Rhodes blood libel

The Rhodienser blood libel is a blood libel, in which the Jews of Rhodes one of the ritual murder of a Christian boy accused in February 1840. This allegation was supported by the consuls of England, France, Austria - Hungary, Sweden and Greece. The governor of the Ottoman Empire in Rhodes, Yusuf Pasha, supported the accusation and fined a large number of Jews. This went so far that the Jewish Quarter was foreclosed twelve days.

The Jewish community of Rhodes turned with a smuggled letter to the Jewish community of Constantinople Opel and asked for help. This led the petition to various Central European countries as well as the influential Rothschild family. Finally, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdülmecid I issued, in July 1840, a firman ( decree ), in which he stated that the charges were unsustainable.