Language:
English
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Parcours Judaïques
Angaben zur Quelle:
8 (2006) 77-112
Keywords:
Disraeli, Benjamin,
;
Jews History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Discusses the great susceptibility to conspiracism in the life and writings of this ambitious converted Jew who became British prime minister despite the reluctance of Queen Victoria to appoint a "Jew" to this position. Disraeli was the child of an age that saw conspiracy everywhere, particularly in the wake of the French Revolution and the secret societies which were viewed as using terror to promote revolutionary ideas like republicanism, egalitarianism, and communism. Race and racism were central to Disraeli's views. He saw himself as an aristocrat belonging to a superior race, the Jews, whom he considered of "pure blood". In his novels, he combined the image of a racially superior Jew with that of an arch-conspirator who aimed at dominating the world. Ironically, while he felt that he was defending the Jews against their detractors (including against the charge of deicide), his ideas and his own conspiratorial politics gave ammunition to antisemites. In the 1920s the British press found examples in Disraeli's ideas and political acts which seemed to authenticate the arguments of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". Thus, unwittingly, Disraeli helped justify antisemitic prejudice and stereotypes.
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