Jewish figures | #TranslateHate
Jewish figures
theme \ 'joōiSH 'fi-gyərs \
: the use of public Jewish figures to spread antisemitic ideas about Jews as an overall group
WHY IT’S ANTISEMITIC:
Much like the age-old theme of blaming Jews for disasters across the world (see scapegoat), prominent Jewish figures are often the victim of antisemitic rhetoric that’s actually being pointed at all Jews.
By focusing attacks on a single person, antisemites create a coded language in which that person’s name or face becomes synonymous with dangerous antisemitic conspiracies or tropes. These can include everything from a Jewish plan for world domination to a Jewish puppet master who manipulates international events and creates social conflict for his own gain.
Modern examples of this include rumors that George Soros — a Hungarian-American of Jewish descent and wellknown billionaire — is paying members of a migrant “caravan” to march on U.S. borders (see Soros). Or when Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse is somehow linked to his Jewish identity, spreading the antisemitic trope of “Jewish sexual perversion.”
The Rothschilds, another prominent Jewish family, have even been blamed for bad weather, natural disasters, and creating “the concept of climate change” (see Rothschild).
