In the Middle Ages, Christian clergy accused European Jews of abducting Christian children and killing them to collect their blood to make Passover Matzahs. Hate speech is not to be taken lightly at any time and it is never without consequences. This filthy and baseless lie that originated centuries ago was the catalyst for pogroms in Germany and Austria in 1298 in which 100,000 Jews were murdered. Read that number very closely and consider it in light of the number of people that were murdered on September 11, 2001. After 1298, disappearances of Christian children periodically re-ignited the accusation, which in turn served as a convenient excuse for lynchings of Jews - even if the Christian perpetrators were well known.

How could such truly absurd and malicious distortions spread and become rooted? History does not record the Middle Ages as an era of widespread critical thinking. Rampant ignorance coupled with a steady diet of Anti-Semitism doled out by the Church made people receptive to even the most outrageous and unsupportable claims about the despised Jews. Now fast-forward 700 years. The 'blood libel' as it is called has resurfaced in another form and in another country. Not the former Republics of the Soviet Union, not Germany, not even the rabidly and officially anti-Semitic Arab states. The blood libel against the Jews is alive and well and living in the United States of America - in New Jersey to be exact. Last week, Amiri Baraka, no less than the Poet Laureate of the Garden State, recited his poem at a poetry festival,

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the twin towers

To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away?

Is it even necessary to formally refute this dung? Shortly after the September 11^th attacks the presumed mastermind of the crime claimed to be acting on behalf of the Palestinians. Palestinians celebrated. Israelis mourned. How could this possibly benefit Israel? Does anyone claim that the Ku Klux Klan is a bunch of black men running around in sheets? Where is the critical thinking?

Will this new blood libel that the Jews were somehow responsible for the September 11 attacks have traction in the United States? Why do we see it emerging from the Black Community, sadly, no stranger to lynchings of its own? Just as in the Middle Ages, hateful accusations like the blood libel can take hold where critical thinking lapses, where loyalty to ones own takes precedence over facts and where leadership is lacking. A Black community which succors Louis Farakhan, whose own Al Sharpton incites its members to riot against Hasidic Jews in New York and which rejoices in the acquittal of its homicidal rioters is fertile ground for the proliferation of the blood libel. Ignorance and abject tribalism are festering diseases but clear and forceful leadership can sometimes stem the spread of infection. Without unequivocal leadership that renounces the mental tripe of an Amiri Baraka and excommunicates him a community is morally rudderless.

This most recent expression of hatred of Jews by a black man is all the more tragic for its timing. Forty years ago this week James Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi. That event marked an important battle in a decades long war on segregation. It was a war in which Jews served as front-line soldiers in proportions well beyond their numbers. To survive, every group must know its own history, honor its heroes and be wary of its enemies. But there is more to Black history and Black Power than movies about Hurricane Carter and Muhammed Ali. The Black community would do well to acknowledge the work of Jack Greenberg, long time Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund upon whose legal victories Meredith's suit against Ole Miss was based. They would do well to remember Rabbi Jacob Rothschild whose own temple in Atlanta was bombed in October, 1958 precisely for his active participation in the Civil Rights movement.

The historical and societal reasons for why rumor often trumps rationality in the Black community may be complex. But the issue of moral leadership is simple. It either exists or it does not. Leaders are either vocal in their denunciations of the Barakas in their midst or they are silent - and complicit. If there is hope of erecting a fire-block against the latest blood libel before it engulfs the Black community and threatens our whole society, Black leaders must make a stand. So far I have heard no denouncements of Baraka from the NAACP (I checked their website). I have heard no calls from Black intellectuals like Skip Gates or Cornell West or Stephen L. Carter for Baraka to apologize to the Jewish community whom he slandered. I have seen no press conferences by Black political leaders like Charles Rangel or JC Watts or Carl McCall repudiating Baraka and demanding his resignation. I have read no editorial pieces from vocal Black celebrities like Denzel Washington or Spike Lee distancing themselves from Baraka's calumny.

All communities have their racists. But how the community responds to them is a sign of its health and character. The Jews had Meir Kahane. But when Kahane's paranoia gave way to racism against Israeli Arabs, the Israeli Courts outlawed his participation in the Israeli electoral system. The morality of the Black Community hangs in the balance. Who will determine its course? The clock is ticking down.