Considerable Material on Damascus Blood Libel Discovered by Professor

A considerable amount of material dealing with the Damascus blood-libel of 1840, which brought Sir Moses Montefiore on his historic journey to Damascus, has been discovered by Professor Assad Rustum, of the American University at Beirut. The documents which have been in possession of the descendants of the Secretary to the Investigation Commission, include the original minutes of the investigation. There are also letters in Hebrew from the Rabbis of Damascus repudiating the accusation with regard to the use of Christian blood.

Professor Rustum is preparing the material for publication.

The ritual murder accusation at Damascus in 1840, was connected with the disappearance of Father Thomas, the head of a Capuchin Convent, together with his servant. The cry quickly spread in Damascus that he had been killed by Jews in order to practice some nefarious ritual, and this led to an attack on the Jewish quarter in Damascus.

The whole position was complicated by the diplomatic differences between the European powers represented through their Consuls in Syria which was then under the rule of Mehemet Ali of Egypt, so that the French Government, otherwise enlightened, actually cast its weight, against that of Austria, on the side of the traducers.

Eight Jews were arrested and subjected to indescribable tortures in order to compel them to sign a confession of ritual murder, but without effect. Later sixty Jewish children were taken from their parents and kept without food in order to induce some sort of confession from the Jews, but without success.

It was the arrival of Sir Moses Montefiore in Damascus at the height of the ritual murder accusation and his skillful diplomacy backed by a number of the European powers that secured the honorable liberation of the imprisoned Jews and the issue of a Firman by Mehemt Ali putting an end to the agitation.