The first major instance of blaming Jews for spreading diseases in Europe dates back to the 14th century in the south of France, where Jews were accused of spreading leprosy to kill Christians. Both Jews and leprosy patients were murdered in the riots that ensued. Jews were perceived to be less affected by it than surrounding non-Jewish populations, possibly due to hygienic regulations required by Jewish law (frequent hand-washing and ritual baths). This claim led to pogroms, the murder of Jews, and even the expulsion of the entire Jewish communities of Strasburg (February 1349) and Spain (1492).

As the disease spread, killing 25 million Europeans--roughly 40 percent of the population--Jews were accused of spreading the virus through common drinking wells. Thousands of Jews were murdered in response.

Later, after the rise of Nazism, German propaganda described typhus, which is spread by lice, as a “disease characteristic of parasitic, subhuman people—the Jews” and blamed them for its spread. The Nazis used this to justify the isolation of Jews in ghettos, which in fact only increased the proliferation of the disease. This was one of the major motifs of the notorious film Der ewige Jude [The Eternal Jew], in which Jews were depicted as disease-bearing rats.

In Nazi propaganda, the notion of the “Jews” as synonymous with poison appeared in many forms, including in a children’s book published by Julius Streicher of the notorious Der Stürmer, who likened the Jewish race to a “poisonous mushroom” that is nearly impossible to contain. The Poisonous Mushroom remained available for sale on Amazon, accessible to all extremists looking to nourish themselves with hateful content, until earlier this year, when it was removed in response to WJC outrage.