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

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— 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

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