Yusuf Pasha sends to Constantinople asking for…
March 1840 CE
Only after the blockade has lasted for twelve days is the governor forced to lift it by a high treasury official who visits the island on a tour of inspection.
At this point, the Jews think that the affair is over.
The relief, however, is dashed in early March by news of the Damascus affair.
Reports that the Jews of Damascus have confessed to having murdered Father Thomas reinforces the belief of the Christian community in the ritual murder charge.
Eight Jews are arrested, including the chief rabbi and David Mizrahi, who are tortured by being suspended swinging from hooks in the ceiling in the presence of the European consuls.
Mizrahi loses consciousness after six hours, while the rabbi is kept there for two days until he suffers a hemorrhage.
Nevertheless, neither confess and they are released after a few days.
The other six Jews remain in prison in early April.
The European vice-consuls in Rhodes are united in believing the ritual murder charge.
They play the key role in the interrogation, with J. G. Wilkinson, the British consul, and E. Masse from Sweden being involved.
The consuls are also present during much of the torture.
Some Jewish inhabitants of Rhodes accuse the consuls of a conspiracy to exploit the case in order to eliminate Elias Kalimati, a local Jew, who represents the business interests of Joel Davis, a Jewish businessman from London.
Davis is rapidly increasing his share in the profitable sponge exports from the island, and he is a major business rival of the European consuls.
Elias Kalimati, however, is not among the persons held in the affair, calling that allegation into question.
In the first days of the blockade, someone manages to smuggle a letter out of the Jewish quarter to the Jewish leadership in Constantinople.
It is not until March 27 that the leaders of the Jewish community in the Ottoman capital forwards it to the Rothschild family, together with a similar call for help from the Jews of Damascus.
To these documents, the Jewish leaders attach their own statement in which they cast doubt on their ability to influence the sultan.
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