RITUAL MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 148, 26 June 1934, Page 4

RITUAL MURDER

(~)YE of the most remarkable of hatred phenomena is the frequent revival in various countries that the Jews engage in ritual murders, and that in the course of some ceremonial a Christian child is done to death. It is quite true that in very early times the Jews practised infanticide, but generally speaking' this was common to all primitive peoples at a certain stage of their development. It was the only way of accommodating the population to the food supply. These practices have been preserved in Jewish tradition in order that they shall be condemned, and not reverted to. It is an eay matter, therefore, for an unscrupulous propagandist tp extract from the Old Testament passages which, divorced from their context, can be used to foster the idea that the Jews perpetrate ritual murders. The Jewish view of murder is absolute: It is contained in the decalogue, and runs: “Thou shalt do no murder.” Nevertheless, General von Streicher’s paper, Der Stunner, has published a special issue devoted to Jewish Ritual Murders, in which some 165 alleged cases are described, dating- from the Middle Ages up to 1932. The Russian Administration under the Tsar was assiduous in this sort of thing, and always sent round these rumours before starting a pogrom of the Jews.