Stale idea

Egyptian scholar says Jewish people use human blood in matzah

Fouad AbdelWahed, a professor at a Saudi university, tells TV station that only ‘extremist’ ultra-Orthodox Jews use the recipe

By JTA and ToI Staff 17 July 2019, 10:58 am Edit

Screen capture from video of Fouad AbdelWahed, a professor at King Saud University, claiming Jews use blood in their matzah. (YouTube)

A Hebrew scholar working in Saudi Arabia told an Egyptian public broadcaster that some Jews use blood to make matzahs for Passover.

Fouad AbdelWahed, an Egyptian professor at King Saud University, repeated the centuries-old canard during an interview for the show “Blue Line” on Channel 2, part of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported.

Asked where the blood comes from, he said: “By Allah, I don’t know where they get the blood from. I believe that it is like a sacrifice by some Jews, or a sort of donation in order to prepare this mixture.”

He also said that only “extremist” Jews do this — referring to ultra-Orthodox Jews, and agreed with the interviewer that consuming human blood is unhealthy.

The Washington-based MEMRI published an English translation of the interview, which was aired on June 13.

The anti-Semitic trope that Jews use blood for preparing matzah was common in Europe in the Middle Ages and has inspired countless false accusations, or blood libels, which at times led to violence.