RESEARCH

B R I EFI N G

CORONAVIRUS AND
THE PLAGUE OF
ANTISEMITISM
Published by Community Security Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1042391) and Scotland (SC043612)
The text and illustrations may only be reproduced with prior permission of Community Security Trust, copyright © 2020

CONTENTS
Introduction .............................................................. 3 Jews are the primary spreaders of the virus
– ‘The Jew Flu’ ......................................................... 7
The virus is fake – it’s a Jewish conspiracy .... 5
Celebrating Jewish deaths ................................. 8
The virus is real
– but it’s still a Jewish conspiracy ..................... 6 Let’s spread it to the Jews
– the ‘Holocough’ ................................................... 9
 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism 3

INTRODUCTION

Antisemitism has often been compared to a virus,

but really it acts like a parasite: because whenever
there is a major crisis in the world, antisemites use
it to spread their hatred for Jews. No matter how
much genuine suffering there is, antisemites will
always react to it by blaming Jews, and then find a
way to spread their particular venom to others.

The COVID-19 pandemic that is currently

gripping the entire world is no exception. One
example is the phenomenon of coordinated
antisemitic ‘zoombombing’, whereby racists
and trolls invade virtual synagogue services and
other meetings that are held on Zoom and other
video conferencing sites to spread antisemitic This association of Jews with disease and
abuse. Another is the explosion of antisemitic infection is not original and draws on a long
conspiracy theories that began to populate history and deep-rooted antisemitic tropes. The
social media as soon as news emerged of a best known, and most dramatic, example of this
dangerous new virus spreading across the world. came in the late 1340s, when bubonic plague –
CST has tracked and recorded antisemitic posts the Black Death – swept through Europe, killing
on mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter, around 20 million people. This staggering death
and in more obscure corners of the internet toll amounted to a third of the entire population
where extremists gather, like 4Chan and Gab, of Western Europe. In many places, Jews were
all of which are consumed with the same hateful blamed for causing the plague by allegedly
obsession: that the Jews must be behind this poisoning wells, and they were tortured, put on
awful new menace, and that this crisis is the latest trial, executed and expelled. Thousands of Jews
opportunity to spread their hatred. were murdered for this non-existent crime and
hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed.
Even when these theories do not start with According to one account from Strasbourg in
the Jewish community antisemities jump 1349, “In the matter of this plague the Jews
at the opportunity to blame the Jews. For throughout the world were reviled and accused in
example, when the idea spread that 5G towers all lands of having caused it through the poison
and networks were causing or spreading the which they are said to have put into the water and
new coronavirus, conspiracy theorists were the wells-that is what they were accused of-and
quick to suggest that Jews either owned the for this reason the Jews were burnt all the way
telecommunication industry or were deliberately from the Mediterranean into Germany, but not in
building towers in ‘non-Jewish’ areas. One UK Avignon, for the pope protected them there.”
user posted to Facebook: “Quick update there
are no 5G Towers in Jewish areas I wonder why”. The scale of persecution during the Black Death
was so vast that it led to Western Europe being
These racist ideas have global reach, with posts virtually emptied of Jews, many of whom travelled
and memes from the United States influencing east to begin the great civilisation of Polish
extremist narratives in the United Kingdom, and Jewry that ended with the Holocaust. The path
anti-Chinese xenophobia merging with anti- to the Holocaust was also built, in part, on the
Jewish conspiracy theories. antisemitic association of Jews with disease

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 4 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism

and infection. Adolf Hitler compared Jews to The spread of this antisemitism online is
a “harmful bacillus” in Mein Kampf and spoke particularly chilling because the overwhelming
of a “Jewish virus” that threatened Germany; response of people in Britain to this crisis has
Nazi propaganda regularly compared Jews to been to pull together and support the collective
fleas, lice and other disease-bearing creatures, effort against COVID-19. The number of people
most notoriously in the film Der Ewige Jude volunteering to help others, whether as part
(The Eternal Jew), which depicted Jews as rats of the national support for the NHS or offering
spreading their infection across Europe. This is local support for neighbours in isolation, shows
the antisemitic legacy that is now echoed in this the true character of our country. These racist
century by conspiracy cranks and Jew-haters narratives have not, so far, influenced mainstream
across the internet. public debate in Britain, but that is no reason to
ignore them: the longer this crisis goes on, with
its profound impact on people’s jobs, livelihoods
and mental health, the more likely it is that people
will start to look for scapegoats. Hatred flourishes
when left unchecked, and CST is highlighting the
existence of this antisemitic material so that action
can be taken by social media companies and law
enforcement where appropriate.

The antisemitic posts, comments and memes

that CST has seen since the spread of COVID-19
began to attract significant attention in this
country in late January fall broadly into five
different categories, ranging from bizarre
conspiracy theories to the sheer nastiness of
those who like to see others suffer and even die.
This briefing will explain and give examples of
each of these five categories.

