The Second Crusade and the Birth of the Blood Libel: Norwich and Blois

In 4904 the body of a boy named William was found in Norwich, England. A local monk, Thomas of Monmouth, composed an account claiming that Jews had killed the child before Passover in imitation of the crucifixion. There was no investigation and no evidence, but the accusation proved durable. So was born the blood libel, which would resurface across Europe for eight centuries, from Lincoln to Damascus and Kyiv.

Three years later, in 4907, the Second Crusade began. The monk Radulph preached along the Rhine as in 4856; riots broke out in Cologne, Würzburg and Speyer, and Rabbeinu Tam was nearly killed at Ramerupt. This time the communities reached the shelter of castles, and Bernard of Clairvaux publicly denounced the killing of Jews—a rare case of a churchman's voice cutting the other way.

In 4931, at Blois in France, the blood libel produced Europe's first death sentence against an entire community. A servant of the count claimed to have seen a Jew throw a child's body into the Loire. No body was found; no child was ever missed. More than thirty Jews of Blois were burned alive, and the chronicles report that they sang Aleinu as the fire rose. Rabbeinu Tam declared the twentieth of Sivan a fast for the communities of France, England and the Rhineland.