The Damascus Blood Libel: Untold Stories Unveiled

The year was 1840. French Foreign Minister, Marshal Soult, received a letter from the French Consul in Damascus, Ratti Menton. The letter described how Jews allegedly murdered the monk Thomas from the Capuchin monastery in Damascus to use his blood for baking matzot.

According to an intense investigation led by Menton, backed by Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt who also controlled Damascus at the time, a young Jew named Mordechai al-Fatal confessed, claiming he was present when the Jewish dignitaries murdered the monk: "Each held one of his legs; Rabbi Aaron Stambouli pinned him to the ground with his knee in his stomach; the servant of Harari held his head. While one of the others held his pelvis, two men grabbed his torso, and Mourad Farhi, the wealthiest banker in the city, slit the victim's throat."

The consul "forgot" to mention that this "credible" description was obtained through inhuman torture inflicted upon many community leaders.

Muslims were not accustomed to blood libels, which were more prevalent in Europe, but at that time, there were warm connections between the rulers of Damascus and the Christian French government, and Christian ideology influenced the Muslims. French Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers, in conversation with Mayer Rothschild, declared he believed it was plausible that Damascus Jews indeed slaughtered a Christian to mix his blood into Passover matzot, as per the ancient and infamous Jewish custom from the Middle Ages...

Most Jews endured unimaginable torture and confessed to nothing. However, some nearly lost their sanity, leaving them no option but to "confess" to the nonsensical accusations extracted by force. The townspeople also "discovered" bones in the Jewish quarter, which later turned out to be sheep bones.

The British and Austrian consuls also supported the libel, which seemed plausible to them, as shown by the investigation results. The Rothschild barons demanded the inquiry protocols from the Austrian consul, and upon acquiring them, they published them in the global press, ridiculing and discrediting the libel supporters, proving there were no real confessions, just unfathomable abuse of innocent people, including elderly, women, and children.

Almost none of the enlightened nations lifted a finger to save the countless Jews languishing in Syrian prisons. Some had already succumbed to the tortures. In Germany, the converted Jew Heinrich Heine publicly called for their cause; in France, wealthy Jews like Adolphe Cremieux advocated for them. Eventually, only the pressure from wealthy Jews on the ruler of Egypt, via French intermediaries, yielded results: the battered and tortured Jews who survived were released, and the wicked governor of Damascus was executed.

Too little and too late, the Jews barely escaped the Damascus libel.

In October 1860, a report emerged in the press stating that monk Thomas was alive and well in the suburbs of Damascus, and he was still trading in champagne.

The hatred towards Jews hasn’t vanished; it's present in every generation, as each one stands against us to destroy us, and Hashem saves us from them.