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.
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, some of which also feature the denial or trivialization of historical atrocities against Jews.[6] These tropes have lead to pogroms, genocides, persecutions and systemic racism for Jews throughout history.[7] [8] 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.[9] 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). Since the 20th century, antisemitic libels' usage has been documented among groups that self-identify as "anti-Zionists".[10] [11]
Most contemporary tropes feature the denial or trivialization of anti-Jewish atrocities, especially the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust, or of the Jewish exodus from Muslim countries. 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.[12] [13] The most recent example is the denial or trivialization of the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, with the victims overwhelmingly Jewish, including several Holocaust survivors.