Outline
The Origins of the Myth
1. Early Beginnings of Jewish Myths
A. 2nd century following Christ to first crusades
1. Church and Synagogue competed for converts in the Hellenistic world
a. Portrayed as habitual murders
b. People that were possessed by an evil spirit
2. Militant period of Roman Catholic Church\
a. Jews presented as children of the devil
b. Talk of a secret Jewish government began
3. Middle ages Jews had no legal rights
2. After the French Revolution
A. New opportunities to Jews in Europe
B. Jews became modern
1. Industry, commerce, and journalism
2. Some Jews became very wealthy
3. New political form of anti-Semitism
A. Ways Aristocracy and clergy portrayed Jews
1. Liberalism
2. Secularism
3. Democracy
B. Ultra-conservatives politicians began using anti-semitism
C. Persecution-mania resembles witch-mania
4. Writings leading up to the Protocols
A. 1797 Abbe Barruel
1. His early writings lacked imagination
2. Blamed French Revolution on the Freemasons but not the Jews
3. Received a letter in 1806
4. Earliest in the series of anti-semitic writings that would culminate the Protocols
5. Letters were from J.B. Simonini
B. Simonini’s Letter
1. Freemasons and Illuminati were founded by Jews
2. In Italy more than 800 ecclesiastics were Jews
3. Bishops and Cardinals were included in the 800 and soon the Pope
4. In Spain Jews were pretending to be Christians
5. Jews were planning to buy all the land
6. Jews would turn all churches into synagogues
7. Christians would be subject to a state of absolute slavery
C. The real relationship between Jews and Freemasons
1. 18th century there was a lot of hostility towards the Jews
2. Freemason lodges would not accept Jews
3. Jews had benefited from the French Revolution
5. 1806 Napoleon’s assembly of “the Great Sanhedrin”
A. Assembly of prominent French Jews
1. Wanted to discuss money and make sure they were submissive to him
2. “the Great Sanhedrin” was named after the Supreme Jewish Court of antiquity
B. Belief in a secret Jewish government
C. Napoleon’s enemies now believed he was the antichrist
6. Barruel’s new thinking after the “Sanhedrin”
A. The myth of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy
B. Wrote a manuscript before his death in 1820 tying Jews to the Freemasons
C. Manuscript was not popular during the first half of the 19th century
7. The reappearance of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy
A. 1850 Germany
1. A weapon to fight nationalism, liberalism, democracy, and secularism
2.E.E. Ekert wrote against the Freemasons
3. Freemasons were said to be organizing revolutionary movements
4. No mention of the Jews
B. 1862 publication of the “A Berlin Freemason”
1. Not written by a Freemason
2. Written by a German Catholic
3. Periodical points towards the Jews
4. Freemasons are governed by the Jews
5. London and Rome, lodges are secretly run by Jews
8. The writings that would become the model for the “protocols”
A. Hermann Goedsche
1. in reaction to the revolutionary upheavals in 1848
2. Wrote letters to incriminate the democratic leader Benedic Waldeck
3. Wrote novels under the pseudonym of Sir John Retcliffe
4. A chapter called “ In the Jewish Cemetery” basis for anti-semitism
a. Chapter described a secret nocturnal meeting of Jews representing the 12 tribes of Israel
b. Jews will become princes in the world and others slaves
B. Germany and anti-Semitism
1. German national unity was achieved very late
2. Germans became abnormally empathetic in their nationalism
3. Both fostered anti-Semitism
4. The modern myth of the Jewish conspiracy not surprisingly started here
C. The fictional story is turned into a forged document
1. Russian anti-Semites
a. 1872
b. treated as an authentic record
c. published in St. Petersburg as fiction but had a basis of fact
2. Moscow
a. 1876
b. similar pamphlet appeared
c. In the Jewish Cemetery in Czech Prague
3. Odessa and Prague also published copies in 1880
4. Story appeared in France in 1881
5. The fake name Sir John Retcliffe was used as a heroic anti-Semite
6. Document is now known as the “Rabbi’s speech”
a. It was a speech given by a rabbi to a “secret Sanhedrin”
b. authenticity is guaranteed by well know Sir John Retcliffe
9. The Protocols
A. P.A. Krushevan
1. professional anti-Semite
2. Published the Protocols in his newspaper
3. The pamphlet was helping Russia liberate themselves from the Jews
10. Conclusion
A. Germany emerged as the leading producer of anti-Semitic propaganda
B. France and Russia borrowed a lot from Germany
C. The myth of the Jewish world-conspiracy and the secret Jewish government was a central theme in post war Germany.