Benjamin Disraeli

Discusses Disraeli's image in his lifetime, and the myth of the "Jewish Prime Minister" after his death. During his life, Disraeli was proud of his belonging to the "noble Jewish race." His friends and enemies, as well, never forgot that he was born a Jew. When attacking him, his political adversaries (Gladstone and others) first of all attacked his Jewish origins. They questioned the sincerity of his baptism and his British patriotism. The antisemitic campaign against Disraeli peaked in 1875-78, in the time of the "Turkish atrocities, " when he was blamed for promoting Jewish interests. Disraeli's death (1881) coincided with the beginning of a mass Jewish immigration to Britain and a revival of antisemitism in the country. With the rise of political antisemitism throughout the Western world, Disraeli became an example of "the international Jew" pushing for world power. After World War I, his image was also used by radical antisemites and especially the Nazis and their sympathizers as a demonstration of the "world Jewish conspiracy."