Hot cross buns are being promoted all over the place right now, which means that Easter looms. I say \u2018looms\u2019 because Easter holds an amount of darkness for me. My family mostly doesn’t talk about it, but it is the moment when my family was told by its patriarch to flee. \u201cChildren, run!\u201d he said (but in Yiddish).<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s time we talked about this.<\/p>\n
My great-great-grandfather was one of the 500 people hurt (with intent, with malice, with much antisemitism) in the Kishinev pogrom. I don\u2019t know what other damage was done to the family. All I know about it was that he was hurt and saw the writing on the wall for Jews in his home town and that he told his children to run.<\/p>\n
The anniversary this year is just before Easter. The pogrom was intentionally during Easter. It\u2019s an historical thing in the Christian world, to hurt Jews on Christian festivals. This is why I strongly suggest that those who want Jews to have Christmas trees or eat hot cross buns should not press it if they meet \u201cI don’t do this things\u201d. You may be touching on hurtful ground if you\u2019re talking to someone who still has that memory of the pain. Also, do not ask us, \u201cDo you remember exactly how your family got hurt on Easter\/Christmas?\u201d I\u2019m telling you here, about my family. Let the story of how my family fled across the world because it was unsafe to be home, during Easter save other Jews from that question.<\/p>\n
The blood libel played a part in the pogrom, but it was a lot more than that. Nearly half of Kishinev was Jewish, so it wasn\u2019t a small minority being hated by the majority. It was literally people saying, \u201cLet us destroy half our neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blood libel was an excuse. False accusations of murder of a Christian child.<\/p>\n
As I interpret it, the pogrom was organised with the help of a newspaper and in a somewhat similar way to the January 6 event in the modern US. I\u2019m reliant on translations and everything hurts to read, because my family was damaged. So\u2026 I suggest you read about it. I\u2019ll have links shortly, and one of those links leads to a book on the subject. One day I must obtain that book and read it and understand \u2026 today is not that day.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the first time I heard about the whole linking of Jews to blood thing was during Passover (near Easter, but that year, not quite the same days) when I was in primary school. I\u2019d brought extra unleavened bread into school because some other children like to try things and assuaging curiosity has been, for me, a good way of reducing the antisemitism.<\/p>\n
One child shouted at me, \u201cI can\u2019t eat that, it\u2019s got the blood of babies in it.\u201d I tried explaining kashruth because if one understands kashruth then one understands just how offensive the \u2018Jews drink the blood of babies\u2019 statement is. It goes against so much of who we are. That didn\u2019t help<\/p>\n
The next day, I brought the rest of the box of matzah in and ask the other child to read the ingredients.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlour, water, salt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich of those is babies\u2019 blood?\u201d I asked. She tentatively nibbled a bit and agreed there was no blood in it and lo, for the rest of primary school I was safe from that particular accusation. To replace the blood of babies, the group she mixed in all decided that I had personally killed Jesus. At age nine. They told me so.<\/p>\n
Being a science fiction person already, I asked if that meant I invented a time machine. They were flummoxed and refused to let me play with them. I was flummoxed and started dreaming of things I could do with a time machine. This is when I knew for a fact history was going to be part of my future. And that murdering people was not something I wanted to do. Ever.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, back to the 1903 pogrom that destroyed my family\u2019s very middle class life in a major city on the other side of the world\u2026<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a summary. I chose this one because the man in the white hat in the top picture, looks very like one of my uncles: https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/how-a-small-pogrom-in-russia-changed-the-course-of-history\/<\/p>\n