The “Hidden Hand” Notes on the Perpetuation of Jewish Conspiracy Theories

Contemporary “International Jewish Conspiracy” theories have their origin in the conspiracy theories which sought to explain the French Revolution. For those devastated by this successful attack on both King and Church, theories about an obscure Bavarian group, the Illuminati, provided an explanation for the impossible overthrow of a divinely-ordained political and social order. Founded by Adam Weishaupt (1747-1830) and lasting only a few years before being suppressed in 1784, the Illuminati vainly hoped to end government and religious corruption, and to establish a utopian society through secret activities and control of Freemasonry. The widespread introduction of Jews into these conspiracy theories was coincident with full Jewish emancipation and the movement of Jews from the ghetto into public life. Theories in which Jews and “Jewish money” were the “Hidden Hand” controlling the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and the course of world history could thus be harnessed to explain the rise of socialism and the political unrest of the mid-19th century.