Justinas Pranaitis
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The Reverend Justinas Bonaventura Pranaitis or Pronaitis[1] (July 27, 1861 - January 28, 1917[2]) was a Lithuanian Catholic priest, Russian "Master of Theology and Professor of the Hebrew Language at the Imperial Ecclesiastical Academy of the Roman Catholic Church" in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and, later, priest in Tashkent[2] who published an anti-Semitic tract called Christianus in Talmude Iudaeorum in Latin in 1892 under the imprimatur of the Archbishop Metropolitan of Mogilev, which was translated into English as The Talmud Unmasked; The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians, by American anti-Semites around 1939.[3]
The book continues to be sold by mainstream sources and cited by anti-Semites, who revere Pranaitis as a "Talmud Scholar" and authority; "The Rev. Pranaitis was the greatest of the students of the Talmud. His complete command of the Hebrew language qualified him to analyze the Talmud as few men in history." [3]
Pranaitis rose to fame in the "blood libel" case of Menahem Mendel Beilis (or Beiliss[4]) in Russia in 1912; Beilis was accused of murdering a Christian child to take his blood for alleged Jewish rituals, and for Matzah for Passover. Pranaitis was called as a expert witness to testify to the Talmudic hatred of Christians, as described in his book; one police department official is quoted as saying:
- The course of the trial will depend on how the ignorant jury will perceive arguments of priest Pranaitis, who is sure about the reality of ritual murders. I think, as a priest he is able to talk with peasants and to convince them. As a scientist, who defended a thesis about this question, he will give props to the court and prosecution, though nothing can be guessed in advance yet. I became acquainted with Pranaitis and am firmly convinced that he is the person who knows the problem, about which he will talk, in depth... Everything, then, will depend on which arguments priest Pranaitis will furnish, and he has them, and they're shattering for the Jewry. [5]
His credibility rapidly evaporated, however, when the defence demonstrated his ignorance of some simple Talmudic concepts and definitions, such as hullin[4], to the point where "many in the audience occasionally laughed out loud when he clearly became confused and couldn't even intelligibly answer some of the questions asked by my lawyer".[1] A Tsarist secret police agent is quoted, reporting on Pranaitis' testimony, as saying:
- Cross-examination of Pranaitis has weakened evidentiary value of his expert opinion, exposing lack of knowledge of texts, insufficient knowledge of Jewish literature. Because of amateurish knowledge and lack of resourcefulness, Pranaitis' expert opinion is of very low value. [5]
Beilis was eventually found not guilty.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Scapegoat on Trial: The Story of Mendel Beilis - The Autobiography of Mendel Beilis the Defendant in the Notorious 1912 Blood Libel in Kiev, Beilis, Mendel, Introd. & Ed. By Shari Schwartz, CIS, New York, 1992
- ^ a b Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, PRANAITIS, Justinas
- ^ a b THE TALMUD on Christians Christianparty.net
- ^ a b Blood Accusation: The Strange History of the Beiliss Case, Samuel, Maurice, Alfred A. Knopf, 1966.
- ^ a b Царская Россия и дело Бейлиса, Tager, A., Moscow, 1934, [1]
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