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The accusation : blood libel in an American town

2019

Format:	Book
Author:	Berenson, Edward, 1949- author.
Title:	The accusation : blood libel in an American town / Edward Berenson.
Publisher, Date:	New York, N.Y. : W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2019]
Description:	271 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Summary:	In 1928, after Barbara Griffiths, age four, strayed into the woods surrounding the upstate village of Massena, New York, the allegation of ritual murder, known to Jews as "blood libel", took hold. Historian Edward Berenson, himself a native of Massena, sheds light on the cross-cultural forces that ignited America's only known instance of blood libel, and traces its roots in Old World prejudice, homegrown antisemitism, and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Residues of all three have persisted until the present day.
Subjects:	Blood accusation -- New York (State) -- Massena -- 20th century -- History. Jews -- New York (State) -- Massena -- History. Antisemitism -- United States -- 20th century -- History. Massena (N.Y. : Town) -- Ethnic relations.
Genre:	History.
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:	Chapter 1. The Accusation -- Chapter 2. Blood Libel in the Modern World -- Chapter 3. Who Done It : The Immigrants? -- Chapter 4. The Massena Case and American Antisemitism -- Chapter 5. The Election of 1928 -- Chapter 6. A National Affair.
LCCN:	2019020009
ISBN:	9780393249422 (hardcover) 0393249425 (hardcover)
OCLC:	1084394164
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Library Journal Review

In the 1920s, Massena, NY, may have seemed an unlikely place for an accusation of ritual murder against the town's numerous Jewish residents. Yet as Berenson (history, New York Univ.; Europe in the Modern World) demonstrates, all the elements were there when a four-year-old girl went missing in the fall of 1928, even though she was found alive a day later. The town, with its many French-Canadian residents, had a deeper cultural memory of European blood libel than was common in the United States, with well-organized anti-Semitism in France and Quebec. The time was right, too, as the bitter rhetoric in the election between Herbert Hoover and Al Smith and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan allowed anti-Catholic prejudice to be transferred to Jews, helped along by Henry Ford's promulgation of anti-Semitism. That Massena is Berenson's hometown and this story has connection to his work as a French history scholar makes what could be an overly scholarly account personal. VERDICT This vignette of American Jewish history will be illuminating to readers of Jewish and regional U.S. history, for the particular factors relevant to upstate New York.--Margaret Heller, Loyola Univ. Chicago Libs.

Publishers Weekly Review

NYU history professor Berenson (Europe in the Modern World: A New Narrative History Since 1500) provides a comprehensive look at a little-known episode of American anti-Semitism in this thoughtful history. In 1928, shortly after four-year-old Barbara Griffiths failed to return home from an errand, rumors circulated in her Upstate New York town that she had been the victim of Jews who intended to use her blood for ritual purposes. That baseless theory was endorsed by both the mayor of the village of Massena and the lead police investigator, who called in the local rabbi for an interrogation. The slander was rebutted when an unharmed Barbara resurfaced the next day, explaining that she'd gotten lost and had fallen asleep in the woods. Berenson uses this incident to explore the origins and history of the blood libel (accusations that Jews used Christian blood for ritual purposes) and the shifting attitudes toward Jews in American history. As this instance did not lead to other similar accusations, the author concludes that "the Massena blood libel ultimately showed that American civilization, at least in relation to its Jewish population, was stronger than many people thought." Berenson's study benefits from his having interviewed several people alive at the time, including Griffiths, and wisely avoids sensationalism. Readers interested in the recurrence of anti-Semitism in the U.S. will find food for thought here. (Sept.)

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