A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel

Acknowledgments

I have many people to thank.

My amazing agent, Renee Zuckerbrot, plucked me off the Internet to suggest I write “a book,” when I had no idea what that book would be, and then saw the potential in this story. Altie Karper acquired the book for Schocken and gave me consistent encouragement during the long process of researching and writing.

Leonid Finberg, head of the Judaica Institute in Kiev, the go- to person for anyone doing research on Ukrainian Jewish history, was indispensable in helping me secure access to archival documents. He also provided me with my indefatigable research assistant, Olga Savchuk.

Thanks also go to my other research assistants: Nicole Warren, who scouted out every possible mention of the case in blurry microfilms of Russian newspapers, and also read through the manuscript, making many useful comments; and Nataliya Rovenskaya, Kateryna Demchuk, Jane Gorjevsky, and Lydia Hamilton.

Katia Shraga transcribed handwritten documents that even native Russians found impossible to read and imparted to me some of her skill.

Professors Natan Meir and Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern provided very helpful research advice along the way. Professor Robert Weinberg was generous with his time, reading and commenting on drafts of several chapters.

David Groff gave me the benefit of his immense editorial acumen throughout the writing of this book. Alexander Zaslavsky and Caroline Howard contributed many incisive and constructive comments on the manuscript.

Jay Beilis, Mendel’s grandson, and his cousin Hilda Edelist were generous with their memories and information about their family and put me onto material I otherwise would not have found.

Mark Stein, coeditor of a new edition of Mendel Beilis’s memoir, shared much interesting material.

Carrie Friedman-Cohen located and translated Beilis’s lost memoir in the Yiddish newspaper Haynt and translated most of the Yiddish material in this book; Jessica Kirzane also contributed Yiddish translation work.

Alex Ratnovsky, of the Yeshiva University library, provided indispensable assistance.

My wife, Lilia, fulfilled multiple roles: graphic artist, Russian-language consultant, critical and sensitive reader. I owe her more than I can express.