Accidental Antisemites?: The Unwitting Authors of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'

• In Event: Seeing the Enemy in the "Other": Visions of Conspiracy and Treachery among Russians, Poles, and Jews

Abstract

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is often characterized as the most noxious expression of
Jew-hatred in history. But The Protocols, a compendium of several previously published texts, borrows from many writings that were not antisemitic in nature. Other texts that eventually found their way into The Protocols were written by authors who appear to have been “antisemites by convenience”: individuals who never showed any interest in the “Jewish question" until writing antisemitic literature became a lucrative industry. This paper examines two case studies of unwitting contributors to The Protocols, whose writings were later incorporated into the text without their knowledge. It will ask how the story of hatred and conspiracy changes when we think about late nineteenth-century antisemitism not only as an ideology, but also as a means of self-promotion and a road to fame and riches.

Author

• Faith C. Hillis, U of Chicago