Dr. Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos is Assistant Professor of Religion at Amherst College (MA). She holds an MA in Early Christian Studies from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Religious Studies from Brown University. She is author of Constantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial Capital (University of California Press, 2020). She was a Fellow of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC) in 2023–2024.
Last Updated
April 24, 2025
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Socrates of Constantinople’s account of Syrian Jews crucifying a Christian boy (ca. 415–419), likely during Purim, may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of an enactment of hanging Haman’s effigy. The story went largely unnoticed until the 18th century, when it began circulating in lists of murder allegations against Jews, most notoriously in Julius Streicher’s list in the May 1934 edition of his tabloid, Der Stürmer.
Socrates of Constantinople’s account of Syrian Jews crucifying a Christian boy (ca. 415–419), likely during Purim, may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of an enactment of hanging Haman’s effigy. The story went largely unnoticed until the 18th century, when it began circulating in lists of murder allegations against Jews, most notoriously in Julius Streicher’s list in the May 1934 edition of his tabloid, Der Stürmer.
