The most dangerous antisemitic propaganda is not the kind shouted from the fringes, but the kind presented with institutional authority, moral seriousness, and the tone of careful reporting.
The NYT excels in salacious reporting and commentary. Always an agenda where the narrative is what counts not the facts or the truth. This has been true for decades. The 1619 project was peddled as history and the fact it received a pulitizer prize ( putz prize for brevity) is all the proof any honest person should need to understand where the paper and its so called journalists are coming from and the emotions they seek to manipulate. Beware of all your friends and neighbors ( and rabbis) who quote this rag as though it has any moral fiber.
I sighed with relief to see that the State of Israel is suing the NYT over the spreading of this abominable lie. I cancelled my NYT subscription in 2013 due to its flagrant bias against Israel. The paper represents the current version of yellow journalism.
Green and Red journalism is the new yellow journalism. Is the green and red flag not the flag of choice these days in the corridors of power in Gotham.
Regarding William of Norwich and what could again occur today - 23andme tells me I'm distantly related to some casualties of this blood libel.
From 23andme:
"In 2004, construction workers tasked with building the Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich, UK, discovered human skeletal remains while excavating the site. Archaeologists were called in to conduct a rescue excavation and uncovered a medieval well containing the remains of at least 17 individuals. The positioning of the bodies suggested they were likely victims of a single, catastrophic event; many skeletons were inverted, suggesting that they may have been thrown into the well head-first rather than carefully interred.
For years, the identity of these individuals remained a mystery. One of the first attempts to identify them was conducted for the 2011 BBC documentary series "History Cold Case" (Series 2, Episode 3: "The Bodies in The Well"), during which researchers extracted mitochondrial DNA from eight individuals. However, this analysis predated major technical advancements in the field of ancient DNA. Later, in 2016, researchers at the Natural History Museum and University College London initiated a new analysis using more advanced sequencing techniques to recover the entire genomes of six individuals buried in the well.
The genomic analysis revealed that these individuals shared a distinct ancestry that was similar to many present-day Ashkenazi Jewish populations, clearly differentiating them from the local non-Jewish English population of the 12th century. Radiocarbon dating revealed that they likely lived around 1161–1216 CE. These combined findings led researchers to conclude that these individuals were likely victims of the antisemitic massacre perpetrated against Norwich's Jewish population in 1190 CE.
The demographic profile of the group provides a chilling insight into the nature of the attack. Researchers determined the group consisted of at least six adults and 11 children, including one older adolescent, two aged 10–15, three aged 5–10, three aged 3–5, and two infants under the age of three. DNA analysis revealed close kinship ties among the sequenced individuals, identifying three sisters within the group. This high concentration of minors and relatives strongly suggests these were not random victims, but rather whole households or families who had gathered together for protection before being captured.
This study also provided the first genetic data for a Jewish community in medieval England, offering a new timeline for the Ashkenazi "genetic bottleneck"—a historical event detectable in the genomes of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry where the population size was drastically reduced, leading to lower genetic diversity. While historians had previously theorized this bottleneck occurred later, during the persecutions of the 14th or 15th centuries, the genetic signatures in the Norwich individuals suggest it began centuries earlier. The data indicates the bottleneck likely coincided with the community's initial formation in the Rhineland around 1000 CE.
This early genetic bottleneck is the reason why variants associated with specific hereditary diseases are common among modern Ashkenazi Jewish populations. With this in mind, the study team searched for these disease-associated markers and discovered that variants responsible for a number of conditions that occur at elevated frequency in Ashkenazi Jewish populations were already present in the medieval Norwich population at frequencies similar to those seen today. This finding challenges the long-held belief that such diseases emerged later in history. Instead, the study demonstrates that the genetic factors affecting Ashkenazi Jewish health today have a lineage stretching back nearly a millennium, predating the major pogroms and expulsions of the later Middle Ages."
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Be aware that Ashkenazi Jews contain genetic material traced back to the first Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. There is a video on YouTube on this. Proves the Ashkenazi are indigenous to today’s Israel. This blows up the false Palestinian narrative that Israel is their land, and that the Ashkenazis who left Eastern Europe are colonizers!
The arabs who refer to themselves as 'palestinian' know they lie, we know they lie and so does the world. Sadly, they just move on to the next lie and say whatever they can get the jew hating world to believe. Their whole narrative falls apart with history and their own words. They admit to wanting to turn the world into their caliphate and enjoy migrating to democratic countries to this end and admit they won't live side by side with Jews, Israel and have turned down ever offer to do so. The lie of ethnostate is proved by the myriad arab states that disregard religious, gender and sexual freedoms, but no matter, 'free fakestine!!'
