Josef Deckert (17 November 1843 in Drösing, Lower Austria – 23 March 1901), also known as Francis, was an Austrian Catholic priest and anti-Semitic agitator.
In retaliation he published a pamphlet on Simon of Trent, in an effort to confirm the truth of the blood accusation (Ein Ritualmord Actenmässig Nachgewiesen, Vienna 1893).
Actuated by the same motive, he induced the convert Paulus Meyer to write an account of a ritual murder which he pretended to have seen in 1875 in Ostrow, Russia.
The story was published in the Vienna Vaterland, and the parties named as perpetrators in the crime brought a libel suit against Meyer and Deckert, the latter being sentenced (Sept. 15, 1893) to a fine of 400 florins ($160).
His violent diatribes were several times the object of an interpellation in the Reichsrat, and evoked from the premier, Prince Windischgrätz, the reply (May 27, 1895) that he regretted such expressions were heard from a Christian pulpit.