Antisemitic trope

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Antisemitic tropes, also known as antisemitic canards or antisemitic libels, are "sensational reports, misrepresentations or fabrications"[1] about Jews as an ethnicity or Judaism as a religion.[a]

Since the 2nd 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 lead to pogroms, genocides, persecutions and systemic racism for Jews throughout history.[9][10] Antisemitic tropes mainly evolved in monotheistic societies, whose religions were derived from Judaism, many of which were traceable to Christianity's early days. These tropes were mirrored by 7th-century Quranic claims that Jews were "visited with wrath from Allah" due to their supposed practice of usury and disbelief in His revelations.[11] In medieval Europe, antisemitic tropes were expanded in scope to justify mass persecutions and expulsions of Jews. Particularly, Jews were repeatedly massacred over accusations of causing epidemics and "ritually consuming" Christian babies' blood.

In the 19th century, lies 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 formed Adolf Hitler's worldview, caused WWII and the Holocaust, which killed at least 6 million Jews (67% pre-war European Jews).[6][12] Since the 20th century, antisemitic libels' usage has been documented among groups that self-identify as "anti-Zionists".[13][14]

Most contemporary tropes feature the denial or trivialization of anti-Jewish atrocities, especially the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust,[8][15] or of the Jewish 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 most recent example is the denial or trivialization of the October 7 massacres, with the victims overwhelmingly Jewish, including several Holocaust survivors.[19]

  1. ^ Julius, Anthony (2010). Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 67.
  2. ^ Feldman, Louis H. (1996). Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums. Leiden; New York: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10418-1.
  3. ^ "Analysis: The antisemitic libel is back again". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  4. ^ Teter, Magda (2021). "On the Continuities and Discontinuities of Anti-Jewish Libels". Antisemitism Studies. 5 (2): 370–400. ISSN 2474-1817.
  5. ^ "Translate Hate" (PDF). American Jewish Committee. October 2021.
  6. ^ a b Levy 2005, p. 55.
  7. ^ Rose, Emily M. (2 June 2022). Crusades, Blood Libels, and Popular Violence. Cambridge University Press. pp. 194–212. ISBN 978-1-108-49440-3. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b Goldberg 1982.
  9. ^ Brasher, Brenda (2001). Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism. Abingdon, England: Routledge. p. 305. With the racist and anti-Semitic theology of Christian Identity as their justification, they blame the Jewish Antichrist, or the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which rules in Washington, taking its orders from internationalist Jews in Israel, the United Nations, and the Fortune 500. Attracting old-line hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and inspiring newer ones like the Aryan Nation Alliance [...] the militia and Patriot movements have helped to legitimize racist and anti-Semitic hate groups
  10. ^ Zipperstein, Steven J. (2019). Pogrom: Kishinev and the tilt of history (First published as an Liveright paperback ed.). New York London: Liveright Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-1-63149-599-1.
  11. ^ Gerber, Jane (1986). Anti-Semitism and the Muslim World. Jewish Publications Society. p. 78. ISBN 0827602677.
  12. ^
  13. ^ Rosenfeld, Alvin H., ed. (2019). Anti-zionism and antisemitism: the dynamics of delegitimization. Studies in antisemitism. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-04002-2.
  14. ^ Wistrich, Robert S., ed. (1990). "Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism in the Contemporary World". SpringerLink. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-11262-3. ISBN 978-1-349-11264-7.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Assertions was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Webman, Esther (2022), "New Islamic Antisemitism, Mid-19th to the 21st Century", The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism, Cambridge University Press, pp. 430–447, doi:10.1017/9781108637725.029, ISBN 978-1-108-49440-3, retrieved 26 February 2024
  17. ^ ""Denial": how to deal with a conspiracy theory in the era of 'post-truth'". Cambridge University Press. 16 February 2017.
  18. ^ Doward, Jamie (22 January 2017). "New online generation takes up Holocaust denial". The Observer.
  19. ^ {{bulleted list| |"Countering the Denial and Distortion of the 10/7 Hamas Attack". American Jewish Committee. 28 December 2023. |"From Right to Left and In Between: Jew-hatred Across the Political Divide". U.S. Department of State. 21 February 2024. |"Hamas killing spree haunts Holocaust survivors in 'March of the Living'". Voice of America. 5 May 2024.


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