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exposing the origins of antisemitism

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CARICATURE

Antisemitic 'Happy Merchant' meme: a caricature of a Jewish man rubbing his hands together.

The so-called 'Happy Merchant' meme, an antisemitic caricature shown here so readers can recognize it. It is hate propaganda, not a picture of Jewish people.

 

The hook-nosed, hand-rubbing "Jew" is an invented image, built by medieval artists and later propagandists, and still recycled online today.

 

First published: March 19, 2026

 

 

 

Key Facts

  • What it claims: That Jews can be recognized by an exaggerated, hooked nose and a greedy, hand-rubbing pose, and that they are greedy, dishonest and secretly powerful. This is false.

  • First recorded: The earliest known anti-Jewish caricature is a 1233 doodle on an English royal tax roll, now held by The National Archives. According to the historian Sara Lipton, the hook-nosed "Jewish" face took shape in art only in the later 13th century.

  • How it spread: It spread through religious woodcuts and, by 1940, through posters, pamphlets, newspapers and even children's books across Europe. The Nazi movement made it a tool of mass propaganda, in the newspaper Der Stürmer and the 1940 film The Eternal Jew.

  • Modern form: The "Happy Merchant" meme, a figure cropped from an antisemitic cartoon and posted online perhaps as early as 2001, is among the most popular antisemitic memes. The same features still appear in cartoons and carnival displays.

  • Why it's false: The features are artists' inventions: Western art did not show Jews as looking different from anyone else until after the year 1000, and there is no evidence that Jews of the time wore the pointed hats artists gave them. Jewish people are diverse, and no one's character can be read from a face.

 

One of the most recognizable visual stereotypes in antisemitic propaganda is the caricature of a Jew with an exaggerated, hooked nose, often shown rubbing his hands together in greed. For centuries, versions of this image have been used to present Jewish people as sinister, greedy, and untrustworthy.

 

The image is not a portrait of anyone. It is an invention. According to the historian Sara Lipton, Western art did not show Jews as looking different from anyone else until after the year 1000, and the hook-nosed "Jewish" face took shape only in the later 13th century. Propagandists then spread it through print, film, and finally the internet.

 

Knowing where the caricature came from, and how it keeps being reused, makes it easier to recognize and reject.

 

What the Caricature Claims

The caricature combines a few invented features into a single "type." We describe them here only to explain how the stereotype works:

 

  • The face: An exaggerated, hooked nose and other so-called "Jewish features." AJC explains that such drawings fueled conspiracy theories that Jews are "easily identifiable and subhuman."

  • The gesture: Hands rubbing together. ADL describes the best-known modern version as a man "greedily rubbing his hands together." The pose is meant to suggest greed and scheming.

  • The message: Taken together, the figure is meant to say that Jews are greedy, dishonest, and secretly powerful. AJC notes that today the image is used to signal Jewish "control over the world" and Jewish greed.

 

Medieval Origins

The caricature was never "eternal." Lipton notes that until about the year 1000, there were no easily distinguishable Jews of any kind in Western imagery. Even Jewish figures in Bible scenes could be identified only by context, or by labels.

 

  • Pointed hats, around 1100: When Christian artists first began to single out Jews, they did it with hats, not faces. Around 1100, Hebrew prophets wearing pointed caps began to appear in illuminated Bibles and on the carved fronts of churches. The hat had nothing to do with real Jewish clothing. Lipton notes there is no evidence that Jews at the time wore such hats. By around 1140, the pointed hat had become a sign of Jewishness in art.

  • Art turned into law: In 1267, two church councils ordered that Jews be required to wear pointed hats "as their ancestors used to do." As Lipton points out, the main evidence for how Jews "used to" dress was Christian art itself.

  • Noses as a sign of sin: In the second half of the 12th century, some artists gave Jewish figures in Crucifixion scenes large, hooked noses. At first this was not a mark of Jewish identity. Lipton notes that the same "bad" noses appeared on many non-Jewish figures as well.

  • The caricature takes shape: By the later 13th century, a move toward realism in art and a growing interest in reading character from faces led artists to merge these features into one face. In Lipton's words, "the hook-nosed, pointy-bearded Jewish caricature was born."

  • Judas: AJC notes that although Jesus and all twelve of his disciples were Jewish, it was the red-haired Judas who was made to stand for supposed Jewish "greed and betrayal."

 

Lipton argues that centuries of these images taught Christians to see Jews as different and distant. Where real life did not show that difference, it was imposed by law, through Jewish badge laws, laws forcing Jews into marginal neighborhoods and occupations, and expulsions from entire kingdoms.

 

The Earliest Known Caricature

The earliest known anti-Jewish caricature is a doodle drawn in 1233 in the upper margin of an English royal tax roll. The roll, now held by The National Archives in London, records tax payments made to the king by Jews of Norwich.

 

The doodle shows three Jews, labeled by name, among them Isaac, a wealthy Norwich moneylender, and Mosse Mokke, who worked in the Norwich money trade. They stand inside a castle-like building that is under attack by horned, beak-nosed demons. One demon tweaks the long noses of two of the Jews, as if to stress the likeness between their profiles and his own. The National Archives explains that by drawing them beside a devil, the artist was "associating Jews with the devil."

