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The persecution of Jews, falsely accusing them of murdering non-Jews and using their blood to bake Passover matzah, is not limited to medieval Christian Europe. One of the most horrific instances of this libel occurred in the Middle East in the new era 185 years ago in Damascus, Syria.
This painful chapter, which was made possible under Muslim rule and supported by an antisemitic French consulate official, caused the global Jewish community to understand the power of solidarity.
- Syria's Jewish past: full project
This harsh watershed affair, known as the Damascus Blood Libel, involved the disappearance of a Catholic monk, who was known to have been involved in shady business, and his Muslim servant.
Their disappearance ignited one of the most horrific blood libels of the modern era. False rumors quickly spread that Jews had murdered the two to use their blood for baking matzah, resulting in the arrest of the Jewish community leaders, subjecting them to brutal torture.
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A Jewish prisoner of the Damascus Affair awaits trial – illustration by Jewish artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim
Some did not survive the ordeal, and only after an extraordinary international intervention by prominent Jews from France and Britain were the remaining prisoners released.
One hundred eighty-five years later, it's time to shed light on the gripping affair that not only shook the Jewish world but also served as a catalyst for transformative processes within Jewish collective identity, with effects still evident today.
"Your heads will be thrown outside"
Jews began settling in Damascus as early as the first century, as noted by historian Yosef ben Mattityahu, aka Flavius Josephus. The community grew significantly with the influx of Jews expelled from Spain in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, descendants of these Sephardic Jews formed the core of the community, alongside other Jewish groups. The Hakham Bashi, the title for the chief rabbi in Ottoman Jewish communities, also came from this group.
In 1840, Damascus was under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, who had seized control from the Ottomans and was aligned with the French Empire. The Jewish population numbered around 5,000 out of a total population of approximately 80,000, with Rabbi Jacob Antebi serving as the Hakham Bashi.
On February 5, 1840, corresponding to Rosh Chodesh Adar, preceding Passover, a Catholic monk named Father Thomas and his Muslim servant, Ibrahim Amara, disappeared after visiting the Jewish quarter to post a notice about a Christian estate auction. The notice was posted on a wall that separated a Jewish barber’s shop from another store adjacent to the synagogue. When they failed to return, rumors swiftly spread that Jews had kidnapped and slaughtered them to use their blood for baking matzah.
The French consul in Damascus, Ulysse de Ratti-Menton, with the overt encouragement of French Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers, initiated an investigation targeting the Jewish community in the city.
According to Hakham Bashi Rabbi Jacob Antebi's memoirs, cited by Professor Yosef Yoel Rivlin, he and two other rabbis were summoned by the city's governor, Sharif Pasha, who threatened: "I swear I will kill countless of you and disperse the rest, so that not two Jews will remain together in one place."
The rabbis were given a day, later extended to three, to identify the murderers, under the governor's threat: "I will cut off your heads and throw them outside in the street for all to see, and I will exact severe punishment on all the Jews."
Dr. Aviad Moreno Dr. Aviad Moreno of Ben-Gurion University explains that the intervention of French representatives in this allegedly local affair in a Muslim country was a result of complex global changes stemming from Europe's imperial expansion, both politically and economically.
"European colonialism in Asia and Africa not only encroached on local sovereignty but also altered cultural, political, economic, and legal systems, leading to internal-regional power struggles and divisions," he notes.
Moreno adds that Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt, who initiated extensive modernization and Europeanization in the early 19th century, conquered parts of the Land of Israel and Greater Syria, effectively making him the ruler of Damascus. During the time of the Damascus affair, as part of his conflict with both the Ottoman Empire and Britain, which supported the Ottomans in an effort to end his rule in Syria, he sought to gain France's support. To that end, he granted the French consul freedom of action.
Horrendous descriptions
While the three rabbis were temporarily released, the situation escalated when a 90-year-old Christian woman claimed she was dreaming that the monk and his servant's remains were buried in the Jewish cemetery.
This "testimony" led crowds of Christians and Muslims to dig there, seeking the bodies. Recognizing the deteriorating circumstances, Rabbi Antebi convened a large assembly at the synagogue, opened the Torah scrolls before the congregation, and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Soon after, a young Jew named Isaac Yavo claimed he saw the monk and his servant walking in the distant Ramil market, and he even conversed with them at the same time they were alleged to have been missing.
Although it was key evidence, the rabbi feared for Yavo's safety if the latter testified. Hence, Rabbi Antebi secured assurances from French consul Ratti-Menton for his protection.
However, after three days at the consulate, Ratti-Menton handed Yavo over to the Muslim governor, who accused him of lying. The governor tried to force him to confess that the rabbi had instructed him, but the young man insisted he had indeed seen the two men.
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Persecution of Damascus Jews – Memo from the French Court Observer's Office. A document written in Paris about the events
(Photo: Alliance Archives)
The governor's reaction was cruel. Yavo suffered severe torture, including 5,000 brutal lashes, his flesh torn from his bones, and after a day of agony, he succumbed to his injuries and died in prison.
Subsequently, the Jewish barber, on whose shop wall the monk and his servant had posted the notice, was subjected to horrific torture, leading him to give away the names of seven prominent community members.
The methods of torture described in Professor Jonathan Frankel's book "Blood and Politics" are harrowing; they included the use of apparatuses to press the eyes until they popped from their sockets, forced standing for three days, dragging the detainee by the ears across a large courtyard until blood burst out, and mutilation of sensitive body parts causing victims to nearly lose their sanity from pain.
Three Jewish dignitaries died from these horrific tortures. Another detainee, unable to withstand the torment, asked to convert to Islam and implicated Hakham Bashi rabbi Antebi, and another notable, Moshe Salonikly. He accused the rabbi of being the mastermind behind the monk's murder while receiving a bottle containing their blood.
