Swarthmore's Weinberg to discuss notorious trial in Russian, Jewish history

9:50 a.m., Oct. 6, 2014--Robert Weinberg, professor of history at Swarthmore College, will speak on "Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: Popular Antisemitism and the Trial of Mendel Beilis" at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 16, in Room 307 of the University of Delaware’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory (ISE Lab).

Weinberg will discuss one of the most notorious trials in Russian and Jewish history.

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June 5: Blue Hen 5K

University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
• Through June 30: 'Saving White Clay Creek'
• July 22: WWE Heatwave Tour
• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

On Sunday, March 20, 1911, children playing in a cave near Kiev made a gruesome discovery: the blood-soaked body of a partially clad boy. 

After right-wing groups asserted that the killing was a ritual murder, the police, with no direct evidence, arrested Menachem Mendel Beilis, a 39-year-old Jewish manager at a factory near the site of the crime. 

Beilis' trial in 1913 quickly became an international cause célèbre. The jury ultimately acquitted Beilis but held that the crime had the hallmarks of a ritual murder.

Weinberg's account of the Beilis Affair explores the reasons why the tsarist government framed Beilis, shedding light on the excesses of antisemitism in late Imperial Russia.

The lecture, which is open to the public, is part of a Jewish Studies course on anti-Semitism taught by Polly Zavadivker, assistant professor of history and Jewish Studies.