Legacy of Hate

One of the legacies of medieval Christendom is the anti-Semitic legendry that has stubbornly survived. At its worst, this xenophobic, scapegoat lore was monumental calumny, a "blood libel," as Jews rightly call it, that accused them of ritual murders of Christian children. The accusations were sheer fiction, the trumped-up charges of fanatics or Inquisitors anxious to justify persecution. Now a report from the American Jewish Committee's European office reveals that the old calumnies "still are being commemorated in religious ceremony, festival or art in several Western European countries."

Sister Marie Despina, 55, a scholarly Notre Dame de Sion* nun whose doctoral research on the subject provided considerable material for the A.J.C. report, says that Spain is by far the worst offender. There the legend of Domingo del Val, a choirboy allegedly crucified in the 13th century by Jews who hated his hymn singing, is still fresh. Sister Despina says that the chorister--patron saint of Spanish choirboys--never existed, and that the first documented reference to him dates only from 1587. Yet the cathedral of Zaragoza, she notes, has a brightly lit chapel to the young saint and a cross with him upon it.

A more extreme example comes from the village of La Guardia, 20 miles east of Toledo, which every year celebrates a ten-day festival honoring the Nino (boy) of La Guardia. The festival grew out of a charge that in 1488. local Jews had murdered an unnamed boy. who, says Sister Despina, also never existed. A trial ordered by Grand Inquisitor Torquemada resulted in the execution of some ten to 20 Jews. It was also part of the anti-Semitic campaign that led to the 1492 expulsion of all Jews from

Spain. The festival is the village's major holiday and, the American Jewish Committee claims, a source of income that local merchants are loath to lose.

Both the A.J.C. report and Sister Despina note that such libelous memories are being corrected in other countries, such as Belgium, France, Germany and Austria. One striking example is the late Baroque Church of the Blessed Andreas near Innsbruck, which for many years sheltered a gruesome set of statues showing Jews killing a boy called Andreas of Rinn--a 17th century legend invented about an alleged 15th century event. Though the statues were finally removed after Vatican II, a ceiling painting depicting the grisly story remains. But a plaque on the wall now warns visitors: "The story of Andreas of Rinn is only a legend ... It is therefore clear that this event has no connection with the Jewish people.''

* A Catholic religious community devoted to improving relations between Christians and Jews.

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