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Isabela Becerra

Anja Sanchez

English 2120-005

20 March 2022

Blood Libel

Monsters are terrifying creatures that many fear. Some monsters are bad, and many are

good just they are just portrayed or seen as bad due to the false accusation and rumors that have

been told about them that we see them all as terrifying creatures. This occurred to the Jewish

community many years ago, they were seen as monsters for the false accusation that were told by

many people that everyone believed it was true which they called it the blood libel. The blood

libel was an accusation where Jewish were killing Christians for their blood for religious rituals.

In the book “The Accusation Blood Libel in an American Town” by Edward Berenson mentions

how Jews were seen by many and how it had an impact on the Jewish community with the myth

that was going on that whenever a child went missing, they will blame it on the Jews, and

everyone would think it was true without evidence they were seen as beast and monsters by

everyone.

At the beginning of the book Edward starts with a story about a little girl named Barbara

that went missing and people started stating rumors that Jews might be involved with her

disappearance as it quotes “Several hours into the search, someone—it’s unclear who—floated

the idea that Barbara had been kidnapped and killed by the Jews. She was the victim, voices said,

of ritual murder, of the Jews’ supposed need to ritually kill Christian children and harvest their

blood.” (Berenson 9). This story of Barbara was all over town that many went in search for her

Edward started the book with this story as an attention grabber for the readers to keep on reading
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to find out what truly happened to Barbara and for the readers to be interested in reading the

book.

This book persuades the readers to question themselves a lot with what is happening and

if it’s all true that Jews are killing Christians because there where many cases that people

believed the Jews where capable of doing such a thing and in other occasion Edward would say

it was just rumors but seems real to many as it quotes “Mayor Hawes decided to take seriously

the rumor circulating through town that the Jews kidnapped and ritualistically killed Barbara

Griffiths for her blood” (Berenson 24) Even the mayor agreed with what people were saying

with no evidence they were accusing the Jews for a crime they still haven’t solved they were

religiously discriminating Jews.

Many people of the United States where not inform of this situation as it quotes “That so

many jumped to this conclusion was especially bizarre because this accusation against Jews,

although common in Europe, was essentially unknown in the United States.” (Berenson 10). It

was unknown in the United States as Berenson mentioned, he writes this book to inform people

from the United States about the blood libel and the stores that were occurring in Europe. He’s

trying to inform us about how these accusations had a huge impact to the Jews.

Edward Berenson was trying to show us how those rumors that where spreading was

really affecting the Jewish community and how many would think it was all false as it quotes

where they interview him “I am dreadfully surprised to hear such a foolish, ridiculous and

contemptible question from an officer in the United States of America, which is the most

enlightened and civilized country in the world. Do you realize the seriousness of this question?

The trooper said then that a foreigner told him so. I told him that it is a false and malicious
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accusation.” (Berenson 31). This interview makes us realize of how this accusation where false

and makes the reader question themselves if it’s true or if a Jew really killed Barbara.

Edward also mentions about the blood libel in his book for us to understand more the

concept and what really was the blood libel in medieval times as it quotes “What exactly was the

blood libel and where did it come from? Historians generally agree that the first significant

accusation that Jews practiced ritual murder surfaced in England in the mid-twelfth century.”

(Berenson 38). This helps the reader to understand what the blood libel was and when was it

occurring for them to understand it better if they have never head of this accusation before.

Berenson gives different stories that occurred during that period that was related with the

blood libel for us to see how impactful it was in during that period it was something everyone

would be mentioning. One example in this book explains what one person believed in about he

Jews as it quotes “The most important story for Thomas’s purposes was that the Jews ritually

slaughtered one Christian every year, each time in a different place. In 1144, Norwich had been

selected. The only problem for Thomas’s narrative was that Theobald had been nowhere near

Norwich that year and could not have witnessed the supposed ritual murder. Either Theobald

made up his tale or Thomas created a fictional character named Theobald. Historians think

Theobald was real, so it was he, rather than Thomas, who devised the false story of the Jews’

ritual murder.” (Berenson 39). Including this in the story makes us question if Theobald was a

made-up character or what he said was all made up this shows us how the blood libel was

something unclear. A story was going around of a boy named William that was crucified and

murdered, and everyone believed it was the Jews according to what Thomas said that Theobald

is the one who stated it was the Jews “In Thomas’s own telling, it thus seems highly unlikely that

the Jews could have been responsible for having murdered William, let alone tortured and
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crucified him.24” (Berenson 41). They blamed the Jews for torturing and crucifying William

which is something harsh because if the Jews did such a thing everyone would see all the Jews as

monsters.