Frankel's book also describes brutal torture, including rabbi Antebi being dragged by a rope tied to his genitals and whipped into unconsciousness. However, rabbi Antebi and Salonikly refused to confess to crimes they didn't commit. Frankel suggests this superhuman courage stemmed from deep religious faith and a willingness to sacrifice their lives to uphold their beliefs.
The convert became the prosecution's key witness, presenting Talmudic excerpts purportedly supporting the rabbi's alleged actions. Rabbi Antebi, still alive at that point, was forced to engage in a lengthy debate with the former Jewish scholar, renamed Muhammad Effendi, over the meaning of various Talmudic passages to refute the interpretations he had offered. After extensive discussions, Sharif Pasha accepted the convert's explanations and recommended the death penalty for the accused.
Antisemitic French consul Ratti-Menton concluded the investigation with a "description" of the Muslim servant's murder, alleging that "they held each of his legs... and Murad Farhi, the city's wealthiest banker, slit the victim's throat." A search of Meir Farhi's home uncovered bones in the sewage canal, attributed to the missing men. The mob demanded the hanging of the Jewish notables, disregarding the likelihood that the bones, which were planted there, were too small and belonged to a dog.
Global Jewry mobilizes
The horrific reports from the Middle East quickly reached Europe, prompting leading Jewish figures to take action.
At the center of the delegation sent to overturn the unfolding tragedy were two prominent names, as the Hebrew newspaper HaMelitz wrote in October 1860, “Had it not been for the intervention of the noble and generous Sir Moses Montefiore and the distinguished advocate, Mr. (Adolphe) Crémieux, who knows if there would have been any survival remnant for the Jews of Damascus."
Sir Montefiore from Britain and Crémieux, who later served as France’s minister of justice, led a distinguished mission to Alexandria. Despite personal and political differences, they met with Egypt’s ruler Muhammad Ali, urging him to ensure justice and issue a formal declaration by the Egyptian government denouncing the ritual murder accusation as baseless slander.
At the same time, the Rothschild family leveraged its influence to rally public opinion, publishing documentation in the global press that detailed the case.
Jews in the United States and Germany, among them the German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, also played a role.
On September 6, about eight months after the affair began, the governor issued an order to release the prisoners. “Words cannot describe the emotional scene we witnessed yesterday throughout the Jewish quarter of the city... the freed prisoners returned home... the names Montefiore, Crémieux and others were mentioned again and again with the utmost warmth,” wrote Isaac Luria, a local Jewish notable, as cited in Professor Jonathan Frankel’s book.
About a year later, in 1841, Rabbi Jacob Antebi immigrated to the Land of Israel. According to Professor Rivlin, when Rabbi Antebi neared Jerusalem, the city’s leading rabbis came out to greet him, led by Sephardic Chief Rabbi Haim Avraham Gagin. Dismounting his donkey in respect, Rabbi Gagin bowed before Antebi and told him in Talmudic speech: “Had Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah been beaten and tortured, they too would have bowed to the idol in Babylon. A person may choose death to sanctify God’s name, but severe pain and torture can drive one out of their mind. And you, Rabbi Jacob Antebi, stood firm under such torment and did not yield.” Rabbi Antebi declined a rabbinic position in Jerusalem and died in 1846 at the age of 59.
The Damascus Affair and Jewish collective identity
The Damascus Blood Libel marked a turning point in the formation of modern Jewish collective action. Adolphe Crémieux, the French-Jewish statesman who had led the Damascus delegation alongside Montefiore, went on, twenty years later, to found the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), a global Jewish organization promoting solidarity and education.
Hani MamramPhoto: Alliance AIU“There’s no doubt that the events in Damascus, along with the Edgardo Mortara case in 1857 (where a six-year-old Jewish boy was taken by the Vatican after being secretly baptized by a maid), served as major catalysts,” said Hani Mamram, deputy CEO of Alliance AIU and curator of its virtual museum.
“Eventually, it became clear that Jewish advocacy for human rights and equality was not enough, and a broad educational network across Muslim countries also needed to be built.”
Mamram notes that this was perhaps the first truly global Jewish mobilization, born from both the harsh realities and growing awareness of human rights in France. The Alliance AIU emissaries were not only educators but often served as key figures who intermediated between Europe and Great Britain and the Jewish community that was facing various hardships.
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Dr. Aviad Moreno, author of "Europe from Morocco", a book that involves the creation of pro-European Jewish leadership in 19th-century North Morocco, sees the Damascus affair as part of a broader sequence of transformative events in Jewish discourse, driven by the rise of Europe’s global influence.
He explains that the robust Jewish support, such as the Crémieux-led delegation, was also a direct result of European Jewish leaders seeking to align themselves with the colonial framework.
“Contact among Jewish communities worldwide was no longer a result of commerce or religious contacts, such as among emissaries (who were sent to the Diaspora to raise funds for the existence of the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel),” Moreno says. “It was also based on a discourse of solidarity and philanthropy, where French Jewish leaders saw themselves as paternal guardians of Jews outside Europe, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, including Damascus.”
Moreno also notes that by 1830, France had seized its first African colony, Algeria, and like all colonial powers, it justified its presence in the Middle East by instilling European values in the local population. Through philanthropy and reform rooted in European ideals, Jewish leaders in Europe could enhance their own status in their home countries.
Interestingly, this mindset also influenced local Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, who viewed European ascendancy as an opportunity to elevate their own standing within their communities by positioning themselves as intermediaries between the local communities and European Jewry.
This was the case some 20 years after the Damascus affair, when the first two schools of Alliance (AIU) were established in northern Morocco in 1862 and 1864.
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First published: 00:17, 04.13.25