Toaff backs down

Last week, we had some questions about "Pasque di Sangue", the blood libel book by Ariel Toaff. Among them: (1) Does the book say Jews killed children and used their blood in matzoh? and (2) Does the research rely to a large degree on the confessions of torture victims?

I still haven't read the book, but I've heard from someone who did, and "yes" is the answer to both questions. Here's Toaff's own father saying exactly what I am thinking:

...the criticism that everyone has expressed about [the] book was justified. His arguments in the book were an insult to the intelligence, to the tradition, to history in general and to the meaning of the Jewish religion. It saddens me that such nonsense was put forward by my son of all people."

On the bright side, Toaff has completely recanted.