Ariel Toaff

Ariel Toaff
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Born	1942
Died
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Occupation	Historian
Known for	Pasque di sangue (Blood Passover)
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Ariel Toaff (born 1942) is an Israeli-Italian historian and professor emeritus of medieval and Renaissance history at Bar-Ilan University. He is the son of Elio Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome.

Cover of the English version.

Blood Passover (first edition, 2007)

In February 2007 Ariel Toaff published Pasque di sangue: Ebrei d'Europa e omicidi rituali (Blood Passover: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders). In the first edition he argued that a small number of Ashkenazi Jewish extremists in northern Italy may have engaged in ritual murder of Christian children and used their blood in Passover rituals. Precise lengthy quotations from the first edition include:

• “The use of the blood of Christian children in the celebration of the Jewish Passover was apparently the object of minute regulation, at least according to the depositions of all the defendants in the Trent trials. These depositions describe exactly what was prohibited, what was permitted, and what was tolerated, all in meticulous detail. Every eventuality was foreseen and dealt with; the use of blood was governed by broad and exhaustive case law, almost as if it formed an integral part of the most firmly established regulations relating to the ritual. The blood, powdered or dessicated, was mixed into the dough of the unleavened or "solemn" bread, the shimmurim-- not ordinary bread. The shimmurim-- in fact, three loaves for each of the two evenings during which the ritual dinner of the Seder was served -- were considered one of the principal symbolic foods of the feast, and their accurate preparation and baking took place during the days preceding the advent of Pesach.”
• “Reading the depositions of defendants accused of ritual child murder with relation to the utilization of blood, one is left with the clear impression that, rather than explain the need for the blood of a Christian child, the defendants were attempting to provide a description of the wonderful therapeutic and magical properties of blood generally, and of blood extracted from children and young persons in particular. The principle emphasis was placed upon scorched, dried blood which been reduced to powder; such blood is said to have been used as an haemostatic [coagulant] of extraordinary effectiveness when applied to the wound caused by circumcision. Angelo da Verona had no doubt in this regard and explained to the judges at Trent that, once the blood had been reduced to powder, Jews normally save it for later re-use when their sons were circumcised, to heal the wound in the foreskin.”
• “In some cases, the blood was mixed with dough to make the unleavened bread for Passover.”
• “The hostility evinced by ‘extremist’ Jews toward Christians at the time may have fueled the blood libels.”
• “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.”

Criticisms

The first edition was immediately condemned.

• Abraham Foxman (National Director, Anti-Defamation League): “It is incredible that anyone, much less an Israeli historian, would give legitimacy to the baseless blood libel accusation that has been the source of much suffering and attacks against Jews historically.” (February 2007)
• Robert Bonfil (historian): “Toaff’s book is an insult to the intelligence, an outrageous distortion of historical method… It repeats the blood libel insults scholarship.”

Toaff’s concessions and revised edition

Ariel Toaff withdrew the first edition within days.

Toaff issued a personal statement on 13 February 2007:

• PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT
• By PROF. ARIEL TOAFF

In light of the false and distorted interpretation given to my recently published book around the world, I have requested the Italian publishing house, “El Molino” — the publishers of my book — to immediately stop further distribution of the book, in order that I may re-edit those passages in the book which comprised the basis of the distortions and falsehoods that have been published in the media. I was astounded by the sheer force of these misrepresentations, which turned what is a research book into a vehicle used to harm Judaism and the Jewish people and, g-d forbid, to justify blood libel.

I feel indirectly responsible for the recent events which have transpired, and in order to express my profound sorrow for the distortions that were attributed to me and which hurt the Jewish people, I have decided to donate all the funds forthcoming from the sale of this publication to further the activities of the Anti-Defamation League. I will never allow any Jew-hater to use me or my research as an instrument for fanning the flames, once again, of the hatred that led to the murder of millions of Jews. To this end, I have reached the conclusion that it is my duty to stop this awful witch hunt. I extend my sincerest apologies to all those who were offended by the articles and twisted facts that were attributed to me and to my book.

In order to remove any shadow of doubt, and prevent the continuation of these horrible distortions, I have decided to ask my publisher to stop the book’s distribution, so that I can insert the requisite clarifications as speedily as possible. I am taking these steps in order to prevent the further mis-use of my book as anti-semitic propaganda.

