A Rumor About the Jews Reflections on Antisemitism and "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion"

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is among the most infamous documents of antisemitism. A forgery created in Russia by the czarist secret police and quickly translated into a host of languages, it portrayed Judaism as a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of Christian civilization. The appearance of the Protocols sparked a number of bloody pogroms and it helped shape the thinking of right-wing movements worldwide from Hitler's Nazis to contemporary antisemitic groups in Russia, the Middle East and the United States. A work of intellectual history, A Rumor About the Jews by Stephen Eric Bronner expresses the connection between antisemitism and the overarching political assault upon the enlightenment legacy, taking the reader on a historical journey that provides a new and penetrating understanding of an insidious ideology and its broader implications.