Many antisemitic conspiracy theories and myths — such as those popularized by the Nazis in the 19th century — continue to be repurposed today by anti-Israel activists and other antisemites to vilify Jews and delegitimize the Jewish state. Let’s take a quick look at two examples.

1. Are the Jews Today the Same as the Jews of the Bible?

The claim that the Jews living in Israel today are not the same people as in the time of Jesus is not only false — it is a well-known anti-Semitic conspiracy theory used to delegitimize both Jewish identity and the modern State of Israel.

Historically, Jewish identity has been preserved through continuous lineage, tradition, and religious practice for over 2,000 years. Despite centuries of exile, forced conversions, persecution, and dispersion, Jews maintained their distinct identity, faith, language, and connection to the Land of Israel. Genetic studies confirm the continuity of the Jewish people from biblical times through today.

A landmark 2009 study focusing on the Cohanim (Jewish priests) found that approximately 46% of self-identified Cohanim share a distinct Y-chromosome haplogroup (J‑P58) tracing back roughly 3,000 years, aligning with the biblical account of priestly lineage from Aaron, brother of Moses—placing the genetic origin in the Near East.

Analysis of DNA from medieval German Jewish cemeteries (Erfurt, 13th century) revealed that Ashkenazi Jews descended from subgroups with strong Middle Eastern genetic origins, matching present-day Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. This supports the idea of deep genetic continuity maintained through centuries.

Genome-wide studies (circa 2009–2016) of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews consistently show they are genetically closer to each other — and to modern Levantine populations — than to their non-Jewish European, North African, or Asian neighbors. These studies confirm substantial Middle Eastern ancestry with later regional admixture.

Although Jewish communities exhibit minor admixture (e.g., some Y-DNA haplogroups of European or African origin, and maternal mitochondrial lineages), the core paternal heritage remains rooted in the Levant. Studies of paternal haplogroup in Jewish lineages affirm continuity dating back several millennia.

Thus, Jews in Israel come from a variety of backgrounds — Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and others — reflecting the global dispersion and survival of the Jewish people. Yet all share a common ancestry and ethnic heritage that trace directly back to the ancient Israelites and the time of Jesus.

The claim that modern Jews are not “real Jews” is not about history — it is about hate. It is an attempt to erase Jewish legitimacy, delegitimize Israel, and justify violence. These lies, first weaponized by the Nazis, portray Jews as foreign impostors, a colonizing force with no roots in the land. This deceptive myth was first weaponized by Adolf Hitler seeking to erase Jewish legitimacy and justify genocide. The German edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion — a fraudulent conspiracy text — became a doctrinal staple of Nazi hate campaigns beginning in the 1930s. Much like today’s Islamic propaganda, the Nazis widely disseminated it through schools, newspapers like Der Stürmer, and their official publishing houses — falsely portraying Jews as alien, conspiratorial outsiders with no true connection to their ancestral homeland.

But the truth is clear and undeniable: the Jewish people of Israel today are the direct heirs — biologically, culturally, and spiritually — of the Jews of the Bible and the Second Temple period. The same prayers, the same Scriptures, the same identity have carried them across millennia of exile and persecution, back to the very land from which they were never severed.

Now, if it were true that the Jewish people are no more, and if “Israel” is now simply a name for Christian believers, then why does Paul, in Romans 11:28, refer to Israel as “enemies of the gospel” and at the same time say they are “beloved for the sake of the patriarchs”? This makes no sense if “Israel” refers only to the Church or Christian believers. Paul is clearly speaking about ethnic Israel — the Jewish people who, despite their current opposition to the gospel, remain deeply loved by God because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This passage directly challenges and contradicts the idea that Israel has been spiritually redefined or replaced by the Church.

And in the very next verse, Paul adds, “For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29). In other words, God’s promises to the physical descendants of Israel remain intact — they have not been revoked or transferred to a new group. Paul makes it clear that despite Israel’s present resistance to the gospel, God’s covenantal call to them endures. They were not replaced; they remain part of His redemptive plan.

But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

(Romans 11:12)

2. The Rothschild Conspiracy

The Rothschild family’s meteoric rise in European banking made them a target for antisemitic conspiracy theories from the start. In 1846, an antisemitic French pamphleteer writing under the pseudonym “Satan” published a sensational tract that became the template for these myths. This pamphlet claimed Nathan Mayer Rothschild had advanced knowledge of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo (1815) and used it to reap an immense fortune on the London stock market. The story spread like wildfire across Europe, tapping into older anti-Jewish blood libels and stereotypes of secretive financiers.

In reality, historians have debunked the Waterloo tale: Nathan Rothschild was nowhere near the battlefield; there was no miraculous courier in a storm; and any profit he made from that news was trivial, not the vast sum alleged. Nonetheless, the image of the Rothschilds as omnipotent “king of the Jews” bankers took hold. By the late 19th century, the popular imagination in France, Germany, and beyond cast the Rothschild family as puppet-masters behind wars and economies, feeding the era’s burgeoning antisemitic narrative that Jews “financially and politically controlled Europe.” These early conspiracy theories were intertwined with the era’s anti-modern, anti-capitalist anxieties, and the Rothschilds – wealthy, Jewish, and influential – were a ready-made scapegoat.

From the Protocols to the Nazis

Around the turn of the 20th century, the mythology of a global Jewish plot was codified in the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a Russian fraud from 1903). The Protocols promoted a fictitious cabal of Jewish elders conspiring to dominate the world – essentially a “more malleable version of the Rothschild conspiracy,” as one historian notes.

