Neo-Nazis target U.S. synagogue in first antisemitic attack in its 165-year history, rabbi says
Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar says Georgia synagogue ‘lived through the Civil War, we have lived through the civil rights movement’ with no antisemitic targeting
Members of the Goyim Defense League on Shabbat protested at the Chabad of Cobb County outside Atlanta. Courtesy of Twitter
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
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. “This is a small, sleepy town. We have lived through the Civil War, we have lived through the civil rights movement, and there has been no incident ever of antisemitism directed against the Jewish community here in all those tumultuous times.”
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.
Bahar noticed the group as she was pulling into her parking spot at the synagogue, where she was about to conduct her weekly Torah study class before the traditional Shabbat evening service. “At first, it didn’t register,” she said. “I mean, we have never had any problems before with antisemites. We are the second oldest synagogue in the state of Georgia, and nothing like this has ever happened in the past.”
When she peered out the window of the synagogue at the demonstrators, she recounted, they responded with a Nazi salute and screamed “Heil Hitler.”
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.
This coming Sunday, Temple Beth Israel will be hosting an interfaith service for religious congregations in the area under the title of “Praying for Love and Unity.”
“I know it sounds cheesy, but my goal is radical empathy, and this is to show that there are many many more people who support the Jewish community here and engage with us in a loving way than the very small group of people who have only anger and fear in their hearts.”
The event, organized by Bahar, will be attended by municipal and state officials.
Temple Beth Israel has a membership of 86 families, the rabbi said, “mostly grannies and grandpas, who make mean potlucks and amazing cookies, many of them fifth, sixth, seventh generation members of this congregation – one family even eighth.”
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