182:. A common way to restore equilibrium if someone was ill was through bloodletting, to let an excess of blood, or ‘impure’ or ‘bad’ blood exit, thereby restoring equilibrium. There was also a common belief that women did this naturally, through menstruation. Men, meanwhile, needed to participate in bloodletting activities to remove the impure blood manually, if ill. If not ill, it was believed that men had a naturally higher body temperature, which rid the blood of impurities, while women were naturally cooler, and therefore had to menstruate to get rid of the impurities. However, it was believed that Jewish men were more like women, and had a lower body temperature, and therefore had to menstruate, typically through nosebleeds, bleeding hemorrhoids, or urination, in order to expel impure blood.
239:, a pain killer, perfume, and also as a remedy for the various ‘deformities’ Christians believed Jews suffered from, such as horns, tails, a specific smell, and male menstruation. In a famous trial in Tyrnau, in what is now Austria, in 1494, twelve Jewish men and two Jewish women were tried for the murder of a Christian child and having consumed its blood. Allegedly, as reported under interrogation, they committed the murder in order to drink the youth's blood as a remedy for both male and female menstruation.
135:, or periodic bleeding. This belief was popular among Christians across Europe throughout the late medieval and early modern period, including in Great Britain, Germany, and Spain. Common ways Jewish men supposedly menstruated were through nosebleeds, urination, and bleeding of hemorrhoids. The ability to menstruate was not associated with having a uterus. The first written mention of this phenomenon was in
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218:, by eating fruit God had forbidden her and Adam from eating in the Garden of Eden, and ever after, women were cursed with menstruation as punishment. Jewish men were allegedly also cursed for having crucified Jesus, and like women, were cursed with menstruation.
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A very similar explanation for why Jewish men supposedly menstruated has to do with the idea that menstruation is a ‘curse.’ Women were cursed with menstruation because of the biblical story told in
Genesis 3, where Eve had committed the
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from 1893 was republished throughout the Nazi's rule in
Germany. In this work, Fritsch argued for the antisemitic claim that male menstruation was a sign that Jewish people had a different sexuality from non-Jews.
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until around the 1850s, it was believed that health was based on equilibrium among the four ‘humours’: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, under a system of medicine called
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canard, that Jewish people participated in ritualistic murder of
Christians, in order to get their blood. There were many supposed uses for this Christian blood, including as an
202:. There are many versions of how this relates to their supposed experience of menstruation. Under some tellings, Jewish people had been struck on their rear ends for killing
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have expressed belief in the phenomenon of male menstruation, less specific than Jewish male menstruation, with Freud having claimed to experience male menstruation himself.
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Much of the basis for why Jewish men supposedly experienced menstruation was entrenched in religious beliefs, specifically
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In recent centuries, the image of the menstruating Jewish male has been used in antisemitic propaganda, including in
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Along with falsely believing that Jews menstruated, many medieval
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Katz, David S. (1999). "Shylock's Gender: Jewish Male
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Resnick, Irven M. (2000). "Medieval Roots of the Myth of Jewish Male Menses".
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Roguin Maro, Nora; Roguin, Ariel; Roguin, Nathan (2021).
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