On This Day in Jewish History: August 26th, 1903

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#onthisday, 1903, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were first published in Russia. This doctored piece would become the most notorious and widely-circulated antisemitic text of the modern era.

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Initially, The Protocols were serialized in Znamya (The Banner), a Russian newspaper, in a year that coincided with deadly pogroms throughout Ukraine and Bessarabia, most notably, in Kishinev where almost 50 Jews were murdered.

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The Protocols, organized as 24 chapters, are a fraudulent treatise purporting to be the minutes of a meeting of powerful Jews plotting global domination through control of the world economy, media and a plan to foment religious strife.

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The Protocols emerged in western Europe in the hands of anti-Bolshevik emigres seeking to link the Russian Revolution to an international Jewish conspiracy.

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In the American context, the ugly accusations of The Protocols were most decisively spread by automaker Henry Ford who, in 1920, drew upon them for a multi-part story, “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem” that ran in his newspaper The Dearborn Independent. (See post from June 30th)

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Ford published the serial in book form, placing a half-million copies into circulation. Hitler and Goebbels would find inspiration in Ford’s book.

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Indeed, the power of the hoax would remain despite its exposure as a fraud document in 1921 by The London Times. After being officially denounced by Switzerland in the 30s, the US Senate in the 60s and a Russian court in the 90s, the ideas rooted The Protocols sadly continue to inform anti-Jewish forces in the Middle East and neo-Nazi/white nationalist groups in the United States today.

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In the “share-first, check facts later” world we live in today, its imperative that we are aware of the dangers created by this document and how it continues to threaten Jews all over the world, 117 years after publication.

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Text Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-rdquo

Image Source: http://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/33d//projects/protzion/ProtFrenchCovs600pxw.jpg

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