The “Simonino” Affair: the 500 Year Blood Libel Against the Jews of Trento, Italy A lecture in the series “From History to Multimedia” Hebrew Version The lecture poster

Dr. Oliviero Stock (I.R.S.T., Trento) and Dr. Daniele Nissim (Tel-Aviv) will deliver the first of a new distinguished lecture series at the University of Haifa. The lecture marks the recent release in Italy of a digital CD Rom documenting the history of the Simonino Affair in 1475, and the subsequent five hundred year blood libel against the Jews of Trento. The public is invited to attend the lecture on February 20, 2002 at 17:00, “Sefadiya” auditorium, “Rav Tachliti” building, University of Haifa.

The lecture is sponsored by

The Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation Institute for Interdisciplinary Application of Computer Science

at the University of Haifa in cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities.

More than five hundred years ago, the Jewish community of Trent was victimized by the accusation of ritual murder. It began on March 23, 1475, when a two and a half year old boy from Trent, named Simon Unferdorben, wearing a black or grayish-black coat disappeared. It was during the holy feast days of Passover, and the accepted belief existed among Christians in those days that Jews kidnapped Christian children, killed them and used their blood to bake “matzot”. On March 26, the little boy was reportedly found in a ditch at the house of Samuel, the leader of the Jewish community. Simon’s death was very rapidly blamed on the Jews of Trent, and it was not very long before it was used as a justification for their persecution.

The investigation and the ensuing trial were based on lying witnesses, inaccurate testimony and confessions extracted under torture. Both were clouded under prejudice. As a result of the trial, the accused Jews were burnt at the stake, and some that accepted conversion were executed. The incident had repercussions throughout Europe and led to further waves of persecution. In parallel a religious ritual developed around the child, Simon, who was portrayed as a martyr. A procession was held every ten years until 1965, when the Archbishop of Trent consented to its cancellation in the context of the “Concilio Vaticano II”.

The CD Rom, officially released in December 2001, documents the stages of the trial, the persecution, the attempts to reveal the truth, and historical investigation of the period.  It is the scholarly work of Dr. Oliviero Stock, Dr. Daniele Nissim and Prof. Diego Quaglioni.

The blood libel against the Jews of Trent was neither the first nor the last in the long series of anti-Jewish acts in Europe. It highlights a history of persecution and victimization of a nation for no justifiable reason. The fact that this is a continuing picture throughout Jewish history forces us to confront past incidents of this kind and inform ourselves of the events, the implications and, above all, the truth.

Dr. Oliviero Stock is the former director of the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research, in Trento, Italy (1997-2001), where he currently works. He is the author of over one hundred published papers, and editor of six books. He has been chairman of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (1992-1994) and president of the Association for Computational Linguistics (1996).  Dr. Daniele Nissim graduated in pharmaceutical chemistry and held positions in Italian and Israeli industry.  He is an expert in the history of the Jews of northern Italy, and a specialist in the field of the first Hebrew press in Italy.  He presently owns and manages a pharmacy in Tel Aviv.

The Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation Institute for Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Science was established at the University of Haifa in 2001. The institute is unique in Israel in that it specifically promotes research in interdisciplinary applications of computer science.  The lecture series, From History to Multimedia, is one of its new activities.