Comments on: Jewish “historian”: Jews drank Christians’ blood in the Middle Ages

By: Kokonut

Kokonut — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:27:42 +0000

At least the Jewish historian didn’t say that Jews also drank the blood of Muslims back then. Or did they? What would Uncle Ahmie do if he heard that?

By: Tim Burton

Tim Burton — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:15:46 +0000

Do Christians go with white or red wine?

By: robo

robo — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:21:00 +0000

Andy, good one…

By: Andy in Agoura Hills

Andy in Agoura Hills — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:03:58 +0000

Two Beggars are sitting side by side on a street in Rome.
One has a cross in front of him; the other one the Star of David.
Many people go by and look at both beggars, But only put money into the
hat of the beggar sitting behind the cross.

A priest comes by, stops and watches throngs of people giving money to
the beggar behind the cross,
But none give to the beggar behind the Star of David.
Finally, the priest goes over to the beggar behind the Star of David and
says, “My poor fellow, don’t you understand?
This is a Catholic country; this city is the seat of Catholicism.
People aren’t going to give you money if you sit there with a Star of
David in front of you, especially when you’re sitting beside a beggar who has a cross. In fact, they would probably give to him just out of spite.”

The beggar behind the Star of David listened to the priest, turned to the
other beggar with the cross and said: “Moishe, look who’s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing?”

By: ScottG

ScottG — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:46:00 +0000

the Holy Communion, sharing wine and breaking bread to symbolise the blood and body of Christ

Hmmm, I don't remember Bill Clinton writing the last supper scene, but "this is my body" is clear to me.... And I'm not Catholic.

By: Matticus Finch

Matticus Finch — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:32:19 +0000

Are we Christians kosher?

As long as we’re properly slaughtered and not cooked on the Sabbath.

By: honora

honora — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:31:35 +0000

Wonder if it went with fish….

By: Matticus Finch

Matticus Finch — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:30:04 +0000

What a foolish argument. Smearing all of Judaism for the alleged acts of a few within a tiny region. That’s like a ‘historian’ saying that Christians enjoy raping young girls. After all, a fellow named David Koresh called himself a Christian and had a following that allowed that to happen. But who needs a cogent argument when you’ve got books to sell?

By: right2bright

right2bright — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:13:00 +0000

If my ancestors blood kept the Jews alive to torment the muslims and Jimmy Carter, it was worth it.

By: right2bright

right2bright — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:11:52 +0000

Are we Christians kosher?

By: One Angry Christian

One Angry Christian — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:53:46 +0000

proof? who needs proof. WE HAVE ACCUSATIONS! THOSE ARE MUCH BETTER!

By: chsw

chsw — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:39:35 +0000

Torture was commonly used to extract confessions during the middle ages. After a while, people would confess to anything to avoid the pain and gain a swifter mode of death. Therefore, I think that one can dismiss this academic’s rambling because it ignores a key practice of those times.

chsw

By: naliaka

naliaka — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:02:54 +0000

Without being in a position to know how accurate the author’s research was, a fact of human remains: All through history, not very nice people have repeatedly led easily manipulated other people into rituals that are outside the norms of the religion they ostensibly worship. This happens all the time. Think Jonestown. There may be many trappings of the religion, language, superficial duties, etc, more to delude the ignorant or to appeal the elements that were fringy from the get-go, but the core of it is apostasy and destruction. The Middle Ages were rampant with superstitious practices, so apostacy in every religion abounded.
For example, how many people are aware that some Hindus have been caught sacrificing their children for wealth – greedy people who get hooked up with witchdoctors who instruct them to do so. Hindus? Aren’t they those harmless vegetarians? Well, most Hindus wouldn’t even dream of it, but there are a few who call themselves Hindus who have marched off into another realm. If an individual is behaving in a manner inconsistent with his stated religion, then rightly, he should not be known by that religion, but few people bother to make that distinction. If a Jew is caught practicing things forbidden by his religion, then one could say he’s Jew, but only in the sense as in which clan he belongs to,as in accident of birth, but he absolutely ain’t respecting the commandments that would mark him as a practicing Jew.
So, in all of history, it wouldn’t be a surprise that a few types actually carried out a twisted version of their worship, having been goaded on by literally evil leadership. It would never be correct to call those people as representative samples of their religion. So, that’s the problem. It shouldn’t even raise eyebrows, and should be dismissed as human nature rearing it’s ugly head, as usual. The claims the author is making will be used against the greater population of Jews in order to smear them, to aid their enemies. The fault lies with the individual people who commit atrocities, not with the overwhelming majority of non-involved worshippers.
That said, see how rumors start? The Christian sacrament – the Holy Communion, sharing wine and breaking bread to symbolise the blood and body of Christ, was transformed by heresay by excitable minds into the nasty rumor that Christians consumed real blood and real flesh in their ceremonies. It was an inadvertant by-product of the Catholic teaching that the wine and bread did transmute into the blood and body of Christ. It was quite plausible to the general pagan population at the time, because other contemporary religions were heavily reliant on sacrificial offerings, and made for easy ammunition for the opponents of Christianity.

