Ariel Toaff
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Ariel Toaff (; born 17 July 1942) is an Italian historian of Jewry. He is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at
Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...
in Israel, whose work has focused on Jews and their history in Italy. He came to international prominence with the 2007 publication of the first edition of his controversial book ''Pasque Di Sangue'' ('' Passovers of Blood''), in which he claimed historical basis Hannah Johnson, ''Blood Libel: The Ritual Murder Accusation at the Limit of Jewish History,''University of Michigan Press, 2012 pp.132ff. p.132. for ritual use of human blood, obtained by murder. The claim was criticized as lending support to
blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mu ...
, an allegation that modern historians have described as unsupported by facts and which the Catholic Church has similarly repudiated since the 13th century. Toaff wrote that these critics had misunderstood his book, which argued that the ritual use of small quantities of dried blood in magical curses had been a real practice among medieval "Ashkenazi extremists", but that this was unrelated to the accusation of ritual murder which was the central claim of blood libel.


Biography

Born in
Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...
, Ariel Toaff is the son of
Elio Toaff Elio Toaff (30 April 1915 – 19 April 2015) was the Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1951 to 2002. He served as a rabbi in Venice from 1947, and in 1951 became the Chief Rabbi of Rome. Early life Toaff was born in Livorno in 1915, the son of the city' ...
, late former
Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...
of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. Among his works are ''The Jews in Medieval Assisi 1305-1487: A social and economic history of a small Jewish community'' (1979); '' Love, Work and Death: Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria'' (''Il vino e la carne. Una comunità ebraica nel Medioevo'', 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''

Toaff's 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 1475 murder trial in Italy. A group of Jews were accused of murdering a young boy, later known as
Simon of Trent Simon of Trent (; , also known as ; 1472–1475), also known as Saint Simon (or Simeon) of Trent, was a young boy from the city of Trento, Trent, in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (now Trentino, Italy), whose disappearance and death were blamed on ...
, and using his blood for
Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
rites. The accused were tortured and confessed to killing the boy, who was informally venerated as a saint by Catholics until the 1960s. The consensus of scholarship has dismissed cases such as Simon of Trent's as a
blood libel against Jews Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
. The book's publication, among other responses, led to calls for Toaff to resign from or be fired from his professorship, and questioning of his research,
historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be draw ...
- which is based on the
microhistory Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspi ...
approach of scholars like
Carlo Ginzburg Carlo Ginzburg (; born 15 April 1939) is an Italian historian and a proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: '' The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an I ...
- and motives as they relate to his writing of the book. Threats were made against his life, and some sought his prosecution. The book was much criticized for providing material that anti-Semites might capitalize on, though
Sergio Luzzatto Sergio may refer to: * Sergio (name), for people with the given name Sergio * Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found * Sergio, the mascot for the Old Orchard Beach Surge baseball team * ''Sergio'', a 2009 documentary film about ...
praised his intellectual courage in reopening a dossier that had lain under a taboo. While Toaff framed his analysis in hypothetical language, and phrased his speculations in conditional language, the reception of the book often tended to translate this caution, according to Hanna Johnson, into the indicative language of accepted fact. Toaff promised not to give in to pressure and defend his work "even if crucified". In response to a statement from Italian Jewish leaders that consumption or use of blood is prohibited by Jewish law and tradition, Toaff stressed that he was not implicating all Jews, but only "a group of fundamentalist Jews hodid not respect the biblical prohibition gainst use of blood" However, Toaff did eventually pull his book from circulation. He clarified that in regard to the specific trial, dealing with Jews accused of killing
Simon of Trent Simon of Trent (; , also known as ; 1472–1475), also known as Saint Simon (or Simeon) of Trent, was a young boy from the city of Trento, Trent, in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (now Trentino, Italy), whose disappearance and death were blamed on ...
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 of Simon. 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."Matthew Wagner and AP
'Blood libel' author halts press
in ''
The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...
'' Feb. 14, 2007
A second edition of the book appeared in February, 2008. In an afterword to this edition in defense of his book, Toaff responded to his critics. To forestall possible misinterpretations, he said that the idea that Jews practiced ritual murder is a slanderous stereotype, and that ritual homicide or infanticide was a myth. That said, the possibility existed 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.Ariel Toaff, 'Trials and Historical Methodology: In Defence of ''Pasque di sangue'',' p. 2
/ref>
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 Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
.Ariel Toaff, ''Ebraismo Virtuale,''Rizzoli, 2008 pp.101–105.


See also

*
Kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...


References


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 (German) by
Johannes Heil of the
University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

Commentary on Toaff's Book on Blood Libel
(''Haaretz'')

(''Haaretz'')

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(''Haaretz'')

(''Haaretz'')

€”from the ADL {{DEFAULTSORT:Toaff, Ariel 1942 births Living people 20th-century Italian Jews Italian emigrants to Israel Judaic scholars Blood libel Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University People from Ancona