Why 'the Jews?' On History’s Most Viral Meme

There are "the Jews," and then there are the Jews, and they are mostly not the same. The Jews live next door or in the next village over. Some are helpful and friendly, others are aloof and greedy. "The Jews," however, live nowhere in particular. They are a creature of cultural and psychological myth, living in people's individual and collective minds. "The Jews" of myth also carry a stigma: They excel at communal action, secretive projects, and serve their own interests at the expense of others. At their most dangerous, "the Jews" are a successful conspiracy. When Jews are persecuted, it is usually because the persecutors are aiming at those "Jews" of conspiratorial myth, even as the blows fall on the heads of the local Jews, the ones without quotation marks.