By: Attila (Pillage Idiot)

Attila (Pillage Idiot) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:03:02 +0000

I’ll bet Sullivan will say this proves that torture doesn’t elicit credible information, which is probably true in this case, but then again, he includes cross-examination at trial within the definition of torture.

By: Zorro

Zorro — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:52:00 +0000

These “academics” have really fallen down; first bad science, now bad history; wow.

By: LonelyMassRepublican

LonelyMassRepublican — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:32:43 +0000

Prof Toaff, who teaches at the Bar Illan University near Tel Aviv, responded: “This declaration is a disgrace, before judging they should have read my book and then saved themselves the bother.”

Ka-ching!

Why do we give him the attention he craves? Wouldn’t it be better to ignore losers like this?

By: ccwbass

ccwbass — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:17:00 +0000

I hear Christians often drink blood and eat human flesh as well.

Oh, snap!

By: PinkyBigglesworth

PinkyBigglesworth — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:42:23 +0000

Prof Toaff, who teaches at the Bar Illan University near Tel Aviv, responded: “This declaration is a disgrace, before judging they should have read my book

And before you know it, Johnny Sutton will be saying, “Don’t look at the facts, just buy and read my book….”

By: see-dubya

see-dubya — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:34:09 +0000

I hear Christians often drink blood and eat human flesh as well.

By: EFG

EFG — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:33:16 +0000

EFG – Sense enters into the blood libel exactly where?
eeyore on February 8, 2007 at 2:22 AM

I know, I know… you are right.

It’s just the complete logical inconsistency of the whole Jewish Blood Libel that is so dang retarded.

The true nature of the Jew is revealed when he does something that is … completely against his nature?

Really? Really?

But yeah, pointing out that little flaw in this historians thesis isn’t going to dispell this little canard, nor is it going to make the Holocaust deniers start backing away from their denial.

By: eeyore

eeyore — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:22:09 +0000

EFG – Sense enters into the blood libel exactly where?

By: RightWinged

RightWinged — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:17:22 +0000

That should be grounds for an instant ban, right there.

Editor on February 8, 2007 at 1:20 AM

Dude, I know it’s now the cool thing to hate Dane Cook now that he’s the Dave Matthews/John Mayer of comedy, in that if you’re currently a college kid you are required to be obsessed with him. As I said that’s from his older act anyway, but either way, he’s funny.

(I know you were only taking a jab, but I did feel the need to defend Dane)

By: EFG

EFG — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:49:13 +0000

Jews putting blood into the matzoh? That makes no sense. Blood isn't kosher, so why would they add it?

Kosher animals must be ritually slaughtered in order to remain kosher (Deut. 12:21). The primary goal of ritual slaughter is to rid the animal of as much blood as possible, for ingesting blood is forbidden by the Torah. Ritual slaughter involves cutting the animal's throat with an extremely sharp knife with no nicks (this is regarded as the most humane method of slaughter). The meat must then be kashered, or made kosher, by hanging the carcass to drain as much blood as possible. The meat must then be washed, salted ("kosher salt" is designed for this purpose), and cooked well-done.

The whole idea of them doing this is comepletely nonsensical.

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:20:45 +0000

Dane Cook is just funny period…

That should be grounds for an instant ban, right there.

By: eeyore

eeyore — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:12:53 +0000

It must be true. After all, the Syrians say Christian blood is still going into matzoh. They dramatized it in the "Diaspora" series on Al-Manar TV a few years ago. Here's a short .wmv clip to jog your memory [violent content warning]. With this much evidence...