Scapegoating: When in Doubt, Blame the Jews!

So… the mullah regime in Iran is pushing a conspiracy theory that claims “Zionists” are responsible for the rapid spread of coronavirus in that country. (See the NEWS section of AntisemitismExposed.) Is anyone shocked such a preposterous claim is being made — one that undoubtedly is believed by many Iranians and others?
 
The Jewish people have a long history of being blamed for every misfortune to befall humanity. No group has been scapegoated more than the Jews — and that scapegoating has included for one especially horrific mass medical catastrophe.
 
In the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe were blamed for the Black Death — also known as The Great Bubonic Plague —- one of the deadliest episodes in history. Estimates vary, but it’s thought the plague wiped out as many as 200 million lives in Eurasia, including up to 50% of the population of Europe.
 
At the time, many European non-Jews claimed Jews were poisoning water wells to cause the epidemic, even though Jews also died from the disease. As a result, innumerable Jewish communities were destroyed and thousands and thousands of Jews were murdered without any evidence whatsoever to indicate guilt.
 
It may have been true that, proportionately, fewer Jews fell to the plague than their non-Jewish neighbors. It’s now believed the reason was the personal hygiene dictates of Judaism — such as the imperative to frequently wash hands, especially before eating. The real culprit behind the Black Death? Fleas that lived on infected rats.
 
Today, the Iranian regime has refined its anti-Jewish scapegoating to make Iran the specific victim of alleged Zionist treachery. The Jews did not create coronavirus, the theory goes, but Zionist scientists made the virus even more virulent and introduced it into Iran.
 
In truth, Iran has been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19, not because of Zionists, but because the regime initially covered up what was happening and did not put containment measures in place.
 
One Iranian-American reporter posited another factor on American television. To paraphrase her comments: Fundamentalist Islam is so deeply rooted in Iran, many people are fatalistic about all manner of disasters, believing they are Allah’s will and must be accepted as such.
 
The human race has made great progress since the Middle Ages, but apparently not everyone has become more enlightened when it comes to scapegoating the Jews.
 
— Lenny Giteck, Publisher and Editor
 
Learn more about the Black Death and the Jews on Jewishhistory.org. >>