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 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism 5

THE VIRUS IS FAKE

– IT’S A JEWISH CONSPIRACY

Whenever a new crisis emerges, whether it is a

terrorist attack, an economic crash or a global
pandemic, the kneejerk response of conspiracy
theorists is to assume the ‘official’ story is
untrue. These posts all shed doubt on the idea
that COVID-19 is real, and assume that stories
of a deadly virus are part of a Jewish plot to
mislead the public.

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 6 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism

THE VIRUS IS REAL

– BUT IT’S STILL A JEWISH CONSPIRACY

An alternative angle for conspiracy theorists

is to accept that COVID-19 really exists, but
assume that it has been deliberately created
and spread for malevolent purposes. There are
several variations on this theme: that there is
a ‘Zionist agenda’ to depopulate the world by
killing huge numbers of people; that coronavirus
is part of a plot involving some combination of
the United States, Israel and China; that Israel
or the Jews developed coronavirus and blamed
it on China to try to start World War Three; that
prominent Jewish and non-Jewish businessmen
such as George Soros (a regular hate figure for
conspiracy theorists) have a financial interest
in spreading the virus and then developing a
vaccine; or some combination of these theories.
Whatever the angle, the final destination of the
theory remains the same: to blame the Jews in
some form or another.

These two images use antisemitic motifs

or Jewish imagery alongside or on top of
images of the virus, to suggest that the virus is
somehow ‘Jewish’ or that Jews are behind the
threat it poses.

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 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism 7

JEWS ARE THE PRIMARY SPREADERS OF THE VIRUS

– ‘THE JEW FLU’

For centuries, antisemitic propagandists have

depicted Jews as dirty, unclean and associated
with disease. Genuine media stories about the
relatively high prevalence of coronavirus in
some Jewish communities, and early reports
that British Jews have been disproportionately
represented amongst those who have died
from COVID-19, have encouraged antisemites
to assume that Jews are the primary spreaders
of the virus, either deliberately – to try to kill
white people – or inadvertently. Having initially
nicknamed coronavirus the ‘Wu Flu’ (referring to
Wuhan as the geographical origin of the virus),
some of these online haters have now dubbed
it the ‘Jew Flu’, implying either that Jews are
behind it, or that it is most closely associated
with Jewish victims and spreaders.

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 8 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism

CELEBRATING JEWISH DEATHS

Amongst hardcore antisemites and extreme

right wing circles, news that Jewish people are
dying from COVID-19 in disproportionately high
numbers has brought sickening celebration.

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 CST Research Briefing – Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism 9

LET’S SPREAD IT TO THE JEWS

– THE ‘HOLOCOUGH’

The final station on this hateful journey is to

try to use coronavirus to kill Jews. This is the
logical conclusion of this antisemitism, with
far right activists talking online about getting
infected, either deliberately or accidentally, and
then going to synagogues and other Jewish
buildings to try to infect as many Jewish people
as possible. They have even given it a depraved
new name – the ‘Holocough’.

These posts may (or may not) be intended as

a sick joke, but they are posted on extremist
sites like Gab and 4chan where genuine far
right terrorists and their supporters gather.
Terrorist murderers including Brenton Tarrant,
who recently pleaded guilty to shooting 51
people dead at two mosques in Christchurch,
Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 worshippers
at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, and
Stephan Balliett, who killed two people after
trying to attack the synagogue in Halle,
Germany, on Yom Kippur, all used these
peripheral social media sites to post their
intentions and livestream videos of their
attacks. These sites are now full of posts and
memes celebrating their murderous work.
There is perhaps an instinctive reaction
to dismiss extremist linkage of the virus
with Jews as something so ridiculous as to
be somehow irrelevant. In fact, all of the
context and content of this CST research
briefing shows that the opposite is the case.
The harsh reality is that linking Jews to viruses,
plagues, rats and bacteria is a deep-rooted
historical phenomenon that repeats today in
neo-Nazi propaganda, including within the
online circles that foster and celebrate terrorist
murderers. As with so many other antisemitic
themes, such as Jews as child-killers, or Zionists
controlling America, the charges are ridiculous:
but they carry deadly consequences, just as they
have always done.

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CST’S MISSION

•T
 o work at all times for the physical •T
 o help those who are victims of antisemitic
protection and defence of British Jews. hatred, harassment or bias.

• To
 represent British Jews on issues of racism, •T
 o promote research into racism,
antisemitism, extremism, policing and antisemitism and extremism; and to use this
security. research for the benefit of both the Jewish
community and society in general.
•T
 o promote good relations between British
Jews and the rest of British society by •T
 o speak responsibly at all times, without
working towards the elimination of racism, exaggeration or political favour, on
and antisemitism in particular. antisemitism and associated issues.

• To
 facilitate Jewish life by protecting Jews
from the dangers of antisemitism, and
antisemitic terrorism in particular.

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Published by Community Security Trust. Registered charity in England and Wales (1042391) and Scotland (SC043612)