Jeffrey A. Marx, "Jewish Firebugs: Arson and Antisemitism from the Civil War to World War I" (NYU Press, 2026)

July 13, 2026

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5 min read

“I initially went out just to expose the canard of Jews being accused as arson. And then much to my sort of shock and surprise… it was like, oh jeez.” That is how Rabbi Jeffrey A. Marx describes the research behind Jewish Firebugs: Arson and Antisemitism from the Civil War to World War I (NYU Press, 2026). Marx, a retired congregational rabbi turned historian, set out to debunk a forgotten anti-Semitic stereotype—only to discover that a small number of Jews did set fire to their own property, and that this uncomfortable fact had been weaponized in ways that tell us a great deal about how prejudice works.

The Insurance Panic of 1867

The accusation that Jews were arsonists did not begin with actual fires. It began with a business decision. In 1867, fire insurance companies in New York and Connecticut sent memos to their agents instructing them to deny coverage to Jews. The reason was not anti-Semitism per se, but a practical problem: as America expanded westward, insurers could no longer personally vet their customers. Their solution was a simple proxy—insure only people who had been long-term residents of a town. Peddlers, who moved constantly, did not qualify. And since many Jewish immigrants worked as peddlers, the insurance companies simply conflated “Jew” with “peddler” and blacklisted the entire group.

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What you'll learn

1 (01:55) **Author Background and Book Origin** - Jeffrey A. Marx, a retired congregational rabbi, explains his shift into academia and how researching Jewish stereotypes in vaudeville led him to the disturbing charge of Jewish arson.
2 (04:20) **Root Cause: The Post-Civil War Insurance Crisis** - The first major public charge of Jewish arsonism emerged from fire insurance companies denying coverage to Jews after 1867.
3 (08:16) **The Real, Small-Scale Phenomenon of Jewish Arson** - The charge resurged with Eastern European immigration, but actual Jewish arsonists were statistically negligible (under 200 over 40 years).
4 (10:39) **The Mechanics: Torches, Fire Brokers, and Public Adjusters** - Marx details the organized criminal ecosystem that enabled arson for insurance fraud among poor immigrants.
5 (13:29) **The Paradox: Denial Fuels the Conspiracy** - The more Jews denied the charge, the stronger the antisemitic narrative became.
6 (16:15) **The Statistical Truth and Its Explanation** - Jews did set fires at a slightly higher rate than their population share, but for specific socioeconomic reasons, not because of a cultural trait.
7 (19:50) **Complicating Factors: Accidental Fires and Language Barriers** - The high number of fires on the Lower East Side was also due to dangerous living conditions.

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Show Notes

Why were Jews once stereotyped as America's arsonists? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with historian Jeffrey Marx to discuss his fascinating book Jewish Firebugs: Arson and Antisemitism from the Civil War to World War I (NYU Press, 2026), which uncovers a little-known chapter in the history of American antisemitism.

In the decades after the American Civil War, major insurance companies instructed agents to deny fire insurance to Jewish customers, claiming they were uniquely prone to arson. That accusation quickly spread beyond the insurance industry, finding its way into newspapers, cartoons, vaudeville, popular songs, and silent films, helping to cement the image of the "Jewish firebug" in the American imagination.

Drawing on fire department records, insurance files, trial transcripts, newspapers, and other archival sources, Marx untangles the complicated relationship between stereotype and reality. He explores why some Jewish immigrants became involved in organized arson schemes, how insurance companies often enabled those crimes for their own financial interests, and why Jews became the only ethnic group in America burdened with this particular accusation. The result is a nuanced history that reveals as much about immigrant life, poverty, and urban America as it does about the enduring power of antisemitic myths.

Together, Marx and Katz examine how stereotypes are created, why they persist long after the facts have faded, and what this forgotten episode teaches us about the history—and continuing evolution—of antisemitism in the United States.

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