You Won't Believe What Local Area Student Learned While Writing His Paper

When Kip suggested I research anti-Semitic stories for my story, I figured it was as good a starting point as any and set off to find some sources. I wanted to write about the potential of stories to carry good or bad messages across generations. Over the course of my research, I found myself surprised again and again by the sheer volume and persistence of anti-Semitic myth and story. The sorts of things people were saying about Jewish people in 270 BC, are very much resemble of what an intrepid internet user will find on websites like 4chan today. "Tropes" of anti-Semitic storytelling are referred to as canards, and it's just astounding to me how many canards there are, and how widely believed some of them are as well. One such canard is that Jewish people ritualistically murder children and drain their blood, which they then mix with excrement to bake matzo. Like, just learning that people believed and spread this at any point upset me greatly. How can this kind of blatant, hate-fueled lie have any staying power? And yet there are dozens and dozens of stories across at least a thousand years of this sort! And that's just one canard! Writing this paper really broadened my understanding of the prejudice Jewish people face today.

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