In 1144, the body of a 12-year-old tanner's apprentice named William was found tortured, raped and murdered in a wood outside this market town.
Townsfolk angrily accused their few Jewish neighbors of ritual sacrifice, and the king's representative, the sheriff of Norwich, had to rescue them. The incident was one of the first in a spreading anti-Semitic hysteria that brought massacres of Jews across England and finally their expulsion in 1290.But there was never any evidence linking Jews to William's murder, and now Norwich is trying to make amends.
The city's new Playhouse theater commissioned a play by Arnold Wesker, "Blood Libel," that emphasizes the lack of evidence that Jews were involved in the slaying.
And as part of its 900th anniversary celebrations, Norwich Cathedral is establishing a chapel ded-i-cated to innocent victims of religious fanaticism.
"We want it to be a symbol of reconciliation . . . a pointer to the need always to work for better understanding between the religious traditions," said the cathedral's dean, the Very Rev. Stephen Plat-ton.
"The story is a sad one, not only because William was young, but because the blame was pinned on the Jewish community and became the focus for anti-Semitism," he said.
An altar will be built in a small, unused space under the organ at the center of the cathedral, where William's body reputedly once lay.
Although there was a campaign in the Middle Ages to have William declared a Christian martyr and saint, many people in Norwich are uneasy about the story, and there is no mention of him in the cathedral. In 1994, celebrating 850 years as a city, Norwich decided not to stage an oratorio based on the story, because it was seen as not positive enough.
Alan Webster, dean of Norwich Cathedral in 1970-78, said the incident was the first time Jews in Britain were accused of ritual blood sacrifice.
"It was a terrible illustration of the anti-Semitism that was under the surface. But William was never canonized, thank God," he said.
Norwich's modern Jewish community of less than 100 has welcomed "Blood Libel."
"It's good to look at old myths," said Hettie Levine, who moved here with her husband, a Hebrew teacher, in 1970. "The play goes some way to setting things right."
Wesker's play, which premiered last month at the 300-seat Playhouse, is a bleak portrayal of suspicion, fanaticism and greed. He says its message about sectarian hatred "resonates today - look at Northern Ireland."
Back in 1144, England was torn by civil war over who should succeed King Henry I. There was still tension between Anglo-Saxons and their Norman conquerors, who brought Jews with them.
Norwich was the third-biggest city of the realm, a center for trade and manufacturing. According to historian V.D. Lipman, it had fewer than 200 Jews, who were under the protection of the crown with a grant to be moneylenders. Most lived in a special district near the cathedral.
William, the son of an affluent farmer and grandson of a priest, was last seen alive with a man who claimed to be the cook for the Archdeacon of Norwich and offered the boy work.
His body was found in Thorpe Wood, a few miles from the center of Norwich on March 24, 1144, dressed in his jacket and shoes, with his head shaved and punctured with many stab wounds. A wooden gag was in William's mouth, and boiling water had been poured over him.
A church synod summoned the Jews after William's mother, Elviva, accused them. But the sheriff of Norwich stepped in to save them.
Over the years, accusing stories claimed that at the end of Passover week, the Jews of Norwich bound William as if on a cross, piercing his hands and feet.
"There is absolutely no evidence to identify the criminal," said Webster, the former cathedral dean. "Looking back . . . the facts may have been a sexual crime against a child of the kind so common today."
A cult also developed around William, and there were tales of miracles. Some clerics encouraged the cult, probably because they believed a saint would draw rich pilgrims, Webster said.
It is a point made in Wesker's play. "Everything which enables the church to survive and carry out its work is holy," says one character, the priest Dom Aimer.
The Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims height-ened anti-Jewish feeling, and in 1189 houses were burned in the center of London and 30 Jews died. A series of massacres followed in 1190 in York and at King's Lynn and Norwich.
In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England and did not officially return until the 17th century.