Jews have always been blamed for plagues – coronavirus is no different

History has not usually been kind to the Jews. But even by its low and morbid standards, the 14th century was a time of chaos. From 1348 to 1351 between 30 and 60 per cent of Europe’s population died from the Black Death, a plague that strafed continents. Hundreds of Jewish communities perished too, their inhabitants slaughtered out of hatred and fear. It was a time of mass death and horror, too; and of scapegoating. Bad times for Jews then. And because once a year, we cleaned out our grain supplies for Passover, Jews flushed out the rats that carried the plague and lowered our death count. So they burned and killed and wiped out the settlements and villages and towns. The contagion, you see, it just had to be contained.

Now the plague is here again. We thought these libels were behind us; it turns out we were wrong. As coronavirus has transfixed the world it has done something else, too.