Thread:
Account of the Mendel Beilis trial. Easy to read; hard to swallow; impossible to digest.
Reminiscent of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ in its menace, tortures, injustice and an infernal tangle of uncertainty. Had Mendel taken the chance to evade the trial: an inevitable pogrom.
Account of the Mendel Beilis trial. Easy to read; hard to swallow; impossible to digest.
Reminiscent of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ in its menace, tortures, injustice and an infernal tangle of uncertainty. Had Mendel taken the chance to evade the trial: an inevitable pogrom.
Imagine. There you are quietly getting on with your mundane job at a brick factory to support your family. Suddenly you are accused of the ritualistic murder of a child for his blood to use in a religious rite.
The problem is that you are Jewish.
The child is Christian.
The problem is that you are Jewish.
The child is Christian.
You are slammed into prison and even your attorneys are persecuted. Although innocent you are prejudged and abused as if guilty. Because you are Jewish. You are promised absolution, quickly followed by renewed allegations.
Witness the corrupt judicial "procedure" and the horrifying torment of abysmal conditions, a sea of alternating helpful and hostile people (sometimes a switch-back ride in the same person). Who to trust? What to think?
How to survive this?
How to survive this?
Your life hangs on a whimsical, arbitrary thread. One more prejudiced testimony, (just one more might convince the jury) and your life, those of your family, and innumerable other lives hang by a gossamer thread in a web of deceits.
You must prevail. Somehow.
You must prevail. Somehow.
In this account you experience with Mendel the arduous step by step through the Russian "justice" system on his torn and bleeding feet. You did nothing wrong. Yet you suffer the depredations for the sake of so many. All along you do not know when or how it will all end.
A bitter and painful battle is fought here for the Jewish people. The starkness is brutal and the masks impenetrable.
Suddenly a priest (Pranaitis) is a Talmud and Kabbalah expert!
The people (both for and against you) are startling and often surprising.
Suddenly a priest (Pranaitis) is a Talmud and Kabbalah expert!
The people (both for and against you) are startling and often surprising.
What happens after the trial? More shocks: upheaval, heartbreak. And promise.
I don’t know what else to say except read it for yourself. Prepare to be astonished. Without Mendel Beilis, if you have Jewish grandparents who fled this area (as did mine) you might not be here today.
I don’t know what else to say except read it for yourself. Prepare to be astonished. Without Mendel Beilis, if you have Jewish grandparents who fled this area (as did mine) you might not be here today.
‘And behold, [he has] printed this book to tell generations to come all that happened to him with abiding truth and unflagging faith’ ~ Rabbi Abraham Kook.
Astonishing who you encounter on here...Mendel’s grandson
@beilis_jay
Astonishing who you encounter on here...Mendel’s grandson
@beilis_jay