Spread the lie of the latest New York Times smear against our people and our land. Let the lie spread so fast so far that maybe this time enough elites will be embarrassed by their gullibility. And tell all our fellow Jews to stop financing the New York Times. They like their Sunday Puzzles. Well, this is where their money is going. Enough is not just enough. It's more than enough.
Likely not because the piece was published in the "opinion" section, and the Times can then say, "It was an opinion of a writer, not actual reporting." This was done deliberately by the Times, for the protection against what they KNEW would be a lawsuit. Even if the Times lost, the damage will have been done and no one pays attention to retractions.
They cannot do that. It is not presented as an opinion. It is reported as fact and they have claimed it is sourced. Calling it opinion will not work as a defense. What may save the Times is the impossible "Actual malice" standard required to hold a newspaper liable for libel. Israel will have to prove the Times knew or should have known it was printing lies and that it did so to harm Israel.
"and that it did so to harm Israel." That part is not true. If there is actual malice, as defined in NY Time v. Sullivan, motive is irrelevant. Knowledge or reckless disregard of the truth are tough but not impossible. More interesting is whether a state, as opposed to an individual, can suffer defamation.
Fair point that motive is not an element. But motive can demonstrate actual malice. Its a very high standard but I think we agree that calling it "opinion" is not a defense.
Yes. The Supreme Court clarified this point in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal, 497 U.S. 1 (1990). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/497/1/ If you state and an opinion based on a "fact" that's false, it's treated as a statement of fact, and if you can show malice as to that fact (knowledge or falsity or reckless disregard of the truth), then you can recover for defamation even if you're a public figure.
Extraordinary article. Thanks so much for all this history and the shocking evidence- if anything can still shock- of a perverse MO's historical continuity. The connection drawn by the article's author across centuries is a revelation.
Have wasted and am still wasting time arguing on the internet with various Jew-haters who are rejoicing in this. But if facts and history worked in such arguments, we wouldn't be where we are. Still, if you need to copy and paste this, feel free: "Scientific and biological experts generally maintain that it is not possible to train a dog to engage in sexual assault, as such behavior is governed by biological and hormonal triggers that cannot be overridden by conditioning." Hormonal Gating: Experts argue that a dog's mating circuitry is activated by specific pheromones and hormonal signals. Training cannot typically redirect these biological imperatives toward a non-reproductive, human target.Behavioral Resistance: Historical accounts and animal behavior studies suggest that dogs may actively resist or "back off" when humans attempt to coerce them into sexually aggressive acts, even in abusive environments.Forensic Evidence: In criminal cases where sexual violation by a dog was alleged, forensic investigations have often found little evidentiary value or failed to locate dog semen, indicating that the acts may not have occurred as described or the dog did not perform." (AI summary).
Kristof or anyone else could find this out by googling but why bother when it’s such a great libel to fling at Jews
This is not different in kind from what this agitprop anti-semitic rag has been doing for decades. Just in degree. I hope Israel succeeds in humiliating the Times in court.
Great article. The full historical context of the blood libel is not something I've read in any detail previously, so it was good to learn. Sadly, history is repeating itself.
You are correct about looking into the face of Evil and anyone who believes in this Horrible Vile Garbage is Doomed. I hope this RAG will be stopped—how could people read this massive waste of paper??? 💯🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇱
Thank you for this, Adam. So concisely and intelligently written, the framework within which you discuss this abomination introducing necessary understanding, which always helps. A British journalist by name of Owen Jones is taking up the gauntlet and running with it in his reader-supported publication, BattleLines - he is articulate and writes coldly and clinically; it will do damage. Perhaps send him your article, as it's part of his own country's history, although I know in advance it won't budge him. To have a country you love sullied in this way is a deeply personal thing, the effects catastrophic. It's a hatefest that seeks to destroy the essence of what it is to be Jewish. It seeks to create a deep flatness of spirit. We are looking into the face of evil.
Bloodlibels reveal the dirty evil mind of the person who makes up such a gruesome story.
That is a fact.
In all the sick variants the alleged shocking crime is explicitly forbidden by Law; Blood is NOT to be consumed, sexual contact with an animal has to be punished with death for both the violator as that animal.
The “so well educated libelators” obviously lack the teaching of the Law.
The NYT excels in salacious reporting and commentary. Always an agenda where the narrative is what counts not the facts or the truth. This has been true for decades. The 1619 project was peddled as history and the fact it received a pulitizer prize ( putz prize for brevity) is all the proof any honest person should need to understand where the paper and its so called journalists are coming from and the emotions they seek to manipulate. Beware of all your friends and neighbors ( and rabbis) who quote this rag as though it has any moral fiber.
