Modern Permutations of an Ancient Antisemitic Myth: The Blood Libel during the Holocaust

Annual Pell Lecture

Presented by Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies and CJS Antisemitism Education Initiative. Co-Sponsored by the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Berkeley’s Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Professor Elissa Bemporad traces the endurance and permutation of the traditional ritual murder accusation against Jews during World War II, in particular in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union. It examines the ways in which Nazi propaganda exploited the blood libel theme in conjunction with the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism in the midst of genocide as well as in its aftermath. By examining new archival material and press reports, this talk focuses on the ways in which the blood libel accusation became secularized. Unmoored from its traditional ties to Jewish religious rituals, the blood libel myth underwent a secular metamorphosis. In the context of the sheer destruction and general population displacement generated by World War II, Jews were often accused of non-ritualistic murder by their neighbors, as memories of blood libel stories intersected with fears of cannibalism.

Thursday, April 24, 2025 | 5:30-7:00 pm

at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA

For questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please reach out to the following contact information with as much advance notice as possible:
• In person attendance: magnes@berkeley.edu or (510) 643-2526
• Livestream attendance: jewishstudies@berkeley.edu or (510) 664-4154

Elissa Bemporad, Professor of History and holder of the Jerry and William Ungar Chair in East European Jewish History and the Holocaust at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, specializes in the social and cultural history of Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union. Her notable works include Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk (2013), Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (2019), and most recently the first volume of A Comprehensive History of the Jews in the Soviet Union (2025). She has co-edited volumes such as Women and Genocide: Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators (2018) and Pogroms: A Documentary History (2021). Dr. Bemporad is currently working on a biography of Ester Frumkin. She is a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award and serves as editor of Jewish Social Studies and as series editor of Yiddish Voices for Bloomsbury.

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