ABSTRACT
While the association of Jews with money and finance has its origins in medieval Europe, the idea of Jews as the financial masterminds behind an international conspiracy to control the world has played a significant role in modern Europe. Furthermore, it has made its mark in “the new world.” In the United States, it animated the likes of Henry Ford and the Ku Klux Klan. Analysing images of Jewish financial manipulation and conspiracy, this article probes this supposed link between a medieval history of anti-Jewish hostility and the presence of a dangerous antisemitism in modern times. It compares the association of Jews with money and finance in Germany and the US—a country with a medieval past alongside a country with only an indirect one; a country that sought to murder all Jews and a country that did not. Despite the strikingly different outcomes, the author argues that the role of a medieval past has little significance in terms of the antisemitic potential of a modern nation-state.
