close friend, and the boys often played in their home. Secondly, Vera was known to be connected to organized crime- holding a fence, dealing in stolen goods.

(the main suspect and probably one of the true murderers of Andrei- Vera Cheberyak)

  Zhenya’s first statement said that Andrei visited their home on the 12th of March, the day he disappeared. However, he later revoked his story and seemed to be frightened. Additionally, Vera’s neighbor remembered hearing strange noises and a child crying that same day. It was later uncovered, that Andrei and Zhenya had a row and the former threatened to spread the news about Vera’s illegal activities. It all was starting to look like Andrei witnessed something he shouldn’t have and paid a heavy price. Vera and her “buddies” further undermined their innocence by refusing to be interviewed, changing statements, even escaping custody.

(Vera’s gang buddies, believed to have murdered Andrei- Singaevskiy, Rudzinskiy & Latushev)

Despite the piling evidence against Vera Cheberyak and her gang, Menahem Beilis spent 2 years imprisoned before being put on trial. However, the attempts to prove his guilt were absolutely embarrassing and clearly fabricated. The workers of the factory provided a strong alibi for Beilis- the day Andrei went missing, the production was in full throttle, and he hardly left his office. Furthermore, a piece of fabric found next to the boy’s corpse matched bedsheets from Vera’s house. The court and jury had no more reason to hold Beilis and he was immediately released. The decision was respected by the outraged right groups and the intended pogroms were cancelled. The medieval concept of “blood libel” was denounced by the prominent journalists and politicians. Shortly after his release, Menahem Beilis migrated to USA, where he passed away in 1934.

  The tragedy of this story was in the fact that the murder of a young neglected boy was exploited by conflict-hungry individuals to carry out their dirty political agenda. Cheberyak received a fine dose of punishment from life itself- during the investigation 2 of her 3 children, including Zhenya, passed away from dysentery. She was never officially convicted for the murder of Andrei Yushchinsky, however was executed in 1919 by the new communist government.

  The Beilis Trial was extensively covered by the international media and was the subject of many books and cinema on the topic of Anti-Semitism. It also marked the political and moral rock-bottom that the Russian Empire had hit, in its preparedness to turn a blind eye on a known criminal and shift the blame on a Jew...on any Jew.

[heckofabecca]

argleblargle

I keep confusing which class has which final project because the two final projects I have so far are both about Jewish stuff

My research and methods class project is looking at the Menahem Mendel Beilis trial and looking at the changes from the transcripts & Beilis’s memoir to the 1963 novel The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

My American social and political history class project is about Rhode Island Jews’ political identity, and I’m starting by looking at the letter from Touro Synagogue to George Washington in 1790 (which is where the phrase “to bigotry no sanction” ACTUALLY comes from)

[unprettyextra]

Just read: Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: The Ritual Murder Trial of Mendel Beilis

[chicago-geniza]

This is very good immersive Stanislavsky-school practice for imagining what An-sky felt during the Beilis trial & later, WWI! Many of his liberal intelligentsia & even radical revolutionary friends were like "of course the ritual murder, & the spy telephones," just accepting bonkers batshit antisemitic conspiracy theories, sometimes tsarist propaganda or far-right nationalist fabrications, and repeating them as though they were perfectly reasonable, common sense, common knowledge, credulous in a way they'd never be otherwise, & he was like. What

[chicago-geniza]

vladimir korolenko, the journalist who commissioned an-sky's russian-language article on blood libel folklore in the wake of the beilis trial, was from my grandpa's hometown. i learned a couple years ago that abram rechtman & another guy from the ethnographic expedition were detained there by tsarist police the day my grandpa was born, & an-sky had to negotiate their release. can't stop thinking about all the incidental ways my family intersects with shloymele's life

[chicago-geniza]

@ regenstein library digitize your microfiche you ghouls, stop violently withholding an-sky's 1911-13 beilis trial coverage & valery dymshyts's terrible takes on babel that i need for this paper!!! (the phrasing is a joke)

[heckofabecca]

me: [does research on the 1913 Beilis trial, where a Jewish man was accused of a ritual blood libel murder]

me: [sees article called “The Pussy Riot Case: Anti-Westernism in the Paradigm of the Beilis Trial”

me: ...

me, in annotated bibliography: ... more political context for the trial while also showing its continued interest to historians. I was particularly drawn by the seemingly insane comparison...

[chicago-geniza]

belief in *what* now 

(or: always-already thinking about the bullshit that turn of the century jewish writers had to put up with from their gentile colleagues & compatriots) (an-sky has...similar stories of friendships falling apart over the beilis trial) 

[chicago-geniza]

gabriella safran, World’s Leading An-sky Scholar, gave a YIVO talk this afternoon about...an-sky, the dybbuk, etc., and i’d asked a question the moderator hadn’t had time to pass on (she talked about his article on jewish folkloric responses to blood libel accusations as a sort of editorial on the beilis trial in 1913, so i asked about his article ‘evreiskoe narodnoe tvorchestvo’ (1908), in which he draws a sharp distinction between jewish & christian folklore as a dichotomy between emphasis on the spiritual/disembodied vs. emphasis on the physical/material respectively, & how christian folklore re: jews making matzo from the blood of murdered children emerged alongside and was very much informed/influenced by the church officially accepting transubstantiation as dogma/doctrine/etc., so how might an-sky interpret that connection) but at the very end she was scrolling through the chat and exclaimed “oh! there’s a wonderful grad student at [institution redacted] who writes about an-sky and has some really interesting ideas, who was here” and IT WAS MEEEE

acutely aware that the world is on fire but there is one (1) thing that brings me joy in this otherwise joyless existence and it is s. an-sky and i got a shoutout on the an-sky webinar from the woman who knows more about an-sky than anyone