THANK YOU FOR PUBLISHING THE CONTENTS OF THIS PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT, IN A SPIRIT THAT WILL BRING TO RECTIFICATION OF THE DISTORTIONS

Sincerely

Prof. Ariel Toaff

As can be seen from this statement, there is not a single concession on the facts in the book. Rather the statement makes it clear that the author sees the issue as distortions of his arguments.

In the afterword to the revised second edition (2008) he made the following explicit remarks:

• To forestall all possible misinterpretations, I shall summarize the subject and the scope of my research. First I shall clarify that I have no doubts that the so-called "ritual homicides or infanticides" pertain to the realm of myth; they were not rites practised by the Jewish communities living and working in the German-speaking lands or in the North of Italy, and of which they were accused in the Middle Ages and the periods thereafter. That of ritual murder is and always has been a slanderous stereotype. Nevertheless, one cannot exclude the possibility that 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. However, the sole and problematic support for this hypothesis are confessions extracted with the violence of torture and torment, and whose truthfulness is entirely to be demonstrated.
• The ample body of documentation on the trial held in Trent on the infanticide of the child Simon (1475) enabled me to conduct detailed examination of the confessions made by the accused Jews. I considered whether these confessions - also hearing in mind that they had been extracted under torture - comprised elements referable to the mentality, traditions and rites of those Jews, as regards both their daily lives and their celebration of festivals, in particular Passover. On the basis of significant comparisons and cross-checks with the Jewish sources, I reached the conclusion that there was solid evidence to suggest that a magical and symbolic use of blood, dried and reduced to powder, had with time, and despite the opposition of the rabbis, become an integral part of particular rites and liturgies performed to celebrate Passover.

• The image that emerges from an important body of Jewish documentation, recently published by Israel Yuval, is confirmed by the account provided by the accused of Trent, which clearly indicates that this image characterized groups of Ashkenazi extremists, whose numbers, however, are not easy to quantify. These groups, which belonged to the German Judaism ravaged by the traumas of the crusades, massacres and forced baptisms, expressed their hatred of Christianity in the so-called "ritual of curses" enacted during the Passover feast. According to my hypothesis, which I believe is borne out by significant evidence, these ritualized anathemas were thought to acquire terrible magical force when grains of powdered Christian blood were symbolically dissolved in the wine, turning it into the blood of Edom, or Christianity, the relentless persecutor against which the curses were directed. On conclusion of the anathematizing liturgy, the poUuted wine was thrown away, without passing the lips of the celebrants. But between this dried blood used in the rite - blood which originated from unknown 'donors', alive and well, and mostly belonging to indigent families - and alleged ritual murders there was no relationship whatsoever save in the minds of judges (and not only those of Trent) as they endeavoured to prove the blood accusation against the Jews. Through their tendentious interpretations, the magical, therapeutic, alchemic, propitious or maleficent use of blood served to give plausible support to the deadly blood libel.
• As well known, Murray, a disciple of Frazer, an English anthropologist and an egyptologist, argued that the descriptions of the sabbath contained in the witchcraft trial records were not introjections of hostile stereotypes suggested by the judges; rather, they were precise accounts of rites which had actually occurred. In other words, just as application of Murray's method gave credence to the witches' nocturnal flights and diabolic couplings, so I have allegedly given credence to the myth of ritual murder, presenting it as a rite that was actually practised". As far as I am concerned, however, this is not how matters stand. I must specify once again that I too believe that so-called 'ritual murder' must be regarded as a myth and a calumny, not as a rite which pertained to the religious practices of the Jewish communities - not even in circumscribed historical contexts. This is regardless of the fact that the rite may sometimes have had some sort of counterpart in the wretched reality of crimes committed by individuals demented by religious fanaticism [Pasque di sangue, p. 121 [117]). But it is wrong to believe that other specific practices of the groups examined in my book, and which emerged from testimonies obtained under torture, can also be considered entirely equivalent to myths.

Resources

• First Edition of the book in English Blood Passover (August 2007)
• Revised version: Blood Passover (2016)
• Trials and Historical Methodology: In defence of Pasque di Sangue 2008 (PDF version)
• Il Giornale report Toaff: "I'm stopping 'Bloody Easter' and I apologize." Editorial Staff February 15, 2007 - 3:02 AM