In Europe, hateful propagandists amplified these themes: in France, polemicists like Édouard Drumont railed against “Jewish bankers” (blaming Rothschilds for financial crises), and across the continent the Rothschild name became shorthand for an international Jewish menace. Nazi Germany then weaponized the Rothschild myth to deadly effect. Nazi propaganda portrayed the Rothschilds as the epitome of “Jewish financiers” controlling nations, even producing a 1940 feature film that depicted the family as sinister war-profiteers.

In the antisemitic imagination, the Rothschilds were cast as “the kings of Jews — the string pullers of the string pullers,” the invisible hand behind world events. This rhetoric meshed seamlessly with broader Nazi conspiracy theories (like the lie that Jews stabbed Germany in the back in World War I) that served to justify persecution and genocide. The Holocaust did not arise in a vacuum; it was fueled in part by widespread belief in such conspiratorial falsehoods targeting Jewish figures like the Rothschilds.

Modern Resurgence and Refutation

Disturbingly, Rothschild conspiracy theories have not only endured but evolved in the post–World War II era. Islamists and fringe groups continually recycle the old tales with new twists. The Rothschilds have been falsely blamed for everything from starting wars to sinking the Titanic to assassinating U.S. presidents. In recent decades, they frequently feature in internet-born fantasies: that the family secretly owns all the world’s central banks or orchestrated the COVID-19 pandemic; that they even control the weather via “space lasers.”

In 2018, a U.S. congresswoman infamously insinuated that “Rothschild-funded” orbital lasers ignited California wildfires — a bizarre update of the classic trope about Jewish control of world events. Such claims range from absurd to outright impossible. Crucially, they collapse under scrutiny.

Take the notion that the Rothschilds run the global financial system: in truth, institutions like the U.S. Federal Reserve are public or independent entities led by officials appointed by democratic governments, not by any private family. Likewise, the idea that the Rothschilds possess untold trillions of dollars or “own” national banks is baseless — the family’s wealth, while substantial, is spread across various business ventures and nowhere near the fantastical figures touted by conspiracy peddlers. No credible evidence has ever shown the Rothschilds plotting wars or manipulating disasters for gain; these accusations invariably trace back to mistrust of Jewish influence rather than documented fact.

It is telling that Rothschild conspiracy theories closely mirror older antisemitic libels. They hinge on the stereotype of Jews as all-powerful, greedy schemers — an image with “deep antisemitic roots” in European history.

The Rothschild myths are not really about one family at all; they are simply a convenient label placed on a much older paranoia — the age‑old suspicion that “the Jews” secretly control world affairs. Though repeatedly debunked by serious historians and journalists, the fantasy refuses to die. Instead, it mutates with each generation’s anxieties: in one era, Jews are blamed for global banking, in another for communism, and today even for climate change or international health crises. The underlying prejudice remains unchanged, only the details shift. At the root of it all lies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous czarist forgery that still circulates widely on conspiracy websites. Modern movements may swap in new names alongside the Rothschilds, but it is always the same old fiction recycled to fit new fears.

What About Rothschild and the State of Israel?

One of the more persistent variants of the Rothschild conspiracy claims that the family secretly orchestrated the creation of the modern State of Israel as part of a global plan for domination. Some versions falsely suggest that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was the result of Rothschild influence, portraying the Jewish homeland as a Rothschild-controlled outpost rather than the fulfillment of millennia of Jewish yearning and biblical prophecy.

It is true that Lord Walter Rothschild was the recipient of the Balfour Declaration — as a symbolic representative of the Jewish people, not as a puppet-master. The letter was addressed to him because of his prominence, not because of any secret control. Moreover, the modern State of Israel arose through a combination of geopolitical factors, grassroots Zionist movements, and divine providence — not financial conspiracy.

But even if God, in His sovereignty, chose to work through something imperfect — as He always does — and even if the Rothschild family played some role in the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland, that would not in any way invalidate the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. God’s purposes are never dependent on the perfection of human instruments; they are grounded in His covenant promises and faithfulness. Scripture is full of examples where God used unlikely or even morally compromised individuals to accomplish His divine purposes (Exodus 9:16, Isaiah 45:1, Daniel 4:34–37). Even salvation came wrapped in the cloak of evil. In the New Testament, Pilate — a pagan Roman governor known for being “vindictive and ferocious temper,” — was used in the process that led to Jesus’ crucifixion, fulfilling God’s redemptive plan (Acts 4:27–28).

If God used pagan kings, corrupt rulers, and flawed men to bring about His promises, He can certainly use wealthy Jewish families, however imperfect, to prepare the way for Israel’s restoration. What matters is not human motives, but divine intention (Genesis 50:20).

The existence of Israel is not a Rothschild conspiracy — it is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, rooted in a covenant going back to Abraham. Conspiracies fade. God’s Word endures forever.

The conspiracy theories are not harmless eccentricity; they are a dangerous form of scapegoating. Linking one family to every catastrophe or economic shift is no more rational than older superstitions blaming “the Jews” for plagues or wars. Indeed, such tales have long been a gateway to broader antisemitism, casting Jews as sinister manipulators and thus inviting discrimination or violence.

All academic sources and references missing from the article are in the book:

This was an excerpt from my upcoming book, “The Elephant in the Middle East: The Hidden Theological Context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”