Anti-Semitism Seen In Capitol Insurrection Raises Alarms

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FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump participate in a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol last week clamoring to overturn the result of November’s presidential election, photographs captured a man in the crowd wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Camp Auschwitz,” a reference to the Nazi concentration camp.

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Two white nationalists known for racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric livestreamed to their online followers after breaking into the Capitol during the deadly insurrection. And video circulated on social media showed a man harassing an Israeli journalist who was trying to do a live report outside the building.

The presence of anti-Semitic symbols and sentiment at the Capitol riot raised alarms among Jewish Americans and experts who track discrimination and see it as part of an ongoing, disturbing trend. As the threat of further chaos lingers over Washington and state capitals ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, they called for more forceful rejection of the conspiracy- and falsehood-driven worldviews on display among the mob.

The insurrection was “not so much a tipping point” for anti-Semitism but rather “the latest explicit example of how (it) is part of what animates the narratives of extremists in this country,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

“People are going to have to ask themselves, were they clear enough in condemning the hatreds that coalesced on Jan. 6?” he added.

On Tuesday, the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and the Network Contagion Research Institute released a report that identified at least half a dozen neo-Nazi or white supremacist groups involved in the insurrection.

Anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. hit a four-decade high in 2019, according to the ADL’s internal tracking.

Although some high-profile recent anti-Semitic attacks were not linked to far-right groups — such as the 2019 assault on a New York rabbi’s Hanukkah party — several others were, most prominently the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Three-quarters of extremist-related murders in the U.S. over the past 10 years were committed by right-wing extremists, Segal said, citing ADL data.

Eric Ward, executive director of the progressive anti-discrimination group Western States Center, linked the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, adherents of which were at the forefront of the insurrection, to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous 20th-century screed that falsely claimed Jews were colluding to take over the world.

QAnon’s unfounded assertion of a shadowy cabal “mirrors exactly the anti-Semitic track, the false narrative, of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Ward said. “That is the real danger of the anti-Semitism in this moment.” QAnon believers also allege a false conspiracy to harm children, paralleling another anti-Semitic trope, he noted.

“It is no stretch to say there were visible signs of anti-Semitism in the makeup” of the riot, Ward said, “but the real power of anti-Semitism in the events on Wednesday is actually buried within the narrative.”

The man photographed wearing the Auschwitz shirt was arrested in Virginia Wednesday. Robert Keith Packer, 56, was arrested in Newport News, charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

Despite anti-Semitic elements, at least one Jewish participant was drawn to take part in the assault on the Capitol: Federal agents on Tuesday arrested Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a New York judge, who was part of the crowd that broke in. Mostofsky, who was seen sitting in the building clad in furs and a police vest, told the New York Post he believed the baseless claim that the election was stolen from Trump.

Ward called Mostofsky’s involvement a sign of the patchwork nature of the far-right coalition and noted broadly that “authoritarianism and anti-democratic tendencies are not merely the terrain of white people.”

David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said not everyone who came to the Trump-promoted rally that preceded the assault on Congress was “stoked” by extremist and hate-fueled ideologies.

But he urged those people to ask themselves, “’Who am I enabling, however unintentionally, and how do I channel my own protest without being coopted by the lunatic fringe?’”

During the rise of Nazism, Harris added, “it was the soft-core group, not the hard-core group, that allowed itself to be coopted.”

Segal of ADL agreed: “One of the dangers of anti-Semitism and extremism is it wraps people up,” he said, “and takes them into situations that now have serious consequences.”

Many Jewish Americans were dismayed by what they saw broadcast from the Capitol halls, such as one rioter strolling through its halls carrying a Confederate flag.

Rabbi Jay Kornsgold of Beth El Synagogue in New Jersey, who serves as treasurer for the Rabbinical Assembly, said his Holocaust-survivor parents taught their children they should do everything possible to make sure discrimination against Jews doesn’t return to the fore.

“When you see it in the nation’s capital, right in front of your face, it pierces the heart,” Kornsgold said.

In the wake of the insurrection, which left five people dead including a Capitol Police officer, two online stores that had permitted the creation and sale of “Camp Auschwitz” shirts removed them from their sites.

Looking ahead, Harris of AJC urged Jewish leaders to do their part in combatting the rise of QAnon.

“It seems to me even as a matter of education, Jewish organizations and Jewish clergy have a responsibility to alert members of the Jewish community to the menace of QAnon and its ilk,” he said.


