Ariel Toaff
You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|February 2007|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
Ariel Toaff is a professor of history at Bar Ilan University. In February 2007 his Pasque di sangue. Ebrei d'Europa e omicidi rituali (Passovers of blood: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders) was published that dealt with blood libel against Jews.
According to press reports, he claims in this book that some Christian children may have been killed by “a minority of fundamentalist Jews of Ashkenazi origin”. He cites Kabbalistic descriptions of therapeutic uses of blood and claims that "a black market flourished on both sides of the Alps, with Jewish merchants selling human blood, complete with rabbinic certification of the product - kosher blood."
Dr. Amos Luzzatto, former president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, has said, "I would expect a more serious statement than 'it might have been true.'" He also expressed dismay at the sensationalism with which Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading daily, treated the issue.
"It is totally inappropriate to utilize declarations extorted under torture centuries ago to reconstruct bizarre and devious historical theses," declared twelve of Italy's chief rabbis in a press release refuting Toaff's claims.
"The only blood spilled in these stories was that of so many innocent Jews, massacred on account of unjust and infamous accusations," the statement continued.
The town of Trent, near the Austrian border, commemorated Simonino's "martyrdom" for five centuries, until, in 1965, the Vatican published the Nostra Aetate, which aimed at extirpating anti-Semitsm from Catholic doctrine. The Bishop of Trent signed a decree proclaiming that the blood libel against the city's Jews of that city was unfounded.
A thorough refutation including interviews with leading Italian scholars appeared on 11 February 2007 in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. [1]
Feb. 14, 2007, Ariel 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." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359860024&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In an interview with Haaretz Toaff said: "Over many dozens of pages I proved the centrality of blood on Passover," Toaff said. "Based on many sermons, I concluded that blood was used, especially by Ashkenazi Jews, and that there was a belief in the special curative powers of children's blood. It turns out that among the remedies of Ashkenazi Jews were powders made of blood" [2]. The article also states that: "Although the use of blood is prohibited by Jewish law, Toaff says he found proof of rabbinic permission to use blood, even human blood. 'The rabbis permitted it both because the blood was already dried, and because in Ashkenazi communities it was an accepted custom that took on the force of law.' "