The Damascus Affair
'Ritual Murder', Politics, and the Jews in 1840

This 1997 book assesses the impact of the Damascus affair on European and Jewish politics, including the Holocaust and creation of modern Israel.

Jonathan Frankel (Author)

9780521482462, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 1997

512 pages, 26 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.83 kg

'To the historiography of 1840 this book is a singularly valuable contribution, excelling its predecessors by the wealth of material adduced, the insight into motives and policies and the sobriety of its conclusions.' English Historical Review

In February 1840, an Italian monk and his servant disappeared in Damascus. Many Jews in that city were charged with ritual murder and tortured until they confessed. The case turned into a cause célèbre across much of the western world, even becoming a factor in the major diplomatic conflicts of the period, and produced an explosion of polemics, fantastic theories, and strange projects. The religious revival and romanticism of the period provided fertile soil for every speculation. This 1997 book, the first since 1840 to analyse the affair, assesses the Damascus affair as a factor in European and Jewish politics of the time, as a chapter in Jewish history and historiography, and as the stuff of radically conflicting myths - myths which eventually fed into the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel.

Preface
1. Introduction
Part I. The Dynamics of Ritual Murder: 2. Ritual murder: official documents
3. The mechanics and motivations of the case
4. Beyond Damascus: early reactions
5. The consuls divide
Part II. In Search of Support: 6. The press, the politicians, and the Jews
7. Restoring the balance: the Middle East
8. Political polarization and the genesis of the mission to the East
Part III. 1840 - Perceptions, Polemics, Prophecies: 9. The crisis: Jewish perceptions
10. The religious polemics
11. Christian Millennialists, Jewish Messianists, and Lord Palmerston
12. Jewish nationalism in embryo
Part IV. Last Things: 13. Alexandria on the eve of war
14. The final lap: public opinion in Europe
15. In the wake of the war: the return to routine
Part V. In Retrospect: 16. Between historiography and myth: the two primary versions of the affair
17. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]