New Jersey Neo-Nazi Charged With Ordering Vandalism Of Two Midwest Synagogues
Members of the National Socialist Movement burn a swastika and a rune after a Georgia protest. Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
(JTA) — A New Jersey man, 18, was arrested and held without bond for allegedly ordering the vandalism of two synagogues in other states.
Richard Tobin is accused of using a neo-Nazi social network called The Base to find volunteers to for the September graffiti attacks on synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Tobin also allegedly said he planned the attacks as part of nationwide campaign he called “Operation Kristallnacht,” a reference to the 1938 pogrom against Jewish homes, synagogues and Jewish owned-owned businesses in Germany and Austria.
Tobin also confessed to driving to a New Jersey mall with a machete that he planned to use to kill black shoppers.
A complaint filed Tuesday by the FBI charges Tobin with conspiring with a hate group against the rights of minorities, including Jews, NJ.com reported.
The group calls itself a “white protection league” and advocates for a country populated only by white people. Its members practice “doomsday prepping,” or preparing for the end of the world, and participate in military training. The group’s symbol references a failed 1923 German coup led by Adolf Hitler, according to the FBI.
The court filings have not named the people who attacked the two synagogues.
Tobin appeared in federal court in Camden, New Jersey on Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams ordered Tobin held pending a mental health evaluation and scheduled a detention hearing scheduled for next month.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
