Neo-Nazis who vandalized a synagogue are recruiting in plain sight
In this photo illustration, a thumbprint is displayed on a mobile phone as the logo for the Twitter social media network is projected onto a screen on August 09, 2017 in London, England. Image by Leon Neal/Getty Images
By Molly Boigon October 15, 2020
A group of neo-Nazis and domestic terrorists called The Base whose members vandalized a Wisconsin synagogue in 2019 are recruiting on social media platforms, on messaging apps and even in video games, according to new podcast episodes out Thursday from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“It’s all done quite openly,” said the co-host of the podcast “Sounds Like Hate,” Geraldine Moriba. “We do have secret recordings from their vetting rooms but their recruiting is done openly on every social media platform.”
The podcast explores The Base’s methods of recruitment, but also their vetting process, which has been revealed through recordings leaked to the Southern Poverty Law Center by a whistleblower.
The leadership of the group, including 47-year-old founder Rinaldo Nazzaro, looks for military and combat experience. Leaders brag about their land ownership, saying members can use it to train. They go to “great lengths,” to figure out who is white, said Moriba, by interrogating the background of prospective members and asking if they have ever done a DNA test.
They worry that some people are “white-appearing but might be Jewish,” she said.
Founded in 2018, The Base is made up of small terror cells around the United States. They hope for a societal collapse that would leave room for a white ethnostate.
The group made headlines in January of 2020 after the FBI charged three members with firearms and alien-related charges. The criminal complaint against them mentions discussions of acts of violence against Black Americans and Jews.
Analysts used artificial intelligence to find patterns in the recordings.
For example, there were 37 mentions of Nazarro’s land, used as proof that he was putting his “name and land on the line” for the cause, said Moriba. Nearly half the recordings mentioned targeting by the system, the police, the government or the media. And a third of the conversations contain the phrase “not doing anything illegal.”
One prospective member, known as the Ecologist, talks about how he wants to liberate white people “through economic sabotage such as bombings” and arson.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
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 week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
