Film prompts cathedral to remove 'blood libel' leaflet

A cathedral has removed a leaflet recounting an antisemitic medieval myth in a move prompted by a new film.

Norwich Cathedral took the action after taking part in the short documentary The Innocents, made for the UK Jewish Film Festival 2025.

The leaflet contained the Norwich blood libel - a false accusation made in the 12th Century stating Jews had ritually murdered a local boy called William - a story that spread across the globe.

In the film, the Norwich Jewish community expressed discomfort about the leaflet being placed in the cathedral's Holy Innocents chapel, named after the biblical story about the massacre of infants by King Herod.

In response to the removal of the leaflet, Dr Marian Prinsley, president of Norwich Hebrew Congregation, said: "Symbolically it's very important for all Jewish people in this country and wider.

"You can't have the story of King Herod and the story of William of Norwich being conflated and the Jews being blamed for the killing of babies."

In the film, Dr Prinsley said presenting the two stories together was "an issue that has been festering within the Jewish community".

"Saint William was the boy that was supposed to have been killed in Norwich and there's certainly no evidence that the Jews killed him," she said.

She believed the lie was fabricated in order to bring pilgrims to the cathedral which helped it to raise money, but that the widespread ramifications of that were very serious for Jewish people.

Dean of Norwich Cathedral, the Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, said: "We've got to be honest about our history as a cathedral.

"This is one of the places where that blood libel myth starts to be propagated and shared, and the terrible, terrible damage and suffering that's caused."

He added that the Norwich blood libel "has played a tragic part in the long and dark history of antisemitism".

The Jewish Small Communities Network commissioned director Jonathan Weinberg to make the short documentary.

He said the way the story was presented in the chapel would not necessarily lead people to believe the blood libel myth.

But, Mr Weinberg added, "the way that it was presented was definitely, I think, still a bit offensive to the Jewish community".

"The making of the film, it gave the Jewish community the confidence to speak to the cathedral community about how they felt and about how they would like to see this presented in different way, in a more honest way," he said.

In the closing scenes, Dr Braddock tells Dr Prinsley the leaflet has been removed from the cathedral after admitting "we need to do this better".

Representatives from Norwich synagogue and the cathedral will meet next month to start a process to decide how best to tell the story of William, in a more "meaningful" way.

The Innocents is being shown in cinemas as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival 2025.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.