Neo-Nazi Church Burns To The Ground In North Dakota
Image by Twitter
By Sam Kestenbaum March 24, 2017
A 108-year-old church recently bought by white nationalist Craig Cobb burned to the ground Wednesday in the rural town of Nome in North Dakota, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
Cobb bought the structure in February and said he planned on dedicating it to a white supremacist group and naming it after President Donald Trump.
Cobb had previously tried to establish all-white enclaves in Nebraska, Kansas and other towns in North Dakota — a project known in white supremacist circles as a “Pioneer Little Europe,” according to the Washington Post.
Fire raging at ND church white supremacist Craig Cobb is buying in Nome, ND. Live report tonight on @WDAYnews at 6.#BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/ifRUO4ORSK
— Kerstin Kealy (@KKealyWDAY) March 22, 2017
Those projects were not successful and it also seems that this one was also stymied, though it is still unclear what caused the fire.
Cobb told KVRR Local News on Thursday that he bought the church with plans to give it to the Creativity Movement, a white supremacist-styled religion of which Cobb is an adherent.
Though Trump is not affiliated with the Creativity Movement, Cobb said he wanted to name it after Trump dubbing it “President Donald J. Trump Creativity Church of Rome.”
“Not Nome. Rome,” Cobb said, “a little play on history there, you see.”
The Pioneer Little Europe is a concept that “envisions consolidating white people in racially homogeneous communities to push out other ethnic groups,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Protesters clash in Crown Heights as Ben-Gvir visits Chabad headquarters
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Protesters clash in Crown Heights as Ben-Gvir visits Chabad headquarters
-
Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקער שמואל קאַסאָוו דערציילט מעשׂיות פֿון זײַן משפּחה־געשיכטעVIDEO: Historian Samuel Kassow shares stories about his family history
דער ווידעאָ איז טשיקאַווע סײַ פֿאַרן אינהאַלט סײַ פֿאַר קאַסאָווס נאַטירלעכן ליטוויש־ייִדיש
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.