FEBRUARY 3 • 2022 | 5

his books carries a preface 
by J.B. Stoner, a neo-Nazi 
convicted of the 1958 
bombing of Bethel Church in 
Birmingham, Alabama.
“The Jews are embarked 
upon a plan to conquer the 
world and to rule over all 
other races and nations,” it 
says. “By understanding the 
evil and aggressive nature of 
the Jew, we White Christians 
can better protect ourselves 
… It is our duty to publish 
this book for the benefit of the 
White Aryan Race in America 
and throughout the world,” it 
continues.

PROTOCOLS AND 
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
In the 20th century, the 
publication that did the most 
to disseminate the myth of a 
Jewish conspiracy to control 
the world was the forgery 
known as The Protocols of the 
Elders the Zion. 
 Described by the U.S. 
Holocaust Memorial Museum 
as “the most notorious 
and widely distributed 
antisemitic publication of 
modern times,” the work first 
appeared in Russia as part of 
a disinformation propaganda 
campaign by Russian 
monarchists to prop up the 
embattled Tsar Nicholas II. 
 Subsequently, the forgery 
went through numerous 
translations and adaptations 
reaching every corner of the 
globe. Its explosive allegations 
influence people to this day. 
The Protocols purport to be the 
minutes of late 19th-century 
meetings attended by world 
Jewish leaders, the “Elders of 
Zion,” keen to take over the 
world.
They set forth different 
stages of the supposed behind-

the-scenes Jewish plan for 
global conquest: everything 
from manipulating the 
economy and controlling the 
press to promoting liberalism 
and pornography. 
 They even articulate an 
ultimate goal: to re-establish 
the line of King David and 
anoint “the King of the Jews.” 
 The Protocols form a classic 
conspiracy theory. The work 
provides a compelling, easy-
to-understand explanation 
that connects a wide range of 
disparate phenomena roiling 
society. Nothing happens 
by accident, the Protocols 
and all conspiracy theories 
insist, and things seldom are 
what they seem. Conspiracy 
theorists believe that powerful 
controlling forces — in this 
case, the Jews — shape and 
manipulate events behind the 
scenes.

BELIEVING IMAGINARY 
CONSPIRACIES
Precisely because they offer 
a simple explanation — “the 
Jews are responsible” — and 
flatter believers into thinking 
they possess secret knowledge 
others lack, conspiracy 
theories like the Protocols 
are notoriously difficult to 
disprove. 
 After all, individual Jews, 
much like their non-Jewish 
counterparts, may well have 
engaged in some of the 
activities the Protocols and 
similar conspiracy theories 
describe. And the phenomena 
recounted — social, economic, 
political and cultural changes 
transforming the world — are 
certainly real enough. For 
many conspiracy-minded 
folks, that is usually validation 
enough. 
 Beyond the Protocols, a wide 

range of other conspiracy 
theories involving Jews have 
circulated over the past 
century. The great automaker 
Henry Ford, influenced 
in part by the Protocols of 
the Elders of Zion, devoted 
extensive resources in the 
1920s to proving that the 
“international Jew” was the 
“world’s foremost problem,” 
responsible for perceived ills 
that ranged, in his view, from 
urbanization to the modern 
music and dance that he 
hated. 
 Under intense economic 
and legal pressure, Ford 
publicly apologized in 1927 
“for resurrecting exploded 
fictions, for giving currency 
to … gross forgeries, and for 
contending that the Jews have 
been engaged in a conspiracy.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 Yet Ford’s The International 
Jew remains available for 
purchase around the world, 
and many still download it 
from the internet and take it 
seriously. 
 Conspiracy theorists 
targeted the Rothschilds, 
famed European Jewish 
bankers, as well. Niles Weekly 
Register, perhaps the most 
widely circulated magazine 
of its time, reported in 1835 
that “the descendants of 
Judah” held Europe “in the 
hollow of their hands.” It 
ascribed particular power to 
the Rothschild banking family 
which, it claimed, “govern 
a Christian world — not a 
cabinet moves without their 
advice.” 
 Almost 200 years later, 
echoes of the “Rothschild 
myth” live on in 
Congresswoman Marjorie 
Taylor Greene’s infamous 2018 
post alleging that Rothschild-
owned Jewish space lasers 

set California’s forest fires in 
order to clear out land for a 
lucrative high-speed rail line. 
 In recent years, George 
Soros, a Hungarian-born 
American billionaire investor 
and philanthropist of Jewish 
origin, has been blamed like 
the Rothschilds for a host of 
what the extreme far-right 
perceive to be society’s ills. 
These conspiracy theories 
falsely attribute to Soros the 
anti-Trump protests, refugee 
problems in Europe and the 
Black Lives Matter movement, 
among other trends.
Anti-Catholic, anti-
Masonic, anti-Mormon and 
anti-Muslim conspiracy 
theories have likewise 
attracted legions of followers 
worldwide. 
 In the Islamist circles from 
which Aafia Siddiqui and the 
gunman who took hostages in 
Colleyville sprang, however, 
the favorite conspiratorial 
target remains the Jews. 
Attacks on “Jews,” “Jewish 
power” and the supposed 
Zionist control of America are 
commonplace. 
 The reason has almost 
nothing to do with real 
Jews and a great deal to do 
with a phenomenon that 
historian David Brion Davis 
noticed some 60 years ago: 
In environments shaken by 
“bewildering social change,” 
people find “unity and 
meaning by conspiring against 
imaginary conspiracies.” 

Jonathan Sarna is a pre-eminent 

scholar of American Jewish history, 

modern Judaism and Israel studies. 

He is the Belle R. Braun Professor 

of American Jewish History and the 

director of Schusterman Center for 

Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

First published at Brandeis University’s 

The Jewish Experience.

