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This
charge of murder arose from the sudden disappearance of a certain Father Thomas,
who lived there a long time as a Catholic priest, and it was reported that the
Jewish congregation of that city had murdered him to mingle his blood with the
Passover bread, though the festival was celebrated long after the disappearance
of this priest, wherefore his blood must have possessed a peculiar property if
it could be kept so long without being spoiled. The torture and the tyrannical
proceedings of the chief of Damascus, Serif Pacha, which he practised against
that unfortunate congregation, were indeed stayed by the interference of the
supreme authority of the state; but as no trace of the body of Father Thomas
could ever be found, notwithstanding the most careful and diligent search, the
suspicion that he had been made away with by the Jews has always remained,
although the fact could not be proved.
About
four years later, a Christian boy at Alexandria, who had been seen for the last
time at the house of a Jewish merchant, suddenly disappeared. As may be
expected, the suspicion fell again on the poor Jews, that they had murdered him
according to their custom; and the consequence was nearly a riot of the
Christians of Alexandria against the Jews. But the tolerant Mahmud Ali Pacha
interfered by force of arms, and protected the unfortunate. To pacify, however,
in a certain degree, the excited Christians, and since a suspicion was attached
to the Jews, because the boy had been last seen in the house of one of them, he
ordered them to use all possible efforts to trace him out; set them a long term
when they should be held to answer the charge against them; and gave them all
possible protection to carry on the investigation in every direction. The Jews
were nevertheless in the greatest perplexity, as the problem was a most
difficult and important one to discover the lost boy. They had therefore
recourse to the power of money, the potent general solvent, and they promised a
large reward to any one who should produce to them the missing child. And they
were actually right in this mode of proceeding; for a compassionate young man,
one of the rioters, who pitied the hard fate of the unfortunate Jews, after he
had heard of the large prize offered by them, promised to deliver them from
their dilemma, in order to obtain the reward. He only required a few sensible
men among the Jews as also a few men as a guard for his protection to accompany
him, and then set out on his search. When he had come to a Greek convent at a
considerable distance from Alexandria, he said, "Here is the boy, as he has
been taken under the protection of the holy and pious fathers." It,
however, required a great deal of trouble and stratagem to get the boy to come
out of the precincts of the convent, which, however, the young man at last
succeeded in by the address with which he entrapped the priests; and as soon as
the boy was outside, he was at once firmly detained by the escort. But it would
not have answered any good purpose to employ force; since these saints were
fully capable to murder the boy and conceal his body sooner than let the
innocence of the Jews be proved. In brief, however, the boy was delivered up to
the Jews in Alexandria perfectly sound and well; and every one was thus clearly
and fully convinced that the whole was nothing but a wicked contrivance to have
a pretext to torture and persecute the helpless Jews. What a commentary this on
the conduct of the servants of the sole saving church! The young man then
obtained the promised reward, when he said, "O ye unskilful Jews! give me a
greater prize, and I will procure you the body of the long-since-consumed Father
Thomas of Damascus, fat and sleek as he was years ago." But the poor Jews
were glad enough in the happy finding of the boy, not to require the
reproduction of the other party, and for fear of stirring up the nearly
forgotten affair, they left it untouched, although they were greatly blamable
for so doing.
When
I learned these particulars at a later period, I took all the pains possible to
reveal this mystery to the world. But I could not succeed, from various causes;
first, because I could not be on the spot, Alexandria; and secondly, and this
more especially on account of the very large sum which the discoverer demanded,
which he did probably, because he would in all likelihood not have been safe any
longer in the country, and in every other place else where he would have come in
contact with monk or friar, who might have been interested in the business; and
he was therefore compelled in a measure to demand enough means to procure
himself an asylum abroad. This flagitious act was therefore passed over with
indifference, and remains a mystery to the world.
Jews and Muslims in Palestine |
