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Revision as of 22:13, 19 July 2004
On February 5, 1840 in Damascus, Franciscan Capuchin friar Father Thomas and his servant were found dead. The Turkish governor and the French consul believed the blood libel and ritual murder accusations, as the murder had occurred before Jewish Passover. A fake investigation was staged and Solomon Negrin, a Jewish barber, confessed under torture, accusing other Jews. Two died under torture, and one converted to Islam to escape torture. More arrests and atrocities followed, culminating in a seizure of sixty-three Jewish children held hostages and mob attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East.
The affair attained wide international attention. In a groundbreaking effort, fifteen thousand American Jews protested in six American cities on behalf of their Syrian brethren. The US consul in Egypt expressed official protest by the order of the US President Martin Van Buren. Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, backed by Western influentials (British Lord Palmerston, French lawyer Adolphe Cremieux, Austrian consul Merlatto, missionary John Nicolayson, Solomon Munk, among others), led a delegation to the ruler of Syria, Mehemet_Ali. Negotiations in Alexandria (Aug. 4-28) secured the unconditional release and recognition of the innocence of nine prisoners still remained alive (out of thirteen). Later in Constantinople Montefiore persuaded Sultan Abdul Mejid to issue a firman (edict) halting the spread of blood libel accusations in the Ottoman Empire.
The Damascus affair prompted French Jews to establish Alliance Israelite Universelle.
The 1840 accusations re-emerged in a recent book by Syrian official: The Damascus Blood Libel (1840) as Told by Syria's Minister of Defense, Mustafa Tlass.