This diary is offered for those seeking to expand their understanding of anti-Semitic tropes and canards. There are many more, but here are some of the most common, many of which are centuries old.
The action items here are two-fold: (1) inform ourselves so that we can be more aware and purposeful in choosing the words we use, especially when those words are used to criticize others, and especially when they’re leveled at an entire group and (2) to understand that certain words and turns-of-phrase can have different meanings and connotations depending on who they are directed at. Paraphrasing raptavio: It’s one thing to call GWB a monkey. It’s entirely something else to say that about BHO.
Dual loyalty – Ah, the accusation that touched off the most recent kerfuffle here. In the grand scheme of canards, this one is relatively new, only gaining widespread currency with the 1903 publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The accusation is that Jews are more loyal to world Jewry than to their own country. The founding of Israel has only accelerated the use of this accusation (and the comfort that many have with levying the charge). Similar accusations about Catholics (and Catholic politicians in particular) and their alleged primary loyalty to the Vatican have not been acceptable in polite, civilized speech for two generations, but the accusation against Jews persists.
The propagation of leftist ideology – Breathy invocations of George Soros or Tom Steyer are just a 21st century version of "Judeo-Bolshevism," that Nazi turn-of-phrase that served to unify leftist interests with Jewish ones. It’s had strong sway over the generations because it combines tropes involving alleged Jewish control or domination of finance, industry, and media with the slander of “powerful Jewish bankers/moneylenders” and the – gasp! – liberal and frequently humanist ideas and traditions that are pervasive in halakhic scholarship. How about this sort of thing:
[T]he Jews rule this world by proxy. . . . They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone, we must use our brains, also.
That screed was only 15 years ago. “Globalist” is the slander du jour. No doubt it will someday be replaced with another word that invokes the same meaning (and response). The Jew-as-leftist trope has fueled pogroms and massacres for ages, most infamously, of course, the Shoah.
The capitalist (money-loving) Jew – Seriously? Jews get blamed for Communism and then, the next thing you know, someone (probably the same guy!) is trying to pin the excesses of unregulated capitalism on you, too? Yep. This is how othering a people works: It’s all on you. Jews as capitalist exploiters and agents of international finance dates to at least the tossing of the moneychangers from the Temple (which, playing on another trope — the dirty Jew — is frequently referred to as a cleansing). Accusations of usury drove the expulsion of all Jewry from England in 1290. See how $teyer isn’t the same as Ke$ha?
Control of the media – More hits from the Protocols plus Henry Ford’s racist slanders yields this relatively recent, 20th century abomination. Whether it’s the press, Hollywood, the music business, … it’s all Jewish-controlled, right? And it must be that way to further world domination.
Plotting world domination – Combine “internationalist” or “globalist” plus some leftism plus a loyalty/allegiance problem plus control of the money and the media and — voilà! — you’ve got world conquest. Anyone who wants to take over the world must be bad, right?, so let’s go kill the Jews.
“Poisoned the well” – Long before the transmission of disease was understood scientifically, communities sought to explain why it had befallen them. Among the explanations was poisoned water and pinning it on the Jews fit neatly with the accepted and regular castigation of Jews as dirty, secretive, and plotting. The trope fueled the massacre of entire communities in the 14th century, including Mainz, whose 3000 Jewish inhabitants were butchered. The canard lives on today and is frequently combined with the Jew-as-capitalist trope: e.g., Jews own 95% of the pharmaceutical industry and train doctors to create new diseases so they can spread illness and make more money.
“Christ killer” – The trope of Jewish deicide has been around for a long time. See Matthew 27:24–25. The insult was so entwined in Christian culture that Vatican II – more than 50 years ago – expressly repudiated it. Despite being among the more incendiary anti-Semitic charges, it’s still a phrase I hear bandied about loosely. “Jokes,” dontchyaknow?
The Blood Libel – Despite the express prohibition against murder in the Decalogue and throughout the Torah, accusations of Jewish ritualistic murder — presumably in baking matzo (the unleavened Passover bread), despite cooking with blood also being expressly banned — touched off a thousand years ago and continue to persist. Think this is ancient history? Nope. Passover pogroms were carried out into the Twentieth Century.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.