A Reform synagogue in the southern U.S. state of Georgia hasn't experienced an antisemitic incident in its nearly 165-year history – until this weekend, when it was one of two congregations targeted by a neo-Nazi hate group.
“This is a congregation has been around since 1859,” said Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia, in a phone conversation with Haaretz. ...
On Friday morning, she said, members of the congregation living in the nearby city of Warner Robins found antisemitic flyers outside their homes. They had been distributed by an organization called the Goyim Defense League, a white supremacist hate group active mainly on social media. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the GDL's main objective is “to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories.”
Later in the day, 15 members of the hate group held a demonstration outside the synagogue, where they had hung a life-sized doll in effigy from a street sign, wrapped in a rainbow flag, with a kippa on its head. According to Bahar, at least one of the demonstrators was wearing a t-shirt with a Nazi insignia on it and another had an Israeli flag tied around his foot.
Police arrived at the scene not long thereafter and arrested GDL leader Jon Minadeo II on charges of disorderly conduct and public disturbance after he continued shouting obscenities through a bullhorn despite being ordered to stop. He was released the following day.
On Saturday, a group of about 150 residents of Macon gathered outside the Reform synagogue, and in a show of solidarity and support, they held hands and surrounded Temple Beth Israel. “It was an impromptu gathering,” recounted Bahar, who said she was deeply moved. “We did not organize it.”
The GDL group showed up once again and tried to hold its own demonstration, which was soon broken up by police. From there, the group headed to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, where it held another demonstration, brandishing Nazi flags, outside the local Chabad synagogue.
One reason it is important to define antisemitism accurately is because to combat it, one must understand the motivations of the antisemites and respond only in ways that dissuade them
In this case, nothing happened that would stop the Goyim Defense League. On the contrary, the community holding hands outside the synagogue, the police releasing their leader after less than a day, the outrage from the community, the media coverage, and the police breaking up the second demonstration on Saturday morning might have made the Jewish community feel somewhat better but it didn't do a damned thing to make the antisemites think twice about driving to a Chabad and resuming their public hate.
If anything, the GDL is enthusiastic over the media coverage - they only have a handful of followers yet they have made international news, again. More antisemites would want to join the GDL after the events of this weekend.
The responses are well meaning but ultimately they are counterproductive.
The GDL delights in using laws that protect free speech to spread their hate. They dance close to the line of legality and mock those who try to use those same laws to silence them. They know that, at worst, they might spend a night in jail - and as a result they will recruit many new members who are itching to publicly scream obscenities at Jews.
In 1938, Nazis in America were way ahead of where the GDL is today. Also using freedom of speech, they held huge public marches and rallies, spouting off against Jews.
Perlman called Meyer Lansky, New York’s famous Jewish gangster.
“You got some boys who might want to punch a Nazi?” he asked.
“I do, Judge,” Lansky replied. “Respectfully, you understand we can do better than punch? I know just the crew — in Brownsville. The boys in the press call them Murder, Inc.”
“I want you to do anything but kill them,” Perlman said.
And that's what the mobsters did. Baseball bats, pool cues, throwing them out of windows - whatever was needed short of killing them. And the Jewish mobsters spread their campaign throughout the US, wherever the Nazis gathered.
The American Nazis cowered in fear and the attendance at their rallies evaporated (for the most part - they managed to have thousands of New York police protect them in their
1939 Madison Square Garden rally.)
Right now, the GDL is laughing at any legal efforts to stop them and residents holding hands in solidarity with Jews. They know that they are winning.
But if they are beaten up, they won't be laughing. And more importantly, they won't attract more members.
Let the Jews attacking them be arrested. Let there be arguments in court as to whether someone screaming "Sieg Heil" into a microphone is tantamount to assault and reacting with violence is self-defense. There is even
scientific evidence that hatemongering is more harmful than actual assault in the victim's brain - let them battle that out.
Whether they win or lose is immaterial. The results are the important thing. And like their American Nazi forebears, these GDL thugs are cowards at heart.
Find out where the GDL is planning to spread their antisemitic flyers and get ready for them beforehand, beating them up and chasing them out of the neighborhoods they are polluting. Let them call the police.
Beating up the neo-Nazis gives them a direct message that they will pay a real price for intimidating Jews. And doing it now ensures that we will not see them strengthen enough to hold mass marches down the streets of major cities in five years.
Some things are worth literally fighting for.
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Tuesday, July 04, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
