Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in the Thirteenth Century

• In Event: Conversion to and from Judaism across Medieval Europe: New Perspectives

Abstract

In Norwich, England in the 1230s, Jews were hanged, drawn, and quartered on charges of having seized and forcibly circumcised a five-year-old Christian boy. According to the records of the legal proceedings in the case, Christians maintained that these Jews had sought to convert the boy to Judaism. According to contemporary and later English chroniclers, however, the Jews had circumcised the boy in anticipation of crucifying him at Easter in reenactment of the passion of Christ. Drawing on evidence from northern Europe and Spain, this paper examines the medieval accusation that Jews sought forcibly to convert Christian children to Judaism, the accusation that Jews circumcised their alleged murder victims, and the connections between the two. It also considers actual Jewish involvement in a small number of Christian conversions to Judaism as well as in the return to Judaism of Jewish apostates and their children.

Author

• Paola Tartakoff, Rutgers University