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Chareidi Jews For Biden/Harris 2020
Chareidi Jews For Biden/Harris 2020
3 years ago

Trump tolerates antisemitism from his suppprters. He took days to distance from David Duke endorsement. Refused to call out antisemitic attacks against Julia Ioffe. He wavered on Charlottesville. He refused to condemn Steven King. He refused to condemn white supremacy. He refused to condemn Proud Boys. Yet Trunp received overwhelming support from the frum community. If we don’t care that a president tolerates antisemitism for political gain why should anybody else care?

Gersey
Gersey
3 years ago

How do I know if I am on the right side of history?
Large numbers of our population believe in a complete alternate reality. Alternate facts as it were.
But just as intensely as I believe they are deluded, they think I am the one who is deluded. Maybe I am. So how can I be confident in my perception? It can be quite difficult.
But, I have found that in times of political confusion, particularly when emotions are running high and creating tunnel vision, the presence of Nazis can be an extremely helpful indicator.
If I am attending or watching a local demonstration or event and I see Nazis…neo-Nazis, miscellaneous-Nazis, master race Nazis, or the latest-whatever-uber-mythology-Nazis, I figure out which side they are on.
And if they are on my side of the demonstration? I am on the wrong side.
It is tough to argue moral equivalence when I am standing next to a Nazi. Look to my right. Is there a guy wearing a 6MWE (6 million wasn’t enough) t-shirt? I am on the wrong side. Look to my left. If that guy is wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt? Wrong side. Are Speakers being applauded for referring to things that Hitler got right? Wrong side. Team-spirit face paint and hat with animal horns? This is actually an unclear indicator that could mean anything, but safest to keep my distance from that guy, even at a football game.
However, I can always, always, always rely on the presence of Nazis as a guiding light through a fog of disinformation.
Some things are relative, and politics can absolutely have its opposing sides and grey areas.
But evil and good are absolute. As are the lessons of history. So, just look for the Nazis, and make your own decisions.

PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
3 years ago

Wow, anti-Semitism amongst the Republicans. Imagine that. Who knew?

Yankel der ganif
Yankel der ganif
3 years ago

עשו שונה את יעקב is what chazal says, as far as I can tell they did not say except for Republicans, nor did they say except for Democrats.

So all you guys claiming the other is the party of those that hate us are correct, we should not be pledging allegiance to either party, but should be independent and vote for individual candidates that we believe will be supportive of our needs.

Party should be irrelevant for the most part. They should feel the need to work for our vote.

Franki
Franki
3 years ago

BLM’s silence on JLM is deafening

Baron
Baron
3 years ago

That poor guy looks like he hasn’t left his basement for a decade and hasn’t either taken his meds
He isn’t a threat

UghSam
UghSam
3 years ago

I think this site has reached the limit of stupid articles in regards to the riots in Washington

Educated Archy
Educated Archy
3 years ago

Basically the story that this was a group of anti semites is proven to be a lie . After all a frum kid lookong for some fun and dressed in the best Purim costume I have seen was present. So the story is fake news. And they need to twist and white wash this obvious fact .
Side Bar, of course in order for fake news to last you need to focus on the little facts and then make it the story . So if you prove that a few crazies were there and one had an aucschwitz t shirt, then you can lie about the big picture .

Democrats support Jew haters and terrorists.
Democrats support Jew haters and terrorists.
3 years ago

More bs from the scum media, blm rioters and antifa terrorists have been vandalizing Jewish or perceived Jewish owened businesses for months, on campuses nationwide democrat bdsers have been attacking Jews or Israel supporters for years, elected democrats fully supported by tgeir leadership support terroists and jew haters, elected democrats support tge evil Jew haters farrkhan and sharpton. Juat last week in portland a business was vandelized becasue they sell Israeli cuisine, democrats fully support Jew haters and terrorist supporters, Biden will be back to undermining Israel and supporting the iranain terror regime as previewd with his many iranian terror regime supporters he is hiring.

Anonymous
Anonymous
3 years ago

Lying AP:
“As a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol last week clamoring to overturn the result of November’s presidential election…”

No, that’s not who stormed the Capitol, and that’s also not the reason the leftist terrorists stormed the Capitol.

d f
d f
3 years ago

ugh ugh ugh! i have yet to read a more uneducated response than Chareidi Jews For Biden/Harris 2020

Trump has condemned anti Semitism his entire term. He has an orthodox daughter and grandkids! No president has done and cared more about Israel than trump.
Did you listen to the entire speech after Charlottesville?
Has Biden ever condemned Antifa? Has anyone on the left ever condemned the violence? How many ppl got arrested during those riots and how many ppl have already gotten arrested from Jan 6 protest?
The notion that trump is even 1% anti sematic is so LUDICROUS!!
Wake up! Stop listening to mainstream and start truly reading and researching.
See the double standards! If covid hypocrisy hasn’t woken you up yet than don’t know what will!
Wishing you enlightenment in the near future!