Antisemitic tropes, also known asantisemitic canards orantisemitic libels, areantisemitic allegations[1] aboutJews as an ethnicity orJudaism as a religion.[a]
Since the2nd century,[2] malicious allegations of Jewish guilt have become a recurring motif in antisemitic tropes, which take the form of libels, stereotypes[3][4] or conspiracy theories.[5] They typically present Jews as cruel, powerful or controlling,[6] some of which also feature the denial or trivialization of historical atrocities against Jews.[7][8] These tropes have led topogroms, genocides,persecutions andsystemic racism for Jewsthroughout history.[9][10] Antisemitic tropes mainly evolved in monotheistic societies, whose religions were derived from Judaism, many of which were traceable toChristianity's early days. These tropes were mirrored by 7th-centuryQuranic claims that Jews were "visited with wrath fromAllah" due to their supposed practice ofusury and disbelief in his revelations.[11] Inmedieval Europe, antisemitic tropes were expanded in scope to justify mass persecutions andexpulsions of Jews. Particularly, Jews were repeatedly massacred over accusations of causingepidemics and"ritually consuming" Christian babies' blood.
In the 19th century, allegations about Jews plotting "world domination" by "controlling" mass media and global banking spread, which mutated into modern tropes, especially the libel that Jews "invented and promoted communism". These tropes fatefully formedAdolf Hitler'sworldview, contributing toWorld War II and theHolocaust, which killedat least 6 million Jews (67% pre-warEuropean Jews).[6][12] Since the 20th century, the use of antisemitic tropes have been documented among some groups that self-identify as "anti-Zionists".[13][page needed][14][page needed]
Most contemporary tropes feature the denial or trivialization of anti-Jewish atrocities, especially the denial ortrivialization ofthe Holocaust,[8][15] or of theJewish exodus from Muslim countries.[16]Holocaust denial and antisemitic tropes are inextricable, typical of which is the libel that the Holocaust was "fabricated" or "exaggerated" to "advance" Jews' or Israel's interests.[17][18]
The publication ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903 is usually considered the beginning of contemporaryconspiracy theory literature.[20] The trope embodied by the book is manifested in both writings and imagery, where Jews are accused of plotting world domination nefariously. Typical examples include Nazi-originated cartoons depicting Jews as a giant octopus reaching across the globe.[21][22] A 2001 Egyptian reprint ofHenry Ford's antisemitic textThe International Jew, with the same octopus imagery on the front cover.[23]
Among the earliest refutations ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery werea series of articles printed inThe Times in 1921, which revealed the forgery's content to have been plagiarized from the unrelated satireThe Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu.[24] TheRussian imperial state popularized the forgery to discredit theBolsheviks by accusing Jews of organizing theRussian revolution.[25][26] The forgery scapegoated Jews as the leading subversive force to try to dispel mass revolt andkeep the empire united.[27]
Later, the trope spread westward when theGreat Depression andNazism's rise catalyzed its dissemination.[28][29][30] A Polish equivalent goes byJudeopolonia,whichposited an imaginary Jewish domination of Poland.[31] Contemporarily, the trope often goes byZionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which accuses the Jews of "controlling Western governments" for selfish ends, like benefittingIsrael.[32] TheZOG is widely peddled by antisemites, such as theNeo-Nazis,white nationalists,[33][34]Islamists andblack supremacists.[35]
Malcolm X, a well known Black American activist, believed inThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which he introduced to theNation of Islam (NOI) for circulation among their Black American audience.[36] In 2003, the Malaysian Prime MinisterMahathir Mohammed drew a standing ovation at anOIC conference after alleging:[37]
Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them [...] They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong [...] they have gained control of the most powerful countries.
TheNew Black Panther Party (NBPP), ablack separatist group, has actively peddled the myth.[38] Prior to a 2006Democraticprimaryrunoff in theU.S. state of Georgia, the NBPP alleged[39]
So-called Jews in Israel in what's really Palestine...some player haters, someZionists, someso-called Jews who theBook of Revelations [...] calls theSynagogue of Satan.
When the NBPP-backed candidateCynthia McKinney lost to her rivalHank Johnson, NBPP's members alleged "Jewish electoral domination".[40]
In April 2017,Politico magazine published an article alleging "links" between the then–U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Jewish religious groupChabad.Jonathan Greenblatt (CEO) of theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the article as "evok[ing] age-old myths about Jews".[41] In December 2023, AustralianGreenMPJenny Leong, echoed Mahathir Mohammed's 2003 speech at aPalestine Justice Movement forum:[42][43]
theJewish lobby and theZionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups [...] they rock up to every community event because their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power.
Leong apologized after being condemned.[44] Whereas, the "Jewish power" myth is often veiled as the "criticism" of "Jewish plutocrats" allegedly behind political changes. For instance,QAnon conspiracy theorists believe in the existence of a "satanic cabal" of global elites (globalists) "drinking children's blood" to achieve "world domination".[45] Two-time heavyweight world championTyson Fury also believes in a "Zionistplot" to "lower" public moral standard via the media and finance.[46] As per Argentine-Israeli educatorGustavo Perednik, antisemites often pass off their aggressive instinct as a "struggle" of "the oppressed" against the "powerful" to maximize its appeal to left-wing audience.[47]
Another common antisemitic trope is that "the Jews control the media andHollywood".[48][49] InEastern Europe, theCzech politicianTomáš Garrigue Masaryk, believed that Jews "controlled the press", despite his previous objection to antisemitism during theHilsner affair.[50] InWestern Europe,Arthur Griffith, the founder of theSinn Féin party decisive to Ireland's independence, was subscribed to the "Jewish media control" trope. Griffith alleged thatDublin newspapers were[51][8]
almost all Jew rags [...] Fifty other rags like those which have nothing behind them but the forty or fifty thousand Jewishusurers and pick-pockets in each country and which no decent Christian ever reads except holding his nose as a precaution against nausea.
Griffith's antisemitism is still present in the party. For instance,lower house parliamentarianRéada Cronin alleged in 2020 that Jews were "responsible for European wars" and "Adolf Hitler was a pawn of the [Jewish]Rothschilds [...may] not have been too far wrong".[52][53] In theUnited States,J.J. Goldberg,The Forward's editorial director, published a study of such trope in 1997.[54] He concluded that Jewish Americans "do not make a high priority of Jewish concerns" despite holding prominent positions in the American media industry.[55] Variants on this theme focus on Hollywood, the press[56] and the music industry.[57]
Since 2015 when theEuropean migrant crisis happened, theWhite genocide conspiracy theory has gained traction among white nationalists.[58] Jews are often accused of facilitating unrestricted non-white immigration to alter the fabric of White-majority societies.[59] Such libel is often peddled in conjunction with older myths, like the "Jewishpower", to raise its plausibility among the targeted audience. Much of such sentiment stems from an extinction anxiety about the majority White population becoming outnumbered by the non-white population, who areoften assumed as "foreign" and "incompatible" with the mainstream.[60] Elon Musk, the current owner ofX (formerlyTwitter), has also been accused of endorsing the theory, when he showed approval of the theory in a tweet.[61]
In the US, there have beenseveral terrorist attacks associated with the belief in the theory, the most recent of which include the 2017Unite the Right rally, where dozens of casualties occurred in acar ramming attack, and the 2018Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, where 11 were killed and 7 injured.[62] The SPLC noted,[62]
The "great replacement" theory is inherently white supremacist. It depends on stoking fears that a non-white population, which the theory's proponents characterize as "inferior," will displace a white majority. It is also antisemitic. Some proponents of the "great replacement" do not explicitly attribute the plot to Jews. Instead, they blame powerful Jewish individuals such as financier and philanthropist George Soros or use coded antisemitic language to identify shadowy "elites" or "globalists."
TheADL documented several tropes that had associated Jews with banking,[63] including the myth that "global banking is dominated by the [Jewish]Rothschild family"[6][64] traceable to themedieval prevalence of Jews in moneylending.[65]
In theMiddle Ages, Jews wererestricted from most professions and pushed into marginalized occupations, such as tax collection andmoneylending, due to the Roman Catholic Church's prohibition on Christians charging interest for loans. In 1179, theThird Council of the Lateran threatened excommunication for any Christians lending money at interest, prompting borrowers to turn to Jews for loans. Natural tension betweengentile debtors and Jewish creditors reinforced pre-existing anti-Jewish biases.[66] In England, the departingCrusaders were joined by debtors in themassacres of Jews at London and York in 1189–1190. In 1275,Edward I of England punished Jewish creditors by passing the anti-usuryStatute of Jewry. Many English Jews were arrested, 300 of whom were hanged. In 1290,all Jews were expelled from England. German-American Jewish historianWalter Laqueur noted,[67][68]
The issue at stake was not really whether the Jews had entered it out of greed [...] The high tide of Jewish usury was before the fifteenth century; as cities grew in power and affluence, the Jews were squeezed out from money lending with thedevelopment of banking.
Building on older tropes of Jews controlling finance and being inherently driven by greed, from the 20th century Jews were blamed for the exploitation of people under capitalism and were claimed to control the institutions that were driving capitalism.[69][70][71]
In the 20th century, newer allegations ofJews masterminding the propagation of Communism emerged, includingThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903).[72]Judeo-Bolshevism was popularized by Hitler's to conflate Jews with communists and present them as an existential threat to justify the Holocaust.[73][page needed] APolish equivalent of this trope isŻydokomuna, which accused "most Jews" of having "collaborated with the Soviet Union" in "importing communism" to Poland.[74][75]Candace Owens, a twenty-first century American conservative pundit, alleged that "Stalin was a Jew" and his followers were "part of a Jewish cabal".[76]
The "Kosher tax" trope claims that food producers are "forced" to pay an exorbitant premium toindicate that their products arekosher, which is allegedly passed on to consumers by price increase.[77][78][79] It is mainly spread by white supremacists.[80][77] Refuters contended that food producers would not engage in the certification process if it was not profitable to obtain the "kosher certification", which is actually a voluntary business decision, while the "resultant" increased sales would lower the average cost.[81]
Jews have been blamed for thecrucifixion of Jesus throughout history:[82][full citation needed][83]
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather atumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before themultitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: seeye to it.Then answered all the people, and said,His blood be on us, and on our children.
Jewish deicide waslegitimized inChristian theology bySaint John Chrysostom (c. 4th century), a prominentChurch Father.[84][85] In theSecond Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965,Pope Paul VI issued theNostra aetate to refute the libel[86]
What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction,then alive, nor against the Jews of today.
Against radical traditionalists' objections, it was distantly followed up by an apology in 2000 for the two millennia of Catholic persecution of Jews,[87][88] amid claims that theSecond Temple menorah is still being hidden in the Vatican.[89] RadicalTraditionalist Catholics (rad trads) who opposeChristian–Jewish reconciliation have continued to peddleJewish deicide.[90]Subreddits r/Catholicism and r/AskAChristian on Reddit are reportedly frequented byrad trads for years.[citation needed] As per the SPLC, therad trads frequently circulate content from the forgeryThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Notably, therad trads have peddled:[91]
The ADL noted[95]
Traditionalist Catholics [...] continued to incorporate explicit antisemitism into their theology [...] a paranoid belief in Jewish conspiracies to undermine the church and Western civilization [...] preach that contemporary Jews are responsible for deicide, endorsedThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and claimed that there was a factual basis for the medievalblood libel. One of its bishops,Richard Williamson, is a well known Holocaust denier.
Theblood libel accusation's origin dates to the 12th century.[96][97] The first recorded accusation against Jews was associated with the death ofWilliam of Norwich.[98][99] Torture and human sacrifice in theblood libel run contrary to Judaism. TheTen Commandments forbidmurder. The use of blood in cooking is banned byKashrut as blood is deemedritually unclean.[100][non-primary source needed] TheHebrew Bible, orOld Testament, andHalakha portray human sacrifice as one of the evils separating the pagans ofCanaan from the Hebrews.[101][non-primary source needed] By the time of the writing of the Hebrew Bible, human sacrifice was not practiced among the Hebrews,[102] and Jews were prohibited from performing these rituals.[103][104] Ritual cleanliness for priests prohibited even being in the same room with a human corpse.[105][non-primary source needed] Historian Alexis P. Rubin noted,[106]
Church and secular leaders sharply denounced these defamations [...] people refused to abandon this myth [...] Popes, kings and emperors declared that Jews, if for no other reason than their strict dietary laws banning even the smallest drop of blood in meat or poultry, were incapable of the crime. The Christian populace was not impressed.
Among those who refuted theblood libel included theHoly Roman Emperor Frederick II[107][108][109] andPope Gregory IX,[110][111] whilePope Clement VI said that the Black Death could not be blamed on Jews.[112][113][114] Contemporarily, theblood libel still appears frequently in Muslim countries' state media, publications and online platforms as per their official anti-Zionism.[b] Various Arab writers have condemned theblood libel. The Egyptian newspaperAl-Ahram published articles by Osama Al-Baz, a senior advisor to the late Egyptian PresidentHosni Mubarak, explaining the origins of theblood libel.[116]
Inmedieval Europe, Jews were often accused of stealinghosts and desecrating them to reenact the crucifixion of Jesus by stabbing or burning.[117][118][119] The first allegation of Jewishhost desecration was made recorded in 1243 inBeelitz, nearBerlin, and all Jews in Beelitz were burned alive, subsequently called theJudenberg.[120][121][122] In the following centuries, similar libels circulated throughout Europe and caused severalpogroms, which did not subside untilSigismund II Augustus repudiated it in 1558.[123] However, massacres resulted fromhost desecration libels happened until the 19th century. The last recorded accusations were brought up in Barlad,Romania, in 1836 and 1867 respectively.[124][better source needed]
Throughout history, Christians alleged that Jews either dislike or sought to destroy Christianity. A65,000-word treatise written byMartin Luther, a pioneering 16th-centuryChristian reformer, also consists of such a libel that is still being promoted. For instance, radio hostJames Edwards alleged that Jews "hate Christianity" and were "using pornography as a subversive tool against us".[125] The ADL noted
This is not to say that Jews have historically borne noanimus towards Jesus and the Apostles, or towards Christianity as a whole. In the two-thousand year relationship between Judaism and Christianity, many of them marred by anti-Jewishpolemic andChristian persecution of Jews, some rabbis havefulminated against the church [...] But contemporary anti-Semitic polemicists are not interested in learning or reporting about the historical development ofJewish-Christian relations. Their goal is to incite hatred against Judaism and Jews by portraying them as bigoted and hateful.[126]
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As early as the 4th century,Church FatherSaint John Chrysostomdescribed a synagogue as
worse than a brothel and a drinking shop [...] a den of scoundrels, the repair of wild beasts, a temple of demons, the refuge ofbrigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils, a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ.
His anti-Jewish homily was legitimized in Christian theology as the basis ofChristian antisemitism for the following millennia, ultimately subject to Nazi co-optation to garner Christian support for the Holocaust.[128][129] In such regard, historian Jeremy Cohen wrote,
Yet the very impulse that propelled the Christian imagination from the Jew as a deliberate killer of Christ to the Jew as a perpetrator of the most heinous crimes against humanity also led to the portrayal of the Jew as inhuman,satanic, animal-like, and monstrous [...] the bestiality of the Jew climaxed in the image of theJudensau.[130]
Judensau (German:Jews' sow) is a dehumanizing imagery of Jews that appeared around the13th century. Its popularity lasted for six centuries until Nazi revival. Sculptures of Jews, typically portrayed in "obscene human contact" with unclean animals like pigs and owls, were often found on cathedral or church ceilings, pillars, utensils, etchings etc. The images always combined multiple antisemitic motifs, which sometimes included derisiveprose or poetry.[127][c]Martin Luther, a16th-centuryReformation's pioneer, was noted for his vicious antisemitism. Luther wrote a65,000-word thesis demonizing the Jews in which he not only described Jews as[131][132][133]
a base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, andlaw must be accounted as filth [...] and the synagogue [...] incorrigible whore and an evil slut,
but also called forextreme violence towards Jews within Europe.[131][132][133] Martin Luther was elevated to anunprecedented status in Nazi Germany. Luther's antisemitic thesis is considered by many Western historians to have brought about theHolocaust, despite the 400-year lapse.[134]
BeyondAbrahamic religions, the demonization of Jews is also common amongnew religious movements, one of which is theBlack Hebrew Israelites. Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) believe thatAfrican Americans aredescendants of ancientIsraelites. However, the BHI are not associated with eitherJews orChristians.[135]
Just as the "Messianic Judaism"[136][137][138] founded byConservative Baptist Association'sEvangelical priestMoishe Rosen,[139] the BHI do not meet anycriteria for being Jewish.[140] The BHI have seen themselves as the only "real Jews". Theydeny contemporary Jews' Jewish ancestry andhistorical connection to Israel. BHI have accused contemporary Jews of being "European converts to Judaism" andrunning the Atlantic slave trade, implying that they are "White oppressors".[141][142] Several BHI sects have been classified as hate groups by at least three American civil rights groups, theADL,SPLC andSWC,[143][144][145] with the ADL claiming that not all BHI sects were anti-Semitic.[146]
Such BHI-espoused antisemitic tropes have been popularized to discredit Jews[147] by associating them with White supremacy. BHI sects deemed antisemitic include theIsraelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK),House of Israel (HOI),Nation of Yahweh (NOY),Israelites Saints of Christ,True Nation Israelite Congregation andThe Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ (ICGJC).[148] The ADL summarized the commonly used BHI slurs:[148]
BHI groups or members have also been involved in domestic terrorism towards Jewish Americans since the 1970s, the most recent of which include theJersey City Shooting (7 dead and 3 injured).[143][150] The BHI, to some extent, managed to desensitize the public to their anti-Jewish terrorism byappropriatingJewish symbols and misusing theirhistorically oppressed status to gain sympathy from anti-racist intellectuals.[151][better source needed]
TheUnification Church (UC), founded bySouth Korean religious leaderSun Myung Moon in 1954, was criticized for demonizing Jews in its manifestoDivine Principle. A multi-faith panel that included Rabbi A. James Rudin, the assistant director of theAmerican Jewish Committee's department of interreligious affairs, pointed out 125 antisemitic references in their manifesto, including the libel that Jews were "collectively responsible" for the crucifixion ofChrist.[152] Rudin argued that UC's manifesto included "pejorative language, stereotyped imagery, accusations of collective sin and guilt", including its claim that "Jews had gone through a course of indemnity" due toJohn the Baptist's "failure to recognize Jesus as theMessiah".[153] It is also found that the UC's text portrayed the Holocaust as a "divine punishment".[152] The UC denied the AJC's charges as "distortion" and "obscurations".[154]
The false belief of Jewish male anal menstruation emerged in the 16th century, which formed part of the canard that all Jews were somehow female.[155] The false belief was allegedly based on scripture associating Jews with bleeding, particularly the description ofJudas' death inActs 1:18–19, where his belly was allegedly burst open, which inspired further accounts of heretics having their blood or entrails spilled via the anus at death.[155] It was, in the 12th century, referenced to theblood curse invoked by the Jews atJesus' trial before Pilate.[156][155] In the following century, a pseudoscientific explanation based onhumoral medicine was added, supplemented by a verse fromPsalms 78:66.[155] By 1302, it was claimed that Jewish male descendants of those alleged to have "taken responsibility" for the crucifixion of Jesus would suffer a monthly bleeding.[155] A 1503 account of the 1494ritual murder trials atTyrnau consisted of the earliest mention of the alleged monthly male bleeding.[155] In 17th-century Spain, the notion was revived by physicians, including the king's, conflatingmenstruation withhemorrhoids, which contributed to the "legal concept" of "impure blood" in a family or race.[157]
During the devastating 14th centuryBlack Death, crowded cities were hard hit, with death tolls as high as 50%. Emotionally distraught survivors scapegoated Jews opportunistically. Soon after the Black Death's entry to Europe in 1346,massacres of Jews broke out between 1348 and 1351 based on false charges of Jews "spreading" the epidemic. The first massacres happened inToulon in 1348, where the Jewish quarter was sacked and 40 Jews murdered, then inBarcelona.[158] In 1349, massacres and persecution spread across Europe, including theErfurt massacre,Basel Massacre and massacres inAragon andFlanders.[159][160] 2,000 Jews were also burned alive in theStrasbourg massacre on 14 February 1349 by antisemites who justified the massacre as a "preventive measure". Such accusation later became an antisemitic trope, which evolved into the one fabricated by Joseph Stalin as thedoctors' plot in the early 1950s,[161][162] then the charges of Jews "spreading" intractable diseases like theAIDS[163] andCOVID-19.[164]
German politicianHeinrich von Treitschke in the 19th century coined the phrase"Die Juden sind unser Unglück!" ("The Jews are our misfortune!"), which becameDer Stürmer's motto.[165] Israeli-British historianEfraim Karsh noted,
Jews have traditionally been accused of lacking true patriotism to their countries of citizenship, and instead seeking to embroil their non-Jewish compatriots in endless conflicts and wars on behalf of such cosmopolitan movements and ideals as 'world imperialism', 'international bolshevism', or 'world Zionism'.
Both ends of the political spectrum accusedAmerican Jews of "dragging" the country intoWorld War II and the Iraq War, exaggerating the influence of an allegedIsrael lobby.[166] It was also promoted by political scientistJohn Mearsheimer in a2007 book, which was criticized for legitimizing the "Jewish domination" trope and encouraging antisemitism.[167] TheFranklin Prophecy was unknown before its appearance in 1934 inWilliam Dudley Pelley'spro-Nazi magazineLiberation.[168][169] As per the 2004 U.S. Congress reportAnti-Semitism in Europe: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
The Franklin "Prophecy" is a classic anti-Semitic canard that falsely claims that American statesmanBenjamin Franklin made anti-Jewish statements during theConstitutional Convention of 1787. It has foundwidening acceptance in Muslim and Arab media, where it has been used to criticize Israel and Jews [...][170]
In 2016,Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) highlighted a video in which aKuwaitiSalafi preacher alleged thatSpongeBob SquarePants and other youth cartoons were created by Jews in order to promotehomosexuality,atheism,Satanism and the "emo movement".[171][better source needed] In 2018, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan accused Jews of "turning men into women and women into men" with a "specially concocted strain ofmarijuana" invented to make Black mengay andeffeminate.[172]
In 2020, conspiracy theoristRick Wiles endorsed a claim by some "Messianic Jews" that "Zionists" seek to "make all of humanityandrogynous" as per theKabbalistic concept ofAdam Kadmon. They alleged that the plot involved "Zionist" support for transgender rights to "make people LGBT" by "putting specific things in food, in drink".[173][174] Contrarily, somelesbian feminists have accused Jews of being "killers of the Goddess" over their perception of thegod of Israel being male to blame Jews for women's mistreatment under the "patriarchy".[175]
On March 16, 2018,Council of the District of Columbia memberTrayon White posted a video on hisFacebook page showing snow flurries falling, alluding to theconspiracy theory of theRothschild family conspiring to manipulate the weather. In his post, he stated, "Y'all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation ... And that's a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful."[176][177] The comment was widely reported in Washington and worldwide[178][179] media as an endorsement of anantisemitic conspiracy theory.[180] TheWashington City Paper reported on March 19 that this was not the first time in which White alluded to a Jewish conspiracy to control global weather.[181]
The belief that Jews use space lasers to manipulate the weather, or the belief that Jews use space lasers to cause natural disasters, also dates back to 2018, when U.S. RepresentativeMarjorie Taylor Greene suggested that theCamp Fire wildfires in Butte County, California were caused by lasers which were emitted from "space solar generators" in a scheme which companies such asRothschild & Co andSolaren were involved in.[182] Despite her denial of antisemitic intent in relation to her belief in this theory, supporters of Greene quickly blamed the wildfires on Jews.[183] Greene was condemned by theRepublican Jewish Coalition, theConference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, andChristians United for Israel.[184][185] Journalist and author Mike Rothschild, who is unrelated tothe Rothschilds, also condemned these statements.[183]
During a speech at theReichstag on 30 January 1939,Adolf Hitler accused "international Jewish financiers" of seeking to start a world war, but that this would be turned against them in an "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe", for which the Jews would be fully to blame.[186]
In 2002, the then-Hamas leaderAbdel Aziz al-Rantisiasked, "People always talk about what theGermans did to the Jews, but the true question is, 'What did the Jews do to the Germans?'"[187]Gilad Atzmon stated, "Jewish texts tend to glaze over the fact that Hitler's 28 March 1933, ordering a boycott against Jewish stores and goods, was an escalation in direct response to thedeclaration of war on Germany by the worldwide Jewish leadership."[188] In January 2005, 19 members of the RussianState Duma demanded that Judaism and Jewish organizations be banned in Russia,[189] alleging that "most antisemitic actions in the whole world are constantly carried out by Jews themselves with a goal of provocation." After sharp protests by Russian Jewish leaders, including Russia's Chief RabbiBerel Lazar, human rights activists and theRussian Foreign Ministry, theDuma members retracted their appeal.[189]
A trope found inThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but originating long before that document, is that Jews are more loyal to world Jewry than to their own country. Since Israel's reestablishment in 1948, libels of Jews being more loyal to Israel than to their country of residence and citizenship have become widespread in different countries.[190][191]
With the rise ofracist theories in the 19th century, "[a]nother old anti-Semitic canard served to underline the putative 'femininity' of the Jewish race. Like women, Jews lacked an 'essence'".[192] InGenocide and Gross Human Rights Violations, Kurt Jonassohn and Karin S. Björnson wrote:
Historically, Jews were not allowed to bear arms in most of the countries of thediaspora. Therefore, when they were attacked, they were not able to defend themselves. In some situations, their protector would defend them. If not, they only had a choice between hiding and fleeing. This is the origin of the anti-Semitic canard that Jews are cowards.[193]
Jews were frequently accused of being insufficiently patriotic. In late 19th-century France, apolitical scandal known as theDreyfus affair involved the wrongfulconviction fortreason of a young Jewish French officer. The political and judicial scandal ended with his full rehabilitation.[194] DuringWorld War I, the German Military High Command implemented theJudenzählung (German for "Jewish Census"), which was designed to "confirm" allegations of the "lack of patriotism" among German Jews, but the results of the census disproved the accusations and were not made public.[195][196] After the end of the war, thestab-in-the-back myth alleged that internal enemies, including Jews, were responsible for Germany's defeat.[197]
InStalin's Soviet Union, thestatewide campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans", a Sovieteuphemism for Jews, was set out on 28 January 1949 with an article in the party's official newspaperPravda:
unbridled, evil-minded cosmopolitans, profiteers with no roots and no conscience [...] Grown on rotten yeast of bourgeois cosmopolitanism, decadence andformalism [...] non-indigenous nationals without a motherland, who poison with stench [...] ourproletarian culture.[198]
Such propaganda was followed by state campaigns of persecution until Stalin's death in 1953, which involvedmass termination of Soviet Jewish doctors andliquidation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee based on false charges of treason, espionage and association with Zionism. The anniversary of the murders was commemorated bySoviet Jewry Movement's activists from the 1960s until the end of the Soviet Union.[199]
In 1968, theSoviet-dominated Polish communist state exploitedpre-existing antisemitism to peddle similar claims, equating Jewish origins with "disloyalty" and "Zionist sympathies", to blamePolish Jews for theanti-communist mass protests. A purge of Polish Jews, most of whom were Holocaust survivors, ensued. The purge caused the exodus of 5,000–10,000 Polish Jews – around 20–33% of those remaining back then. An apology was made by the democratic Polish government in March 2018.[200][201]
Many antisemitic conspiracy theory websites cherry-picked quotes from Jewish religious writings to justify the libel that Judaism is "racist [...] teaching Jews to hate non-Jews."[202] As per rabbiJoseph Soloveitchik,
Even as the Jew is moved by his private Sinaitic Covenant with God to embody and preserve the teachings of theTorah, he is committed to the belief that all mankind, of whatever color or creed, is "in His image" and is possessed of an inherent human dignity and worthiness. Man's singularity is derived from the breath "He [God] breathed into his nostrils at the moment of creation" (Genesis 2:7). Thus, we do share in the universal historical experience, and God's providential concern does embrace all of humanity.[203][full citation needed]
As per the minutes of a 1984 U.S. Congress hearing concerning theSoviet Jewry, the demonization of Jews based on bogus "ethnocentrism" charges was common:
This vicious anti-Semitic canard, frequently repeated by other Soviet writers and officials, is based upon the malicious notion that the "Chosen People" of theTorah andTalmud preaches "superiority over other peoples", as well as exclusivity. This was, of course, the principal theme of the notorious TsaristProtocols of the Elders of Zion.[204]
Holocaust denial consists of claims that thegenocide of Jews duringWorld War II – usually referred to asthe Holocaust[205] – did not occur at all, or it did not happen in the manner or to the extent which is historically recognized. Key elements of these claims are the rejection of the following facts:
Most Holocaust denial claims imply, or openly state, that the Holocaust is a "hoax" committed out of a "deliberateJewish conspiracy" to advance the "Jewish interests".[207] Nowadays, outright denial is no longer socially acceptable. It has, however, morphed into more devious forms involving antisemitic tropes' usage todistort relevant events for fabricating Jewish guilt and legitimizing antisemitism.[208] Distortion of the Holocaust refers,inter alia, to intentional efforts to excuse or minimize theimpact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, includingcollaborators and allies of Nazi Germany. Other factors are gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust, in contradiction to reliable sources, and attempts toblame the Jews for causing their own genocide. Statements have been made casting the Holocaust as a positive historical event. Those statements are not Holocaust denial but are closely connected to it as aradical form of antisemitism. They may suggest that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal of "theFinal Solution of the Jewish Question". Finally, there have been attempts toblur the responsibility for the establishment ofconcentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups.[208][209] As such, Holocaust denial is antisemitic.[210][211] Holocaust deniers are condemned for ignoring all the evidence disproving their falsehood.[212]
Holocaust deniers include the late "anti-Zionist"Egyptian PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser,[213][214] formerIranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmedinejad,[215] lateHezbollah leaderHassan Nasrallah,[216][217] lateFrench professorRobert Faurisson,[218]French teacherVincent Reynouard,[219]British authorDavid Irving[220] andGermar Rudolf.[221]
In 2010, a poll found that 56% of citizens in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and theUAE believed that the Jews "deserved the Holocaust",[222] most of whom were found to hold the false beliefs that
In 2014, another global survey found that almost half of the world did not know that the Holocaust ever happened, making them more susceptible to the tropes as mentioned.[223]
Scholars have noted that "the main motif in Arabcartoons about Israel features 'the devilish Jew'"[224] and that the central antisemitic idea of portraying Jews as an embodiments of absolute evil includes several recurring sub-themes. These themes have reappeared throughout history, though their form has changed depending on the dominant narratives of each era.[225] Such demonization by association with Israel is termed theHolocaust inversion.Holocaust inversion is an inversion of reality[226] where Jews, the Holocaust's primary victims, are transposed into being the primary perpetrators to erase theirhistorical victimhood and justify antisemitism. It is deemed a form ofHolocaust trivialization. TheWorld Jewish Congress noted thatHolocaust inversion could be manifested as:[227]
In such regard, the French philosopherBernard-Henri Lévy remarked,[228][229][230]
[...] a mass movement demanding the deaths of Jews will be unlikely to yell "Money Jews" or "They Killed Christ." [...] for such a movement to emerge, for people to feel once again [...] the right to burn all thesynagogues they want, to attack boys wearingyarmulkes, to harass large number ofrabbis [...] an entirely new discourse way of justifying it must emerge.
Zio,Zio-Nazi and evenZionist are used deceptively by antisemites to promote antisemitism while maintainingplausible deniability.[231]David Duke, the formerKKK'sGrand Wizard, reportedly inventedZio as an anti-Jewish slur based onZionism's popularity amongcontemporary Jews, especially in theUnited States[232] andUnited Kingdom.[233]Holocaust historianYehuda Bauer sawZio-Nazi ashate speech,[234] while theMeta restricted these terms onFacebook andInstagram.[235][236]
Yossi Klein Halevi, the author ofThe New York Times bestsellerLetters to My Palestinian Neighbor, considered the trope a transmutation of an archaic dehumanizing motif of Jews:[237]
The deepest source of anti-Israel animus is the symbolization of theJew as embodiment of evil. Thesatanic Jew has been replaced by the satanic Jewish state [...] The end of the post-Holocaust era is expressed most starkly in the inversion of the Holocaust [...] The Jew-as-Nazi is the endpoint of politicalsupersessionism:[238] Not only have we forfeited our identity as "Israel," but we've assumed the identity ofour worst enemy.
Nevertheless, it is notable thatCold Warcommunist regimes, including the Soviet Union and itspuppet state in Poland, had an often neglected history ofpersecuting theirJewish subjectsbased on "anti-Zionism".[239][240]
Exploiting thepre-existing racial tension between Black and Jewish Americans,[241] antisemites have exaggerated Jews' role in theAtlantic slave trade in an attempt todemonize them in the eyes ofBlack Americans.[242] The belief that Jews "orchestrated" the Atlantic slave trade is the centraltenet of the AmericanIslamisthate groupNation of Islam (NOI),[243][244] led byLouis Farrakhan.[245] A number of historians, includingSaul S. Friedman, conducted research into the matter. Friedman published the bookJews and the American Slave Trade to summarise his findings, concluding that Jewish involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was negligible, thereby disproving the rumour.[246] Also, in 1995, theAmerican Historical Association (AHA) explicitly condemned "any statement alleging that Jews played a disproportionate role in the Atlantic slave trade".[247][full citation needed]
In August 2009, an article in the Swedish tabloidAftonbladet accused Israeli troops of harvesting organs from Palestinians who died in their custody.[248][better source needed] Henrik Bredberg wrote in the rival newspaperSydsvenskan: "Donald Boström publicized a variant of an anti-Semitic classic, the Jew who abducts children and steals their blood."[249] In a video on their website,Time magazine quoted the 2009 SwedishAftonbladet's unbacked variant of the classic antisemiticblood libel accusation as fact and retracted[250] the allegations that Israeli soldiers had harvested and sold Palestinian organs in 2009 within hours on 24 August 2014 after a denouncing report fromHonestReporting came out.[251]
In December 2009, Israel'sChannel 2 published an interview withYehuda Hiss, the former chief pathologist atL. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine, where he accused workers at the forensic institute of taking skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from deceased Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers without permission in the 1990s. Hiss was dismissed as head ofAbu Kabir in 2004 after discovery of the use of organs.[252] Israeli officials acknowledged that isolated incidents had taken place, but the vast majority of cases involved Israeli citizens and no such incidents had occurred for a protracted period, while Hiss had already been removed from his position.[252] In a state inquiry report, they also found "no evidence that Hiss targeted Palestinians...The families of dead Israeli soldiers were among those who complained about Hiss's conduct."[253] Despite this, similar accusations are still made by different members of society, including the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.[254][255]
During the 2023–presentGaza war conspiracy theories were spread that theIDF was harvesting the organ of Palestinians.[256] There has been no evidence presented to substantiate this outside of claims made by theGaza Ministry of Health.[257] Despite this the claim has been spread and been used to incite anti-Jewish sentiments online.[253][258]
In the immediate aftermath of the2010 Haiti earthquake, Israel sent 120 staff, doctors and troops of theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) toPort-au-Prince.[259][260] The IDF set up afield hospital that performed 316 surgeries and delivered 16 babies.[261][262] On 18 January, an American "activist" calledT. West posted a YouTube video calling on Haitians to be wary of "personalities who are out for money", which he referred to as theIsraeli Defense Force (IDF).[263][264][265] To explain his allegations, West stated that in the past "the IDF [had] participated in stealing organ transplants of Palestinians and others", thus echoing theAftonbladet Israel controversy. West, who claimed to speak for a black-empowerment group called AfriSynergy Productions, stopped short of making more explicit accusations against the IDF's behaviour in Haiti but he noted that there was "little monitoring" of it in the quake's aftermath, insinuating thatorgan theft was at the very least a strong possibility. The Iranian state outletPress TV promoted the allegations.[264] In a speech on 22 January,AyatollahAhmad Khatami said "There have been news reports that the Zionist regime, in the case of the catastrophe of Haiti, and under the pretext of providing relief to the people of Haiti, is stealing the organs of these wretched people",[266] again without citing any evidence. On 27 January, a Syrian TV reporter described T. West's video as "document[ing] this heinous crime and [...] show[ing] Israelis engaged in stealing organs from the earthquake victims" (despite the fact that the video quite evidently does no such thing).[267]
On 1 February 2010, "The Palestine Telegraph" accused the IDF ofharvesting organs in Haiti for sale based on the said YouTube video by T. West whose material was re-used fromHezbollah'sAl-Manar TV.[268] In the United Kingdom, BaronessJenny Tonge was removed from her role as Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman as a result of an interview in which she suggested that an independent inquiry should be established.[269] Israeli media and Jewish groups fought back against the claims immediately.[265][270] In an interview with theYnetnews, West re-iterated his accusation of IDF's past organ theft and citedOperation Bid Rig as further "evidence" of Jewish "involvement" in organ trafficking.[265] TheAnti-Defamation League responded, labeling West's allegations as an antisemitic "Big Lie", while an author for theJewish Ledger referred to the rumors as a renewedblood libel.[270]
Some conspiracy theories hold that Jews or Israel played a key role in carrying out theSeptember 11 attacks. As per a paper published by theAnti-Defamation League (ADL), "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have not been accepted in mainstream circles in the U.S.", but "this is not the case in the Arab and Muslim world".[271] A claim that 4,000 Jewish employees skipped work at the WTC on 11 September has been widely reported and widely debunked. The number of Jews who died in the attacks – typically estimated at 400[272][273] – tracks closely with the proportion of Jews living in the New York area. Five Israelis died in the attack.[274]
In 2003, the ADL published a report which attacked "hateful conspiracy theories" that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Israelis and Jews, saying that they had the potential to "rationalize and fuel global anti-Semitism". The ADL's report found that "TheBig Lie has united the American far-right, white supremacists and the Arab and Muslim world". It also found that many of those were modern manifestations of theProtocols of the Elders of Zion.[275][276] The ADL has characterized theJeff Rense website as carrying antisemitic materials, such as "American Jews staged the 9/11 terrorist attacks for their own financial gain and to induce the American people to endorse wars of aggression andgenocide on the nations of the Middle East and the theft of their resources for the benefit of Israel".[277] Accusations of Jews masterminding the 9/11 attacks have also been made by theblack supremacistNew Black Panther Party (NBPP),[278][279] which have gained traction among anti-Zionist Black Americans.[280][281]
Various researchers noted theirrational contradictions in antisemitic tropes.Leon Pinsker noted as early as in 1882:
Friend and foe alike have tried to explain or to justify this hatred of the Jews by bringing all sorts of charges against them. They are alleged to havecrucified Jesus, to havedrunk the blood of Christians, to havepoisoned wells, to have takenusury, to haveexploited the peasant, and so on. These and a thousand and one other charges against an entire people have been proved groundless. They showed their own weakness in that they had to be trumped up wholesale in order to quiet the evil conscience of the Jew-baiters, to justify the condemnation of an entire nation, to demonstrate the necessity of burning the Jew, or rather the Jewish ghost, at the stake. He who tries to prove too much proves nothing at all. Though the Jews may justly be charged with many shortcomings, those shortcomings are, at all events, not such great vices, not such capital crimes, as to justify the condemnation of the entire people.[282]
In her 2003 book,The Holocaust and Antisemitism: A Short History, Jocelyn Hellig wrote:[283]
Michael Curtis has pointed out the many directly contradictory accusations, claiming that Jews are simultaneously:
- alienated from society but alsocosmopolitans
- isolated but also intermingled among other peoples
- individualist but also communal
- capitalist exploiters andinternational financiers but alsorevolutionary Marxists
- materialistic but alsopeople of the Book
- militant aggressors but also cowardlypacifists
- arrogant but also timid
- superstitious but also promoters ofsecularism
- upholders ofrigid law but also morally decadent
- achosen people but also aninferior race
- crucifiers of Christ but alsoinventors of Christianity
Curtis stated:[284]
no single group of people could feasibly have such a total monopoly on evil.
Gustavo Perednik wrote inJudeophobia:
The Jews were accused by the nationalists of being the creators of Communism; by the Communists of ruling Capitalism. If they live in non-Jewish countries, they are accused of double-loyalties; if they live in the Jewish country, of being racists. When they spend their money, they are reproached for being ostentatious; when they don't spend their money, of being avaricious. They are called rootless cosmopolitans or hardened chauvinists. If they assimilate, they are accused of being fifth-columnists, if they don't, of shutting themselves away.[285][286][page needed]
As per defense attorneyKenneth Stern, "Historically, Jews have not fared well around conspiracy theories. Such ideas fuelanti-Semitism. The myths that all Jews areresponsible for the death of Christ, orpoisoned wells, orkilled Christian children to bakematzos, or 'made up'the Holocaust, or plot to control the world, do not succeed each other; rather, the list of anti-Semitic canards gets longer."[287]Hannah Arendt, in analyzing antisemitism in the first part ofThe Origins of Totalitarianism, shared a joke:
An antisemite claimed that the Jews had caused the war; the reply was: Yes, the Jews and the bicyclists. Why the bicyclists? asked the one; the other replied: Why the Jews?
A person born Jewish who refutes Judaism may continue to assert aJewish identity, and if he or she does not convert to another religion, even religious Jews will recognize the person as a Jew.
Only a third ofJews living in the UK have faith in God, as described in the Bible, yet 'non-believers' make up more than half of paid-up synagogue memberships, according to data from the JPR National Jewish Identity Survey.
[In 2021] 12% ofU.S. Jewish adults say they attend religious services weekly or more often, compared with 27% of the general public and 38% ofU.S. Christians. And 21% of Jewish adults say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 41% of U.S. adults overall and 57% of Christians [...] There are even bigger gaps when it comes to belief in God. About a quarter of Jews (26%) say they believe in God as described in the Bible, compared with more than half of U.S. adults overall (56%) and eight-in-ten Christians. Jews are more likely than U.S. adults overall (50% vs. 33%) to say theybelieve in some other spiritual force or higher power, but not in God as described in the Bible. Jewish adults also are twice as likely as the general public to say they do not believe in any kind of higher power or spiritual force in the universe (22% vs. 10%).
With the racist and anti-Semitic theology ofChristian Identity as their justification, they blame theJewish Antichrist, or theZionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which rules in Washington, taking its orders frominternationalist Jews in Israel, theUnited Nations, and theFortune 500. Attracting old-line hate groups like theKu Klux Klan and inspiring newer ones like theAryan Nation Alliance [...] the militia andPatriot movements have helped to legitimize racist and anti-Semitic hate groups
Often cartoons embody more than one principal anti-Semitic submotif [...] In addition to the conspiracy motif, it also expresses a second one: that Israel or the Jews are subhuman. Kotek mentions that Jews are often represented as spiders, bloodthirsty vampires, and octopuses, and notes that he has not found any other nation besides the Jews being systematically depicted as vampires.
One of the most widely distributed antisemitic tracts in history isThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a book of canards which was authored in the nineteenth century and portrays Jews as conspiring to seek global dominance. Similarly, American-based racist groups frequently accused Jews of controlling both banks and public officials during the 20th century.
[...] Currently, according to census data, there are approximately 10,000 Jews living in Poland. At the same time, antisemitic attitudes, especially the belief in a Jewish conspiracy, are widespread among Polish society. What are the sources of such attitudes? [...] What are the psychological functions of it? [...]
The National States Rights Party and the California Noontide Press distributedThe Protocols during the 1970s and it is still hailed by representatives of right-wing militias: William Luther Pierce, author of theneofascist bestsellerThe Turner Diaries, for example, identifies the American state as a 'Zionist Occupation Government'.
With the racist and anti-Semitic theology ofChristian Identity as their justification, they blame theJewish Antichrist, or theZionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which rules in Washington, taking its orders frominternationalist Jews in Israel, theUnited Nations, and theFortune 500. Attracting old-line hate groups like theKu Klux Klan and inspiring newer ones like theAryan Nation Alliance [...] the militia andPatriot movements have helped to legitimize racist and anti-Semitic hate groups
vivid philosophy of White supremacy, including the belief that the United States is manipulated by foreign Jewish interests collectively known as the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG). With this conspiracy theory, the strain is 'explained' (for example, the Jews are behindmulticultural curricula), and the solution is presented:hate crimes andrace war.
The importance of Christian Identity (CI) in the context of bioterrorism is that it has been openly embraced by certain U.S. right-wing 'militia' and terrorist cells whose members have expressed interest in acquiring or utilizing pathogens and toxic chemical agents [...] as weapons against their opponents, including representatives of the 'Zionist Occupation Government' (ZOG) that they feel is controlled by 'satanic' Jews.
The Order, a faction of the Aryan Nations, seized national attention during the 1980s. The tightly organized racist and anti-Semitic group opposed the federal government, calling it the 'ZOG', or Zionist Occupation Government.
the neo-Nazis have proclaimed themselves a white/Aryan resistance movement fighting the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) and racial traitors.
Nation of Islam leaderLouis Farrakhan has once again provoked controversy bycomparing Jews totermites and calling Jewish people stupid in a speech he gave earlier this week at an event marking the 23rd anniversary of the so-called "Million Man March" in Washington, DC in 1995 [...] I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm anti-Termite [...] "To the members of the Jewish community that don't like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent," he continued [...] Farrakhan was referring to the strong reaction to antisemitic comments he made in a speech in May this year when he talked of "Satanic Jews who have infected the whole world with poison and deceit."
