41845358-Antisemitism

72 ANTISEMITISM
on a petition calling for the restoration of the Blessed Simon of Trent cult,
which the church had banned in 1965. In 1955 Anglican authorities had dismantled
the shrine in Lincoln Cathedral of “Little St. Hugh” and declared
that the fiction of ritual murder had cost the lives of many Jews. But as recently
as a decade ago local clergy in the cathedral were reported to have retold
the myth to tourists. In treating the revival of antisemitism in eastern
Europe after the collapse of communism, Newsweek magazine reported in
1990 on one church in Poland:
The Holy Mary basilica in Sandomierz, Poland, was built in the 17th century.
Within the church there is a large painting entitled “Infanticida.” It depicts a
band of caricatured Jews kidnapping, stabbing, and dismembering Christian
babies as part of a religious ritual. A plaque claims that “Faithless members of
the Jewish community killed two Sandomierz babies in 1698 and 1710.” A
nun walks by. Did Jews really do these things? “Certainly,” she says, “They
once did, but no longer—there are no Jews left in Poland.” 57