A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel

In 1911 in Kiev, Russia, Jewish factory worker Mendel Beilis was arrested for blood libel (“ritual murder to obtain Christian blood”) after the body of a young boy was found in a cave near the brick factory where he worked. Despite evidence to the contrary, the trial began in 1913. The prosecutors came to care little about whether Beilis was guilty or innocent. What they wanted to prove was the notion that the Jewish people had used Christian blood in their rituals. The world watched, and such luminaries as Jane Addams and Booker T. Washington rallied against the injustice. Levin has used archival materials, including the original case files, made available after the fall of the Soviet Union. His detailed description of the trial and the events leading up to it will likely leave contemporary readers as stunned and horrified as many observers at the time were. This is a fascinating and disturbing depiction of the blood libel and “a cautionary reminder of the power and persistence of a murderous lie,” one that, Levin notes, persists even in the twenty-first century. --Eloise Kinney Review “Thorough, lucid, and on all counts admirable . . . A Child of Christian Blood was researched almost entirely from primary sources by Levin,