David Biale, professor of Jewish History and director of Jewish Studies at the University of California at Davis, lectured on Thursday about how blood has served the dual purpose of uniting the Jews and separating them from others. Entitled “From Blood Libel to Blood Community,” the lecture explored how blood united the Jews on a material as well as spiritual level, and how this was also the source of many inflammatory myths, such as the blood libel.
“The recurrence of the blood libel in the 20th century seemed to challenge the assumption of equality between Jews and non-Jews by arguing that the Jews were really different from their neighbors,” Biale said.
The lecture was based on the information in Biale’s upcoming book, “Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians.” Biale brought up myths, such as Jewish ritual sacrifice and the repercussions in culture. In one case, a Jewish butcher was accused of a crime that was more likely committed by a Christian butcher. The Jew was under suspicion because of the purported ritual sacrifices in Judaism.
Biale presented Hermann L. Strack’s view that other cultures’ practices were the source of the blood libel.
“But even if some of his evidence should rightly be classified as folklore rather than fact, sort of urban myths, Strack brings copious evidence that belief in ritual and medical uses of blood was very widespread in Christian Europe,” Biale said. “For example, going back to antiquity, it was held that the blood and fat of executed criminals was considered highly efficacious for curing a variety of illnesses, especially epilepsy.”
According to Biale, even if blood served to separate Jews from other cultures, it helped to unite them.
“Büber asserts that, ‘The sources that carve man’s life are his inwardness and his environment,’” Biale said of Martin Büber, a Jewish Zionist philosopher. “’Inwardness’ he defines very specifically as ‘blood: the deepest, most potent stratum of our being.’ What Büber means by blood is the consciousness of one’s connection to the succession of generations.”
Despite Biale’s occasional levity, the lecture had potent messages for those attending.
“It seems so irrational that anybody would ever think something like that; that there [were] Jews that are unclean or with different blood that they were putting blood in their matzah,” said Aaron Dorman ’10.
“It brought up a lot of things about race and what it means to be Jewish,” said Sarice Greenstein ’10.
Before introducing Biale to the audience, Jeremy Zwelling, associate professor of Religion, mentioned the Contemporary Israeli Voices series, sponsored by the Jewish and Israeli Studies program. Next Wednesday’s event will feature Agi Mishol and Lisa Katz, two well-known poets. Agi Mishol was born in Hungary to Holocaust survivors and grew up in Israel, and Lisa Katz translated Mishol’s poety from Hebrew to English.
“Many of us from Jewish Studies regard Mr. Biale as the premiere cultural historian of Jewish civilization,” Zwelling said. “All three books he has written are regarded as classics, and they are much referenced in the scholarship.”
The Contemporary Israeli Voices Series will have its first event on Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. in the Russell House Millett Room.
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