feast of Purim and the origins of the blood accusation

Roth suggests that the blood libel legend may have arisen from the Christian misconception of the Jewish feast of Purim, but it is not clear that many writers on the subject agree with his hypothetical origin theory. It is with the episode of William of Norwich in 1144, that the continuous history of the ritual murder libel began. The ritual murer accusation in its various aspects, many of which are quoted in this article, has been responsible for untold misery for the Jewish people during the centuries