Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Conspiracy Theorists Blame Jews, Muslims For Notre Dame Fire

As the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris became engulfed in fire on Monday, conspiracy theorists quickly got to work – blaming the blaze on Jews.

French police quickly said they were treating the fire as an accident, possibly linked to the church’s renovation work. But despite – or perhaps because of – that statement, online bigots quickly got to work. Many pointed a finger at the Rothschilds, the banking dynasty of Jewish heritage who have been central to anti-Semitic conspiracies for century. French President Emanuel Macron once worked at a Rothschild-owned bank. Others tried to link the incident to other church fires that had occurred throughout the country in recent weeks.

Other conspiracists blamed Muslims.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor for the Forward. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.