Ariel Toaff

Ariel Toaff is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar Ilan University . He is the son of Elio Toaff , a former Chief Rabbi of Rome . Among his works are The Jews in Medieval Assisi 1305-1487: A social and economic history of a small Jewish community (1979), Il vino e la carne. Una comunità ebraica nel Medioevo ('Wine and Meat. L'immaginario ebraico dal Medioevo alla prima età moderna ("Jewish Monsters. The Jewish Imaginary from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era", 1996) and Mangiare alla giudia. La cucina ebraica in Italia dal Rinascimento all'età moderna ('Eating Jewish style.

Ariel Toaff (born 1942) is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar Ilan University in Israel, whose work has focused on Jews and their history in Italy. He came to international prominence with the 2007 publication of his controversial book Pasque Di Sangue ( Passovers of Blood ), which argued that there was some truth to the so-called blood libel , an allegation that modern historians have described as unsupported by facts and which the Catholic Church has similarly repudiated since the 13th century. Toaff later wrote that critics had misunderstood his book, which was arguing that the ritual use of small quantities of dried blood in magical curses had been a real practice among medieval "Ashkenazi extremists", but that this was unrelated to the accusation of ritual murder which was the central claim of the "blood libel".

Ariel Toaff (born 1942) is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar Ilan University in Israel, whose work has focused on Jews and their history in Italy. He came to international prominence with the 2007 publication of the first edition of his controversial book Pasque Di Sangue ( Passovers of Blood ), in which he claimed historical basis for ritual use of human blood, obtained by murder. The claim was criticized as lending support to blood libel , an allegation that modern historians have described as unsupported by facts and which the Catholic Church has similarly repudiated since the 13th century. Toaff wrote that these critics had misunderstood his book, which argued that the ritual use of small quantities of dried blood in magical curses had been a real practice among medieval "Ashkenazi extremists", but that this was unrelated to the accusation of ritual murder which was the central claim of blood libel.

Ariel Toaff (born 1942) is a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, whose work has focused on Jews and their history in Italy . He came to international prominence with the 2007 publication of the first edition of his controversial book Pasque Di Sangue ( Passovers of Blood ), in which he claimed historical basis for ritual use of human blood, obtained by murder. The claim was criticized as lending support to blood libel , an allegation that modern historians have described as unsupported by facts and which the Catholic Church has similarly repudiated since the 13th century. Toaff wrote that these critics had misunderstood his book, which argued that the ritual use of small quantities of dried blood in magical curses had been a real practice among medieval "Ashkenazi extremists", but that this was unrelated to the accusation of ritual murder which was the central claim of blood libel.