In my new book, Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, I make a simple hypothesis to do what all conspiracy theories do: apply an easy explanation to a complicated issue. And that simple hypothesis is that almost all conspiracy theories are rooted in antisemitism, and almost all antisemitism is rooted in conspiracy theories.
Essentially, whenever you have a cabal of global puppet-masters sitting in a dark room smoking cigars around an oak table deciding who lives and who dies, someone must foot the bill. And that someone, more often than not, is labeled as Jewish. Yes, the conspiracy theorists making the claims often couch their abhorrent ideas in euphemisms and front groups, some of which are actually real and not all that interesting: the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, the Club of the Isles, “foreign bankers,” “European financiers,” and so forth.
But an examination of the corpus of conspiracy theory works almost comes back to the idea that whoever those groups are and whatever their individual focus, many of their members are wealthy Jews who have worked tirelessly for generations to keep their money, make more money, and use that money to leverage unlimited power. And if these powerful Jews themselves have a leader, a “king of kings,” if you will, chances are they’re going to be the Rothschilds, the German-Jewish banking family (to whom I’m not related) that started in the walled Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt only to send its tentacles first into the financial capitols of Europe, then the world.
Antisemitism is an ideology that’s easy to exploit and lucrative to monetise any time there’s a major political upheaval, health crisis, economic disaster, military setback, or degradation of “traditional” social mores – which is to say, all the time. Some of this stereotyping is benign enough: jokes about how cheap Jews are, books extolling “Jewish business wisdom,” and the like. But Rothschild conspiracy theories have been used as fodder for pogroms, riots, blood libel panics, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and played a critical role in ginning up the hate and bloodlust that made the Holocaust possible.
And they still are. The antisemitism powered by Rothschild conspiracy theories has seen a considerable upswing during and after the years of Trump and Brexit and Orban, with neo-Nazis and antisemites emboldened enough to pass out antisemitic fliers at Broadway shows, harass people on the street, hang anti-Jewish signs on overpasses, vandalise Jewish property, and in some cases, commit overt acts of violence. Celebrities and conservative influencers now openly speak to huge online audiences of how much they love Hitler, and of Jews being a lesser race, disloyal, and controlling banking and entertainment – all accusations consistently levelled at the Rothschild family, but often couched in the past in equivocations like “we don’t hate all Jews, just these Jews.”
The impact of these theories is hard to quantify for the Rothschilds themselves and will remain so – none responded on the record to my requests for an interview for the book. But for the Jewish people, the harm is obvious. Modern Jews are still battling the myths that started in a game of telephone almost 200 years ago. With western antisemitism and acts of violence against Jews and Jewish centres of worship and commerce at a high not seen in decades, it’s vitally important to understand how these theories feed into each other and build upon themselves.
To understand Kanye West ranting on Alex Jones’ show about how great Hitler was requires understanding how Jones himself has spoken many times of the influence that John Birch Society speechwriter Gary Allen’s 1971 book None Dare Call It Conspiracy had on him. Allen’s book, which sold millions of copies by attacking Jewish “insiders” like the Rothschilds, was inspired in part by Secrets of the Federal Reserve, a best-selling conspiracy book funded by the antisemitic and openly pro-fascist poet Ezra Pound. And Pound was inspired by that deathless work of anti-Jewish paranoia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which took root in the anti-Jewish scapegoating of the post-World War I era.
All these, and so many more, lead us to the place where we are now. And Jewish Space Lasers is a study of that dark and winding path. It is not a biography of the Rothschilds, but of an idea: that Jews control everything, and the Rothschilds are the “Kings of the Jews.” Behind this notion lies a tangled web of absurdities that are equal parts bizarre and deeply sad. And it’s not all conspiracy theories, either. When popular culture has needed a rich family, particularly a Jewish one, to satirise or caricature, writers and artists pick the Rothschilds as a stand in simply because they’re the best known of the bunch.
And yet there are truths found in even the most pernicious myths, some bit of historically accurate arcana that prevents it from being dismissed altogether. The Rothschilds were immensely powerful, with an almost superhuman ability to use that wealth to keep the peace between empires. They certainly didn’t “fund both sides of every war” as alleged by countless internet memes. But houses often found themselves on opposite sides of conflict, such as when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, and while the Rothschilds weren’t selling rifles to both countries, they did have investments and holdings in both countries, forcing hard decisions to be made. Of course, the Rothschilds in no way “funded the Nazi war machine,” as conspiracy cranks like David Icke have claimed for decades. But the Rothschilds did see their Vienna and Paris branches looted by the Nazis, with the head of the Austrian branch held hostage by the Gestapo, only being rescued through the payment of what is likely the largest ransom ever paid out.
All of these facts are easy enough to manipulate into myths, and equally easy to monetise as conspiracy theories. Jewish Space Lasers is my attempt to determine why the false and debunked myths about this family continue to spread, even long after their power and wealth have been eclipsed by others. Why does anyone actually believe any of this, particularly given how thin its supporting evidence is? And what, if anything, can be done to put them to bed for good? After all, isn’t 200 years enough?
Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories by Mike Rothschild is out now, published by Melville House
