antisemitic canard blood libel http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85014957 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Blood_libel https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1061047 BM585.2 An antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christian children (or other gentiles) in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. Blood libels typically claim that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos, an unleavened flatbread which they eat during Passover, although this element of the accusation was allegedly absent in the earliest blood libels in which then-contemporary Jews were accused of reenacting the crucifixion. The accusations often assert that the blood of the children of Christians is especially coveted, and, historically, blood libel claims have been made in order to account for the otherwise unexplained deaths of children.