A firefighter is seen fighting the flames at Notre-Dame Cathedral April 15, 2019 in Paris, France. Image by Pierre Suu/Getty Images

By Aiden Pink April 15, 2019

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.

Notre dame is on fire because the Jews wanna get rid of christianity

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Change my mind

— Free Spirit (@Shecooksmyfood) April 15, 2019

Notre Dame & the other Catholic church burnings in France could not be happening on such a scale without the complicity of the Rothschild agents controlling France

— Benburb93 (@ColmanOfGuaire) April 15, 2019

ARSON =133. NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL =331. It happened 3301 MONTHS after the birth of Mayer Rothschild and 133 YEARS after the death of Victor Hugo (author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame) as well as a perfect span of 1033 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 3 DAYS after the Reichstag Fire in ‘33.

— Brother Berg (@extracapsa) April 15, 2019

Other conspiracists blamed Muslims.

I am pretty sure that the fire at Notre Dame was started by muslims.

— Brother Jerome ☩?? (@Thomist_Jerome) April 15, 2019

Historic Notre Dame Cathedral,

Survives Two World Wars & French Revolution.

Massive Muslim migrants arrive and in less than 5 years, it’s burning to the ground.

Europe is doomed. Can’t let this happen to America.#paris #NotreDame #notredamefire #notredamecathedral pic.twitter.com/8xsfgTYdNB

— Oliver Witherspoon (@OliverWitherspo) April 15, 2019

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

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount