Theinternational Jewish conspiracy or theworld Jewish conspiracy is anantisemitic trope that has been described as "one of the most widespread and long-runningconspiracy theories".[1] Although it typically claims that a malevolent, usually globalJewish circle, referred to asInternational Jewry, conspires forworld domination, the theory's content is extremely variable, facilitating its wide distribution and long-standing persistence.[1] It was popularized especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by the antisemitic fabricated textThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Among the beliefs that posit an international Jewish conspiracy areJewish Bolshevism,Cultural Marxism,[2]Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory,White genocide conspiracy theory andHolocaust denial. The Nazi leadership'sbelief in an international Jewish conspiracy that it blamed for starting World War II and controlling theAllied powers was key to their decision to launch theFinal Solution, which culminated inthe Holocaust.
Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination can be traced back to the thirteenth century, but increased in the second half of the nineteenth century under the influence of writers such asFrederick van Millingen, anOttoman Army officer who wroteThe Conquest of the World by the Jews in 1873, andHermann Goedsche, a Prussianagent provocateur promoting a new ideological antisemitism. The invention of the newspaper invited the new accusation that Jews controlled the press.[3] Goedsche's novelBiarritz was plagiarized in the antisemitic forgeryThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion published at the turn of the twentieth century.[4]The Protocols appeared in print in theRussian Empire as early as 1903, published as a series of articles inZnamya, aBlack Hundreds newspaper.[5][6] The forgery was a creation of theOkhrana secret police.[7] TheProtocols popularized the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy such that this belief became essential to modern antisemitism.[8] According toArmin Pfahl-Traughber, theProtocols are "the most significant document for propagating the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy".[4]
Belief in this conspiracy increased following theRussian Revolution, spread at first by frustratedTsarist exiles.[6] English conspiracy theoristNesta Webster recycled the olderIlluminati conspiracy theories with a new emphasis on the role of Jews to explain the revolution.[9] In the second half of the twentieth century, as overt antisemitism became increasingly unacceptable, many conspiracists found detours to avoid explicitly referencing Jews while retaining conspiracy theories descended from the Protocols and earlier beliefs of a Jewish world conspiracy.[10] TheJudeo-Masonic conspiracy theory asserts thatFreemasons are the agents of an international Jewish conspiracy.[11]Holocaust denial presupposes the existence of a massive Jewish conspiracy that (according to Holocaust deniers) perpetrated the biggest hoax in history in order to scam money out of Germany and found the state of Israel. This conspiracy may be present either implicitly or explicitly in Holocaust denying works.[12][13] As of the 1970s, the expressionZionist Occupation Government (ZOG) has been used by antisemites to refer to the supposed Jewish control overWestern countries.[14][15]
Some Chinese people believe that Jews secretly rule the world and arebusiness-minded.[16] Hongbing Song, aChinese American IT consultant and amateur historian, published theCurrency Wars series, believingJewish financiers have controlled the international banking systems since the era ofNapoleon. Song also says in his book that the key functions of theFederal Reserve were ultimately controlled by five private banks, includingCitibank, all of which maintained "close ties" with theRothschild family, who he said led to the1997 financial crisis. The book became a bestseller and even has been read by some high-ranking Chinese officials.[17][18]
In his first recorded political speech in 1919,Adolf Hitler claimed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy plotting to weaken theAryan race and Germany.[19]
In documenting the appearance of fascism from the end of WWI to end of WWII, the historian Michael Kellogg noted that adherents of the "sinister world-wide Jewish" conspiracy theory included monarchist emigres who formed theAufbau Vereinigung, a conspiratorial anti-Semitic group that sought to re-establish a Tsar in Russia while perpetrating right-wing terrorism in Germany. The Aufbau cooperated with, and included as members, early German Nazis such asMax Erwin von Scheubner-Richter. The group, with its emphasis on claiming aProtocols-like myth, would influence the ideologies of Hitler andAlfred Rosenberg, mainly from 1918 to 1923, when Scheubner-Richter was killed by German police officers during theBeer Hall Putsch.[20][21]
The leaders ofNazi Germany believed thatWorld War II was a conflict pitting Germany against a massive conspiracy secretly engineered by Jews and fronted by theAllies. According to this conspiracy theory,Franklin D. Roosevelt,Winston Churchill, andJoseph Stalin were merely puppets for the Jews.[22]Nazi propaganda repeatedly accused "International Jewry" of starting and extending the war and plotting the extermination of Germany.[23] Hitler and other Nazi leaders repeatedly stated that they would "exterminate" Jews before the Jews had a chance to enact this alleged plot.[24] Nazi propagandists drew on earlier Jewish conspiracy tropes and updatedThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion with prominent individuals from Europe and North America.[25] According to historianJeffrey Herf, it was the Nazis' conspiratorial beliefs about Jews, rather than older antisemitic beliefs, that caused them to resort to extreme anti-Jewish violence. "The desire for a Final Solution to the Jewish question was inseparable from the Nazis’ view of the Jews as an internationally organized political power that was playing a decisive role in the events of World War II."[26]
Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 under the pretext of fightingJudeo-Bolshevism. By August 1941,Nazi propaganda was already making radical assertions suggesting a global war against Jews. American entry into World War II prompted Nazi ideologues to plunge into further extremism, who claimed that an international coalition ofcommunism andcapitalism, led by a sinister "Jewish world conspiracy" were seeking the destruction ofAryan race. Radicalization ofanti-semitic discourse went hand in hand withNazi Germany's intensification of anti-Jewish persecutions andgenocide.[27]
According to historianJeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the purported international Jewish conspiracy to answer "such seemingly difficult questions as, Why did Britain fight on in 1940 rather than negotiate? Why was it likely that the Soviet regime would collapse like a house of cards following the German invasion of June 1941? Why did Franklin Roosevelt oppose Hitler? Why did the anti-Hitler coalition remain intact as the Red Army continued to push toward Central Europe after spring 1943?"[25] Nazi belief in a powerful, international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings of world affairs was not dispelled by the ease with which the German Jewish community was expropriated and forced into exile.[28]
Former Malaysian prime ministerMahathir Mohamad has repeatedly asserted that Jews control the world by proxy.[29]
In 2007, the bestselling book in Turkey wasMusa'nın Çocukları: Tayyip ve Emine (The Children of Moses: Tayyip and Emine) byErgün Poyraz. Poyraz claims that there is an international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings behind the world, including installingRecep Tayyip Erdoğan as prime minister of Turkey.[30]
InThe International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, American industrialistHenry Ford largely recycled theProtocols and did more than any other American to promote them.[31][32] During theFirst Red Scare, United States Congress investigated the veracity of theProtocols.[33]The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were well-received by some conservative evangelicals in the 1920s and 1930s.[34] However, even those evangelicals who believed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy against Christianity did not consider themselves anti-Jewish and hoped that Jews would convert to Christianity.[35] By the end of the 1930s, the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy came to be discredited in conservative evangelical circles as it was seen as inconsistent with world events, especially the rise of Nazi Germany.[36]
In the early 1990s, Christian televangelistPat Robertson's bookThe New World Order was criticized byThe New York Review of Books, the Anti-Defamation League, and others for his apparent promotion of the conspiracy. Robertson was said to have "relied on the work of Nesta Webster andEustace Mullins".[37][38]
In 2020, pro-Trump campaigner Mary Ann Mendoza was removed from the schedule of theRepublican National Convention after she retweeted a thread asserting a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.[19] In 2021, it was reported that almost half ofQAnon followers believed that there is a Jewish plot to take over the world.[39]
