ABSTRACT
Perhaps one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories is about an alleged Jewish plot to undermine Christianity and dominate the world (Taguieff 2007). This recurring myth has appeared in various guises throughout history. In medieval Western Europe, the outbreak of the plague known as the Black Death led to the emergence of allegations that the deaths and suffering were caused by a Jewish plot to poison wells used by Christians. The original story featured lepers as the main villains, but, as it spread, Jews became associated with it. The popular wrath that was thus ignited led to pogroms that had the cumulative effect of eradicating much of the Jewish population of Western Europe (Kelly 2005). Eastern Europe and Russia were comparatively less affected by the Black Death. But that region had its own history of virulent Judeophobia, which originated in the Greek orthodox tradition, spreading from Byzantium with Christianity. It was in the court of Tsar Nicolas II that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first commissioned (Poliakov 1987). The document was widely translated and spread in many countries (notably, the American industrialist Henry Ford printed and distributed more than half a million copies of the Americanised version of the Protocols; Singerman 1981).