The suspect said: "They're thecause of all our wars. The children in Gaza [...] in Palestine [...] You have stolen our birthright [...] you haveenslaved us a people. You now corrupt the banks and you corrupt the world. [...] They are the ones who broughtrap music into our communities [...] tainting the minds of our children [...] they control the music scene. Now youhold the world ransom, because youcontrol all the money [...] We know that you'remurdering innocent men, women, and children in Gaza! Youcollect interest on the poor! How can people live with you who hold them captive!"
On Sunday, June 25, 1961, ten members of theAmerican Nazi Party arrived at a Nation of Islam rally in Washington, DC [...] According to historian William Schmaltz, Malcolm X delivered a speech [...] Rockwell contributed $20 [...] Overt anti-Semitism, it turned out, was something the two groups could bond over. While Rockwell pushed his hatred of Jews to frothy extremes, Muhammad backed a range of racist theories, including the hoax that the Jews had financed the slave trade.
The New Black Panther Party is a virulently racist and antisemitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers.
During the scuffle, a member of the entourage wearing a New Black Panther Party pin shouted expletives at the media, including calling them "crackers" and saying, "You got what you damn wanted. You got your Uncle Tom, now go put your cameras on him," referring to Hank Johnson, an African American candidate who defeated McKinney. "You ain't in Israel and this ain't no Lebanese people, so back up," he continued. "Gonna get your Jewish [expletive]... (inaudible)...."
The use of the term "tentacles" echoes a Nazi-era cartoon depicting Jewish people as an octopus with tentacles reaching across the globe..."Jenny Leong wants to silenceJewish Australians and to remove any Jewish influence inpolitics, the arts and philanthropy. She believes Jewish Australians have no place in our national life. This is the Greens."
Until the party moves past binary thinking and acknowledges the complexity of the Middle-East, the Greens will continue to lose the Jews who believed in it.
Local Jewish community leader says Greens party member Jenny Leong 'plumbing new depths'; New South Wales legislator maintains Israel is guilty of apartheid and genocide in Gaza
Much like dual loyalty, globalist is used to promote the antisemitic conspiracy that Jewish people do not have allegiance to their countries of origin [...] but to some worldwide order [...] that will enhance their control over the world's banks, governments, and media [...] The idea of a Jewish globalist was embedded in the core ideology of Nazism. Hitler often portrayed Jews as "international elements" who "conduct their business everywhere," posing a threat to all people who are "bounded to their soil, to the Fatherland."
Later on, Masaryk repeated the same story, only instead of using 'partly managed' he used the phrase 'a great influence on newspapers in all the Allied countries'. The great philosopher and humanist Masaryk was still using the same anti-Semitic trope found at the bottom of all anti-Jewish accusations.
Anti-racist activist Tim Wise once rebutted the trope,
'Of course, in keeping with the logic of anti-Jewish bigots, perhaps one should ask the following: If media or financial wrongdoing is Jewish inspired [...] should the depredations of white Christian-dominated industries (like the tobacco or automobile industries) be viewed as examples of white Christian malfeasance? After all, 400,000 people per year die because of smoking-related illnesses, and tobacco companies withheld information on the cancerous properties of their products. [...] Is their race, religion or ethnic culture relevant to their misdeeds? If not, why is it suddenly relevant when the executives in question are Jewish?'
Financial oppression of Jews tended to occur in areas where they were most disliked, and if Jews reacted by concentrating on moneylending to gentiles, the unpopularity – and so, of course, the pressure – would increase [...] Christians [...] condemned interest-taking [...] and from 1179 those who practised it wereexcommunicated [...] Christians also imposed the harshest financial burdens on Jews. Jews reacted by engaging in the one business where Christian laws actually discriminated in their favour, and so became identified with the hated trade of moneylending.
Here anti-communism merged with antisemitism as concepts such as Polishżydokomuna (Judaeo-Communism) suggest.
Antisemites have decried this certification as a 'kosher tax' that powerful Jews have enlisted governments to collect on their behalf; others have alleged that greedy rabbis threaten businesses with a Jewish boycott unless they accept their fee-based kosher certification.
Media Bypass, for one, offered a story about a 'Kosher Nostra scam', in which 'major food companies throughout America actually pay a Jewish Tax amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars per year in order to receive protection' against Jewish boycotts. These 'elaborate extortion schemes' are coordinated, alleges writer Ernesto Cienfuegos, by 'Rabbinical Councils that are set up, not just in the U.S. but in other western countries as well'.
Anti-Semites have advanced 'the libel of the kosher tax' to claim consumers are paying an extra tax on products that carry kosher certification.
The dark side of this rather uneventful marketing fact is that some anti-Jewish hate groups have developed a bizarre and baseless theory that there is a 'kosher tax' levied on food, a kind of Jewish conspiracy to extort money from the population at large.
Atiqul Hoque, the first Muslim mayor of Salisbury, accused of making offensive comments on social media
John the Golden-Throat (a.k.a. Chrysostom), ascended the pulpit in 347 CE where he began the first of eight sermons in a series titled,Adversus Judaeos; in English,Against The Jews...Chrysostom began his diatribe against all Jews by attacking Christians who celebratedJewish holy days honoring the sameGod asChristianity, agreeing to disagree aboutJesus. "We must first root this ailment out," he said, "and then take thought of matters outside. We must first cure our own." They are sick, he said, "with theJudaizing disease...deserving stronger condemnation than any Jew.
Modern antisemitism is informed by concepts articulated more than 1,600 years ago by John Chrysostom, anearly father of the Christian Church. While a direct causal lineage is hard to establish, Chrysostom's influence on historical and modern antisemitism is well-documented. Chrysostom articulated several key tropes of antisemitic ideology, including the belief that Jewish people are "schemers" and the belief that they engage in human sacrifice. He also introduced dehumanizing language that foreshadowed the genocidal rhetoric of the Nazis who citedJohn Chrysostom as a historical source legitimizing theirbigotry. Chrysostom is still cited by antisemitic extremists online and offline on a daily basis.
Finally, two points are repudiated which in the past were the roots of persecution: the accusation that the Jewish people were collectively and forever responsible for the death of Christ (the so-called deicide) and anti-Semitism.
For "radical traditionalist" Catholics, antisemitism is an inextricable part of their theology. They subscribe to an ideology that is rejected by the Vatican and some 70 million mainstream American Catholics.
[...] we order that Jews seized upon such a silly pretext be freed from imprisonment and that they shall not be arrested henceforth on such a miserable pretext, unless – which we do not believe – they be caught in the commission of the crime.
The Jewish people are used to lies being spread about them. Nearly a millennium ago, the first of manyblood libels accusing the Jews of murdering gentile children to consume their blood emerged. This was joined by accusations that Jews committed 'host desecration,' the supposed mistreatment of Communion Bread, and the accusation that Jews poisoned wells causing the Black Death.
Hebrew Christian,Jewish Christian,Jew for Jesus, Messianic Jew, Fulfilled Jew. The name may have changed over the course of time, but all of the names reflect the same phenomenon: one who asserts that s/he is straddling the theological fence betweenJudaism andChristianity, but in truth is firmly on the Christian side ... we must affirm as did theIsraeli Supreme Court in the well-known Brother Daniel case that to adopt Christianity is to have crossed the line out of the Jewish community.
Missionary Impossible, an imaginative video and curriculum guide for teachers, educators, and rabbis to teach Jewish youth how to recognize and respond to "Jews-for-Jesus", "Messianic Jews", and other Christian proselytizers, has been produced by six rabbinic students atHebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion'sCincinnati School. The students created the video as a tool for teaching why Jewish college and high school youth and Jews in intermarried couples are primary targets of Christian missionaries.
The essential difference between Jews and Christians is that Christians accept Jesus as messiah and personal savior. Jesus is not part of Jewish theology. Amongst Jews, Jesus is not considered a divine being.
