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Monday, March 19, 2012

A blood libel in Egypt in 1902

From the American Jewish Yearbook archives for the years 1902-1903:


September 17, 1902: 17. A year old ritual murder charge revived at Port Said, Egypt, and the alleged abductor of a child sentenced to sixteen months' hard labor.


March 25, 1903: The Jewish quarter of Port Said, Egypt, invaded and despoiled, in consequence of a ritual murder charge. (See September 17, 1902.)

Egypt wasn't the only Arab country where Jews were made to feel less than welcome. They also had problems in Morocco:



To be sure, the oppression of Jews in Arab countries were much, much less than in Europe at the time - during the same time period 49 Jews were killed in the Kishinev pogrom, 14 were killed in Czenstochow, Poland, and there were blood libel charges in Hungary as well as other Eastern European countries.

But that doesn't mean that Jews were safe in Arab countries.