I sighed with relief to see that the State of Israel is suing the NYT over the spreading of this abominable lie. I cancelled my NYT subscription in 2013 due to its flagrant bias against Israel. The paper represents the current version of yellow journalism.
Green and Red journalism is the new yellow journalism. Is the green and red flag not the flag of choice these days in the corridors of power in Gotham.
That is insulting to Yellow Journalists. The "paper" represents a modern version of Der Stermer combined with Pravda.
Der Pravda. "All the lies that we can fit."
Regarding William of Norwich and what could again occur today - 23andme tells me I'm distantly related to some casualties of this blood libel.
From 23andme:
"In 2004, construction workers tasked with building the Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich, UK, discovered human skeletal remains while excavating the site. Archaeologists were called in to conduct a rescue excavation and uncovered a medieval well containing the remains of at least 17 individuals. The positioning of the bodies suggested they were likely victims of a single, catastrophic event; many skeletons were inverted, suggesting that they may have been thrown into the well head-first rather than carefully interred.
For years, the identity of these individuals remained a mystery. One of the first attempts to identify them was conducted for the 2011 BBC documentary series "History Cold Case" (Series 2, Episode 3: "The Bodies in The Well"), during which researchers extracted mitochondrial DNA from eight individuals. However, this analysis predated major technical advancements in the field of ancient DNA. Later, in 2016, researchers at the Natural History Museum and University College London initiated a new analysis using more advanced sequencing techniques to recover the entire genomes of six individuals buried in the well.
The genomic analysis revealed that these individuals shared a distinct ancestry that was similar to many present-day Ashkenazi Jewish populations, clearly differentiating them from the local non-Jewish English population of the 12th century. Radiocarbon dating revealed that they likely lived around 1161–1216 CE. These combined findings led researchers to conclude that these individuals were likely victims of the antisemitic massacre perpetrated against Norwich's Jewish population in 1190 CE.
The demographic profile of the group provides a chilling insight into the nature of the attack. Researchers determined the group consisted of at least six adults and 11 children, including one older adolescent, two aged 10–15, three aged 5–10, three aged 3–5, and two infants under the age of three. DNA analysis revealed close kinship ties among the sequenced individuals, identifying three sisters within the group. This high concentration of minors and relatives strongly suggests these were not random victims, but rather whole households or families who had gathered together for protection before being captured.
This study also provided the first genetic data for a Jewish community in medieval England, offering a new timeline for the Ashkenazi "genetic bottleneck"—a historical event detectable in the genomes of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry where the population size was drastically reduced, leading to lower genetic diversity. While historians had previously theorized this bottleneck occurred later, during the persecutions of the 14th or 15th centuries, the genetic signatures in the Norwich individuals suggest it began centuries earlier. The data indicates the bottleneck likely coincided with the community's initial formation in the Rhineland around 1000 CE.
This early genetic bottleneck is the reason why variants associated with specific hereditary diseases are common among modern Ashkenazi Jewish populations. With this in mind, the study team searched for these disease-associated markers and discovered that variants responsible for a number of conditions that occur at elevated frequency in Ashkenazi Jewish populations were already present in the medieval Norwich population at frequencies similar to those seen today. This finding challenges the long-held belief that such diseases emerged later in history. Instead, the study demonstrates that the genetic factors affecting Ashkenazi Jewish health today have a lineage stretching back nearly a millennium, predating the major pogroms and expulsions of the later Middle Ages."
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Be aware that Ashkenazi Jews contain genetic material traced back to the first Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. There is a video on YouTube on this. Proves the Ashkenazi are indigenous to today’s Israel. This blows up the false Palestinian narrative that Israel is their land, and that the Ashkenazis who left Eastern Europe are colonizers!
The arabs who refer to themselves as 'palestinian' know they lie, we know they lie and so does the world. Sadly, they just move on to the next lie and say whatever they can get the jew hating world to believe. Their whole narrative falls apart with history and their own words. They admit to wanting to turn the world into their caliphate and enjoy migrating to democratic countries to this end and admit they won't live side by side with Jews, Israel and have turned down ever offer to do so. The lie of ethnostate is proved by the myriad arab states that disregard religious, gender and sexual freedoms, but no matter, 'free fakestine!!'
Spread the lie of the latest New York Times smear against our people and our land. Let the lie spread so fast so far that maybe this time enough elites will be embarrassed by their gullibility. And tell all our fellow Jews to stop financing the New York Times. They like their Sunday Puzzles. Well, this is where their money is going. Enough is not just enough. It's more than enough.
I’m thrilled that the state of Israel is suing the NYT. Will they win? Al Yisrael Chai!
