Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Anti-Semitic Myth

by Magda Teter,
The Jerusalem Post, May 8, 2020

On December 28, 1235, in the town of Fulda in Hesse, Germany, 34 Jewish men and women were executed by Crusaders following allegations that two of them had killed Christian boys and collected their blood in waxed sacks for use during Passover. After consulting with nobles, religious figures and Jewish converts to Christianity, Frederick II issued an imperial decree absolving the Jews of “the great crime” and condemning this – and any – blood libel accusation as without foundation in Jewish law or practice.