Wikipedia

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

antisemitic hoax text

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery published in 1903, which claimed the existence of a Jewish plot for world domination.[1] In 1921, British newspaper The Times proved that it was false, which had been plagiarized from the unrelated book The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu instead.[2]

First edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The front page of a 1912 edition with occult symbols.

Background

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The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was promoted by the Russian Empire to make the Bolsheviks look bad by equating them with Jews, who were accused of being a horrible group seeking the Empire's downfall.[1][3] After the White Russians lost the Russian Civil War to the Bolsheviks, some White Russian refugees brought the forgery to Europe.[4]

Influence

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Alfred Rosenberg, a Baltic German who became the Nazi Party's chief propagandist, co-opted the forgery's ideas into the Nazi propaganda.[4] Henry Ford, a well known American industrialist, sponsored the forgery's reprint in the United States and co-opted its ideas into his anti-Jewish text The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem,[4] while Barsalina, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, circulated copies of the forgery's Arab translation within his church.[4]

The subsequent Great Depression and Nazi rise to power in Germany made it more popular among commoners, many of whom already had anti-Jewish views, causing them to blame Jews for their hardship and bring the Nazi Party to power, which started WWII and the Holocaust.[4][5] The circulation of other translations beyond Germany also began.

 
A 1933 Swiss-German copy confiscated by the Basel police upon complaint by Dreyfus-Brodsky and Marcus Cohn on display in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.
 
1930 Spanish reprint of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Malcolm X, a famous Black American activist, believed in the text's content and introduced it to the Nation of Islam (NOI), circulating it among Black Americans and contributing to antisemitism, i.e. anti-Jewish views, within the community.[6][7][8] As per a 2016 survey by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 23% Black Americans held negative beliefs about Jews,[9] while a 2023 survey reportedly showed that one-eighth of Black Americans doubted whether the Holocaust really happened.[10]

Variants

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Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory

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"The Aryan breaks the chains of the Jew and the Freemason that held him captive", an 1897 satire by French journalist Augustin-Joseph Jacquet, later used by the Nazi-backed Vichy French regime (1940–44) in its propaganda.

A similar myth, rumored to have been made up by opponents of the French Revolution in 1789, was the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, claiming the existence of a secret Jewish–Freemason group controlling world affairs to harm humanity. The myth holds widespread appeal among antisemites worldwide and often appears in their propaganda, which tends to equate Jews with the Freemasons.[1][11]

Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory

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The International Jew: The World's Problem published in Henry Ford's newspaper The Dearborn Independent (1920),[12] an offshoot of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion giving rise to the ZOG conspiracy theory.

Moreover, the forgery's ideas have given rise to the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) conspiracy theory, accusing Jews of "controlling Western governments" for the interest of themselves and Israel.[13][14] This theory is popular among antisemites worldwide, especially Neo-Nazis, White supremacists, Black nationalists and Islamists.[15] Under this theory, Jews are also accused of "controlling" the media and music industry.[16][17]

At an anti-Israel rally in December 2023, Jenny Leong, an MP of the New South Wales who belongs to the Australian Greens, claimed the existence of an all-powerful "Jewish lobby" in Australia and compared its "influence" to "tentacles".[18][19]

Assessment

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In one of his books,[4] German-American Jewish historian Walter Laqueur said that the forgery was popular in Germany as it allowed German right-wingers to blame the WWI defeat on an "outside enemy" – the Jews[20] – to free themselves of their responsibility.[4]

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2
    • Boym, Svetlana (Spring 1999). "Conspiracy theories and literary ethics: Umberto Eco, Danilo Kis and The Protocols of Zion". Comparative Literature. 51 (2): 97–122. doi:10.2307/1771244. JSTOR 1771244.
    • "The Myth that Jews Control the World". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
    • S. Broschowitz, Michael (May 6, 2022). "The Violent Impact of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories: Examining the Jewish World Domination Narratives and History". Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Racialism and Jewish Conspiracies". The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Protocols of the Elders of Zion | Summary & Facts". Britannica. October 25, 2024. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
    • "Louis Farrakhan". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved October 27, 2024.
    • "Black Radicalism". SAPIR Journal. 2024. Retrieved October 27, 2024. Antisemitism runs deeper in the black radical tradition than many realize
  9. ↑ "A Survey about Attitudes towards Jews in America" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  10. ↑ Leonard, Ralph (December 10, 2023). "More than one in eight African Americans deny the Holocaust". UnHerd. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Sachar, Howard Morley (1993). A History of the Jews in America. Vintage Books. p. 311. ISBN 0679745300.
  13. ↑ "ZOG". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  14. ↑ Larsson, Stieg (7 January 2014). The Expo Files: Articles by the Crusading Journalist. London, England: Quercus. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-62365-065-0. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  15. ↑
    • Daniels, Jessie (1997). White Lies: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in White Supremacist Discourse. Abingdon-on-Thames, England: Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 0-415-91289-X.
    • Bronner, Stephen Eric (2000). A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 136.
    • Brasher, Brenda (2001). Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism. Abingdon-on-Thames, England: Routledge. p. 305.
    • Zickgraf, Ryan (April 24, 2024). "Meet the new Left, who think Hamas are good and that Swastikas are woke". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 27, 2024. The refusal to view political struggles as anything beyond 'good' and 'evil' has led progressives down a dark path
  16. ↑
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ S. Wistrich, Robert (1999). Demonizing the other: Antisemitism, racism and xenophobia (PDF). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-51619-8. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
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