The Beilis affair and the myth of a Jewish conspiracy in Russia in the early 20th century
14.99 €
Out of stock
The Beilis affair and the myth of a Jewish conspiracy in Russia in the early 20th century
14.99 €
On March 20, 1911, thirteen-year-old Andrei Yushchinsky was found stabbed to death on the outskirts of Kiev. Four months later, police arrested Mendel Beilis, a thirty-seven-year-old father of five who worked as a clerk in a nearby brickyard. There was no evidence that Beilis was involved in the murder, the main prosecutor was the suspected murderer, and the charge itself was based on the so-called "blood libel," a folklore story that Jews use the blood of Christians for ritual purposes. Russian society, then on the brink of historical catastrophe, was split between those who argued for Beilis' innocence and those who sought to make the case the occasion for large-scale anti-Semitic campaigns. The state prosecution sparked protests around the world, with Thomas Mann, Herbert Wells, Anatole France, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Jane Addams all speaking in Beilis's defense. The author, American journalist and producer Edmund Levin, was one of the first to access the case files and to detail a story that has become a symbol and a formidable warning about the frightening power and tenacity of lies. These days, in the wake of the Holocaust and other bloody acts of genocide, the scandalous Beilis case is all but forgotten. Nevertheless, as Edmund Levin's book reminds us, this trial - along with the French Dreyfus affair - once ranked among the ugliest manifestations of modern anti-Semitism. Levin's book is the most thorough, credible and accessible work on the subject to date.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series What is Russia