Jewish ‘Adopt-a-Nazi’ Fundraiser Raises $85K Before San Francisco Rally

Image by Getty Images

By Sam Kestenbaum August 22, 2017

The Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco has raised more than $85,000 as part of an unusual fundraising campaign to combat a right-wing rally proposed for next weekend in San Franciaco.

A GoFundMe campaign titled, mockingly, “Adopt-a-Nazi (Not Really)” aims to protest a gathering known as the “Patriot Prayer’s Freedom Rally San Francisco” by raising money for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

According to a NBC report, the group was inspired by the story of Wunsiedel, a small German town that in 2014 “decided to combat an annual neo-Nazi march through town by donating money to an anti-extremist group for every marcher.”

Similarly, on the cusp the controversial rally, the Jewish Bar Association is asking people to donate $100 to the SPLC for every marcher expected at San Francisco’s Crissy Field.

The bar association represents “500 attorneys and businesspersons of different races, backgrounds, and ethnicities” in the Bay Area.

The organizers of the “Patriot Prayer” rally deny being an “alt-right” or white nationalist group, but the Jewish Bar Association worries that the rally could be a repeat of the violent rally that took place in Charlottesville, Va. earlier this month.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO