How are the blood libels of the 1840s linked to Antisemitism and how were they part of European culture?

Throughout European history, Jewish communities have almost always been a minority. They have repeatedly been scapegoated as the committers of otherwise-unsolved crimes or demonized for their relative isolation and traditions which may have been at odds with greater cultural practice. Though the first blood libels date to the Middle Ages, a series of accusations sprang up during the 1840s across Europe. It began with an incident in Damascus, when a Christian priest disappeared. As had...

Throughout European history, Jewish communities have almost always been a minority. They have repeatedly been scapegoated as the committers of otherwise-unsolved crimes or demonized for their relative isolation and traditions which may have been at odds with greater cultural practice. Though the first blood libels date to the Middle Ages, a series of accusations sprang up during the 1840s across Europe. It began with an incident in Damascus, when a Christian priest disappeared. As had been common for several centuries, the Jewish community was blamed, even with no evidence that might have supported the accusations of torture and murder. What's more, there was a rumor that the purpose of the murder was to drain the man of his blood to be drank at Passover.

From there, crimes in both the Muslim and Christian parts of Europe were often blamed on the Jewish minorities. Even in areas where no crimes were committed, rumors circulated that Jewish people would kidnap children to drain them of their blood. False "confessions" were forced by the torture of Jewish people, and their statements were used as evidence of ritual murder. Across Europe, especially in the West, Jewish people were made into the enemy of Catholicism and Islam. Antisemitism flourished as the Jewish community was blamed for all of society's troubles. A number of Antisemitic texts were published at this time about the dangers of the Jewish people (all falsehoods) and how one ought to deal with them. Such circulation of ideas, in numerous languages, helped to spread the ideology of Antisemitism and directly influenced later Antisemitic action.