A Seder Night

One of the most enduring tropes of European antisemitism is the blood libel—the false claims starting as early as the twelfth century that Jews use Christian blood for their rituals, especially on the Passover holiday. The famous German Jewish writer Heinreich Heine sets this story in a German town that was the site of Jewish pogroms inflamed by blood libel claims during the Crusades. Written hundreds of years later as the promise of citizenship gave German Jews new opportunities and hopes, the story offers a jarring reminder of deeply ingrained attitudes toward Jews that would continue to clash with the ideals of a cosmopolitan and inclusive Germany.