In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League appealed to Facebook to take down a page titled “Jewish Ritual Murder.” Although the ritual murder accusation against Jews emerged in the Middle Ages, the significance of the early modern period has been unappreciated. For centuries, Jews and their defenders have been trying to discredit these tales, and yet the tales have proven impossible to root out. In her talk, Magda Teter will explain why these tales have persisted in European culture, and demonstrate how stereotypes are culturally created, transmitted, and reinforced through the impact of “echo chambers” and “confirmation bias” in society and culture.  

This lecture is made possible by support from the Faculty in the Arts, Humanities and lettered Social Sciences (FAHSS) fund, The History Department, the Program in Judaic Studies and HISB.

Click here to download a PDF of the poster.

Magda Teter is Professor of History and the Shvidler Chair of Judaic Studies at Fordham University. She is the author of Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland, Sinners on Trial, and two edited volumes, as well as numerous articles in English, Italian, Polish, and Hebrew. Teter’s work has been supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, YIVO Institute, and the Yad Ha-Nadiv Foundation (Israel), among others. In 2002, she was a Harry Starr Fellow in Jewish Studies at Harvard University, in 2007-2008, an Emeline Bigelow Conland Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies also at Harvard University, and in 2017-2018 she was the Mellon Foundation fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, where she completed her book on blood libels in premodern Europe. In 2012-2016, she served as the co-editor of the AJS Review and in 2015-2017 as the Vice-President for Publications of the Association for Jewish Studies.