Flora Cassen, associate professor of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies and of history, both in Arts & Sciences
As COVID-19 has swept around the globe, causing unprecedented levels of suffering and national shutdowns, the boards and websites of the dark web – that part of the internet intentionally hidden from mainstream search engines, maximized for anonymity and often a sanctuary for hate groups and criminal activity – have kept pace, filled up with conspiracy theories accusing the Jews of triggering the pandemic.
The discussions about Jews’ “responsibility” for the coronavirus are generally riffs on the storied theory of a global Jewish conspiracy for power and domination. Added to that are references to other anti-Semitic theories regarding Jews as poisoners and deliberate carriers of disease, Jews as inveterate economic profiteers and, inevitably, Holocaust denial. The newer element is the idea of coronavirus as a grand plan engineered by the Jews and China together.
Read the full piece in Haaretz.
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