When an Old Disease Meets a New Illness: The Virus of Antisemitism during the Covid-19 Pandemic
When an Old Disease Meets a New Illness: The Virus of Antisemitism during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Hate Speech against Jews, Conspiracy, and Holocaust Denial in a New Phase

Summary/Abstract: During the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers and observers from various social fields noted a qualitative and quantitative increase in the most diverse antisemitic reactions. The history of antisemitism provides a solid explanation for this phenomenon. The social and economic crises and the epidemics – particularly the plague epidemic of the 14th century – show that societies had a violent reaction and blamed the Jews for the unwanted effects hard to explain under those circumstances. An overview of historical facts from open and public sources regarding these conspiracy theories and their violent outcomes makes up the former part of this paper. The latter part focuses on the antisemitic discourse and the multiplication of conspiratorial reactions during the Covid-19 pandemic and concludes the existence of three stances within this pattern, namely hate speech against the Jews, the Jewish conspiracy to rule the world and get rich, and Holocaust denial or trivialisation. Numerous reports, studies, research, and scientific papers noted the increase in antisemitism against the pandemic backdrop. They represented resources for the qualitative analysis in this paper’s latter part. The primary conclusion shows that – in the pandemic context and through social media – the antisemitic discourse and acts increased significantly, without adding any novelty or depth to the conspiratorial ideas.

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