Polish university says Jewish blood libel is part of ‘scientific discourse’

Catholic University of Lublin dismisses disciplinary action against faculty member who claimed Jewish ritual murder “cannot be erased from history.”

By World Israel News Staff

The Catholic University of Lublin said it will not take action against a member of its staff who gave a lecture saying the Jews practiced “ritual murders” of Christians, claiming the comments were the subject of “scientific discourse,” the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) reported Thursday.

Tadeusz Guz, a priest and faculty member at the university, was hauled before the school’s ethics panel, which had to determine if Guz would receive disciplinary action over complaints about a speech he gave in Warsaw in 2018.

“We know, ladies and gentlemen, that the facts of ritual murder cannot be erased from history. Why? Because we, the Polish state, in our archives, in the surviving documents, have evidence spread across centuries when Jews lived together with our Polish nation,” Guz said in his speech.

The “blood libel” against Jews dates back to the medieval European conspiracy theory that Jews murdered Christians to use their blood for ritual purposes like the preparation of matzah on Passover. Although the libel has been disproved by historians who confirmed that it has no factual basis and is actually prohibited by Jewish religious law, the fake allegation was used over the centuries to persecute and murder Jews, and it is still promoted by anti-Semitic groups.

Guz has not apologized for his comments. The Polish Council of Christians and Jews that promotes interfaith dialogue asked the university for disciplinary action.

The university’s ethics panel decided not to punish Guz, citing among other things the fact that the lecture he gave at the time was extracurricular, JTA reported.

The Council of Christians and Jews appealed that decision, leading to the university’s dismissal of the complaint for the second time. Guz “merely referenced scientific positions on this issue,” the university said.

Before the ethics committee gave its final ruling, a university spokesperson said that Guz’s remarks do not reflect the position of the university, which he said is committed to fighting anti-Semitism.