 

Historians still debate exactly what the doodle meant. Lipton reads it as "first and foremost, political satire," aimed at deceit and corruption in the royal government at Westminster. She also notes that in 1233, a long or hooked nose still signaled sin in general, not Jewishness in particular. Either way, the drawing links Jews with demons on an official royal record.

 

From Woodcuts to Nazi Propaganda

The image spread far beyond medieval manuscripts. As AJC puts it, "From religious woodcuts to inflammatory publications in the medieval ages, Jewish features like curly or red hair and hooked noses were grotesquely drawn." By 1940, Lipton writes, similar images of Jews could be seen across Europe on posters and in pamphlets, newspapers, and even children's books.

 

The Nazi movement turned the caricature into a tool of mass propaganda:

 

  • Der Stürmer: Julius Streicher, an early member of the Nazi Party, founded the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer (The Attacker) in 1923. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) notes that German newspapers, "above all Der Stürmer," printed cartoons that used antisemitic caricatures to depict Jews. Streicher went on editing and distributing the paper to hundreds of thousands of Germans.

  • The Eternal Jew: The 1940 Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew claimed to show Jews in their "original state." Lipton writes that its makers lingered in close-up on their subjects' eyes, noses, beards, and mouths, confident that stereotyped features would stir loathing and contempt. USHMM notes that Nazi films portrayed Jews as "subhuman" creatures.

  • The purpose: After Germany started World War II in 1939, the regime used propaganda to persuade Germans that Jews were "not only subhuman, but also dangerous enemies of the German Reich." The aim, USHMM explains, was to win support, or at least acquiescence, for policies aimed at removing Jews permanently from areas of German settlement.

  • Accountability: After the war, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg charged Streicher with crimes against humanity for his influential role in inciting hatred and violence. He was found guilty, sentenced to death, and hanged on October 16, 1946.

 

Why the Caricature Is False

The caricature claims to show what Jews "really" look like and what they are "really" like. Neither claim holds up:

 

  • Invented features: AJC calls these images "fictional facial stereotypes." They come from artistic habits and propaganda, not from how Jewish people look.

  • Invented markers: Lipton shows that the "Jewish" hat, beard, and nose were artists' choices. There is no evidence that Jews of the time wore pointed hats, Jewish men were by no means uniformly bearded, and no Christian texts written before the late 12th century attributed any particular physical features to Jews.

  • A diverse people: "The Jewish community is incredibly diverse," AJC notes. One in eight American Jews identifies as a person of color, and most Israeli Jews are Mizrahim, Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Jews also span the economic spectrum, including many who live in poverty.

  • Faces do not reveal character: The caricature rests on what AJC calls "the antisemitic notion that base motives are revealed in ugly features." No one's character can be read from the shape of a face.

 

How the Caricature Reappears Today

The caricature did not disappear in 1945. AJC notes that stereotypical Jewish features are still used today, "from Internet memes to cartoons in top-tier news outlets."

 

  • Online memes: The best-known modern version is the so-called "Happy Merchant" meme. ADL explains that it began as a drawing by a cartoonist, part of a larger antisemitic cartoon, and that it shows a Jewish man with heavily stereotyped features "greedily rubbing his hands together." Perhaps as early as 2001, someone cropped the figure out of the cartoon and posted it online. ADL describes it as among the most popular antisemitic memes online, common on forums such as 4chan and Gab. AJC notes that it is used to signal Jewish "control over the world" and Jewish greed. (The image at the top of this page is that meme, shown so readers can recognize it.)

  • Coded symbols: Not every example is a picture. ADL documents the "echo": three pairs of parentheses placed around a person's name online, meant to signal to others "in the know" that the person is Jewish.

  • Public figures as symbols: George Soros, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and philanthropist, has been vilified by some. AJC is clear that criticizing Soros, his politics, or his actions is not antisemitic. But when he is used as a symbol of Jewish "control, wealth, and power," AJC says, the attack may be an updated version of old antisemitic tropes. Many of the examples AJC cites come from the far right.

  • Carnival imagery: At the 2020 Aalst Carnival in Belgium, the theme "UNESCO: Controlled by the Jews?" drew Jews as "distorted, red-nosed, and with gold teeth." AJC says this furthered the stereotype that Jews are malformed and associated with money.

 

Why It Is Harmful

  • Dehumanization: The caricature reduces Jewish people to a grotesque type instead of seeing them as individuals. Nazi propaganda used such images to portray Jews as "subhuman."

  • Economic scapegoating: It feeds the old myth that Jews are greedy and dishonest with money (see Coin Clipping).

  • Real-world violence: Antisemitic hatred spread online does not always stay online. On October 27, 2018, an attacker killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The U.S. Department of Justice said he planned the attack based on his "violently antisemitic beliefs, reflected in dozens of online posts."

 

The hook-nosed, hand-rubbing "Jew" was never a picture of real people. It began as a device in medieval Christian art, was hardened by propagandists into a weapon, and is still copied and shared online today. Recognizing it, whether in an old woodcut, a newspaper cartoon, a carnival display, or a meme, is the first step toward rejecting it.

 

Sources

 

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Last updated: October 3, 2026

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