Likely not because the piece was published in the "opinion" section, and the Times can then say, "It was an opinion of a writer, not actual reporting." This was done deliberately by the Times, for the protection against what they KNEW would be a lawsuit. Even if the Times lost, the damage will have been done and no one pays attention to retractions.
They cannot do that. It is not presented as an opinion. It is reported as fact and they have claimed it is sourced. Calling it opinion will not work as a defense. What may save the Times is the impossible "Actual malice" standard required to hold a newspaper liable for libel. Israel will have to prove the Times knew or should have known it was printing lies and that it did so to harm Israel.
"and that it did so to harm Israel." That part is not true. If there is actual malice, as defined in NY Time v. Sullivan, motive is irrelevant. Knowledge or reckless disregard of the truth are tough but not impossible. More interesting is whether a state, as opposed to an individual, can suffer defamation.
Fair point that motive is not an element. But motive can demonstrate actual malice. Its a very high standard but I think we agree that calling it "opinion" is not a defense.
Yes. The Supreme Court clarified this point in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal, 497 U.S. 1 (1990). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/497/1/ If you state and an opinion based on a "fact" that's false, it's treated as a statement of fact, and if you can show malice as to that fact (knowledge or falsity or reckless disregard of the truth), then you can recover for defamation even if you're a public figure.
Extraordinary article. Thanks so much for all this history and the shocking evidence- if anything can still shock- of a perverse MO's historical continuity. The connection drawn by the article's author across centuries is a revelation.
Yes thanks NY Times and Kristof for explaining Jewish history in a way I never grasped before. There is no bottom to their Jew hate.
Have wasted and am still wasting time arguing on the internet with various Jew-haters who are rejoicing in this. But if facts and history worked in such arguments, we wouldn't be where we are. Still, if you need to copy and paste this, feel free: "Scientific and biological experts generally maintain that it is not possible to train a dog to engage in sexual assault, as such behavior is governed by biological and hormonal triggers that cannot be overridden by conditioning." Hormonal Gating: Experts argue that a dog's mating circuitry is activated by specific pheromones and hormonal signals. Training cannot typically redirect these biological imperatives toward a non-reproductive, human target.Behavioral Resistance: Historical accounts and animal behavior studies suggest that dogs may actively resist or "back off" when humans attempt to coerce them into sexually aggressive acts, even in abusive environments.Forensic Evidence: In criminal cases where sexual violation by a dog was alleged, forensic investigations have often found little evidentiary value or failed to locate dog semen, indicating that the acts may not have occurred as described or the dog did not perform." (AI summary).
Kristof or anyone else could find this out by googling but why bother when it’s such a great libel to fling at Jews
That is your mistake arguing with lunatics gives them basic legitimacy. And you obviously won't change their minds with facts. They should be shunned.
Thank you to Adam Hummel for an intelligent and frightening essay.
This is not different in kind from what this agitprop anti-semitic rag has been doing for decades. Just in degree. I hope Israel succeeds in humiliating the Times in court.
Great article. The full historical context of the blood libel is not something I've read in any detail previously, so it was good to learn. Sadly, history is repeating itself.
Please read Naya Lekht’s essay and her speech from the anti-antizionism protest outside the NYT building yesterday in NYC
https://nayalekht.substack.com/p/new-yorkers-said-enough-in-front?r=2q93jc&utm_medium=ios
You are correct about looking into the face of Evil and anyone who believes in this Horrible Vile Garbage is Doomed. I hope this RAG will be stopped—how could people read this massive waste of paper??? 💯🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇱
Thank you for this, Adam. So concisely and intelligently written, the framework within which you discuss this abomination introducing necessary understanding, which always helps. A British journalist by name of Owen Jones is taking up the gauntlet and running with it in his reader-supported publication, BattleLines - he is articulate and writes coldly and clinically; it will do damage. Perhaps send him your article, as it's part of his own country's history, although I know in advance it won't budge him. To have a country you love sullied in this way is a deeply personal thing, the effects catastrophic. It's a hatefest that seeks to destroy the essence of what it is to be Jewish. It seeks to create a deep flatness of spirit. We are looking into the face of evil.
Bloodlibels reveal the dirty evil mind of the person who makes up such a gruesome story.
That is a fact.
In all the sick variants the alleged shocking crime is explicitly forbidden by Law; Blood is NOT to be consumed, sexual contact with an animal has to be punished with death for both the violator as that animal.
The “so well educated libelators” obviously lack the teaching of the Law.
Vasily Grossman, a Soviet novelist and journalist—when those professions actually meant something—wrote in his masterpiece Life and Fate:
“Tell me what you accuse the Jews of and I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.”
Nicholas Kristof—time to come clean…