The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery published in 1903, which claimed the existence of a Jewish plot for world domination.^[1] In 1921, British newspaper The Times proved that it was false, which had been plagiarized from the unrelated book The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu instead.^[2]

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was promoted by the Russian Empire to make the Bolsheviks look bad by equating them with Jews, who were accused of being a horrible group seeking the Empire's downfall.^[1][3] After the White Russians lost the Russian Civil War to the Bolsheviks, some White Russian refugees brought the forgery to Europe.^[4]

Alfred Rosenberg, a Baltic German who became the Nazi Party's chief propagandist, co-opted the forgery's ideas into the Nazi propaganda.^[4] Henry Ford, a well known American industrialist, sponsored the forgery's reprint in the United States and co-opted its ideas into his anti-Jewish text The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem,^[4] while Barsalina, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, circulated copies of the forgery's Arab translation within his church.^[4]

The subsequent Great Depression and Nazi rise to power in Germany made it more popular among commoners, many of whom already had anti-Jewish views, causing them to blame Jews for their hardship and bring the Nazi Party to power, which started WWII and the Holocaust.^[4][5] The circulation of other translations beyond Germany also began.

Malcolm X, a famous Black American activist, believed in the text's content and introduced it to the Nation of Islam (NOI), circulating it among Black Americans and contributing to antisemitism, i.e. anti-Jewish views, within the community.^[6][7][8] As per a 2016 survey by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 23% Black Americans held negative beliefs about Jews,^[9] while a 2023 survey reportedly showed that one-eighth of Black Americans doubted whether the Holocaust really happened.^[10]

A similar myth, rumored to have been made up by opponents of the French Revolution in 1789, was the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, claiming the existence of a secret Jewish–Freemason group controlling world affairs to harm humanity. The myth holds widespread appeal among antisemites worldwide and often appears in their propaganda, which tends to equate Jews with the Freemasons.^[1][11]

Moreover, the forgery's ideas have given rise to the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) conspiracy theory, accusing Jews of "controlling Western governments" for the interest of themselves and Israel.^[13][14] This theory is popular among antisemites worldwide, especially Neo-Nazis, White supremacists, Black nationalists and Islamists.^[15] Under this theory, Jews are also accused of "controlling" the media and music industry.^[16][17]

At an anti-Israel rally in December 2023, Jenny Leong, an MP of the New South Wales who belongs to the Australian Greens, claimed the existence of an all-powerful "Jewish lobby" in Australia and compared its "influence" to "tentacles".^[18][19]

In one of his books,^[4] German-American Jewish historian Walter Laqueur said that the forgery was popular in Germany as it allowed German right-wingers to blame the WWI defeat on an "outside enemy" – the Jews^[20] – to free themselves of their responsibility.^[4]

• Antiziganism
• The Holocaust
• Antisemitism in Europe
• Catholic Church and the Independent State of Croatia
• Roman Catholics and antisemitism in the 21st century

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