The Damascus Affair: 'Ritual Murder', Politics, and the Jews in 1840

ISBN-13: 9780521483964 / Angielski / Miękka / 1997 / 512 str.

Jonathan Frankel

Opis

In February of 1840, an Italian monk and his servant disappeared in Damascus. Many Jews in that city were charged with ritual murder and tortured until they confessed. The case turned into a cause celebre across much of the Western world and produced an explosion of polemics, fantastic theories, and strange projects. This book, the first since 1840, assesses the affair as a factor in European and Jewish politics of the time, a chapter in Jewish history and historiography, and the stuff of radically conflicting myths that eventually led to the Holocaust and the establishment of the Israeli state.

Recenzje

'To the historiography of 1840 this book is a singularly valuable contribution, excelling its predecessors by the wealth of material adduced, the insight into motives and policies and the sobriety of its conclusions.' English Historical Review

Spis treści

Preface; 1. Introduction; Part I. The Dynamics of Ritual Murder: 2. Ritual murder: official documents; 3. The mechanics and motivations of the case; 4. Beyond Damascus: early reactions; 5. The consuls divide; Part II. In Search of Support: 6. The press, the politicians, and the Jews; 7. Restoring the balance: the Middle East; 8. Political polarization and the genesis of the mission to the East; Part III. 1840 - Perceptions, Polemics, Prophecies: 9. The crisis: Jewish perceptions; 10. The religious polemics; 11. Christian Millennialists, Jewish Messianists, and Lord Palmerston; 12. Jewish nationalism in embryo; Part IV. Last Things: 13. Alexandria on the eve of war; 14. The final lap: public opinion in Europe; 15. In the wake of the war: the return to routine; Part V. In Retrospect: 16. Between historiography and myth: the two primary versions of the affair; 17. Conclusion.