What is ALEPH's position on so called messianic Judaism? ALEPH has a policy of respect for other spiritual traditions, but objects to deceptive practices and will not collaborate with denominations which actively target Jews for recruitment. Our position on so-called "Messianic Judaism" is that it is Christianity and its proponents would be more honest to call it that.
One of the more alarming trends in antisemitic activity inCanada in 1998 was the growing number of incidents involving messianic organizations posing as "synagogues". These missionizing organizations are in fact evangelical Christian proselytizing groups, whose purpose is specifically to target members of the Jewish community for conversion. They fraudulently represent themselves as Jews, and these so-called synagogues are elaborately disguised Christian churches.
'Messianic Jewish' sects, by their belief inJesus asMessiah, as one of atrinity, as "the son of God," and as the one who leads tosalvation, have...become a Christian sect in everything but name...It must be remembered that the very origin of these groups is in the missionary activity of Christianity. The first and most well-known of them, 'Jews for Jesus,' was...created in the 1970's sponsored by Protestant missionaries. Other groups, calling themselves 'Messianic Jews,' followed.
Born to Jewish parents in theAmerican Midwest during thedepression years, Martin "Moishe" Rosen converted to Christianity when he was 21, became a Baptist minister and foundedJews for Jesus [...] seeking to convert Jews to Christianity, however, he and the group have been vociferously criticised by mainstream Jewish organisations, which denounce the organisation as "cultist", consider it a threat to the Jewish faith and have described its aims as "spiritual genocide". Many Christian organisations, too, are highly critical, saying the evangelical zeal of Jews for Jesus has crossed the line by seeking to destroy the Jewish faith rather than working with it.
The Jew hatred of Black Israelites, the Nation of Islam and their supporters is similarly based on thetheft of Jewish identity. Both the Nation of Islam and Black Israelites insist that the Jews are the "spawn of Satan." The true Jews, they insist, are American blacks [...] The Black Israelites were marching in support for Brooklyn Nets starKyrie Irving, who was suspended from the NBA for...recommended an anti-Semitic film that [...] denies the Holocaust...The storm that arose among black anti-Semites in response to Irving's suspension makes clear just how central antisemitism is not only in the narrative of the Black Israelites, but in the lives of those who either identify as Black Israelites or ascribe to their fabrication of black history in America.
Some, but not all, [Black Hebrew Israelites] are outspoken anti-Semites and racists.
1349 The Black Death massacres swept across Europe [...] The Jews were savagely attacked and massacred, by sometimes hysterical mobs—normal social order had [...]
After theestablishment of Israel,some hostile Arab officials blamed Israel and the Jews for spreading AIDS [...]Hamas have spread the lie that the Zionists use AIDS-infected women to lure Arab leaders to their doom. Islamists and white supremacists are associating COVID-19 with Jews though, typically, they are using the more acceptabledog-whistle code word 'Zionist' as a stand-in for 'Jew'.
Palestinian Media Watch has published a long list ofcontemporary Palestinian mutations of the ancient poison libel. These include the accusation that Israel spread AIDS within the Palestinian community [...] claims that doctors have been paid to spread disease among Palestinians. This echoes Stalin's Soviet Union, whereJewish doctors were arrested and indicted on the accusation that they planned to poison Stalin and the Soviet leadership.
Click around some more, and you will learn that a Rothschild had impregnated Hitler's grandmother, that theRothschilds had manufactured both AIDS and COVID [...]
Their seven-page letter [...] accused Jews of carrying out ritual killings, controlling Russian and international capital, inciting ethnic strife in Russia, and staging hate crimes against themselves
The results were not made public, ostensibly to 'spare Jewish feelings'. The truth was that the census disproved the accusations: 80% served on the front lines.
The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II.
Before discussing how Holocaust denial constitutes a conspiracy theory, and how the theory is distinctly American, it is important to understand what is meant by the term 'Holocaust denial'. Holocaust deniers, or 'revisionists', as they call themselves, question all three major points of definition of the Nazi Holocaust. First, they contend that, while mass murders of Jews did occur (although they dispute both the intentionality of such murders as well as the supposed deservedness of these killings), there was no official Nazi policy to murder Jews. Second, and perhaps most prominently, they contend that there were no homicidal gas chambers, particularly at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where mainstream historians believe over 1 million Jews were murdered, primarily in gas chambers. And third, Holocaust deniers contend that the death toll of European Jews during World War II was well below 6 million. Deniers float numbers anywhere between 300,000 and 1.5 million, as a general rule.
In part III we directly address the three major foundations upon which Holocaust denial rests, including [...] the claim that gas chambers and crematoria were used not for mass extermination but rather for delousing clothing and disposing of people who died of disease and overwork [...] the claim that the six million figure is an exaggeration by an order of magnitude—that about six hundred thousand, not six million, died at the hands of the Nazis [...] the claim that there was no intention on the part of the Nazis to exterminate European Jewry and that the Holocaust was nothing more than the unfortunate by-product of the vicissitudes of war.
Unlike Wikipedia in other languages, the Croatian version refers to the WWIIJasenovac concentration camp as a "collection camp" – as well as playing downfascist crimes and ignoring right-wingers' controversies.
A recent probe by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia reveals majorhistorical revisionism byfar-rightforces in itsCroatian andSerbian versions. But it also exposes the dangerous overlap betweennationalism anddisinformation online
A German court sentenced Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf to two and a half years in prison forinciting racial hatred in publications and Web sites which 'systematically' called into question the Nazi genocide.
Oct. 7 shattered Israelis' faith that the state would protect them and shook American Jewry's sense of full social acceptance – but there is a way forward.
In the 1970s the rulers of the USSR launched a sustained'anti-Zionist' campaign, in fact anti-semitic [...] much of what many British and international leftists [...] say about Israel is an indirect and unwitting copy of the Stalinists' efforts at constructing a Marxist-sounding gloss on old anti-semitic themes [...] an anti-semitic show-trial was due to be staged, in which five Jewish doctors from the Kremlin's own hospital were to face charges of poisoning and plotting.
One reason why "cosmopolitan" is an unnerving term is that it was the key to an attempt by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to purge the culture of dissident voices [...] many of these "cosmopolitans" were Jewish, and official Soviet propaganda [...] devoted significant energy into "unmasking" the Jewish identities of writers who published under pseudonyms.
ButPoland's tiny Jewish population diminished even further in 1968, when the communist government forced thousands to leave the country in an anti-Semitic purge [...]Scapegoating the Jews was a tried-and-true tactic used by leadersfor millennia, and it worked just as the communists [...] After Israel's victory over its Arab neighbors in 1967'sSix-Day War, Poland's communist party leaderWładysław Gomułka spoke out against a "fifth column" of Polish Jews, in what became known as the "Zionist" speech – evoking a wave of anti-Semitism...some 13,000 Polish Jews who were given a one-way ticket out of his country.
Widespread concern over anti-black racism has led some to regurgitate an old lie: that Jews were dominant in the slave trade
The 4,000 figure apparently came from an article entitled 'Hundreds of Israelis missing in WTC attack' which appeared in the September 12th internet edition of the Jerusalem Post. It stated, 'The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks.'
It felt like two sides of my identity were being pitted against each other [...] a prime example is the 'Israel did 9/11' conspiracy theory, or the idea that 'Zionists control the world'. Therefore, when BLM UK said "British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism" it immediately set off alarm bells in my head; 'gagged' by whom? If someone is being 'gagged' there must be an omnipotent 'gagger'. Then, when you ask that question [...] it was playing into the old trope that Jews control the media and global politics.
Black nationalists—united in their belief that Jews and Israel are to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks [...] TheNOI, led by longtime leaderLouis Farrakhan, peddles numerous antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories, including blaming Jews and Zionists for the 9/11 terrorist attacks by claiming that 9/11 was a false flag operation designed to help Israel and provoke a "war on Islam."