Jews are portrayed as the evil ones in these stories people believe in the false accusation

that were told by people “of the Eucharist and then torture it, often with needles, until it bled. In

the blood libel, the Jews were said to steal the blood of Christ-like children; in host desecration,

they made Christ himself bleed, symbolically reenacting the Passion and the tortures that

accompanied it.” (Berenson 48). Here Edward also explains more about the Blood Libel to give

us the reader more information about the blood libel. It explains how the Jews want the blood of

the children’s that are Christians this portrait them as monsters since monsters are scary creatures

that people fear, Jews where seen related to them since people would fear them because they will

kill children for their blood as it quotes “In his Discourses Against the Jews, John called them

obstinate beasts whose “condition is no better than that of pigs or goats.” Jews were so obstinate

that they “are not fit for work; they are fit for killing.” (Berenson 52). How would you feel if

someone would say this about you and your community? I can’t imagine how the Jews would

have felt when everyone around them would see or talk about them that way. It makes me mad

and sad reading this.

All throughout the book Edward mentions stories of where the Jews where getting

accused and many parts where people say it’s all false as it quotes “Why the blood had to come

from children remains unclear in Langmuir’s analysis.” (Berenson 45). This is how the readers

have a glance of why they were accusing the Jews by the stories where they were involved and

then they get a glance of the other side where people mentioned the other side of the stories
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where the Jews where nor really doing anything it was just rumors people were telling around

that many people would believe it.

Whenever there were a child missing people would right away accuse the Jews and they

were involved with their appearance as in the book quotes “She quickly decided that Jószef must

have been involved in the death of her daughter, testifying later that her suspicions had been

divinely inspired and then confirmed in a dream. Another way to put it would be that Mária’s

latent knowledge, or memories, about the Jews had been tapped.” (Berenson 77). A woman right

away accuses a Jew just because her dream confirmed it. There was no evidence that he truly did

it.

At the beginning of the book Edward starts off the book with the story of Barbara the

four-year-old that disappeared in the woods and was not found and all through the book they

mention her in parts of the chapter but never explained what had truly happen to her till almost

the end of the book Edward provides the readers what happen to Barbara as it quotes “Barbara

suddenly stumbled out of the woods, bewildered and disoriented but unharmed. At about 4:30 on

Sunday afternoon, just over twenty-four hours after she had disappeared, the four-year-old was

spotted in a farmer’s field less than a mile from her house. Two teenage girls from the nearby

village of Norfolk saw her as they waited by the roadside for a ride home. Fully aware of the

drama in Massena, which “had spread through the entire county and beyond,” the girls

immediately realized that the little one must be Barbara” (Berenson 216-217). Edward did this

for us the readers to keep on reading his book to find out what really happen to Barbara and for

us to read and inform ourselves more about the blood libel and how the Jews where mistreated

and seen as beast by many people.

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Work Cited

Berenson, Edward. The Accusation Blood Libel in an American Town. New York, NY Norton &
Co, 2019.
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Reflection

It is important to consider rhetoric of fiction because it helps us understand the text better

and how the author is convincing us to believe on what they were saying and how they portrayed

imaginary events and look at it as a real story instead of fantasy. In my opinion I think nonfiction

is more impactful because whenever we analyze a nonfiction text there are more resources that

support the argument and historical events that make the argument stronger because it’s an actual

event that happen not an imaginary one. This assignment effect how I read about monsters by

them making the stories look real to portray that Jews really killed children for their religion

rituals but, they were just rumors but people saw them as monsters and the whole community of

Jewish. I would also see them as monsters If the stories where true because how can people kill

children for their own good that is something monstrous to do. It made me realized that maybe

all the legendry monsters are not really monsters they were just portrayed like that by the stories

and rumors that were made but, we don’t know if they were bad or good and that’s the question,

we will just have to answer ourselves. How I think rhetoric effects how we conceptualize

monsters is by persuading us to agree with what they say about them, and I do think rhetoric

contributes to the culture of monsters because it makes us agree with what they say about them

and question ourselves and we can just imagine how monsters where and everything about them

by the authors point of view. Rhetorical analysis is a great skill to have in our areas of my career

and education because by using rhetorical analysis helps us to understand more the point of a text

by examining it.