Monday, July 25, 2016

Death in Krasnytaw, 1761

Wikipedia informs us that in the Polish town of Krasnystaw:
In 1761, three Jews from Wojslawice and one from Czarnoloz were convicted in a blood libel trial in Krasnystaw; another accused person, the rabbi of Wojslawice, committed suicide in prison. 
Here is Krasnystaw in Poland's east regions:




Pawel Maciejko informs us that the complaints originated with Hanah Frank, the wife of Jacob Frank. The Frankists, being persecuted by the Rabbinic establishment, sought revenge which first led to the "terrible affair in Podolia", the trial at Lvov :

On 2 August 1756, the Contra-Talmudists submitted a manifesto to the Lwów consistory. Claiming to speak on behalf of similarly believing Jews in other countries, 23 representatives stated that the Talmud is blasphemous and contrary to reason and God’s commands. They also demanded a disputation so that they could publicly prove the principles of their faith.

The disputation took place in Kamieniec Podolski from 20 to 28 June 1757. The participants included 19 opponents of the Talmud and 40 rabbis. Frank did not take part in the disputation and it is unclear if he had any influence on the formulation of the theses. Following the disputation, Dembowski issued a verdict in favor of the Frankists. The ecclesiastical court dismissed evidence supplied by the Jewish court of Satanów as slander. It imposed a number of financial penalties on the rabbis, ordered the flogging of Jews responsible for wreaking havoc in Lanckorona, and condemned the Talmud as worthless and corrupt, ordering copies of it to be burned in the city square. The court decided that although Judaism offended the Christian faith and authority, it was for the civil authorities to decide if Jews should be tolerated in the commonwealth. At that point it seemed that Sabbatianism would be legally recognized as a legitimate form of Judaism...Circumstances changed, however, with the sudden death of Bishop Dembowski on 9 November 1757: the sectarians unexpectedly found themselves in a sort of limbo between Judaism and Christianity, lacking support and protection from either side. The burning of copies of the Talmud stopped; the campaign against the heretics was renewed with double force; and many of them fled across the Dniester to Turkey, where they joined Frank. 

The charge in 1761 was the ritual murder of a Christian child and the Jewish community of Wiślica, near Krasnytaw, was charged with the responsibility.



Several Jews were arrested, among them the two village Rabbis and secular leaders.

Under torture, some admitted to such crimes as murder, theft of churches and desecration of the Sacred Host. They were sentenced to death and the method was  dismemberment while alive.

Offered by the Jesuits the alternative of, if converting to Christianity, that they would be beheaded, four opted to do so.  They were baptised, beheaded and then buried after a grand funeral procession through the town led by the local bishop.

One Rabbi committed suicide in jail.  His body was tied to the tail of a horse and dragged to the town square.  There his body was cremated and his ashes dispersed to all corners.

P.S.

Frankist sayings. ^

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